back in the saddle again...

yeah! i've made it to boston in one piece!

the summer of travel and adventure is finally coming to an end. i'm sad about it, but ready to get a move on with this whole grad school thing. it's hot and humid in boston, and we're supposed to get some rain from the hurricane down south....which makes me long for the hot, dry weather of good ole utah. oh, so sad!

monkey and i both moved our lives into new apartments on saturday. i seriously felt like i was on crack, since my plane landed at 7am in boston, and by 2 pm i was helping monkey move all of her stuff. by 11pm i was moving stuff into my own apartment. i just wanted to get it done! i'm happy to say that i'm all moved and relaxed in my new place. it's soooo much bigger than my old nasty apartment...and i feel like a princess because i actually have a bed frame and i'm not sleeping on the floor. (wow, it's the little things in life, really!)

the rest of my visit in california was great. the day after i got back from utah (which was a long journey...isaac and i brought back the new guidehouse kitty "hobbes" to his mom in sebastapol) i went on a 2 day tuolumne trip. it was so awesome to be back on the tuolumne, and fun to row a boat with steve. the best part was when we perched/wrapped on pelican rock in the middle of clavey falls. yeah, i was highsiding and it was fun....though i don't think steve would agree! let's see, we also had a bbq at my parents house which was great....koob was played on the new grass, and lots of fun was had. all in all, a great way to end the summer!!

i don't start school for another week or so, so i'm just hanging out in boston now. jenny and i have to "clean" up our apartment tomorrow...but other than that i'm just chillin' as usual. i'm gonna go look for a job (gasp!) to help me pay for my upcoming cuba trip. then i might go down to the gauley for a trip or two...we'll see about that!

groover reading material....

yanno, sometimes i think my blog would make great groover reading material. groover reading material you ask? what's that? well, let me tell you a little story about the groover (both my friend, and my enemy). see, on river trips we bring this great little white box called a "groover". this box holds all of the human waste from the trip. yum. and the *best* part is emptying it out at the end of the trip. fun!! my favorite part about shopping forevery trip is finding the best magazine to be used for groover reading material. this is a very important task, as some people are nervous before using the groover and need a magazine to get this going (or flowing, if you know what i mean) i usually try to get outside adventure magazines, but this week i went for the "utah" groover material - Country Music Weekly. george strait (the legend!) was on the cover, and i swear folks were fully enjoying reading about the 29 things they didn't know about george. things were definately flowing, as both groovers were filled to the brim. mission accomplished.
so, as i was saying, i think my blog would make great groover reading material. funny satire thrown in with bits of random information and adventure.

and besides the two full groovers, this trip was absolutely fantastic. 9 guides = hardly any work, which = lots of beer drinking. in true ARTA fashion, we had a dress up night at jones 1 camp. i wore my lovely pink bridesmaids dress, while ken sported a brown velour 70's robe, and val's mom wore the liger suit. i even managed to convince a 68 year old texan to don a st. patricks day green 70's dress (a thrift store find) he even bought me a milkshake at the end of the trip.

we got back to the guide house early (i powered through the flat section of island park) and had a pizza/bbq/dance party. oh yeah, and i constructed a water slide out of a paco pad, a backboard, the back of the truck, and a water-filled old bucket boat. i was the first to test out the newest contraption, so i made sure to wear a helmet (safety first!) and pad my landing with chairs. the water was freezing cold, but oh so worth it. everyone tried out the slide...even ken's mom!

i'm such a pusher :)