Chaotic Adventures of Alex

Is The Bus Pass Worth It?

2011-11-14T01:44:00.002-07:00

So tonight, as I exited my second and final bus, preparing for the short (four blocks) walk to my house I found myself thinking "that bus pass is totally worth it". It's not a cheap investment, the monthly regional pass that allows me to ride anything, anytime, anywhere, but most importantly, the expensive bus out to the airport for work. It's $176. $176 for ONE MONTH. Still, in the short time I have had it there are some definite benefits.

Take exhaustion for example, in my line of work going home tired is virtually guaranteed every, single, day. Plus there are days like today when I worked a double shift. I was at work from 7am this morning until midnight. Is it really a smart idea to try to operate a car after that? I feel like I am keeping myself and other drivers on the road a little safer when I don't attempt that drive that tired.

Another benefit of a bus pass is the lack of stress around parking. I recently moved to the Capital Hill area in Denver. I love my apartment, its location, its proximity to things I need and use and do. Parking is a royal pain in the arse. On an average night it took me 10-20 minutes to find a parking space, and the closest one I have ever found is 2 blocks away from where I live. I would much rather walk 4 blocks than waste expensive gasoline circling blocks like a shark attempting to will a parking spot into being.

Not everything with taking the bus is sparkly rainbows. Financially, it's a bit of a wash. $176 is a lot of money. Figuring that my hoopdie grocery getter of a car Delores uses about $10/day in fuel costs to get to and from DIA I need to take public transport about 18 days a month to make it work there. I haven't even tried adding anything like potential savings for maintenance costs. Too complicated for me. It does take a little bit longer, and requires some planning around the timeline of when I want to be at work. If I get mandatory overtime at work because of say, a snowstorm. I will most likely have to spend the night (or a good portion of it) at the airport, because the buses I need will not be running that late/early.

Overall though, worth it. Decent convenience, large reduction in stress levels, a certain novelty from traveling that way, and not having to battle with Delores. I am in, sign me up.

2010 Review

2010-12-31T17:29:00.004-07:00

I did this survey a couple years ago. For some reason I remembered it today on the commute to work. Here goes.

Yearly Wrap-Up Survey

1. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?

I joined an ice hockey league and learned how to play - AWESOME
Finally joined the Urban Servant Corps
Went on outreach
Had my heart broken by my work

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolution?

Oh heck to the no. Are you supposed to?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

§ Nope

4. Did anyone close to you die?

§ Actually yesterday I just found out that one of the most awesome volunteers I work with died suddenly. Eleanor, we all miss you.

5. What countries did you visit?

§ None this year

6. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?

§ Responsibility in handling financial details

7. What date from 2010 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

§ March 9, 2010 - Shoulder surgery

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

§ Joining the Urban Servant Corps, living in intentional community, stretching and growing

9. What was your biggest failure?

§ There was a problem that I could have moved faster to address

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

§ I tore the labrum in my right shoulder about 180% and my bicep tendon was coming off the bone as well as ripping down the middle.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

§ Uhh, right now I am a big fan of the phone I got as a hand-me-down from Cherica. I guess the technical answer is my iPod touch.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

§ Pastor Karol - she is a rock star who dealt with some really tough questions in a way that I admire. I might not agree with the outcome, but the process and the hurt and the questions she addressed and the conversations she facilitated.... Someday maybe I'll be cool like her. I hope so.

14. Where did most of your money go?

§ Hockey gear, and immediately after that, medical expenses.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Joining USC
Finally taking steps to move towards going to seminary

16. What song will always remind you of 2010?

§ Tik Tok by Ke$ha, I can't believe I admitted that

17. Are you...

A. Happier or sadder? Happier

B. Richer or poorer? Poorer, by choice!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

§ Hockey

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

§ Avoidance

20. How did you spend Christmas?

§ I spent christmas eve being a torch-bearer at St. Paul Lutheran Church, christmas day with my family in Arvada, the next several days in Montrose w/ the Grandparents, Kansas contingent, and immediate family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2010?

§ Nope

23. What was your favorite TV program?

§ Bones, hands down.

25. What was the best book you read?

§ The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

§ Daft Punk

27. What did you want and get?

§ I wanted to escape from my job at a grocery store making sure that people had all 30 choices of Ranch and moved into a place where I feel like I actually have an impact.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

§ Iron Man 2

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

§ I turned 28, watched Harry Potter the night before and had my favorite dinner ever.

30. What would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

§ Trying to not play God, and being happy with that.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010?

§ Is it clean? Is it comfortable? Ok, that works.

32. What kept you sane?

§ Great friends.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

§ Probably the repeal of 'Don't Ask Don't Tell"

35. Who did you miss?

§ I miss Sara, I wish that she was closer and we could hang out more often.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

§ Uhh, all the other volunteers. I can't pick one.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010:

§ I'm not in charge, I don't control other people.

38. What travel plans do you have for 2011? Which ones are you the most excited about?

§ No plans yet. Perhaps a move to Chicago is in my future?

40. Which season are you looking forward to the most this year? Why?

§ I have no idea. Potential adventures in all of them I guess.

41. What are some things you'd like to do in 2011, but haven't officially planned for yet?

§ skydiving would be nice

42. Do you anticipate any major changes in 2011, such as a new home, job, family life, etc.?

One more niece or nephew! Coming early August.
August will bring a whole lot of changes actually, new home, new job, learning to live w/ out my 5&9 community, etc.

USC: One Month In

2010-10-07T11:15:00.004-07:00

Wow, so much for the weekly updates huh?

Urban Servant Corps, community living, job site training and day-to-day, this is an EXPERIENCE. I don't really know how else to describe it. It is an amazing, frustrating, humbling, joyful, heartbreaking, building experience. Every day is a distinct roller coaster ride of emotions where you can be happy and excited for a person one minute and the next heartbroken and despairing about the world and society as a whole ignoring or downplaying or refusing to help our neighbors. Ok, it's not really minute to minute. It's here and there. Some days will obviously be more positive than others, some days will be more challenging.

Highlights: I've been blessed to get to know some great people. Volunteers, participants, all sorts of people. Today I heard an amazing story of a landlord who returned a check to the church not because the individual had been evicted, but because he spoke with her and decided to work with her on his own. His exact words? "Give the money to another person". That is cool.

Lowlights: It's a hard lesson to recognize that you cannot help everyone... it's impossible. I have seen for the first time a writ of restitution. How does one explain the connotations of that to someone sitting across the table?

Overall: I have been incredibly blessed to be a part of this. The community I live in, the people I serve, it's amazing. Every day I am asked to jump headfirst into whatever I am working on for the day. Some days it feels like I'm jumping into a kiddie pool, but I love it none the less.

USC Week One: Oriented Yet?

2010-09-05T10:05:00.012-07:00

Wow, a week! That was fast, and slow, and impossibly long, and really really short. I have known my housemates for technically only a week now, seven days. That is not a long time but here, we have bonded. The house started out with eight people, and (not unsurprisingly) we have a myriad of backgrounds and perspectives and experiences. We laugh a lot, we play games and drink, we plan pranks and gather around the dinner table. The week truly was action packed, so I'll give you a quick day-by-day, but don't expect this for every week! That just isn't going to happen :)

Day 1 (Sun) - Total whirlwind of activity, moving in, meeting everybody. That was quickly followed by answering the same questions again & again. Where are you from? Where did you go to college? What house are you living in? What are your placement sites? It was a little bit overwhelming, a lot crazy, and super fun.

Day 2 (Mon) - Today's buzzword: intentional community. There's an interesting style of facilitation, I'm often reminding myself to participate. Today I got to check out the HRAC, that's an intense orientation. Beers in the backyard led to some fun conversation and the creation of a quote book.

Day 3 (Tue) - So we are touring around different places that volunteers will be serving in the afternoons. It's amazing and awe inspiring to see the passion of people touring different sites. Today we found out that one of our housemates is leaving. Sad sad day, just wasn't working.

Day 4 (Wed) - After touring HRAC for a second time I am very excited to go to work there. Worked on all the Americorps paperwork in the morning. Americorps has this awesome pledge, and crazy rules.

Day 5 (Thu) - Workshop on feedback, I wasn't impressed but that wasn't the point. More tours of placement sites, it's amazing how all of these places work together and refer clients to others services and are so interconnected. D took off. :( sad. Almost called you to be a part of the house meeting!

Day 6 (Fri) - The most emotionally draining and involved day by far. Today we shared our faith stories/journeys with our housemates. I feel privileged and in awe that in 5 days we have been able to come together as a community, to create a safe space that people can share this deeply personal aspect of their lives with one another.

Oh yeah! We got paid our first months stipend! You can talk about seventy-five dollars, and try to imagine it, and rationalize it all you want. When you are holding those 5 bills in your hand the reality hits you pretty fast. SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. FOR ONE MONTH. REALLY? How's this going to work?

T minus One Day: Urban Servant Corps

2010-08-25T21:08:00.005-07:00

Here it goes. Tomorrow starts a whole new adventure/phase of life/something seemingly really (impossibly?) large. A year of volunteer service with the Urban Servant Corps. I am honestly having a hard time putting my thoughts down into something coherent and readable, so there are the four main questions I will attempt to answer tonight.

What is it?/What will I be doing?: According to the website, the Urban Servant Corps (USC) is a one-year, full-time Lutheran volunteer program involved in ministries serving inner-city Denver. Volunteers are placed with non-profits, so this year I will be working with two organizations, the St. Paul Local Assistance Ministry, and the Harm Reduction Action Center. As part of the experience I will be living w/ other volunteers as part of an intentional christian community.

Why am I doing this?: It's a funny story actually. The short version is that I am somehow supposed to, don't ask me why or how, but I just know. Longer version, I knew someone a long time ago who participated and encouraged me to do the same. Then, when I moved to Montana the pastor up there said 'Hey, you should think about doing this'. Moved to New Jersey, moved back to Colorado and a pastor here said the exact same thing. Don't worry, I picked up the message this time and applied. :)

Overall, this year accomplishes several things for me:

My philosophy and approach to life is very simple: Have fun, do good. This is a great way to intentionally do this, apply my philosophy in the most direct way possible.
There are a lot of problems and challenges facing us today that I have no experience or even baseline knowledge of. How can I participate in discussions and help work for a solution if I know nothing about the subjects? (homelessness, poverty, etc.)
I want to live intentionally this year. (More on that later, probably)

Any questions/expectations going in?: I think that the questions I face going in are the same that everybody faces, or is thinking about right now. Pretty basic including, what did I sign up to do? Am I out of my mind? What are the other volunteers going to be like? Expectations, I'm trying to intentionally stay pretty blank on this one.

I just want to say a quick thank you to all the people who are supporting me this year. Your thoughts and prayers are welcome. I'm hoping to post a USC related post about once a week on average. I was thinking about doing posts about community life, the organizations I will be working in, and the fabulous volunteers I'll be getting to know a lot better. If you have any questions, comments or ideas I'd love to hear them!

Cheers,

An Event I Wish I Was There For...

2010-07-27T03:55:00.006-07:00

So this past Sunday was a big, big, awesome deal. A moment waited for and prayed for and about that was years in the making. What's that? You don't really follow events in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) or issues regarding gay partnered clergy? That's ok, I'll tell you about it!

So, for a while 'teh gays' have been allowed to serve as ordained ministers in the ELCA, but only if they were celibate. Some were and not and actually were removed from the roster. (The roster is a list of all ordained people in the denomination, they can be called by a church, preside over a worship service, etc., etc.) Others were just never allowed on the roster. So after a monumental vote now GLBT folks who are in long-term, monogamous, committed relationships can be called and ordained. Important side note here: It is still the church calling their pastor. If they don't want to call someone who happens to be gay they don't have to.

Anyway, it's been all over the news. The New York Times did a story on it. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/us/26lutheran.html?_r=1 The Washington Post did a story on it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072402243.html And they had this amazing service to welcome and receive/reinstate seven of these folks in the San Francisco area. For the video portion of todays post I am thrilled to bring you the sermon from the event, preached by Denver's own Nadia Bolz-Weber, from House for All Sinners and Saints. I know it's in three parts. They are short, don't worry about it. Plus, on a really cool side note, she lays out so eloquently what I love about... well... all of it. Enjoy! :)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Thanks to Megan Rohrer for posting the videos!

and oh yeah, if you want to see the official site of this event HERE it is

Have You Laughed Out Loud Today?

2010-07-16T06:49:00.003-07:00

If not, this should help.

The things that I find for your random enjoyment. Really. What? I work hard at it! All for you. :) Also, I highly recommend watching the full show, find it on Hulu.

You! Back to Work!

2010-07-08T10:18:00.002-07:00

Went back to work last week. After finally being released from physical therapy and by the surgeon. On the plus side the whole process of surgery and recovery only took four months instead of the six originally anticipated. Still, four months of not working is quite a bit, especially when the workplace is pretty physical. So the shoulder is holding up well, I still baby it a little bit, but that's ok, we'll get there. I'm very fortunate that my schedule is set up the way it is, I only work three days in a row maximum, and that's perfect because I need rest on that fourth day!

Here's another fun video for you:

So Cool

2010-06-15T09:07:00.004-07:00

I love this song, and this video. I think I've watched it at least 3 times today. So I'm going to share the joy with you.

Also, for the record, I don't usually get into soccer/football/whatever.

I suggest this...

2010-06-11T16:27:00.002-07:00

You Know How I Know?

2010-05-24T21:01:00.004-07:00

Do you know how I know that it is now summer? It's not, as my brother suggests, the first sighting of Mormons on their bikes. It's not the sudden green. It's the beers :) Specifically one beer, Buffalo Bills Orange Blossom Cream Ale. This beer is.... awesome, tasty, make you smile and instantly relax good. In addition to all of those things and much more it's also really hard to locate for most of the year. So when you see it at the store, as I did today, you buy it, even if you don't want to drink it right away. So ladies and gentleman, and whomever else may be reading. Welcome to summer. Go, find this beer, enjoy it, and be happy.

This happens to be the beer that I'm drinking tonight. Also, very good beer. This is going on the buy again list. The ginger provides a really good crisp clean taste and it is tasty. Also, it's Left Hand Brewing! Woot woot for Colorado brewers!

Something Bumpy (in my knee)

2010-05-12T21:00:00.003-07:00

Check out this awesome xray! How cool are xrays? Really. Supercool that's what. The only problem here is that odd broken up bit below the kneecap. Almost looks like a second kneecap? That's my knee! That broken up bit is, against all looks, not a problem. Just wanted to share. That's all.

The interesting thing here is of course that my knee, which doesn't bother me is a WAY cooler xray than my shoulder. Huh, funny that.

No Contradictions Allowed, Sometimes.

2010-05-01T20:40:00.005-07:00

I found this great video at the Life in Sodom blog. The speed rounds are particularly funny. :) That and the "commercials" they show. Not quite sure about the end though.

The Bear Party

2010-04-29T07:29:00.002-07:00

Here's a novel idea, presented by a bear. Think I might give his proposition a go. :)

Column A, B, and C Please

2010-01-12T11:27:00.007-07:00

Here's something thought provoking:

http://admiralofmorality.blogspot.com/2009/08/lay-of-land.html#links

Here's something silly: (and a bit disturbing too)

(I do wish they had subtitles)

Here's something actually from me:

Been doing a lot of thinking this week. Had a good conversation with the Candidacy and Leadership specialist in NJ. I think it boils down to I have to move. Maybe Denver, maybe Durango, maybe Montrose, maybe NJ. I'm not sure right now. Hockey is starting next Sunday, I'm really excited about that. Should be lots of fun.

New Year

2010-01-05T11:59:00.003-07:00

Welcome to the new year.

A lot of things happened in the past year, here are some of my personal high- and low-lights. Broke my back, remember that? I do when I forget to do sit-ups every day. Ran my first 5k, that was cool. Revolutionized the climbing tower program at the camp I was at, then got fired from said camp. Came back to Colorado! To Gunnison, (eh... we'll decide if that was bad or good ultimately later) Broke up with S. Maybe I'll write more about that at a later date. Don't hold your breath.

This year should be cool. I'm excited about it. So far things are good, I have a place to live, I have a job, heck, I even have health benefits that are so affordable I can go to the doctor! Big plans too, soon hockey is starting and I will be learning how to play. Looking forward to that. I'm going to take piano lessons. I'm going to screw up my courage and faith and apply to the candidacy process within the ELCA. If all goes well then I'm off to seminary. For what may be the first time ever I even made some resolutions for the new year:

Turn off my computer EVERY time I leave the house, and unplug it.
Eat about 10 vegetarian meals a week. I figure this will help me reduce my carbon footprint and introduce more veggies and good things into what I'm eating. (Side note: produce department at City Market makes some BOMB stuffed portabella caps)
Walk everywhere in Gunnison. (Exceptions for when hauling hockey gear and the such)
Two 5k's for me this year. One hopefully out of state.
Post a blog once a week.

So there. If you're interested. I'm thinking about offering a reward to those who catch me deviating too far from the well intentioned path I'm taking. Remember though, it's not the letter of the resolution here that matters, it's the overall movement.

Peace!

Something Funny For You

2009-10-05T13:51:00.002-07:00

Watch this. All the way through. It's worth it, and you know you want to.

So I Moved

2009-10-02T12:16:00.003-07:00

I moved. Back to Colorado. It wasn't really my idea truth be told. But I'm really glad that I am back. If there is anything that I miss about New Jersey it's my church family. If I could, I would totally fly back just for Sunday morning. Well, that and Dunkin' Donuts. It's a bit creepy how much I miss Dunkin' Donuts.

In other news, it's odd returning to the place that I left. I did a lot of growing up here. Had a lot of experiences. It's weird to go back to those places and see other people growing up too. For example, I was at the bar last night and I ended up hanging out with some people I knew as freshman coming into college. Now they are getting ready to graduate and legal to drink. Wow.

Slow Posting, Just Like My Running

2009-08-06T15:14:00.003-07:00

It finally happened. I ran my first ever 5k race. Whew! I've never really understood the phrase "run until you feel like puking" until that day. And I'm proud to report that I not only experienced that feeling but kept going. So here's a quick synopsis of the race in photos:

So here we are. The three people from camp who decided to spend an evening of our weekend off running. For fun. For glory. For plaques! (that part is coming up)

It's important to warm up before the run...

Ok. Here we are after the race. I survived! Chaz and I both won first in our age categories. That was exciting. I was really, really excited about the ice treat.

This is pretty much how I felt at the end. So great, in fact, that I'm planning on doing another one in September. Woot!

The Anonymity of the Internets

2009-07-23T19:44:00.003-07:00

What is it about a fairly anonymous environment that encourages people to be total a-holes?

The following is an exact copy of what somebody posted online, playing poker, on the Book of Face no less!:

________

(I enter the room)

David : alex suck ass

David : alex is a jackass

(thinking about posting a reply... I start to type only to be interrupted by this gem)

David : alex is a ass hole

(never mind, I don't even want to go there anymore)

David : so alex how much weed do smoke

David : alex is a ass

(this was every so often, then the total kicker...)

David : alex i will pray for you

(ahhhh!!! WTF? Really?)

David : no come back (< I have no idea what this comment was about)

David : it look like i win the batt

David : but not the war

(Celine enters the room. Poor, unsuspecting, Celine. Notice his sudden change in demeanor, as well as her witty, dare I say flirtatious remarks)

David : hi celine

David : how was your day

David : just find

David : that great

David : so want do like to do

David : i like football and baskball

David : that great

David : so were are you working rigth now

David : think you very much celine for talk to me

(Wait a minute, she hasn't been involved in the conversation. Am I really seeing some crazy guy holding a conversation with himself on a poker room chat? Wow, glad I didn't respond earlier)

David : and may be we can be friend

David : that sound great

David : cool

Alex Stigall: nh

(Celeus enters the room, good luck Celeus!)

David : celeus is a jackass

David : and a hole

David : and a ass hole

David : no come back lose

(Then, in a final coup d'etat)

David : alex do want to be friends

________

Oh the joy. Crazy crazy internet people. I think the only thing crazier than doing this would be to copy the whole thing and post it with comments somewhere else on the internet! Oh wait...

Hanging Out on the Couch

2009-07-10T10:43:00.003-07:00

It's been a long time. Sorry. Things have of course been busy, life certainly gets that way. It's occasionally a question of busy how?

For me it's pretty much busy in a good, if slightly boring way. Work is good, busy. Don't really do much outside of work. My new favorite stress reliever is going for a workout. Recently registered for my first ever running race, a 5k in a nearby city. I'm really nervous, but very excited. A couple of the summer camp people are doing it w/ me.

I'll try to post a story about it when it happens.

Today though, I'm just hanging out on the couch. See, I went for a run this morning, on a trail I haven't been on before and rolled my ankle pretty well. It's huge, brightly colored, and I can't put pressure on it. Doctor said that nothing is broken, so that's good news at least. For right now I'm just going to follow the tried and true RICE method.

Peace out peeps. Hope you are well. Have fun, make people wonder.

An Interesting Article

2009-05-27T16:30:00.002-07:00

Link-y post today.

This is a really great article about the ultimate doom and silliness about Prop 8 in CA.

I didn't even find the article on my own, so I have to tell you about the great place I found the link to it. Uppercase Woman rocks.

One Year

2009-05-23T15:23:00.002-07:00

I realized, a little bit startled, the other day that I have been out of college for one year now.

Wow.

I'll try to put more specific reflections up soon.

Motorcycle Pickup!

2009-04-21T19:22:00.003-07:00

So today was the big day. I got to pick up the motorcycle I bought on Ebay. Big day! Very big day. Very exciting. So here's basically what happened:

S and I went to pick up the truck we borrowed for transport. S's vehicle doesn't have a hitch and it's not like we can put a motorcycle in the back of a Subaru wagon, so we needed something a little bigger. I think she's a bigger fan of the truck than the bike.

In PA we got to fill up the truck. Pretty exciting. It's been months since the last time I actually pumped gas.

This is the nice gentleman I bought the bike from. He even helped us strap it down so it stayed where it was supposed to.

I was/am so excited! I wanted to ride in the back with the motorcycle on the way home but S wouldn't let me. Kill Joy. ;)

The keys to my new ride...

Ready to head back home!

Since S wouldn't let me ride in the bed I thought about riding in the back seat to stare. I mean, make sure the bike wasn't coming loose.

The bike back at camp. Woot woot!

Favorite Video of the Day

2009-04-12T11:51:00.002-07:00

Almost kind of genius. I often find myself asking 'is it a good idea to microwave this?'. Now I know, and you do to.

Warning: Language in this video is not rated G for Girl Scout. So don't whine to me about hearing bad words.

Watch Out...

2009-03-30T10:41:00.001-07:00

You Would Be a Crafty Superhero

You are naturally curious and even a bit of a snoop. You like to have dirt on everyone - both enemies and friends.

You need a lot of freedom in your life. You like to do your own thing, and you don't fit into any normal mold.

You understand people quite well and often know what others are thinking. Because of this, you can get people to do what you want.

You are a shapeshifter who fits in with almost any group. You can get along with anyone. You're quite flexible.

You are a true philosopher. You are thirsty for wisdom. You are trying to figure out the meaning of life.

What Kind of Superhero Would You Be?

Fun Video For You

2009-03-22T18:14:00.001-07:00

Alex Needs...

2009-03-05T07:14:00.003-07:00

Copycat-ing again. Thanks Liz for the great idea. (Link is to blog, actual note was on facebook. I'm lazy, moving on.)

Here's the deal....type your name and the words "needs" into Google and see what comes up! List the top ten in a note...

1. Alex needs more than just a rat trap for this vermin

2. Alex needs your help

3. Alex needs full backing (this is making me feel very needy so far...)

4. Alex needs anger management (this list just took a turn towards the psyco)

5. Alex needs a girlfriend (nuh uh!)

6. Alex needs a lynching mob (for what I'm not quite sure)

7. Alex needs our help (really? really? again with the needy thing?)

8. Alex needs a drummer

9. Alex needs professional help for her anger (wtf?)

10. Alex needs a new horizon (one with real mountains would be nice... or was that just another euphemism for anger management?)

Your turn now! Go for it. Include a link in the comments so I can see your list. Please.

The Joy of Walking

2009-02-16T17:23:00.002-07:00

Today I took a walk. Normally that sentence would not inspire anything for me but today it's special. Not only did I walk, but it was also for half an hour. That's something. That's something big and awesome and great.

Just wanted to share and celebrate with you.

Awesome Video

2009-02-15T12:29:00.003-07:00

Something fun for Sunday afternoon:

(or whenever the heck it is that your reading this post)

Good News!

2009-02-14T08:19:00.005-07:00

At my first day of physical therapy I heard the most wonderful, affirming, caring thing that I've heard in a long time: "This is normal, it will get better". To think that I had wasted all that energy, all that time practically obsessing about what that silly doctor said about "it should be healed by now" and "I don't know why you're still in pain". Ha. So the physical therapist is cool, I'm armed and ready to go with some great stretching/good moving mechanics exercises to do at home and I'm feeling this fog of grey lifting from my psyche. I think the two biggest things getting to me have been not being able to work out, and not being able to do the job I love. Sure I'm back at work, but it's never been my dream job to collate and staple.

It seems another topic that continues to run through my head is Outward Bound, particularly my first summer there. In between training sessions we would play those silly 'what sort of (insert thing here) would you be', like, office supplies, for example. LC's had to be on the ball and super organized so that was a natural one. I always chose sharpies because I tend to organize things for myself with different colors of ink. I found this cool quiz at blogthings. Apparently I am not sharpies, pbbbbth.

You Are a Coffee Mug

You have loads of energy and stamina. You can zip through the most boring of tasks with complete enthusiasm.

You are also great at motivating a group. You are a fearless leader.

You are efficient and productive. You don't put off tasks or procrastinate. You actually enjoy working.

You would make a good small business owner or startup employee. If a job requires blood, sweat, and tears - then you have some to give.

What Office Supply Are You?

Photo Update

2009-02-03T20:22:00.005-07:00

I haven't posted cool photos in a little while. So I guess here is a quick photo update, kinda. Some of the photos are from a while ago. Here you go:

Look! It's an extenda guinea pig!

Tee Hee

This is what the bruise eventually ended up looking like. I know what you're thinking, great pants right? Anyway, it's pretty much gone now.

So the last post I wrote I was talking about beer. Well, I found a pretty great one. At first it freaked me out because it's a stout in a can. But hey, I don't have to be that kind of a beer snob, and who could resist a can that looks like that?!?

BTW- I am officially putting out the notice, if someone can find a way to (legally) send me an Nefarious Ten Pin, I will not only love them forever but also... I dunno what I'll do. It's negotiable I guess. But it'll be big.

Oh yeah! This is post number 200! Woot!

Things I Miss About Colorado

2009-02-01T16:06:00.002-07:00

Perusing the selection at our local Bottle King today I realized that there are so many things I miss about Colorado. Things like my family, the mountains, snow that's actually fun, etc. etc., the list continues. This post is not about those things. This post is about the beers I miss most.

(BTW- I tried to list them preferentially, but it's hard)

Ska Brewing Company:

Nefarious Ten Pin Imperial Porter (Different than ten pin & more preferred)
Pinstripe Red Ale
Ten Pin Porter
Steel Toe Stout
True Blonde

New Belgium Brewery:

1554
Trippel
Sunshine Wheat
Fat Tire
Skinny Dip
2 Below

Avery:

Karma

Breckenridge Brewery:

Oatmeal Stout
Vanilla Porter
Agave Wheat
Avalanche Ale

Durango Brewing Company:

Durango Wheat Beer

Estes Park Brewery:

Stinger Wild Honey Wheat

Fort Collins Brewery:

Retro Red
Chocolate Stout

Gunnison Brewery:

Evil Rabbit

Left Hand Brewing:

Sawtooth Ale
Milk Stout
Haystack Wheat

Heck, I'll even mention some good Montana beer, I can't buy it out here anyway.

Red Lodge Ales:

Hefeweizen
Glacier Ale
Porter
Chocolate Stout

Male? Female? Does it Matter?

2009-01-28T17:33:00.002-07:00

I saw this over at Emerging Women, pretty funny if you ask me.

My blog is guessed as this:

We think http://chaoticadventuresofalex.blogspot.com is written by a woman (84%).

Revision Spiral is guessed as this:

We think http://revisionspiral.blog-city.com is written by a man (66%).

Midgebop this:

We think http://midgebop.blog-city.com is written by a man(85%).

What do you think?

ba da dum da da dum da da dam dum da da....

2009-01-26T18:35:00.000-07:00

My Favorite Inauguration Twitters

2009-01-20T09:05:00.002-07:00

While watching the inauguration coverage I decided it would be fun to hit update as often as possible and read the twitter updates, here are some of my favorites:

ponk Ahhh, finally. The White House is getting a brazilian to get rid of that nasty Bush.

aaffleck More people will watch this than the finale of MASH. Hope this one ends better

For full impact, Obama should be chased onstage for his swearing in by thousands of screaming teenage girls ala "A Hard Day's Night"

lsaldanamd Ultimate test of our country's bandwidth/infrastructure.

jedinite216 as i watch the hubbub today -- i am struck bny the fact that papa bush looks like The Penguin from Batman

joshhalljourno I want to hear more about this 27yr old 'Whizz-kid' who co-writes Obama speeches and coined 'Yes We Can

jasonryoung People already chanting Obama-it's as if he a savior-a little much I think

earmstrong Think its cool to see Obama kids with their own cameras capturing history from their perspective.

mantene Booing? That is not very classy people. :( I know you don't like him but let's be classy

ohsnapitskyle EXCITEMENT BUILDING. THIS IS COOL AS FUCK. Also, excitement building is my new name for the White House.

iggyp For the first time in a very long time, I am very proud to be an American. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

MommyCosm whenever they show the view of the crowds from the podium, all I can say is WOW

mvwilliams Ah heck! Don't make me cry! watching Obama walk out, ittybitty flags waving. Looks like an Impressionist painting as you look down the Mall.

jtoeman i keep getting this weird feeling that something important is happening today... something about a mall... must be a big sale somewhere? hmm

acepero Cheney out. Biden in. One down, one to go.

clindsey They might be running late, but Barack Obama is now President of the United States, as it is noon.

tenebris It's official: almost the entire office has come out to watch the inauguration happen. And this is why I love working here. Pie and TV!

qoolquest did cnn just ruin this shit by announcing barack is technically president now that its 12? aka now that we are running 4 mins late?

Azimel Dammit. Is anyone ripping the inauguration properly? I really want what was just being played on .mp3.

davidalexanderm Awwww, he's nervous!

Tougelabs And he's fucking shit up already.

AddictedToSoda So this is how Liberty dies, with thunderous applause.

travitt The era of competence and complete sentences has begun.

eliesheva the question is whether our government works

AaronsBooks man can he speak or what??? think GWB knows he and his governance are being dissed in this speech.. or is it too over his head? :)

ArtMusingsNY whoah, did non-believers just receive a shout out?

supereric "...what you can build, not what you destroy." "... unclench your fist". Brilliant!

NicMcPhee Curiosity as a key American virtue?!? Makes me want to go teach a class!

nickfranklin Ok. Now. Let's get to work.

cpedraza @JesseNewhart "Take out your pencils and begin"

Justin_Boggs So far the closing prayer is far better than the opening one.

jogarzon Good luck Obama!

Big Invisible Gauge

2009-01-19T15:22:00.001-07:00

I think that I may have figured out how to work this injury thing. Not how the injury works, mind you. That's way out of my league. Just how I can work with some of the limitations given to me. I see it this way.

Every day, I get a certain amount of what I call 'up time'. This is the time available to me to be standing or walking around. The time (as far as I can tell) follows a couple basic rules:

Time available each day is for that day only. There are no rollover minutes.
There is no set amount of time for each day. It's an injury, not an ATM that will automatically dispense a set number of minutes.
I have no idea how much time I will have each day, however I can try to influence the next day from today
My attempts don't always work
This time is undefinable. There is no way of knowing how much exactly remains.

Basically it's this. Anytime that I stand up or walk around I can feel and see this huge gauge above my head, the needle sliding so constantly towards empty.

Not Quite Confidence Boost

2009-01-14T09:13:00.002-07:00

GERMANY – Police say flames have torn through a firehouse in a north German town causing damage of €3 million ($4 million).

The fire broke out at 4:30 a.m. Sunday in the town of Syke and destroyed six fire trucks.

Authorities say the cause is not yet known and is under investigation.

Editor’s note: The Austrian Times reports that the group of firefighters have been branded the world’s worst after their own fire station burned to the ground.

All six of the station’s fire engines perished in the blaze in Syke and it took 250 fireman from neighboring towns to finally get the inferno under control.

Investigators believe the firemen could have triggered the blaze themselves in a training exercise accident or that faulty wiring was to blame, according to reports in the Austrian Times.

The weekend blaze was the second time the brigade has lost all its engines in a fire. The station was rebuilt in 1994 after being gutted by a fire.

One local said: “A fire service that can’t keep its own fire station and engines safe doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”

Fracture Tramp Stamp -or- I Promise I'm Not Into Pain

2009-01-07T15:16:00.009-07:00

Transverse spine fracture in the L2 & L3 vertebrae

That's what I did today. Basically it went like this. It was raining this morning, and a little bit chilly. Last night S told me to be careful when walking outside because the rain was freezing on the grass. So when I was walking out of the house this morning I checked the stairs for ice. 'Nope' I thought to myself, 'its just wet from the rain'. WRONG WRONG WRONG. Of course, I didn't have time to think that to myself as I went flying down and back on to the three concrete stairs. It was chaos. My jacket was in one place, my backpack another, my iPod a third, the concrete graciously caught my coffee for me but the yogurt I would be finding all over everything for a large part of the morning. I had managed to roll myself to my hands and knees without crying too much somehow when fortunately a co-worker came out of the house (without falling) and helped me up. So I go to the Emergency Room, hang out for a couple of hours (all the cool kids were taking falls today), get looked at, get some great painkillers, get a CT Scan, hang out some more. When the doctor finally came back he said. "I don't want to tell you that you broke your back, but you did fracture this". I think it's a pretty rare injury too, the home care instructions aren't even for my specific injury, just one that's close. So yeah. On Friday I get to see an orthopedist. I'll keep everybody posted, but in the meantime, I have visual aids for everybody.

This is the spine. As you can see the lumbar region is also known as your lower back.

My ouch points are specifically the L2 & L3.

(This picture is an above view of a vertebrae. The spinous process is what you feel if you're feeling up somebody's backbone.)

From what I understand, fracturing your transverse process doesn't really somehow count as 'breaking your back'. I don't know why, don't ask me. The transverse process is the shark fin looking thing on either side of the vertebrae. I broke the left hand side ones.

This little bruise is located right in the middle of my back. I'm currently referring to it as the fracture tramp stamp.

New Couch and a Nice Walk

2009-01-04T19:08:00.004-07:00

It's been a really good weekend around here. Camp decided to make S's apartment a 'furnished' place and replace the couch. I know that this one looks pretty amazing. You might even be asking yourself, why does she need a new one?

Well, this is why a new couch is really important. See, the couch used to be a pull out, it used to be kind of comfortable. Then little critters invaded the apartment and instead of taking any risks S decided to trash the pullout mattress. Leaving the couch looking a little something like this.

WARNING: THIS COUCH EATS PEOPLE

So camp, having recently received a very nice gift card from a furniture store sent us to check out a couch. This isn't the one we got, but I'll post a picture for you as soon as we get it later this week.

The other thing we got to do this weekend was take a nice hike with Aspen.

This view is one of my favorites, a great view, wide open spaces. Almost reminds me of home.

Awwwwwww...

2008 Wrap-Up

2009-01-01T11:09:00.001-07:00

Last year I did the same survey. Maybe it's becoming a tradition?

Yearly Wrap-Up Survey

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?

§ Traveled to 3 Natl. Parks: Yellowstone, Grand Teton & Glacier

§ Lived in Montana

§ Moved to New Jersey

§ Joined a church

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolution?

I don’t know if I had a new years resolution. Soooo…..maybe?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

§ My sister Vicki, Mackenzie Kate Sullivan

§ My cousin Heather, Graham Snow

4. Did anyone close to you die?

§ No, fortunately.

5. What countries did you visit?

§ Jamaica

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

§ Health insurance

§ Work classified as more than seasonal

7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

§ May 10^th- Graduated college

§ November 4^th- Election of Barack Obama to the Presidency

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

§ Helped create and put in place the Campus Programming Grant

9. What was your biggest failure?

§ I still haven’t bought a motorcycle…

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

§ Who hasn’t?

11. What was the best thing you bought?

§ The plane ticket back to Colorado for Christmas

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

§ Sara’s new bold approach to work

14. Where did most of your money go?

§ Probably to fuel for the vehicle, or Jamaica

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

§ Finding and working at my dream job.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

§ ‘The future has arrived’ from Meet the Robinsons

17. Are you...

A. Happier or sadder? Happier

B. Richer or poorer? I dunno

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

§ Responding

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

§ Reacting

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

§ With my family in Colorado. Unfortunately sans girlfriend.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008?

§ Ooh yeah, fly fishing baby

23. What was your favorite TV program?

§ Probably a tie between Bones and House

25. What was the best book you read?

§ Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

§ Ozomatli

27. What did you want and get?

§ Living close to my girlfriend instead of several states away

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

§ Meet the Robinsons

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

§ I went bowling with friends from Camp Bernie. 26.

30. What would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

§ The traveling adventures I had

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

§ Will it annoy my mother? Yes? Then it’s great.

32. What kept you sane?

§ I’m sane?

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

§ CA’s prop 8

35. Who did you miss?

§ My family and friends in Colorado

36. Who was the best new person you met?

§ Ryan D. – Thanks for keeping me sane in MT and quoting the late great George Carlin

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:

§ It’s never too late

38. What travel plans do you have for 2009? Which ones are you the most excited about?

§ None yet. I am excited about the possibilities though

40. Which season are you looking forward to the most this year? Why?

§ I’m looking forward to summer. My first year at a mixed gender camp.

41. What are some things you'd like to do in 2009, but haven't officially planned for yet?

§ Sea Kayaking trip

§ Backpacking trip

§ Hopefully go home for Cherica’s graduation

42. Do you anticipate any major changes in 2009, such as a new home, job, family life, etc.?

§ Possibly a new job. But we’ll see how the economy holds up. Maybe going to grad school?

Random Christmas Quiz Time!

2008-12-25T17:05:00.002-07:00

Your Christmas is Unique

Your wish for the New Year is more happiness.

For you, Christmas is a spiritual holiday. You can't separate it from your beliefs.

You are patient when it comes to Christmas. You don't celebrate too early, and you don't like seeing holiday decorations in October.

Christmas traditions aren't all that important to you. You participate in the few you like.

You have some preferred ways of celebrating Christmas, but you're open to compromise.

You enjoy Christmas, but you find it to be a bit of a burden at times.

You try to give as much as possible during the holidays. You are quite generous.

What Does Your Christmas Say About You?

You Are Socks!

Cozy and warm... but easily lost.

You make a good puppet.

What Crappy Christmas Gift Are You?

Ha Ha Ha!

2008-12-09T17:35:00.001-07:00

Check this out. Baby Jesus is liveblogging.

Thanks to MadPriest for the link

Visiting Family Fun

2008-12-06T21:41:00.005-07:00

So, my Mom and little brother Jon flew into New York for the weekend. I was able to drive up and hang out with them. Fun times all round. Plans for the day included some christmas shopping and instead of saying, "wait a minute, maybe we should take two cars" we decided to take one. That decision meant the opportunity to squish in the car and try take fun pictures.

Just in case you haven't ever 'met' him, this is my littlest brother Jon. He is now taller than me. I'm kind of bummed about that. Jon and I are 14 years apart in age, the year I graduated from high school he graduated from pre-school.

For the last picture of today, I present an attempt to dress my niece. The onesie didn't quite fit on her head and I was laughing too hard to do anything but take a picture. Then, making sure that she didn't fall off the table I texted it to my sister. Her text back? "Step Away". It was fabulous. Obviously she wasn't too worried or she would have busted into that place in a heartbeat.

You know you think it's cute, and funny. Enjoy.

Gay Marriage Can Save the Economy

2008-12-04T20:39:00.002-07:00

Great video I found surfing around the net tonight...

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

NPH is great!

Wednesdays Are Hard

2008-12-03T21:31:00.002-07:00

Grumpy tonight.

Some days feel like this...

Ah well, tomorrow is another day. Sleep sounds good right now.

Peace, love and hot buttered biscuits,

Alex

Just Thought It Was Cool...

2008-11-22T18:32:00.005-07:00

I'm considering the possibility that I abuse the power of three periods in a row '...'. More on that later.

Tonight randomly searching the web I found a cool news story that I thought I would share. First, Take a gander at this proud soldier:

Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce you to Gen. Dunwoody. She is the first female four-star general EVER in the United States Army. Even cooler than that though are some of the quotes:

"There is no one more surprised than I — except, of course, my husband. You know what they say, 'Behind every successful woman there is an astonished man.' " Lieutenant General Ann Dunwoody

I'm Tired

2008-11-21T16:15:00.002-07:00

What a week. Yipes. I'm almost done.

My PersonalDNA

2008-11-16T19:12:00.007-07:00

Apparently I am a 'Benevolent Inventor'.

Check this personality thing out, it's pretty cool.

If you think you know me then try the 'psych me!' thingy. (click it, I dare you)

page 56

2008-11-15T14:16:00.003-07:00

I saw this over at the Swandive.

Rules:

Grab the book nearest you. right now.
Turn to page 56.
Find the 5th sentence.
Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog (or facebook wall).
Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, or the most intellectual, use the CLOSEST.

"Suddenly ordinary people could get the benefit of computing without being programmers."

The World is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman

Oddly enough, I haven't picked up this book in a while. It was the closest because my family just sent some more things from Colorado and box (still mostly unpacked) is in the living room.

Big Suprise & A New Addition

2008-11-09T20:20:00.004-07:00

I came home tonight and Sara was all sorts of giddy about some crazy thing. Apparently she spent a decent part of the day researching my birthday present. Lucky me she is worse than I am at keeping surprises. So I got my birthday present much earlier than I thought I would. I would like to introduce you to Divot, he is a baby guinea pig.

I'm super excited. Obviously.

This whole crazy idea happened when I met my friends baby guinea pig a little while ago. He is so awesome and so much fun! The guinea pig in the last picture is my friends, he is actually litter mates with Divot so we are going to arrange plenty of play dates.

If You're Tired at the End Then You Probably Did it Right

2008-11-07T21:10:00.007-07:00

Tonight YMCA Camp Bernie hosted it's annual fall festival. It's basically your standard family fun thing complete with a haunted hike, apple cidering, pumpkin hunt, and a chance to climb the tower in the dark. It was a long day, most of us worked from 8am-11pm with maybe an hour break each. At the end we were of course tired, but it was worth it.

This was the set up for the pumpkin hunt. I was curious about how popular it would be with such a simple precept. Find a pumpkin - get a piece of candy. No worries about over-simplicity there, it was a popular activity.

Of course we all jumped at the opportunity to get in costume, here are some of my favorites:

At the end of the night we were wicked exhausted. Fortunately, we have a pretty cool boss and he got us pizza. I think it was a great impression of a zombie pizza party.

Oh yeah, there were some pretty cool pumpkins that got carved up too.

Snowstorm

2008-11-02T20:33:00.002-07:00

There has been some crazy weather out here in joisey. In fact, we had snow. About six inches. In October. While there are still leaves on the trees. Snow and leaves combine to make a really bad mix.

Bad things such as:

Trees falling down.

People digging their cars out. (Reminds me of home a little bit)

Heck, we even had trees on power lines. In fact, the power was out on camp for almost three days. No water, no power, no heat. Good times all round. I'll tell that story later though.

What tools did we have to deal with this? Two snow shovels, three lamps that apparently I am the only one who knew how to light them, some creative thinking skills, and of course our good looks.

Travesties According to Me

2008-10-25T13:20:00.005-07:00

I get the opportunity to work with and teach a lot of different types of students. Most are in elementary or middle school, some have ADD, some are scared of spiders (or any bug for that manner), some have been to other camps and are fully confident in all of the activities I can offer them. Some of the students are from this general area, the kind of suburbia that I grew up in. Occasionally though, we get students direct from the big city, New York.

By the way, it is still completely obvious to anyone that I just moved here when they tell me that the group is "from the city" because I invariably answer "which city?". Apparently their is only one 'city' around here. Whatever.

The last group that I worked with, however challenging and rewarding as it may be was one of the groups from the city. Brooklyn, not that this detail particularly matters. For this group I even got to help run their campfire. You know, sing some songs, make some s'mores, that sort of thing. The biggest challenge of the evening? Not the fact that it's hard to make 120 sixth graders be quiet. No. A large majority of these students (and even teachers and chaperones) had no idea what a campfire/s'more was. Tragic.

So in short, I would say that this past week my greatest accomplishment was introducing city folk to the joy of burned sugar, melted chocolate and graham crackers. That night there was one students expression I hope to never forget, even if he was challenging in every class I taught with that group.

Sounds Tasty

2008-10-12T06:33:00.003-07:00

Rummage Sale!

2008-10-04T19:25:00.003-07:00

Today I had quite the adventure, not only a shopping trip, but a shopping marathon. Normally I'm not the shopping type, but today somehow we managed to shop for about four hours. I was hanging out with a person we'll term 'C' for the next little while. We found some pretty sweet stuff, including this sweater:

I'm telling you, this sale was the holy grail of all things kitchy. Who needs fine art in your bathroom when you can have something as great as this?

In addition to kitchy things there were also multiples of just about everything, check out the insane amounts of little play stations:

Trivial Pursuit anybody? Don't worry about not enough playing cards. With 13 sets we can keep, oh, say, an entire football team occupied for a decent amount of time.

To finish off the tour of random and odd things, here is a sketchy creepy doll that I found. I don't know if you can read the label on the tag, the first time I read it I thought it said "... needs new balls". When in fact it reads "... needs new batts", as in batteries. I don't even want to know what this thing can do when it's charged up.

I Love My Job!

2008-09-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

So if I haven't written about it before, big things have been happening in life lately. I didn't ever go back to Colorado, I purposely missed my plane back and stayed here. It's a good thing to because I got a job. If I had gone back I wouldn't have the money to come back out. This not only means that #1-I am now employed. #2-I've been living out of my suitcase for the past 3 weeks.

My job is great. Technically my title is Program Associate, but it's almost like two jobs in one. During the school year I teach outdoor education classes with groups that come in, during the summer it's a residential camp. The groups typically are in 5th or 6th grade, but college students also participate. Some groups come for the day, come stay for a couple nights. So far my favorite activity would probably be the night hike, it's a good time. Lots of really cool activities that people have fun doing and also are able to learn cool things. Today I shadowed the outdoor survival class, that is where the picture comes in today. I'll try to get more pictures posted up of camp. It might take a little while, so you've been warned.

A Sense of Accomplishment

2008-09-20T18:53:00.002-07:00

Today I was sitting on the couch bored and decided to make bread. It's a tasty thing no doubt. It also happens to be a dense tasty thing. Perhaps next time I'll mix in some standard white flour instead of using only the whole wheat flour.

In other news I feel the need for outside socialization. I enjoy hanging out with the people that I work with, but it's not a bad thing to try to have a life outside of camp. Right?

The challenges:

Anywhere away from camp takes approximately 20 minutes to get to
I don't have a car
Sara's car, when I can use it gets really bad gas milage
The ever present lack of funds issue

Any suggestions?

For The Record

2008-09-19T14:18:00.003-07:00

I will never, ever, ever go to an optometrist that refuses to spell the word Doctor correctly.

Driving Frustrations

2008-09-07T21:54:00.002-07:00

I'm visiting friends on the eastern area of the country right now. My little sister lives in New York, a friend is currently based out of Maryland. Where I am, New Jersey, is a convenient place right in the middle. Now if only I could get used to things like paying for driving on certain roads, roads being named three different things, roads that curve constantly but there is no hope of seeing twenty feet off the road because of the density of growth. I have been lost four times in the last two days. The worst part? Today I didn't even know what state I was in. So. Incredibly. Frustrating. Particularly when my special lady friend could only laugh at me when I told her what was going on. Tomorrow? Headed out again. Oh happy day, more driving.

Pictures From National Park Fun

2008-08-31T23:09:00.003-07:00

Quick Update

2008-08-21T21:02:00.003-07:00

So for an update, I'm still out and about wandering. In fact now is when I'm going to fill in the basics.

Over a sweet three week period I get to travel and see some beautiful people and National Parks. Here's what has been going on so far.

Yellowstone:

Yes, they are both totally cliched photo's. I'll put up better one's later.

Next stop - Grand Teton:

The best part? I get to spend it with my awesome (& cute) girlfriend!

What I Can Do

2008-08-13T22:37:00.004-07:00

What can you do with an afternoon, three dollars, orange spray paint and the powder from about ten shotgun shells? Well, aren't you lucky? You get to see.

Today was AWESOME! I got to learn how to shoot real live "don't point at anything you're not willing to destroy" guns, that was fun. Here's a couple pictures:

Yup. That is what happens to Jager bottles people put in recycling. Today at least.

I shoot them.

Just messing around.

Oh Duct Tape... How Useful Thou Art

2008-08-12T22:32:00.001-07:00

I was going to upload only this picture. Then I realized how creepy it might seem. Don't worry nothing illegal is happening, just a series of pranks with some friends.

Fun in New Places!

2008-08-10T16:56:00.002-07:00

I visited a different church today. It's nice because I get to see many different groups of people, interact on a lot of different levels. However, it's also kind of hard because I'm missing out on community.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the church I visited today, Holy Cross Lutheran Church:

I've found that banners are a frequent staple in all of the lutheran churches I've been fortunate enough to visit.

There was some beautiful stained glass windows in the sanctuary.

Wise Person (May) Say....

2008-08-09T21:20:00.004-07:00

It's not 'spending' time with friends. It's an investment.

Watching the Olympics Start

2008-08-08T21:41:00.002-07:00

With my little brother and his friends.

No Toaster! You Have So Much To Live For!

2008-08-07T18:40:00.003-07:00

The Rules of Wandering

2008-08-06T22:57:00.002-07:00

If you have been following my twitter (and really, why would you be) you may have noticed some interesting things lately. Little messages like: "I just quit my job" or "I'm not homeless I just don't live anywhere specific", fun things like that. The great thing is, it's all true. For the next 5-6 weeks I will be an unemployed bum wandering around. However, I am an industrious bum. My first night on my own, camping somewhere in Montana I sat down and wrote out a bulleted list of goals, an overview plan, plus, a basic outline and why I think I shouldn't need one. Do I have an excessive need to control my environment? Nah. I just like bulleted lists.

So here goes, I'm about to share with you some of the details made it onto the clipboard that night.

The Goals:

Have quality time with all possible friends & family
Try to accumulate as many "Zero Dollar Days" as possible
DON'T RUN OUT OF MONEY
Practice being flexible and open to ideas and opportunities

The Three Phase Plan:

Solo section: Bum in Montana, Colorado, maybe Utah. Solo trip
Back to Montana to be with the special lady friend. Explore Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.
East Coast Tour: explore selected sections of New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Boston area, ______, ________, ________.

Wow. I'm even boring myself now. Sorry about that. If you made it to this point. Congrats, your either a trooper, bored off your gourd, or enjoy the pain. (It's ok not to tell me which)

Something Cute

2008-08-06T22:49:00.003-07:00

My little sister is having a baby soon! So it's not an unusual thing that she would have a baby shower. See, the thing is that she lives nowhere close to where I am now, in fact very far away. I do get to see her soon, but in the meantime one of the in-laws came up with a creative way to be "at" the shower. Video message. How could I have not known? Jeez.

So tomorrow morning, my (other) little sister and I will be donning these stunning t-shirts she insisted we make and recording a video message. I'm thrilled on several levels, 1- I can send my regards without making an appearance. 2 - I found out that I am capable of making something cute.

Fire!

2008-07-26T06:01:00.003-07:00

There is a fire burning about 15 miles away from the town of Red Lodge, moving towards the town of Red Lodge. This is the smoke plume. There is a big town meeting tomorrow morning, I guess that they might be setting up the snowmaking equipment on the ski mountain to protect their structures. I hope the mountain doesn't burn.

In other news. I left my job today. I guess that I came to this realization that I can only hit my head against a wall so many times before taking two steps to the left and walking out the door. It's not like this was a random thing. I have had a couple meetings over the summer with my boss to try to work everything out. Yesterday in what started out as a 'mid-summer review' quickly deteriorated into personal attacks and I had to bring in a third party!

It's hard, and I'm not excited about leaving this place a little over a month before I was originally planning. It's hard to say goodbye to all my friends. It's also really good that I can leave, this summer has sucked.

Oh yeah, plus with this fire, I don't think I can take the backpacking trip I wanted to go on. :(

Bummer

2008-07-25T23:18:00.000-07:00

What better end to a frustrating day than going fishing? Well, I wanted to do just that. Drove about an hour to get to this lake that I wanted to fish and what happened? Not only rain, but lightening. Rain I could have done, no big deal. Lightening? That's another element entirely, I'm not messing with that.

Tiny Little Fish

2008-07-23T21:46:00.004-07:00

Went fishing again today. Caught a little baby fish and sent it back out into the lake. Then I tried a new lure and a different baby fish grabbed ahold of it. The problem was that this fish decided to swallow the lure and I couldn't release him. It died. Well, I had to step on it's head, then it died.

Because it died, I have to eat it. (I was hoping to use it as bait for a bigger fish, but it wasn't about to happen) So today for the first time I not only killed a fish, but I also gutted and set it up to marinate overnight.

The picture is really just a great illustration of how small this fish really is.

Ice Falling From the Sky

2008-07-22T21:40:00.002-07:00

It was an amazing hail storm. Biggest hail that I have ever seen, it was 1/2" in diameter at least. The leaves and ice reminded me of mojitos. Man that sounds tasty now too...

Iron Horses, Hearing Loss & Machoism

2008-07-20T21:32:00.005-07:00

Today was the iron horse rodeo. Lots of fun. Boring at points, crazy at points, incredibly insulting at points, but a great exploration part of the culture I'm surrounded with. So here is your picture tour of the rodeo.

First stop is the parking lot. I ended up driving, could hardly find a spot for all the bikes parked all over the place. It looked like in the beginning there was a plan, but towards the back there was no rhyme or reason to how anybody was parked.

You could really tell that this was a professional rodeo by the registration numbers on the bikes. That right, big numbers written on plates. Classy.

There I am, sitting in the audience with my colored clothes and all the people around me look something like this...

Oooh! How could I not include a picture of the fabulous snack options available?

Spice Up My Life

2008-07-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Your result for The Which Spice Are You Test...

Fennel

You are Fennel!

You're a cool cat. Crisp, clean, fresh, and extremely complicated. You're like quantum physics or modern jazz. Think Niels Bohr meets Ornette Coleman. You may look normal now, but once you sprout, you look kind of, uh, funny.

Take The Which Spice Are You Test at HelloQuizzy

Biker Patches Are Different Than Pirate Patches

2008-07-18T18:58:00.003-07:00

Biker rally is happening in town right now. It's pretty entertaining. I'm going to the 'Iron Horse Rodeo' on Sunday night. While browsing the patch booth I found this one with the military section. If you can't read it it says "P.T.S.D. Not all wounds are visible" That's cool.

Fabulous, Hilarious, Awesome Discovery

2008-07-14T22:00:00.005-07:00

Wow this is amazing. Hilarious, and smart. What the heck am I talking about? Maybe I should share. I'm talking about the GCN's (Gay Christian Network) musical production "Straight to Heaven". I'm sad that I can't put it on this page, but I can put in a link....

CLICK ME!!!

It's pretty long, but worth every minute. One of the greatest things is the fact that all the songs are parodies of other musicals. As in: "If I Had a Boyfriend" instead of "If I was a Rich Man" from fiddler on the roof. My favorite quote: "you heard that? It was supposed to be a soliloquy..."

What A View

2008-07-11T21:39:00.002-07:00

Not my normal view, but today I was excited to see something more along the lines of this:

Granted, I was out there to pick up a student to take to the Dr's office, but hey, not a bad day. The rest of it was really crazy too. All sort's of chaos going on at base.

Balancing Act

2008-07-06T22:38:00.003-07:00

I don't know about you, but this set-up makes me a bit nervous. Wouldn't really want to be behind them on the highway.

Wow... OK

2008-07-03T22:28:00.001-07:00

CE

2008-07-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

Tent Set-Up

2008-07-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

I went out to a course end these past couple of days. Got to sleep in a wide open space. This here is my tarp set up. Pretty spiffy eh?

View

2008-06-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Revival!

2008-06-29T21:06:00.002-07:00

The first thing that I learned today is that wearing a staff shirt and showing up early to the event ensures that interesting things happen. For example, today my nickname was immediately 'staff' and I got to unload vehicles and set up a table.

This is actually the picture of the day. I thought it was a great t-shirt. Plus, get this! That t-shirt means that I wasn't actually the only person wearing one!

So. Great story about this band (Sure Enough), or rather, the older gentleman playing in the band. We were sitting at the table eating lunch with the family of this band. This family said that Joe got hooked up with this family to play bluegrass with because he said that all his friends kept dying. Morbid, but funny at the time.

Lutherans know how to throw a pot-luck. No doubt about it. The only thing missing at this pot-luck was the jello.

Striking. But You Probably Can't See It.

2008-06-28T20:48:00.003-07:00

I don't know if you can see it, but at the end of that long-tooshie Costco aisle is a lazyboy armchair thingy. Resting on that is a person. Under all the other shelves. Something about it. I don't know what, but it definitely hit me.

Whoo Hooo!

2008-06-27T21:50:00.002-07:00

What A Steal!

2008-06-26T21:14:00.005-07:00

I can just see some guy going home today:

"Hey Maude! You'll never believe the deal I got at Wal*Mart today!"

Move those flamingos over. The front lawn gonna be really spiffy now.

Creative Points Awarded To...

2008-06-25T22:32:00.003-07:00

Introducing a new and creative way to make sure that students have brought the right kind of clothes...

No Need To Worry

2008-06-24T22:04:00.002-07:00

I don't think I ever have to worry about that propane tank exploding. Somebody has looked it over for me ahead of time.

Bird Tamer

2008-06-23T20:36:00.004-07:00

So the other logistician comes into the base today and is telling this amazing story about a 'huge' bird that has accidentally flown into the gear shed and was terrorizing him while trying to work. He has opened the doors and windows, tried to shoo the bird out, all to no avail.

The obvious next step is to come back to base. Gather reinforcements and blankets, possibly a net and head back over there to help the bird out of the workspace. We get a net, we get some blankets, we get a co-worker and head out.

The whole way to the shed we are hearing about how this bird is crazy, flying around, all sorts of ruckus happening.

When we get to the shed, the bird has sandwiched itself between a box and a window pane. Our co-worker ever so nonchalantly goes over to the bird, picks it up, and takes it outside.

I had no idea that the bird whisperer has chosen to work at Outward Bound.

Ooh! I can't forget the greatest quote of the day after that! My strong-man competitor co-logi, who can bench 175, works out religiously, all around tough guy says:

"Well now I feel like a little bitch"

Let's not start dissecting that statement. Please.

Overestimated Ability

2008-06-22T20:41:00.003-07:00

Today hurt. Of course, at the same time, it was kind of cool. Took a bike ride that kicked my butt. About 55 miles total. I don't know what inspired a random jaunt to a city that far away. Oh well.

Bike Craziness

2008-06-21T21:17:00.002-07:00

Happy Birthday Ryan!

2008-06-20T21:42:00.003-07:00

Today is the co-logi's birthday.

Happy Birthday Ryan!