7 days in desolation

so i just got off of my 1st trip of the season...a 7 day desolation canyon trip on the green river here in utah. i've never been on a 7 day deso trip (usually i'm on the 5 day trips from hell) so needless to say i was really looking forward to spending lots of time in the canyon. the passengers we took down were 6 inner city kids from florida, one of their dads, a "leader" (you'll understand why that's in quotations) and a board member of this organization. the kids were great - they've never been camping before, many had never even been outside of their city. just to see the look in their eyes when they were paddling their inflatable kayaks into a rapid, or how they loved seeing shooting stars for the first time, or cooking smores on a real campfire - that made it ALL worth it.

this quite possibly could have qualified as one of the best trips i've ever been on in utah. the kids did a "show" for us, which consisted of telling jokes (my favorite - "your momma is fat, she has a chip on her shoulder. then she ate it") hahah, you know i love silly jokes. we were "initiated" into their tribe, while we had a mandatory dress up night and the boys were all wearing girls clothes since it was all we had. (and the "leader" was afraid they were turning into cross-dressers!) yeah, the leader was a TOOL. from day 1 i hated the guy, and i know that's not very social-worker of me, but he was such an idiot that i couldn't help but ignore him. he made racist comments in front of the kids and didn't even try to help them. it bothered us all, but the fact that the boys were energetic and were enjoying themselves made up for it.

i think the best part of the trip had to be night 3....after seeing a bear in camp the previous night, the leader was freaking that the bear would come into camp. it then started to pour rain, amazing lightening and thunderstorms and we continued to cook dinner (and drink whiskey on the down low...the kids didn't know because they were all in their tent). we drank just enough to make the rain bearable and even fun, then the clouds literally parted and it was time to eat the sandy hot dogs and burgers i cooked. we happened to be camped above a sweet rapid, so us 4 guides took 2 inflatable kayaks and ran the rapid a few times. it was sweet....how i've missed utah!

anyway, i load for a 4 day trip tomorrow that starts sunday morning. it'll be my frirst lead guide this year and i'm stoked about it....this hot weather is so nice, and doesn't make me miss boston one bit!

canyonlands....

i have made it to utah, my friends.....

isaac and i had a long drive yesterday. we didn't leave camp lotus until 11am or so. we stopped for dinner in elko, nevada (whoohoo!) and rolled into salt lake city around 12am. i thought it would be fun to go trekkin' up the mountains around salt lake to look for a place to camp. eventually we found one high up in the wasatch national forest. very beautiful...lots of aspens (my favorite!) the only bummer was that i forgot my sleeping bag in groveland and ended up sleeping in the back seat of isaac's car. yeah, my n eck is still hurting today :)

we made it into ver-NAL around 2ish. did the usual stops (the cowboy shop, deseret thrift store, ashley trading post, the library) and i got to take a LOVELY 2 1/2 hour class on food preparation and handling. did you know that most food born illness is due to improper preparation and temperature? and that in utah, they call diarrhea the "trots"? (nice, i know. i practically slept through the whole thing, and was embarrassed because i almost didn't pass the test at the end). i know that he's coming to look for me on the river!

there will be more to report on my short time in california, dawnelle's wedding, and of course my river trips. for now i've gotta get to the guide house to get my first REAL night of sleep. it's been a while, my friends :)

ciao!

summer time....and the livin's easy :)

FINALLY!!!!!!

i just completed my first ever summer school session. now i know why i've never taken summer school before....how do they expect you to concentrate, when there's so many distractions? like the sun? the beach? the cape? drinking beers and having bbqs? baseball games? ahhh, the list goes on. by nonetheless, i'm SO DONE. and i'm so proud of myself. wow....now it's onto the REAL summer....

jenny, megan, monkey, and i are going to go celebrate with a few beers at my favorite pub down the street. tomorrow morning early i leave on a jet(blue) plane home! kristin is going to pick me up and head up to g-town. we have some projects to complete before dawnelle's big day.

in 1 week from now i will be embarking on a road trip with isaac out to utah. we're both on a 7 day desolation canyon trip (my first ever 7 day trip....i'm usually on the 5 day trips which aren't as fun). anyway i'm SO looking forward to being on the canyon. so looking forward to road trippin' it with isaac (he's spent the last year in chile, so we have a lot of catching up to do!) and SO looking forward to spending some much needed time with the fam. and reggie, of course!

this time tommorow i'll be chillin' on my mom's new grass, sippin a beer, chatting with friends and fam and playing with the dog. i can't WAIT! ....yes, the fun has just begun....

kitty needs a home...and other bits of randomness

first things first....i finished my 30 page community assessment paper. YEAH! i haven't worked so hard on a project before, and i finished it yesterday. didn't quite know what to do with myself since it's basically taken over my life for the past 3 weeks! so in true fashion, monkey, jenny and i went out for a little celebration. we went to this nice shee-shee wine bar/french bistro place near south station. had yummy food, then went to wally's jazz cafe. it was so awesome, these musicians were just lined up to play. and they were all so young!

i'm starting to pack my stuff for my vacation home. i can't believe how much i've accumulated since i've been here. (well, actually i'm not that surprised!) it'll be interesting to see how i'm going to move all my stuff outta here....

does anyone wanna give my kitty lola a home? she's a loving, sweet 18 lb. cat (she's not fat, just big boned) :) she is super cuddly, loves attention and likes to be outside. judy's mom and sister have been graciously taking care of her, but since her sister will be having a baby shortly they can't take care of her anymore. and we don't want to give her to the SPCA (she's just too great of a kitty!) so if you know ANYONE with a good home that is looking for a 4 yr old cat, please let me know.

it's off to get coffee for me!

london calling

i woke up to another sad, sad day for our world......

it doesn't seem that long ago that monkey, laura and i were hanging around the british museum....taking the bus to king crossing, or catching a train to the airport from liverpool station. on my first trip to london, my cousin alison and i stayed at a hostel right in russell square. things will never be the same, and my memories of my time in london have changed forever.

what makes me sad is that this is just fueling the fire of our fucked up nation. (of course i am sad for the 40 people who died in the tube and on that bus, the hundreds of wounded others, and their families). but i'm more sad that, again, our nation will be exploited by our president in the name of "homeland security". today i had flashbacks of a war rally/protest i went to in london. this was right before we invaded iraq, and britain was considering joining the good ole boys. hundreds of thousands of british protesters were there, warning blair that it wasn't a good idea. i guess today he has seen that they were right.

so what do we do now? invade another country? send more troops? sign another "homeland security act"? search everyone that gets on a bus or train? i don't have the answers.....just a whole bunch of fucking questions....

4th of July fun and sun....

hello all....

i've been without internet access for a week so i haven't been able to blog! i was in the cape again, chillin' out on the beach, playing pool and swimming. i know, i know, i have nothing to complain about! it was so nice to be able to relax.....not that i haven't been relaxing lately, it just felt good not to do anything! (and yes, i was kind of "working" while i was down there. i got about 10 pages done on my paper so that's a good start!)

my 4th of july was pretty fun. we went to a bbq in providence the night before, and i won $20 playing texas hold 'em (watch out, i'm pretty good!) but, i gave the money back because i felt bad that i won....don't bring me to vegas :) we didn't wake up til 12 the next day and headed back up to the cape to go swimming in the pool....had some beers, watched the fireworks over the water, and just chilled!

i'm getting SOOOO excited to come home....in only 1 week! i can't believe it. things are getting prepared for dawnelle's wedding (the wedding that i'm in....only 2 weeks away!) crazy, i know. i'm starting to think about what i wanna say for the "speech" at the wedding....have to make sure not to drink TOO much beforehand...not that i would embarass dawnelle, but her parents might get a little upset if i mention all of the shenanigans we got caught up in, both in high school and afterwards!

after that it's off to utah...whooohoo! i can't wait to be in the canyon. all this time off has made me realize just how much i need to be OUTSIDE during the summer. i don't know how i'm going to make it once i have to get a "real" job! yuck! won't think about that yet!

it's off to class for me. i can't believe i only have 1 week of summer school left. where did the first half of the summer go??? :)