livin' the dream

It's my last full day in Flagstaff. I've actually been having a somewhat easier time here than normal, not too much parental strife or anything going on. I've been spending a lot of time with the two people who I still know who live here, Emily and Jared, and I've just finally been taking some time to relax. I went on two hikes this week, the first by myself on a trail called "Fatman's Loop" and the second with Emily on a trail off of Schult's Pass Road. The first was nice because I've never actually been hiking by myself before; it's a much quieter experience, and I can freak out when big bugs land on me without anybody laughing at me. The second was just such a nice trail, leading up through trees to a big meadow and then suddenly ending in a very nice rocky promontory that looked out over the east side of town. Now, of course because I'm such a wimp, my legs are sore, but I truly enjoyed both days.
Tomorrow I'm driving to Tucson, and Anna and I are leaving on Sunday for San Diego. We'll stay there all of Monday and then take off for Santa Cruz Tuesday morning to stay with Jesse for a few days. We're driving him and his friend to San Francisco on the 2nd and camping there for a few days. A good friend of mine from high school gets back on the 3rd, so I think we're doing something on the 4th with her and then leaving the next day. We're taking two days to drive to Portland, camping and maybe hiking somewhere in the middle, and that's where our plans get a little muddy. A little while in Portland, a little while in Seattle (maybe staying with my ex-roommate Meredith if she ever writes me back), a little while in Vancouver and then somehow heading for Alaska. It's looking more and more like we're driving there, staying a few days, and then driving back partway and taking a ferry back to Vancouver. At least that's kind of the plan, we'll see what actually ends up happening.
I'm excited but as always a little apprehensive. I get so worried about money and time and all the little things that can go wrong. I hope I can use this trip to help myself become better at forgetting all those things, or at least not letting them ruin my enjoyment in this experience.

colorado, my home sweet home

After a mostly lovely and interesting week in Colorado, I'm back in Flag again. We spent the last five days at a resort place in Pagosa Springs with my grandparents and uncle from BOulder, my aunt and uncle from Georgia, and my parents and sister. We went horseback riding (you are all allowed to laught at the image of me on a horse; it was fun but painful the next day), on a "scenic" (read long and slow) train ride, and rafting on a very mild stretch of the San Juan. I loved the rafting, as mostly tame as it was, and it made me really want to go on an actual legitimate more-than-two-hours-long trip someday. We also ate lunch in the town I was born in, Cortez, CO. I was born overlooking Highway 666, how ominous ius that?
The bad, or at least upsetting, parts of the trip were mostly family related. My uncle from Boulder had basically a temper tantrum on the night we all arrived, and we didn't actually see him come out of his room until Thursday. My grandfather has Alzheimer's, and it is terrible to see him so much worse off every year when we come to visit. I know that so much has been written or filmed about this, but it's so much worse to actually see someone you love begin to lose themselves. The last day I saw him, he made some totally random statement to me and then said "Don't pay any attention to me, no one else does." I felt like crying, it's so hard to see him knowing what's happening to him and having to just do what he still can anyway.
Anyway, I'm in Flag until next Friday, when I'm leaving for Tucson and then the road trip! I'll have a little internet while I'm gone but not much, so I probably won't be writing too often. But we'll see.

home again, home again

School's out for summer! Whooooo! I wrote a fifteen page paper on the appropriated masculinities of Elvis, John Travolta, and Michael Jackson, made my final annotated bibliography, and packed up all my crap and put it in storage beneath the condo I lived in. Also said good bye to all my friends (all four of them), which was kind of sad. But now I'm home in Flagstaff, missing Anna and waiting to go to Colorado tomorrow to "hang out" with all my relatives. It'll either be okay or insanely boring, I need to find another book to bring along in case of emergency. Hopefully it will at least have good scenery, anything with mountians rocks my world anayway.
After that, Anna and I will start our monster road trip, so the summer is looking up! Yay for trips! I watched the first half of The Motorcycle Diaries last night, made me want to just get going. Also made me want to tell my parents, "At least we have a running vehicle!" They are not so happy about the trip idea, but oh well.

workin' for a living

Whooo, Anna scored with her first Americorps interview! She got a job tutoring children and doing community outreach-type stuff with an organization called Project YES! for next year. It's funny, we worry so much about what to do right after we graduate, and she totally got a job on the first try. It's been really fun having her here, of course, spending too much money going out for breakfast and drinks and everything in between, really good times. I've seen more of Chicago in the past week than in the past month, which is also cool. I finally made it to Chicago's zine store, Quimby's, which is so fucking cool. I bought a few zines there, and maybe sometime I'll send in one of mine since they work on commission. All in all, a good week.