While March Madness is my favorite sporting event of the year, this blog post isn't entirely about that. More about the madness that has gone on during the month of March.
We moved back to Colorado about a week and a half ago, but it feels like it's been so much longer, but in a good way. Even last night when we were talking about it, I know Zach moved back for me. He knew how unhappy I was in Washington; how unhappy we both were. But if I hadn't been there, he would have managed to keep going, somehow, with the financial difficulties he/we were having. But he didn't want to do that to me, and that means a lot.
I think part of why it feels like we've been here a while is that we've both started working. It took me two months to start working in Washington. I transferred over to the Office Depot in Boulder so that I would have a job when I got out here. Zach has already started up work at the greenhouse and will also be working at JJ's on the weekends until the end of ski season.
We've also been so busy! It's been great. I am quite happy being back.
And now for basketball: Last night we went to the Pepsi Center and got to watch the afternoon/evening session of the first round of the NCAA tournament! It was so much fun! We watched Washington State beat Winthrop and Notre Dame beat George Mason. It was kind of weird, since we just left Washington State. Also, the high school Zach went to when he lived in Virginia was called George Mason. So there were some strange coincidences. It was also fun watching Notre Dame and Luke Harongody play, although I do think he is slightly overrated. Plus I didn't realize how well I knew Notre Dame's fight song until last night. I think the music is just one of those that is extremely recognizable.
Yesterday I went 13/16 in my brackets. My three losses were George Mason (I thought they would do it again this year), BYU and Arizona. All in the afternoon/evening session. So I made it through the morning unscathed. I don't think I can say that for today... So far I had Gonzaga winning and St. Mary's winning, both of whom lost. I had Tennessee going on, so I got that one.
The one nice thing is that even with my first round losses, my sweet sixteen and so on are all still in tact.
Hopefully the rest of the day will go the way of my bracket :)
I work this afternoon and tomorrow, and Zach will be up in Copper all weekend working. I don't really like him being gone all weekend, because this is a big, lonely house with just me and the puppies, but I know it's only for a couple weekends--the ski season is almost over. And I still managed to get up to the mountains since we moved back to Colorado. It was a very difficult day, first day out all season, and powder nonetheless. But it was nice and worth it to get to the mountains. I still need to get a pair of boots that fit-my old boots are too small and my new boots are so big I can't even turn in them, my foot pops out! Those need to get sold...
Friday, March 21, 2008
Saturday, March 08, 2008
I am so exhausted and there is still much work to be done. Also my key for "b" is sticky. Don't know why.
We leave tomorrow. We are leaving Washington for good. Or at least for now.
This has been a fun and crazy week this week, trying to get everything in one last time and getting prepared for the move.
Wednesday we went up to Seattle. The weather couldn't have been more gorgeous. We went up the Space Needle around sunset. We didn't plan on it, it just happened. But it was one of the most beautiful things I've seen in a while--we could see forever!
Thursday we spent most of the day packing. I really don't remember what else happened on Thursday. Yesterday we picked up the truck and loaded that--boy am I sore! We still have some stuff left to do. Today was my last day of work. It was super busy and this is the first time I've had to sit down all day...of course I should be finishing up the whole moving thing, instead of sitting here writing this, but I am. Of course sitting is making me realize just how tired I really am...Last night we also went up to Little Creek casino, where Zach has one of those member cards. It turns out he'd racked up a fair amount of points and we got to eat dinner there for free. And by dinner, of course I mean the seafood buffet. Gotta get all the seafood in before we're landlocked again, right? It wasn't the greatest, but it was still good getting out of the house and away from this whole mess.
So I'm tired, sore, and still have a lot of work ahead of me. But I'm not complaining. Because I know that at the end of all of this we will end up back in Colorado, at our new house. And that makes it all worthwhile.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
How the Media Kills People
I just want to start off by saying that this will probably offend some people. I know I don't have the same experience with this subject as several of my friends do, but I have also found that, over time, more people who are closer to this situation have also expressed views similar to mine. I still haven't figured out a title either, but don't they say that with all the best works the titles come towards the end?
This is coming about two weeks after the most recent school shooting. It is a horrible tragedy, I feel a great deal of sorrow for the people at NIU. I will go along with that and say that the people at Virginia Tech also still are in my thoughts.
The one thing that pains me about these shootings is that they are not individual incidents. I mean that in the sense that it does, unfortunately, happen. It doesn't happen to often, but they do happen. And, ever since 1999, there has been an additional standard that they have to live up to. Columbine. It was the first large scale shooting that opened the public's eyes. Certainly there have been school shootings before Columbine. Columbine was just the landmark for school shootings. Every school shooting since has to be compared to Columbine.
I moved out to Colorado in August 2000. Less than a year and a half after the Columbine shootings. Other than the beauty and nature that Colorado has to offer (which is what my incentive was to move out there) I didn't know too much about the state as a whole. I remember Columbine happening and my mom actually asked me if I still wanted to go to school there (because, even a year and a half before I started school there, I knew that was the only school for me).
My first year at school, my first year in Colorado, was one of my first time dealing with Coloradans. They are, by nature, a very pleasant, laid-back group of people. More mid-western than not, but still not capturing the entire mid-western perspective. But, one of the first questions, and probably not all that tactly, looking back, out of my mouth to each new Coloradan I met was "Did you know anyone at Columbine?"
And I did. My freshman year, one of the girls that lived in my hallway in my dorm was in the cafeteria or the library during the shooting (I don't remember anymore, it's been seven years since I've thought much about that). The first time we had a mandatory fire drill in the dorm (usually when most people are taking a shower), she heard the fire alarm pulled and started freaking out, having a panic attack, and, quite simply, started losing all control. I had no idea such a noise could bring back such powerful memories, but I never lived through anything like that before.
So I'm not trying to undermine Columbine. It was a national tragedy, there is no disputing that. It is something that should never have happened and should never happen again. Unfortunately it did and it has.
I was in Germany in the fall of 2002. This was when the movie Bowling for Columbine came out to the theaters. My friend Becky (who was studying abroad with me, she was from Minnesota but I cannot remember which school she went to) and I went to see the movie. In Berlin, since it's a nice, remodeled, modern Western city, even has a movie theater in the heart of the city, Potzdammer Platz, that plays movies in English with a German subtitle. I guess to the Germans, that's considered a foreign film. I never would have thought of it like that. So, Becky and I went to see Bowling for Columbine in this German theater. We also saw The Pianist at this same theater, but that was a completely different experience for another story at another time. But when we went to see Bowling for Columbine, the theater was packed! We were so shocked by this, that so many Germans would want to see a movie about this. Granted, this was also the beginning of the European's anti-America fervor, and I'm sure this movie did not help us out too much. I guess that's Michael Moore for you.
But seeing a movie about something I watched on the news and listened to on the radio that took place in my home country, a movie about the state I was currently living in, and watching it in a foreign country was a very surreal experience and made me realize just how much of an impact it made upon the world.
We are leaving April 20, 1999 and fast forwarding eight years later to April 16, 2007. I got very mad at Wolf Blitzer this day. Honestly, I remember the date because a much more tragic event struck me, personally, two days later.
April 16, 2007, I'm watching the news, dumbfounded. I can't believe what I'm seeing on tv. Virginia Tech? I mean, it's Virginia Tech! It's a really good school that really smart people go to! Not people who are going to go around killing people. It was horrible, my heart does still go out to all the students, friends and family of the victims. I cried a lot watching the news that day. That is, until 3:00 (I think) when Wolf Blitzer came on. All he was doing was comparing this to Columbine. Calling it a copy-cat killing. The killer must have worshipped Dylan and Eric, the killers from Columbine. He must have also worshipped Hitler because Hitler's birthday is April 20th. Why, if this had been a copy-cat killing to make it just like Columbine, had it been done on the 16th rather than the 20th? I was getting so mad, and started yelling at Wolf Blitzer on the tv. Granted, Cho Seung-Hui (the Virginia Tech shooter) did have an understanding of what Eric and Dylan felt, but I don't think it was in his intentions to mimic Columbine. But of course the media did. The media could not resist any comparison to Columbine. They had pulled up a ghost from about eight years ago, just in order to rub salt into the graves. Yes, it was a school shooting. Yes, it did take place at a very similar time. But what about all of the school shootings before and since Columbine? Why don't those seem to matter. Why is a shooting at Virginia Tech's importance reduced because they had to bring Columbine back into the picture? It was saying "Oh, this is nothing new. It sucks, but it's happened before."
My thoughts on this dwindled for the past nine/ten months.
And, just to put things in perspective. I googled "columbine" and in the first three results they mentioned the shooters' names. I googled "virginia tech" and in the first six results they mentioned the shooter's name. I just now googled "northern illinois university" and on the first page I couldn't even find any mention of the shooting, it was just all school websites.
So yes, February 14, 2008. Valentine's Day. A modern-day Valentine's Day massacre? (Sorry, probably too soon.) I currently don't have a tv, so it took me a little time to find out about this shooting--and yet, I still knew about Heath Ledger's death a week earlier within the time the news broke. That's the order of importance for the media, and the urgency of getting their stories out to people.
Now when I had originally heard about the shooting, there was no indication of death, just that a shooting had occurred, about thirteen people were injured, and that was all the information I had. It turns out that five students were killed, along with the shooter, Steven Kazmierczak (who already has a page dedicated to him on Wikipedia). Yet another tragic event, and I don't want to downplay this at all. Nothing is funny about death, death is tragic, especially when the person being killed just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like I said, I don't have a tv. I just glanced through news articles to get the overview of the story, but since I don't really like the media, I didn't spend much time reading about the shooting in depth.
I do, however, read espn.com every day, reading about men's college basketball. I knew that NIU had cancelled all athletics for a little over a week. I know that the first men's basketball game that was played since the shooting took place just the other night against Western Michigan. I did not, until just a couple of days ago, know that Ricardo Patton was their head coach. I probably did read about it at some point last year, but it never would have occurred to me. You see, Ricardo Patton was the basketball coach at CU for a long time, I don't know the exact dates, but 1999 is included in those dates. So, when the ESPN lady is interviewing Coach Patton about his first game back, the VERY FIRST (actually second) QUESTION out of her mouth was comparing the NIU shooting to the Columbine shooting!!! Yes, these are all tragedies, but they are all separate events. If you keep trying to compare a present day event to one in the past, the present event loses significance. Just because Coach Patton lived in Colorado at the time of Columbine does not mean he needs to compare Columbine with NIU. Just because Virginia Tech happened in the same week as Columbine does not mean that needs to be compared.
These tragedies are their own events. Please keep them that way!
This is coming about two weeks after the most recent school shooting. It is a horrible tragedy, I feel a great deal of sorrow for the people at NIU. I will go along with that and say that the people at Virginia Tech also still are in my thoughts.
The one thing that pains me about these shootings is that they are not individual incidents. I mean that in the sense that it does, unfortunately, happen. It doesn't happen to often, but they do happen. And, ever since 1999, there has been an additional standard that they have to live up to. Columbine. It was the first large scale shooting that opened the public's eyes. Certainly there have been school shootings before Columbine. Columbine was just the landmark for school shootings. Every school shooting since has to be compared to Columbine.
I moved out to Colorado in August 2000. Less than a year and a half after the Columbine shootings. Other than the beauty and nature that Colorado has to offer (which is what my incentive was to move out there) I didn't know too much about the state as a whole. I remember Columbine happening and my mom actually asked me if I still wanted to go to school there (because, even a year and a half before I started school there, I knew that was the only school for me).
My first year at school, my first year in Colorado, was one of my first time dealing with Coloradans. They are, by nature, a very pleasant, laid-back group of people. More mid-western than not, but still not capturing the entire mid-western perspective. But, one of the first questions, and probably not all that tactly, looking back, out of my mouth to each new Coloradan I met was "Did you know anyone at Columbine?"
And I did. My freshman year, one of the girls that lived in my hallway in my dorm was in the cafeteria or the library during the shooting (I don't remember anymore, it's been seven years since I've thought much about that). The first time we had a mandatory fire drill in the dorm (usually when most people are taking a shower), she heard the fire alarm pulled and started freaking out, having a panic attack, and, quite simply, started losing all control. I had no idea such a noise could bring back such powerful memories, but I never lived through anything like that before.
So I'm not trying to undermine Columbine. It was a national tragedy, there is no disputing that. It is something that should never have happened and should never happen again. Unfortunately it did and it has.
I was in Germany in the fall of 2002. This was when the movie Bowling for Columbine came out to the theaters. My friend Becky (who was studying abroad with me, she was from Minnesota but I cannot remember which school she went to) and I went to see the movie. In Berlin, since it's a nice, remodeled, modern Western city, even has a movie theater in the heart of the city, Potzdammer Platz, that plays movies in English with a German subtitle. I guess to the Germans, that's considered a foreign film. I never would have thought of it like that. So, Becky and I went to see Bowling for Columbine in this German theater. We also saw The Pianist at this same theater, but that was a completely different experience for another story at another time. But when we went to see Bowling for Columbine, the theater was packed! We were so shocked by this, that so many Germans would want to see a movie about this. Granted, this was also the beginning of the European's anti-America fervor, and I'm sure this movie did not help us out too much. I guess that's Michael Moore for you.
But seeing a movie about something I watched on the news and listened to on the radio that took place in my home country, a movie about the state I was currently living in, and watching it in a foreign country was a very surreal experience and made me realize just how much of an impact it made upon the world.
We are leaving April 20, 1999 and fast forwarding eight years later to April 16, 2007. I got very mad at Wolf Blitzer this day. Honestly, I remember the date because a much more tragic event struck me, personally, two days later.
April 16, 2007, I'm watching the news, dumbfounded. I can't believe what I'm seeing on tv. Virginia Tech? I mean, it's Virginia Tech! It's a really good school that really smart people go to! Not people who are going to go around killing people. It was horrible, my heart does still go out to all the students, friends and family of the victims. I cried a lot watching the news that day. That is, until 3:00 (I think) when Wolf Blitzer came on. All he was doing was comparing this to Columbine. Calling it a copy-cat killing. The killer must have worshipped Dylan and Eric, the killers from Columbine. He must have also worshipped Hitler because Hitler's birthday is April 20th. Why, if this had been a copy-cat killing to make it just like Columbine, had it been done on the 16th rather than the 20th? I was getting so mad, and started yelling at Wolf Blitzer on the tv. Granted, Cho Seung-Hui (the Virginia Tech shooter) did have an understanding of what Eric and Dylan felt, but I don't think it was in his intentions to mimic Columbine. But of course the media did. The media could not resist any comparison to Columbine. They had pulled up a ghost from about eight years ago, just in order to rub salt into the graves. Yes, it was a school shooting. Yes, it did take place at a very similar time. But what about all of the school shootings before and since Columbine? Why don't those seem to matter. Why is a shooting at Virginia Tech's importance reduced because they had to bring Columbine back into the picture? It was saying "Oh, this is nothing new. It sucks, but it's happened before."
My thoughts on this dwindled for the past nine/ten months.
And, just to put things in perspective. I googled "columbine" and in the first three results they mentioned the shooters' names. I googled "virginia tech" and in the first six results they mentioned the shooter's name. I just now googled "northern illinois university" and on the first page I couldn't even find any mention of the shooting, it was just all school websites.
So yes, February 14, 2008. Valentine's Day. A modern-day Valentine's Day massacre? (Sorry, probably too soon.) I currently don't have a tv, so it took me a little time to find out about this shooting--and yet, I still knew about Heath Ledger's death a week earlier within the time the news broke. That's the order of importance for the media, and the urgency of getting their stories out to people.
Now when I had originally heard about the shooting, there was no indication of death, just that a shooting had occurred, about thirteen people were injured, and that was all the information I had. It turns out that five students were killed, along with the shooter, Steven Kazmierczak (who already has a page dedicated to him on Wikipedia). Yet another tragic event, and I don't want to downplay this at all. Nothing is funny about death, death is tragic, especially when the person being killed just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like I said, I don't have a tv. I just glanced through news articles to get the overview of the story, but since I don't really like the media, I didn't spend much time reading about the shooting in depth.
I do, however, read espn.com every day, reading about men's college basketball. I knew that NIU had cancelled all athletics for a little over a week. I know that the first men's basketball game that was played since the shooting took place just the other night against Western Michigan. I did not, until just a couple of days ago, know that Ricardo Patton was their head coach. I probably did read about it at some point last year, but it never would have occurred to me. You see, Ricardo Patton was the basketball coach at CU for a long time, I don't know the exact dates, but 1999 is included in those dates. So, when the ESPN lady is interviewing Coach Patton about his first game back, the VERY FIRST (actually second) QUESTION out of her mouth was comparing the NIU shooting to the Columbine shooting!!! Yes, these are all tragedies, but they are all separate events. If you keep trying to compare a present day event to one in the past, the present event loses significance. Just because Coach Patton lived in Colorado at the time of Columbine does not mean he needs to compare Columbine with NIU. Just because Virginia Tech happened in the same week as Columbine does not mean that needs to be compared.
These tragedies are their own events. Please keep them that way!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
The Beach!
Growing up we went to the beach all the time. During high school it was the "hang out place". Then, I spent the past 7 years landlocked.
I have always missed the beach since I moved out to Colorado. Anytime I'm back in California, I always make an effort to get out there, at least to see it, to smell it. There's something about the ocean that's so magical, feeling like you're looking out into forever, that maybe if you just kept looking you'd be able to see the other side of the world.
Of course, it's all just water out there. With lots of animals and plants swimming around in it.
I have made a list of three things I want to do before I leave Olympia.
1) Go up the Space Needle
2) Go to the wolf sanctuary
3) Go to the beach.
Today was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, 60 degrees, beautiful weather. It reminded me more of Colorado than Olympia.
Lately I've been very anxious about the move. I know I have two jobs lined up, but we still don't have a place to live and that scares me to death. We are very close to renting this one house, which sounds almost like a dream house. I am so afraid it is too good to be true. Yesterday one of Zach's friends Josh was supposed to go look at it for us and tell us if he thinks (knowing the two of us) if we'd enjoy living there. Unfortunately Josh got sick and won't be able to see it until Monday or Tuesday.
I spent the better part of the day with knots in my stomach, afraid that the owner is going to give it to someone else before Josh gets a chance to see it. And if that happens, then what can we do?
Zach's been wonderful and helping keep my mind off everything that's giving me anxiety. Last night we went out to a nice dinner at Olive Garden (thanks to the gift card my mom sent him for Valentine's Day) and then drove up to Shelton to the Little Creek Casino. I really like this casino for two reasons. 1) They have a smoking and non-smoking section, so Zach can smoke, and I can stay on my half, without dealing with smoke. 2) In addition to Blackjack (my game of choice), they also have Pai Gow. I love pai gow! They don't have it at any of the casinos I've been to in Blackhawk. When we went last night the blackjack tables were full, so I played pai gow all night long. You don't necessarily win big (unless you get really lucky on one of the side bets), but I think I played there for four hours without ever needing to pull more money out of our gambling fund. I think that's quality entertainment, and it's a "safe" game. Plus, in blackjack, if you're at a table with people who don't know what they're doing, it can really screw over the whole table. Pai gow, your fate is in your own hands/cards.
On the way home from Shelton, I was telling Zach about my three things that I wanted to do. Of course the wolf sanctuary is closed right now (see previous blog), but I told him that if it was really nice weather tomorrow then we should go to the beach.
I woke up this morning so excited because it was absolutely gorgeous out!
We gathered up the dogs and headed on west. We didn't really know where we were going, but knew the ocean was west of here. We get into Aberdeen (Town motto: Come as you are. Town's famous person: Kurt Cobain. One of Nirvana's more popular songs: Come As You Are. Coincidence?) and see two signs, one north, one south. Going north there's a town called Ocean Shores, so we figure that might be a safe way to go. About 30 minutes later we get to the beach! OK, first of all, you're allowed to drive and park on the beach! I've never heard of that before!!! I guess if they did that in LA, it would become complete and total chaos, especially since the summer months there's barely enough room for all the people, let alone vehicles. But the beach was fairly crowded, at least for February. We got out there, took off our shoes, rolled up our jeans, and decided to give the dogs their first ocean adventure. I think they still hate us. But Zach and I had a blast, running around in the waves, trying to get the dogs out fairly deep and then have waves splash up against them making it even deeper, trying to find really nice shells that were in tact that we could bring back to Colorado (we didn't find any), and just having fun, acting like we were little kids. It was the best day I've had in a very long time.
I get home, open up my e-mail, and there's more information about the beach! My best friend Stephanie is getting married in August. This week a bunch of us have been e-mailing back and forth discussing her bachelorette party, which, up until today, we all assumed was going to be in Las Vegas. Well, I received an e-mail today saying that we are going to Catalina in May to celebrate her bachelorette party! I'm so excited! I don't even think I've been to Catalina since I was in 7th or 8th grade when we went on a class trip. But that means two days and two nights of sun, ocean (yay!), kayaking, snorkeling, and, of course, partying! I am so excited I can hardly wait! I've already started looking up flight information, which is kind of difficult because there are only a few times that the ferries leave and getting from the airport to the harbor, and all that fun stuff. But I think it's going to be a blast and I can hardly wait plus I'll get to see many friends who I rarely get to see, although I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot of them this summer, with the wedding and all.
So the past two days have been wonderful, my anxiety has gone down. Absolutely no progress has been made with packing but fortunately most of what we own is still in boxes from moving out here because there was no room in our apartment.
So we have two more great adventures between now and when we leave: Seattle and the wolf sanctuary. Looking forward to both of them and hope they can be half as enjoyable as today was!
I have always missed the beach since I moved out to Colorado. Anytime I'm back in California, I always make an effort to get out there, at least to see it, to smell it. There's something about the ocean that's so magical, feeling like you're looking out into forever, that maybe if you just kept looking you'd be able to see the other side of the world.
Of course, it's all just water out there. With lots of animals and plants swimming around in it.
I have made a list of three things I want to do before I leave Olympia.
1) Go up the Space Needle
2) Go to the wolf sanctuary
3) Go to the beach.
Today was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, 60 degrees, beautiful weather. It reminded me more of Colorado than Olympia.
Lately I've been very anxious about the move. I know I have two jobs lined up, but we still don't have a place to live and that scares me to death. We are very close to renting this one house, which sounds almost like a dream house. I am so afraid it is too good to be true. Yesterday one of Zach's friends Josh was supposed to go look at it for us and tell us if he thinks (knowing the two of us) if we'd enjoy living there. Unfortunately Josh got sick and won't be able to see it until Monday or Tuesday.
I spent the better part of the day with knots in my stomach, afraid that the owner is going to give it to someone else before Josh gets a chance to see it. And if that happens, then what can we do?
Zach's been wonderful and helping keep my mind off everything that's giving me anxiety. Last night we went out to a nice dinner at Olive Garden (thanks to the gift card my mom sent him for Valentine's Day) and then drove up to Shelton to the Little Creek Casino. I really like this casino for two reasons. 1) They have a smoking and non-smoking section, so Zach can smoke, and I can stay on my half, without dealing with smoke. 2) In addition to Blackjack (my game of choice), they also have Pai Gow. I love pai gow! They don't have it at any of the casinos I've been to in Blackhawk. When we went last night the blackjack tables were full, so I played pai gow all night long. You don't necessarily win big (unless you get really lucky on one of the side bets), but I think I played there for four hours without ever needing to pull more money out of our gambling fund. I think that's quality entertainment, and it's a "safe" game. Plus, in blackjack, if you're at a table with people who don't know what they're doing, it can really screw over the whole table. Pai gow, your fate is in your own hands/cards.
On the way home from Shelton, I was telling Zach about my three things that I wanted to do. Of course the wolf sanctuary is closed right now (see previous blog), but I told him that if it was really nice weather tomorrow then we should go to the beach.
I woke up this morning so excited because it was absolutely gorgeous out!
We gathered up the dogs and headed on west. We didn't really know where we were going, but knew the ocean was west of here. We get into Aberdeen (Town motto: Come as you are. Town's famous person: Kurt Cobain. One of Nirvana's more popular songs: Come As You Are. Coincidence?) and see two signs, one north, one south. Going north there's a town called Ocean Shores, so we figure that might be a safe way to go. About 30 minutes later we get to the beach! OK, first of all, you're allowed to drive and park on the beach! I've never heard of that before!!! I guess if they did that in LA, it would become complete and total chaos, especially since the summer months there's barely enough room for all the people, let alone vehicles. But the beach was fairly crowded, at least for February. We got out there, took off our shoes, rolled up our jeans, and decided to give the dogs their first ocean adventure. I think they still hate us. But Zach and I had a blast, running around in the waves, trying to get the dogs out fairly deep and then have waves splash up against them making it even deeper, trying to find really nice shells that were in tact that we could bring back to Colorado (we didn't find any), and just having fun, acting like we were little kids. It was the best day I've had in a very long time.
I get home, open up my e-mail, and there's more information about the beach! My best friend Stephanie is getting married in August. This week a bunch of us have been e-mailing back and forth discussing her bachelorette party, which, up until today, we all assumed was going to be in Las Vegas. Well, I received an e-mail today saying that we are going to Catalina in May to celebrate her bachelorette party! I'm so excited! I don't even think I've been to Catalina since I was in 7th or 8th grade when we went on a class trip. But that means two days and two nights of sun, ocean (yay!), kayaking, snorkeling, and, of course, partying! I am so excited I can hardly wait! I've already started looking up flight information, which is kind of difficult because there are only a few times that the ferries leave and getting from the airport to the harbor, and all that fun stuff. But I think it's going to be a blast and I can hardly wait plus I'll get to see many friends who I rarely get to see, although I have a feeling I'll be seeing a lot of them this summer, with the wedding and all.
So the past two days have been wonderful, my anxiety has gone down. Absolutely no progress has been made with packing but fortunately most of what we own is still in boxes from moving out here because there was no room in our apartment.
So we have two more great adventures between now and when we leave: Seattle and the wolf sanctuary. Looking forward to both of them and hope they can be half as enjoyable as today was!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Wolves
I'm kind of bummed out today. Here we only have about 2 to 3 more weeks in Olympia, WA and there was one thing that Zach and I wanted to do before we go. It was to go to the Wolf Haven International, a wolf sanctuary just outside of Olympia. Zach loves wolves, and I think they're gorgeous also.
Well, I guess the fortunate part is that I looked at their website this morning. They're closed for the month of February!At least February ends next week. Hopefully we'll be able to go one day in March in between me finishing up work, Zach getting his hours in to get his private heli pilot's license and maybe some packing...So no wolves today. Maybe we can go to Seattle instead?
He hasn't been up there yet (at least not on the ground) and I want to go up the Space Needle before we leave.
Well, I guess the fortunate part is that I looked at their website this morning. They're closed for the month of February!At least February ends next week. Hopefully we'll be able to go one day in March in between me finishing up work, Zach getting his hours in to get his private heli pilot's license and maybe some packing...So no wolves today. Maybe we can go to Seattle instead?
He hasn't been up there yet (at least not on the ground) and I want to go up the Space Needle before we leave.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Back to the beginning
So it looks like my adventures in Washington State are about to come to a close. Due to a poor economy, we can no longer afford to live here. It is a shame, because the cost of living here isn't that high, until you factor in helicopter school. And when neither of us are making much more than minimum, helicopter school becomes a huge factor. So, alas, much sooner than ever expected, we are moving back to Colorado shortly. When, is undetermined. But it helps to move somewhere where you have connections, both personal and work-related. Unlike moving somewhere that neither of you have ever been, and don't know a single person.
It was an adventure and while, short-lived, has provided me with a new experience, a new outlook on life. I'm not sure what that outlook is, but I can almost guarantee that it is behind a sheet of rain.
It was an adventure and while, short-lived, has provided me with a new experience, a new outlook on life. I'm not sure what that outlook is, but I can almost guarantee that it is behind a sheet of rain.
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