Happy Holidays!

I really haven't posted in awhile... wow. Well, a couple weekends ago, the craft fair went alright - I made $35, but I only sold 3 pieces. Of course, one of those were the oops!-too-small slippers I had made for myself, so it was at least nice to get those out of the way. The other things, at least, don't take much more room created than they did uncreated, so I've just got a bag of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings that I can sell at a craft show at the drop of a hat! :)

Kinda got sick of being at home finally. For awhile it was really bad: I could barely get myself to do anything, and I wasn't too pleased with anything I did, either. But now that the nearness of the holidays is setting in, I'm perking up again with things to do that seem worthwhile.

Today has been amazingly productive so far: I finished my laundry, chatted with my sister, edited my sock & undie drawer, vacuumed my room, and - wonder of wonders - donated 4 boxes worth of stuff (mostly clothes, with some books and other random things), to Dibs and Goodwill. (Dibs, for those who aren't local, is the "nicer" resale shop my school and its feeders opened this year to help lower tuition - with great success!) So far, I'd say that's pretty good. And in between accomplishing tasks, I am breaking by working on sections of the mittens I started knitting yesterday. I'm almost done with the first one (probably will finish it by tonight!) and they're looking and fitting great! I had a bit of trouble here and there, but I frogged and re-worked and whatnot and it's capital now. This is my first time making mittens, so I'm pretty pleased that they seem to be turning out so well, and Mom is surprised by how quickly they are going!

The rest of today is decently mapped out. I'm vacuuming the spare bedroom in preparation for Nicole, Joel, Garrett, and Cade staying in it next week, and then there's the bathroom to be cleaned as well. If I don't lose steam, I'll vacuum the stairs too, but I'm starting to think that that'll have to wait 'til tomorrow. We'll see.

These next couple weeks are going to go by real fast, I think. It'll be Christmas week and I'll be spending time with the family, then I'll be going up to Nikki's next week for the first half to celebrate her and her husband getting baptized into their church up there, and also to ring in the New Year. Then I'll be coming back again to spend the next few days packing and loading up my car for another trip across the country! Wowza!

Happenings and Occurrences

It's been an interesting last several days. I've been hard at work preparing for a craft market that I'll be selling my jewelry at on Saturday. Hopefully I actually sell things - I'm a bit nervous, as it's my first time really setting out my wares to hawk them aside from donating them for charity auctions. It's been good to get those creative juices flowing, and equally good to put to use all of those jewelry-making odds and ends that I've been hanging onto for at least half-a-dozen years now.

When not busy beading bracelets and earrings, I've been taking care of things around town, which inevitably leads to other occurrences. Delivering a jar of Outer Banks, NC sand to my middle school science teacher led to mini-presentations to her class and another former teacher's class on working in the parks. Picking up my sandals from the shoe repair led to a pleasant catching-up with an old school friend.

Both of these occurrences naturally led me to wonder (albeit, rather self-servingly) how people from my past see me now, which leads to lots of introspection. I'm sure anyone who "grew up" away from their childhood stomping grounds can relate.

In the meantime, I just finished listening to the first "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" audiobook, and started the audiobook "Around the World in 80 Days" this afternoon. Between all the jewelry-making, my current knitting and sewing projects, there's plenty of time when I can listen to something more mentally progressive than the semi-redundant drone of the radio. I've got more craft market preparations for tomorrow, then I'll be figuring out the pricing and displays on Friday, and Saturday I'll "test my mettle" as it were at the market. Wish me luck!

Blessed!

In case you haven't already heard, there is reason for rejoicing in my household this Thanksgiving.

On Monday I received the call: I got the Big Bend job! Woohoo! I am so excited: my first legitimate National Parks position!

I'll be starting on the 13th of January, so I've got about a month and a half or so to prepare, pack, and plan my way across the country. We'll see how it all unfolds!

So, that's the good news. We had a relatively small Thanksgiving yesterday, and Nikki and her family are staying with us through tomorrow, so that's nice. Last night we watched "Miracle on 34th Street" (the 90's version), and tonight we're supposed to watch "White Christmas" so Nikki can get her fix, since she doesn't have a VHS player up north.

We've got some relatives (my grandpa Workman's brother) coming over to meet baby Cade and Garrett, and I've got my second chiropractor appointment today. I'm not sure if we're planning anything else, but I wouldn't be surprised if a little hike happened at some point.



P.S. - Mom made a coconut cream pie for the first time yesterday and I have to say, it was definitely one of the greater dessert discoveries of my time. Yum! :)

Waiting...

I'm stuck in the house today, waiting for the phone call that will tell me whether or not I got the job at Big Bend. Knowing my luck, it'll happen in the evening and I'll wish I had spent my day being a bit more productive. Oh well.

Since coming home from up north with a horrendous cold, I have not been entirely inactive - although chair-sitting was my sole past-time for a few days. For instance, in the midst of my cold, I went over to Mike & Tiffany's to help my sister-in-law tan a deer hide.

Yep. That's right. I'm wearing the poncho because we were in the basement with the windows open to keep it from stinking. Luckily, I had a real nose-full, so there wasn't much of a chance that I could smell it.

I've also been hard at work on my quilt, which is nearly complete: all I have to do is tack down the binding, do some minor embroidery, and I'm done! Very exciting. I think it's safe to say that I'll have completed this epic in just less than one year. Woohoo! I'll post a picture (or more) of it when I get it completed.

I'm also busy making a wedding gift for my study-abroad friend Kourtney, who I just found out is getting married in December! Obviously, I won't post any pictures until after she receives the gift - don't want to ruin the surprise!

My dear friend Erin Cooke came over to visit with me this weekend, and we enjoyed a hike to the beach, a gorgeous sunset, burgers on the grill with my folks, and then she enjoyed watching me watch the Hunger Games movie for the first time. I forgot how much I love watching movies with her: we literally talk our way through anything remotely worth commenting on in the movies, which is so much more fun, and helps it all to make sense (especially since she's read the books and I haven't).

On top of all that, I am halfway through the final book of the King Raven Trilogy, and I can hardly wait to find out how it's going to end! But I'd better get reading - I've got a slew of tiny house books on request at the library to peruse before I go anywhere!

Not your average Wednesday

Today's been surprisingly busy until now, and there's plenty to come in the evening as well.

Just for information's sake: I had to leave Traverse City (and my nephews and sister and brother-in-law) behind a little earlier than planned because I came down with a cold hardcore and didn't want to get anyone else sick, so now I'm back home in Muskegon again, but things are far from boring.

This morning I had an interview for that part-time Park Attendant position at Pigeon Creek Lodge south of Grand Haven. It went really well, so well, in fact, that I was given a contingent job offer at the end of the interview! So, now the ball starts rolling on becoming an Ottawa County employee (background check, standard training, etc.), and if the snow is good this year, I'll hopefully be putting in a good 12-20 hours of fun-filled work each week - not to mention probably going skiing every day after work!

After the interview, it was back north to home, but on the way I stopped at Mike and Tiffany's to borrow Mike's hammock. The reason? Call me crazy, but I've been thinking a lot lately about sleeping in a hammock full-time, and I wanted to try out the old hammock stand my grandma had in her garage and see if the dimensions were right, or what dimensions would be right for a good hammock stand. After catching the last half of the Price Is Right and eating a lunch of trail mix and yogurt, I went outside to test my equipment. Didn't go over so well - Grandma's stand was far too small, but I think it's smaller than a regular stand these days anyhow. However, I did hang the hammock in between posts on our swingset and took measurements so that I now have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for size-wise.

In the middle of that, I received a call from Big Bend: the interview process is (finally) ready to move forward and I will be getting a call either tomorrow or Friday for my Spanish interview. Eek! I'm excited/nervous/anxious/thrilled. I hope I do well, and I hope that my cough and congestion continues to clear up so that I can hear and speak well when I do get the call.

So I just got a job offer, but there's a chance I'll end up turning it down if I nail this next interview.

This evening, it's the fellowship dinner at church, and then my first time attending my Yeshi Yoga class in three weeks. Hopefully it goes well. Looking for something interesting to watch? I saw PBS is doing an interesting segment on Ducks tonight at 8pm Eastern.

Until next time!

The job-hunt continues!

Another day, another slew of applications.

After a few "not contacted - not selected" disposition letters in my inbox, my current tally of NPS referrals stands at 13.

I am still on the short list for that job at Big Bend, and am still hoping to hear back, if nothing else just so I can have the experience of being interviewed in Spanish. As terrifying as that sounds.

I've officially put in for a UPS holiday season position, but am getting a bit of a run-around from their system. Hopefully that'll be figured out soon.

And this evening, I just sent in an application for a part-time Park Attendant at Pigeon Creek Lodge. Pigeon Creek is an Ottawa County Park with excellent groomed ski trails that my family has frequented on numerous occasions throughout my years, in the night and in the day, in summer (for hiking or mountain biking) and in winter. They have a lodge that serves the basics: a warm fireplace, tables and chairs, hot dogs and hot cocoa, as well as ski rentals. The position is pretty simple: keep things clean and clear, give and take food orders, patrol the park on skis (which sounds great and would be a great thing to put on a resume for future winter park applications - like that Black Canyon of the Gunnison one that I didn't quite measure up for), and respond with a level head in the event of an emergency. All of these, I'm pretty sure I could do. It'd be part time, minimum wage, but good experience and at a location that I know and love already. A bit of a drive (20-some miles from home), but I'm sure I could figure something out, and it's not all that bad if I had to make the full commute every day.

So that's where things stand, for now. I'm enjoying my time up north with my sister. My older nephew (I can say that now, because now I have two!) just went on the potty by himself without telling anyone or asking for help for the first time! Very exciting. The little one is getting more expressive each day, and we're taking him for all sorts of firsts: first outing, first going to church, first shopping at a thrift store, first trip to the grocer's, first walk through the neighborhood. The days are a balance of playing, eating, and resting (or trying to rest). It's fun to be up here, and great to feel like I can be a part of my nephews' lives - since it's hard for me to do that the rest of the year when I'm traveling all over the place and living so far from home. Hopefully after this week, Garrett will actually recognize me the next time he sees me. :)

Until next time!

Little man, Iceman

 The little man. :)

 Proud Auntie! :)

 Just getting started...

 That is the grin of a man who just passed someone going uphill. That's my daddy!

 Honing in on that finish line!

 Glad to be done...

Iceman!!!

New Nephew!

Woohoo! It's finally here! He's finally here! My sister had her baby this weekend. Cade Elliot was born early early early in the morning on 28 October, 8lb 13oz, a healthy baby boy. Garrett is getting used to the idea of being a big brother, and it's really sweet to see him trying to figure out ways to help the baby when he starts crying and fussing.

After the excitement of rushing up north to take care of Garrett while Nikki was still in the hospital, it seems very quiet at the homestead in Muskegon. Dad and I are here to take care of some things before going back up for the weekend. Dad is racing in the epic mountain biking challenge "The Iceman" in Traverse City/Kalkaska this Saturday, so he and I will drive up again on Thursday or Friday. I'll be driving separately so that I can stay with Nikki for a week or so and help her as she learns to cope with two dirty diapers at the same time! (In other words, my goal is to finish potty-training Garrett in 7 days.)

So, I'm an auntie again - and in the meantime, Garrett is starting to jibber-jabber and "auntie" is a word he's starting to say! Yay! Now if I could only get him to say "Auntie Jay" altogether-like... that'll be next week too. ;)

Until next time!

84.

Sweet success.

My "purging project" is often a topic of my blog. I'm sorry if it gets old - but it's what's happening when I'm unemployed and back at home.

I've made some insane progress in the two+ weeks that I've been home. In. Sane. We're talking emptying whole boxes in my closet. We're talking selling the extra-cushy and not-so-desirable margins of my yarn stash on craigslist. We're talking emptying two whole rubbermaids from under my bed. Insane.

But I don't think that any of that equals the amazing feat I pulled off today. It's something that I had every intention of tackling the last time I was home, but ran out of the steam I needed to even think about getting it done. It's something that's been haunting me for years and years: the basement filing cabinet.

It all starts at the beginning: I've always been a saver of everything useless. (You never know when you might need the assignment you did on the abrahamic covenant in the third grade!) At some point it became apparent (I think in middle school, more or less) that the vast portion of my clutter was paper, mostly falling into the categories of either school or art. So, in order to save my sister from being drowned in paper as my stuff continued to overwhelm our "shared" room, Dad gave me one drawer in the basement filing cabinet. I sorted all my papers into little manila folders. Then added more. And more. A third category of creative writing was added. And then the one drawer became two. It's true: I went through all my middle school papers and many of my elementary papers sometime between now and then. But it didn't do much good on the grand scheme of things. Barely made a dent, really.

Well, that all ended today. I rolled up my sleeves and laid all of my manila folders on the basement floor, stretching from one wall to the other in 21 piles of 5 or more. I plugged in my boombox and picked the first of my day's selection of cds, started up the tunage, and began my work. A trash can, a double-wide crate for recycling, an eraser and a pencil were my tools. I sorted through everything, and quickly learned two rules for sorting through my high school papers: 1) if it's from an English class (or something similar), take time to sort through the prosaic assignments and the unique, creative pieces of writing. Toss the former, save the latter; 2) if it's not from an English class (or something similar), take time to find and remove all the staples, pieces of tape, or other strange things, then toss.

I worked from a little before 10:00 until 11:00 (when I took my Price Is Right/Lunch break), from 11:45-13:00 (when I took my bike ride break), 15:30 to 17:30 (when I took my supper break), and from 18:30 to 17:30 - when I finished. Quite a day's work. I successfully sorted through all my folders, from "English 9" to "Church Bulletin Art (General)" (not sure why the "general" was included - there wasn't another church bulletin art folder), from "SPAN 2010" to the scarily mysterious "Other" folder. At the end of the day, I had a slightly full trashcan, I had maxed out the carrying capacity of the double-wide "recycle" crate, and I had down-sized from two jam-packed file drawers to one, half-full drawer.

The final toll: two shoe boxes of random stuff emptied; 84 manila folders completely emptied.

Learning how to drive (again)

It's official: I am the proud owner of a silver, 2001, Subaru Forester named Suki. She's a great little car - lots of space inside, low mileage, clean interior, no major issues (that we've found anyway). The only catch is that she's a stick shift. A manual. Aka: something I've only learned how to drive one time in the Pine Park parking lot when I was still in high school. That was five years ago now.

So I've been learning how to drive for the last week, and as of yesterday I am now good enough to drive without a chaperone. But that doesn't mean I'm still prone to "killing it". This is definitely going to take quite a bit of practice and getting used to on my part - luckily I'm finding little things to drive to, like church, the dentist, the grocery store, Grandma's house, and the like. I also have the freedom of time to drive during the middle of the day on weekdays in non-busy areas, which is another plus. There's a fine balance of when and how fast to push in with the gas and let off on the clutch that I haven't quite figured out yet, but I am honing in on it. ;)

In other news, the purge continues. After several days at home, I have managed to clear plenty of space in my closet (and then fill it) as well as empty an entire under-the-bed box (quite an accomplishment, if I say so myself). Of course, I'm still not unpacked and my room looks completely in shambles, but I'm not too terribly concerned. I've still got time. Although I did get an interview yesterday at Big Bend National Park in Texas - my first call-back since I turned down the Puerto Rico job in June! Very exciting. Hopefully this is the start of something good. But even that job would have a start day of mid-November, so I've got a few weeks at least. I think...

Home again...

... home again, jiggity jog!

It's been a whirlwind adventure, but I'm back home and unpacked enough that I found the time to upload pictures, which you can now find here. Hopefully it'll explain some of the photos from the teaser and put them in context for you, as well as give you some insight into the story of my trip. I tried to be as telling as possible with my captions! :) It was a great trip, I saw many beautiful things, but I am so glad to be back home finally.

It's been quite awhile - 9 months! You could have a baby in that time! My sister is about to! Any day now, really, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to get home so badly.

Now that I am home, things are moving pretty fast. I've finally returned Dad's car, and promptly started jumping through the hoops of buying a car for myself! I've got a silver Subaru Forester, stick shift (that's been fun...), that I've decided to call 'Suki'. Hopefully by the end of the week, or perhaps by the beginning of next week, I should have the keys officially. Of course, this means that I'm gonna have to start doing things like pay for insurance, but I'm kind of excited. I feel like owning my own car is very much a rite of passage that I was behind on until now. Woohoo!

I've also been busy with... you guessed it! Purging! I've been continuing this project that I started my senior year of high school, and I am making some definite progress. If you'll recall, the last major purge session saw me move from my old room into my brother's old room, which was much smaller and had a lot less storage space. In other words: I forced myself to have less by necessity of space. Well, then I finished college and moved back home and found that I had two lives of stuff that I was trying to fit into one life. Oops. I've had a somewhat similar experience coming back home again, but I'm fighting it. Even as I'm unpacking, I am busy sorting through my things, making room on my shelves (and then promptly filling them again). This time around I am being ruthless - my mantra is that if I haven't used it in five years (i.e. since I was in high school) there's no way I'm going to use it or need it or be incapable of purchasing a new one should the need arise. So chuck it. Or put it in the Goodwill box.

Of course, this doesn't mean that I've given up on getting more stuff altogether. I just got my name in a drawing for an ipad with the local Christian radio station! These are the things you can do when you're all alone in the house, just sorting your stuff and listening to the radio all day long!

Until next time!

Teaser...

I've had a great adventure so far, but I'm only halfway there! I've got a couple more days on the road, and then there will be more pictures (and their accompanying stories) to come!

Bad News.

We just got out of a sudden meeting that Tom called for via phone on his way back from the District offices today.

Jim Pence, recently retired Mono Lake Ranger (and frequently a Bodie Ranger as well due to staffing issues), just past away as a result of a heart attack. He was going to celebrate his 50th birthday this coming January.

Photo Credit: Chris Spiller

Ranger Jim was a great guy. I can't quite remember when I first met him, but I know that I instantly liked him. He was funny, he was fairly easy-going, and best of all: he had this amazing smile that lit up his entire face and made him seem like he was standing two inches taller all of a sudden. You couldn't help but smile back. In fact, the funny thing was, he seemed to smile even when he was complaining oftentimes...

Jim was great with people. He learned the story of Bodie, even though he was technically assigned to Mono and was known to complain about the ranger shortage forcing him to come up here when he ought to be down there. Then he shared that story with visitors, sometimes sitting and giving his undivided attention to a visitor (or group of visitors) for a half an hour at least!

It was Jim who drove me back and forth to Lee Vining, who let me crash on his living room floor when I attended the Mono Basin Bird Chautauqua, who introduced me to the delights of a well-marinated skirt steak and showed me how to roast almonds in a skillet. Jim was the one who revealed to me that a certain flirt at the Mono Basin Visitor Center was toying with me and that I shouldn't waste my time with him. It was Jim who told me how to go about hitchhiking in California - and Jim who drove me halfway back to Bodie to swap me with the ranger on duty when my attempt at hitchhiking utterly failed.

And it was Jim who took notice of my burgeoning patch collection and offered up a classic of his own: a lifeguard association patch from his years spent monitoring the beaches. Although, as I recall, it was the River Ranger duties he enjoyed the best.

So here's to Jim - a man who's life was certainly lived to the fullest, a dear friend, a career mentor, and a general inspiration for how to face life with a smile.


I leave Saturday morning. This will probably be my last post before I go. Pray for safe travels and good times with friends along the way. Perhaps after I get settled back home I will post some photographs to highlight the trip, but we'll see. We shall see.

A Matter of Days

I just finished re-reading Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. It was a gift from a friend in high school, an amazing woman of God that I had the pleasure of knowing for a couple years before I graduated and left town. She's one of the few that I wished I had actually kept in touch with. But that's besides the point. I read Captivating when I was in high school and it shed quite a bit of light on my life at the time - for one thing, it lead me to realize that the crippling stomach cramps I would get after breakfast most mornings were actually a form a spiritual attack that I needed to rebuke in the name of Jesus. I know, crazy, right? But I don't get those stomach cramps anymore. Or if I do, I immediately send them packing and feel fine again. But since I read it in high school, I'd never picked up the book again, even though it was gifted to me by my friend.

Let me rephrase that: I've actually tried to read it a couple times, but could never really get into it. Until this week. I realize now what the problem was: I was reading the book before from a position of strength (whether real or imagined, it's hard to say), all skepticism and know-it-all. But this time around, when I picked up that book, it was not from a position of strength, but one of weakness. I won't say that I haven't had a good season here, but I also won't say that I always made all the right choices. In fact, I made a handful of really stupid ones, and at least once I had to cry out to God to come in and rescue me from a situation that I had gotten myself tangled up in. That's when I decided it was time to re-read this book for reals.

And I devoured it. I picked it up on Sunday and read through over half the book in one day. I continued to read a couple chapters each day until I finished it off this morning. I realized that, as much as God wants me to be able to stand tall and make good decisions, he loved that I called on him to rescue me, and his coming through for me was a sort of sign that he wants to be more present in my life. The bike ride that I went on last week Sunday was a gift from God, a romancing of my heart, put there special, just for me. And I realized something that I have had to continue to re-realize multiple times in my life: that I keep staking my worth in others, or in my own damned self-determination, instead of asking God what he thinks of me; and it's in doing the former instead of the latter that I tend to start messing things up royally.

In a matter of days, my time here will be done for the season, and I will be driving across the country on my way home. Much of my time will be spent crossing the desert - some parts of which I have seen, others I have not, and there is one Bible verse that keeps coming to mind, "I, the Lord, will lure you into the desert and speak gently to you." (Hosea 2:14) I can't help but think that God has good things in store for me on this trip, and I'm going to treat it as a sort of "prayer retreat", if you will. Because it's just going to be me in my car, with Jesus beside me, and I think we've got a lot of talking and a lot of listening to do.

One week to go!

A week from today I'll hopefully be nearing Zion National Park. Two weeks from today I'll hopefully be home. WOOHOO!!!! Today has been a beautiful fall day, so far. I got up a little after 6am and watched the sun come up on the hills across the way from my window before getting out of bed and frying up some sweet potato pancakes for breakfast. Different, but tasty. It was an experiment from the Moosewood Cookbook. :)

By 8am I was on my way out the door with Bici to drive up to the turn-off for Virginia Lakes on 395. I parked in a little pull-out in front of an abandoned restaurant and set out (or should I say up?) on my bike ride for the day: 6 miles to Virginia Lakes, 6 miles back. Of that 6 miles on the way there, 5.5 of them were uphill. It was intense, and I was feeling the altitude the whole way, panting intermittently, but I made it up in about 50 minutes. On the way I was awed by the bright yellow aspens, their dry leaves crackling and clapping in the breeze as I rode by; I enjoyed the sight of a couple young and healthy deer crossing the road, leaping up over the embankment and off into the trees - they had escaped the hunters so far; I paused in my cadence to watch a large hawk stretch out its broad wings and coast just out of reach above me. It was a beautiful, if not incredibly difficult, ride.

 At the top, I chatted with a fisherman who was rather startled to see me there. "You rode your bike up here?" Yes. "All the way from the bottom?" Yes. "You rode up the hill! How many times did you stop?" I didn't. "Wow!" I wouldn't have been able to start again if I did. "That's true. When did you start?" About 9 o'clock. "Wow, so you must've made it up in about 45 minutes!" Fifty, yeah. "I bet that was tough." Yeah, but the way down is going to be awesome.

After finishing off my first water bottle and eating half a Clif Bar, I stretched out a bit, and hopped back on the bike. The way down was awesome. I reached a maximum speed of 40.1mph and coasted comfortably most of the way between 25 and 30 mph. On one flatter section I paused in my cadence to take a deep breath through my nose: I smelled autumn. There is a distinctive, leaf-decaying odor that I associate with fall but which doesn't really exist in Bodie. I breathed it in again and again before the road took a turn and began to plummet down at a steeper grade and I was back to pedaling and steering.

I rounded another corner and saw a deer far ahead on the road. But wait - if that was a deer, it was incredibly fat and shaggy. I got closer to it and realized it was a bear. You're supposed to yell when you see a bear. "Go on! Get outta here! Move along! That's right! Git on!" The bear looked straight at me, then turned and galloped into the trees, followed closely by two, smaller bears. Not only did I just see a bear in the wild for only the third time in my life, but I just ousted a momma bear and two cubs. On a bicycle. Rock on.

Back at Bodie, I've been relaxing the rest of the day. I took a shower, a nap, a bath; I called my mom; I cooked up my favorite soup so that I can eat it for supper a bit later. I have plans to do lots of laundry - to go through all my clothes and wash everything that needs washing so that I can pack it all clean. I expect to do at least two loads. Tonight I want to watch a movie and work on my quilt. I'm all about relaxing today. After all, it's my last weekend in Bodie. I ought to just soak it in.

I know you're curious...

... so here's my route for my drive home.

View Bodie to Home in a larger map

I've got it all written out in my red notebook - the one that has traveled with me all over and given me driving directions across numerous states since I left home in January.

Random idea: I've got all these flicker feathers saved up that I've been finding throughout my stay here, and I want to try and do thread wraps to stick them in my hair. I think this would be a great travel decoration, so perhaps I'll be doing it the night before I go... or perhaps I'll put one in each day as I travel. We'll see. I've got quite a few feathers, and I do miss wearing feathers in my hair now that I've got short hair and can't just stick them in the ends of my braids.

I've got my "pack-on-top" list made, and I might just start packing tonight. Sort of. I'm still working really hard right now on visualizing how this is going to go down. I have every intention of doing a very tight pack job this time around. But with newly accumulated articles... it'll be interesting to say the least.

I'm getting very excited for this trip.

2 weeks!

It's official: I am REALLY excited to be going home. That being said, I've got a lot to do in the next couple weeks. I have to return anything I've borrowed and get back anything I've loaned. I have to write out the directions and get my route planned a bit better so I know more or less exactly where I'll be going. I have to figure out what I need to camp while moving, and somehow find a way to pack it accessibly. And I have to actually pack up all my things and squeeze them into my little car once more. Only this time, I actually have accumulated a few things, so that might be a little bit tricky. We'll see if I can find a way to donate some of that stuff.

I've got to clean out the stuff I use to put oil in my car, because it's gotten to the point of pretty darn messy and I just don't want to deal with that anymore. Luckily, my uncle convinced me to wash and clean out my car while I was at their place, so I don't have to worry about doing that. But I do have to check my fluid levels, pump up my tires with the proper air pressure, put those ceiling tacks in where my upholstered ceiling is starting to sag, and probably purchase a little thing of gas (because I can fit that in my car!) since I've been having issues with it running out on me before it should. Or I could just wing it which, since I'm cheap, is probably what I'll do. I'll just have to be much more anal about putting gas in my car. Perhaps I should look up the gas stations along my route too... that would probably be smart.

I have to balance my checkbook and, while I'm at it, call my card company and let them know that I will be traveling so they don't leave me stranded by cutting off my account or anything crazy like that. I have to patch my camelbak because it got a hairpin hole in it and it leaks when I set my bag down. I have to finish reading the library books that I have - and strategically pack the ones that I will want to have on hand for reading during my journey. I'll have to do my laundry one last time and be sure to not get anything unnecessarily dirty. I have to finish the perishables in my fridge as much as possible, and also plan snacks/meals and pack accordingly for while I'm on the road.

There's so much to do in the next couple weeks, and yet, now that I know I'm leaving in two weeks, I just want to leave now! I'm just so excited! And now the wait (and the work) begins!

17 days... let the countdown begin!

That's right! I've finally decided that I'm going to finish my season this year at the end of this month, which means that my last day of work will be the 28th of September. I've been busy planning, and I've found myself a route back home that should be full of fun! I'm going to camp over at Zion National Park, spend a day driving through Bryce, Capitol Reef, Glen Canyon, and stay at Natural Bridges National Monument. Then it'll be a long haul to Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, where I plan to save money by backpacking in to a campsite for the night - thus giving me the best look at the area in my limited time. After I leave there, I'll be going to Kansas City area to visit Drew and Holly, then up to Chicago to visit with friends there, and then it'll be home again home again! The whole trip should take me about a week.

I know, I know, you think it's crazy that I'm going to breeze through all those places and that I ought to give myself a bit more time. But here's the deal: I don't find it quite as fulfilling to visit these places by myself, so I don't feel the need to spend so much time when it's just me, I'm alright with just passing through.

Yesterday I went on an 8-mile hike with Mark and Lynn, who just so happened to come into Bodie the night before for the Vegan Potluck Night. It was nice to spend some time with them, and they treated me to dinner afterwards. When they dropped me back off at my car, I got two hugs each from them and we said goodbye until next time. I probably won't see them again this year, but maybe next season...

On a random side note, I'm busy reading "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed during my downtime in the kiosk. It's a phenomenal book. Cecile gave me a copy because she thought of me so much when she was reading it that she thought I absolutely HAD to read it myself. It definitely has me thinking, and the gears are turning in my head. And now I'm starting to wonder if I've got it in me to hike the Appalachian Trail. - That's right, the Appalachian, not the PCT, like she hikes in the book. The thing is: I've been in the Eastern Sierra two seasons now, and I find it a beautiful place, and I'm sure that the PCT would be nice, but I also am well aware of how steep some parts of the trail are (and I'm really talking about the downs) and I know that my knees don't appreciate that too much. The Appalachian Trail, I think, would be the slightest bit milder. Also, as far as timing goes, if I wanted to hike the PCT, I'd have to take off a summer because there'd be no way I could get through before the snow if I didn't. The Appalachian Trail is a bit lower, and a bit later in the snow and earlier out of it as far as I know, so I'm thinking it would work better timing-wise as well. I don't know... maybe I'm just crazy, but I think it would be great to do a long trail hike like that, just to see what would happen.

But first things first: I'm about to drive across half of the U.S. again.

Voila!

So I'm sure you've all been wanting to know, ever since I dropped a hint about it, what Jack the Scottish Latchbarman looks like! Well, I gave my email to some visitors on my tour yesterday and now you finally have the chance to see. :) Photo credits go to Mr. Bob Summers.

 I still need to do some work on my suspenders, I think. The back is too long, so I had to cinch up the front, which kind of makes me hunch my shoulders a bit. Eso es no bueno. Anyhow, something for the future. I don't think I'm going to bother anymore this season. This is the first living history tour I've been able to do in a couple weeks! Besides, I can't even be bothered to sew the button on my uniform shirt pocket, and that happened just a week after I bought the thing...

 Here's me at the camshaft. So the reason this post is entitled "Voila!" is because when I talk about my job as a latchbar man, I explain the deft art of hanging up a stamp, and when I get to the part where it's hung up I say, "Voila! I hung up a stamp!" French speakers always get a giggle out of that one.

 And the end of the tour. That was a real fun group - not the best one ever this season, those were the ones who totally took the "we're going back in time" thing and ran with it... I'd never been called "Jack" so many times in my life! But anyhow, this group was pretty high up there, for sure. I love it when they're fun.

I talked to my folks last night, and I finally decided: I'm just going to stay until the end of the month, then I'm going to load up my car and be on my way. It's been a great season, but I'm starting to feel a bit burned out, and I kinda just want to go home. It's been a long time that I've been away. So I'll tell the scheduler when she gets back from her weekend and make it official, and in the meantime, I'm busy planning my latest cross-country trip. So far, it looks like I'll probably be making stops in Zion, Grand Staircase-Escalante, possibly Antelope Canyon (I still have to research that a bit to see if it's even plausible), Great Sand Dunes, Drew and Holly's, friends in Chicago, and then back home! It should be a fun trip, and I'm looking forward to it.

Jobs

Sometimes we wish we had all the money and all the time to do everything we want to do. Unfortunately, we don't live in heaven yet (and they probably won't have money there anyhow?). I was hoping to do the High Sierra Fall Century (not the whole thing, just the metric century) this Saturday with Dain (a coworker), and my scheduler had said she was thinking of giving me Saturday/Sunday as my days off for the rest of my time here. But then two of my coworkers (who only work on weekends because they're in school) asked for this Saturday and Sunday off to go deer hunting. Shazam! No more Saturday off for Jaclynn. Granted, I didn't put in an official request for that day, so it wasn't even on her radar that this was mildly important, but I guess it just goes to show that you can't count on anything until it's in writing. Dain was pretty disappointed when I broke the news to him last night - said he didn't want to do it alone, and I felt pretty darn awful. Yes, the ride costs A LOT of money out here ($55!?), but it was going to be a fun thing to do and I had already gotten his hopes up by saying that I was going to get the day off before I left for vacation. Now I feel bad because it's like I lied to him, and I really let him down. Not only that, but because my days off got switched to Monday/Tuesday, we don't have an overlapping day anymore, so we won't be able to go on any rides together anymore.

Shucks.

I had an interview for transferring to Marshall Gold Discovery SHP in the spring and it went pretty well. If I don't get anything lined up with the feds, I'll probably be going home this winter, and returning in the spring to work there. But I'm not ready to give up on the NPS just yet. I keep applying for jobs. I just got referred for the one at Montezuma Castle (where I interned before, so there's a decent chance I could get the position); I also just applied for several positions at San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico, where I turned down a term appointment earlier this year because of poor timing but tried to leave the door open for future possibilities (such as the 6-month and 1-year positions that they are listing right now). We'll see if I hear anything from them at all, but that listing doesn't close until the 18th and 19th of September, so it'll be at least the end of the month before I do.

And of course, the big debate right now is how long will I stay in Bodie this year? I could use the extra money if I work into October; but if I get a job in Puerto Rico that starts in November, I'll definitely want to spend October driving home, being home, packing up, and moving. To Puerto Rico. Wow, that'd be crazy. If I get the job at Montezuma Castle, that's supposed to start in October - hopefully they would give me enough notice that I could give my work enough notice (and possibly make it home?) before I go back to Arizona. And if I don't get anything lined up? Then I probably should work through October, just to buttress my finances for my winter of unemployment.

Does all this mean that I'm really an adult now? Or does that start once I actually, legitimately get my own car?

Vacation Recap

Well, my vacation went well, though it was not without its hiccups...

For starters, I ran out of gas between Bridgeport and Walker. This was the first time anything of the sort had EVER happened to me in my ENTIRE LIFE! I was a bit distressed, and even more distressed when the numerous fisherman at the bridge where my car died were unwilling to help. Luckily, I was picked up by a nice couple from Las Vegas, Elizabeth and Lucas (I think), who drove me the 9 miles to town for gas, and then back to my car and made sure that it got started again before they continued on their way. Yay for good Samaritans!

That only added an hour or so to my travel time (enough to see the full moon coming up over the clouds on my drive over Monitor Pass), and I was finally able to arrive at Barb and Paul's by about 12:30. Of course, it might have been a bit sooner if I hadn't gotten lost along the way. I took the exit for 116, but all the signs for it seemed to disappear as soon as I got on the road. I ended up in Valley Ford, the next time I was able to figure out my location, and was able, through my decent sense of direction (I can always tell where the big body of water is) and the help of a few sparse signs, to find my way to Sebastopol, get back on 116, and find my way to Camp Meeker. Sure, I took a bit of a round-about way, but I got there eventually. Uncle Paul said he was surprised it didn't take me longer than it did!

Spending time with my family this weekend was GREAT. I got to meet Lyric's two little girls: Zoe and Charlotte, both of whom are great kids, if not suffering throughout the course of the day from the dramatics of their age-group. I chilled with them, Barb and Paul, and Nolan and his girlfriend Jaz (who's pretty darn cool). We had lots of fun, and did all sorts of things, from swimming to hiking, from watching the movie 'Brave" in theaters to cooking big breakfasts and big dinners almost every day. Uncle Paul and I even took the Lion out for a sail one afternoon! Of course, plenty of music was played, and we might have gotten around to making a videosong if I had had my laptop at the ready to put it all together and record the audio and whatnot. Maybe next time. Anyhow, Lyric and I make a good singing combination, we've got very similar voices. I played the bariton uke, the tenor uke, the soprano uke, and the banjo uke, as well as the piano this weekend. And may have even run the bow over their fiddle for a few minutes or so. All-in-all, it was a great time. Until I had to leave.

I had an interview-type thing scheduled for between 3pm and 5pm on Monday, but I left the house late (because our hiking and breakfast-making took a bit longer than anticipated), and then traffic, coupled with shopping in a grocery store with an odd smell, and running out of gas (though again, I was helped by good Samaritans, and this time quite quickly!) produced enough anxiety to upset my stomach rather severely. I made until just after my interview got done, and proceeded to empty my digestive system clear out. No bueno. This made for a long drive home, as I found myself without energy, and without anything that I could eat on such a soft stomach. I had to stop every 20 minutes or so to take a catnap (luckily there are lots of pull-outs on mountain passes), and by the time I got home it was 12:30am. (Sound familiar?)

So I didn't work yesterday, and I probably won't work today, unless I decide to put in a half-day after lunch or something (I'm Kiosk Back-up, so I could just work on projects and not do much moving around or anything).  They brought me to the hospital to make sure I didn't have hanta virus at all, so I got pumped full of two bags of iv saline stuff and they gave me a shot for the aches, and I felt significantly better! Still, eating is coming a bit slow to me right now, and I've got a mild headache. I'm drinking coconut water as my natural electrolyte replacer, but I've decided I'm not too fond of the taste. C'est la vie. Anyhow, I'm definitely on the mend (if not a bit noisy in the intestinal area), and I think I should for sure be back to work full-duty tomorrow.

But other than getting incredibly ill, I had a great weekend, and I hope to be able to visit again sometime. Perhaps with a bit more time, but we'll see. Four days wasn't actually all that bad.

Pre-Vacation Excitement!

Today, tomorrow, and the next day I leave! Well, after work, anyway...

I'm so excited! I've got my writing done for the week, so I won't have to worry about that while I'm gone; I did my laundry on Sunday night, so I'm ready to start packing this morning. Work is slowing down, and I've only got a few more weeks to put up with the grumpy vegan before he's gone (hopefully for good)! He actually got upset with me for bringing the museum a pack of 1's when they only had 6 left in the drawer - can you believe it!? I'm trying to figure out if that's retail ignorance or if he's really that full of himself.

Anyhow... this weekend was the first weekend I didn't get my hike or bike in: for one, I only had one day off; for another, my bike is currently out of commission. Next weekend the bike at least won't happen again because I'll be on vacation and I'm not bringing my bike along. So, with the exception of these two weeks, I've managed to do my hike and bike every weekend this season, just as I hoped, and I hope to continue that when I return from the coast.

This morning I'm going to knock another large item off my to-do list: I'm going to inventory all of my food, plan my meals, and write up a grocery list so that I won't have to go to the store next month at all. That's the hope, anyway. I just hope that the epic-looking food co-op in Sacramento isn't over-priced.

Fall is creeping up rather quickly now. The mornings (and evenings) are getting colder (by feel, if not by actual temperature all the time), and it's taking everything in my will to not get out the heater before I leave. (I have to wait 'til it's at least September, right!?) Eric says that the aspens will start changing color any day, and I sure look forward to that. But also with the coming of autumn is my own homecoming, which seems very likely to occur sometime between October 1st and November 15th, depending on how late I decide to stay at Bodie, and how much time I take in coming back. I might work through October just to make sure I've got the paycheck coming in for November, but I might decide that I'm just mentally spent and leave at the end of September or part-way through October... we'll see.

One-Day Weekend Extravaganza!

Sitting in my church clothes - one button missing on my shirt, eating the remainder of some Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream - I didn't feel like being a complete pig last night, and trying to figure out how late I can leave.

I'm house-sitting for Mark and Lynn again, but I only got today off this weekend in preparation for my whirlwind mini-vacation next weekend. I drove up last night and spent the night watching Ondine, drinking a nice, cool fuzzy navel and eating chocolate ice cream. I slept wonderfully, though my extra-odd dream streak is continuing. I think that my subconscious is trying really hard to figure some things out right now.

I went to church this morning at Walker Baptist Church. The little place was packed with friendly people, and I was delighted to find that I had happened upon them on a potluck day. I LOVE church potlucks! If you didn't know already, my plan (if I ever get married) is to have a church potluck for my reception. (All of which will, of course, be coordinated by the magic of the internet so we don't end up with 5 green bean casseroles and no mini-sausages in sauce!) Anyhow, it was really nice to be able to fellowship with other Christians. The last time I did that was the fourth of July weekend in Bridgeport.

After a fun reminiscence of singing VeggieTales with some of my coworkers, one of those singing explained that we were all forced to listen to the same Christian music as children, and one not singing declared that all Christians must have been dropped on their heads as babies. I guess the reminiscing wasn't so fun after all. I love Bodie: it's a great place to work, with great coworkers, and great fun! God is very visible in the beauty of that place. But I miss the Christian fellowship that I can find in other places. I may have Sundays off, but that doesn't mean that I can afford to drive 23 miles to church every Sunday and 23 miles back again - an hour of driving for a little over 2 hours of fellowship. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough, but I try to leave town as little as possible, if I can help it, to save on gas and to save my dad's car from that awful Bodie road.

But at the same time I feel as though I owe some sort of allegiance to Bodie. I'm part of the community there. It's where I got my start, and its where I've invested a lot of myself. I feel like they count on me in some respects - as if I have a future there. So could I give it up to do something else? even if that something else is a job that I've always wanted? And what if that something else doesn't work out - will I still be able to come back? Will Bodie wait for me? or will I have to wait for Bodie to open up room to hire me and, in the meantime, consign myself to the turbid swirling of the unemployment pool?

As much as I like it out here, I'm a Michigander at heart, and I long to be able to find fulfilling (and decently-paid) employment in my home. It's just that, so far, I have yet to find that. I'm sick of people bashing my home when the have never even been - they don't know the first thing about Michigan! As weird as it sounds, I even miss the ridiculously hot and humid days of summer because they were coupled by going to the beach and cooling off in the waves. Not to mention your skin doesn't get nearly as dry in the humidity of West Michigan as it does in the deserts of Arizona and California.

Anyhow - chances are I'll be coming home soon. Perhaps in October, perhaps in November. It all just depends. But I hope the time goes by fast, because I want to be with my family again.

Productive, or no?

I've been trying to be more productive lately, but I've definitely hit the excessive point on my computer use wave. C'est le vie, I suppose. I'm sure I'll be over it soon. Still, I have made a solid to-do list and have been hacking away at it one thing at a time.

But that doesn't mean I'm not still spending an excessive amount of time staring at a screen. For instance: starting last night and going until about 3 o'clock this afternoon, I watched all 12 episodes of Book One of the Legend of Korra on www.avatarchapters.tv. The last episode still made me cry the second time around.

Yet in spite of that, I have been rather productive. Today I baked my first-ever loaf of regular (non-dessert) bread. It turned out alright - very dense, but for my first time baking bread (and at over 8000' elevation with whole wheat flour) I think I did a pretty good job. And now I'll hopefully be able to satisfy my cravings for things like French Toast and Bread Pudding. Mmmm....

I also wrapped my handlebars on my bicycle - they're a bright and clean blue now and I'm fairly pleased with the wrap job. I don't think I've got the art perfected yet, but it's certainly coming along nicely. And this just in time for the big ride I hope to do tomorrow! I also reheated and added noodles to another defrosted bag of my homemade minestrone soup. Very delicious! I've still got two more quart-size bags in the freezer, so I'm pretty excited about that.

Now I'm watching "Gold" - a movie John lent to me on gold mining in South Africa - so that I can return it to his collection (yes, this is also on my to-do list). Then I also have to return the electrical tape that I nabbed for my handlebar finishing.

Anyhow, I think I've about had it with the computer for the day. Tomorrow I'm going to drive toward Mark and Lynn's, park at a Forest Service Day Use Area, then ride my bike up to their house to water the plants, then bike back. It should be a pretty good ride - and down a newly paved section of hwy 395, nonetheless! I have to 'get in shape' in case I do decide to do the High Sierra Fall Century in a few weekends.

VideoSong

So this is what I do with myself in my spare time:

In other news:

• I'm about to get my student consolidation loan paid off to under the $12,000 mark - my first goal to be met. Woohoo!! It's nice to be working a real job and making the big bucks so that I can pay these things off. I hate having debt!
• The job search continues. With at least 25 applications filled out, I have only gotten in the pool for 6 so far, and one of those I just heard back from that someone else was selected for the position. Other than that, I haven't heard back from any of the other 5. But after talking with long-time Bodie volunteer Ed, I may have a lead on winter (or spring) work that would at least keep me employed a few more months out of the year... more on that to come.
• I have finally established the dates for my mini-vacation to visit my aunt and uncle in the Bodega Bay area. It's been over 10 years since I was last at their home, and I look forward to seeing them and my cousins again. That'll be the tail end of August and the very beginning of September. It's only for a few days, but it's better than nothing!

Well, I think that about covers it for now. I need to start getting ready for work - these 8-hr work days sure give a lot of extra shoulder time in the work day!

Until next time!

Lightning Show

Currently listening to: Carve Your Heart, Dashboard Confessional
Currently eating: Pineapple Upside-down Cake with extra creamy whipped topping.
Currently watching: epic lightning show.

This morning the weatherman promised me that there would be rain. And he was right: he didn't lie to me. We got our storm clouds in by the afternoon and a nice sprinkling of rain. But just when we thought it was all over, I came out of Ed and Joanne's trailer to find the sky clouded over once more with whole horizons being lit up by lightning shudders that tear the space between light, energy, and sound with a crack! It's a truly beautiful thing.

This evening I showed Botswana photos to Ed and Joanne - we spent a good 2 hours looking, telling stories, asking questions. I think they enjoyed it, and I certainly enjoyed the opportunity to share so much again.

Tomorrow I'm going on a hike with Eric and Mark and Lynn - weather permitting (I'm not sure what we'll do if it's pouring!) - and I'm really looking forward to it. I've hardly gotten to see those two retirees more than two minutes since I got here because they're always always up to something!

I find myself wishing this evening (as I have on many evenings) that I owned the Avatar: The Last Airbender series on DVD so that I could pop in an episode and watch it before bed. They're short, fun, and unfortunately don't load well on my poor internet connection. Perhaps I ought to pay up the money and download them for my iTunes or something like that. Though I would much prefer to have the hard-copy DVD.

I just saw another mouse in the house - looks like I'll have to set up a trap again. Of course, Denise will flip. Perhaps she'll leave town this weekend...

Two Weekends of Relaxation

Alright - I've finally gotten things together enough to upload pictures from my last couple weekends, so here goes!

 My campsite at Grover Hot Springs was absolutely perfect - just the right size for one tent, secluded, surrounded by trees, just up the hill from the parking spot, and not even very buggy at all!

 Grover itself is a beautiful state park and I highly recommend it. This is their alpine meadow which is so beautiful and has a nice log bench that you can sit on and just stare at the scenery for hours.

 In the town of Markleeville, I stopped by the historical society museum and was delighted to find that they had a cute little stamp mill. Supposedly it's in working condition - I would love to come back when they are open some day and see if that's true.

 Now on to Cerro Gordo. "The Hill", as it was often called back in the day, was a silver mining town of a few thousand souls. Now it is just over a dozen buildings and has a steady population of 2, with the occasional other members of the Cerro Gordo family visiting to raise it a bit higher. This particular cabin (the little one-room in the bottom left corner) is the one I chose to remodel and move into - I did a concept drawing of the inside and outside and everything! ;)

 This is the Chinaman's house where Cecile and Roger stay when they are up there to help the caretakers. I got to stay in there - very nice little 3-room, 1/2 bath house.

 This is the view from town looking out over the Owens Lake bed and off into the Eastern Sierra. The large building with the balcony is the American Hotel - a very fine establishment and absolutely stunning on the inside.

 This is the Belshaw House - though it may not have been the Belshaw house. Another fine building where people come up and stay sometimes.

 And of course, I saw this on my way through Lee Vining while I was heading back this weekend and I fell in love. It's a beautiful truck - 1970 custom Chevy pickup. They want $3300 OBO for it, and personally I think it looks like a great candidate for running on wood... Hmm.... If you'd like to see more pictures from my weekends, click here.

Anyhow, it's good to be back in town. Things have settled and I'm happy to be here for the next couple weekends so I can save up for my big trip at the end of the month - I'll be taking some extra time off and driving to the coast to visit my relatives over there. My sense of taste seems to be improving - I would say I've just got dulled taste now, as I seem to be able to taste everything that I've eaten, just not very well. Still, dulled taste is better than no taste, I would say!

Keep on truckin!

The Saga Continues!

Eating still seems to be a pointless venture right now. Where's the flavor!? If this is what it's like to be old and lose your sense of taste, I think I'll just starve myself to death.

This morning when I woke up my lips were all "blistered" over. I tried to keep them balmed up, but after being out in the kiosk for two hours they dried up and have officially split in numerous places.

Consultation with the family revealed that I probably consumed an unripe stalk of rhubarb. If you know about the chemical makeup of plants, you'll know that oftentimes, while a fruit is developing, there are certain noxious chemicals that later migrate to the core or seeds or whatever so that the fruit is protected during development and the seeds are protected afterward. Most likely, this stalk was unripe and I got a healthy dose of intense chemicals (which in rhubarb is probably intense acid, seeing as it's a tart plant) that pretty much killed my tastebuds and my lips. Sad day.

Tonight we're having a "Change Our Luck" movie party, where Dr. Charlo (I'm pretty sure it'll be Charley in a costume) is going to rid us of all our bad ju-ju. This season has just been crazy. Five people on staff have been in car accidents (two of them have been in two this year); four people have passed/passing matriarchs and have had to take time off for that; three people have been seriously ill (two with strep, one with 'relapse fever'); two people have had bad colds; and now I've lost my sense of taste!

Frankly, I'm a bit nervous to even leave town this weekend; but if I stay, I'm bound to come down with something, the way our luck has been! I hope Cerro Gordo has more good karma than our ghost town does this year. You have to wonder: who's stealing what artifacts to give us all this bad luck? ;)

How Bizarre!?

My weekend went well, by the way, and I'm bound to get pictures (and video) up soon. Like when I locate my camera (pretty sure I left it in the car...). But there's something else going on here that's a bit... bizarre.

Namely, I ate a big stick of raw rhubarb dipped in sugar the night before last. It was delicious, and rang of childhood. But then I woke up yesterday morning and couldn't taste, and my lips felt like they were on fire! I first noticed the lack of taste when I went to eat my yogurt and trailmix and threw in a handful of hoped-to-be-delicious blueberries... and couldn't taste them! What in the world!? Weird stuff, I'm telling you. My coworker gave me a benadryl, wondering if maybe it was some sort of allergic reaction, but it didn't help diddly-squat. I rubbed honey all over my tongue and my lips, and that soothed for a little bit, but frankly, it's the next day, and my taste buds are still only firing on less-than-half of their cylinders.

On the bright side, my housemate is sick, so I'm drinking plenty of the Workman cider-vinegar/honey concoction, which is pretty potent stuff to force down your throat when you're not sick. Unless you can't really taste it - in which case it is much easier to drink. Anyhow, I think this is some sort of extreme sour reaction (like sour tongue, when you "burn" your tongue eating too many sour gummy worms or pineapple) and it is getting a bit better. This morning I could taste the blueberries (somewhat), as well as the granola and the cashews (just a little bit) in my trailmix. But I couldn't taste the peanuts, sunflower seeds, or almonds. Taste is definitely something that I've always taken for granted, and I must say that it's really disappointing when you can't taste your food - it's almost like "why even bother?". As for the burning sensation on my lips, that seems to have cooled down - just a little bit. Mike and Tiffany's homemade lip balm seems to be the best at soothing them (probably because they've got a high honey/beeswax content).

So evidently, I can eat plenty of cooked rhubarb, but I am no longer able to handle eating it raw. Very disappointing. Has anyone ever heard of this happening before? I googled it and found just one other person on one of those question-forum pages who was experiencing the same thing: they said they'd been suffering these same symptoms for TWO WEEKS after eating a foot-long stick of raw rhubarb! I certainly hope that my tastebuds aren't down for the count for two whole weeks. That would really be a bugger. Especially since this weekend I'm going to be at Cerro Gordo with Roger and Cecile and they always cook the most delicious, savory foods! Hopefully my taste comes back within the next day or two. But seriously. How bizarre!?

Getaway!

Things have escalated, and I'm getting out of town for the weekend. And for next weekend as well.

This week I've made reservations at Grover Hot Springs, where I'm going to relax and enjoy some solitude Sunday and Monday. Then on Tuesday I've got a haircut appointment in Reno, where I will also get my tires rotated and my oil changed while I wait. :)

Next weekend it looks like I'll be going to Cerro Gordo - very exciting. That means I get to hang out with my good friends Roger and Cecile, probably play lots of Scrabble, and enjoy plenty of fun time exploring a new-to-me ghost town. Woohoo!

I know people say it's bad to run from your problems, but I can't help it: I'm surrounded by them every other day of the week! So, judge as you will, but I'm definitely going to kick it and cross my fingers in the hopes that this will all blow over while I'm gone.

I really can't wait for tomorrow.

There's a snake under my house.

It's been a bit since my last update, so I decided that today would be as good a day as any. I just got done giving my second living history tour as Jack Workman, Irish latch bar man for the Standard Consolidated Mining and Milling Co. It's a pretty fun tour, though I'm definitely still working the kinks out of it. My first one was rockin', but this one was only so-so - I felt like my flow was a bit off. Regardless, when I got done, Helene informed me that a rattlesnake had been seen going under my house. Yay. But I suppose I can't complain (as long as it doesn't come inside) because it'll probably help keep the mice down.

In other news, this morning was absolutely beautiful. Water-logged clouds painted the sky a gorgeous grey-blue as storms swept over the Eastern Sierra. The temperature is down to a good 62 degrees and I am reveling in getting to wear layers again. I love the cold! Someone made the joke the other day that we were two weeks away from winter here, and it would seem he was a bit gracious in his estimation of when it would come! But no, I don't think this cold will stick around any more than the ridiculous heat that we had a couple weeks ago. But I'm happy to be heating up some defrosted homemade minestrone for lunch today. :)

Things are just rolling along right now. I might be going to Virginia City this weekend, so perhaps there'll be more on that to come.

Paintings, Bible verses, Bookshelves, and Carrot Cake

I've been busy lately. Especially when faced with stressful situations, I have a tendency to put myself to work. I'm sure my former roommates can attest to this. This weekend? I rode my bike 50.5 miles, hiked at least 5 miles on a VERY hot day, rearranged the furniture in my room, vacuumed, balanced my checkbook, made a bookshelf, wrote up Bible verses to put on my wall, baked a carrot cake for lunch and Amish baked oatmeal for breakfast, and even marinated pork chops for supper!

The source of all of this I am sure you will find amusing, given that I have had very little trouble with this in the past - or very much, depending on how you look at it. But to put it simply, I found out that two of my coworkers were in a competition to see who could get me to like them first. Meanwhile, I was really enjoying the opportunity to go hiking and such with my coworkers, attributing this to the younger age of the staff this year. Apparently I am horribly naive. The real problem with all of this is that I am now in a predicament because I am not interested in having a relationship with either of them - but I still have to work and live with them without things being awkward. Okay, all you college friends can start laughing at me now. Go on, laugh away. ;P

Why does this always seem to happen to me? What wrong signals am I sending? Is it too much to ask people to not think I'm hinting because I don't realize that they're hinting!? C'est la vie.

So anyway, the produce of all this? The pictured creations (excluding the first couple paintings - those I did over the last couple weeks), a newly assembled bedroom, a delicious dinner, and very tired legs. And yes: there are chocolate chips in the carrot cake - it's to make up for the lack of frosting. There are worse things I could do when stressed...

201st Entry: A reflection on the journey

Most useful thing in my road trip arsenal: spare old towel. Original purpose was to insulate my bike from the terrors of the stuff that was packed all around it in the car. Since serving that initial purpose, it has found many uses, from lawn blanket to bicycle shade. Definitely a good thing to toss in when all is said and done.

Item I've missed the most: definitely my trash can. That Wishbone trash receptacle has been with me for years! In Arizona I made do by putting a plastic bag inside a paper one and changing out the plastic one when it got full. Unfortunately that bag ripped in the move to California (and got soaked with maple syrup, but that's a whole nother story!), and here I've just forced myself to walk my garbage to the kitchen or bathroom receptacles, though I do have plenty of paper bags that I could probably put to work if I really wanted to - perhaps I'll do that today...

It's been over 200 entries and almost half a decade since I started this blog. My first entry is from 15 December 2007, thanking God for the snow that I had been praying to see that day. I was still working at the bike shop, I was still in high school. I'd had little knowledge back then of where I would be four and a half years later. I had no idea that I would go to Africa, not only once, but twice! I didn't quite see then that my days at the bike shop were numbered, but that God had a much more fulfilling line of work for me in a remote ghost town on the other side of the country. Since I started this blog I have: gone through college; had my first official "boyfriend" and first kiss (it was gross) as well as my first experience dumping a guy; ridden two 100-mile bike rides; lived with 17 different people (at least) at different times in different places apart from my family; learned my third language; had to disappoint at least a few guys who were set on chasing me; fallen deeper in love with God; felt a deeper connection with nature; hitch-hiked; driven across the country; driven across the state; started paying my student loans; made some real friends; learned more about myself, who I am, and how to give voice to my thoughts and feelings; watched the entire Avatar: The Last Airbender series; and so much more!

It's been 200 entries, and a lot has happened. A lot has changed. But I can't complain: I love my life, and I'm grateful to God for bringing me safely through this far. I look forward to what He's got planned for me next. What an adventure!

~Jay

More baking!

Yesterday was full of baking. I awoke in the morning, found a recipe, and made my first batch of cinnamon granola before I went to work. It turned out well, though it didn't clump as much as I had hoped it would. I read about it, and they say I need to get oat flour and mix that in to allow the oats to "glue" together. We'll see if I can find that. For the super-easy granola recipe that I found, click here.

Before I went off to work I set a half cup of almonds soaking in two cups of water in preparation for another batch of almond milk.

After work I utilized the last of my previous batch of almond milk (which I'd probably let go a bit too long for drinking, but it wasn't bad for baking) and made three batches of cereal - one blue corn, one yellow corn, and one plain flour. This time I learned from my last experience and was patient. I didn't try to toast them all on two big sheets, but toasted each half-batch on its own sheet just like the recipe says. The results were a magnificent set of perfectly crisp cereals. Once they had cooled down, I added my granola from this morning to the bowl, mixed it all up, and separated it into containers. I would say the whole thing only took me a couple hours, as I started sometime after 6:30 and was done before 9 o'clock. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.

This morning I cracked open my almonds, poured them into my blender, and whipped up some delightful almond milk, which I poured fresh over my new cereal + granola, with some raisins added in. Delicious! I would say this was definitely a success, and I'm looking forward to making more cereal + granola in the future. I will soon be running out of blue corn, and then yellow corn flour, and I am wondering what I should purchase next. I would very much like to try graham flour and see if it tastes like graham crackers. Sorghum would be an interesting one to try as well. And certainly, I ought to try some bran flour sometime, since that is was the recipe calls for!

Denise says I should market my own cereal... Jack's C+G, anyone? ;)