On the road again: Austin, day 4

This city's roads never fail to amaze and confuse me. Access roads run for huge stretches next to highways, as if they're going to parallel the highways forever, and then the access roads vanish for no apparent reason. One road might have three or four names, but you can drive on some of them for half a mile or longer without seeing a single sign with any of those names. When I mention these issues to folks who live here, they just laugh and say, "Yeah, that's Austin!"

I'd think it was an effective way to keep away visitors if the place wasn't growing constantly. I swear it's bigger each time I visit.

Most of my adult life I have fought to keep my feelings and behavior under control. That's essential for work, relationships, parenting, everything it seems. Yet just under the surface I feel as full of boiling emotions as I did as a teenager, and sometimes after long work days or in other periods of exhaustion I wish I could let it all out. It's like that now, but instead of doing anything visible I will work--on PT stuff, on my stand-up show, on the book in progress. The next book is going to be the most emotional one yet, the most powerful--at least to me--and I am both chomping at the bit to dive into it and terrified of what it might cost me. Regardless, I'll write it.