Inception

4:38PM on July 1st. It begins. I headed out of work and popped Kristie’s mix tape (cd) into the CD player. The closing song is Breathe Me by Sia. I’ve wanted to drive away to this since seeing the final scene of 6 Feet Under where Claire departs to pursue her dream of being an artist in NYC.

This was such an odd day. At work we had a retreat to plan our upcoming fiscal year. Then we held a farewell reception in honor our Director, Eric. It was a surreal feeling, planning the future, saying goodbye to a tremendous mentor and person, and then finally heading out on the trip of my lifetime. In some ways leaving from work numbed a bit of the excitement that I’d have felt had I instead departed from home.

Regardless, we made great time! My parents dropped delivered Greg to me at Wendy’s in Westfield, MA. We somehow crammed everything into the car – including a ton of fruit which we’ll have to consume prior to picking up Jared in Chicago since it is currently occupying his seat in the car.

We pulled into the Motel 6 in Syracuse, NY at midnight. These are weird places. First, they charge by the person so I had Greg hide in the car while I went to check in. When I went to enter the lobby, I found it to be locked down like a parking garage. Between midnight and 6am, you check in through a small window and a slot to slide your credit card back and forth through “for the safety of the attendant.” Are the hotel guests that dangerous? I mean seriously? Well the room looked like it was a prison. Very Spartan accommodations, but good enough to catch 5 hours of sleep…. The only concerning feature was inch and a half long centipede living on the wall of the room. I killed it with my sandal before heading to bed.