How could I have forgotten this!
Ten years ago, over this particular weekend, I began my return to Austin by a circuitous route through the Midwest for a well-deserved pseudo-vacation; I hadn’t really taken any serious time off since my New Year’s festivities with Jose in Orlando circa 1996-7. Besides Steve (my artist friend) invited me to tag along with him to GenCon XXXI because his wife Patty wasn’t using the other badge he received as an exhibitor.
Preparations for the move had already been under way after I received Apple’s offer. Anything I wanted to keep but couldn’t take in the car was put into storage. Everything else was pitched. I didn’t have much thanks to the rushed move from Austin to Raleigh the previous year. Quitting my rotten PSW-Nortel job was oddly satisfying and that’s all I’m going to say about it. The check for two months’ rent was painful; I had to break my lease legally and I did receive nearly half of it back when the place was re-rented in about a month.
The money didn’t matter. I would be back in Austin within two weeks. Meanwhile, this pseudo-vacation meant seeing friends, eating junk food I couldn’t get in Austin and attending the biggest nerdfest (outside of Star Trek) in the world. When I got to Apple, I knew I would be working practically non-stop for at least the next year so I was going to live it up, splurge, I had earned it.
August 1 signified the end of North Carolina for me! I loaded up my car in record time and was on I-40 for Nashville by 10 AM. What a long dull drive too. I never thought I would reach the western side by sunset but I made the mountains and saw Knoxville, TN by mid-afternoon. Tennessee was a trying leg as well due to all its construction which cost me a couple hours. I grabbed dinner in Nashville at a Waffle House and then turned north to I-65 for Louisville; I didn’t think of taking I-24 to I-57, d’oh! On the upside, Louisville had White Castle, a mandatory stop for a mid-evening snack. India-no-place appeared around Midnight so I took the gamble on driving to Bloomington-Normal because I was relatively close. It turned into a scary marathon of trying to stay awake on I-74 by the time India-no-place was in the rear-view mirror. Unscathed, I did make it to Grandma’s house intact around 330 AM only to see my parents’ car in the driveway, Mom didn’t tell me she visiting.
No one answered the door at all and I couldn’t sleep in the car due it being packed with my belongings. So I wandered around the neighborhood, taking mental notes over what changed in four years. When my mother finally got around to being awake to let me in the house, I took a quick nap and probably got lectured over something. By afternoon, I didn’t care since I knew Steve and Patty would be awake. I quickly accepted their offer to couch surf at their house plus they’d let me keep my car hidden in their garage.
For the next couple of days I just slept, ate and relaxed because Steve still had to go to work on Monday and Tuesday. We’d leave for GenCon by Wednesday, more about that later. I was just relieved to be finally out of North Carolina and excited over what the future had in store.