It seems I have been doing little but making up excuses as to why I'm not blogging. Truth be told: I haven't had very much alone/down time that has coincided with inspiration. 

First, my computer had an unfortunate run in with a cup of coffee.  Didn't work, submerged it in rice and now it does.  There is a DVD stuck in the drive but Internet and music still work. Le sigh, I should really be discouraged from owning nice things ;)

But the news of the week is the new condo! Last I updated you, we were talking about moving in together.  In the meantime J and I have hit some growing pains in our relationship, moved past them and signed a lease.  We now live in Teton Village, Wyoming.  For those of you who have never been to Jackson, let me try and give you an idea: 

okay.  Broadway is the main street. Town square is at the corner of Broadway and Cache. From Town, you go south on Broadway, take a right (up in the map) on 22 and head to the stop light, turn right and go about 6 miles to Teton Village. The Village, as it is more commonly referred to is centered around the ski hill.  There are some shops and restaurants, a few five star hotels, a bunch of rich people and some condos slightly off to the side.  I now reside in one of said condos.

This place is NICE! It's a vacation rental by summer- rented by the week.  By winter, it is ours! There are four of us living in this fabulous two bedroom, two bathroom condo- Me, Josh, our friend Bungee and Lady Elu.  Granted, three of us are sharing a room =).

We have a fire place, a wet bar, a separate dining room, kitchen with laundry off it, a gigantic balcony and best of all- it's ski-in.  We can pretty much cruise right up to the back steps. 

I promise I will have pictures up soon! Right now I'm just sitting here basking in it all while the boys drink beer on the porch.  

Anyway.  I PROMISE now that I am settled (and living with two boys who will inevitably win the battle on "what do we watch on TV") I will do more blogging.  I vow here and now to take more pictures and let my (two) faithful readers know what is going on in Teton Village and the rest of Jackson. 

Hope you have a great day!!!

Peace! 

Friends

friends are really hard to come by.  I sat down and did an inventory of my friends out here.  Sarah and Evan, Raci and Theo,Steve and Sarah and Lola.  Now that seems like a good amount of friends, right.  Well if you will pay closer attention: six of those friends are coupled off.  So whenever we do go out all together, I'm the seventh wheel.  Lola, I love her to death, rarely goes out... so she's my sit around and watch television buddy... which everyone needs!

All this is a new phenomenon to me.  I've been stable in the same spot up until now.  I have had friends and family galore. So much I was getting sick of them being around all the time (no offense guys... this is a metaphor).  But my point is, I've never had a lack of people to spend time with.  If I felt like I needed to get out of the house, I had a list of people I could call, and if all else failed, I knew that if I went to Bailey's (I'm not a big solo bar patron, but this was totally different)  I would run into at least someone I liked to hang out with.  

It's hard being in a (relatively) new place and making friends.  It's especially hard making girlfriends in a town where there are very few women.  And it appears, all the women have boyfriends.  Bottom line is, it's hard to meet people when you're already grown.  I'm not looking for a best friend, I have one of those 1800 miles away, I just want someone to hang out with and see a movie with and occasionally go out on the town with.  This girl can only be a homebody for so long before she starts to go insane. 

All that being said, I'm so ready fro SUMMER!!!  I can take the dog out on long hikes and not worry about getting cold or snowed in.  I can go camping and climbing again! Hell, I can go tubing on the creek from my house into "downtown" Jackson! Fishing and hot springs and FUN FUN FUN!!! 

Okay, I'm off to work now. Have a good one! 

First night..

...in the new house was AWESOME!!!!  Liz and I moved most of our stuff in early in the day, and unpacked as we went a long.  We moved a load from the truck and my car, unpacked boxes, then went into town to have some lunch and do a little thrift store shopping.  

We found a sleeper sofa for $35 at the Habitat For Humanity Re-Store. It's pretty ugly, but actually matches the living room a little 

After lunch and couch buying and whatnot- we cooked our first dinner at the new house (Stouffer's Lasagna salad and garlic bread) and had a bottle of campaign. Liz and I went to town briefly for a party, but didn't stay long at all and headed home by 10:30 to watch a movie and have some roommate time with Shane. 

Shane and I got up EARLY this morning and carpooled to town for work.  She had to be at work at 7 and I have to work at 8:45- (45 minutes left) so I'm sitting in the lobby of the Trapper Inn where Shane works.  If you're ever visiting Jackson, you should stay here. I don't know anything about the beds, but I can tell you that the couch in the lobby is DIVINE!!!

Okay, here's some more pics of the house. It was too dark when I finally unpacked my camera to take pics of the outside of the house and at 6:15 this morning, the sun was still not up, so I will have to wait and get landscaping pics later. 

Kitchen:

Downstairs living room:

Other half of downstairs living/rec room:

More pictures to come later. and I can't figure out how to keep the text from being underlined... so annoying.  

Hope everyone has a great day, I'm off to work in just a few minutes! (no Internet at the house yet, so bare with me). 

She needs Wide Open Spaces!

Some things I learned while driving cross country:

• apparently in the back-woods in North Carolina there is a market for single-wide trailers with the "log cabin" look- I'm talking plastic logs glued to the outside of the trailer.
• Shelby and Jefferson are both VERY common names for counties
• if you're driving through Kentucky, make time to stop at the Bourbon Trail... sounds really interesting
• your favorite music is not always the best to drive to. However, Fall out Boy surprisingly makes for great solo-road trip tunes
• Sunflower seeds are excellent to subside hunger between pit-stops
• Audio Books will SAVE YOUR LIFE when you're in the car for 13+ hours. It's like watching TV, but better!!
• replace windshield wipers before leaving your city.
• Dogs make excellent travel companions
• always a good idea to have a road trip mascot- I had Figment, he's the mascot of good luck and imagination
  

So... latest update. I'm now in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I left Fort Collins about 5pm because my car was in the shop ALL day! I was able to get laundry done before leaving, so it wasn't such a bad thing after all.

I headed north towards Jackson. All was fine, the car's running smoothly and the dog's nice and worn out from playing with Burch for hours
so I'm just cruising along.
I turned over 100,000 miles in Wyoming:



Around 9 or 10 o'clock I got REALLY sleepy, so I pulled over at the nearest rest stop and closed my eyes for about 30 minutes. Not long after I continued driving I got to Lander, Wy. Actually it's a really cool looking town, but I stopped and got some coffee and filled up with gas again and kept on going. Lander is about two hours from Jackson. SO I'm cruising along again, wide awake and happy. I'm the only person driving on this road, maybe a truck every now and then (not on the interstate, no no, the interstate doesn't come anywhere near Jackson) so UP over the mountain... two deer cross the road, Elu barks at them, then a little ways further UP over the mountain and a fox crosses the road. Cruising.... then "be prepared to stop" so I slow down and see that there are two trucks with the strobe lights on their roofs. The man comes out to tell me that there's a delay and I'll have to wait about 30 minutes before the roads are opened again.

At this point, it's 12:30. I figure this is a great time to let Elu do her doggy business. I get out and walk her for a second when the man informs me to be careful, there is a rumor of a black bear that roams these parts. "Get in the car, Elu!!!" I roll the windows down just enough to feel the cool mountain air but not too much to allow a bear, or scary psycho killer be able to get to me. Locking the doors, I decide to take this (fully awake time) to do a crossword puzzle. At 1:00 on the dot, we are ready to go. I (along with the Mac Truck behind me and I think a couple more cars) have to follow the "pilot car" through the construction on the road. It takes us another 30 minutes to go roughly 10 miles. Once through the construction, I was about 30 minutes from Jackson. Lola met me at the gas station in town and I followed her to Wilson, Wyoming, just on the other side of Teton Village. It was dark, obviously when I arrived, so I had a beer with Lola and then went to sleep. It wasn't until I woke up this morning that I was able to see the property for what it is. And what it is is AMAZING!!!

Even though it was raining when I woke up, and the day is in general what most would consider "gross" weather, it's just so pretty I can't be bummed out about the weather.

this is the view from the front porch

and the view from the side porch

and my bed room- that couch pulls out

Going to look for a job tomorrow- I'm starting at the 4Seasons. Then heading to the other places in Teton Village (because it's much much closer and I can park just a few miles down the road and ride my bike the rest of the way into the Village) and then I'll head into downtown Jackson.

I also discovered that I need a pair of shoes that slip on, but are closed toed. Like Birkenstock or something- It's too cold to walk outside in sandals, even to run to the car and it's a pain in the ass to pull my boots on for just a second. That being said... I'm off to eat salad and baked potatoes with Lola.

OH, PS- Elu has 40 acres to run and play on and she is SUPER SUPER SUPER excited to have all this room to run and have even some horses to chase!!!

getting lost to find yourself (part 2..2)

Here are some more pictures from Tour de Fat:







And we also went to Red Rocks for Sound Tribe Sector 9 later that evening. I was really too worn out from the long day of biking and drinking New Belgium Beers. But I had a wonderful time anyway!




In other news, I really like this town, a lot!

not entirely sure what my next move is, but I know that it's time to move on. I could stay here forever, except for the fact that I'm crashing on a couch and starting to feel like I've over stayed my welcome. So I'll be moving on in the morning, as soon as my car gets fixed. I'm thinking about heading on to Wyoming and dropping some of my stuff off before coming back to Colorado for the next couple of weeks. Two reasons for this 1- gas mileage will be a lot better if I'm only carrying half the amount of stuff that I've been carrying and 2- I have no where to go for the next couple of days. as it is raining and gross in Colorado and I don't have any other places to stay really... just camping, and camping in 30 degree rain does not sound like a lot of fun.

Elu and I are highly enjoying ourselves in the cooler weather. Sunday I learned how to play polish horseshoes. Basically, it's a 2 poles with beer bottles on top and a Frisbee. goal= knock beer bottle off opponents' pole. Burch and I won four games in a row before Anna and Mike gave up. Elu hated the game 'cause she couldn't chase the Frisbee! She was all tied up. Tried to get my car fixed yesterday, but they forgot to order the part, so I had to stay one more day. So yesterday Anna and I watched season 4 of WEEDS and then went out to the bar for a quick drink, then back to the house and to bed at a decent hour.

Now, I'm about to run my vehicle back to the Honda dealership and get it fixed. And make some phone calls.

Have a great day, today will be a good day to call me, as I will be in the car for 7 hours or so today.

getting lost to find yourself (part 2.1)

I made it to Colorado...

Left Knoxville Early in the morning after getting my car looked at. It is my oxygen sensor. Basically I'm getting 2 mpg less than usual, but the car is drivable, although not very eco-friendly. Drive from Knoxville to Omaha, Nebraska in one day. Got up Friday morning and drove to Fort Collins Colorado (I have some interesting things to say about my car ride, but it's not nearly as cool as what I've done since I've been here, so I'm skipping out of order for the sake of your entertainment).

When I got to Colorado, I met up with my friend Mike, his girlfriend, Anna and his roommate Burch. I was at their house long enough to take a shower and get cleaned up before heading out to Mishawaka Amplitheater to hear the Emmit-Nershi Band. We camped out on the island in the river. Elu went with us, and had a ball. We left her in the car to sleep while we went to the show, but before and after the show, she hung out with other dogs and swam in the river and ran around- she had a ball, and so did I!


We woke up early the next morning to go to the Tour de Fat in downtown Ft Collins. I cannot even begin to describe this, so I'll say a couple of facts and then let the pictures speak for themselves. One: 7,500 person bike parade Two: Fat Tire donated the beer and all proceeds go to helping make Ft. Collins a more bike-friendly place to live. Three: Everyone (mostly) wore costumes.



a girl traded in her car for a phat Fat Tire bike...
and the head liner for the evening was the March Forth marching band and dancers.. this chick was the most amazing hula hooper...

computer's about to die and I want to get this posted so more to come on part two later.

getting lost to find yourself (part one)

first of all:

all this:

made it into this:

now, onto the trip:

When I say "getting lost" I MEAN it! but let me start from the beginning.


(i did a little old-fashioned journaling from my camp site and at the Huddle House not far from the camp site... so here it is)
Sept 2, 2008- 6am- Nantahala Gorge
Something about the cool mountain air that really brings the puppy out in Elu, I mean, by no means is she ever an old lady, but WOW! she's running around like a crazy person.
We got the the gorge about 9:30 last night and set up camp at Wesser Creek, a spot that I have frequented in the past. Guess it's nice to start off a solo trip with a familiar spot. Read a little of Jack Kerouac's On the Road before bed and it got me all excited about "the west"!
What time does the sun rise? It's almost 6:30 and it's still dark. Guess I should look that up, but right now I'm ready for coffee and oatmeal... DAMMIT just kidding, I left the fuel canister in the car... what a dumb ass Guess we're just gonna pack up camp in the dark and go get breakfast at Waffle House.
8:00 somewhere off Hwy 28- Huddle House
got packed and off by 7:30 or so, now I'm sitting here waiting to get waited on. I've been here several minutes and not even a smile in my direction. This sucks, 'cause I'm starving! Just because I may look like a bum coming in here with a backpack and dirty clothes, does not mean that I don't have any money to spend here. That guy over there at the other table has food and he looks WAY more bum-town than I do. This pack happens to have my laptop and ipod in it and I didn't want to leave it in the car... GAH! Heeere we go... Let me mention how great it is (not that I have my coffee) to be able to smoke in a Huddle House in NC. Now I just need to get to a place with Wifi so that I might check emails and all that stuff.
So far it really hasn't clicked that I'm not just on vacation. I'm really not going to be back in Birmingham for a while... no more Birmingham

(here ends the old fashioned journaling... back to retrospective blogging)

SO now, the next day (seems like way longer than that) I'm sitting in a hotel room in Knoxville. But I digress:

After leaving the Huddle House I went to Asheville and parked my car downtown. Elu and I walked around the city center and window shopped. After an hour or so of wandering around downtown I called my cousin, Robert (whom by the way is a total badass and I'm really proud of him...) and went over to his house. Elu was very excited to get to play with his puppies, Cecelia and Maggie in their big backyard. While he dogs got acquainted, Rob and I rode our bikes (my bike seat fell off somewhere between the Nantahala and Asheville and Rob gave me one of his wife's old pink ones!!) into town and had lunch at Barley's. I had a local brewed beer and a slice of pizza, it was fabulous!! When we got back to their house, Karen was there and we spent a little time chatting and catching up before I took off for Boone.

Boone... (here's where the getting lost plays a role) I missed my turn for 221 into Boone and thought that it would be okay if I took 321, not the case. Mike told me I needed to get to the other side of Grandfather Mtn. he gave me directions to the best of his know-how and told me to pull over and ask for the rest, which I did- they were not very clear and long story short I drive past my turn about 15 miles, then turned around and missed it again by about 25 miles, then finally found a place to ask again- made it to meet Mike about an hour late and we finally got to the trail head at 6:30... with an hour left of daylight we booked it the 5 or so miles to the first camp site (we were hoping to go to the second). But the first camp site was very beautiful and we were able to swim a little before making a fire and eating dinner. Drank a bottle of wine from nalgene bottles and went to sleep by the river.

Woke up this morning and hiked the last 2 miles or so to the intended site and it was BEAUTIFUL. Elu swam and swam!!! She looks so cute in her little backpack!


We hiked back to the cars and I followed Mike into Boone. When I got in my car I noticed a light on on my dash that isn't supposed to be on "not good" I thought. We went to Mike's and ate some lunch, then he had to go to work, so Elu and I went into downtown Boone and walked around. After about an hour or so of walking, I decided that I didn't want to wait around for whenever it may be that Mike got off work and I'll just head to TN and get my car looked at in a bigger city. So off to Knoxville. I called Kelly, my sister, so get her to look up mechanics on the internet. She found me one and mapquested directions. My exit was 386B... well apparently the interstate is closed after 389. I must exit. So I ask for directions to US 129 and I'm on my way. Two hours later, I am about at the end of my rope calling Amanda to get in the internet and try and direct me. Phone dies. I think I may have cried a little. Stressed and tired I try to start finding a hotel room. Apparently it's not the easiest thing to get a room when you are traveling with an animal. After trying about 7 hotels, finally one is able to direct me to the Jameson, which will allow pets. So here I am. Phone is charged again and I am showered, about to hit the hay for the evening.

I"m going to get the car looked at first thing in the morning, hopefully it will not take too long, because I'd like to be in Colorado by the weekend (apparently STS9 is playing at Red Rocks and one of my friends is going. If I get there in time, I will be too). so I'm off to bed, to get a good night's sleep and get up early to head to the mechanic.

I'll be in touch!!

QUICK update...

I'm about to go eat lunch with my cousin Robert, just wanted to let everyone know that my first night of the journey was a success. Elu and I camped at Wesser Creek in the Nantahala Gorge, NC. It was very peaceful and comforting to spend my first night solo camping in a familiar place. The noises got to me a little more than usual, but Elu was there to protect me.... I will give a full-fledged update later.
right now, though, I'm hungry!

Car's packed, I'm ready to go...

I'll be in touch later and let you know how the trip is going.

She's only happy when it's raining

Apparently Faye has made her way to Birmingham. It's been raining for the better part of the night.

Lately I've become a bit of a night owl, I mean, I always have been. I prefer to sleep late and stay up late and although I know it's not really all that good for me, I don't really care. I like the night time. The only thing better than night time is night time with a good heavy rain beating down all around you.

As I sit here snuggled on the couch with my love, Elu, I have started to feel extremely nostalgic, if that's the emotion I'm looking for, maybe it's a little of hope mixed in with it. I know that rain can be a damper to several things, things I like to do, like be outside climbing and camping, etc. but much more than the fact that it can ruin certain human plans, it is a cycle of nature; one that we need. Rain is the beginning of new life, we need rain to give nutrients to the soil to help plants grow and plant life is just the beginning of the food chain, you know the rest: animals eat vegetation and so on and so forth, the cycle continues and life is sustained. Rain comes in more forms than just precipitation. Rain can come in your life too.

"Rain" can be a break-up, a change in job, anything where you feel like things are just crashing down around you... but if those things didn't crash down, like a giant tree in the rain forest, there would be no room for new growth in your life. Things have to come to an end in order for new things to start.

Like this move: There are people in my life, here in Birmingham that I am absolutely devastated to leave behind, but in order to fully grow and mature, I have to make room in my life. My life, metaphorically and literally is so very crowded with stuff. My house is crammed full of crap. Stuff that I don't need, stuff that I feel I need to hold onto forever, for no particular reason. Also my life is filled with emotional stuff. This town holds my entire life wrapped up in it's buildings, gutters, streets, residents, and even the smog. I have a memory of almost every major place in this town, everywhere I frequent holds my stories, both good and bad and most people I hang out with know the good bad and the ugly about me. For the most part it's very very comforting to be able to walk into a place that you know like the back of your hand and expect to see at least five people you know, and they know you. To be greeted by your first name when you walk in the door and asked about your day, as if people really care. In that respect, I'm terrified to leave this town. My mother is five blocks away if I ever need her, my best friends are 10 and 20 minutes from my house, and could be here at a moments notice if I needed them. When I move, I'll only know one person, and although she's a wonderful person, what if living out there she's the only person I'll ever make friends with?

Oh the what--ifs, I know I'll be fine, and if I'm not then I can come home, home's not going anywhere. But I know that I need to give myself some room to grow. It's time I venture out on my own, away from my comfort zone and let the proverbial (and hopefully some real) rain drops hit my face.

So I don't like to sing that old kids' song "rain rain go away." instead let's embrace the rain and see what new life pops up with the sun comes out.

re-thinking the move...

First off, I'm still going!!!

BUT we've hit the first major hick-up- Granger, my travel companion/climbing partner is no longer going to be able to go with me.

Can we say solo road trip?

I'm taking donations of any and all books on tape, amazing road-trip music and/or cell phone minutes.

I think this may end up being really good for me-a solo soul searching drive.

HOWEVER, I will gladly accept anyone who wants to sit in the car for three days with me.

I've also decided to change the route now, as I will not be climbing in the New or Red River gorges, unless I find a climbing partner stat! Anyone out there taken this particular trip and have a favorite route in which I will NOT die of boredom through the mid-west?

Jackson Hole house...

My Friend Lola is nice enough to let me crash at her house for a little while until I can find a place of my own. Here's some pictures of her house:


It was just finished the other day, so the landscaping hasn't been finished and there's only bare minimal furniture in the house.


master bedroom


spare bedroom
entrance hall

view from the master bedroom

kitchen

living room

Well, there's my temporary place of residence for ya! I am very very excited!!

Ramblin' Man, Travelin' Light

TRAVELING SONGS!!!

there's hundreds, I've got a list started, but I need more. Give me your thoughts.

so far here's what I have:

Rambler's Anthem- Yonder Mountain String Band

Travelin' Light- Widespread Panic

GO Travling On- Bill Monroe

Traveling Man- WSP

Ramblin Man- Allman Brothers

On the Road Again- Willie Nelson

Road Trippin- Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Ramble On- Led Zeplin

America- SImon and Garfunkle

Runnin Down a Dream- Tom Petty

Born to Be Wild- Steppenwolf

Life is a Highway- (who the hell sings this???)

Truckin

Casey Jones

Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad- all 3 Grateful Dead

This Wheel's on Fire- The Band

Shenandoah

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Carry on Wayward Son- Kansas

Goin' to Carolina- James Taylor

Would love to have a song about every state we pass through- NC, WV, KY, IL, MS, KS, CO, WY

Please give me suggestions of your favorite traveling songs!!