June 2010 Archives

so, let me go back to the previous blog and say that i stopped off at half moon saloon on my way to the bozone last wednesday and greg the amazing bartender got to see the harley in person so now he's REALLY wantin' one and i met the nicest couple who invited me to stay at their house if i were to ever be stuck in b/w the park and the boze--chris and don, sweet folks.  also, as soon as i got into the bozeman area, i met a few of the Women of West for supper at this AMAZING ( i mean AMAZING!!!) sicilian restaurant.  killer. KILLER.  i will be going back for homemade pasta and the best pizza i've ever put in my mouth EVER.  great service too...Damasco's is the name of the place and their service was great on top of the awesome food.

saturday-sunday was my first overnight backpacking trip in yellowstone.  did chain of lakes which is yellowstone's only trail that goes to more than two lakes.  then we hitch-hiked frm the end back to our starting point with george and jean sultemeier from texas and then uwe and rosemary from lake constance in germany. we ate lunch over at the canyon EDR which was like a zoo, all young, crazy kids, hyped up on sugar and hormones.

ok, so i went into work today and gave my two weeks notice to xanterra...yeah, i am not going to be working at the park anymore.  so, what's the plan???  well,let's say this: if you planned on visiting me, your plans are still on GO, cheap rooms and all.  ok, what my intentions are is to completely devote myself to this flight school thing and pursue it to the fullest extent.  i'm flying a lot but not enough...i have been getting back to yellowstone, not retaining what i've learned and not studying (those two things coincidentally go hand-in-hand, whoops) so i'm wasting this chunk of change, essentially.  it costs to learn to fly...srsly.  so i decided that since xanterra was unwilling to accomodate my schedule and since i want to fly more frequently that i would just move to the bozone for a couple of months, work on this flying thing intensely and enjoy my damn life.  what i mean by xanterra not accomodating my schedule is that i said, "hey, i would really only like to work a couple days a week, and so-n-so wants more hours" and they were like, "well, that's all good but see we have this room and board system where in order to take out the maximum  for r&b, you have to work x amount of hours so you have to keep your four shifts and those people wanting to work more have to deal with only working 4 shifts, even though you personally are only eating here 4 times a week and utilizing power for 4 days a week."  srsly?!  ignorance.  not to mention the schedule maker didn't give me july 5th off when i was the ONLY person who specifically requested it off IN MAY!!!  so, desire for more (and more efficient) flight time and the fact that i have been ruined by working for myself and using common freaking sense as my guide (most of the time, we'll say),  a tremendous drive for being a productive human (my expectations for yellowstone were not met...not sure what the expectations were but they fell WAY short--it's like adult summer camp for looney tunes...alcoholic looney tunes...alcoholic looney tunes who like to hike every once in a while--and drink throughout the hike), AND an insatiable lust for NEWNESS, CHANGE, etc,  has prompted me to move to bozeman.  omg, i'm going to see wide spread panic july 4th in DRIGGS, ID, the town my lil buddy driggs mitchell is named after--speaking of driggs mitchell, he will be in town my birthday weekend, he and his brother bridger and his mom and dad will be here too for the targhee music festival...then my brother and sister show up on july 19th; then erin and susan come in august.  this summer is flying (haha) by and has been SO much flippin fun.  i will be home for a second around mid september, right after i see willie nelson in big sky and hike the grand--who wants to go see lady gaga???!!! xoxoxo

this blog is from this past weekend--hiking and camping and kayaking in hyalite canyon.

well, first off, i got back from flight school last friday afternoon in time to go to a camp fire.  i came back through gardiner and when i got to the gardiner airport, i realized i understood what the numbers on the runway mean!  i was so excited by that for some reason.  anyway, i managed to weasel out of my sunday and monday shifts so i could hike with wendy and colin and rachel and carolyn and adam and barry and jenna--sweeeeeeeet.  so wendy and i went to west saturday evening, drank some huckleberry mojitos and watched a local troupe perform the musical CALAMITY JANE.  cute.  then we went and saw our buddy ashlie at wild west and then hung out at the stage coach with a retiree named bill lekkin (sp?) who was the north dakota version of my daddy joe.  srsly. 

hyalite is about 2 hours away and we headed up there around 9am, after awesome breakfast at the running bear cafe--GAH, that place is SO good.  we were feeling rought form the previous night so i hooked up our tomato juices with some PBR.  hyalite canyon is beautiful and only about 20 minutes away from bozeman.  well, as soon as we got there i had to go back to town b/c i have been late--LATE, and so this late arrival finally showed up which relieved me on one hand but on the other hand gave me outrageous crampy cramps that i was not excited about.  however, we can all be REALLY happy that im not preg-o and have no intention of being--EVER.  yea!  no babies!  not that there was ever any reason to think that anyway...when i got back form the store, we headed out on a hike to some water falls.  as soon as we got to the trailhead, it started to hail.  it stopped after a minute and we continued on to arch falls, having a blast the whole way, popping sap bubbles on fir trees and just being silly.  wendy wanted to go fishing when we got back so we got in adam;'s blowup kayak and went out...as soon as we got out on the lake, it started to rain which was fun...we couldnt figure out how to cast the line out anyway.  during our early evening nap, it rained AGAIN, stormed with thunder and lightning, the works.  also while we were napping carolyn went from 0 to drunk as a cooter in 2.3 seconds and while we were taking care of her, it rained again.  colina and adam both caught small trout which they ended up cooking.  when rachel saw them lying on the table, gaping for water, she decided she needed to hasten their demise to end their suffering.  she thought the best way to go about this was to slam the fish's head against the concrete table.  let me say this about rachel moan--she is one of the nicest people EVER so for her to successfully execute an innocent being just wasn't gonna be pretty.  wendy walks up about the time rachel is whacking the fish's head against the table and she freaks out  little bit about it because she wasn't around to hear rachel's reasoning.  all i could do was laugh and convince rachel to try harder.  anyway, some how it came up that rachel has a cat purse...yeah,  a purse made out of a dead cat.  she's had it since she was about seven years old.  i can't wait to see it.  jenna and barry and josh came down to hang out with us at our camp fire and we had to keep checking on carolyn intermittently.  fog crept in over the lake after it got dark and we were harassed by some over-sexed ducks.  jenna made up some pretty cool songs about the cat purse then we all went to bed around midnight. 

i'm supper-stoked about my little brother and little sister coming!!! they are on a roadtrip up the east coast right this minute, being all nice to each other--yea!  i have one more full day of flight lessons tomorrow and then i go back to the park.  going hiking and camping saturday/sunday and am excited about finally getting to do that.  BTW, nikki haley won the republican nomination for governor!!!! that's muh gurl!!!

ok, so, flight school is challenging.  i NEED a mental challenge--i love it!  it makes me think--HARD.  anyway, so my last classes for the week are tomorrow morning at 7am, and then i head back to old faithful where there 's a grizzly cub hanging around that has been abandoned by its mother...the same grizz cub that wendy almost ran over last tuesday.  he ran out into the road and wendy slammed on breaks and then we hauled ass cuz we didnt want its mom to eat our faces...which apparently would not have happened since its mom left it.  so she screamed like a little bitch for nothing.  hee hee. 

ok, so this morning i continue the apples to apples comparison...cripps pink is the fruit in question.  it's mildly tart, crisper than the royal gala BUT still not as crisp as my favorite apple the honeycrisp which i have only ever found at the bi-lo in york.  shiny outside, big, worth eatin for sure but i'm gonna go with the royal gala...tomorrow or later today comes the fuji...

after class yesterday, i went to dave's sushi b/c i was FAMISHED.  heard it was good--WRONG!  that place is GREAT, AMAZING, even...def the best age-dashi tofu i've ever had. they were also SUPER busy.  then i went and checked into the bozeman backpackers' hostel.  i walked down to rockford coffee house and afterwards i went for a drive to livingston and back.  if you haven't seen the west, ya gotta come out here--ASAP.  it's hard to drive because the scenery is so fantastic that you can't stop looking at it.  when i got back into town, i stopped off at montana ale works and had a couple of local hefeweizens and studied flight stuff.  bout 11pm, i went back to the hostel and practiced some of the stuff dave kiel taught me on the guitar.  i'm looking forward to hitting up music villa today for some picks and music. 

i stayed in a hostel last night, first time ever.  love it.  i'll be staying at the backpackers hostel 2 or 3 nights out of the week for the next 2 months or so--good thing i like it. woke up at 5 thirty and  i went on a short run this in those crazy five fingers shoes, did some pushups--kester's gotten me back into those with her preparing-for-OCS regimen. 

alright, gotta get geared up for class and all that...xoxoxo

...I ever spent, was my summer in yellowstone. 

I started flying lessons this past friday, june 11th...AMAZING.  my instructor's name is lance and he has a very laid back approach to teaching which is great when you are teaching someone who is high-strung and high control in a stessful environment.  so, we get along splendidly and i just had my third lesson today.  at flight lesson number nine, i will be starting solos.  wow.  and in about two months, i will be a private pilot.  i got my 1st class medical certificate from dr. layman this morning which means i'm good to go for a year as far as flying for an airline and for five years to be a private pilot. 

so i sent out more letters a few days ago.  hope ya got one.  i also caught up on returning phone calls today, driving toward the boze. i decided since bozeman is two hours and fifteen minutes from my old faithful home that i would make the backpacker's hostel my second home for the time i'm in flight school. i will be here 3 days out of the week.  i just checked in a few minutes ago and wayne, the owner is a nice guy from new zealand.  what a cool place.  i wanna make the coal yard basement, my garage or my house a hostel.  i'm sitting here at the rockford coffee house, only a 5 minute walk from my hostel...there's another girl from SC here--she works at the old faithful inn.  gah, SC chics have taken over the West, it seems. 

i have SO much to study and then i want to strum on the guitar a bit...i re-started lessons yesterday after a 15 year sabbatical.  a buddy of mine named david kiel is giving me lessons.  his teaching style is great--energetic, patient, and positive.  he is married to my other buddy rachel kiel.  they are two of my yellerstone favorites. 

so when i went to my saturday flight lesson, i decided to be a bad ass and ride my motorcycle.  terrible idea--a total of six hours on a bike with in one day with a full back pack after the longest ive riden consecutively is 45 minutes???!!!  idiot.  so i pinched or pulled or effed up something in my back that i'm trying to get worked out...

i am gonna do a few things in the boze ive never done before...pedi, facial, and not go to a bar...we'll see about the last one, depends on if i get all my reading done..NOT likely

ok, so on my way out this morning, i stopped at the freeheel and wheel in west, per usual and while the nice chica is making my soy latte, i go to the bargain bin...and get 3 pairs of pants which are a bargain for $100 pants at 50% off but still spent waaaaaay too much on pants at 9am on a wednesday morning on the way to flight school, gah. freeheel and wheel is in the process of tuning up my bicycles right now.  that store is awesome--something for everyone, unless the ladies are out riding their own bikes...i picked up some fruit at the grocery in west, nanners and apples...i got 3 different kinds of apples to do a taste test with...the royal gala was the first t go...it's got a dull skin and the fruit is semi-mushy,almost like a pear which i don't normally go for but the taste was so good that i give this apple a thumbs up...i'll review the other two tomorrow and friday.  kthxbai, this place closin'...

so very much goes on in my life here that it is hard to get ALL of it into a blog and i really hate when i remember something pertinent that i forgot to include in a blog.  i do my best to write down things that happen when i'm away from the computer, but even then, it's a challenge to keep up.

first off, i'm very excited that nikki haley is gonna be in a runoff against gresham barret.  she is going to CRUSH him. don't forget to go tuesday after next and vote for this amazing woman, a woman that is overly qualified to lead our state.  also, go down and vote for joe cox.  i'm not feelin this winstead guy.  joe and i have had our disagreements, but for now, he is the right man for the job, and i'm trhowing my support to him in this runoff, for whatever that is worth.

i signed up for flying lessons yesterday (6/10/10) and I start today at 2pm.  being a pilot something i've wanted to do since childhood and have not had the time or money to do before now so i am THRILLED to the core to be doing this.  2010 is looking to be my year--it's been AMAZING so far, and things are only getting better.  my dreams are becoming reality, and it's quite a crazy feeling. 

i ate taco bus 3 times in 24 hours yesterday.  it's SO good.  when i got back to the park, i went to the firehole lounge to visit for a sec.  zach told wendy that if he found her dead in her work trailer he would be like, "sweet, i'm the mayor now," and that he would cut off her dreads and wear the crown.  i nearly snotted everywhere cuz zach is usually quiet and came outta nowhere with that craziness.  he was also talking about his job and said he hates saranwrapping stuff. 

wendy worked on my dreads some last night so the left side of my head looks good and the right side looks cuh-ray-zee.  the hobo party is tongiht or she would be finishing it up when i get back from the boze.  lauren and thomas are coming to see me soon, right after my birthday and i'm super-excited about that.  i'm gonna go pee and then go get a bike cover and two-up seat from the harley store then go FLY!!! xoxoxo

 

stream of consciousness from june 2 on my way back to yellowstone:

whenever someone dies, i find it apropos to do something off the wall, spontaneous, crazy, an act which i wouldn't do under normal circumstances (usually facilitated by copious amounts of alcohol).  i woke up this morning with pond silt in my panties straight from the mitchell's due to a midnight memorial dunk. i also woke up drunk, thinking i had another hour to sleep and still in the same pond-washed clothes...fell asleep in them and everything. gross.  mr william loved his yard. he was always in it whever i would stop by. i remember when he made the waterfall, wilbur said, look, my dad is super proud of this please stop by and make over it, which i did and it is totally awesome bc there was nothing half-assed about mr william. 
wheni left old faithful early early tuesday morning headed to bozone,  i passed two cars the whole trip.  the sun was rising beforei even got to the airport at 415.  i had to sing out loud to the ipod tso i could stay awake. the bozeman airport is TINY--only 5 gates! I took a valium to sleep b/c i had not been able to sleep the night before.  the flight was delayed by about 30 minutes which meant i fell asleep sitting up at the gate, waiting on the fog to lift and i was worried about missing the flight but managed to carry my drugged ass to the  plane when the time came.  i woke up just before minneapolis/st. paul and apologized to my seat mate for snoring which he said i did not do at all.  i totally had a neck issue from sleeping funny.  i bought some water and a huge fruit cup at the MSP airport after i made certain i was gonna get my connecting flight. 
i came back to the shire a heavy-hearted hobbit because a dear friend and mentor passed away memorial day but i am certain that he will be re-born a bison in yellowstone national park as all good people get to do.
 i caught sight of the muddy catawba river on our descent into charlotte and when we touched down it was 84 degrees, according to mom's new prius
i'm curious as to whether or not i can completely give way to the creative side.  it will make me more vulnerable to everyone and everything and i will need good people to watch out for me because i will not be paying attention to things and people who could potentially harm me.  I don't wanna end up like that guy who lived with the grizzlies, ya know?  i want to be completely consumed with writing, but writing about the moment, being IN the moment AND at the same time able to describe it for posterity.  i want to write like wes anderson.  he's a genius.  i could be like danielle howle if i let my mind loose.  i can only hope to write as well as she can...
i need to fly my sister brother mama and danielle howle out here and c and the js and the two man gents. what is seadar rose doing??? what if mama and D came out toegther?  last night was such a shit show, i'm so glad i went to hang out.  i woke up super drunk and dirty, pond silt in the panties. 

when i die,
please dont cry
because i am coming
back in the spring
as a red dog.
watch in the fog
that you dont hit
my mom, the tit
that feeds my baby
bison face cuz maybe
you'll be a bison too
one day if you
are good

my nose is back to bloody

give me wild, wild adventures and i will love you forever.  let our friends have babies for us--we will live vicariously through them and they will love us as they do their babies because we will be children always, long after our parents are gone. i still have the desire to sit on clouds.  i still want every kiss to be platonic. i still want to hold hands with you and it not feel weird. i still want you to put a bandaid on my boo boo.  i still want to play with my food.  i still want to twist the swing so tight it hits the base of my neck and then let it go and jump off afterwards and try to walk straight.  i still want to suck my thumb while my forefinger rests on my nose. i  still want to fall alseep while being read to. i still want to be comforted after my recurring bad dream with a tight hug and rocking.  i still want to harrass the cat.  i still want the dog to harrass me.  i still want to feel nervous like i did the very first day of school.  i still want to pitch a fit when you don't buy me a candy bar at the grocery store.  i still want to wonder where babies come from.  i still want to cry when i watch the news. i still want to kick the back of the seat and not realize it is bothersome to the person in front of me.  i still want to be scared that the ecalator is going to eat me.   i still want to eat pickled pigs feet and not know that they are the feet of pigs. i stil want to jump on the bed.  i still want to play in the tub until i am a prune.  i still want to skinny dip with my sister. i still want to fear thunder. I still want "Islands in the Stream" to be the #1 song.  i still want golden girls to be played on TV (not in reruns). I still want to be ignorant of death. 
i want my sister to come see me now.   i want willl mitchell to not hurt. i want driggs to always call me duck. i only want kids so i can give them weird names. 

I want a connecting flight to your soul after i slay the dragon i am here for. your love is my armor, but it is so heavy, i can not wear it forever, only now.  while i am away,  forge a lighter vesion, one for everyday use, just enough to cover the exposed nerve that i am.
i climbed this tree and like a cat, don't want to come down but not for fear of falling but because i like the view

back to yellowstone, june 7, 2010:

so, motorcycle riding is this tremendously exhilirating experience...unless some asshole is tailgating you.  any car is MUCH bigger than any motorcycle and most motorcycle accidents are not the fault of the motorcycle driver so it is nerve-wracking, to say the least, for a car to ride up on a motorcycle too closely.  my friend maxine just told me over the weekend about her friend's brother getting hit from behind on a motorcyle, being flung into oncoming traffic and DYING as a result so, yeah, cars on my tail makes me upset, and if my fuse were even a hair shorter than it is, i would have been hauled off to the pokie for assault with a deadly weapon today  mid-motorcyle ride.   this is YELLOWST0NE--you can only go 45 tops, and there is usually a line of 25 cars in front of youdown the road so trying to rush the vehicle immediately in front of you is just a popped collar A1 douche bag move here.  i mean, the bison along or in the road are intimidating enough but they're pretty innocent in the matter, ya know?  however,  a HUMAN driver, they know better than to drive too closely.  tailgating is rude, no matter what you're driving/riding in but especially dangerous and rude towards motorcyclists.  alright, done with this topic for now...
i used to hate eggs.  didn't like to eat em, didn't like to smell em cooking, didn't like to see em even...then i discovered charleston brunch and that changed my feelings about eggs a little because i realized scrambled was not the only way eggs came.  i'd go to vickery's on sundays and get huevos rancheros--a couple of poached eggs with black beans and salsa, served in a tortilla shell type thing or i'd go to brett's or hominy grill or any of the other myriad of fabulous brunch places in the chuck and enjoy some non-scrambled chicken ovum.  so, now just over a month into cooking eggs for a living i feel like the egg master that jenn said she was gonna make me.  i can cook some friggin eggs, man.  i can prepare all the accoutrement as well--hollandaise, french toast, hashbrowns, etc.    
MGMT was an awesome concert.  it was wendy, steve, kester and i who went.  the drive to SLC was uneventful, which anytime a car ride is uneventful, that is a good thing, and i thank my lucky stars for it. we left on time, we got there on time and we started eatin and drinkin on time.  sweeeeeet. we chowed at the blue iguana, a place lindsey rich and i had eaten at the last time i was in SLC.  at our hotel bar, we ran into a girl named liesel who is from gastonia originally.  that was a neat connection considering i was born in gastonia, AND this liesel now lives in nashville and nashville is where wendy lives when she isn't in yellowstone.  steve also saw a business card in one of those fishbowl things with the name of a professor from his college.  so we hear from our bartender jenny that they put kids in a cage at IN THE VENUE which i get excited about seeing.  in the venue s half outside half inside and its really neat.  it's a verysocial atmosphere-- its about the music but also about being around other fans of the same music, sharing time and space.  we went to Red Rock lounge then to poplar and then wendy and i went and met some guys on a party bus who gave us free beer. then crashed. we woke up around 530am and headed to temple square which was still locked.  we strolled the perimeter until around 6 when someone came and unlocked all the gates.  who gets that job?  who is the steward of temple square???  i don't know all THAT much about mormonism but i have engaged some elders on their missions in conversation which was ALWAYS interesting.  i told wendy the little i do know about the LDS church and then we headed back to the shilo inn where we were staying to see if kester and steve were awake yet.  we brought kester some starbucks cuz that's her favorite and one of the things she misses the most about being in the park.  we ate breakfast at lamb's which is the oldest existing restaurant in utah, started in 1919--the same year my paw-paw dunlap was born.  old.  i had the finnan haddie which is some kind of finnish smoked fish--like smoked salmon but way stronger on the smoked flavor and different texture--and different color too--brownish.  no one else liked it but me in our group.  brunchin in SLC sucks b/c you can't get a alcohol til noon.  the two places we went didn't even know what mimosas were. 

I've known the Mitchells all my life and being the quintessential Southern family that they are, I have always felt I belonged to them just as much as my own family.  While the most reticent member of the Mitchell clan, the head of it Mr William was the comedic genius straight man to Denise, Will, and Allison's slapstick routines.  Mr. William had the most subtle, dry and intense sense of humor I've ever come across--you'd better be paying attention or you'd miss it--he had me cackling a number of times when I would get stares around me from the folks NOT paying attention to this incredibly hilarious man.  When you get the chance, you definitely have to ask Justin Kalweit about the "He Aint Got No Pants On," song.

While completely hilarious, Mr William was the epitome of "calm, cool, and collected," even when chaos surrounded him (which was frequent at the Mitchell house).  Mr William was always CHILL.  My most memorable example of this and which has forever made Mr William my buddy was a Saturday afternoon back when Will and I were in high school and just starting to drive (legally).  I was over at the Mitchell's probably being a human paintball target for Will.  As I was leaving, in typical teenage fashion, I was more interested in the radio than what was behind me and back into a ditch, ripping the tire off the rim and dismantling the sideview mirror.  considering my own parents' reaction to such a deed, I immediately began to panic about telling Mr. william which I inevitably HAD to do, considering the condition of the car.  I eased into the house where Mr. William was watching TV and explained to him what I had done.  He calmly got up, walked outside and declared in the most unenthusiastic and monotonous tone, "well, you sure did get it stuck," and then being a man grounded in common sense asked me, "why didn't you turn the car around insted of backing out?," to which I had no response except a shrug.  Then, still cool as a cucumber, Mr. William used his tractor to extract my car from the ditch, put my spare on, duct-taped my mirror in place, and sent me on my way to my own parents who were predictably less calm about the situation.

Mr. William was what I would consider a Renaissance man--a well-rounded individual, knowledgeable in all things and while he didn't talk a whole, whole bunch, there are few subjects that he would have been unable to hold a conversation regarding.  I know one thing for sure--he made the best boiled peanuts I've ever had.  I've thought a lot about Mr.William in the last week because I bought my first motorcycle, a Harley, last Friday, and Will and William were the first Harley owners I ever knew.  Mr. William was also just over at my house last week helping my sister with a motorcycle incident; so not only did he help ME out of jams but Lauren as well, which means more to me than he could have ever known.

While my heart is heavy for those of us who knew Mr. William, I feel Driggs and Bridger are the most slighted by his passing.  We've had years to absorb this extraordinary man--they only got a glimpse.  All of us as Mr. William's friends have an on-going obligation to fill the minds of these boys with our favorite stories about their Bop so that they can know their grandfaja was one of the coolest cats to ever strut upon this Earth. Mr. William's  untimely passing brings to mind a Mark Twain quote that I read on Will and Rebekah's wedding invitation nearly five years ago:

There isn't time--so brief is life--for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that.

I hope every one of us starting today can do everything possible to cultivate the immense respect that this man did for himself in his short time here.