October 24, 2008

Concord, New Hampshire
DAY 1

I’ve been up for 42hrs.

Every fall, my family and I take a day trip to New Hampshire to visit my mom's aunt Joanne and her son Steven. They live right down the street from Meadow Ledge Farm, where we've been picking apples and buying doughnuts for years. I've taken friends with us occasionally, but none of them ever stuck around long after that. I don't think it was the trip itself, but in case it was, I was hesitant to bring anyone else ever again.

I don't know what possessed me to invite Lianne, my best friend of about 5yrs, but I did and she agreed. But she didn't want to just go up for the day, and I thought mayeb the change would be good. So, we got Joanne's address and searched for the nearest hotel that would book two 18-year-olds.

The plan was to get a few hours of sleep before Lianne picked me up around 3:00AM, to beat the traffic in Boston. However, I am a very anxious person. I’ve only ever been on vacations with my parents, never even thought about going alone until Lianne suggested it. It sounded like a great idea the time, and it is, just...I’m a very anxious person!

Ever since we got our licenses, Lianne and I have made a habit of driving around aimlessly for hours. She has a good sense of direction and it’s nice just to hang out on our own. This trip is just stepping those adventures up a notch. There’s really no reason for me to be getting so worked up, but that’s never stopped me before. I’m just happy to have my best friend with me for this.

Even so, I couldn’t sleep. And it got late enough that there was no point in trying anymore. So, I drank a few cans of Voltage to keep me up and channel surfed until I found “Only You” on one of our movie channels. I’d seen it already - bought it even, Downey’s amazing - but it took my mind off the coming road trip.

Then Lianne called. Her car wouldn’t start. My parents weren’t big on this trip anyway, and all our cars are in their name so that was out of the question. I should’ve been a little more concerned than I was, but I honestly didn’t care either way - what with the extremely high anxiety level and insomnia. Also, I knew Lianne would think of something. She woke up her dad to help her with the car and we ended up leaving about an hour later than planned.

We made it to Loudon in record time and had breakfast at Friendly’s in the center of town. Check-in at the Super 8 down the road a ways wasn’t until 3:00PM, so we visited with Joanne and Steven before settling on a tattoo parlor.

Getting tattoos was my idea. After working my first season at King Richard’s Faire, and having a job I actually enjoyed with a manager who actually valued my abilities, I finally feel like things are looking up. And I kissed the juggler I’d had a crush on for over a year. FOUR TIMES. It was part of the show, and he’s 36, but it was so worth it. Totally amazing! Paolo Garbanzo is the best thing that’s ever happened to me!

I wanted something to commemorate my newfound success in life, I’ve always wanted a tattoo and I haven’t used my 18 year old status for anything fun. I really didn’t want the King’s face anywhere on me and Paolo was the reason I applied for the job in the first place. He passed out trading cards at the end of every show with an awesome logo for his business: a dragon juggling on a unicycle. Perfect.

Gothic Tattoo and Body Piercing wasn’t listed on my GPS when we searched, but we passed it so many times and nowhere else was open so we went in. The owner, Paul Florin, perfected Lianne’s infinity symbol with a heart. Mine was a little more complicated. Even at the smallest size possible to tattoo, it was still too small for him to do, and it looked pretty damn big to me.

He mentioned his wife Brenda was coming up from their studio in Derry tomorrow and she was better with detail. So we made an appointment for 6:00PM, Lianne got her tattoo and then we went to the Wal*Mart Supercenter across the street to pick up Bacitracin.

After, we checked into the hotel and drove around for a while. At this point, I’d probably been awake going on 40hrs and the sleep depravation had been getting hard to deal with hours ago. We stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank and there was a discount on Mountain Dew. Which is all I’d beeb having besides pancakes this morning. That’s when Lianne’s mothering instincts took over and we went back to the hotel and got dinner at the Burger King adjacent before taking showers and - finally - going to bed.