“I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.”

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing,but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”

"What is the feeling when you're driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -it's the too huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."

"The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great that I thought I was in a dream."

Confession: I have yet to read Jack Kerouac's On The Road, mostly because my roomie says it has no chapters so it's very hard to know where to stop....seems like a summer read, when I have unlimited time on Sundays to just sit and read and drink tea or coffee on the porch.

Jack Kerouac has some wise words about confusion versus clarity, the promise of travel and 'the road' as a way of self discovery, passion for life and saying goodbye. I seem to be going "from ditch to ditch" as my Dad would say, feeling completely confident about my choices and then wondering what I'm doing and not feeling prepared, and I'm thinking a lot about saying goodbye to my family from school for a couple years. Those ladies have been a huge part of my life and now we'll be in Sweden, Columbia, Vancouver and Qatar.

Three weeks of school and I'll be driving back to Manitoba. It's a long trip, but it always brings me clarity and makes me fall even more in love with this country.