A Day in THE LIFE

These days i'm either waking up at 4 in the MORINING to go hook up dogs and take em out on a run, or I get up at the more acceptable hour of 6 30 to go feed, water and scoop doggie poops. Yesturday morning I got up to run dogs when that little worm of a question wiggled into my thought, "Why in the heck am I doing this?" On top of it being one of those 4 am mornings I was dealing with one of those monthly annoyances...ugh. I went through the morning bitching and moaning to myself "Poor me...oh, Poor me". I was your basic whiner. Toward the end of the run my boss, Linda, had me hop in the front of the 4-wheeler to continue my lesson in mushing. Its an amazing thing to be mushing a 16 dog team. They are so frickin amazing! After returning and finishing up chores, I went up and loved on each dog... They completely changed my attitude. As I get to know the each dog individually and as a team, I realize just how incredible they are. I LOVE my job!

Mooses!

I saw Moose the other day (or more fondly reffered to as meese). Its just that time of year here in Colorado! I am a Colorado Fall virgin. There is something truely majestic about the Rocky Mountains during the fall... the mountain sides are gorgeous, covered in pines and speckled with aspens turning firey orange and golden yellow. We even had our first snow last weekend. It continued to lightly snow throughout the week as we took students canoeing, played games, and monkeyed around on the ropes coarse up in the tree tops! What the HAY???? SNOWING?? what month is this again? Oh wait its still summer....

What Happened in the End??

Wow! I'm VERRY late in writing about the rest of my trip abroad, but better late than never! It seems like I returned ages ago!...back in December. I left off writing about my time in Malaysia. The truth is that I was just having too much fun to write about what was crackalakin! so sorry...it happens :) . So lets see...After Malaysia we journeyed to Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Hawaii, through the Panama Canal to Costa Rica and then up on to Miami. Each port offered incredible eye-opening experiences, never to be forgotten. I had the amazing opportunity to crawl through the cu chi tunnels (a system of tunnels the Vietkong used during the war to sneak up on their enemy) and go floating on the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, explore the summer palace and walk the top of the Great Wall of China, explore the tokyo fish market and sing Karaoke in Japan, Help serve a Salvation Army Thanksgiving feast in Hawaii, and go hiking to waterfalls in Costa Rica.
It was bittersweet coming home. I had missed the familiarity of home so badly. I never knew how much a comfort familiarity was. But I wanted to tell EVERYONE about my trip! It has been difficult finding that line of how much people wanted to know about my trip before they would become uninterested or sometimes resentful. There were times I even felt alienated from people. The trip helped me to realize who was a true friend and who was just going through the motions. Meeting people from many walks of life granted me new perspectives on our American population... abundant with diverse ethnic origins. I have come to realize that the "travel bug" can never be fixed. its the same idea as "if you give a mouse a cookie". Traveling opens the door of curiosity and questioning. It is not easily closed.
The following Spring, this past semester, I have picked up school again at Las Positas Community College. I enrolled in many classes, including Rock Climing and Ultimate Frisbee with the idea being to keep myself busy and from missing my trip too much. But lo and behold!...I have had such a blast practicing, competing and goofing around with the Ultimate team (Yeah Peaotches!). They have become such a family to me. In fact, it is quite possible that I will be rooming with a few of the ultimate girls in fall! Good is everywhere to be found, God just keeps on giving. :)