i can tell that we are gonna be friends

I am in Lincoln, Nebraska, which is a town I have spent far too much time in over the past four years (and by that I mean I sometimes stop here on my roadtrips, and anytime is more than I want). I knew I wouldn't get out of my house in Denver in time to make it to Iowa straight through, and I was right - but I did make it out around 12:30, which is better than I had anticipated. 

If I hadn't worked yesterday, that might have been different. But I had to load my car, and it was like playing real-life Tetris - I acquired a bunch of stuff in Denver to bring to Iowa so that I can start in on some house projects, and that stuff + the various tings I need for the next few weeks took up all the available space in my car. It's not completely crazy - I can still see out all the windows, and I probably could have fit a couple more things in the passenger seat. But loading up took quite awhile. I also had to tend to my houseplants, clean out my fridge, eat, shower, etc.

So, all of that was fine, and then the drive was completely uneventful. I listened to some music, and I listened to some podcasts - Conan O'Brien talked to Joel McHale (great), Dax Shephard talked to Stanley Tucci (Stanley was awesome; Dax can be a bit long-winded), and I'm now in the middle of SmartLess (Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes) talking to Ryan Reynolds. This was a departure from my usual trend of listening to a slightly depressing nonfiction book while crossing Nebraska, and so far it's good.

I *maybe* could have made it the whole way, but I would have gotten home right before midnight, and that seemed too risky. So, I checked into a hotel, grabbed a burger sans bun from Wendy's, and chilled until now. And I should really go to bed so I can get on the road - I have approximately one million packages in my parents' front entry (so many that now my dad is not just sending photos to me of the accumulation, but sending them to the entire family), so I need to get there before anything else shows up (spoiler: more is coming). Goodnight!