backtracking

Ah—so much to say, so little time. Should I start now and go backwards? Today is my last second day of school. I love the beginning—of everything. I love the beginning of the school year: walking across the library bridge and seeing acquaintances I might have forgotten, and friends I haven’t seen all summer. The anticipation at the beginning. You think it might be perfect. I’ve always thought Christmas Eve is a little bit more exciting than Christmas. I love receiving the new syllabus in class but not having a lecture. Except for Dr. Morrissey’s class. Milton should be exciting. Talk about reading closely! In a poem with 12,000 lines, try to catch this:

He with Olympias, this with her who bore
Scipio the height of Rome. With tract oblique
At first, as one who sought access, but feared
To interrupt, sidelong he works his way.
As when a ship by skilful steersman wrought
Nigh river’s mouth or foreland, where the wind
Veers oft, as oft so steers, as shifts her sail.

Look at the acrostic he creates. Who's Milton talking about? What a genius! “He’s a great writer because of the extraordinary reading he’s asking us to do.”

Today is the only day I’ll be 22 years and three days old—I need to live it up! ☺ My 22nd birthday was delightful. I love that my birthday is in August. My parties act as a reunion of friends I haven’t seen in sometimes a whole year, or more. Birthdays are the rare days all of the sisters are together, too. So of course, we take a few sister pictures that we might send in our Christmas cards this year. Watch out!

sisters partying down :)!

Last week we had a family reunion with the amazing Droney side of the family. No joke: all of my relatives are the coolest people in the world. I think I’m being objective when I say that! They’re so full of life and laughter and creativity and kindness. My little cousin Irene is now thirteen! She’s so talented and smart and is becoming a Renaissance girl. She and her friends are independently putting on a performance of “Rent”—which is like two hours long? Quite the feat. Go Irene! Isle of Palms was such a relaxing break from working at Yellowstone. The only work I did was on my tan. I practiced guitar and didn’t get much reading done at all. Which is bad, but there are so many lovely people to talk to. Oh—and we ate, a lot. Grandma’s spaghetti—it’s second to none. The Irish party the first night and the talent show the last night were what family reunions are made of.

my cousin and I kissing a lucky leprechaun

Something really funny: I’d always thought that we’d had several family reunions growing up before Anna’s wedding in 2000. I have so many memories from them: making piñatas with Aunt Colleen, beauty night, the Jacuzzi, this fishing pole I got for my birthday, a coconut bunny rabbit birthday cake, an oldies dance night, the “ballerina mouse” club, waves that tumbled you on the way down. Turns out, we only had one family reunion before Anna’s wedding—this was our third one. I told Jessica that and she, also, remembered several! Do you know how disorienting that is? Good thing we’re not writing our family’s history! I still can’t get over it.

Jess and Joel back from the AT for the week!

Oh, by the way, my friend John and I bought goldfish together and MINE DIED! And we painted my room orange--it looks great.

Home again, home again, jiggidy jig

I flew home the day the country was on "orange alert"--we couldn't bring toothpaste, water, perfume, makeup, or any gels on the airplane. I left at 1 pm and didn't get back home till 4:30 am the next morning, largely due to delays in Atlanta. People say their flights always get delayed in Atlanta! I didn't think it'd be delayed three hours! It definitely could have been worse!

Today I'm off to a family reunion--I can't wait to see the coolest people in the world: my aunts and uncles, and grandpa and great aunt, and two cousins. It should be fun times.

Yesterday my friend Joy from YNP was visiting Asheville, NC, with her fiancee and I decided to go up and meet them! When else are Joy and I going to be only an hour away from each other? It was wonderful swimming Lake James with Joy. We got pizza at Barley's last night then conked out during a movie.



My last five days at Yellowstone were pretty "hard core"! I backpacked to Union Falls with five other people (Julie, Knowels, Eva, Missy and Andrew). The falls were beautiful, and swimming in a warm river by this waterfall was so relaxing. Monday I checked off "fly fishing" from my to-do list! Andrew (who went to Furman and is moving to China to teach English! cool) taught me how to fly fish in the Lamar River. The Lamar Valley is famous for its fishing and wildlife. I didn't catch anything, unfortunately. We have to de-barb our lines in Yellowstone, but I came so close!



My last day off was spent kayaking with Rick. He took me down Yankee Jim Canyon--a pretty challenging course (level three rapids). The "big" wave was about halfway down our five-mile stretch. We had to avoid the boulder on our left and nosedive straight into this killer wave, which was probably about four to five feet higher than my kayak! I got soaked, but didn't flip, fortunately! Rick's a great guide. A few minutes later I got caught in a hole (the spot after a rock) and flipped my kayak. Being underwater without a breathing apparatus is always scary--it's even scary WITH a breathing apparatus!). I followed Rick's instructions and tapped my head twice (to mentally regain control), pulled the hook on my skirt, and pushed myself out of the kayak. I felt pretty dumb for surviving the big wave then hitting a hole. I had to swim that stretch of rapids, keeping my feet in front of me and holding onto my boat and paddle (no--I lost my paddle. Rick had to find it!). We pulled off to the side of the river and dumped the water out of my boat, then hit the river again. It was exhausting! The embarrassing thing was that I flipped two more times, the third time only thirty seconds after the second time. I think that first flip messed me up: it made me self conscious and afraid, and therefore more prone to flippage :).

Tuesday night I finally took advantage of my free cookout ride! I went with Andrew and Glenn, two YPSS (gas station) employees. By the way, YPSS people are all COOL. Xanterra's so big you never know what kind of people you'll be working with, but YPSS throroughly checks all of their employees. There are only about forty of them in the whole park. They don't feel dehumanized at work, like I often have! Cookout was great: all-you-can-eat steak, apple pie, cole slaw, cornbread muffins (!!) (we love cornbread muffins!), Roosevelt beans, and "cowboy coffee," coffee so strong you can bite into it, almost. When I was still in the dish pit, I asked one of the cookout workers why all the coffee mugs has coffee grounds in them. He said they call it "cowboy coffee" and people fall for it :). It was ok. I'm not much of a coffee person, though.

Wednesday was my last day of work. I took advantage of the morning and hiked Avalanche Peak with Rick. Avalanche is everyone's favorite day hike, and I hadn't done it yet! We met at 5:40 am, booked it up the mountain, took pictures, and literally ran down the mountian. I skipped parts of it, actually :). Skipping's easier than running down a mountain.

My last night was spent at a YPSS party. Julie Jabs (a Xanterra employee) came with me and Anju and Andrew to the YPSS dorms at Old Faithful. Julie and I met this lady Sally at the party who volunteered to help me check off two more items on my to-do list: seeing Grand Prismatic and the historic Old Faithful Inn--both beautiful sights. I'm so glad I got to pack those in!

Julie and I pulled an all-nighter that night, burning each other's music and packing! It was hard to say goodbye to my buddies at seven o'clock the next morning. Bittersweet. I'll visit again, I'm sure. I've had that experience so many times: when you realize you'll never be with the same group of people again. I think it's starting to hit me that it's just a fact of life--you can't stay close to everyone. It's ok. I think.

Checklist

A week from today I will have left this natural theme park they call Yellowstone. I'm a little sad about it. There's so much left for me to do here: climb Electric Peak, backpack to "Mr. Bubble," hike to Osprey Falls, see the Grand Prismatic spring, go on the cookout ride that Roosevelt is famous for. Oh--go to Glacier National Park! Eight hours away, but so out of the way from everything else, you practically have to go through Yellowstone to see it. And it sounds so pristine. People love it even more than here. But Monday I got to check off a lot of things from my "to-do list" here! My friend Rick, who cooks and serves with me (and has ridden a bike across the country, been a school bus driver, and a white water rafting guide--he's done a lot) took me white water kayaking in the morning. He first taught me how to get out of a kayak if it flips: tap your helmet twice (just to calm yourself down), pull your skirt, then push yourself out of the kayak while holding onto you paddle the whole time. He flipped me once and made me practice, then I flipped myself the second time. It was kind of scary, but I survived that part. Then he took me down the Yellowstone River--which has some pretty sweet rapids! You have to watch out for "holes" in the river, where you can get sucked in and flipped over pretty easily. I didn't flip the whole time. Oh--and it started hailing as we kayaked down the river (about five miles). Rick said I was good for a first-timer (thanks to practicing kayaking at Robin Buiter's lake house!), and the course we ran was fairly challenging. We went to Helen's for lunch--it's this burger shack in Gardener. Having a 1/2 lb. burger there is a must for Yellowstone employees! I had an elk burger but took a bite of Rick's bison and bacon burger. Good stuff! Then we soaked our weary limbs in the Boiling River--probably one of my new favorite spots in the world! Hot waterfalls flow into the river and you can sit and relax there for hours. It was pretty crowded, but so nice. We both worked dinner shift that night. I'd call it a pretty productive day! I will try to post pictures soon! The Wi-fi in Mammoth is pretty slow, so every time I try to post one, it takes about 15 minutes. But I'll try again soon! :) I miss everyone and am excited to be back home soon.