Wow, well I hope you enjoyed the past few days videos, including an appearance by T-Pain. Today moved pretty slow, probably due to having a little too much fun last night. Yesterday was beautiful, but the weather took a turn of the worse today.
It might snow again! I’m ready for spring.
A beautiful day in southern Utah. An unsuspecting couple. And a small airstrip.
Monday night, Monica and I went to the Moab Brewery in Moab, Utah (Moh – Ab). As previously mentioned the town had a strong sense of adventure. In the bar, they were playing a video of a local skydiving group. A phone number flashed on the bottom. Monica and I started talking about it. She wanted to go. I was surprised and a little nervous. I’ve always wanted to go and she had said previously she might be a bit too nervous. But now the moment was coming where I might ACTUALLY go. And now…I was nervous.
Anyway, nothing came of it that night. We woke up in our fairly nice hotel room, went down to breakfast, and another sign came. Reading through a brochure, we spotted several ads for skydiving. It claimed to be America’s most scenic drop zone. Since, I have only gone once, I cannot confirm this. Driving to the airport, I can say that it was beautiful. We were right on the edge of a national park.
At breakfast after a little bit of thought…Monica said let’s go. I was not quite ready yet. She insisted…let’s go at 10. I could tell she wanted to jump right into it and get it over without thinking about it. I needed some time to process and rationalize the risk/thrill we were considering engaging in. Then, we made a decision. We would drive out to the airstrip, check things out and decide.
So we did that and we gave it the green light. We were going to jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet.
I’m going to leave this post as a teaser (so you come back and read tomorrow). But I will say that of things to do before I die, mechanical bull riding and skydiving are now checked off the list.
Kansas City turned out to be a lot of fun. The highlight of the night was easily going to a western themed bar that had a mechanical bull that you could ride for free (after paying a small cover to get in). Inside, there were a lot of people and the atmosphere was fun. Monica and I both decided to give it a try. It was tough, but a LOT of fun. I would recommend that everyone ride a mechanical bull at some point.
As I mentioned last post, there is a new area in KC called the Power and Light District, there are a lot of bars, restaurants, and entertainment in this area, including a movie theater and a bowling alley. It is obvious the area is new and intended to draw people into the city. It reminds me somewhat of Minneapolis’s Block E. The cool thing that KC has that MPLS doesn’t have is the weather to have a big outside pavilion that has a stage and a lot of seating. It also has electric heaters on the roof for cooler nights, making it very versatile.
Tonight, we stayed in Pueblo, Colorado. Honestly, it has been interesting getting into the Southwest and leaving the Plains. The atmosphere changed quite a bit. Pueblo is slightly depressed economically, but it has a historic main street area that is quite charming. Recently, they built a River Walk that has several restaurants and stores nearby. It gave the downtown area a much more personal (and safe) feel.
The weather has thrown a wrench in our plans. A big storm hit the West Coast and the forecast indicates much cooler temperatures are coming. As Dan commented on last post, the great thing about road trips is flexibility. We’ll see where we end up.
Stay tuned.
Yesterday was so unbelievably beautiful I had to stop, pinch myself, and figure out whether I was dreaming. Could it really be? Could the end of winter be in sight?
It was so nice out yesterday, I was embarrassed to be wearing a coat.
There are several things I’ll miss about winter, mostly missed opportunities to ski and skate. But I have confidence that next winter will arrive without any problems. That being said, I am sooo excited about having warm weather again. I need to start running and biking, the gym just isn’t doing it for me.
Also, the arrival of Spring means the arrival of spring quarter. Graduation is coming up and although the job market is a little scary, I can’t believe 4 years has already elapsed.
Happy holidays everyone! The blogging hiatus continues as I am enjoying the holidays. I’ve been from Minocqua, WI to Whitewater, WI and back to Chicago. Today, we head up to Whistler and I am really excited!
I’ll try to post more regularly up there and give you a snow report!
Hello!
Another blogging holiday. I’ve missed this outlet for the past few days, but have enjoyed myself relaxing and eating plenty.
Monica and I went to her folk’s place for the holidays and had a great weekend. I have to give a shout out to them and the delicious Thanksgiving Day meal.
I made a big mistake though when we left because I forgot my laptop! That required me to take a very early trip this morning to the Northern border of Illinois. I met Monica’s dad and got my laptop back. The bad news was the transportation-related nightmare for one of the busiest days of travel – snow. Chicago was expecting approximately 4 to 5 inches of snow with northern Wisconsin getting about an inch. This was a reversal from a few days ago where the opposite was supposed to happen. In the end, I think the original guess was correct because Wisconsin got snow and Chicago got a bunch of sleet and wind.
Today, I had an awful grocery shopping trip. I’ll exclude the name of the store though. I enjoy the experience of grocery shopping (besides paying). The store I was at is in the middle of remodeling, so the atmosphere was that of a store in war-torn Eastern Europe, rather than Chicago. I made it out less $150, but with enough supplies for a while.
All of the sudden it got cold. Yesterday, Dan sent me an instant message inquiring into Chicago’s weather. That’s when it hit me…it is friggen’ winter again.
Yesterday, I literally wanted to run between buildings to get to my classes. It was one of those days. Where the cold just hits you – a smack in the face. I like winter, but I’m just not ready for it yet. The transition between fall and winter is the hardest of any seasonal change.
The saddest part of the change for me is the inability to be outside, I’ve been running a lot and biking a decent amount this summer. At first, I thought I’d be able to keep it up before it snows, but now I’m skeptical. Its just too cold to be outside to run. More accurately, I’m just to wimpy to go do it.
I feel like using this chilly weather to set a few goals for the winter:
1) Figure out what the hell I’m doing next year.
2) Be a more responsible scheduler.
I did not think I would be saying this already, but the quarter system has doomed me to start thinking about finals. I was paging through a syllabus and realized we have a paper due on the last day of class – March 6. If someone told me something fun was happening on March 6 I would be excited because that means it is close. When I was told this quarter was ending the second week of March…I got a little scared.
The weather around Chicago has been crazy lately. Snow Storm Warnings. Flash Flood Warnings. Wind Chill Advisories. I do not know how to prepare for today.
So I have turned to the blog. I have decided to start making more posts in the ‘Life’ Category because I realize all of you might not care about Real ID. My recent choice to use the blog as a depository for research does not exactly cater to this crowd. I do think it would make a great debate case though!
“Special Weather Statement
COOK- INCLUDING THE CITY OF…CHICAGO 1118 PM CST WED NOV 7 2007
A QUICK BURST OF SNOW WILL QUICKLY MOVE THROUGH COOK COUNTY THROUGH MIDNIGHT TONIGHT. LITTLE TO NO ACCUMULATION IS EXPECTED OUT OF THIS SNOW…BUT VISIBILITIES MAY BRIEFLY BE REDUCED IN THE HEAVIEST AREAS OF THE SNOW SQUALL. AFTER THIS BAND MOVES THROUGH…A LINGERING FLURRY MAY BE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING HOURS.”
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