All you gotta do is just let yourself go
Holy shit I haven't updated in a while. I'm really really sorry. Between going on vacation immediately after graduating and then starting my summer job soon after. I'll go through briefly what happened on vacation. Well, not briefly. I'll cut it.
The Monday after graduation, my mother and I flew to Las Vegas as a starting point for our out West adventure. We started by driving out to the Grand Canyon via Hoover Dam. The Dam was impressive to say the least. Quite the modern feat even more since it was done in the 30s. We then continued on to the Grand Canyon and boy was it fantastic! The colors and the depth just blew me away. The weather was wonderful, if not a little windy. We stayed to see the sunset and then headed off to our hotel.
The next day we drove back through the Grand Canyon on our way to Monument Valley. The road was long and boring but the tumbleweeds really amused me for some strange reason :p We got to Monument Valley in the middle of a rainstorm and sandstorm so everywhere that was wet on our car turned red. Oop! Since Monument Valley is a Navajo park and not a National Park, the roads were not paved in the least. Driving down into the valley got the heart racing a bit as it was difficult for this little car to handle the lack of grip on the sand. Monument Valley was beautiful. I absolutely LOVED the formations, especially the two mittens - the most recognizable formations there. We drove around there for quite a while at which point I already needed to switch out my memory card (just because I took videos in Vegas :x) We had lunch at Amego Cafe and dinner at this hole in the wall pizza place.
Thursday we drove up to Mesa Verde, Colorado but not before stopping at the Four Corners - the place where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado meet. It was touristy and whatnot but to miss it would've been dumb. We got to Mesa Verde after a LONG and winding road up a mountain. The temperature dropped severely and the weather started to close in. By the time we were down in our first cliff dwelling, Cliff Palace, it was snowing and thundering. O___o??? The cliff palaces were amazing. Seriously, how anyone could build extensive buildings on the side of a virtually inaccessible cliff is beyond me. Cliff Palace was the larger of the two cliff dwellings that we saw. The second, Balcony House, was a bit more difficult to get to and it involved climbing a 32' ladder and squeezing through a 1' 1/2" tunnel among other obstacles.
Friday we headed out to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. Moab is a very small but very fun place if you ever get a chance. It's populated entirely by outdoors enthusiasts, photographers and vegetarians, not to mention the tourist traffic. We went through the arches and saw Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock, and Landscape Arch among others. They were incredibly impressive. The weather and light was just beautiful as well. Well, the weather could have been warmer but eh, I'll take a clear day over a rainy one.
Saturday we made it to Bryce Canyon which was incredibly....just, wow. Look it up. The rock formations and COLORS here were, again, breathtaking. Honestly, every day of this trip impressed me uniquely. We went to the top of the canyon which was over 9,000ft. It's not high in the grand scheme of things but it's the highest I've ever been on foot before...so...cool! We picked up two hitchhiking hikers who needed a ride down the mountain to the campground. One was a biologist and the other owned a saw mill in Oregon. They planned this trip out a year in advance - so much so that they buried water along the way a year ago. WUT?! Very nice and very smart. Maybe a little crazy for wanting to hike the entire Colorado basin buuuuut....:p
Sunday we drove from Bryce, intending to just drive through Zion National Park. I'm sure glad we stopped! We took a bus up to one of the hiking trails and hiked to the top of one of the waterfalls and to the basin of another. The views were stunning. Absolutely stunning. I've never seen the natural heights before - it's only ever been very tall buildings =___=; After visiting Zion, we got back into Las Vegas in time to see a Cirque Du Soleil show. More amazing feats!
Monday we got up early and went to IHOP. Yum yum. We then went shopping at the outlet mall right across from our hotel. After some shopping, we went to the airport and sat there for...10 hours? I bought and finished a Bill Bryson in that time. Oi. We finally left Vegas around 11:40pm and got into Syracuse Tuesday morning around 10am. Ben picked us up and brought us to our car - from there we visited my grandmother and then went home.
Unfortunately, I didn't really have time to relax because I had to get ready to move out to Auburn. That week I hung out with Ben, went to Knoxie's pub down the road, spent time with my parents, had a doctor's appointment or two, did a LOT of driving and then finally packed the car for Auburn.
I moved into my apartment June 1st and started work on the 2nd. From then until now, I've been COMPLETELY busy. My day schedule is thus: get up at 7/8, go into the office at 9/10, leave office at 12 (if there's a matinee) or 4 (if there's just an evening show), get an hour to eat lunch and change, go to the theater at 6:30/7:00pm and don't get home until 10:30/11:30pm. I get Sunday's off to try to get errands done like buying groceries, cleaning, doing laundry, breathing, and cooking food for the rest of the week. The first 2 weeks I had only been eating sandwiches for meals because they were fast. One night I made hamburger helper at 11pm so that I could have dinner for the rest of the week. Here I am typing this at around 1am because it's the only time I've got at the moment. Our first show, "All Shook Up" ends its run on Saturday and then we go into changeover for "Les Miserables" immediately. Everyone says that once Les Mis starts our schedules will calm down. I'm a little skeptical - if anything it'd be worse with a 3-hour show...but we'll see.
Kevin's ship caught on fire at the end of May so instead of being in San Diego for 2 days, they're now going to be there until October or November...which means I may get to stay at the Merry-Go-Round until the end of September when my original contract would've been up. It also gives me a chunk of time to move some furniture out of my mother's house and into my father's basement, organize my attic and then try to get things in order for when I go to Japan. So since their ship is stuck in port for repair, Kevin got 5 days of leave to come see me which was a welcome break in my first few weeks. Unfortunately the day after he got here, I came down with a serious fever and golf ball-sized tonsils. To add to that, our apartment's air conditioning hadn't been fixed and it was over 95 degrees each day. I wasn't able to sleep well because of that so it was a slow recovery. My voice left me for about a day and that also took its sweet time coming back.
ANYWAY, now I'm healthy - exhausted, but healthy. Work will get better as I'm starting to design little logos for corporate party favors. Holla. It's only the middle of June so if this is the worst that happens to me all summer, I'll be content. The people rock and we all get along like slap-happy idiots.
In short, I'm alive - ridiculously busy, but alive. I have time to read posts briefly but I apologize if I don't comment right off the bat. I hope everyone else's lives are going swimmingly and I'll try to find time to update more often :)
The Monday after graduation, my mother and I flew to Las Vegas as a starting point for our out West adventure. We started by driving out to the Grand Canyon via Hoover Dam. The Dam was impressive to say the least. Quite the modern feat even more since it was done in the 30s. We then continued on to the Grand Canyon and boy was it fantastic! The colors and the depth just blew me away. The weather was wonderful, if not a little windy. We stayed to see the sunset and then headed off to our hotel.
The next day we drove back through the Grand Canyon on our way to Monument Valley. The road was long and boring but the tumbleweeds really amused me for some strange reason :p We got to Monument Valley in the middle of a rainstorm and sandstorm so everywhere that was wet on our car turned red. Oop! Since Monument Valley is a Navajo park and not a National Park, the roads were not paved in the least. Driving down into the valley got the heart racing a bit as it was difficult for this little car to handle the lack of grip on the sand. Monument Valley was beautiful. I absolutely LOVED the formations, especially the two mittens - the most recognizable formations there. We drove around there for quite a while at which point I already needed to switch out my memory card (just because I took videos in Vegas :x) We had lunch at Amego Cafe and dinner at this hole in the wall pizza place.
Thursday we drove up to Mesa Verde, Colorado but not before stopping at the Four Corners - the place where New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado meet. It was touristy and whatnot but to miss it would've been dumb. We got to Mesa Verde after a LONG and winding road up a mountain. The temperature dropped severely and the weather started to close in. By the time we were down in our first cliff dwelling, Cliff Palace, it was snowing and thundering. O___o??? The cliff palaces were amazing. Seriously, how anyone could build extensive buildings on the side of a virtually inaccessible cliff is beyond me. Cliff Palace was the larger of the two cliff dwellings that we saw. The second, Balcony House, was a bit more difficult to get to and it involved climbing a 32' ladder and squeezing through a 1' 1/2" tunnel among other obstacles.
Friday we headed out to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. Moab is a very small but very fun place if you ever get a chance. It's populated entirely by outdoors enthusiasts, photographers and vegetarians, not to mention the tourist traffic. We went through the arches and saw Delicate Arch, Balanced Rock, and Landscape Arch among others. They were incredibly impressive. The weather and light was just beautiful as well. Well, the weather could have been warmer but eh, I'll take a clear day over a rainy one.
Saturday we made it to Bryce Canyon which was incredibly....just, wow. Look it up. The rock formations and COLORS here were, again, breathtaking. Honestly, every day of this trip impressed me uniquely. We went to the top of the canyon which was over 9,000ft. It's not high in the grand scheme of things but it's the highest I've ever been on foot before...so...cool! We picked up two hitchhiking hikers who needed a ride down the mountain to the campground. One was a biologist and the other owned a saw mill in Oregon. They planned this trip out a year in advance - so much so that they buried water along the way a year ago. WUT?! Very nice and very smart. Maybe a little crazy for wanting to hike the entire Colorado basin buuuuut....:p
Sunday we drove from Bryce, intending to just drive through Zion National Park. I'm sure glad we stopped! We took a bus up to one of the hiking trails and hiked to the top of one of the waterfalls and to the basin of another. The views were stunning. Absolutely stunning. I've never seen the natural heights before - it's only ever been very tall buildings =___=; After visiting Zion, we got back into Las Vegas in time to see a Cirque Du Soleil show. More amazing feats!
Monday we got up early and went to IHOP. Yum yum. We then went shopping at the outlet mall right across from our hotel. After some shopping, we went to the airport and sat there for...10 hours? I bought and finished a Bill Bryson in that time. Oi. We finally left Vegas around 11:40pm and got into Syracuse Tuesday morning around 10am. Ben picked us up and brought us to our car - from there we visited my grandmother and then went home.
Unfortunately, I didn't really have time to relax because I had to get ready to move out to Auburn. That week I hung out with Ben, went to Knoxie's pub down the road, spent time with my parents, had a doctor's appointment or two, did a LOT of driving and then finally packed the car for Auburn.
I moved into my apartment June 1st and started work on the 2nd. From then until now, I've been COMPLETELY busy. My day schedule is thus: get up at 7/8, go into the office at 9/10, leave office at 12 (if there's a matinee) or 4 (if there's just an evening show), get an hour to eat lunch and change, go to the theater at 6:30/7:00pm and don't get home until 10:30/11:30pm. I get Sunday's off to try to get errands done like buying groceries, cleaning, doing laundry, breathing, and cooking food for the rest of the week. The first 2 weeks I had only been eating sandwiches for meals because they were fast. One night I made hamburger helper at 11pm so that I could have dinner for the rest of the week. Here I am typing this at around 1am because it's the only time I've got at the moment. Our first show, "All Shook Up" ends its run on Saturday and then we go into changeover for "Les Miserables" immediately. Everyone says that once Les Mis starts our schedules will calm down. I'm a little skeptical - if anything it'd be worse with a 3-hour show...but we'll see.
Kevin's ship caught on fire at the end of May so instead of being in San Diego for 2 days, they're now going to be there until October or November...which means I may get to stay at the Merry-Go-Round until the end of September when my original contract would've been up. It also gives me a chunk of time to move some furniture out of my mother's house and into my father's basement, organize my attic and then try to get things in order for when I go to Japan. So since their ship is stuck in port for repair, Kevin got 5 days of leave to come see me which was a welcome break in my first few weeks. Unfortunately the day after he got here, I came down with a serious fever and golf ball-sized tonsils. To add to that, our apartment's air conditioning hadn't been fixed and it was over 95 degrees each day. I wasn't able to sleep well because of that so it was a slow recovery. My voice left me for about a day and that also took its sweet time coming back.
ANYWAY, now I'm healthy - exhausted, but healthy. Work will get better as I'm starting to design little logos for corporate party favors. Holla. It's only the middle of June so if this is the worst that happens to me all summer, I'll be content. The people rock and we all get along like slap-happy idiots.
In short, I'm alive - ridiculously busy, but alive. I have time to read posts briefly but I apologize if I don't comment right off the bat. I hope everyone else's lives are going swimmingly and I'll try to find time to update more often :)