72 Hours

72 hours ago, I was just saying hello to my Granny at her grave in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I drove to Detroit and picked up Greer, whom I met several months ago at the Woman’s March. It was Jan 20th 2017 and Trump was sworn into office. I’ve been to a few protests in the past, but this…this was extremely eventful. I was in San Marcos, TX earlier that morning practicing Japanese Tea Ceremony to help quiet down my mind. I was suffering from depression and occasional anxiety at the time. I had an amazing psychotherapist who I saw every Monday at 3pm for the past two years and I never missed an appointment. I’m pretty proud I made it through each one, therapy ain’t easy.

Anyways, I drove back to Austin, TX. It was drizzling and was pretty cold that morning. I was wearing black rain pants, a yellow sweater with Rosie the Rivieter printed on it and a teal REI beanie. I was burrowing a white Tacoma cause my previous car caught on fire a month before. By the time I reached the capitol, it was about 80F outside, so I was sweating insanely underneath my clothes. The protest was massive and I somehow swerved through the crowd cheering and chanting as I was looking for my friend Emma and her parents. And there was Greer… Oh, grumpy Greer. I recognized her, she used to live at the New Guild Co-Op in West Campus where I used to massage a bunch of her housemates during finals. She barely spoke to me that day. She barely had life in her.

And yet here I am, driving across the country with this woman, Greer, and were talking our heads off about our lives. We’ve just driven through Trump Nation together. From the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, to sleeping in my car at a Holiday Inn parking lot in Green Bay, Wisconsin, then accidentally getting drunk in Davenport, Iowa and following the Mississippi River to Nashville, Tennessee. We finally fucking made it. I am soooo tired. Tomorrow is the full solar eclipse and Nashville is the best place to see it in the world this year. We have no plan and I’m ready to see some magic. The past 72 hours has been life changing. I think I found my Best Friend.