So, Auburn lost the game. And I mean "lost" in the most literal since. We had it...and we LOST it. Gave it up. It was eerily similar to the West Virgina game expect instead of being on the badass side that comes back to kick ass, we were on the losing side, which has to watch their team make really bad plays. I laugh every time I hear "Lee Zimba" to keep from crying. SERIOUSLY.

On the other hand, I no longer entertain romantic notions about UGA. I picked up one of their student newspaper editions while there (read: I am a huge nerd) and it wasn't all that impressive. It's a daily instead of a weekly, which is cool, but other than that and size it didn't have anything to pee over. Plus, their campus is gringy and completely trashed and the sororstitues were out in larger numbers than I've ever seen in Auburn. Granted, it was twice the size, but still...it was kind of ridic. The amount of people and trash on the ground made me proud to be an Auburn Tiger. (P.S. I realize that not all UGA students take part in the trashing of their campus, and I am sure (hope) that some of them are embarrassed by the actions of the tailgaters. But seriously, you guys may want to think of another system.)

Utah lost to TCU which sucks. At least I still retain romantic notions about the UofU!

Watching Golden Girls makes me oddly uncomfortable. Like, it's hilarious, seriously seriously HILARIOUS! But creepy. Just creepy. Esp. the fashion. I don't know why Katie loves this show or why I've spent the past hour watching it. I really have no explanation.

My lips are chapped.

"Star Quiz" tonight. Exam Friday. Turned in my first design project today and I need to start the second. I have a huge paper and this project and the astronomy presentation and a bunch of other shit to do before Dec. 10th-ish. Before finals, basically.

I can't tell if I'm disappointed in the actors (namely John Travolta) for the movie Old Dogs or if it stands a chance of being funny. I'm guessing the former.

Neil Gaiman is coming to Decatur, GA on Dec. 14. You can bet your ASS I will be there. Hell yes! I may pee my pants in anticipation (although my instincts tell me he's actually a giant douche bag...still!).

Watched all 3 original Star Wars movies with Katie because she hadn't seen them. I can remember watching them when I was in 7th grade and being so in love with Luke Skywalker and I felt very similar watching them this time. I never cared about Han Solo as much, and I never really knew why. I know my mom and most older women always had the hots for him but I was always and still am a Luke girl. A) Mark Hamill is HOTTTTT and B) I have never been turned on by alpha males. I mean, look at the boys I've always dated. Most of them are beta males who want to be alpha males (Peter Bloom, Josh Yates, etc.) but all of them have been true BETA males on the inside. My psyche tells me Rodney is most likely responsible for that. I just feel like if Luke and Han were in the same room, naked and ready to go, I'd pick Luke. (P.S. I am *not* talking about Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, for both are old and wrinkly now. I'm talking about the hot sexy studs from the movies. Got it?) For me, it's all about the comfort, and I'd be intimidated by Han's blatant sexuality. Luke is fantastic. I feel the same way about him that I did (do) about Tanis Half-Elven, Michael from my imagination, etc. The imaginary people I've been mentally in a relationship with my entire life. They all have something in common, and if I could name it...Isaac has it. Maybe that's why I'm so in love with him.

Insanity right now. I hate the last stretch before Thanksgiving break, it always equals craziness. Lots of projects/tests/stuff due. And then break and then a week and then exams. Hell yes for this semester being over. Straight A's please.

But that's a little far in the future to be contemplating all that seriously. For now, here's what I'm focusing on:
-Design project due Tuesday. I have all my stories laid out on my front and inside pages, I just need to MEASURE and make sure everything lays out equally. Which is what tomorrow is for. 
-Articles. Last 2 weeks of Practicum are this week, and I want to make a good impression so I have a shot at working at the Plainsman next semester. I have 3 articles in 2 weeks, so I need to get. those. done. I was 2 days late with my last article, and needless to say, I kinda got bitched at. Like twice. So that was fun...
-This weekend. Going to my 2nd away game this season: UGA. My #1 college pick (and I still entertain romantic notions about life there). Their football team sucks this year, probably worse than Auburn, and I'd say we have a shot at putting this game away. Hopefully. It's going to be a blast, win or lose. My hotel room: Katie, Isaac, me, Adam, and Bryn. Adam and Bryn are planning to spend some time in ATL so we are taking separate cars, since me, Isaac, and Katie can go to ATL any day and really want to hit up Athens. Ballin'.
-There Eyes Were Watching God. Ok, so I hate Zora Neale Hurston. I share the opinion of Richard Wright and other intellectual haters when they claim she panders to white humorous ideas about black culture. Put simply, I find her racist. I mean, I GET IT, she is trying to accurately represent "black culture," but I honestly think she fails. She plays on white stereotypes of black culture. I have met a lot of black people and not all of them talk like "that." COME ON. I was one of like 2 white people in my graduating 8th grade class. I have met and befriended a lot of black people. And they surely don't have this huge dialect barrier that separates them from the "white class." I realize some black people retain "ebonics" in colloquial culture, as do some white people, but to portray all black people like she does...as a WHITE person, I find it insulting. So no, regardless of what she "overcame," I don't like her, and I don't like her writing.

"You're semi-attractive." <---- Halloween Line of the Night

P.S. I was Hillary Clinton for Halloween. A year late, yes, I know, but still relevant. Pics later?

I'm not mad. I'm defeated.

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 So I'm rereading Faulkner's Sound and the Fury for school. I read this novel in high school (10th grade) and I'm remembering why I loved it then. Since, I've decided that Absalom! Absalom! and As I Lay Dying are better novels but I don't believe that anymore. I remember why I loved Faulkner so much in the first place.

I have always said that one of the reasons I loved Brand New despite the fact that they aren't as talented as I would like to believe is because I feel like their lyrics could quite possibly stem from my own brain cells. In a weird way, I feel the same way about Faulkner. Now, I realize I have committed a few drastic sins here: a) by comparing Brand New to William Faulkner, and b) measuring myself against Faulkner's unbelievable genius. By no means am I stating that I could possibly measure up to the brilliance and talent that is William Faulkner. On the contrary, after I read his work I understand my own thoughts, own ideas, in a clearer light. I mean, I love this man. I love him via his writings and via his ideas and I feel a connection there--and that is one of Faulkner's strongest points, establishing a connection with his reader. I am surely not the first one to feel that Faulkner and I have a connection that surpasses all time and logic, and I won't be the last. But none-the-less, regardless of how un-exclusive and un-recriprocated our relationship may be, I love this man.

I think that if there is one book that everyone should HAVE to read, it is NOT a Faulkner book. Faulkner is NOT the prescription for the entire human race. As I have stated before, my prescription for the entire human race would be The Great Gatsby. But Faulkner is for women, thinking, intelligent, women who recognize themselves in Caddy, in Quentin, in Judith Sutpen. Anyone who calls Faulkner a misogynist does not realize how ACCURATE he is. Sure, his novels are inherently patriarchal, but fuck, so is the world we live in (to a certain degree), and if we deny the structure then what is the point? Caddy's struggles--I have felt them. As a sexually matured woman, I HAVE BEEN THERE. When she cries, when she washes off the perfume and sits in the branch, I know. It's a wink&nod between an author and his readers. We say "Yes, Faulkner. Yes, that is the condition of young women in America, specifically young women in the South. Amen."

A little on virginity: Faulkner NAILS the virgin's perspective of non-virginity. I think anyone who reads Sound and the Fury as a virgin should have to read it after they have had sex. It's amazing the different perspectives Faulkner manages to perfectly capture in his prose. As a virgin, I cried/screamed/exclaimed with delight at my own thoughts in Quentin's passage, in his struggle with sexual maturity. "It's not not having them. It's never to have had them then I could say O That That's Chinese I don't know Chinese. And Father said it's because you are a virgin, don't you see? Women are never virgins. Purity is a negative state and therefore contrary to nature. It's nature is hurting you not Caddy and I said That's just words and he said So is virginity and I said you dont know. You cant know and he said Yes. On the instant when we come to realise that tragedy is second-hand." As a virgin, I said "YES. EXACTLY." All I wanted was to not know, to UNknow sexuality. To return to being 6 when sexuality wasn't something we thought about or knew about or understood. For sex to be foreign again. But we can't go back. It's not Chinese. We speak the language of sex as reproductive human beings and when you are in the "Quentin" phase of life, that fucking sucks. Because of the stigma, because of the idea of being "unpure," because of everything Quentin deals with. And I said yes, virginity is just words. 
But now, instead of feeling like Quentin, I feel more like Father. Purity is negative. To be unpure, [to have sex] is to be NATURAL. Virginity is just a word, a label, we apply. But I remember feeling like Quentin and it brings back all the memories of all the pain I had as a sexually-maturing teenager. Lying to everyone about "how far" I had gone with a boy. Thinking I was too young to be fooling around, even, when really, there isn't such a thing as "too young." It happens when it happens. It wasn't really until Josh, until I was 17/18, that I was comfortable with my own sexuality. With my own position in the world as a woman.

 

I think in a lot of ways I still struggle with the idea of feminism, of being a woman, of being inferior. I have been force-fed the superior thought-process of males my entire life, and honestly, I respect them. I respect males on the basis that they are male and I am not. They think better, almost. And as an intelligent woman, I realize this is fucked up. Mistaken. But I still struggle with the idea of males being superior. Not so much with my sexuality anymore, I'm on good terms with that, but more my role as a woman and what that means. I like to cook, cleaning and/or crying CAN be therapeutic, but I also detest emotions and hate the fact that I possess them. I like getting made-up and wearing dresses but I also like to play football and video games and kick ass. I hate the idea of the "traditional woman" so much that I never want to get married or have kids. I want to rebel against the idea of womanhood that I myself am attached to, that I am enamored with. So where is the middle ground? 

As for feminism, I think the idea/concept is beautiful, but the execution is sloppy. The main reason for this being there are two ways of looking at every action. On the one hand, we SHOULD be liberating the women in Iran forced to wear burqas and to repress their sexuality. On the other, it is really embarrassing and insulting to these women that we try, not to mention ethnocentric. On the one hand, we should be reaching out to black and crippled and transgendered women, but by doing this, are we saying that they are not capable of helping themselves? Are we being condescending by trying to thwart condescension? Are we subscribing to the male patriarchal way of thinking by trying to overturn it? How do we fight the structure WITHIN the structure? 

One final note on pretension: It seems to me that "young people" (myself definitely included) are incredibly concerned with appearing pretentious. It has become a deadly sin among young smart people, especially the ones who are the most guilty: that kid with the TOMS shoes and all-organic, odd clothing who doesn't own a car and listens to Indie music but if you ask him he won't give you band names on the off chance that you recognize one because he prides himself on being different--if you ask THAT kid about pretension, he will vehemently talk about how annoying it is. Ironic, no? What does this word even mean anymore? For me, it has become a symbol of anything I resent not being an expert about. I have a tendency to want to be an expert on EVERYTHING, so if anyone knows more about something than I do, they are "pretentious." I have decided to eradicate that word from my vocabulary. I am not claiming that ANY of the conclusions I have made here are original, or unique in some way--quite the contrary, actually. Most of these conclusions are drawn from observations in class, things we have talked about in various classes. And if thinking about school AFTER school makes me in some way pretentious, then so be it. If being "scholarly" makes me pretentious, then I embrace it. Anyone is capable of anything. I am not special, I am just willing to take what I learn in school/class/college and apply it to my life. And I'm ok with that. "Intelligent" or "knowledgeable" need to be freed from their "pretentious" cousin.

Thursday: Isaac, Katie, Adam, Bryn, Craig and I went out to play some football at the intramural fields. It was fantastic except for the time I totally plowed down Katie and the time the ball literally hit me and I fell over. And the stiff soreness in my legs afterwards...and for the next four days. In fact, my core muscles are still sore.

Friday: Busy day of catching up on homework, watching TV, nailing interviews (is it really considered "nailing" if it took me 100000 phone calls to get 10 minutes worth of usable stuff?), packing for Birmingham, cuddling with Isaac before I leave, and the 2 hour car drive into the Bham. Met Jaimie's boyfriend, hung out with "the crew" a little, played Guitar Hero 5 and Mario Kart and watched Anchorman and had girl-talk. Good times.

Saturday: Got up and explored campus, which is in downtown Birmingham and is a lot bigger than I initially realized. Beautiful, actually. Went to an art exhibit which was fantastic and we analyzed all the photographs of a woman named Jane Hammond, who is really quite fascinating. Went Goodwill/Salvation Army hunting for usable Halloween costume materials. Jaimie and her friends are going as the cast from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which is hilarious. Costume-shopped til around 4, when we went back to the dorm for a little downtime and snacks. Eventually we all went to Sonic and hung out and talked and went to a nearby playground for some fantastically rousing big-kid games of Hide & Seek, FreezeTag, and Sardines. It was awesome except for me destroying my knee. Then we went to see "Gamer" at the dollar theater and it was pretty much a shitty guy action flick. It wasn't too bad but just kinda dumb. Best part of the night was going to Al's Mediterranean Grill afterwards (the 24-hour campus hotspot) and eating a "BBQ chicken baker" which is a baked potato the size of a head (seriously, where do they find potatoes that size?!) filled with sour cream, butter, cheese, chives, bacon, and (most deliciously) BBQ chicken. You mix it all together to create a wonderfully, DELICIOUSLY, totally unhealthy filling meal. Jaimie and I split one and couldn't even finish THAT and now I am going to have wet dreams about them for the next year, THEY WERE THAT GOOD.

My knee is pretty much covered by a lump of pain the size of a ping pong ball. Looks pretty disgusting FYI.

It was a great weekend but now I am physically tired. I could NOT sleep in a bed as small and uncomfortable as the ones they provide you in dorm rooms. Maybe I missed an essential part of being a college kid by skipping the dorms but I LOVE HAVING AN APARTMENT and basically I'm a teensy bit spoiled. End of story.

I think next week is ridiculous for EVERYONE I know. School is taking it's toll like the evil warlord extracting time and money from all the peasants. We are all collectively bogged down with work at this point. I have a headache but I don't have a job and I love my mother.

Oh, and everyone should listen to: Avett Brothers, Talking Heads, CCR, Elvis.

/love

Spent the night alone.  It was mostly pleasant.
 "Alone" is a concept I have struggled with throughout the years.
There is some sort of ancient fear of the word in me...I have never been able to be at peace with being alone.  I require a filler...sleep, or the outdoors, or TV or podcasts or music, something to consume and eat away the silence that "alone" accompanies.  Maybe it is the silence that bothers me.  I like human voices.
I am ok alone in nature.  Riding my bike, taking a walk, etc.  But the walls of "alone" really strike into my soul.  If I am going to be alone, I cannot be surrounded by walls.  I have to be in the open, or there has to be another human voice in the room.  I don't know what event in my past inspired this need for fulfillment of the silence, and it's not even silence I hate, it's the emptiness, the void of being alone.

And then there is the "alone with others" phenomenon.  When there is someone else in the room and the two of you are so disconnceted that you'd almost be better off by yourself.  When you can feel the relationship, the affection, ebb away from your body.  Like the two of you are sinking into a swamp of desire and you can see their hand in the murk, but that is all.  And you can't reach it.  They are fading from you and you are both drowning.  Like that Ben Folds song:  "She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly, off the coast and I'm headed nowhere...And she's alone, and I'm alone, and now I know it."  I hate how you can be in the same room as someone, someone you love, and you can feel so isolated, I would honestly rather have spent all of tonight minus the 45 minutes of the Conan O'brien show in the comfort of my own apartment, my own isolation.  

I've never been so alone, and I've never been so alive.

I love cold weather, AND I'm not too fond of sunlight.
Makes me nauseated.
I could easily adapt to Seattle weather.

Astronomy has been nothing but disappointment.  Instead of learning about really cool astronomical stuff like event horizons, black holes, supernovae, planets, other galaxies, etc., we just listen to an old Asian man ramble incoherently and sit in front of a computer screen doing Google searches on irrelevant material.  I got to see the craters on the moon close up...once.  Boo.  I want to go outside and look at Jupiter!  I want to see Saturn's rings!  That's why I'm paying you to take this course!  C'mon, Auburn University.  Really.

Yesterday was a weird mix.  It felt like Isaac and I were back in month 1 of our relationship--similar problems, similar conversations.  Deja vu.  But maybe it was just a hiccup.  Relationships are bound to have those.  Maybe I was the one being weird.  Totally possible.  Yesterday was weird in general for me.

I wish I wasn't so absent-minded.  I get it from my momma.

Birmingham soon.  Not working is incredibly relaxing.

Don't sprint after eating TacoBell.  Bad idea.

/love 

So, it's been like ... you know, 2 months?  Lots of stuff going on.

CHANGES:

• New laptop - pretty much DONE with PCs
• School like cRaZy
• Quit Hastings - like a badass
• Living on the fly & currently unemployed
• Tired as hell
• Dating the same stupid, wonderful boy
• Farmville (is this even worth mentioning)
• Read lots of books (actually not that many, reread a few novels for school - The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, Three Lives - and started The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which I never finished (but plan to))
• Mom & Dad brought the girls to a football game & to visit, Sarah came up for a weekend, and Jaimie came over for a weekend/game
• Working at the Plainsman, which both blows and is awesome, depending on the week (& the editor)
• Test Wednesday in Concepts of Science - blergh
• Birmingham this weekend - JAIMIE <3
• New car (got rid of the PT Cruiser, inherited my g-mas Mercury Sable)
• TENNIS!
• Writing off Auburn football for LIFE (aka the rest of the season)
• Jaimie's new boyfriend (!) - Zeke
• Pulling straight A's like a pro
• Making new friends!
• Amazing conversations
• Trying to befriend all the neighbors
• Occasional drunkenness
• Not having class until 11

All of this and more...the life of a college kid.
Sometimes I feel like college is going by too fast for me to get to do everything I had planned...like double majoring, starting an intramural soccer team, being a "hostess" and giving people tours, working on an awesome honors thesis, internshipping, going to Germany...I think out of that list I'm only going to get about half done.  I also feel like there's a possibility that life ends at graduation, and that scares me.  What's next?  How do people FUNCTION when they aren't in college?  They need to offer a class for this, on the REAL.

But no matter what happens, at least I can say I had my friends, and we did fun stuff even if it wasn't a 24/7 party, because DAMN we got an education too.

More than anything, I've realized that you don't "make" friends outside of high school.  Friendship is something that just happens, and I didn't really "choose" them like I did in high school.  I just woke up one day and realized that my friends were suddenly my FRIENDS, and that was all that mattered.

Thank god for my roommate.

/love

 SKOOL!

This semester is going to be INSANE.
I am already playing nice with the other kids and making friends though.
Schedule: (I'm going with the schedule I will EXPECT to have at the end of tomorrow, versus the one I have today)

Monday:
9-10 am: Astronomy.  The easiest A I'll ever get.  The first thing the professor said was "this is not a class for science or math majors."  I nearly peed my pants.  We have ZERO tests and a few quizzes each day but I'm not even sure I need to buy the book yet.  Plus Katie is in there with me and we are going to be besties.
12-1 pm (yes that IS a 2-hour lunch break...):  Modern American Literature, taught by the one and only James McKelly.  I haven't decided if this class is going to foster or crush my incredibly high opinion of McKelly, because it's going to be HARD and I def. did not feel like the favorite today.  So the jury's still out on this one.  Fortunately, I've already read most of the works we are reading in there, so I'll be able to keep up.  I just felt really inadequate and stupid today.  English kids intimidate me.
1-2 pm:  Concepts of Science.  Basically the science class for people who can't do science.  The professor was the dorkiest person I may have ever met.  Painfully so.  I wasn't really paying attention to the "what is science/what is truth" nonsense that all lower level science classes start with, but I have a feeling it won't be too hard, just painful and unpleasant.  Expecting an easy A though.

Tuesday (yes, most days are different this go-round)
11-12.15:  Newspaper Editing and Design.  Sounds like an effing blast.  I'm expecting it to be exactly as the title states.  Not a whole lot of writing, but a lot of experimentation.
2-3.15 pm (yes that is ANOTHER 2-hour lunch break):  Literary Journalism.  A combo of my two favorite things on this planet:  literature and journalism.  I'm ok with that.  Plus, I'm going to have a friend in there!
7-10 pm (GAWD):  Astronomy Lab.  Yes, it's inconviently late at night, BUT I'm going to be looking at badass stars through incredibly high-powered telescopes which blow my mind.  Hopefully.  That is what I'm expecting.

Wednesday:
Same as Monday, except I have Practicum in Journalism from 7-8 pm.  I FINALLY get to work at the Plainsman and I'm OK with that!

Thursday:
First class is the same as Tuesday, but after Editing and Design I have to go to Concepts of Science Lab from 1-2 pm.  Shouldn't be too much hell, but there's no telling.  Then off to Literary Journalism and I'm done (no astronomy).

Friday: 
Same as Monday.

Monday and Friday are my only pseudo-normal days.  Tuesday and Wednesday both have really late night labs, and then there's that middle of the day oddball on Thursday.  3 labs!  I'm going to DIE.  But it'll be fun in the process hopefully.

I'm worried about Isaac and his classes, but I'm not going to stress about THOSE until next week.  In the m eantime, I really need to buy books...:/

Bedtime for sure.  I'm not sure how I'm going to pull off working this semester (in addition to everything else) but I''ll manage.  Always do.

Oh and Katie is awesome...sort of.

Day 14
Got up super early and drove into big Bend National Park, one of the largest and most secluded park. Did some hiking there, including the hike to The Window, a gap in the rock through which you can watch the sun set, and the 2 mile hike around the Chisos Basin, a mountain-surrounded valley filled with wildlife and foliage.

Saw some young deer really close to the lodge, also tons of falcons. Also saw these things called Big Bend Hoppers, black, yellow, and orange grasshoppers that can grow up to 8 inches. The ones we saw were still babies, about 3 inches or so, crawling across the road. At first, we thought they were scorpions or tarantulas. They were creepy. Big Bend was pretty desolate, which was both enjoyable and unnerving.
We drove down to the Rio Grande Village and eventually found the river, which was thick with mud. I waded into it nonetheless.

Liz lost a flipflop in the murky water, and I had to reach my hand into it and feel around and pull it up. It was soaked in mud. It was creepy because I couldn't see my hand through the water (that's how dense it was) and I was scared of snakes. Also, I was an illegal immigrant for about 30 seconds!
After we left the Rio Grande, we ate dinner in the lodge (I had a grilled portebello mushroom on a bed of green and red peppers and onions and potatoes, yum!) and we tried to find a hot spring, unsuccessfully. It started to storm somewhat intensley. Apparently, summer is the height of monsoon season in Southern Texas. So we saw the beginning of a monsoon! The temperature went from 107 to 57 in the course of an hour. It was ridic. So we just chilled the rest of the night.

Day 15
Left Big Bend and headed into San Antonio, a 8 hour drive. Finished Lowboy, which was creepy and fantastic. (Finished 4 books on this trip.) Got to SA around 3, and went to see the Alamo, which is incredibly sad. "Remember the Alamo!" and all that jazz. Our hotel had 23 floors and the pool was on the roof. San Antonio is a gorgeous city. We headed down to the Riverwalk, which isbasically below the city. Ate dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse, which was fantastic! I had filet mignon k-bobs, with gulf shrimp, green and red peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Liz had crab-stuffed shrimp, wrapped in bacon, and drizzled with a lemon butter sauce. We shared. By far one of the best meals yet, but I think my fav is still the trout on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. My fav hike was there too.
We shopped the River Center mall a bit, which was fun, and then headed home for some sleep.

Today, we drive back to Mobile, but won't get there til 7 or 8, and I have to drive to Auburn to spend some time with my boy tomorrow before coming BACK to Mobile for a week and a half. I will be sad this vacay is over (despite minor conflicts, it was fun) but glad to be home and have my own space. More than anything, I want to go back to Auburn and resume my life there, but I will be sad to leave my Mobilian friends. Such bittersweetness.
Move-in day is the 13th! School starts the 17th! Next year better be awesome.

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Day 12 and 13
Both pretty uneventful days, mostly driving. On day 12, we packed up and headed out of the Grand Canyon. On our way we saw and adorable newborn deer galloping across the road. It was young and still had it's spots. So cute.
We passed through Sedona, Arizona and Oak Creek Canyon. Those were some wiiiindey roads. Had to go about 5 miles an hour and I still felt like we would drive off the edge. Beautiful country. Sedona is a lot like Roswell, New Mexico in that there are a lot of paranormal happenings, like UFO sightings and vortex appearings and psychic energy. Very interesting place.
Drive to our hotel, the Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs on the outskirts of Phoenix. It was GORGEOUS and swanky and hip. 4 diamonds. Awesome. After some relaxation, we drove out to Spur Cross Stables, where we went on a sunset horseback ride. My horse was actually a mule, a goofy, big-eared white spotted mule named Pepper. Mom's was a mule too, a brown one named Sara. There aren't a whole lot of differences in mules and horses. They are the same size, and our ranger guide actually said mules are smarter because they are more cautious, but also more slow. The only real difference I noticed was ours had bigger ears than the horses and were a teensy bit more stubborn. Liz rode a horse named Julip and Kaitlyn rode a small calm, and old retired rodeo horse named Sedona, reddish brown with white spots. We were not tied together and somewhat independent but horses are pack animals and basically followed the one in front. Mine stopped to take a momentous piss, which was hilarious and lasted AT LEAST a full minute. Pictures will have to wait til I get home because i didn't capture any on my phone. We rode through some gigantic cacti and a bunch of rabbits. Very awesome and rekindled my love for horses. I am currently browsing the Auburn area for lessons.
The funniest part was afterwards, they gave us these little white bags with carrots in them to feed our horses. The horses obviously knew what was up becase when we ran out of carrots, the followed us around trying to get to the bags. Liz, Mom, and Kaitlyn handed their bags to me, and I looked up and had four huge horse heads staring down at me. It was intimidating and I kept having to fend them off. Mom's horse actually clenched onto the bag with her teeth and I had to wrest it away.

Day 12, we left Phoenix and travelled 10 hours to Alpine, TX. Ate at this little restaurant across the street from the hotel called Buffalo Rose. I had a chicken advacado sandwich which was AWESOME. Tomorrow we head into Big Bend National Park, one of the biggest and least visited park in the nation. Another day of good hiking and exploring and hopefully some hot springs. Next day is San Antonio and then home on Saturday!

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Day 11
Today was a fairly excellent day. We drove the 4 hours into the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, found our cabin (flushing! running! water this time) and hiked down to Bright Angel Point. After lunch, we hiked:
Roosevelt Point, a tiny secluded loop through the forest; Cliffs Springs, a mile hike into the side of a canyon and to a pathetic puddle of water (view was outstanding though);

Cape Royal, a small hike to Angels Window and views of the Colorado River;

and briefly hit up Point Imperial, the point of highest elevation, GORGEOUS! Almost 9,000 feet above sea level.
We recooperated at the cabin with some ice cream, then Mom, Liz, and I took the more strenuous 1.5 mile hike to Coconino Overlook.

Hiked about 4 miles in total. The views were amazing. Ate dinner at the Lodge Dining. I had Utah Ruby Trout with bernaise sauce, asparagus, and rice. Best meal I've had so far, and I've had a lot of good meals. Sat out and watched the sunset, later the stars.
Ran into a very unshy mule deer on our way to Coconino Overlook, which was amazing. My feet were BLACK from all the dirt.
Saw TONS of chipmunks (adorable) and
lizards (small, black, and scaly).
It is goregous here an the weather is pleasant. I was expecting it to be hotter but it was tolerable.
Windy mountain roads make me motion sick, and dizzy with headaches. I would much rather hike than drive.
In 2 years, Mom and I are going to cone bak and hike the 23 mile trek from rim to rim. Something like 14 miles down and 9 miles up. Stay the night in Phantom Ranch at the bottom. Who's with me?

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Day 10
Went to Dead Horse Point, which name makes Kaitlyn weepy. It was named such because, according to legend, horses would walk put to the plateau and see the unattainable Colorado River below and die of thirst. Horrible story, beautiful view.

Lectured my family about what little I remembered about oxbow lakes from Geology 101.
Drove into Bryce Canyon, which is amazing and gorgeous.

The random spikey things are called Hoodoos, because the early pioneers thought they had something to do with witchcraft. Hiked up a stream to a little waterfall, then drove to Fairyland Point and all the way through Bryce. It was quite fantastic. We didn't do mch hiking initially, but everyone was hungry so we drove to the hotel (in Tropic, about 7 miles out) and ate dinner. I had country fried steak (which was delish) and we drove BACK to Bryce for sunset. We stood on Sunset Point and hiked down the (steep) Navajo trail and hiked to Sunrise Point and down the Queens Garden trail. Maybe a mile and a half total. At this time it was getting dusky although gorgeous so we left.
I finished Skinny Dip and it was fantastical and hilarious and Hiaasen is a gifted writer and a character mastermind. Loved it from cover to cover. Started Lowboy and so far it's beyond terrific.

If you look real hard, you can see the moon.

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Day 9
Before leaving Salt Lake, we attemtped to retrieve my iPod from Enterprise to no avail. So we left without it, one of the things that keeps me SANEST around my family; headed into Moab, UT, and got in around lunchtime. Went to Arches National Park, which is quite similar to saying "went to Mars," thats how red and odd paranormal it is. The highlights:
Walked around the base of Balanced Rock, which strikes me as hilariously phallic.

Went to the Upper and Lower viewpoints of Delicate Arch, arguably the most famous arch in the park. Unfortunately, the hike to the base is 3 miles in the sun of the desert and my family wasn't up for it. (If you squint real good, you can see it in the distance.)

Later we hiked the entire 1.6 miles to Landscape Arch, the thinnest spanned arch, longer than a football field. It was awesome.

Hiked the short distance to Pine Tree Arch and the longer distance to Double Arch (past the Three Gossips and the Parade of Elephants) but I neglected to get those pics on my phone.
I hiked a total of about 3 miles at the end of the day.
At some point, a huge cream-colored lizard with orange stripes scampered across my path. He stopped to pose for some photos (I got some good ones on my real camera), macho-challenged Kaitlyn, and ran off. We also looked for some big-horned sheep that are native to the area, but saw a disappointing ZERO.
Left Arches and headed back into Moab. We took a dip in the pool and then went for dinner at a fantastic little Italian joint. I had a triple dish dinner of baked rigatoni, manicotti, and eggplant parmigiana (which has escalated itself to my favorite Italian food). Went shopping downtown, which is another little town similar to Auburn, and ate huckleberry ice cream.
Tomorrow we head to Bryce Canyon.

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My day 8 and day 9 entries have randomly been deleted so here it goes again.

Day 8
Woke up early and drove out to Park City, a huge ski resort with a bunch of summer attractions. We rode the Alpine Slide, Alpine Coaster, and Zipline twice each. Dad busted on the Alpine Slide and skinned up his elbow and knee pretty bad. Ate a lunch of sandwiches at The Eating Establishment, ran through the Human Maze, climbed a rock wall, and bungee/trampoline jumped. It was a good day.
Unfortunatley, the evening wasn't so great. Mom decided the new van wasn't safe, so they went back to Enterprise and got one with bald tires...and went back once again. We've had no less than FOUR vans in about 2 days. I did some more laundry and babysat during this ordeal. Ate dinner at a mall's food court. Had Orange Julius's for dessert. Eventually we started packing up the new sparkly van that promised to be our bff, when I realized I left my iPod and earphones in the 2nd van. Yikes. Went to bed and slept restlessly, partially due to my brand spanking new sunburn.

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Day 7
I've been gone a week. Not so bad considering all I've seen and done. Today was a lighter day. We got up and dealt with the car...finally got another mini-van, this one not as new or fancy but at least no warning lights were on. We drove around downtown and tried to find Gravity Hill, an allegedly paranormal spot of road where you appear to be pulled backward uphill. We tried THREE TIMES, quite unsuccessfully. It was supposed to be on an unmarked canyon road. We were on the right road we just didn't know which part was the gravity part. The third time I went online in an attempt to find exact coordinates for the place, and it brought us to the biggest freaking hill in all of Salt Lake, but it was nowhere near Gravity Hill, which we found hysterical. Apparently, they made the road that Gravity Hill is on a one-way street going in the wrong direction. So it was a no-go. Very hilarious trying to find it though. The entire car was cracking up.
We also drove out to the Great Salt Lake, which is honestly not so great.

It stunk an incredible amount, like a great heaping shithole. Nothing lives in it but nasty brine shrimp and awful spiders and gnats. The place was filthy disgusting. I stuck my feet in but that was about as much as I could stand. Later, my foot was crusted with a layer of powdery salt. Yuck. It was pretty, though. We also met a very friendly Native American (random).
Afterwards we went out to my parents' favorite ski resort, Alta, which was gorgeous and way up on the side of the mountain.
We met with another old colleague of Mom and Dad's for dinner at a huge Chinese buffet (delicious) and talked for a few hours about miscelaneous things. It was pleasant.
Did some laundry and replanned and repacked the suitcases. Yay?
Excited about Park City (amusement park) tomorrow. Dad gave the entire room a heart attack by claiming that they were closed tomorrow for the huge "This is the Place" holiday that commencorates founding of the city. Quite the opposite: they are open extra hours! Hopefully everyone else will be celebrating and watching the parade and festivities downtown so lines won't be too long. For a few minutes I was incredibly disappointed.

(Alta Ski Area)

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Day 6
Went to see my parents' old friend, Laurie Merriweather. Listened to some interesting stories and ate at the Arctic Circle. Later we visited my great-uncle Robin, my maternal grandma's brother. It was nice to meet these people I had heard about, to finally put a face with the names. Afterward we went down to the Mormon headquarters, Temple Square, and (unsuccessfully) tried to navigate downtown Salt Lake. We delt with car issues for the next few HOURS (the "check engine" light is on and it is driving funny, and the car rental agency is being a lil bit of a BITCH), and at some point stopped in a fairly pleasant city park. I took a nap while Dad and the girls swam and then we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square.

(This is the big Trolley Square water tower.)
Went shopping and I got flirted with by an adrable cashier at some organic shop. Finally headed back to the hotel and I read for a little while.
Finished Artemis Fowl and The White Tiger recently and I'm currently reading a hilarious Carl Hiassen book, Skinny Dip.
More adventures await tomorrow. Hopefully checking out the Great Salt Lake itself.

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Day 4
Spent the night at the place my dad spent his summers as a kid...Rock Creek Lodge in Ashley National Forest. No cell signal. No Internet. No air conditioning/heating. No TV. It was peaceful, yes, but creepy. Things warmed up considerably when one of dad's old friends, Don Ray, showed up unexpectedly. He had been estranged from the world (apparently) for a few years, apparently working on a project out in
Nowhere, Utah (population: 1) building his own hut and fixing up some old cars. It was nice to see him but he has become an odd and jaded individual.
At any rate, we did the typical camping stuff: hiked up some trails and ran into a moose, which was bad ass and very close and totally unafraid and refused to get out of the way; went creek-hopping; foraged through the woods; looked at the stars. Despite the total depravity, it was a relaxing and peaceful night. I actually got some sleep.

Day 5
Headed into Salt Lake around 2 and went down to the campus. Tried to find my parents' old dorm, but apparently it was torn down. Went to the bookstore and bought some stuff, wandered campus and checked in at the hotel. After a much needed shower, we went to dinner at the place Dad proposed to Mom, Litza's Pizza. Delicious. Did Dad's 52nd birthday stuff. Toured a little more of the town, saw old apartments and old jobs and listened to college stories. Salt Lake is about twice the size of Mobile and growing like a hormonal teenaged boy, but I still really want to live here. Go to grad school. The college is beautiful and in an awesome part of town. Went to see the big "U" on the hill and came home. It's about to be bedtime.

Salt Lake City is that hazy thing with the sky scrapers in the valley. Quite literraly surrounded by mountains. 360.

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Day 3
Left Denver and headed into the mountains. Looked something like this:

Headed up the really narrow, windy Berthoid Pass into the Continental Divide. Wow. It was cold. Made a few pit stops at some wild mountain streams and other photo ops, but we hit Steamboat Springs around 11.30. Basically, it's this town about twice the size of Auburn, and with a similar downtown built into the side of a mountain (kinda in a valley). Mikes of sky, broken up by these jagged mountaintops. Very cutesy, hip. Went shopping and headed out to Fish Creek Falls. Hiked both overlook trails (maybe a little under a mile total) and did some creek-jumping in the stream. Lots of fun. Water was FREEZING!
Checked into the hotel and went up the gondola to the top of one of the ski mountains. Sat at the top for a while. Went to dinner at this fancy steakhouse, which...it was mediocre. You picked out your cut of meat and had to grill it yourself. We had...complications. Shrimp was good though. Bought a t-shirt and now I'm chilling in the hotel. Tired. Tomorrow is Rock Creek...basically a deserted log cabin in the middle of nowhere. If I have signal I'll update.
Colorado is breathtakingly beautiful and every day there are new things to see. It is hot but not too bad and NOT HUMID and it gets refreshingly cool at night. Loving it here. Hopefully Utah will be even better.

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Day 2
Drove for another 8 hours, mostly through Kansas. I thought I was going to be glad to say goodbye to Oklahoma...Kansas was flatter than holy hell. Nothing. No trees. No buildings. Just as far as the eye can see (which is about 20 miles, btw), rolling empty plains. Oh, and these:

Yeah. Windmills. As ugly as they are, I
thought they were fascinating. And huge. And there were hundreds of them.
Also, this:

The world's largest prarie dog. Something like 8,000 pounds of concrete. Goofy as shit. It was like the most po-dunk petting zoo you can imagine, with minature donkeys and giant rabbits and raccoons and wolves and foxes and buffalo and longhorns and 5- and 6- legged (live) cattle. Very, very, well...creepy. Although petting the goats and sheep and longhorns (they were kinda cool) and prarie dogs (yes I got to touch one!) was interesting.
We are spending the night in Denver, which is one of those cities I've always wanted to live in. The weather is wonderful and downtown is virtually littered with awesome, huge parks with great views of the Rocky Mountains looming not too far off. To think we will be climbing those tomorow...

Tomorrow we are headed into Steamboat Springs, a little mountain town in Colorado. It's only a 3 hour drive from here so it should be quite nice. Pics of the mountains and the waterfall (!) tomorrow.

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