Go West

Four months ago I barely knew what Invisible Children was, and didn't know what being a Roadie meant. Now I'm sitting on a couch in the "Roadie Villa" listening to all the happy noise around me. Living in a house with 60+ people is obviously chaotic, and that has begun set in. I'm going to be living in a room with 7 other people for 5 weeks in the midst of going to the office every day, booking screenings, having tons and tons of information shoved into my brain, and trying to get to know all these unique and awesome people around me.

Sound crazy yet?

I still don't know if it has hit me that this is real, but then again, maybe it won't ever really hit that point. Maybe I don't want it to. I don't want to take any of this for granted, I don't want it to become normal, I just want to soak it all up and live in every single moment. I'm trying to prepare myself for a life of sleep-deprivation and chaos, but beautiful, controlled chaos.

Speaking of beautiful, my trip out here was absolutely gorgeous. It was over four days of driving, hotels, meeting up with friends, seeing random crazy roadside sites, and spending time with one of my favorite people.

Here's my basic life from Wednesday until last night:
Wed 8/4: Left from Maryville, stopped at Slave burial site in Oak Ridge, stopped in Little Rock and explored the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, then the site of integration, Central High School. We lodged in Ft. Smith for the evening.
Thurs 8/4: Crossed into Oklahoma, got a speeding ticket (thanks OK), made it into New Mexico where we stayed with my friend Mitch for the night.
Fri 8/5: Drove forever across New Mexico, stopping at Billy the Kid's burial ground, and later in Albuquerque where we road the tram up the Sandia Peak (sooo sweet!) and ate New Mexican in Old Town. Made it to Gallup for the night, where we stayed in El Rancho, a cute hotel where old Hollywood stayed (including Doris Day, my favorite).
Saturday 8/6: Drove seemingly forever. We cut down through Arizona (and the desert) stopping first at the petrified forest and then at a ghost town. We kept driving towards Phoenix, where we stopped at ate dinner with a college friend, Frank. We ended up staying with him after realizing that there wasn't much passed Phoenix except desert.
Sunday 8/7: Courtlin was awesome enough to hang out a while at Frank's in the morning so I could get some work on my IC blog done (we had a lot of prearrival work to do to help us orient to what we'd be coming into, and learn about the history of the war) and then we headed back out across even more desert. I think we discovered 3 or 4 types of desert that we weren't aware existed. Yet again, AWESOME! After a long day of driving (though far shorter than other days) we made it to the San Diego area and the Roadie house. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of meeting people and settling in, and a bit of exploring the nearby town.

So that's it for now, I think. I plan to attempt to update this regularly. I'm still working on getting more funds for this adventure, and trying to get my mind wrapped around everything that's about to happen, so prayers and thoughts are fully appreciated.

Love and Peace, Sarah