President's Day

President's Day ... what an interesting holiday. Maybe I should use this weekend to research past presidents and get to know them better. I am reading a book about Teddy Rosevelt and his adventure though the Amazon, and exploring a river down there.
Regardless of the reason for the weekend, it is always nice to have a good long weekend. It makes me a little claustrophobic to know my schedule at the hospital for so long in advance. We usually know 6 weeks in a advance and I have been able to work it that I had 5 days off in a row and I really wanted to get out of Salt Lake and get down to the sun. So, it was a little bit of a fiasco trying to make it happen ... plans changing, possibly going to Winter Park CO, probably going to St. George, and a big group coming, then with the weather looking a little iffy, everyone bailed and tons of plans changed, and it ended up that Stacie and I went down and we weren't really sure where we were going to stay. She had been on a date with this guy who offered a place, and luckily we took him up on it. It was three guys, JJ, Darrin and Caleb who were staying in one of their neighbor's houses. Those kind of weekends can be a total disaster or totally awesome and fortunately it was great.
Zion is so beautiful!! We came down late Friday night and Sat we drove part way to Zion then did a road bike ride the rest of the way in to Zion. Luckily the weather men were pretty much wrng as far as their prediction of the weekend weather and it was beautiful. We actually did drive through a bit of a blizzard on the way down there, but I've never been to Zion in the winter and it was so cool to see snow all over the red rock. It's so amazing! It turned out to be a 20 mile ride and it was a little cold and windy on the way in and we were pretty ready to get back to the house. We met back up with the guys who had gone mtn bike riding and had an incident with a cactus, and went to fulfill my last blog about tennis. It was really fun. I haven't played in so long and it was really fun. I felt like I was getting a little better by the end but still have a ways to go until it's fun for someone else to play me, and I'm ready to meet Nadal. I probably would have played better if I had a sweet skirt on or cat outfit like Venus wore a couple years ago.


We did some more hiking in Zion, some movie watching and Stacie and I had a romantic Valentine's date to see He's Just Not That Into You. (Which I highly recommend. It's pretty sad how girls are, and I don't think I'm too bad at being a total stalker, but I always make excuses for boys, and justify them not calling me back or treating me that well, and it's pretty funny ... the movie was really good .... so go see it)
Stacie and I have similar traveling styles.
We both want to play real hard during the day and get ourselves all worn out then hang and watch movie and take naps and relax. It was a really great trip. Thanks to Caleb, JJ and Darin for letting us stay with them and for the old Presidents who give us an excuse to get a Monday off, oops, I mean who did great things for our country....

Not time to be an adult ....

I think some of you might know, but I have been looking at buying a house. I have one all picked out. It was is the first one I looked at and I love it. It's in the lower Millcreek area, and it's huge! It's 3200 sq. feet and it has 5 bedrooms and a quarter of the basement is unfinished and could be turned into a kitchen to be made into a duplex eventually. And they even lowered the price another 10 grand so they're just asking $184,900! However, it's has taken about 2 1/2 months to get everything submitted to the mortgage guy and have him submit everything to the underwritters and then just to find out that I am not going to be able to qualify. They don't recognize being a river guide as a valuable job, and the tips that I don't report to the government don't seem to count as anything. Last year at the hospital they let me take the summer technically as "on call" so that when I got back I just had to call them and they out me back on the schedule, but this summer they're not going to do that and I have to quit so they didn't really like that either, that I don't know where I'll be working in the fall.

Anyway, I started this entry a while ago, and they've since lowered the price to $171,900 and still I can't get approved. I was bummed for a little while, but actually I'm pretty relieved. It would be real close to when I leave for the river and I don't want my parents to have to deal with it, so I was pretty bummed, now I'm really kinda over it. I'm actually excited to not have plans for the fall. My friend Stacie wants to go to Nepal for six weeks, and that sounds awesome, then who knows after that.

But, anyway, so much for that decision and now it leaves me with tons of options, so who knows ... we'll see how the summer turns out and where my life goes from there.

I LOVE RAFA NADAL!!

I have never been a big fan of  watching sports. I always thought that watching football was lame, until my dad explained it to me and it did make a little more sense. Tennis was a little better because they're actually playing the whole time and there's not tons of non-sensical offsides and touching or not-touching rules. But for a summer when I was maybe 19 or 20 I lived with my aunt and uncle in California for a few weeks. My uncle was the tennis pro at Pebble Beach at the time so they were super into tennis. I can't remember what tournament it was but I got hooked! I can't remember when I first saw Nadal but he was the rebel that would always wear man-pris and tank tops. 

But with arms like these, who can blame him? let's be honest!

My roommate, Erika is a bit of an extremist. Whatever she's doing it's 100%. When I moved in I bought a $10 TV from a garage sale and we had a DVD player just so we could watch movies and play DDR. But once Erika realized she was going to be missing American Idol, she decided we needed a TV, so now we have a 47" flat screen, Comcast cable and DVR. It couldn't have come at a better time so that I could record the Australian Open. It's Saturday night and I semi final match and he's playing Fernando Verdasco, and I have no intention of going anywhere! 

This match is amazing! Verdasco is pretty amazing and hot too. Check out this website to see some super hot shots of him. The match is so intense and both players are so into it!

It's taken me so long to write this because it's hard for me to tear my eyes away that the match is over. They played amazing tennis for 5 hours and 14 min!!! It's the longest Australian Open match ever. I have no idea how they can keep up that level of fitness for that long. That for sure contributes to how hot they are! So, if you've followed it al all you know that Nadal won, after 5 long games! It was awesome! I love watching tennis. We live right by Liberty Park and I really would love to go play so if anyone wants to play and be patient while I try to forget my squash form and try to keep the ball in the court, I'd love to go play sometime. 

Here's some other pictures just to inspire you...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, 2009, welcome to my life! It was brought in in a great way. I'm am pretty over going to one house party after another, trying to find the best place to be for the witching hour, trying to find the party with the most babes and who I want to be with to maybe get a new year's kiss. So, I decided to go up to my cabin. It was pretty last minute, but it turned out to be so great. Just five of us went up and it was really awesome. My friend Stacie, her friend, Chad and her roommate Erin and Garrett and I skied or snow shoed in. It's only about two miles but I had packed 2 liters of water, a bottle of Martinelle's and a bunt pan and fixins for breakfast, so my pack was freakin heavy, but it was a good ski in. We'd gone to dinner before so we barley made it there at like 11:57. Just in time to start the fire, take off the top layer of coats and open the Martinelles. I don't think we even got a count down in. But, who cares, really, it was just good to be there. We ended up just sitting around the great old fireplace, drinking hot chocolate, talking, crocheting, hanging out until like three. It takes forever for that place to get warm, but it was cozy and nice. We slept like Little House on the Prarie, three girls in the bed in the living room, and that was toasty. I woke up and the oven wasn't working and so I tried to light the fire in the old stove in the kitchen that I've never used and after having smoke fill the whole place, 

Stacie and I finally found the flew and actually cooked the sticky buns in the old stove, it was great. The pictures are ones that Garrett took. It was a great night, fabulous way to bring in 2009!

Too many great things to do!

As usual I've got like 10,000 to do all the time and I keep wanting to post and don't have time. So, here's the major things I want to tell you all. 

a) and one that I'm really stoked about is that I just bought a new computer!! It's a macbook and it was more than I wanted to spend (of course!) but my last one I'd had for 5 years and due to a long life and a deadly virus from Facebook it was dying a slow and miserable death, and it had just starting having heart attacks all the time mid-project and it was real sad, so I got this new one and I LOVE IT! but it makes me want to just stay home and play on it when there's tons of other stuff I could be doing. 

b) My new computer is helping me to search for a house ... Yes that's right a house, like with a sign-your-life-away- 30 year mortgage. I'm kinda freakin out a little bit but it's just such a good time right now and seeing how much fun it is for my roomie Erika to have this place and be able to do whatever she wants with it is so cool. However I've also seen that it's kind of stressful too and I just don't know if I'm ready for that much responsibility, but I think I'll never really be ready so I just gotta do it. 

c) Christmas was awesome. I love my family. I'm super lucky to have a family that loves to be together and just hang out. My brothers are all so unique and great and we have such a good time just being together even though we all are so different. I think I'll always love sleeping at my parent's on Christmas Eve and waking up all together. It's great. I got a bunch of power tools that I'm way stoked for. Erika has all the stuff and it's so nice when you want to do a project and you have everything you need. And for one of the houses I'm looking at that's a bit of a fixer-upper I'll need them for sure. 

d) I love skiing and I love staying at the Neberker's Alta cabin. That place is so great and it was so much fun to go up there with just Kristine and Kate for Kristine's birthday. I really love it up there and we are so lucky to live so close to such amazing mountains!

Ok, that's a good little update for right now. Sorry it's been so long!

ST. GEORGE!!

I've been so lame about posting lately and I've had several that I've wanted to posted so this one and the next few are new, so I'm packing it all in and shortening everything.

Thanksgiving is a weird holiday to me ... spend all day, if not multiple days cooking, then sometimes pack it all up then just eat it and an hour later, you're STUFFED and there's tons of left-overs for days. Oh, wait, I guess that's exactly what it's all about. And I guess the whole "what are you thankful for" talks. Even though we all dread them, they actually can be really cool. My brother Coulson had just gotten home from India and it was really interesting hearing from him, and everyone else. I'm lucky to have a great family that is pretty close in proximity and relations.

Like last year, I ditched out a little early and went to St. George with some friends for the weekend and it was great. I love the desert, especially when It's not warm here and it is there.

I think I've mentioned it before that I think my brothers conditioned me for being a river guide and I think more so for trips like this one. It ended up being 5 boys and me. They're all friends I've guided with and known for years and it's so much fun. They treat me like they're my brothers, wrestling me and picking on me and it's kind of discusting how comfortable they are around me. But, it was really a great weekend. They're so much fun to be with. I didn't really take many pictures becuase others were taking some, but here's one from the day that Mark, Garrett and I went to this really cool place called the Underworld. It's just outside of St. George.

The first day we went climbing in Snow Canyon and it was pretty cool. It had been raining the last couple days but was dry. Tony and I did the first pitch of a 4 pitch route and then started on the 2nd pitch when Tyce and Mark South followed us up. Mark was pulling hard on this undercling and it broke off and he sprained his ankle pretty bad and was out of comission for the rest of the trip which was bummer. We all felt pretty bad for him and decided to abort the plans for the last two pitches.

Then the last day we all went to Zion and that place is amazing!! It really is so beautiful. We only did a couple routes, but having not climbed too much the last while, my body was tired after only a few days worth. But I was pretty stoked because I was climbing pretty well, and I onsighted (that's when you lead-climb something without falling on your first try) a 5.10a sport route (the bolts are already there) and then in Zion I onsighted another .10 trad route. (trad is when you have to put all the gear in the crack like I'm doing here) I've never done that on trad before so I was pretty stoked. I love climbing cracks! It's brutal on your body and scrubbing in today at work killed my poor hands with all their little cuts, but it's totally worth it. I love being sore and tired from working my body. Anyway, It was a great Thanksgiving! Weekend adventures are so great and totally worth it!

(This pictures is thanks to Garrett who climbed it first to shoot from the top. Thanks Garrett! He's a great motivator and doesn't let me slack off and woos out. And giving me that extra "kodak courage" helps a little too :)

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

I've also been meaning to write this blog since I got home from Guatemala because I finished this book down there. It's by Ayn Rand and it is fabulous. It's quite a feat in that it is over 1000 pages. Garrett had started reading it before we left and was half way through it so we tore my paper back copy in half so we could both be reading it and didn't have to take up room.

It's a great book to read on a trip when you've got a 4 hour bus ride to read on. It's quite hefty in content as well as pages and I love having lots of time to read it. I read one of her other books, The Fountainhead last summer and they really changed my view on a lot of things. I don't want to bore you with a book report, but let's just say that I think Capitalism is the bomb. I don't think that in this day and this world we could ever really live it in the way that Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart live it so that society as a whole succeeds by the means of everyone being "selfish" and trying to do their best for themselves. In the book, she for sure talks in extremes and everything is so black and white and I don't think we could ever be that solid in one way or the other, but seriously, if it could work the way Ayn describes, our world would be amazing!! That's all I have to say about it for now, but if anyone is looking for a good, long, substantial read, Atlas Shrugged is the way to go.

PS And in total contrast to that, I gave in and am now reading .... that's right, you guessed it, Twilight. It's like reading Green Eggs and Ham after reading a college law book (not that I've ever read one of those, Annie just left hers in the car on time and upon looking through it I realized that law is a totally different language and I was happy to leave it to her!) in comparison, but it sure is easy and fast reading!

I love Salt Lake

There's some things that get on my nerves about living here, but some days I just love it. This entry is a little overdue, but I really think it's great. Last week, I was doing projects in the morning and wanted to do something and it was such nice weather, that Garrett and I went climbing up Little Cottonwood. Here's why it's so great. We left his house at 1, went up and did Satan's corner (which by the way is an amazingly fun 5.8 trad route) and Garrett worked on another and we were back home by 4. Here we are in an amazing climbing mecca like 20 mins away from my house. It's so fabulous. Garrett has taken some cool pictures up LCC, so check out this one and this one and just check out the magesty that is inout back yards!! And it was also cool because there were people that went by us with skis on their cars. Where else in the world can you climb in a tank top and ski within 20 mins of each other within 20 mins of home? I sure don't know, but I do know I love living here and I need to take more advantage of it.

Final Decision

Thanks for the input. After many dumb hours wasted stressing needlessly over this, here is what I ended up with:

Actually, on here it looks way different. The top color was a warm gray and the bottom is a cool purple. Well, whatev, you get the idea.

Business cards

I'm trying to be a "professional massage therapist", and get some new cards, but I'm having a hard time deciding what's best. Check these out and tell me what you think.

For the back:

Is this one too racey? Everyone from work liked this one better and thought that this would make them want to get a massage more than this one. This one is way relaxing I think, but I usually just to do outcalls where I go to their house and don't bring candles (trust me I've tried and ended up with wax all over the inside of my car! ... not a good idea)

And for the front:

Do you like these colors? Should the writting of my name be black or white and what about MASSAGE? black or white? And also, is there too many hands? My brother Eric drew the hands for me for some gift certificates he did for me, and I just love them, but I can't decide if it's too much. (BTW Eric is an amazing artist if any of you know him and he has started doing tattoos, so I'm pretty sure none of you that read this will be interested, but if you ever want one, he's your man!)

This is a very important decision and it will effect me for the rest of my life, I'm sure, so y0ur opinion would be greatly apprecitated!

DAY 6:

If no one really cares about this, it's fine. I understand what I eat is not of upmost importance, so if you don't want to read this, I won't feel bad.

Today was my last full day of the cleasne since I dedcided I didn't want to do it through work. I really think that energy wise I could do it. Unless for some reason being in the OR and doing the work was hard, I don't know, but I think I'd be fine. I went for a maybe 2 mile walk today rode my bike only a mile or two to go to lunch with some friends, raked and bagged the leaves for a couple hours, went disco skating then made a little camio at a party and I feel like I had plenty enough energy for those activities, and it made for a full great day. But I am sick of this itching, and my face looks like I'm 15 (excpet that I was really lucky at 15 and didn't really get zits, so you know what I mean). I'm not sure what it is, but hopefully when I stop it'll go away quick. And, also, let's be honest, I'm pretty hungry. At lunch watching my friends eat falaful was a serious test of will power. I was tempetd when I stopped by my parent's house that is mounding with amazing furit, bread, left-overs and pretty much watever I want, but luckily my brother Eric was there to give me some encouragemnt. So, OJ and toast for breakfast. Soup for lunch and small (yeah right!) dinner. Some of the stuff says you're supposed to take three days to get back to really eating and that for sure isn't going to happen, seriously, who am I trying to kid? I will really try to not just binge, and undo all the cleansing and bowel resting I've done. But I do feel like 6 days is good for me. Good night ... I'll be dancing with sugar plums, filet minon and cereal in my sleep tonight!

DAY 5:

I made it through Day 5 just fine. It was a somewhat active day, and I didn't feel weak or anything. I did a yoga video that had a little bit of aerobic stuff and it felt really good. Then I went and got a massage. No, I don't just get them all the time ... I wish. Especially at this place! This summer I was in Grand Canyon the whole time except I went up to Moab to do the women's trip in Cat which was awesome. This year there was this group of ladies that were really cool 30 somethings that were all powerful, beautiful, really cool girls, and one of them (this girl Jess, who is a lawyer in San Fransisco who won a $176 million against Wal-mart) sent Joselyn and me gift certificates for massages. It was to this place called the Kuara Door in the aves. It was so nice. I have never felt so pampered. They give you a white robe and flip flops and they have tea or orange water you can drink while you're waiting in the steam or sauna before your massage, it's pretty nice. If you ever want to spoil someone or yourself, get them a pass there. (Side note: It's really weird for me to get massages from other people. When I do get them I go to the same girl, Tara who I love. She'll spend an hour - an hour and 1/2 just on my neck back shoulder and chest and just kill me but it feels better after. So, this was the first one from someone else in forever. We went to the same school and our styles are so different. She used all elbows and forearms, and I guess if I was doing 3-5 massages a day I'd probably do the same, but I felt like my massages are better. But, don't get me wrong, it was still a good massage, and I always love massage no matter what.) Then later I had to go give 2 massages to my boss at Snowbird, Carl and his mom. I was worried I wouldn't have the energy, but again, I was fine. I went to see Get Smart after and it was a good day. I've got to be honest, there was a couple times through the day when I was pretty hungry. Carl was eating pizza when I got there and I could smell it when I walked in. Also, the bumps aren't really getting any better, and they are still spreading a little and I think it must be something in one of the teas, so I think I am going to end it on Sunday. That will still have been a week. So, that's good enough for me.

Another side note ... I'm going to be able to get a pass through Carl. I'm still going to have to pay like $500 but that's way better than $1,100 that it would be otherwise. I'm so glad that we're still friends and that he's willing to hook me up. But I do want to do more backcountry this winter, but it'll be nice to have the option.

EVERYONE LOOK!!

Check this out everyone! My friend Garrett that I went to Guatemala with is putting on this art show next weekend. It's going to be really great. There's a ton of local artists, including my mom and maybe me that are going to be displaying their art for exhibition or sale. Also, Garrett has put together a slide show of the pictures that he took on our trip, so it's going to be really great. There's going to be free food and some of you may know Emily Allen, she's going be playing the guitar. All the info should be on up there but if you have any other questions let me know, and I hope to see you all there!

CLEANSE

During a couple weeks on my trip when I had the runs, I promised myself that I'd do a cleanse to make sure I got out all the bugs I'm sure I picked up. So, here I am, day 5 and I'm still alive. I've done The Master Cleanse at least once a year for the past ... maybe 5 years, and I really like it. Or at least I remember thinking that it's a good thing, and while I'm doing I'm not so sure I remember correctly. I forget how hard it is until I do it. Yesterday I threw up cayenne pepper and lemon water out of my nose, and needless to say I was not so psyched about that. But I'm sticking with it and am bypassing the cayenne pepper. Anyway, it's supposed to give your body a chance to rest from all the crap I put in it all the time and get all the stuff that's stuck in there out. Here's a gross little known fact, that you usually have 5-10 lbs of facile matter in your intestines all the time! And if you don't believe me check out this website! I was just going to put those pictures on here, but I thought I'd protect those not wanting to see pictures of poo.

I think most of you have probably heard of it, but here's the gist. I mix the juice from 2 lemons and about 2 tablespoons of Grade B maple syrup with a full Nalgene of water, and I drink 2 of those a day. I also drink a lot of tea. Usually a detox one in the morning and a laxative one at night. And that's it ... no other food or anything. It's pretty rough, but I really like doing it. OK, not really while I'm doing it, but after I'm glad I did it. The recommended amount is to do it for 10 days. I have done 10 a couple times, and 5 and 7 days also. Depending how I feel, I'm either going to do it for a week, or 9 days depending if I think I can do my first day of work which will be mostly paperwork and hopefully not 12 full hours of standing on my feet, because I don't think I could do that. Here's how it's been going:

DAY 1:
I started on a Monday, and it really wasn't as hard as I thought. I was for sure hungry, but I had a ton of stuff to do so it kept me really occupied and not thinking about food. It's so great to have this week off to really get settled in to my new place with Erika Feinaur. I raked leaves and I walked / ran / did lunges (I really need to get my legs in shape for skiing!) around Liberty park and I really didn't feel too low on energy.

DAY 2:
This day has been the hardest for me. Since I've been out of the country I've missed a lot of the debates, and all that that has been going on. I made my drink, then got back in bed and watched the debates and caught up on stuff and when I got up and around I had a super bad headache and almost felt like I was going to throw up. I ran errands, and was around but had a pretty bad headache all day. Not that it requires much strenght, but I went bowling with my family and was find. I started getting what I thought looked like bites around my waist line, and they itched just like bites.

DAY 3:
This is supposedly the hardest day for people, but it wasn't too hard for me. I woke up without a headache. I had some tea with a friend and did some errands in the morning, then came back to my place. I really think being busy is the key to now thinking about it. It also really helps that Erika didn't have any food and she's out of town and I didn't buy any, so there's nothing here to temp me. Whenever I go up to my parent's house, it's such a struggle because there's tons of good fruit and treats and everything I could want there, but here's not too bad. What I thought were bites, started showing up on the backs of my hands and on my cheeks a little, so I started figuring out that it's not bites, it's systemic, but I couldn't figure out why, then all of the sudden I remembered that I think I am a little bit allergic to dandelions and one of the teas I bought has dandelion root in it. So, I've stopped drinking that, and it doesn't seem to be spreading but it's still pretty itchy. I hope that was the problem. I hadn't had the capsules to make the cayenne pepper capsules until today, so I put some of those together and had one, and you can always feel when it opens in your stomach, and it's a little heart-burny but that is supposed to help keep your metabolism going and keep you colon moving stuff through. Later, I played a little bit of squash with my brother Jesse just for 20 mins and I was fine. And this day was great because it snowed!!!

DAY 4:
I took a capsule with my morning drink and it kinda wrecked me. It was pretty burny, but just didn't go away. I tried to drink a lot of water and my juice to dilute it, but it didn't work and I ended up throwing up. It sucks pretty bad, it came out my nose and w burning in my sinuses for like 20 min. I tried to snort water, but that is the weirdest feeling thing to do ever. So, I'll probably just empty the capsules a little but still keep taking them. I felt much better after. For some reason our power had gone out the night before, but I had some computer work to do so I walked to the downtown library. It's probably a mile each way and it was such a beautiful day! I was walking fast and had plenty of energy. It's really amazing to me that I am not starving. I do feel hungry, but it's just like I had an early lunch and it's getting late for dinner. I realize how often I eat just because it's time to eat or because it's there, and this is a really good practice for me to be better at not eating. It's funny that I'm way better at not eating anything that not eating certain things or just a lot of whatever, but hopefully this will be good practice for me. I did eat one hot tamale. I was cleaning out my backpack and it was there just screaming to be eaten and it was so good! and so good just to chew something. I've been chewing gum like it's the best thing ever. Usually at least 2 pieces at once. I smell everything too. Any food that is within 20 feet of me I smell and I want it! So, again, my house is a safe haven to not have that temptation wafting to my senses. I went to Squashworks to watch my dad and Jesse play some matches and I rode the exercise bike easy for 20 mins, and again, felt surprisingly good.

DAY 5:
As I was getting ready for bed last night, my throat started hurting just a little, and I can still feel it this morning, it's not bad, but it's there. I'm feeling pretty good otherwise. I think my body is kind of used to not getting food. Anyway, that's where I am now. Tomorrow will be my deciding day if I'm going to keep doing it for 9 days or not. If not, on Sunday, I'll have OJ for breakfast, soup for lunch, and a really small light dinner. You're supposed to take like 3 days to get back to eating real food, but I've never been that good at obeying that and I've never had problems with eating again. I've gone "#2" every morning and there's still plenty coming out, so I feel like it's working. I've lost 10 lbs, which I know I'll gain (hopefully not all but) most of it back as soon as I start eating again.

So, there it is. I know there's tons of different cleanses that people do all the time, and I think they're great. I think it's good to let our bodies relax and catch up especially with all the crap we put into them, especially me on my trip. I ate so many pastries and deep friend things, but actually a lot of it probably had a lot less preservatives and additives and such and we did eat a lot of fruit and veggies, but it still feels good to get everything out. I'll keep you updated, and let you know how it's going, and keep you all up to date on my BM's also, cause I'm sure you're dying to know :)

Back home!!!

I'm back! And it's great and I'm ready to be back here. Our last week or so was great. I had said we decided to go to Xela, and it was a great decision. It was nice because it was a little cooler there and not so humid and it felt great. And we met up with these guys that Garrett had been in touch, and we went climbing. One of them was this guy who had put up all the routes in the area, and has been climbing for like 40 years, and he learned from reading out of the book how to climb and bolt routes. I had only climbed like once in 6 months and we did 2 5.11s . One of them I couldn't finish and the other was a struggle, and I just top roped it but I finished it and they were so stoked. They said I was the first girl to even make it past the second bolt and even though it was really far from leading it was cool to be the first girl to make it to the top. Also, it was really such a cool experience because for some reason that mountain is a sacred place for these Evangelicals. They come from all over to visit this place, and they chant like crazy and clap and it's great serenading going on while we were climbing.

After Xela we went back to Antigua, and hiked the Pacaya Volcano again, and it was so great. We had hiked it a couple weeks ago and there was some people that had slept over, and we had wanted to end up there on one of our last nights. We had to take a guide up there and it was super windy on the way up. There's some places that you walk across totally open areas that we were almost getting blown off, especially Garrett with his pack on with all our stuff in it. We didn't hike to the top of it, we just went to a place on the side that the lava flows out of and when we got up there there was some lava flowing and we were stoked because the guide was saying that it had stopped for a week or so and had just started again the day before. The guide told us to watch out for rock slides and that the whole thing might collapse, then just said see ya. That would never happen it the states, but we were excited to stay there. I wouldn't have been too psyched because it was pretty cold and windy, except that there were also some vents all over that were blowing hot air, and that was my survival. After the guide and the other people stayed for the sunset then left, I chopped up some veggies to make tin foil dinners to cook on the vents and Garrett made a sweet little house for us. After dinner we got in our bags and tried to sleep but it was pretty early and I couldn't sleep, so I just read for a while and later another flow started up the ridge a little, but luckily went down the other side. There was a vent pretty close to our shelter and we dug it out and covered it so it was like a vent directing hot air right into my face, it was great. It really would have been freezing, because I had on every piece of warm clothing that I had brought and only had a 40 degree bag and we didn't have pads or anything. I was surprised that a slept pretty well, until sunrise and Garrett took some amazing pictures in the morning. You'll have to come to his art show that I'll post about soon, that's in two weeks to see his pictures that are amazing.

And here's a video that Garrett took. That flow was going most of the night. He was probably standing in our little house when he filmed it, and from where I threw that stick in it was so hot! It was really almost burning my face off just standing that close. It was so cool being that close to such a destructive and such a creative force of the earth.

So now I'm back in Salt Lake and I am stoked to be back. I was ready to come home. It was a really great trip and I couldn't have asked for a better travel partner (and the answer is no to the question I know you're all asking). But I wanted to do a little run down of everything that happened .... My trip was 43 days, we went to 4 countries, we saw one landslide, hiked 2 volcanoes, saw a beauty pageants, spent many hours of the night lying awake itching, or trying not to, went sail boat fishing, did 4 different scuba dives, met some fabulous locals including Ambush Man who got mad at me for wearing flip flops that were making way too much noise, Jolly Roger who fed us 2 lobster tails and side dishes for $10 for several nights, the Lopez family that lent us surf boards and took care of us in Puerto San Jose, 4 different scuba dives, where I saw tons of really cool fish and two sea turtles. We spent 32 hours in buses, 21 hours in Colectivos (as you can see in this picture, and what you can't see in this is Garrett's ankle that was raw and oozy for itching it too much), 3 hours in trucks and taxis, 5 hours in boat taxis, 7 hours of hitch hiking (don't tell my mom!) including rides in trucks, an ambulance, all three of us in the cab of a dump truck,and a flat bed, another hour of waiting trying to get picked up, 6 hours of sitting in bus stations, one rash on my arm that spread for a while, but luckily is gone now, 2 different sets of amazing ruins, 2 major waterfalls, and tons of little ones, lots of great Spanish lessons, 1 birthday party, the end of the Tour de Guatemala, countless amazing sun sets, incredible amounts of salt water up my nose, loads of gross scabby hairless, flee ridden dogs, at least 20 frozen bananas and 30 strawberries,

several great markets of food and clothes and everything else, one dead person, several nights of amazing lightening shows, one night on a volcano, oddly a lot of parades and fairs wherever we went, lots of cups of hot chocolate and churros, tons of tortillas, and tacos, 10 days of the runs1 lake surrounded by volcanoes, and an overall fabulous trip. I was ready to come home, but it was great to be there. I miss seeing the great sunrises and sunsets over the beach and waking up to the sound of the surf and tortillas being slapped into shape across the street. I'll miss reading in the rain in a hammock under a thatched roof being rained on by super warm rain. I won't miss the mosquitoes and bugs that come with the rain. I have quite liked being back in my car, Harriett and not being squished into buses and whatever with tons of other people. It's good to have my personal bubble back. I won't miss having black sand in everything, but I will miss walking on the beach. I miss chocobananas and strawberries and amazing fruit juices every day, and tons of tacos and all the other great food down there.

There's a lot that I will miss, but I am glad to be back. I've moved in with my friend, Erika Feinaur in her house a block west of Liberty Park. She has worked for Western for a while and that's how I met her. She's really great and I'm stoked to be living here. She got her doctorate at Harvard and is a professor at BYU. It'll be a little different than my living sitch of last year, and I'm really looking forward to it. Not that my roomies last winter weren't great, I seriously loved it, but they were all younger than me and still in school and needless to say it'll be a little different. I start work again at the hospital next Mon. I was having dreams about work the last few weeks, and I hope I remember everything! In one dream, the doctor was asking for the instruments in Spanish and it really stressed me out!

Anyway, thanks for reading about my adventures, and sorry that it's so long and blabby!

I HATE MOSQUITOS!!! Ok, maybe I don´t hate them, but I really do hate what they do to me!! The mosquitos and the sand flies or something little have had a hay day with my whole body, but mostly my ankels and feet. I have spent hours awake a couple of the nights in Puerto San Jose harnesing every ounce of my chi, and focusing to achieve every bit of my willpower to not scratch. While I´m reading or sleeping I´ll mindlessly scratch a bite on one foot with the other and soon enough, it is itching like crazy and soon enough both feet are itching and then my forearm, and my thigh, and then, it´s an all out battlefront. I scratched the front of my leg with my Chaco the other afternoon so much that I itched through the skin and it´s now a big scab, but it felt great the whole time! I swear I could scratch to the bone and love every minute of it. What I can´t figure out is why they don´t itch sometimes and other times, out of the blue its so incesant that I think I´m going to cut my foot off. If anyone knows, please let me know. I´d bought some stuff in Belize that maybe kinda worked, but more than anything I think it´s just a placedbo to just get you to not itch it for a minute. Here´s a video of Garrett during a day time attack while we were waiting for a bus in Monterrico.


After much deliberation, we decided to leave Puerto, and we´re now in Quetzeltenango aka Xela (pronounced Shela). I feel pretty good about coming here for the last couple days. It´s a really cool city. We just got here yesterday, and we met up with some locals that Garrett has been in touch with and went climbing today. We went with the guy that pretty much pioneered all the climbing in this area and it was great. I´ll tell you more about it later, but I´ll just leave you with this inspirational picture that Garrett took on one of our last days in Puerto.

Oh, and PS if you were remembering that we were maybe going to split up and I was going to go to Coban and Tiakl, apperantly, there was some forces conspiring against me and there was a flood in the city close to the road to those places so both were out of reach. So, thus here we are, and I´m bummed I didn´t get to go to those places, but I´m really stoked to be here in Xela for out last couple days.

I LOVE chocolate bananas!!! My frist time I ever had them was in Balboa in California at the Jacobsen´s house there. I had heard about them, and they truly lived up to what I´d heard. They are a little hard for me to eat because I have super sensitive teeth and they´re super cold, but oh, man, down here they are the freaking bomb!!! We have found this shop down there that has them, and the other day, they were out of bananas (but they still made us a banana strawberry shake??? go figure) so we had chocolate covered pineapple, which I´ve got to say is pretty freakin amazing. They don´t have the sprinkles down here, which is a bit of a bummer, but they´re also only like 30 cents as oppsoed to $6 or $7 in Balboa. They´re on our menu at least a couple times a day, it´s great. So, thanks, Anne for introducing me to this wonderful treat!!

We went in to Guatmeala City yesterday with Daniel and his brother, David that owns the hotel we´re staying in, and Garrett bought a surf board, so that he´ll have one that will actually float him. We went in to this big mall, and it was such a contrast being in there. It was a huge very American-esque mall with tons of American-esque shops. The difference in lifestyle is amazing. Out here, or in most of the other cities we´ve vistied, it seems like almost everyone, excpet for a few successful, motivate people are totally living day by day. If you try to pay for something with a Q100 bill (quetzals) which is like $15 everyone looks at you like you´re crazy. Even some grocery stores don´t even have enough change to give. But in the city, everything was American prices, and all the teenagers hanging at the mall were just the same. It was really interesting. I´m glad to not be in the city. Looks like we might be hanging out here, in Puerto San Jose working on surfing, and really working on my Spanish for another 5 or 6 days then leave Garrett here and go up to Tikal and Coban for the last couple days with my friend Mark South who is flying in today. Should be a great, relaxing last of the trip! Here I come chocobananas and chocopiña!!

Back at the beach....

After the adventure that it was to get to Antigua, it was really good to be there. In the Lonley Planet guide book, there´s tons about Antigua, but it is a really touristy place. There´s a lot of old Colonial buildings and it´s a cool city, but it was like a mini Eurpoe with all the non-native people walking around with all their quick dry clothes and cameras around their necks. Not thát I´m not a tourist, but you know, that´s not what we can down here for. We had been dropped off at a somewhat lame hotel, with very little personality and only one other group staying there. So during our first walk around the city we ran into a guy that we had met in Belize who was staying at a way better hostel called the Black Cat that we moved to the next day. It´s amazing what a difference a better atmosphere makes. We got some beds in a dorm room and the place was alomst full even though it´s not even high season. There was a restaraunt attached and the $8 per night included a great, big breakfast. It was just a way better place and we were lucky to find it, but I have been a little bummed that we haven´t found more like that. It would have been a bummer trying to travel by myself and not being able to meet people as much.The top pictrue and this one are views from our hostel. Really cool old, broked down churhes were everywhere. The next day we took a tour up to the Pacaya Volcano. It was really cool! It was pretty cloudy and a little rainy and cool the whole way up, then when we got to it, it was really warm and walking on the hardened lava I could feel the heat through my shoes. Here´s a video of some of the lava.

Garrett has been having a great time taking tons of pitcures and it´s cool to see his creative genius at work. Just so you know, in Nov he´s going to be having an art show that I´ll post about later, but he´ll show his pictures from this trip so stay tuned for some amazing photos at that show!We went on a police-escorted hike (they say it´s dangerous, but I think it probably is just at night and it´s a little bit of fear mongering going on) to an overlook of Antigua. This is looking at Pacaya Volcano that we hiked. It was mainly this kind of weather all the time if not more cloudy and rainy. It´s good with it being the rainy season because thére´s not many people here, but kind of a bummer when we are quarantined to our hostel by the occasional down pour. However, the clouds do lead to amazing sunsets. After a couple days in Antigua, we took a couple buses to get us to the coast, to the city of Puerto San Jose. The guidebook doesn´t really say much about this city, so it was a bit of a gamble, but we really lucked out. The first night we went to the first cheap place we could find. $3 a night, but it was pretty bad. Our room was really small, Garrett couldn´t stand up straight and it smelled pretty bad, so we had taken our mattresses out on the porch to sleep. That night was the biggest storm we´ve seen. It was prety amazing! More rain that I´ve ever seen, and fabulous lightning that was lighting up the whole sky, and thunder that rocked the whole place, it was really cool. Again, we were pretty much the only ones there except for the owner´s friends who we were pretty sure were in the mofia. There was a no guns sign bythe restaraunt, and a group of guys with thier prize girlfriends were there with a Marachi band serenading their lunch. So needless to say we were happy to find somewhere else to stay.

Garrett has been wanting to surf and we thought there would be a shop here to rent borads, but upon asking around, we found that there wasn´t one, but there was a guy who surfs, and these kids took us to his house. Turns out he is this great guy, Daniel, who is sponsored by Quicksilver and his brother owns a hostel. Daniel has a couple extra boards that he´s been letting us use. The problem is, he´s like most other Guatemalans in that he is probably 5` 4 or something and he´s a great surfer so they´re these little sporty boards that aren´t great for learning, especially for Garrett. But it´s been pretty fun to just go out and get worked. We went out without boards and just stood in the way of the waves to purposly get rocked to get back in the ocean mode. We´ve been here for a couple days and there´s been a lot of relaxing going on. I´ve been studying a lot of Spanish and I´m more than half way through the 1067 page feat of reading Atlas Shrugged and I can´t put it down. Here´s where I´ve been spending a lot of time.Daniel has three great kids who patiently help me with my Spanish, and come over to play every day because it´s their summer break right now from school. It´s great to play with them in the ocean too. It´s amazing how kids can play in the ocean forever and be super content, and how fun it is to be out there playing with them. We lucked out finding this place for sure. ´We´ll be here for at least a couple more days. Another friend, Mark is coming this weekend and we´ll figure out more when he gets here what we´re going to do, but we´ll probably head back up North to see the ruins of Tikal and go to this cool sounding place called Coban. Anyway, we´re enjoy the beach life, even though it was nice to be in a little bit cooler weather. I woke up early when Garrett went out to shoot to sunrise and went for a run, and I was so sweaty when I got back!! I´ll be stoked to get back to dry weather and snow!! from what I´ve heard! It´s amazing to meet people down here who are genuine and it´s sad how it´s out of the ordinary to find someone here who wants to help you to be nice, not for money or any other sort of compensation. Daniel and his family are great. We´re going to BBQ with them tonight and it should be really fun. Hope all is well with all of you! We´re down to less than two weeks left. It doesn´t sound that long, but when each day is stretched before you, and you really can enjoy and relish every minute, it´s tons of time to soak this all up.

Sketchy situation, but we made it

When we were leaving Pana we decided to splurge ($5 rather than the $2 or $3 for the chicken bus) and take a colectivo. It came and picked us up from our hotel, and luckily it wasn't quite as crunched as usual, but Garrett and I have both had a little bit of stomach problems off and on, and he was not feeling great, so being in there anyway, especially on the really bumpy roads going fast wasn't that great. We were on our way, and this country is crazy because there was construction (like dirt roads with huge pot holes all over) for like 30 miles of the main country's highway. It was such a rough ride. It was raining pretty hard off and on and it was a pretty curvy slow road anyway, going through the beautiful mountains.
All of the sudden traffic came to a stop and our driver just turned off the car and said it happens all the time, but this time was different. We soon found out that there had been a landslide, and that one of the construction vehicles had been caught in it and had been swept down to the river. They also said that 7 cars had been burried, but we later found out that no cars were in it. So, we walked up there and unlike how it would have been in America, we all could just watch a had a good view of what was going on. The other bigger Cat had driven down there and was sinking a little trying to get the other one turned over because there was still a guy in it. It took them forever to actually get it over and I kept thinking about all these 3 to 1 systems we learn about to get a stuck J-rig off some rocks that they could set up but they eventually got it over and got the guy out, but the whole cab was totally full of rocks and mud and he'd been under it all for at least 45 min so he didn't make it. It was really sad. For a while when we were just sitting in the van, this older Mexican lady was complaining about how long it was taking and I wanted to yell at her that at least it wasn't her caught in there. It was frustrating, and it really made me realize how quick something like that can happen. But don't worry, all those of you who are worried about us, we'll be fine. Molly and Jess are both on missions and I know they're praying for us, and Molly's prayers for her future husband to come home are working for sure.
They'd been working on clearing the road the whole time and decided that it wasn't going to happen that night so we had to go back to Panajachel, stay there for a couple hours and leave at 4 am and go on a different road that wasn't safe to travel at night. So, 8 hours yesterday, 3 today, and we're finally in Antigua. Luckily, blessedly we made it!

STUPID FIREWORKS!!

The forth of July is always something to look forward to because of the fireworks and they´re great because they last for like a day, maybe two, and don´t go past 10 maybe 11. Well, here in Pana, they´ve been going for the last week straight that we´ve been here. And I´m not talking about cute little fireworks that you set off in your driveway, I´m talking about that ones that don´t even look cool, they just make a REALLY loud noise that you can hear, and feel anywhere in the city, and proabably the surrounding ones. They set them off all day, at no particular interval until 2 in the morning and on a couple days started at like 4:30 am. They´ve been celebrating Saint Francisco this whole week and at first we thought it was cool, because there was a parade the first day, and we were excited for the festivities, but when they had the same parade the next day, still cool, but it lost a little luster. Then other processions of carrying the statue of San Francisco to the church, that was cool, and interesting because they dressed up like the Conquistadors who I would think that they wouldn´t like but I guess they´re giving them thanks for bringing them Christianity?? The whole week there has been a fair set up but not too much action up there because it´s been rainy, and they were waiting until Sat when the real celebertion happened, which was a 13 piece band and tons of drunk guys dressed like Conquistadors and women stumbling - dancing around for hours.
Anyway, needless to say the festivities have been interesting and enjoyable and it´s made for some fabulous people watching, but seriously people! Can you just quit it with the damn fireworks for the love of San Francisco!

This video is from the parade. San Francisco (well, the weird looking statue of him) is in that thing they're carrying and I'm pretty sure the dude in the blue is one of the guys that was lighting them off the whole time and he probably has no hearing left. He hardly even flinches when they go off, and it was like 100 times louder in real life.