All Hallows Eve

I love halloween. This year I dressed up as Jem. Very few people seem to know who Jem is. Jem! was a cartoon in the 80's about Jem and the Holograms (her rock band). Jem herself wore a lot of pink and had magic earings. Anyway, my costume kicked. That is all.

Jem! is truly outrageous

Die Villian Die

This is just a random rant of mine. X96 has a segment on their morning show once a week during which they list things that they (and listeners who bother e-mailling them) think "must go." Things that just bug the crap out of them. Really it's just an excuse to complain about things that nobody really wants to do anyting about. So, because I can and because I feel like ranting, Here is my own personal list of Things That Must Go

1. Blanket Text Messages. I have a friend (he shall remain unnamed here) who send a message to everyone in his phone whenever he gets bored. It's stupid. The message is always the same "what's up" and it's annoying. I wouldn't mind if he actually wanted to know what was up, but he never does. It's uber lame.

2. Speaking of text messages, Forwarded Text Messages. It's spam for the phone! All those annoying "pass this on or your foot will unluckily rot off" e-mail type forwards have made their way into the cell phone realm. As if the e-mails weren't annoying enough.

3. People Who Advertise in My Comments Space. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the comments for the entry right before this. I didn't manage to delete the crap about private road construction before someone commented. I have deleted other messages left as comments on other postings. If you're going to advertise on my blog (that few people read) you should at least pay me for it.

That's actually all I can think of to complain about right now. I guess I'm more content with the world than I thought. Notice how they're all technological? I should become amish and then my life would be perfect, right?

ZzZzZzZzZzZz

I'm in the union building right now and there's a girl sleeping on a couch near me. She's snoring REALLY loudly. I just thought I would share that because if someone else were here we'd probably be laughing about it.

Arches

What an awesome weekend. I went down to Arches National Park with my parents and some of their friends/coworkers. We had the group site at the campground so all 14 persons there had a nice place to pitch their tent. Arches is a lovely place, really - not my favorite park, but lovely. The geography is gorgeous, breathtaking, majestic. Really, if it wasn't so touristy and ... I almost want to say trendy, but that's more just the aura of Moab in which the park basks.

So what we did: After my class on Friday we drove down so we got to the campground around 4:00. After we set up the tent and unpacked some stuff my parents went on a little hike that started somewhere in the campground and went around to a bunch of arches. I heard it was really pretty. I decided to stay around camp and climb some rocks. There was one chimney in particular that I was determined to get up. It was probably too narrow for a sane person, but you know me. My first attempt I got maybe a quarter of the way up and got stuck. The second time I was successful, but it was not easy. This little crack in the rock was maybe a foot wide. That's not much when you're trying to squeeze more than just a skeleton through it. About half way up I rested and held myself in place just by flexing my glutes. In a situaton like that, it's not much good trying to use your legs, because you can't bend them so they're useless, so I basically pulled myself up with my arms. When I couldn't go up anymore I decided that I would go down the other side. It started out wider and therefore easier, but then it went more narrow that my way up. I ended up "walking" my way down above the crack (where it was a bit wider). By walking I mean I had my feet on one rock face and my back on another so I would step with my feet and then push up with my shoulders and upper arms so my back could catch up with my feet. By the time I got back on normal ground, I had worked every muscle in my body- I know because they were all sore the next day.

Yesterday seven of us decided it was a good idea to get up at 5:30 and hike to Delicate Arch for sunset. It was actually quite fun, but you're not going to see me awake that early again for a very long time. After returning to camp and breakfasting, my parents and I decided to hike down Courthouse Wash. Good idea if you want to get away from people (we didn't see a single other hiker the entire way) and are up for an adventure. Bad idea if you want an actual trail (who hikes on trails anyway?) or if you have a problem with quicksand and fighting your way through thick groves of willow and tamarisk. It was not too bad for the first 3/4 of the way, but then it got impossible. We were pushing through thick vegitation and going around in circles. By the end of it we were tired and frustrated. I didn't NOT enjoy it, but I wouldn't exactly say it was fun. Definately an adventure and certainly interesting. The wash itself is very pretty in an atypical way. You don't have the majestic canyon wall hovering several hundred feet over your head (typical Arches scenery). The wash is much more open. It's full of trees and, in a few spots, there were really beautiful waterfalls and neat little swimming holes.

Last night, after we recovered from our adventure, the whole lot of us (14 that is) had dinner at the Moab Brewery. Good beer, good food, good company. Of course beer+hiking all day+ getting up at 5:30 = exhaustion. I was asleep by 11:30 and I have never slept so well on a camping trip.

This morning we packed up, putzed around the windows area of the park and then drove home. One of the best parts of camping is getting home and taking a shower. Those are the best showers ever- after being sweaty and dusty and dirty for days it's so nice to get really clean.

I'll post some pics after they're uploaded from the cameras.

Homecoming

This week is homecoming week at the U. Nobody knew about it. I read all about it in the Cronicle (the campus paper) yesterday and that was the first time I've heard of it. According to the article, in the past homecoming was a week that really brought current students and alumni together for on campus events and the U suddenly became less of a commuter campus. This year, poor planning has left many students totally ignorant of the events, half of which (including homecoming dance) are off campus. There are no banners around campus. I think I remember seeing a flyer on a bulletin board covered in flyers. The only reason I know that it's homecoming week is because I read the article in the Cronicle about how much is being overlooked this year. I myself am not going to any events. The only thing I'd be remotely interested in is the homecoming dance on Friday. It's being held at Trolley Square, $10 a head. I'm going camping instead. Darn. I'm thinking it's probably ok though, because not many people are likely to go so I shouldn't miss much.

That's all for now. I'll have the next installment of Joanna the Worm as soon as I am bored enough.

Story:

Once upon a time in a kingdom far far away there lived a very pretty worm named Joanna. Joanna was like any other worm in most ways. She crawled through dirt and ate whatever it is that worms eat. The thing that made Joanna unique was that she had an abnormal dislike of bananas. She could not bring herself to go withing several miles of a banana, or a banana peel or banana bread or banana muffins or dancing bananas or singing bananas or banana phones or banana bunches or anna banana (her third cousin four times removed on her mother's side). Even the mere utterence of the word "banana" made her dry heave in as much as worms can dry heave. Fortunately for Joanna, her kingdom was very cold so there weren't a lot of bananas about. Once in a while someone would throw a banana peel in a compost heap nearby causing much pain for Joanna, but that didn't happen often.

To Be Continued.....