No point of punctuation can compete with the ellipsis. There’s no mystery in a period, an exclamation mark, a question mark; they always tell you the same thing. The period always means it’s over, finished, there’s nothing else coming; you’ve reached the end. An exclamation mark isn’t much better…the end has still come, but now you can be happy about it: Hurrah! The End is here! Now what should I do? The question mark is intriguing…it’s no longer certain what is going on, but even that question mark in and of itself tells us something. It means there’s an answer waiting to be found, somewhere hidden between all the other punctuation marks. Each punctuation mark tells us one thing, and one thing only. It can never mean anything else.

But an ellipsis; that’s unique. It is the greatest enigma of in punctuation phenomena…no one can tell you what comes next. It’s the in-between stage, like the silence before the storm or the morning dawn: night is over, but morning hasn’t come yet. That’s what I like best about ellipses; the stillness. It’s different from the stillness that comes after a period. There’s something coming next.

My life is like one giant ellipsis. A lot has happened in my past, and it’s very likely that a lot will happen in my future; but on any given day, there is nothing going on. It’s a constant struggle sometimes, because I want for my days to have meaning. But the best days I have, the most meaningful, are always the days that I spend my time doing nothing important…

Spring break 2007. Roadtrip to west Texas. Of course that's where I'm gonna go. At least I can say we had a blast.

Left Houston Friday night at 7:45 pm, after hitting Chipotle for dinner and Target for our gourmet camping meals (oatmeal, beef jerky, and loads of gorp). Drove all night, originally intending to stop in San Antonio for the night, but by the time we hit ol' San Antone it was only 10:30 and we decided to keep going. Traded drivers at a Valero just the other side, and then I got hit with a speeding ticket in Comfort TX going 23 miles over limit (if I had been going just one mile faster I coulda been arrested). Traded drivers again, because I didn't trust my lead foot, and then Will got hit with a speeding ticket in Junction TX going 13 miles over limit. End manual speed control, shift to cruise control. Stop at a sketchy Days Inn so I could use the bathroom, then we're off again.

After Will drank a Full Throttle and Jason went to sleep, cue late night heart-to-heart conversation which managed to keep us awake until just outside of Ft. Stockton, where the car was running on fumes until we managed to hit Bakersfield, a small town (?) consisting of a brightly lit and almost completely deserted two pump gas station and a broken down 18-wheeler on the entrance ramp. By then it was freezing, thanks to the dry air of the desert and then late hour. Waning gibbous moon was a friendly companion.

Throught Fort Stockton and on to Big Bend, where we pulled into the Visitor Center parking lot at 6:20 am and encountered two other vehicles, filled with sleeping Rice students. Much too hyper to just sit around in the car waiting for the VC to open, so after a group we-made-it-all-the-way-with-only-two-speeding-tickets-and-no-sleep hug, we piled back in the car and drove to the Chisos Mountains Lodge, where we ate a breakfast buffet, and I managed to accidentally tell the cashier that I had morning sickness (it was actually altitude sickness, but my lack of sleep messed up the words coming out of my mouth). Then back down to Panther Junction VC, because by then it was open, where the other Rice students (Nat, Vica, Linda, and Pascal) were waking up, to get our backpacking permit. Then back up to the Basin to pack our backpacks, and then we climbed the mountain.

Made it to Emory Peak campsite at abotu 4:30, had dinner, and then stuffed all three of us into a two person kids' tent because it was so cold, and went to sleep. Woke up the next morning with our water all frozen solid, ate breakfast, summitted Emory Peak. By then I was lightheaded and dizzy from too much sun, lack of rejuvenative sleep, and lack of water, so I went back to the campsite and napped while Jason and Will did the Southwest Rim (8-mile-long trail) in 2-and-a-half hours. Instead of going on to the next campsite we had reserved, we decided to head off the mountain because we're pansies and can't deal with below-freezing temperatures.

Made it down to the lodge just as the sun set, ran into a group of Lovetteers, and then tried to reserve a room. No rooms left but the lady at the desk was my 1st grade teacher and she offered us her living room. So after dinner, we headed back down to PJ, where we got to stay in a cozy living room, had nice showers, and then had a dog sleep on top of me all night.

I woke up early the next morning and hiked up the street to my old elementary school to see my old teachers. Talked with them for a while, and then Will and Jason had a blast playing on the kids' playground (cue thoughts of petitioning SA for a Rice playground) while I discovered that my hand is exactly the same size it was when I was 11. Then, off to Grapevine Hills for rockclimbing adventures, and then took the boys out to see the a hush-hush archaeological find. Went to Terlingua for Mexican food, visited Carla's grave, shopped at the Terlingua Trading Post, and then back to PJ where Mrs. Forsythe offered us her two extra bedrooms and living room for the night. Next day got up, visited the school again, where Will promised he would come back and try to teach the fifth graders trigonometry, then hit up Santa Elena canyon, where my knee gave out and I hiked like an old woman. Took the old Maverick Road to Terlingua and then drove our way up to Presidio (after stopping by the Post Office to pay for our speeding tickets) where we crossed into Ojinaga Mexico for a REAL Mexican dinner. Bought some Mexican Coca-Cola, and some real Vainilla, tried to defend the car from window-washers and then drove back. Encountered three burros on the road, and immediately after saw a sign that said "Loose Livestock". We almost made it to Terlingua, but decided to stop at the teepee picnic area because the stars were so beautiful, and ended up spending the night there. Stayed up to all hours of the night having heart-to-heart talks, this time with Jason's involvement. Then we got up, hit Desert Sports (the local REI-like store specifically for sports in the Chihuahuan Desert), went back to the elementary school and taught fifth-graders trig, then went to Hot Springs, and then set out towards Ft. Stockton and home to Houston. Made it back last night at midnight.

Plans for next year: we're doing it again, but this time, with a video camera.

I thought I had everything figured out, but now I'm just confused. My head is spinning, and I don't know where it will end up. I'm shook up. I want things to make sense. I'm not angry, and I'm barely hurt. I'm just...confused.