- New York City (#1): visited June 2009 with then-boyfriend. saw our favorite band 4 nights in a row, rode 40 hours on a train round trip, didn't get to see any of the museums I wanted to since he went broke in two days.
- Chicago (#3): lived there Sept 2005 to Dec 2009. got a college degree, fell in love with improv comedy and a few boys, got into biking and got hit by a car twice, sat in the old library and imagined my great-grandmother going there in the 1920s. cried when the White Sox won the Series in 2005 because my grandfather, a fan for his entire 75 years, never got to see that.
- Philadelphia (#6): visited August 2007 with family. had a lot of awkward moments since the night before we got there, my dad found out about the tattoo I had hidden from him for months. also nearly knocked the wind out of a Benjamin Franklin impersonator when I hugged him too forcefully.
- Dallas (#8): visited April 1997 with family. my uncle got married in an abandoned train station after flash flooding changed their outdoor wedding plans. the directions were described as "go past two buildings with smashed out windows and it's the third one."
- Indianapolis (#14): I've only actually been here when the Megabus from Chicago to Cincinnati has a stop here, but the bus stop always had free wi-fi.
- Austin (#15): visited March 2005 with then (and still) ex-boyfriend. went to SXSW, ate Taco Bell with the singer of a popular alt-country band, waited through an entire Vanilla Ice set just to hear that one stupid song and it. was. AWESOME.
- Memphis (#19): visited Oct 2009 with same ex-boyfriend as NYC. saw Wilco, slept in a crappy hotel, had french fries served at every meal, always felt incredibly underdressed.
- Baltimore (#20): part of the Philadelphia trip. again, still very tense. was disappointed that the McDonalds we visited did not have crab cakes as the Wikipedia article on regional McDonalds food led me to believe.
- Boston (#21): visited various times between 2002 and 2005. ex-boyfriend mentioned in Austin was from there and returned for college. we attended a Sox/Sox game and were featured on the kiss cam. it was fucking adorable.
- El Paso (#22): visited April 2005 with family right after SXSW. didn't get to go to Mexico despite asking politely and then begging. my mom buys a massive bag of chili powder that is only a quarter used after five years.
- Milwaukee (#23): family lives here, so visits are frequent and often based around holidays or anniversaries. other than that, ex-boyfriend (NYC/Memphis one) and I saw Springsteen and the Harlem Globetrotters at the Bradley Center in December 2009. the events were unrelated.
- Denver (#24): family also lives here. visited with family in Aug 2001, Dec 2005 and Nov 2009. the first time, I made a joke about being a terrorist a month before 9/11, the second time I found out that my uncle has fantastic taste in music, the third time my nine-year-old cousin made a great joke about Dick Cheney being an asshole.
- Seattle (#25): visited May 2003 and June 2006 with family. the second time we went because my dad won a work-related award for a paper. he lost his job two weeks before the conference. in a burst of frustration, he upgraded the rental car to a mountaineer, which we called the canyonero.
- Washington DC (#27): visited once with family in May 1996 and once with NYC-ex in March 2009. the first time I saw a man sleeping on a heating vent on the street; I had never seen someone homeless before. the second time we stayed with a friend and went to a concert in Towson. on the way there, I sat in the trunk space of her Jeep because there weren't enough seats. I then realized that was how D. Boon died.
- Las Vegas (#28): visited in June 2004 with family. we all hated it. it was the departure point for a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon that we were going on. we're just not extravagant enough to enjoy such a place.
- Portland (#29): visited in 1987 with family. being less than a year old, I don't recall this trip, but my mom says I threw up in the airport.
- Louisville (#30): visited in March 2009 with family. my plane got in a few hours before my parents, so I spent some time with a friend from here. viewed some local art galleries, ate some pizza, heard some more of his extraordinary stories (including why he personally hates Johnny Depp) and watched a honky-tonk band in a honky-tonk bar. later learned how baseball bats are made.
- Albuquerque (#34): visited in November 1994 with family. my brother and I got chicken pox on this trip and it kind of ruined it for us.
- Cleveland (#41): visited in May 2006 with friends. visited the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame, which was stupid. saw a friend cry over some Ramones memoribilia and realized she was full of bullshit; her favorite band is Depeche Mode.
- Miami (#43): visited in March 1998 with family. most of the trip was spent in the Florida Keys, but we watched a jai alai game and my dad let me place my own bets.
- Minneapolis (#47): lived here for the vast majority of my life. met my best friends, discovered punk rock, had my last improv show with my college team, worked on the top floor of a skyscraper, lived lyrics from The Hold Steady before they were ever written down.
- Honolulu (#49): visited in April 1999 with family and in March 2003 with high school choir. the first time I was incredibly upset I was missing a dance competition and broke my four month vegetarian streak at the Dole pineapple plantation with a hot dog. the choir trip sucked balls.
- Cincinnati (#57): visited March 2008 with friends. learned how the inside of a library works (thanks Charles's mom!), visited another president's house, had an awkward not-date, lost horribly at Apples to Apples.
- St. Paul (#66): goes with Minneapolis for living here near always. on the St. Paul side of things: cheered for minor league hockey and baseball, rode on a fire truck in the middle of winter, sat in the downtown library for hours on end, watched the Village People on an island with my brother while eating sno cones.
- Buffalo (#69): visited April 2009 with friends. this was three days after Washington DC the second time, coincidentally D. Boon's birthday. saw the same band as before (and as NYC). saw that band for a fourth night in a row, nearly got in a fight with a middle-aged man, stayed in a Hyatt for free, had a sinus infection kick in full force, watched the then-boyfriend have a panic attack for some reason (possibly an attempted break-up on my part).
- Madison (#81): visited July 2009 with friends. specifically, ex-boyfriend for that same band. again. this was the 14th time we saw them that year. we finished the year with 18. it was entirely his idea; he's still following (stalking) them around.
- Orlando (#82): visited December 1992 with family. stayed in the hotel with the monorail running through it, got a bunch of signatures from college kids in mascot suits, realized how little I ever cared for Disney, sat in a closet doing a school workbook based on personal preference.
- Akron (#97): part of the Cleveland trip. we made a lot of Devo jokes. it was uneventful.
may 16 2010 ∞
jun 27 2010 +