This post is long overdue, but it seems like the longer you go without posting, the harder it is to post about anything - even if it's tiny. Which is a truth for many things in life I suppose. I also owe a special thank you to my amazing, genius friend Bronson who helped me fix my blog to my exact standards.
Within the last month, my roommates and other friends have been trying to create more adventure in our lives. This includes: camping (sounds sane enough but there's more to the story), road tripping, rearranging our dorm room, caving, cutting/dying/fixing/re-dying hair, singing at concerts with COLBIE CAILLET!!, plasma donating, and everything in between.
Camping
Camp grounds are extremely hard to find in the dead of night, twenty minutes out of civilization. If you can't find them, the side of a hill will do just fine. And apparently, there are no forests in St. George, so if you plan on having a fire, weeds just won't cut it. Thank goodness for Wal-mart. Also, a legitimate sleeping bag is highly recommended, allowing you to stay warm enough to get more than a cumulative amount of 45 minutes of sleep. This will also prevent you to finally insist on leaving at 5 a.m., much to the discomfort of your camping buddies. A quick, yet effective way to clean up in the wee hours of a frigidly cold morning (it was January and yes it's even cold in St. George on a January morning) is to throw everything in the tent, collapsing the supports and use it as an untraditional bag. You may need two or three people to drag it to the car and squash it into the trunk. Follow this and you will getting a camping experience you will never forget!
Road tripping
Natalie and I spent fourteen hours in a car together on a quick get away to Phoenix to stay with Eric, Cori, Erin, Quintin, and Audrey over Valentine's weekend. The views of hoover dam were phenomenal and there were some other quite interesting stops along the way. We stopped in a pow-dunk town called Wikieup that had World Famous hot dogs that were uncooked unless you got them deep fat fried and had some crazy, bright green relish on them - they weren't famous for nothing. Every single person who had ever entered that restaurant left their mark, with signatures covering everything from the ceilings to the floors (yes, even the toilets). We had a good time being entertained by the almost three-year-old Mr. Q who finally got Natalie's name right by the end of the trip calling her Lady and Camilla since he thought she was my roommate.
Rearranging
Trying to go against the norm, Camilla and I decide to switch things up and rearrange our room, making bunk beds to have more space. With the doubts of many in our minds, we were able to set our room up exactly the way we wanted - without any help from the opposite sex. We even got the steel pegs nailed in tight enough so my bed won't slip off Camilla's and squash her in the middle of the night. Needless to say, our room is very feng shui now.
Caving
Ever since reading the Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, I have always wanted to go into a cave and find a secret passageway to another land. Sadly, when we went to the lava caves in the Snow Canyon Park, there were no such entrances, but it looked pretty magical to reach the end cavern that glowed with the remnants of glow sticks on the walls. It only took 3 gigantic bruises, 6 painfully hard times of banging my head, and Camilla's warnings of "Watch your cabeza! That's your head." echoing throughout the cave to get out successfully in one piece.
Hair Experimenting
On a random, hyper night Camilla entrusted me to dye and cut about 5 inches off her hair. I was a little leery, having never cut hair before, but I didn't tell her this until after I was done and everyone was raving about her hair. They were very shocked. And can you believe that a dollar store bleaching kit didn't produce the flowing, golden locks shown on the cover on Ashleigh's hair? She didn't seem to think so beforehand, ignoring my blatant recommendations that she should not do that to her long, silky, vibrant auburn hair. Yet again, thank goodness for Wal-mart. Her hair is now the color of Medium Golden Cappuccino #37.
COLBIE CAILLET!!!!
Yes, I got to watch Colbie Caillet in person sing some of my very favorite songs - Bubbly, Lucky, and Fallin' For You! Apart from the only other concert I've been to, the Spice Girls, I actually got to sing along because I knew the words! I only knew the words to one song of the Spice Girls because I wasn't allowed to listen to them when I was younger. Apparently, their lifestyle choices and their clothing didn't set very good examples for 8 year old girls. Even if hearing my favorite songs live weren't enough, I got to shake her hand and get the top left quarter of my face in a picture with her!
Plasma Donating
Who knew that selling your body could make so much money? All I have to do is keep my iron levels up and show up twice a week to get poked with a needle and watch the yellow part of my blood get separated and collected in a bag, and I get paid for it! Moving aside the fact that I kind of feel like a cow being milked amongst the other fifty people in their doing the same thing and the scars in the crook of my elbow that make me look like a drug addict, it's one of the easiest ways I've made some extra cash.
More to come on our college adventures!
