To start out, here was the schedule.

Friday: Plano, TX to Amarillo, TX - 375 miles
Saturday: Amarillo, TX to Flagstaff, Arizona - 607 miles
Sunday: Flagstaff, AZ to Las Vegas, NV - 250 miles (Well, it was a little longer because we made a stop at the Grand Canyon and took some weird little mountain road to Vegas)
Monday: Vegas
Tuesday: Vegas
Wednesday: Las Vegas, NV to Tuscon, Arizona - 506 miles
Thursday: Tucson, AZ to Lubbock, TX - 632 miles
Friday - Lubbock, TX to Plano, TX - 345 miles

Total approximate miles: 2,715.

That's a lot of driving. And I'm quite proud to say that I didn't get 1 ticket, although I did get stopped in West Texas yesterday for following a school bus too closely. He just gave me a warning, though. I am grateful to our radar detecter, whom we named Depeche (Matt said it was his "personal jesus" on road trips, so that's how in a roundabout way we got to Depeche), for allowing me to go up to speeds of 105 and not get a single ticket.

It was a pretty decent trip. I already miss Vegas. There's just something about that place that totally sucks me in, and it's not even the gambling aspect of it, although that does help. It's just.. cool. I kinda wish I moved there instead of Austin, but it's all good.

Some things to note:

1. The best thing about a road trip is all the beautiful scenery. I love love love mountains. Everyone I know loves mountains because we just don't have any here in Texas. When we got to Lubbock and there wasn't any more mountains, I was all sad. Mountains! Yay!

We also go to see the Grand Canyon, which was of course really cool looking. It was really icy, though, and we almost had an accident when I had to stop at a stop sign and the ice made that difficult. That was not fun.

We saw the Hoover Dam, which I am fascinated by for some reason.

We also drove by the White Sands Missile Range in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I was totally fascinated by this area even though there was really nothing to see. It's just a whole lot of mountains and crappola. We also went through Roswell, but all I saw there was some aliens in a gift shop and a really digusting bathroom at a gas station.

I just really enjoyed the scenery on this trip. I spent half the time with my tongue hanging out because it was all so beautiful, especially when the sun was going down behind the mountains and all that kinda thing. Awww. I wanna go again.

2. Blackjack. Ohhh, Blackjack.

I do love me some Blackjack. I literally played it for hours on this trip. I think I sat at one table for about 4 hours at one point, at this trashy Vegas hotel called El Cortez. They had $2 Blackjack, and man was I loving that shiznit. I won about $75 doing that, but I lost it all later when I was playing $5 blackjack. Not good, but thats okay.

We even played Blackjack on New Years Eve. Matt and I both won our last hand of 2003 and our first hand of 2004. We were both quite proud of that.

3. The food.

Matt is on Atkin's. This was not fun for me. I thought maybe I'd try it on this road trip just to make it easier for him and maybe lose a little weight in the process, but I didn't. I was too tempted by all the deliciousness America has to offer. I felt bad, though, because Matt couldn't eat almost anything I was eating. When we went to Burger King or Jack in the Box or McDonalds, he would always order everything without the bun. That was fun.

I didn't lose any weight. He probably did.

5. The weather. When we got back yesterday, it was 80 degrees. In Flagstaff, the temp was 11 degrees. Oh my good lord was that cold. How do you cold people put up with that shit? I couldn't do it. I especially wouldn't be able to handle driving on ice. That's just no fun.

The drive from Albuquerque to Flagstaff might have been the scariest part of the trip because it was dark and snowing and just really not fun.

So, you snow people: I admire you. Yes indeed.

I really had a good time on this trip.

Matt and I had our issues. I was planning on going into this trip open minded, and I wasn't going to start any fights, I was going to be the amazing roadtrip woman. Well, that just didn't happen. When you have problems in a relationship, spending 24 hours a day together for a week is going to bring those problems out.

I don't know. We just have issues. I'm a little disappointed.. I thought maybe the year in Austin had done me well, but you know what? I don't think a damn thing has changed. I love spending time with him, and if anything, it made me sure that I would love to spend my life with him. But these issues we have just won't go away! It's the same damn ones, too. The same issues we've been fighting about since Day 1. When are we going to get over this? I just don't know, and it makes me a little sad.

One thing we got in a bit of a tizzie about was when "My Immortal" came on the radio. Now, obviously this song is about a dude who died, but when I was in the bad break-up stage of life, I was feeling that song. And I kinda made that comment to him when it came on the radio. He said it was about a dead guy, and I was like, "Yeah, I know, but at certain points in my life that song really meant a lot to me." Yeah, he wasn't impressed by that. It made him "Uncomfortable." Well!

I mean, we did have a good time together. The nookie was crazy. Crazy nookie! At least 7 or 8 times. Almost once a night, sometimes twice. He was very affectionate, too, which I love. And the things we have in common were really useful for this trip, such as a fine appreciation for AM Radio and our mutual love for gambling. Both of us could literally sit there for 8 or 10 hours just playing Blackjack or Slots or whatever. He won most of the time. I won, and then I would lose it all because that's just what I do. But we did really have a good time together. It's just really obvious that we have many things we still have to work out. And I don't know about him, but I think I'm up to it. I'm not going to be in his face like I was last year. When I get back here, I'm going to do my thing. If he's involved, bonus. If not, oh well, his loss. Right? Right. Okay then.

Another thing.. it's really nice to be with someone who knows you so well, this is true. But other times it can be INCREDIBLY annoying. If I sigh a certain way, make a certain noise, have weird body language in a certain way.. he calls me on it. And the number of times he asked me "What's wrong?" was just stupid. If I told him nothing was wrong, he'd bug me until I told him, and that would start another fight. So basically, I have to learn how to act like nothing is wrong so he won't constantly bug me. Don't you love Psychology people? I sure do.

A problem I have is that I can't contain my emotions sometimes. If there's something that I just have to say, I have to say it in some way or another even if I know it's not necessary and it'll probably start a fight. A good example of that was the whole My Immortal debacle. I can't help myself sometimes. I have to learn to figure out how to not do that. Anyway. It's a new day. A new year. Woohoo!

If I had a word to describe today, it would be BUMMED. I'm just bummed out. The road trip is over, and I have no idea what the hell is going to happen this year. I don't know if I'm going to end up with Matt this year. I obviously want that to happen, but I don't know. I'm trying to think about dating new people and making new friends and being the rocktastic chick that everyone thinks I can be, but that's just daunting right now. I want this year to be the opposite of last year. I want this year to be productive, and I want to start building a real life for myself. I look forward to it a lot. It's like last year was just the training round for this year. Or something.

So,it's over now. I have road trip hangover. I miss Matt. I miss the mountains. I miss the hotels. I miss $2 Blackjack at El Cortez. I'll get over it tomorrow, I'm sure, but there it is. I don't want to return to life as I know it.

But today I got a new Kate Spade purse and wallet with a Christmas refund! Isn't that exciting?

I'm out. I'm not sure when the next update will be. Soon, probably.