austin conquered.

You will be pleased to know that as I sit in the Atlanta airport (where wireless internet costs $8!), I am completely satisfied with my Austin adventure.

After much searching and asking around, I enjoyed lunch alone at the Texas Picnic Co., where I was joined by a more-than-slightly crazy homeless man claiming that "They were hurting him." A wonderfully quirky addition to my meal. Later that day, I spoke to not one, not two, but three fellow design professionals, including the creative director for CNN (!). In the midst of those conversations, I distributed my business cards.

Success.

Plus, I ate dinner at Sandra Bullock's restaurant in South Austin, and grabbed a delicious cupcake, just as planned. All by myself, and I really did love every minute.

On the plane to Atlanta, I couldn't help but think what a lot of growing up I've done in the past year. And it's in this growing up that I've realized: adventures are everywhere; we just have to be brave enough to take them.

I think John Steinbeck may have said it best:

"A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless... In this, a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."

Isn't that what makes adventure so lovely? So desirable? The hidden treasures, the bumps along the way?

I think so. And that's why, even though I'm always ready to come home, I feel like I leave a little bit behind me in the cities I visit. It's like saying goodbye to a dear friend; you know the words must be said, but once said, they can't be taken back. And the next time you see one another, things will be different. Life will have changed you.

Surely that's what Steinbeck meant. No two journeys are the same because we are changed by each one. Trying to replicate the journey is impossible, fruitless.

So I won't try. I'll just be happy in each adventure, taking one journey at a time.