coffee shops

I feel like I live in coffee shops.

I don’t have internet at my house and I really NEED internet.  It’s hard to figure out where things are around town if I don’t have a way to look them up!  To combat this issue, I’ve been spending a lot of time in coffee shops just to get some free internet.  I’ve been looking up jobs, housing (I have to find a new place by August 1^st), studying maps of the area (mostly to locate more coffee shops), updating the blog and Facebook, ya know, the important things in life.  Well, today I’m in Panera, which I stumbled upon in my early morning search for the Post Office.  Does every Post Office in the US not have the most convoluted way of entering and exiting??  I drove around the block 3 times before finding the CORRECT way in.  I think there were more one-way exits then entrances…anyways, a few of you have post cards on the way!  ;)  And if anyone else wants one, send me your address!

Yesterday my new friend Allie took me to a neat little coffee shop that’s a church on Sundays, and a volunteer run coffee shop on weekdays!  We spent close to 4 hours in there, getting work done.  And yesterday was my first bike adventure!  I rode my bike to Chipotle to meet Allie for lunch, but it wasn’t all that simple.  After studying my Fort Collins map for a solid 10 minutes, I decided to embark on my adventure.  It was a total of 2 turns and 5 blocks on wide residential streets.  Getting to the intersection where I knew Chipotle was supposed to be wasn’t the issue; it was finding it after I got to the street intersection.  I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to have my bike on the sidewalk, so I got as close as I could to the curb and looked around, like an idiot, for this Chipotle place.  As far as I could tell, it wasn’t there.  But I was on the corner everyone told me it was supposed to be on!  Ugh.  So, after debating for several minutes, I asked some nearby pedestrians and they literally pointed across the street, to the only place that had trees covering the only sign I was looking for.  Hahaha, oh well, I was glad I made it!

And last night my roommate Austin, Allie, and another friend Steve, and I decided to try and get some free Wendy’s after climbing at the gym.  This proved to be the most hilarious event ever!  So apparently Austin is reallyyyy good at getting a lot of things for free and finding coupons, and this Wendy’s experiment was no exception.  He had several coupons for free doublestack burgers, and a couple buy-one-get-one free Frosty's.  So, we tried to get 4 free doublestacks and 4 Frostys (2 free) from the first Wendy’s restaurant of the night.  Well, I guess I didn’t mention that the coupons were a solid 6 months expired, and the manager wouldn’t let us use them.  :( So we were off to try another Wendy’s location!  We decided not to push our luck this time, so we just ordered the doublestacks at the drive through.  The guy took the coupons, no questions asked.  Success!!  We each had a burger in our hands.  He was a chill guy, so we tried to go through the drive though again and ask for the Frosty’s.  Steve and Austin switched places (to disguise driver identity) and Allie ordered the Frosty’s.  Well…I guess they had caught onto us by this point.  The same guy that took the coupons 5 minutes prior asked us over the intercom if the coupons were expired (which they were) and we heard someone yell in the background “no more coupons!!”  Hahaha, dang it!  So we were off to try the third Wendy’s restaurant of the night!  So this time I tried to order the Frosty’s.  I tried to sound really sweet and innocent, and i guess it worked!  We paid for 2 Frosty’s and got 2 free!  In the words of Austin, “4 doublestack burgers and 4 Frosty’s total:  $2.13.  Taking advantage of Wendy’s:  priceless.” 

And to make this even more ironic…the Panera I stumbled upon this morning is right next to the  Wendy’s where we got the Frosty’s last night!  hahaha.

home away from home

I just made my first meal in Fort Collins!  Pasta with olive oil…not exactly fancy, but better than cereal and milk.  I think the next 6 weeks are going to be simple eating, and cheap.  Driving out here cost about $350 in gas, plus all the driving once I got here and the beers/meals out.  I’m now in "money saving mode", which means no shopping (sad) and lots of biking.  The biking part should be easy though; everyone bikes!!  I feel like there might be more bikes than cars.  Bike racks are everywhere, and all the roads are bike friendly!  It’s also beautifully flat (unlike Raleigh) and cool weather so far.  The roommates don’t seem so bad, and a couple of them are actually really awesome people.  3 of the roommates are engaged, and the other is in a relationship. Haha, at any given moment we have 9 people in this tinyyy house, but I think it’s gonna be okay.  I actually find it pretty humorous that they are all in relationships…and then there is me, just hanging out with the couples.

The house I’m in for the next few weeks is small, but do-able.  It’s cheap rent, so I’m getting what I pay for and I’m totally okay with it (for now).  I’ve been here since Friday afternoon when Ben and I drove from Buena Vista (about 3.5 hours).  I tell ya what, I was NOT feeling it when I first got here.  I cried the entire hour before getting into town, then I cried for the next couple hours being here.  It definitely was the breakdown that I knew had been coming on since leaving Raleigh, and now I had  just slowed down enough to really think about things.  I really wanted to turn around while driving into town and go somewhere, anywhere, but here.  I had been having so much fun the last 6 days traveling around and vacationing and I didn’t want to face reality yet.  I didn’t want to stay put for any amount of time, and I knew I had to.  I also cried because I was nervous and wasn’t sure what I had gotten myself into.  I was about to live in a town where I didn’t know anyone, where anything was located, or what to do with myself.  My room is in the basement, and it was full of cobwebs and spider webs when we got here.  I was uneasy, to say the least.  I do not like spiders.  I just stood around, kinda in shock, while Ben started cleaning it up for me.  He got a piece of paper and a pen and started making me a list of things I was going to need.  It was so weird, my mind felt kinda frozen and I was so emotionally overwhelmed.  I just wandered around for a little while like a lost puppy.  Even walking around Lowe’s and Target, I didn’t know what I was doing.  I honestly do not know what I would have done if Ben wasn’t with me.  I might have actually turned around and gone somewhere else.  We went to the library for a couple local maps and event calanders, and I requested Panera Bread for dinner so I could get some comfort food (mmm…broccoli cheddar soup).  

Then we went downtown, and I had my first beer in Fort Collins!  An Eclipse Brown Ale.  It was an interesting bar…the people in there seemed like a mix between what you would find at the Ugly Monkey and Mitch’s Tavern.  Downtown Fort Collins is also an interesting place.  There are a lot of weird people, and everyone seems to be either 13, or 30.  I kept looking for normal people, and honestly, we had a hard time finding them.  Between the freaks, straight-up hookers, “bums,” rednecks, and people old enough to be my parents, I couldn’t figure it out!  It was really odd.  

 Saturday morning Thomas came up from Colorado Springs to hang with us for the day.  We went to Odell Brewing Company for a brewery tour.  Goodness, NC folks, you are missing out on some FANTASTIC brews.  We ordered one bottle of Hiveranno which was like a blend of a couple leftover IPAs (I think), had special propagated wild yeast added to it and was bottle conditioned.  Our first sip and all of us were blown away and left speechless.  Then the guy that gave us the tour came by with a sample of Woodcut No. 5 for us to try and again, we were left totally speechless.  Seriously, those were the best beers I’ve probably ever had in my life.  And everything about the brewery was really awesome.  They try to be an environmentally friendly place and just installed some sky light tube shaped things so they can get natural light.  They also are one of a few breweries that clarify their beers by centrifuging them, which concentrates the flavors in all the right ways.  When the weather drops below 41 degrees, the refrigeration units turn off and start pulling air from outside INTO the units.  How cool is that?!?  The three of us pretty much spent the entire day drinking around town and eating out.   

We also went to Coopersmith’s, a local brewpub and ended up bar hopping downtown the rest of the night.  Again, what is with all the strange people around here??  I’m searching for the hipster scene (similar to Raleigh folks) that I’m so comfortable in, and I can’t find it!  Ben, Thomas, and I are certain there is another part of Fort Collins we’re missing or something.  The people we kept seeing were rednecks who drove obnoxious trucks, high schoolers that dressed like they were in the 90’s, “cougars,” and in general, no one cool?  Again, another odd night.  We did, however, get free beer and pizza at one restaurant!  The manager just decided to give us dinner for free!  It also happened to be some of the best pizza I’ve ever had and I will be going back to BeauJoe’s. 

All of us got up at 4am to get Ben to the Denver airport around 5:30am Sunday.  When we walked out to the car at 4:30, the sun was rising and it was fairly bright outside!  At 4:30am???  The sun was totally up by 5:30am, and the sunrise over Denver was gorgeous.  All of us were beyond exhausted, but the sunrise was still nice to watch.  Dropping Ben off was kinda sad for me.  :( He’d been my travel buddy and my security blanket this entire time, but you gotta break the ties sometimes and step outside your comfort zone.  Thomas and I then drove all around Denver at 6am looking for some kind of park to take a nap in that wouldn’t be sketchy, but we were unsuccessful.  We did stumble upon the Denver Zoo though!  We didn’t pay to go in, so I got a picture outside of it and bought a couple pencils at the gift shop instead.  Still battling totally exhaustion, we decided to try some breakfast and lots of coffee.  After breakfast we found the Denver City Park downtown!  It was such a nice park and the perfect one to take a nap in…except for the 2000+ people running a 5k through it.  Hahaha.  So Thomas watched and cheered the runners on for a while, and I laughed at them trying to avoid the geese crossing in front of them while running.  It was absolutely HILARIOUS.   Cause the geese didn’t know why all these people were running towards them either!  Around 10am it finally quieted down enough to take a nap on the grass!  Yay!  

 Haha, and then we went to the Denver Art Museum, but again, didn’t pay to go in so we just got coffee at the gift shop, and I got a picture in the broom/dust pan sculpture out front! I was really excited to go to the Denver Library too, but it wasn’t open when we walked by!  :( We just spent the day lazily wandering around Denver and discovering all kinds of neat things.  I really like Denver.   

Eventually, we made it back to Fort Collins…only to take another nap.  Thomas left around 6pm to go back to Colorado Springs and I was officially on my own in Fort Collins.  But right as Thomas was leaving one of my roommates and his fiancé walked up and invited me to the climbing gym with them!  Yay!  That was so awesome.  The gym is biiiiig, and it includes cardio and weight equipment, plus climbing stuff too!  I also made a friend there!  First friend in FoCo!  Now I can’t wait to join that gym and find a job! 

now THIS is Colorado

We're in Buena Vista now!!  It was about 2 hours west of Colorado Springs, and it's at almost 8,000 feet.  Probably the highest I've ever been, that I can remember at least.  The drive here was definitely been the most scenic drive of the trip yet!  Big, beautiful, snow capped mountains in full view almost the entire time.  There was also this really flat, straight part of the road just as we were really getting into the mountains.  Ben called  it "A little slice of Kansas in the middle of Colorado."  As soon as we got in town we met up with Logan!  He's working for Noah's Ark again this year, and he's down here with his sister Andi and Liz for the summer.  It's so exciting to meet up with friends, out here in Colorado!
Logan, Ben, and I had about 3 hours to kill yesterday so we went rock climbing!  All the crags around here seem to be 5 minutes apart and no more than a 5 minute hike in.  It's awesome!  We did a 5.9+ slab route, and Logan led it.  It was such a scenic climb! We tried to climb a few more things around the area, but what we wanted was taken, and the other route had a really sketchy, loose bolt-so we skipped that one.  The Arkansas River runs right through BV, and Logan pointed out a few paddlers on the river to us.  We were hoping to get a ride on the river today, but there was a death on the river yesterday (not with Noah's, but still very unfortunate) and Logan had to take a couple shifts for people who were uncomfortable guiding given the recent events.  But I know I'll be back before the end of the summer and hopefully get to go then! 
Ben and I set up our tent in a free campsite (yay!) last night.  That is exactly how camping should be!  FREE!  It has got to be one of the coolest campsites I've ever had.  The views are breathtaking around here.  I rolled out of the tent this morning to sunshine, cool air, and clear views of 14,00 foot mountains all around us.  And fell asleep last night to the rushing sounds of the Arkansas River.  Gah, I don't want to leave. 

I think today has been the most fun I've had since getting here.  Ben went riding this morning for 4+ hours, and I hung out in Bongo Billy's (cool little coffee shop.)  Then Liz and Andi came to visit me!!  We sat outside and chatted for a good while, then we went to this neat thrift store and shopped around.  Andi had to leave for work shortly after that, so Liz and I walked around town.  We got delicious subs for lunch!  But had to cut lunch short because of this guy creeping on us.  :(  He was taking a video of us!  It was so weird, we went inside to tell the owners, and then he pretty much ran away.  I feel totally safe in BV, that was just one scary moment.  The two of us kept strolling around town, enjoying the sunshine and perfect temperatures, and met up with Ben a little later on.  We drove to The Trailhead outdoor retail store and browsed a bit while Ben was taking a shower at the laundromat.  Haha, yeahhh, $3.50 for 10 minute shower!  I will be using that later, for sure.  In fact, I'm looking forward to it.  The Trailhead had so many books on CO crags and cool places to climb, but I couldn't decide on which book to get!  If I'm going to spend $40 on a climbing guide book, I want it to be the best one.  So I've got some asking around to do before buying one. 

Liz, Ben and I then hit up Punky's for some grub.  Only after sampling a few ice cream flavors did I decide on my standard Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  I shouldn't even ask to sample other flavors...I always get the same thing.  And I was able to eat the ice cream outside without it melting everywhere because it's not ridiculously hot out!!  Woot!  We continued strolling around town for most of the afternoon (don't be fooled though...it's not that big of a town, we just kept walking the same streets.)  And we walked a trail along the river.  It was so high today!!  The water is running at close to 3200 cfs, when the average is about 1700 cfs.  Whew, that's some big, fast water.  There were a couple people kayaking and at one point we saw an empty kayak flying through the rapids.  I think it was a good thing no one was in it, but about 10 minutes later I saw a sad looking man, with a spray skirt around him, walking barefoot down beside the river, probably looking for his boat.  We then went to the South Main part of BV and hung out on this outdoor living room thing (furniture was made of ceramic tile!) for a while, and walked around a bouldering park.  Liz and I pretty much spent the entire day hanging out outside, walking around and just looking around.  We also managed to get pretty sunburned, all 3 of us.  I forget the sun is more intense when you're 8000 feet closer to it.  

Seriously though, words just can't describe how incredibly beautiful it is out here, and I had SO much fun today, just doing nothing!!

 

The Springs

Colorado Springs is so different from everywhere we’ve been!  It’s much more like a desert than the more green parts of Denver and Golden.  It actually reminds me a lot of Moab, Utah!  We got in yesterday evening and met up with Thomas, Ben’s old roommate, who just moved out here.  Thomas made us some delicious pasta with veggies and meat, and gave us our first beer of the trip!  Farmhouse Provisional Saison Ale.  It’s brewed here in Colorado Springs.  I thought it was pretty good, though I don’t know exactly how to describe it.  I was just happy to have my first beer out in Colorado!  And the combo of a beer and my level of exhaustion made me one sleepy girl.  I rolled out my thermarest, climbed in my sleeping bag, and slept alllll night!  And we finally got to sleep in!  Thomas left early for work, Ben got up earlier than me to go on a bike ride, and I slowly woke up.  It’s so fantastic to get a full night’s sleep.  And getting to shower was also fantastic.  My skin is freaking out at this new climate it has to adjust to, and it’s not an easy transition.  The humidity here is SO LOW and everything is so dry.  I think Thomas said it was 1% humidity yesterday, and I couldn’t find the lotion I brought until this morning!  Ah, salvation!!  Finally, a little bit of relief from this dry air.  It’s also super easy to get dehydrated out here.  Water is just pulled out of you, all the time.  And my allergies are going crazy!!  I think it’s just adjusting to the humidity difference, but it just leaves me sniffly and sneezy all day long!  My lips are chapped all the time too…I didn’t know drier air could do all this to you.  I literally lived in a desert when I was in middle school, but I don’t remember dry air ever creating issues like this.

And breakfast in the morning was my favorite!!  Fruity Dyno-Bites.  It's the knock off fruity pebbles, and sooo tasty! 

The Mile High City

Well, today has been another awesome day!  Ben and I stayed in Golden last night with Jen and woke up early this morning to get her to the airport.  Rush hour traffic in Denver really is no joke, and it was really sad to say goodbye to Jen.  :(  we had so much fun yesterday!

After leaving the airport Ben and I decided to kill some time at a Denver coffee shop before the REI flagship store opened, so we headed in the direction of the Denver highlands.  We stumbled upon this really simple place that served some delicious breakfast food, and had internet!  Yay!  The Denver highland area is beauuuuutiful!  I think the barista this morning referred to it as being called the Lola district??  It's just this older looking part of Denver with really unique buildings and everything you need is within walking distance!  And while we were in this little shop, the song "Carolina in My Mind" played on the radio!  Ohh the irony.  After breakfast we walked over the pedestrian bridge to the other side of I-25 and walked to the Denver REI.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  A 3 story REI with a Starbucks, an indoor rock wall, bike trail around it, and the best clothing selections!  I seriously needed a map to navigate that place!  Haha, and the funniest part?  All I bought was a pair of socks, on clearance. 
After leaving REI Ben drove us to Colorado Springs (about an hour South), and I slept in the car.  Gosh, I'm so glad I can sleep so well while traveling.  That nap was crucial.  I tried to take a nap in REI (they had couches) but I couldn't bring myself to do it.  I actually could use another nap right now.  Haha, I'm still not caught up on the lack of sleep over the last several days!
I dropped Ben off at Palmer Park in Colorado Springs just over 2 hours ago so he could get some mountain biking in, and I am currently experiencing the first few hours I've had alone since...Friday??  It's nice sometimes to just have alone time, too bad I'm sitting in a Starbucks in a noisy grocery store just to get a little internet. 

Yesterday morning we got up really early again to drive to Golden, CO where we met up with Lee and Jen to go climbing for the day.  We went to Clear Creek Canyon and did a classic 3 star, 3 pitch route.  I've seen conflicting ratings, but it was pretty much at my level (in the 5.10ish range?).  It was called People's Choice.    The 3rd pitch was the challenging one and IF I had fallen, it would have been a BIG swing out of a dihedral and I would have ended up hanging in the air, almost 3 pitches off the ground.  It definitely scared me...  Ben, Jen, Lee and I all attempted this climb together, and 4 people on a belay ledge can get pretty crowded.  Lee lead it, I was second, then Jen, then Ben.  Jen is a boulderer, and not a fan of multipitch, but she tried it anyways!  When Lee got to the top of the 3rd pitch though, we seriously could NOT hear anything he was saying!  I never even heard him say on belay when I started up the 3rd pitch, but I had a pretty good feeling I was.  I honestly got sooo scared of the potential swing on that route that I wanted to be lowered; I really didn't want to do it anymore.  And if I had fallen, I don't know how I would have gotten back onto the rock!  I knew I couldn't communicate at all to Lee if I fell, or that I wanted to be lowered, so my only option was to climb it and not fall.  Which, I did.  :)  Once I got through the crux move and up to a little ledge I was breathing SO HEAVILY, I had to take a solid 5 minutes to catch my breath.  It was a sport route and Jen was supposed to follow me up, but I had a very good feeling that she might not like it.  She was already uneasy at the idea of multipitch, and I think getting lowered down that 3rd pitch would have scared the daylights out of her.  So from where I was resting to catch my breath I could shout to Lee above me, and Jen and Ben below me.  We figured out that we'd get Ben and Jen down from where they were at the top of the 2nd pitch, and that I finish the 3rd pitch to then rappel down.  It took Lee and I a while to get everything situated at the top, and Ben and Jen were apparently shouting to us up there and we couldn't hear ANYTHING.  Seriously, the lack of ability to communicate was not cool.  Anyways, Lee and I rapppeled down to them at the 2nd pitch and we lowered Jen, who was definitely over the climb at that point and not having a good time. It can be very scary when you can't hear your belayer/climber...and although the climb was pretty cool, I didn't like that part.  Actually, when I got to the top and looked out over the water and the road below us, I remembered seeing a picture a couple years ago of Lee and Logan on a very similar climb, and Lee said this was the exact climb they were on!!  Haha, I thought it was so neat that I had seen that climb in a picture years ago, and didn't ever think twice that some day I might climb it, and yet, here I was, at the top of it! 

After the climb we hiked out and went back to David's house in Golden.  Lee left for his flight shortly after that, then Ben, Jen and I went to Boulder!  Boulder was so awesome!!  Apparently everyone bikes in that down, and the city had the coolest feel!  I can't wait to go back!  Jen had to return a crash pad she was borrowing from this shop called Neptune Mountaineering.  It was such a neat shop!  I was literally walking around in awe at all the gear, ropes, shoes, tents, books.  Gah, so much climbing stuff!!  I even started to get a little emotional thinking about it...I about to live out here?  In Colorado??  It still feels like a vacation.
Then we went to visit The Spot.  It is some premiere bouldering gym out in Boulder.  We hung around there, just watching people for at least an hour.  It was so big, and there were so many people!  And it was super hot in there!  Although I was uncomfortable just sitting in there, I didn't mind that it was so hot that most of the men had their shirts off.  A little eye candy is never a bad thing.  ;)  The grading system there is so funky though!  Everything is rated 1-5 "spots." But the spots don't match up with normal bouldering ratings, and it seems really confusing.  Jen really didn't like the inconsistency with the ratings and she tried so hard to figure it out during dinner.  I think she managed to find some kind of pattern with the spot system, but we all agree...spots are dumb. 

Going to Colorado Springs tonight!  Hopefully climbing tomorrow!!

1200 in a day (and that's not calories)

So we’ve been in Colorado now for just over 24 hours!  It’s been a crazyyy, wonderful 24 hours!  We didn’t expect to make it into Denver by Sunday night, but we did!  We made incredible time across the country and drove close to 1200 miles in ONE DAY, and on less than 5 hours of sleep.  The weather was great the entire time, except for about 10 minutes of rain in Missouri.  Both the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers were so high when we drove over them!  It’s so weird to look at flooded rivers…water can do a lot of damage very quickly, and it was scary to see the water flooding over the docks, fields, and nearby sidewalks in the cities.  Kansas was a L-O-N-G drive.  We spent over 7 hours driving through it!  Here’s part of my journal entry through Kansas:

“It’s a beautiful day today.  99°F, but luckily we’re in the comfortable, climate controlled “white lightening” (my car) and crusin’ at 75mph in 70°F.  It’s wonderfully sunny and we’re driving into the sunshine…I’m actually kinda worried about getting sunburned through the windows.  Everything is so green! Except for the occasional golden field.  I have no idea what’s growing out here and it must be fairly early in the growing season cause the plants are little.  Every now and then we’ll see a barn, silo, and the even less frequent rest area or service station.  There seems to be very little going on, and the simplistic appearance of life is kinda appealing.  The state appears to basically consist of booming agriculture, wind power, and oil drilling.  Honestly, seeing the windmills makes my heart skip a beat with excitement at the sight of more sustainable power sources.  I just about drool watching them slowly spin around as we drive by.”

So we got out of Kansas and into Colorado just as the sun was setting.  I was straining my eyes to see some mountains before the sun went down!  I kept insisting I saw them…but Ben would point out that it would probably equate to seeing the Appalachians from Raleigh, so not likely.  The eastern part of Colorado is just like Kansas; flat and straight.  While traveling on I-70W one wicked storm was brewing just north of us.  The lightning strikes across such expansive land like that was absolutely incredible!  I’ve never seen such HUGE, lingering lightning bolts, and they were basically right beside us!  We made it into Denver around 10pm, checked into our hotel, brought the bikes up, and immediately left for Golden, CO.  My friends Jen and Lee were staying with Lee’s uncle David in Golden for the weekend and they had just about a day left of vacation out here in Colorado.  When we arrived to David’s house, we were greeted with an unexpected dinner!  Steak, artichokes, baked potatoes, and garlic bread.  YUM.  The 4 of us made plans to meet up around 8am the next morning and go climbing, then Ben and I hit the roads again to get back to our hotel in Denver.  I didn’t even change out of what I had been wearing all day when I crawled into bed.  We had been awake for 21 hours and drove a solid 18-19 hours of that; exhaustion doesn’t even begin to cover it. 

All in all, the drive was not bad.  We kept ourselves pretty entertained with music, and every time we wanted to listen to something specific, I just burned another CD on my computer.  Finally making it out here to Colorado makes a drive like that TOTALLY worth it too.  It’s beautiful and it’s so exciting!!  I’m so glad we made it safely!

Total for the day (Sunday):  1220 miles

Let the Adventure Begin!

Gah!  This is my first blog entry, in my first blog!  It’s funny…I never thought of myself as a “blogger,” but I could get used to the idea.  It sounds soooo…cool?  For my friends that know me well, I get very comfortable with my technology and I don’t like change very much.  I’ve had the same cell phone since high school, which was my first cell phone.  Haha, I feel like an old person, stuck in my ways.  I still like to write letters! Who does that anymore?!? (and if you send me your address, you’ll get one from me!)  So yeah, blogging.  This is gonna be fun.  :)

So, I should probably update people on what I’m doing.  I am moving to Fort Collins, Colorado!  The most common questions I get when I tell people that is “Why?” and “Do you have a job?”  Haha, no, I don’t have a job, but I haven’t had a job in Raleigh for the past 5 months anyways, and I figure if I’m unemployed somewhere, it might as well be there!  I waitressed a little the past couple months, and made excellent money, but I feel like I can wait tables just about anywhere, so again, it might as well be in Fort Collins!  It’s so funny, this “after graduation” stage of life is an interesting one.  There were challenges that presented themselves that I wasn’t expecting, like this length of unemployment and the stress it caused.  I struggled with insomnia and boredom, and wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what I wanted to do and arguing about all of it with my Mom.  I hate uncertainty.  So yeah, I was just sick of not knowing what to do next, and with our landlord pressing us for an answer to our lease renewal, I just decided not to renew.  There!  There is my big girl decision to do something different!  And whether or not this is the right “something different”, well, that remains to be seen.  Colorado State University also happens to have a vet school which has been my number 2 pick (second to NC State of course.)  And so this move is 50% recreational, and 50% educational.  I want to go to vet school there, and living there for a while will allow me to determine if I like the city enough to seriously pursue higher education there.  And well, you know, I love rock climbing and outdoor recreation, and visiting Colorado has been a dream of mine for a couple years now. Might as well make it happen!

So yeahh, I left for Colorado today!  I’m still not quite sure I believe it’s happening yet.  This just feels like another vacation out West!  Just like Spring Break 3 months ago out to Utah!

Waking up this morning was the best!  It was like having a sleepover!  Hannah let me sleep in her bed cause I don’t have any furniture anymore, and the floor didn’t exactly look comfortable.  Also, let it be known that 2 people can sleep VERY comfortably in a twin bed.  We woke up at 9am to incoming text messages, and then we laughed all morning, to keep from crying, and stated multiple times how much we’re gonna miss each other.  :(  And then Hannah had this incredible idea for me to make a blog!!  And so begins this journey…

 

Ben and I have been driving since 2:30 this afternoon, and it’s about 10pm now.  We’re staying in Louisville, KY tonight.  Just under an hour to go!  Then waking up super early to drive to St. Louis for me to see the Arch, and onward to Denver, COLORADO!  If we get tired in the 18 hour haul tomorrow, we’ll stop to sleep.  But we’re playing it by ear for now.  I think Ben is getting annoyed with my desire to sing out loud and dance to every song that plays on the radio...bahaha, I think it’s hilarious though.  Virginia was absolutely beautiful to drive through today!  We drove through in the late afternoon, and everything was so green and sunny!  “Electric Green” as Jason Jones would describe it.  

So yeah, over the last couple weeks I’ve been trying to find ways to say goodbye to all my friends and family.  It’s been challenging, and I knew it would be, but I did manage to see most of the people on my list of “personal goodbyes needed.”  And yes, it was an actual list that I wrote down.  Mom and John came into town this morning to take a couple more things home for me, and to say goodbye.  Mom started crying; she’s worried sick about me.  And John said, “I’m gonna miss you little sister.”  Even though I’m 6 years older, he is taller than me now.  Not cool.  :P  Hannah, Dominc and RJ saw off Ben and I, then followed us in their car until we split at the beltline.  It was all Hannah and I could do to smile and wave at each other, with tears in our eyes, and in her case, tears streaming down her face. I haven’t had a complete and total breakdown yet, but it’s coming.  I really love the incredible friends I have in Raleigh, and I’ve got the best memories with all of them.  I already miss everyone terribly.  

This is all really exciting!  New blog!  Colorado!  New opportunities!  I'm still figuring out this blog thing...so improvements to the layout will come!  Until tomorrow, goodnight from on the road in Louisville, Kentucky!  

Total for the day: 555 miles