Every time I sit down to update my journal, I get distracted. It was so much easier when I was in Montana, with not much to do but exercise, hike, drink and write, when I wasn't fighting fires of course. What do I waste my time doing? Fantasy Hockey, email, Facebook, computer and tv shopping (yes I need a computer, no I don't need a tv), college classes, scholarships and easy money (doesn't exist), the news, photos, Facebook, Amazon.com, the weather... A whole lot of nothing, really.
I was out in Grand Junction before Tim and I left for our big road trip. After the 6 hour drive from Grand Junction to Estes, we did some errands and then left for Michigan on Dec. 19th. There were huge snowstorms across the plains but we got lucky - the road was clear despite the plethora of cars and trucks strewn about the median, the shoulders, sometimes upside down in a nearby field that indicated just how lucky we were to have smooth sailing. However, the temperatures were not friendly - -8 in Nebraska, with -20 to -30 windchill! Since we drove straight through, we hit Nebraska all night and refilling the gas tank and taking Logan for pit stops were so miserable I ended up putting on my snow pants just to stay warm. It really went quite well until the next morning. The news said Chicago had blowing snow but really, they were just a little behind on the times. The blowing snow had moved into Michigan, and we were in a near white-out on I-94. Which made for a horrible drive and I was being paranoid about multi-car pile ups as I'd see 3-6 cars scattered across the road here and there. At one point it took a little evasive action on my part, and a conveniently placed exit, to avoid a potential nasty accident. Sometimes a little paranoia is good, though, as only a couple hours after we made it through western Michigan,
a 100 car pile up closed I-94 and killed one person. We made it to Novi in 22 hours. We made such good time up until western Michigan - it usually takes between 18-20 hours; that was the longest it has ever taken me though my mom thinks it's just because I must be doing something illegal. I think it's just because I know how to hold my bladder, ha ha!
In Michigan, it was a combination of seeing lots of people, and doing absolutely nothing at all - except getting brutally beaten by my little brother at hockey on his Playstation 3, or watching sports on their nice big hi-def TV. I was so excited because the snow was thick and fluffy, and we brought our snowshoes to go with my sister, who had gotten a new pair for X-mas. Of course, within a couple days it warmed up enough that it turned to rain and everything was crusted over with ice. :( Tim and I went to the Red Wings game on the 23rd, which is always a good time and of course they won. I also just so happened to be in town for an old co-worker's retirement party, so I got to see the city boys and introduce them to Tim's large beard.
I was especially happy to be home for our annual huge family X-mas party, which I don't think I have been in town for 2-3 years! 50+ people and I still have no idea whom most of those rugrat kids belong to, ha ha! Pretty soon my sisters and myself will be the only ones left without kids... but Sue and I have dogs, and Linda has her cats, and hopefully my mom doesn't mind being Grandma Doolittle for a while. ;) The new tradition they started last year of the "white elephant" or re-gifting things ended up being pretty funny. Of all things, Tim got Old Spice Cologne and I got a manicure kit. If you knew us, you'd see why they were the most ironic gifts we could have received. Tim swapped his but I have to admit, I actually kept mine and (tried to) use it on what little nails I haven't bitten or chipped off, haha!
Leave it to my friend Jeff to have the party that brings most of my friends in one spot, making it much easier to see people in limited time - like Jess, who I missed last time I was in town. Even better, Brian and Melissa stopped by! They live in Seattle and though I used to be good about visiting about once a year, I've slacked off and it's Brian's turn to visit Colorado anyway. Jeff is now in Minnesota and who knows the next time I will see him, too - unless I can convince them to ski in Colorado again instead of Montana. I did stop at Donna's house to see her two kitties - which I love playing with but hate the inevitable allergic attack I have afterwards. I joked that I would name one "puppy" because I wanted her to get a dog.... but Puppy didn't let me down by being the first cat I've ever seen carry around toys in its mouth like a dog! Which was the cutest thing EVER! Besides Donna of course. ;) I am very sorry I didn't get to see Tara, Beth and Kevin... Seems like every time I come home it rotates who I miss. Next time guys, I promise!!
I am also bummed I didn't go out with my sisters like we usually do, maybe not to 5th Avenue anymore but Linda got sick and Tim and I were pretty much broke. Saw my dad and step mom on X-mas day, and I think the highlight of our visit for everybody wasn't so much as seeing ME, but seeing 100 lb. LOGAN! And yes, he did in fact prove he is the best dog in the world. Simple as that! In fact, I think both my parents and Tim's parents took more photos of the dog than us! That's ok, Logan's way cuter than I am anyway. :P
I know I'm leaving things out, like seeing my brother's mad skills at his JV hockey game and stuff like that. Was so darned busy and I don't remember everything anymore!
Saturday before new years was when we left Michigan for Pennyslvania. It ended up taking about 9 hours, not bad. Saw bald eagles, that was the highlight of that drive. We ended up at Tim's parents' house and we were even busier there than we were in Michigan. Went out to breakfast with his friend Matt and his wife Debra, which was pretty much the boys making fun of each other. Tim was making fun of that game "Rock Band", but we went back to their house and Tim couldn't stop being a rock star. I was rockin' the bass and well can't say I have a future as a drummer, but Tim kept singing and singing and his girly voice doing a Garbage song was priceless. We went to his sister's house, and her husband had just become a K-9 cop and has Body, a new 15 month old German Shepherd-Malamois mix K-9 cop in training now in addition to their 3 year old purebred shepherd, Thor. Body may only be 65 lbs, but he's agile, likes to jump, and isn't quite as trained as the other boys. Thor is I believe 85 lbs... and then there's monster Log Dog at 100 lbs (or more, he got fat over the holidays just like his mom and dad, haha!). Those three shepherds got along so great and went nuts in the backyard! We watched the Eagles WIN (which has set the agenda for every Sunday until hopefully the Superbowl) and Tim couldn't be happier. Tim's aunts and uncles came over on various days, the only of which I had met were Aunt Diane and Uncle Steve (they came to Colorado with his parents last year). We went and saw his Nan and she was pretty funny, told Tim she thought I'd be shorter but I think she liked me. ;)
We also went to see his friend Greg and Shannon and their 3 kids and their house in the country, which was pretty nice! Our New Years was pretty uneventful, Tim went through his model train collection and giggled like a little kid and I read books on my new
Amazon Kindle. Which is a funny story in itself... my mom hands me a box for X-mas and I open it, it says "Kindle". I get a puzzled look on my face and my mom and Linda are like, "It's Kindle! You don't know what Kindle is??" Ummmm... Even when I open the box, I'm like what the heck?? Now this Kindle thing isn't cheap, but my mom tells me she heard about it on Oprah, you download books onto it. And since A. I love books but B. I travel a lot and am sick of moving boxes of books, it would be great for me! I kept joking with Tim that she got my a flat screen tv (my big addiction)... and I was like well um I've never heard of Kindle... thinking of what size tv I could buy for the same price... Needless to say, I researched it online and started messing around with it, and I LOVE KINDLE! Tim likes to talk about Kindle like Kindle is a person, like "Are you going to hang out with Kindle today?" and "How is Kindle doing?" The only bad part is that books aren't really cheap, considering I buy all my books used, and that since it's set up to purchase books immediately when you click, "Buy this book", it's easy to spend a lot of money. :P It uses Sprint's cell phone network for free to get on the internet (in black and white) and browse the bookstore.
Anway, back on track... I hung out with Kindle on New Year's. The ball dropped, whoop-de-doo it's 2009! Then we watched some crazy dare devils on motorbikes do some stunts, and then went to sleep. Pretty wild huh.
Logan got to hang out with Tim's parents a lot and I think between Logan and Thor, his mom really wants a dog. I hope she gets one. ;) Tim bought $36 in Tastykakes, a Philly local junk-food mini cake, and saw the sights. Went to Cabelas. We did not exercize whatsoever and I am still trying to get back to eating well (no gluten, corn, soy, blah blah blah) and feeling fit. Overall I was pretty tired from socializing and eating uncontrollable amounts of sugar! But it was nice to finally see Tim's hometown and meet more of his friends and family, though he didn't get to see everybody he had hoped. The whole time, I had "The Fresh Prince of Bell Air" theme song in my head...
Then the long, long drive home. We left on Friday morning after New Years and took I-80. It took 29 hours; it wasn't nearly as cold, but it was windy! Logan was visibly uncomfortable in the back of the cab, but he was a good sport about it. I kept myself entertained by reading about the swarm of earthquakes in Yellowstone National Park, but alas
no end-of-the-world volcanic explosion is in the near future, (though that doesn't stop some folks from starting a panic anyway). We did finally get to my place in Drake and we couldn't even sleep, despite being so sleep deprived. Watched sports and played online. Got up early the next day, took care of some business, drove to Boulder and watched the Eagles win against the Vikings (WOOOO!) and then headed back on the road west to Grand Junction.
The first thing I did this past Monday back in the Junk is get a gym membership. ;) They have a pretty nice gym with good hours. I've been hitting it pretty hard and feel much better already. Not quite in the "hike all summer in the mountains" shape, or even in as good of "telemark ski around the backcountry of Rocky" shape as I'd like... but much better. The second thing I did was start exploring the public land with Logan. We romped in the snow among dinosaur bones (though we only really saw part of one) at the Fruita Paleological Site and also around Devil's Canyon, though we have yet to go on a long hike. I also spent a couple days fretting over Tim's 30th Birthday, which was on January 7th. Wooo! I had grand ideas but most of his friends are back in Estes, his birthday was on a Wednesday, and I wasn't sure how to make it a grand birthday. My first idea was lazer tag and skee ball at a place called bananas, but since they don't serve beer we went to th bowling super center called GJ Scores. I got Tim this big obnoxious balloon that sings Happy Birthday in Opera-style, some spider man temp tattoos, and some fancy hair conditioner for his Beard. Which, by the way, we forgot to celebrate his Happy Beard Day! His beard turned 2 years old on January 1st, and I had plans to make a big deal about it but without having any way of leaving the house without him (we were in PA), it fizzled. I have more bigger presents planned for him but we'll see what I end up getting him, when he makes up his mind what he really wants. :) After bowling we went and got sushi, of course!
While Tim's at work, I usually hang with Kindle, work out for a couple hours, play with the Loggenator (another new nickname for Logan), go online, stuff like that. My computer screen doesn't work all the time anymore so it's time to look for a new one. Friday, we went to see the new Clint Eastwood movie, Gran Tourino. His one liners are excellent, but it's a very good movie. Don't expect a real spaghetti western type plot - it's very serious, despite many one liners drawing a good chuckle (as well as in the back of your mind thinking, "I can't believe he just SAID that!"). We had big plans, like every weekend, of going skiing at Vail and such, but we were out past midnight at the movie and didn't want to wake up Saturday. So we just watched football and did nothing. :) Sunday, EAGLES FOOTBALL! And they won against the Giants! Next week, the Arizona Cardinals! Tim is freaking out of course, he pretty much doesn't hear or see anything unless it has to do with Eagles or football. ;)
After the victory, I really needed to get out of the house so we hiked a few miles up the No Thoroughfare canyon to a frozen waterfall, I took a couple photos and will post them soon. Today I had plans to go to Vail but after a nasty stomach ache last night and this morning, and the plain inability to get out of bed before 8:30 am anymore, it just didn't happen. Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I swear! ;)
This is my last week in Grand Junction before classes start at Colorado State. I'm trying to decide if I should pick up Ornithology or Riparian Ecology, which would mean classes 3 days a week instead of 2. I'm really going to have to get in the groove of being a real student again, and very quickly! I have a feeling that one class will be challenging, with lots of statistics and population modeling, but just typing my journal nowadays sometimes feels like a challenge!
Anyway time to take the dog for a walk. Send good skiing vibes my way and hopefully I'll get up early enough to make the 2 1/2 hour drive tomorrow. ;)
