so.

in the past two weeks, i've traveled close to 3,000 miles, seen cities like cinncinatti, minneapolis, and new york city from the window of an airplane. i've ridden through the desert as it morphed from mountains to plains to canyon to mesa. i've seen joshua trees and the ever-delightful palm trees, set back against the orange clay of southern nevada. i visited sin city after spending time in the mormon capital of the world. i saw a member of a boy band after making stops in new york city, ancient egypt, venice, rome (paying respects to bacchus inside), the circus, paris and others. i was shot 100 feet into the air from an 1100-foot-platform. i saw snakes, eagles, deer, antelope and mormon crickets (the nastiest things ever). i drank more than i thought i could and danced beneath the dancing lights of freemont street.

i loved 105 degree weather and discovered, much to my chagrin, the truth behind the "dry heat" i have heard so much about.

and, after all that, i hopped in a car yesterday, picked up two of my best friends and went on a road trip to boston to see other good friends, driving back in the humidity today.

needless to say, i'm exhausted. but happily so.

but, waiting for me in my inbox today was the latest simplesimon, much to my delight. ben at never-ever.net makes me exceptionally happy each time he sends the maling list another bit of his writing.

my o'neill experience will be sandwiched by two sure-to-be-enjoyable concerts--averi right before (yes, beth, i sent that email today--hehe), dmb right after. that's the way things should be...two nights of great music with two weeks of theater smushed into the middle. it's like a huge creative oreo cookie. without the glass of milk to dunk it in.

yeah.