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         In April, after a bitter breakup, she visted Newport Beach with the intentions of staying a while. She had a funnel cake on Balboa Pier, walked along the beach, wandered aimlessly around South Coast Plaza and read a book on the balcony of her hotel room before growing listless with idle time and lingering thoughts of her current breakup. She stayed one night in Newport before realizing she was bored with California. The next morning she rented a car and took off for Las Vegas.

         In Las Vegas she decided to gamble for the first time in her life. She bet on twenty-three red and won eight hundred dollars. She went to a bar to celebrate her winnings and found herself lonely. Then a man with the prettiest blue eyes she'd ever seen complimented her hair before sitting next to her. She found herself enjoying conversation with the handsome blue-eyed fellow and invited him back to her suite for drinks. Over Martini's, he expressed his passion for literature and film and she was intrigued by his subtle sophistication. She thought she found the perfect man until he said he was in Law school. He suddenly reminded her of her ex-boyfriend, who was the reason she took a vacation to begin with. The next morning she wondered how her cousin in Albuquerque was doing and decided to see.

         On her way to Albuquerque she stopped at a diner in Holbrook, Arizona called, "Lou-Lou's." The waitress there gave her free coffee and pie. The waitress was about eight months pregnant and the sweetest girl she'd met in a while. She felt bad for the poor, sweet and pregnant waitress and slipper her one of the hundred dollar bills she won in Las Vegas and continued on to Albuquerque.

         In Albuquerque she found out her cousin was in Prison for a drunk driving accident. Disappointed, she called her mom and cried for an hour about her cousin and her ex-boyfriend and the pregnant waitress in Holbrook. Her mother told her she was too small to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders and she should go somewhere comforting, like her high school best friend's house in Greeley, Colorado.

          In Greeley, she caught up and reminisced with her old best friend over dinner. For three days they did nothing but talk and watch movies from when they were younger. She started to feel better about her breakup and less stressed about her life and on her fourth day in Colorado decided to catch a flight to Connecticut.

         In New London, Connecticut she visited her first college boyfriend, who cheated on her, to amend a good relationship gone bad. He ended up crying and telling her how sorry he was for cheating and for apologizing five years later. They talked over drinks until three in morning when they decided to go back to his place. In the heat of the moment they slept together and in the morning she noticed a picture of his current girlfriend. She thought to herself, once a cheater always a cheater. She was not mad at him, but felt bad for his current girlfriend and decided to take the next flight home to San Francisco.

         At the airport, her cheater ex-boyfriend cried again and told her she was the best thing to ever happen to him. She told him what happened between them was a direct result of the vulnerability caused by her most current break up and she needed to get home to sort out her life.

          Back home in San Francisco she found a red rose on her porch with a note that read, "I am sorry and I still love you." She sat looking at the rose for over an hour before putting it in the garbage disposal. She called her mom and told her she was okay.