Just chiming in to say I'm still slacking. But my laptop has been sucking at life lately, so even though I can't come close to affording it, I bought a new one (yay horrible but awesome decisions!). So hopefully in a week or so, I will have my new compy to finally finish editing pictures and post the final Ethiopia summary on here. 

I am also slacking at the other posts I've wanted to do. Mikey has agreed to help me with my vector project, but I have yet to send him all the info (fail, me). But hopefully that will happen soon too.

Right now, I'm applying to jobs all over the place, not hearing any response whatsoever, and also doing 4 free M.I.T. classes that I hope to complete for official college credit (woohoo!). In the meantime, I'm also deciding whether to put school on hold some more to do a few years of work and not look like a total slack loser, or if I want to find another dead-beat job to make income while I ask schools if they would possibly take me for a PhD program. Decisions...

Life in Colorado has been nice though. While I feel like a mooch and a non-productive member of society, Jake and I do some pretty fun stuff every day and this week we hope to have our first couchsurfer!! Other than that, it's Insanity six days a week (mont two is about to start!), biking to our fave cafe, DBC, and raw food extravaganza. 

I'm starting to get inspired again to be creative and do things. I have like a billion sock monkey beanies I could revamp and sell (thanks Arlene!) and I'm knitting again. I want to paint again and maybe take creative writing classes. But really, I just want a job and routine for a bit and try to fit a bunch of fun stuff all around it. So, wish me luck I guess!

It's late. I had a very eventful day. Actually, because I just feel like hanging out, listening to B-52's and wish I had a few people to chat with at the moment, why don't I tell you about it?

Started the day out going to Longmont to shoot guns with Jake and his dad. This is the second time we've gone (since I've moved here) and both times I had Jake truly show me how to shoot a gun (unlike the 2 times I went before and pretty much learned nothing, just had fun in the desert). Jake turned out to be the best teacher ever because I'm not half bad!! I just hoped I didn't suck monkey balls, but I really impressed myself! So yay for me, I like guns a lot now. The first time we went I just shot the two handguns we had, but this time I asked if we could rent a rifle and those bigger guns continue to be my favorite over handguns. I wish I took pictures this time, but here is a picture of my handgun lesson last time:

We plan on going to the range with Jake's dad regularly when we get back from our trip. I'm excited to get better and better (I'm always so shakey!) Also we talked about getting in better shape to also increase gun skills (because shooting that rifle turned my arms into jello and even tired my legs from being so tense holding it and it was heavy).

After the range we went to Chautauqua to hike. I brought my Lowepro backpack that I'm taking to Africa to give a good trial run and see how heavy it felt walking around a while. The trail reminded me a lot of my first Yosemite hike - straight up. Stairs and switchbacks the whole way. Up and up. It was good though. I got pretty tired but it also gave me energy... that feel good tired. Lots of sweat. Man, warm today. But good practice for the Sahara, amiright?

Then we went to Pearl St which is an adorable Fußgängerzone with awesome shops and busking. We ate at a Tibetan place called Sherpa's. MMMM Tibet food is my new obsession. I ate YAK. So good. So FREAKING good. I loved it. After getting ridiculously full off dumplings, noodles, naan, and yak meat, we walked Pearl and Jake pointed everything out like a kid in a candy store (probably not dissimilar to how I showed Steve around UCSC). We got excited about the prospects of living in Boulder one day (because I'd like to do my PhD at CU there, woohoo!).


Then back home we went to find Amazon packages waiting for me (always the best feeling). I got a TABLET, I am so against tablets!! But I meant to grab my Dell Mini in Austin because I re-changed my mind on taking it to Africa. I decided that if I wanted to blog spontaneously or just keep shit organized so that when we arrive at an internet cafe, I don't have to deal with their computers and I don't have to spend time (and therefore money) writing it all out THEN. Just upload completed project and BAM. Well, forgot my mini. Found a Galaxy Tab on amazon for $167 used. I thought, what have I got to lose? Amazon is awesome about returns, so if it sucks, whatever. It's only the 7" one, and I was worried about the manageability of typing on it until I found a SWEET pleather cover for it that opens into a laptop basically: the tablet fits in slots on one side (think of a book cover) and the other side holds a small keyboard that plugs into the tablet. BAM. It'll still be tiny, but I'm pretty used to my Dell mini 9" keyboard, so I think I'll adapt okay. The keyboard doesn't come until Monday however (and hopefully before we leave for the airport!!) so I can't test it yet, but I'm charging the Tab as we speak and I'm excited to see how much I'll hate it because I still think tablets are quite useless. Kinda works for my plans though, so maybe I will grow to love them and use them exclusively on travel adventures if all goes well.


We are leaving Monday afternoon (flight at 5pm) and I'm still not feeling it, as in, it hasn't kicked in yet WHERE I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO BE. It's been so long since I've been international that it feels like all those times before was just a dream and this is the first time for reals. Whew. Excited. I'm excited to feel "home" again and wonder if it will be the same since I have discovered how "home" I feel in Santa Cruz. I mean, a lot can change in what, 10 years? I suck at life.


Okay, my Tab just got done charging, I think it's time to play now...


Moral of the story: traveling is awesome. I'm excited.