It's almost May! Whoops?

I'm going to keep trying this whole blog thing until I nail it.
Forgive the sporadic posting.

In recent news, I have returned back to the roads of academia - just as the rest of the world camps down for a long summer's nap.  Personally, I prefer summer schooling.  You're naturally happier because of the sunshine and warmth, isn't that more conducive to learning anyway?

But before we jump into SPF 40 for the summer, can we please acknowledge one of my favorite miracles of the year?  I love spring.  I just do.

Maybe I just love flowers ...
They smell lovely, they look lovely ... and you know, bring oxygen to the earth and stuff.  Which is fantastic.  I can't do that.

I'm making a tentative spring/summer to do list for the semester ... things outside of buckle down studies.

Thus far I have:
- Get a Madison County Public Library card.
- Peruse the Teton Dam Museum.   Make far to many 'dam museum' jokes.
- Become proficient at billiards ... courtesy of Cajun Bob's.
- Visit the Rexburg Farmer's Market as often as possible ...
- Start a garden ... a real one - in the ground! None of those massive planters non-sense this time around ...
 - Be able to effectively use all the speeds on my bike by the end of the summer.  And be able to bike anywhere. 
- See a drive-in movie.
- Eat at the very least one tiger's blood snow cone.
- Picnic at least once a month.
- Learn three new tunes for my guitar, five for my ukulele.
- Buy and use one more pack of Polaroid film ...

Ok, who am I kidding on the last one?

Up next ... the summer's playlist.

2010, the First Chapter

Also known as January.

I have no more excuses - legitimate or otherwise - to put off writing in my blog.
Besides, I love writing in my blog, I remind myself.

So for the first leg of 2010, I have rejoined my family in Ohio.  I'm back in my rose/blush colored room with the window that faces the gargantuan pine trees that line our drive.

It's come down to one of those times to earn money for a spell before I'm shipped off to academia again.  And truthfully, I have enjoyed it.

Spending time with my family, the folks who look and talk like me, and who for the most part, follow my line of thinking, and with whom I can stay up with laughing, who appreciate good healthy food, and music and adventures, has been good.

And I got a job.  I work "front house" for a very local, very delicious, restaurant called "Kiser's BBQ."  Located in the Market on State, it's just this tiny little barbecue shack tucked in the mall next to the theater.  It's an impressive operation for what feels sometimes as such a small business.  I see my boss, the restaurant owner, every single day I work.  Everyone is so nice and understanding.  And the food is delicious.  Which you know, doesn't exactly compliment the figure, but I go back to school soon enough - back to walking everywhere I go.

School.  I'm glad we've taken some space.  I think it's been good for the both of us.
I needed a break.  But that doesn't mean I've been resting on my laurels, mind you.

In fact, for not being in school, I've learned plenty.

I've learned to play the ukulele.
I've learned several new crochet stitches.
I've learned how to sell BBQ pretty darn well.
I've learned that frankly, I'm not that shabby at tetris. Ok, not normal tetris, but I like it.

I've realized the actual potential of snow days.  Now that I'm out of school ...

I've rediscovered the immense value of the public library.
I've upped my photography game.
I've had a lot of fun.

And I'm enlivened and ready for the rest of the this.

Remember Me?

Well good morning, 2010!

Excuse me for a moment while I stretch and shake the sleep out of me .... wipe the cobwebs from this old blog. Though it may appear that I slept through the rest of 2009, that isn't the case.
 It's not so much that there was absolutely nothing to blog about - quite the contrary - I just ... well, I was sucked into another project, and when that one died, I failed to dig this one out from under the rubble.

So let's do a recap, shall we?

The best way to organize my year is by hair color/style.  Normal chronology is for wimps.

I started the year with my roots grown out from my first attempt at dyed hair in college life.

During this time I ....
Got a job at the Days Inn.  Was soon thereafter "released" from job.
Went adventuring with Tami often.
Got foolishly stuck once in Beaver Dick park with Tami.
Met Naomi, a favorite roommate.  Also, a birthday twin.
Discovered a Sugar Silo and the beet-erific past of Sugar city.
Started falling in love with photography.
Was surprised by how many flea markets and antique stores I visited ...
Swam laps in the pool with Tami every Friday morning ... and consumed whatever calories we burned at Joe's Filling Station for breakfast.
Went bowling on Martin Luther King's Day with friends ... and then dined during the opening night of Red Robin.

Then I took again the deep and dark brunette.

And I ...
I celebrated my 20th birthday with Naomi.  It was the very best birthday I can remember.
Moved to Denver to live with Taylor and the Weavers the very next day.
We saw Slum Dog Millionaire.
Consumed several other films.
We explored Central City one day.
Another night he took me to Common Grounds ... it was meant to remind me of Ohio.  It did.
There were several drives through the mountains on Sunday afternoons.
We went to the Science Museum, the Art Museum ...
Saw Bishop Allen in concert and new pet favorite of the time, Miniature Tigers.
Made a habit of visiting thrift stores and pawn shops.

 

And then I threw caution to the wind and became blond.  The "before" and "after" respectively ...

Blond hair happened during ...

A whim in a weekend in Rexburg coming straight from Denver, followed by a week in Seattle.  Ok, it was more than a whim.  I'd wanted to do it for a while.

In Seattle I met Tami's great parents.  Also met Taylor's incredible sister, Aubrey.  Whom I want to be when I finish growing up.

Celebrated Tami's birthday at a dine in movie theater ... we watched Say Anything.

Explored Fremont ... found a troll, a very crazy lady, a statue of Lenin, an industrial park that looked out over the bay,

Pike Place market ... which I love.

Had a gloriously beautiful day on the ocean and the Washington peninsula ... saw the Pacific ocean for the first time.

Returned back in time for Summer Semester ... the cream of the educational experience ...

         
          

And I had so much fun being a blond, that I got blonder.   I really feel no guilt about it because you just do such things in the heat of summer.

And meanwhile, (back at the ranch ... )

I was the resident gardener with huge flower pots blossoming with tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers and zucchinis that barely came in.  It was fun though - and beautiful to have on the porch.
My mother came for a visit.  And I cleaned my apartment like I was selling it.
I took a fantastic agricultural ecology class.
Was flown to Ohio for the weekend, in celebration of my father's graduation from college.  Finally.
I was part of a Gentlemens and Ladies croquet league.  Very formal for the informal nature of it.
There were fantastic movie night dates on Fridays with SarahJo.
I started performing at an open mic night.
Saw ample doses of live music.  Excellent local shows of Soundcheck, my favorite local band.
I also made it to two free concerts in Twilight Summer Concert series in Salt Lake City.  First, Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley) with Bon Iver, and then later in the summer I saw Okkervill River, and Iron and Wine.

                

As the summer faded, so did the novelty and warmth of my hair color.  I had to move to my roots again.  I asked to be a brunette again.  I also got bangs ... this is decidedly my favorite style of the year.

This was ...
At the end of my summer in the west.
I took a long driving trip home to Ohio from across the country with Josh V. and my dad.
Soaked in a brief spell of empty Athens.
Flew back west ... insert Okkervill River and Iron and Wine.
Soaked in a briefer spell of empty Rexburg.
Floated down the Snake in a tube.

      
 

Just as my hairstylist at Aveada predicted, the hair dye, organic I presume, lightened from the warm chocolate we had picked to a mexican honey color.   To be true, I loved this color too.

But this season was different ...

I got sick.  I have reason to believe I had caught the fashionable swine flu.
This pretty much ruined my semester.
But I did however, become a published writer, as a staff writer for the Scroll's Arts & Entertainment section.  Oh, how I do love the written word.
I was able to attend lovely Naomi's wedding in temperate Arizona.
See the Grand Canyon again.
Explored California and had Thanksgiving there.  I discovered I had been missing a place I had never been.
After the rough semester ...
I made it back to Ohio in one piece.

                

And here I am.  Once again in the winter, with my roots grown out.

More on Ohio later ...