After painstakingly laying out all of my plans -- every ride, every meal, every night's housing -- and putting them together in a spreadsheet (because I'm a perfectionist like that), all those structures, carefully built to ease my anxiety, began to crumble. The night before I boarded my plane last week, I got a call from my friend Kelly's husband, who told me that their family was sick with a stomach virus, leaving me without a place to stay upon arrival. (Jess was picking me up, but not able to offer accommodations.)

So, upon arrival, I called on Janice, one of my old high school crowd, who not only gave me a place to stay, but hosted lunch the next day with some old friends, among them, my friend Missy...