what i did on my blogging hiatus.

oh hey, guys! i say "guys" on the off chance that there is more than one person still checking this abandoned wasteland of a blog. if there's only one person checking it, then... hey, you! how ya doin', champ?

i just put a chicken in the oven. this is the first chicken i've roasted in many, many moons, and it feels nice to do something properly domestic. so let's play catch-up a bit while i wait for the first basting, shall we?

my last post of substance was in july. JULY. yikes. it feels like a lot has happened since then, and also like everything is exactly the same. lets put things under headings, shall we? because i want to, that's why.

i learned cool things!
between august and december, most of my spare time was taken up by school. (does it count as spare time if it's not actually spare?) i took a creative nonfiction writing class at one of the local universities. it was absolutely amazing. i signed up for it because my mentor/friend/professor Laura, from whom i took introduction to writing in the spring, told me i absolutely had to take a class from the professor who was teaching the class. it was actually an advanced class, but i got in even though i hadn't taken the intermediate class. it's all about who you know, right? (also, it helped that i already have an english degree.)

let it be known that i am freakishly, freakishly shy when i'm out of my element, so the people who in my class probably barely even knew i was actually there, but i was there! and i learned! and i am in awe of some of the things that i got to read when i was in that class. creative nonfiction is such an interesting genre to study, because i not only got to read beautifully-written pieces, but i also got to learn more about my fellow writers through the true stories they wrote about. goodness, people are amazing. also, my professor, Karin, was so amazing and so forgiving of my awkwardness. it took me months to actually talk to her because i was just in awe of her knowledge and her talent and her general aura of awesomeness. i'm so glad i got to take her class and learn from her. i'm also glad that i got to write about some of my personal experiences. i wrote some crazy, experimental stuff in that class, and it felt really, really good to play with language. i write so much that sometimes i forget to enjoy it.

i helped other people learn cool things!
i also got to act as a teaching assistant for my mentor/friend/professor Laura. (what do i call her? "mentor" seems cheesy, but it's really the most accurate title, i think.) it was in an intermediate poetry writing class, and i was not shy in that class. it was a really cool experience to be able to work with students and help them refine their writing styles. i got to answer questions and talk about my own writing and read some really incredible things. some of those students are going to be published frequently, i guarantee it. i have some of their poems squirreled away, just so i can have the pleasure of coming across them later and reading them again. amazing stuff, i tell you what. and i'm not going to make this all glitter and roses-- some students were difficult to work with. i won't lie. but it's weirdly easy to forget the bad parts when i look back at it. this experience actually made me think that i really could be a professor, which wasn't something i'd thought very seriously about before.

i applied to a kajillion graduate programs! 
i'm so afraid to actually admit this, because i have this crippling fear that i'm not actually going to be accepted by any of them. but this took up a rather hefty portion of my free time. my writing style has changed pretty dramatically over the past year or so, so i needed to create some new portfolio pieces. i also did a lot of research trying to figure out which programs to apply to, and then there was the application process itself. yikes. and now i'm just waiting, waiting, waiting. if i don't get accepted anywhere, i'm probably just going to tell everyone that i did and go live in the woods and eat squirrels.

i was accepted to present at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research!
yep! i'm doing two presentations. one is a presentation about my experiences as an undergraduate teaching assistant. the other is a reading and discussion of my own works-- specifically poetry. yikes. YIKES. remember that part where i told you i am freakishly shy? yeaaaaah. good times. i'll get through it, though! maybe no one will come to my presentations. that would be nice. i'll just stand there and talk to myself-- ask myself the really tough questions.

i learned a new hobby! 
but... i can't tell you what it is, because it's related to some people's belated christmas presents, and there is a chance those people will read this. but it's fun! yay!


and now it is time to go baste my chicken. but i'm determined to revive this here weblog, as well as my other blog-- books and biscuits. i know... the best laid plans blah blah. but i'm determined, dang it!

now stop distracting me. my chicken's going to dry out.

The Greek Epic: All the links to the full story

The Greek Epic

Athens: Plane Ride and Arrival in Athens

Athens: The Acropolis and Borf

Athens: The Agora and More(a)

Ios: The Lovely Island of Ios

Naxos: Naxos Part I

Naxos: The Great Hissing Zorbas

Naxos: Miracles, Olive Presses, and Defying Death

Naxos: The Portara

Santorini: Santorini and a Visit to the Plague Doctor

Santorini: Perissa Beach, Oia, and Cheeky Volcanic Lizards

Santorini/Athens: Britt's Birthday and Farewell to Greece!

the trip to north carolina part iii: the final showdown with chicago

in case you've completely forgotten about the trip to north carolina i started telling you about, you can read my past posts here and here.

and now... the finale of our saga.

when my sister and her husband dropped me off at the airport, there was some confusion with my ticket. for some reason it was showing up that i'd already checked in, which i obviously hadn't yet, since i was standing there. they got it sorted out eventually and i said my goodbyes and headed to my gate. it wasn't long before the plane took off and i was on my way back to (dun dun DUUUUUUUNNN) chicago.

remember that time i had a blog?

oh hello, gentle readers. just got back from spending two weeks seeing things like this. no big deal. :)

i promise to write the conclusion to my eons-old trip-to-north-carolina-saga this weekend. you have my word, now that i'm not being eaten by school. also, i'm hoping to get some other posts ready to go too, including posts about the aforementioned trip to greece.

unbelievable

sometimes, i wonder what i did to deserve my friends.

last night, i got my taxes done and found out that i owe $500 in taxes. i was counting on that tax return a bit, though i could live without it. but owing $500? i've recently been racking up some medical bills and related expenses. went in to check for a sinus infection, went out with blood tests, ultrasounds, and some news that isn't entirely unexpected, but no less unwelcome.

change your life right now, or it will change for you and you won't have a chance to go back.

i was a little overwhelmed trying to think of where i could squeeze an extra $500 out of my turnip of a bank account. i sent a text to one of my friends as i sat in the driveway of my family's tax accountant, teary and looking for a bit of sympathy. i feel like i can't catch a break right now.

this morning, she called me, asked me if she could stop by. i said of course, despite my third-day hair and cluttered apartment.  she showed up with no makeup on, in her pajamas, with a book she'd been telling me about.  she held it while we chatted, and then she handed it to me as she left and told me to look in it five minutes after she left.

there was an envelope inside, with $500, marked brenda's break.

the trip to north carolina, part i: the first encounter with chicago

my sister jennifer moved to north carolina with her husband this past march, much to my dismay. it's not that i don't like her husband. he's darling. it's just that i'm reeeeally attached to my immediate family, and i liked having them all within a half-day's drive of me. i was looking forward to having jennifer and her husband come back for christmas, but then i got the message-- they weren't going to be able to make it out here. so what did i do? i scraped money together and went into a bit of debt to go out there instead. here is part one of the (probably) three-part series about this trip-- the flight out there and my first encounter with the evil entity that is the o'hare airport.

brenda's radio silence explained

okay, let's say, hypothetically, that you have a friend name phyllis. phyllis is a swell girl and you love spending time with her. you work with her, you hang out with her after work... you even live with her. you see phyllis all the time, and even though you adore her, you start getting really sick of her. you start to notice that she has a really annoying laugh that sounds like a recording and that she always eats her chicken caesar salad in a particular way that drives you insane and suddenly you find yourself seriously considering living in your car just so you can get away from her.

writing is my phyllis. i write for a living, i write for a pastime, i write as my main form of communication, and eventually i start to resent the feeling of computer keys and the proper use of commas. i start avoiding blogger, because every time i look at my dashboard it gives me this chilly look and is all "oh, hello there. i seem to remember you from somewhere, but it's been so long."

sigh.

i am trying to make amends, though. writing and me-- we're stuck together. can't live without it, so i may as well try to get along with it. here's to new years, new leaves, and making amends, right?

update: evil november, why are you so evil?

oh man.  i have had the most insane november so far.  i am calling it a triumph that i even got out of my bed this morning.  let me try to break this down in in bulleted list.

• work: i don't know why anything surprises me anymore.
• gym: i'm doing it.  i really am.  i mentioned before that the lovely ladies in my family have a goal to each walk 450+ miles in under a year.  i broke down recently and got another gym membership.  you have to be sneaky about gym memberships, i've decided, or they tend to hound you.  so what i do is i sign up for the gym at one location and then i never go back there. i go to a different location, because i hate people trying to get me to sign up for a session with the personal trainer or like... keeping tabs on me or something.  i hate it.  anyway, i have been going to the gym three times a week, and because i go to one of the smaller locations, i have to get there before the after-work rush or else i won't get a working elliptical.  i'll get the one that sounds like an elephant.  so i have to flee from work and don't have much flexibility for staying late to catch up on things.  this makes life difficult.
• voting: oh my gosh. i waited in line for an hour and a half last tuesday to vote.  there is never a line like that for voting, unless it's a presidential vote.  my goodness.  good for america for being invested, i guess, but i was slightly homicidal by the time i got to the front of the line.  and they have electronic voting, so i didn't even get to take my aggression out on some chads.
• nanowrimo: WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?  (LISA TINGEY, I'M LOOKING AT YOU.) for those of you who are not familiar with nanowrimo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month.  the goal is to write a 50,000-word first draft in one month.  thirty days.  my friends lisa and shar are doing it, and lisa convinced me to join the madness.  MADNESS.  i'm way behind on my word count right now, but i'm further on my novel than i've ever been, so i suppose that's kind of the point, right?  the whole idea of nano is to just get the first draft out without worrying about whether it's horrible or not.  i suppose if you do that, sure you could probably get 50,000 words out in a month.  but i cannot do that.  i cannot let go.  i have to edit and polish things as i go.  it is just the way i roll, yo. i'm still aiming for the end of the month, but i figure that if i have my novel done by the new year, that's good enough.  i will have a full first draft of a novel, which is something i've never had before. 
• THE WORST LUCK EVER: on second thought, this bullet needs its own post.  so.  get excited about that.

does this count as booday?: my phone is possessed.

my phone has a problem.  i think that it may have the brain of an adolescent boy.  that, or it's possessed by some evil spirit that thinks it's funny to make my life difficult. 

i have the predictive text feature turned on when i text message.  sometimes this makes things a lot faster and easier.  other times, not so much.  here are just a few of the most common issues.

i type in: just

it predicts: 5878

i type in: out

it predicts: Mtv

i type in: care

it predicts: barf

i type in: happy

it predicts: gassy

yes, you read those last two right.  which means that if i want to create a kind message that says "i care that you are happy," i end up with this:

and if i enter the name of my sister jen, i have to cycle through ken, leo, and len before arriving to it.  how often do i say barf vs. how often i say jen?  pretty heavily weighted toward the jen side, i promise.

the other day, my friend told me that he wanted to hang out with my phone because he thought they would get along really well.  he said they'd already friended each other on facebook.  i wouldn't be surprised if my phone really did have a facebook account i didn't know about.  it's probably not safe for children.

and if i ever send you a message that says that i really barf that you're gassy, please remember that that's probably not what i mean to say.

unless it is.

update: brenda vs. nature

my three lovely sisters and i are doing something called the eowyn challenge-- specifically the walk to rivendell.  we're planning to walk 458 miles (the distance from hobbiton to rivendell) in less then a year-- about ten miles a week.  today was day one.  the weather was a bit cooler than it has been recently, so i decided hey!  i'll go for a walk at lunchtime!

 it looked like it might start raining outside, but i (being a former girl scout), am always prepared.  i had a little black umbrella in my bag and i thought surely i would be fine if it started sprinkling.  sure enough, not too long after i started on my walk, it started raining.  but it was no problem!  undaunted, i opened up my little umbrella and continued on my pleasant autumn stroll.

and then the rain was joined by its rude little friend, Freakishly Strong Gusts of Wind.  and F.S.G.W (or "FissGew") does not LIKE little black umbrellas.  oh, no.  it feels that all little black umbrellas must immediately be destroyed, and before i knew it, with a mighty "fa-SHWUMP," my umbrella flipped inside out.  INSIDE OUT.  LIKE IN A CARTOON. 

but i would not be stopped.  i turned my umbrella right side out again and continued on.  F.S.G.W. was extremely offended by my pluck and vigor and decided to attack me with its full brute force.

auntie em, auntie em!

i made it to my destination-- a bookstore close to my office-- and hid out with a cup of hot cider for a little while, waiting out the rain and wind.  when the rain stopped, i ventured outside.  aaand, surprise surprise, it immediately started raining again.  but i made it the rest of the way back to the office, damp and disheveled, but unconquered. 

in the battle of brenda vs. nature, there was a clear champion today.

update: the great spider conflict

i said in a couple posts back that i would rather wake up to a spider crawling across my pillow than come face to face with a leafbug.  well, this has recently been put to the test.  apparently in the summer my apartment becomes some sort of spider theme park-- the destination for the eight-legged elite.  i've seen the little buggers crawling across the floor and promptly sucked them up with my vacuum cleaner.  my first close encounter came when i found one crawling across my chest.

i really did shriek "was it in my hair?!" over and over again. was i expecting the spider
to answer my question?  i don't know.

then i found one crawling across my leg.  spider traps caught some of them, but apparently others were too clever.  people kept telling me to call my landlord to take care of it, but i kept putting it off.  why, you ask?  bug shame.  i realize, logically, that spiders aren't like cockroaches or ants.  you don't necessarily have to invite them in with crumbs and uncleanliness.  but still!  bug shame!  i keep my apartment extremely tidy, including mopping the floors by hand every week.  i'm a little neurotic about it, and i was not a fan of the idea of being That Neighbor with the bug problem.

when i woke up one morning with three spider bites and the very real fear that i'd swallowed a spider in the night, that was the last straw.  i called my landlord and on wednesday, mr. exterminator came to give the kiss of death to all those bitey eight-legged buggers.

i spent the night at my parents' house so i wouldn't die the spider death in my sleep, then went directly from their house to work.  i didn't see my apartment until yesterday evening after work.  i was a little nervous going home, because i didn't know what to expect.  possibly something like i imagine a civil war battle field would be like.  or maybe the french revolution, with barricades and tattered flags. (and the battle may or may not have involved singing something along the lines of "doooo you hear the spiders creep?  creeping to biiiiiite you in your sleep..."*)

but no.  there's not a spider corpse in sight.  which is a good thing, don't get me wrong.  i'd rather not deal with little spider patriots crunching under my feet.  but still.  it's a little anticlimactic, i think.  after months of living in fear, it's all over after one phone call.

... or is it?

(please, yes.  i hope it is.  i don't want to be carried away in the night as a prisoner of war, please.)


*this is funnier if you know what song i'm referencing.  at least i think it's funny.

update: read-a-new-book month

did you know september is read a new book month?  i wrote about it on my company's blog here and included a list of thirty-one recommendations of new books.  they're mostly geared toward grade eight and below, but there's no shame in reading a book geared toward a younger audience, i say. personal favorites on that list include peter pan (of course), the graveyard book by neil gaiman, and the invention of hugo cabret by brian selznick.  so good.  if you haven't read them, i highly recommend checking them out.  there are also a lot of other books on the list that i'm interested to look at.  my "to read" list is about a kajillion miles long right now, but i'll get to them eventually.

right now, i'm reading the house with a clock in its walls by john bellairs, which will be followed by we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson.  it's spooky story season, don't you know!  what are you all reading, or what are some favorites you like to recommend?  make my "to read" list longer!

update: common side effects include...

common side effect of wearing sunscreen every day: i look like a ghostperson. the sad thing is, i am TECHNICALLY tan. compared to my stomach (which probably hasn't seen daylight since i was like... three), my arms and chest and face are tan. it's just that my natural skin color is so lily-white that even with a slight tan i look like i should be pacing the hallways of an old victorian hotel mourning my lost love. when i was a baby, i was so brown that everyone in the hospital thought i was navajo. true story. and then during my childhood, tan skin turned to freckles and i somehow transitioned to looking like a mole-person who has never seen daylight. i feel like i should get SOME sort of color in my face before winter comes, or by march i'm going to be the same color as a frog belly.

why am i writing about this, you ask? because i am wearing red lipstick today and i bear a rather shocking resemblance to this person, only less... you know. fairest-of-them-all-ish.

(note: in my head, she's clapping like stevie wonder in this picture.)

dear sun: do you think we could cut some kind of deal?  like maybe i spend some quality time with you and stop talking smack about your UV rays and you maybe promise not to cause any sun damage and turn me into splotchy mcleatherface in my golden years? let's talk.

update: happiness

do you remember that post from a while back? this one about happy moments, and how someday i hoped to be able to share my happy energy with the world?  well, i hope you all felt a little buzz saturday afternoon, because i was driving along, minding my own business, and i suddenly found myself in the middle of a happiest moment.

it kind of came out of nowhere.  i'd had an awesome morning, hanging out with a good friend. we'd gone to brunch at a wonderful place in salt lake and ate our waffles and frites at a table on the sidewalk, across from the farmer's market.  the weather was absolutely perfect-- blue skies and sunshine.  i've been aching for fall like crazy, but that morning, i was glad it was summer.  it was perfect.  after brunch, we perused the italian market next door, then went to another market that sells food one can usually only find in the UK.  an excellent brunch, a little oogling at foods i can't afford yet, and wonderful conversation. ah, happiness. <3

after i dropped my friend off at her house, i decided to keep driving.  i went for one of the new favorite drives i've discovered, heading up a canyon.  i was looking around at the trees and the mountains and i just kept thinking "i live here.  oh my gosh, i live here."  it seemed amazing, so incredibly lucky.  i was still riding on the high of my wonderful morning.  the perfect song was playing on my radio and i was surrounded by perfect scenery, and suddenly, as i rounded a corner, pop!  there i was, in the middle of a happiest moment.  all by myself, in a car, for no particular reason.  it was brief-- the sort of thing that once you realize it's happening, it starts to go away.  but it was wonderful, and i'm glad to have recognized it for what it was.

update: five-and-a-half-hour drives to nowhere

okay, first of all, i don't know how, exactly, one sustains a thumb injury while sleeping, but my thumb is MESSED UP today.  what was i doing in my sleep last night?  playing nintendo?  thumb-wrestling a viking?

ouch.

anyway, last week was rough.  there wasn't a specific reason for it being so rough, really.  it was just one of those weeks where my general surliness attracted all sorts of bad stuff and by the end of the week i was pretty much surrounded by a ball of angry crap. so saturday, i took the day off.  i know saturday is technically the weekend and is already a day off, but for me, saturdays are always filled with cleaning, laundry, mopping, grocery shopping, planning menus, and all that stuff.  so instead of doing those things, i hopped in my car and went for a drive.  for five and a half hours. 

i went to my favorite, prettiest, middle-of-nowhere places where i had room to breathe and relax and scrape off some of the collected crap of my week.  at first i was a little zoned out, just taking deep breaths and looking at nature and barely thinking at all.  then i was cranky.  then, i finally started to reflect on why i was so dang cranky and what i could do about it.  turns out, i was mostly cranky because things weren't going exactly how i wanted them to.  i would plan one thing and something completely different would happen.

if there's one thing i've learned in the past year and a half, it's that everything happens for a reason.  everything.  i've started seeing my life as a big puzzle in which every incident is an important, interlocking part of the whole.  like if that girl hadn't said that hurtful thing in the sixth grade, then i wouldn't have felt this way, and then this and this and this wouldn't have happened, and then that wouldn't have led up to this wonderful thing that happened in my life. (actually, once i started seeing all of the connections, i actually got a little freaked out for a while because it was like i had just opened a door and gotten a rather sublime peek at the intricate workings of the universe without meaning to.)  with that in mind, i started picking apart all of these things that were happening that weren't going the way i wanted them to.  instead of dwelling on what had or hadn't happened as planned, i started thinking about what good things might (or already had) come from the change of plans.

goodness, i felt so much better after that. it really helps to be able to identify what i'm feeling and why i'm feeling it, honestly recognize my feelings as being valid, and then pick them apart and resolve them. after i started resolving things, i kept going, driving fast with the windows down, down roads hardly anyone else even seems to know about.  i could feel all the bad feelings just sloughing off and getting left on the road behind me like little dirt clods.  by the time i got back to my apartment (minus half a tank of gas, plus a sunburnt left arm) i was feeling oh so much better-- like when you step out of the shower all nice and clean after a very grungy day.  it was lovely.

today, i feel grateful for the changes of plans in my life, for the puzzle pieces that are fitting together to create something that i can't see quite yet.  i'm grateful for this state i live in, with all of its beautiful places to disappear to.  i'm grateful for my little black car and my freedom to make my own choices, and i'm grateful for all of the people who have taught me the important lessons i didn't really want to learn.  i'm even grateful for my messed-up thumb.  and i'm sure someday, i'll figure out why.

update: just a phase

i've probably said it before, but i am remarkably set in my ways for only being twenty-six years old.  i'm practically fossilized.  recently, though, i've been watching a lot of people move into different phases of their lives. my sister got married and moved across the country to start a new phase of her life with her husband. another friend is preparing to get married in about two weeks.  another friend just moved to california and yet another just found out that she's going to be moving to houston, where her husband just got a new job.  my parents are trying to decide whether they're ready to move into a new phase as well and move to a different area.  at first, i was struggling with all of these changes.  it frustrated me, angered me.  then, honestly, it depressed me.  i had picked my niche that i wanted to stay in for the rest of my life.  i had my plans.  but then, everything started changing around me and disrupting all of those plans.  a few weeks ago, though, a little thought started forming in my head.

this is just a phase.

this spot that i've settled myself into is only temporary.  i'm twenty-six years old, and while that seems incredibly old and mature sometimes, i'm sure twenty-six years from now i'll realize that i'm still a baby at this age.  i still have so much ahead of me.  and how boring would it be if i stayed in exactly the same spot i'm in now for all those years?  what a waste.

there's a book that i read tidbits from now and then.  it talks about how to achieve one's dreams.  near the beginning of the book, it lists some questions to ask ourselves to determine what, exactly, that dream goal is.  what would you do if you only had one year to live?  what would you do if you had a hundred years to live? what would you do if you didn't have to worry about money?  there were more, by my answer was the same to every single one: i would write.

technically, i already write.  i'm a sales writer, and i create documents to fill needs in our company or to bring in revenue.  it's a good job, but it's not the job i would do forever.  i like it, but i don't have a passion for it.  when i dream about writing, i dream about writing for myself, writing what i want to write and creating something beautiful and powerful, not revenue-generating.

when i was talking a friend about this recently, she asked me what my ideal job would be, and i said "well, ideally, i want to get paid for writing what i want to write.  but doesn't everyone?"  then i started coming up with other things i could do that might be satisfying, because every writer wants to write their stuff and get paid for it, and no one really does.  except the ones that do.  people do get paid for writing. every day.  so, why, exactly, would i decide now that i'm not one of those people?  why on earth would i have any less right to that than any of the others?

so i've decided that i've had enough of settling.  i'm not going to settle into this spot that i'm in now because i can't get anything better.  enough of that.  i'm twenty-six and i'm young and i have every right to do what i want to do with my life, and dang it, i want to write.  so that's what i'm going to do.

i have my eye on a low-residency creative writing MFA program in oregon.  there's no way on earth i'm good enough to get in yet, but i can be.  i'm going to start out by actually working on my own writing and exercising my weak little creative writing muscles.  then, i'm going to enroll in some classes at a local university so i can get some more practice and input and direction and also get some practice with literary criticism.  then, i'm going to apply to one of the program's yearly ten-day residencies-- just the residency to start out with so i can get a feel for things.  then, if all goes well, i'll apply for the full program.

it's a little terrifying to think about, actually.  but it's roller-coaster terror-- equal parts fear and excitement.

gosh, i can't wait to see what happens next.

update kinda sorta: new plan for the snoop bloggy blog

okay, so here's the thing:  this whole expectation i've placed on myself to post every day thing just isn't working.  if i miss a day, it tends to snowball because i don't want to write the next day because i'd have to make up for the day before that i missed, and then i get all "NOOO BLOOOOG RUN AWAAAAAY!"  so new plan!  i will post three times a week.  i promise.  and i will probably mostly stick to the plan that i set up earlier this year as to what will be posted on what day, but  i will occasionally stray.  and i'm okay with that.  right?  right.  fistbump.

photos: wonderful wedding in the wild west of wyoming!

finally, the photos from the wedding my sister and i attended in wyoming! this was our friend carrie's wedding. it was absolutely beautiful. and thanks to a smudge on my camera lens, i got to capture carrie's happy wedding glow. : )

photos: bruce and fred's excellent adventure (part 2)

first, an explanation of the title of these posts.  yes, it is a play off of bill and ted's excellent adventure, as paige cleverly noted in her comment on the last post.  (come back soon, paige, i miss you!)  a few years back, callie and i started calling each other bruce and fred.  i am bruce, callie is fred.  why?  i don't know.  because we are awesome, clearly, and transcend reason.

anyway, more pictures! we started the day with a hike along the river. it was lovely, and nice and shady. we went down by the river, but i didn't want to go in due to the threat of the domestic river kraken. then a squirrel got all up in callie's business and was like "food? you has? i wants!!" after the hike, we went back to the hotel and relaxed a little, then headed back toward the park for our stupid-awesome dinner. so amazing. and the view from the table was beautiful.  we were very sad when it was over.  tears were shed.

the next day, we had ice cream and rain, and then sat on the porch in rocking chairs, not wanting to move. then we headed home! yay adventure!

photos: bruce and fred's excellent adventure (part 1)

bruce and fred's excellent adventure! (part 1)


i've broken these up to make them a little more easily digestible.  so here is part 1: roses, old thinggies and rubble (oh my)!


and i still can't figure out how to arrange these photos with text the way i want them (even using the caption thinggie) so you are just going to have to go captionless.  also, if i try and arrange them in an appealing way, they go all "i jump to the beginning now, okay!  lol!!"  booooo, pictures.  boooooo blogger.

anyway, if a picture is a mystery to you, you can make something up for it.  it's like a game!