<< part of my continuing series recording memories to assure myself I've actually been to the places I think I've been to>>

Whew, California. I lived there for most of my 30's, so I could fill a book. But instead, this much shorter entry:

When I was a child I recall my father once musing about having met some people that "smiled a LOT". Like so much so you noticed and wondered if they were selling something. When asked, it turned out it was just that they were from California, and smiling a lot was normal for them. So for many years, my concept of California was that it was a place of Hollywood, hippies, and people who smiled a lot. And that it was far away - I could never quite remember the difference between Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego... all were interchangeable in my head.

When I was looking at grad schools, I did apply & get accepted to Stanford and USC. But again, California was far away so I opted for CMU in Pittsburgh instead. Slight regrets on that front. Kinda wish I would have made it to California in the early 90s. I wonder how my life would have been different.

In the mid/late 90s I first visited California and the city identities solidified. SF is the hippies up north, somewhat seasoned by Silicon valley tech. LA is  Hollywood and beaches. San Diego is smaller and warmer and the border town. I had an all expenses paid vacation in the San Diego area (some perk that came with my first husband's job) and got to experience the gas light district, Coronado island, and had an excellent massage from a woman who was the masseuse on staff for the Icelandic olympic team. Around 1995 I started working remotely for a San Francisco Bay Area software company. Though I continued to live in New Orleans, this meant occasional trips to SF. I distinctly recall walking around SF one early visit thinking to myself "I could live here" - which was a rare thought for me: living in New Orleans set my bar pretty high for other places I was willing to live.  I liked how SF was walkable, with good transit, nice climate, and flower vendors on the street.

In 2005, after Katrina devastated New Orleans, I took a job just north of SF in San Rafael. I moved to SF and lived there until 2011. In my years there I was a city girl - goth clubs and sidewalk happy hours, wine tastings and harbor cruises. I had yet to experience the joys of the great wild outdoors - no hiking or camping for me then - unless you count Burning Man. In 2006 I was talked into my first Burning Man by my then roommate. And while I wouldn't call Burning Man "life changing" for me, it certainly has influenced much of my activities in the years since.

SF has this ambient level of zaniness that I love. It was always nice to get home from a trip and to see something like a grown man in a tutu and viking helmet nonchalantly taking his chihuahua out for a walk. No one would even raise an eyebrow. Wish more places vibed like that. 

When I make it back to California these years, I typically go to Los Angeles. I have a good friend there who throws lovely events in his house. Plus a few times I've been to "The Labyrinth of Jareth" masquarade ball held in downtown LA. Two of my favorite things to do in LA is Kura conveyor belt sushi and the Wii Korean day-spa. 

I might add some more detailed memories in the future but for now I'm closing this entry. Yes, I've been to California. I lived California. And I sometime still miss California most desperately.

*placeholder*

It's going to be pretty much the same as my Arizona entry. I.e., I drove through it, ate fast food, slept in a rest stop. Unless I remember anything ANYTHING else. It's very possible I've been to Little Rock for some software training and just don't remember. I think maybe MAYBE as a newly minted graduate in 1993 I stopped in the town of Hot Springs and couldn't figure out how to engage with tourist trap spas. But I'm not sure

So yeah, been to Arkansas. Kinda. 

So it turns out I don't have many memories of Arizona. I've driven through it enough to see just a wee bit of it. 

In May 2021, while driving back from Utah hikes with my brother, we stopped at the Le Fevre Overlook in the Kaibab National Forest and gazed at the Vermillion Cliffs. We stopped and got gas in Tuba City. We drove through Hopi reservation and then in Navajo land. We got McDonalds at Window Rock right before we crossed into New Mexico.

In a similar underwhelming way, in September 2020 driving back from the proto-renegade burn in Nevada, I slept 5 hours in a parking lot behind a closed perhaps abandoned Chevron just off I-40. I remember being aggravated by not being able to find a proper reststop on I-40 after many many hours of driving. In the predawn I started driving again, then got gas & breakfast at 6am at a truckstop an hour down the road, before driving straight through to New Mexico.

I have Monument Valley on my short list, but it was pandemic closed in 2020 and 2021. And yes, I do realize there is a Grand Canyon there, as well as I'm sure other interesting things to see/do. I just haven't done them. 

But it still counts as having been there! I both ate and slept there! So yeah, I've been to (mostly through) Arizona.

So I went to Alaska a fair bit in the 1990/2000s. I went in August when the blueberries and tourists were plentiful, and in midwinter where locals were starved for outsider energy, and many other months along the way.

I visited Anchorage Alaska for my traveling software consultant job, supporting engineering firms that worked the oilfields. 

One of the things I found most impressive were the moose. I first saw one when it was running down the shoulder of the highway. And another a few days later from the window of the building where I was working. But my clearest memory of these massive animals was when I was walking one of the many trails in Anchorage. As I was coming up a gentle slope there it was, this GIANT animal, a mere 10 feet from the trail, munching away at some plant. It looked at me and kept munching. I was stunned, and too scared to walk past. So I just stood there. And stood there. And it just kept on munching. I wasn't scared of being eaten, I was scared of being trampled - this creature was HUGE. It was like 7ft tall and 1000 lbs. So there I stood, transfixed.

But after a while, a cyclist wizzed down past me in the other direction. And then another. And the moose didn't care and didn't move. So I screwed my courage to the sticking point, and heart pounding I walked past it. It just kept munching. 

I have lots of other memories of Alaska - the people there are pretty "cowboy" - lots of radical individualists. People looking for something or running from something. It's the only place that, when I was teaching a software class, when I asked the room to press the "cancel" button, EVERY LAST ONE of the students picked a different button. 

I drove down the Seward one day off, and took the harbor cruise. I bought an excellent windbreaker while there, that I have to this day. I saw a glacier up close and marveled at how the ice is baby-blue. I got annoyed at folks cutting their grass at 11pm, as the sun was still out. I would meet coworkers at "the best Mexican restaurant in Anchorage '' - also the only Mexican restaurant in Anchorage, barely a step up from Taco Bell. I laughed at the story of how a bear kept breaking into the local zoo, because that was where the food was. I planned to but never got around to heading up to Denali. I never saw a whale, which I'm good with since I'm terrified of whales

So yeah, I've been to Alaska.

You know those "how many places have you been to" quizzes. Well, I've been to a lot. But sometimes I'm not sure I've been to a place. So I'm starting a series where I record memories from the places I've been. Starting with US States, and starting alphabetically. 

So, Alabama.

In the late 90s and into the 2000s I was a corporate employed traveling engineering software consultant/trainer. I went to lots of engineering firms to set up and teach the niche software we sold. (REBIS AutoPLANT if you must know)

One place I went to a few times was Birmingham, Alabama to work with Southern Company. I set up & customized software there, and did some training. I have strong recollections of one guy there Mike who was just smart and cool and great to work with. 

I also remember staying at some boutique hotel downtown where in an adjacent shop they were selling "sheet powder". It was lovely smelling talcum powder that apparently in the past people used to put on their sheets before they turned in for the night. I was young and frugal so I didn't purchase any. Today I probably would have, since I've gotten better at balancing my *now* self with my *future* self. I'm naturally future oriented, meaning I tend to not give now-me enough life enjoyment/experiences. But like I just mentioned, I've gotten better at that balance.

In the early 90s I worked for an offshore company (Schlumberger) and we sometimes left from a dock in Alabama. But I don't remember much about that. I do recall on the drive to the dock once my crew talking about how one of the engineers had decided to be vegetarian. And how incredulous they were about that. Good old Lousiana men just couldn't wrap their heads around not eating meat, not even seafood. 

If I think of more Alabama memories I'll add them later. But yeah, I've been to Alabama. Though not recently.