Sorry about my absence, yet again. I have been pretty busy until recently though. The most exciting thing that happened after my trip to Arches was graduating my internship!! What a huge task completed! And what huge tasks left ahead - job searching, studying, test taking -YIKES! Anyway, a few days after my internship wrapped up, I moved my stuff into a storage unit in Denver and headed home to Illinois.
I was in Illinois about two days, and then it was off to Tennessee to work for ASP one final summer (HUGE sad face). What a great chapter that has been in my life. It changed my world - the way I see things, my attitude about every situation, the direction my life has gone... I could go on. (But I won't because I have a busy day ahead of me.) I completed my summer's work with ASP in early August, and then decided to drive over to North Carolina to see a great friend of mine who I worked with my first summer on staff. I spent two days with her, her fiance, and her family. It was so great to catch up, reminisce, and talk about things to come in our lives. And we cooked with her mom, which is always a treat since she's a wonderful southern cook. We made crab cakes, home-made tartar sauce, and a delicious salad - YUM!
My next journey was a 15 hour drive home to Illinois. Along the way, I got stopped in an hour of standstill traffic (I still don't know why) and slowed to 45 mph on several occassions for road construction and several bouts of terrential downpours. It was quite the drive, and I was exhausted when I got home.
The best part about my summer though, might have been the two weeks at home, relaxing with my parents, puppy, and friends. As much as I love it out West, I do miss the cornfields and simple beauty of central Illinois. The sunsets there still take my breath away. And the weather was absolutely amazing! (for the most part). I spent my days playing with my dog; reading magazines outside; biking with my parents; boating, swimming, and wakeboarding; going to the fair (more than I think I ever have!); cooking; and catching up with friends. I also took a day trip up to Chicago to see another great friend of mine, which was a blast. The first night we had dinner at a sidewalk cafe bar & grill, caught up on life, and relaxed with a movie. Then on Saturday we took the L downtown and walked over to Lake Michigan for the Air and Water Show. It was really cool to watch the jets and planes fly around in formation and do different tricks. I'm not sure what the 'water' part of the show was about though, because we never saw anything in the water. After watching the show for a bit, we walked downtown to the Water Tower (I think is what it's called) and had lunch in their food court. It's really neat. You get seated, then you go select your food from a variety of places, then you get a receipt and pay for it all as you leave. As I write that it doesn't sound that neat, just like your basic cafeteria; but I guess I was expecting a normal mall food court. Next we walked over to Navy Pier, wandered there for a bit, and then continued walking downtown towards Grant and Millennium parks and Buckingham Fountain. On our way we made a detour to Baskin Robbins and got some ice cream. I enjoyed some rainbow sherbet - my absolute FAV! We were pretty tired at this point (it was about 5 pm and we left at 9am - only stopping to sit for lunch), and we had a long way to get to the L, not to mention back to Wrigleyville (where my friend lives) and not much time to do it in. So we hopped a Taxi. Then my friend drove me to meet the ladies I rode up to Chicago with, I had dinner with them, and then we left for home. It was a busy day and a half, but so much fun!!
Finally the day rolled around when I was to head back to Colorado. Thankfully, I had a roadtrip buddy for this 14 hour drive. I did a lot of driving this summer, most of it alone, and it can get kind of boring. I topped 100,000 miles total in my car this summer, and put at least 3,500 miles on just in the two month time I re-capped above. I also saw almost all 50 liscence plates on the road during my travels. I only missed 4, and two of them weren't Hawaii and Alaska! That's right, I saw Hawaii and Alaska plates in my travels across the country; I even saw Washington DC (I didn't even know they made plates) and Ontario, Canada. I didn't see North Dakota, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, or Vermont. I know you may be thinking I'm lame or easily entertained for playing a child's game, but that's okay, because that game DID keep me entertained and excited for hours as I drove. At least it gave me something to do and helped me stay awake. And there were hours and HOURS of loud singing and talking to myself. Hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
Now that I'm back in Colorado I've been spending most of my time job searching, studying for the RD exam, and hanging out with my boyfriend and friends. It's good to be back here!
