"Not all who wander are lost"

That is one of my favorite sayings. In fact, I like it so much that I am even wearing it on my shirt right now.

Well, I am off again on yet another trip. It kinda feels like that is all I have been doing this summer, coming and going. And even though right now I kinda wish I could just stay home and rest from my travels, I know that once I am on my way the excitement will creep back in and fill me to overflowing. And just think, you all missed out on the chance to go with me and play while I work. You could have come!

I won't be able to do much sight seeing on this go round. Instead I will be spending almost my entire time in Philadelphia in classes, trying desperately to cram two years worth of exposure into six days. I already know from past experience that I will have an almost permanent headache from the eye strain and the information overload. But coming from a small town with no Deaf community and no peer support, this conference is invaluable. Certainly not to be missed. And with luck, I will also be able to do some networking and make some good contacts while I am there. Maybe I will even get very lucky, and get a heads up for a job after this year.

I have gone to the last two conferences, but this is the first time I will be staying in the hotel where the conference is being held - that should be nice. Instead of waiting for classes in the lobby I will be able to go back to my room and perhaps recover a bit with a short nap... bliss!

So I am wandering around, half dazed, trying to pack and get everything ready for the week. Hopefully my plants will survive the summer heat while I am gone, and hopefully I haven't forgotten anything vital. (Knock on wood!)

And when I get back, summer will be over. Sadness! Soccer starts that next Monday, and school will follow soon after. Guess I had better enjoy this last day of relative freedom while I can.

"The fault, my dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Why?

That is the cosmic question we all want answers to, isn't it? Why is that, just as I have saved up enough money to begin the projects I dreamed of starting last year, and just finished drawing up the plans for my deck, the transmission in my not-so-trusty oldsmobile decideds to force me to spend my hard earned money elsewhere?

I've spent the last two weeks trying desperately to blame my bad luck on something. Anything. Just so I can have some place to focus and vent my frustration at the twists and turns of life. Something to shake my fist at. I wondered for a while if I should blame fate, or maybe karma. But then I thought - I really don't think I can blame the Fates for making me indefinatly postpone my projects. I just can't see the three weavers of greek mythology worrying about whether or not my doors shut. And really, it can't be karma either. Contrary to popular belief, I only pretend to be mean. I would never actually take someones hopes and crush them in my hands right before their eyes. That's just rude. I can't even blame the car itself. Blaming inanimate objects just doesn't make sense to me.

No. There is only one place I can lay the blame, and that is squarely at my own feet. For not buying my materials sooner. For not being willing to go into more debt. For listening to that annoying voice of reason that insisted I trade in my olds before the transmission failed. For getting my hopes up that I might finally be able to redo my deck and enjoy more privacy. For daring to dream of new doors and a draft free winter. I should have known better.

Meanwhile, I have some rather conflicted emotions. On one side, I have a really cool car that I really like and it should last me a while. On the other side, I am now in debt (I hate debt!) and I am stuck with a really ugly deck and bad doors. Grrr!

Resistance was futile.

I have fallen.

Joined the dark side.

Gone astray.

Left the fold.

I tried so long, and so hard to resist, but in the end... I was blind sided by a slide tackle that completely took me out.

There is no escape. No redemption is possible for one such as I. Whats done is done.

No. It isn't what you are thinking.

I haven't read the Twilight books and become a ravening Edward fan.

It's much, much worse.

After six years of resistance, procrastination, and denial I finally jumped on the bandwagon, and figured that since everyone else was doing it, I might as well do it to.

I got a cell phone.

Only 2 miles or so...

Yesterday was all sorts of fun. Really. I blistered my toes, scraped up my leg, sunburned my scalp, got attacked by killer mosquitoes, killed the dog (well, almost) and didn't even get to where I was going. But I also went on a GREAT hike. I have been asking everyone in the area to recommend good hikes, trying to learn my way around here and find places I wouldn't know about otherwise. A friend recommended a short, ~2 mile jaunt up to Lake Bloomington that sounded fabulous, so I got geared up for a short hike (Keens without socks and 2 litres of water) and took off.

Ooops.

Turns out that the hike was slightly more challenging than originally described. If I had actually thought about it, and done a bit more checking on my maps, I would have at least realized that there was an intense elevation climb involved (nearly 3000 feet to the top of the ridge). I had to stop quite regularly to catch my breath, some of those climbs felt nearly vertical! I am SO out of shape! Also, it turns out that it isn't about 2 miles to the lake. More like 6. Six miles through an overgrown trail (Ouch! Those branches were whippy!). I only made it four miles, to the top of the ridge. The view was great from the ridge (see above), and you can even kind of see where I started from - in the center of the picture, at the bottom of the valley is a white speck that is the campground I started from.

At that point I was actually still feeling good enough that I could have gone the extra two miles down the other side to get to the lake, but I knew I didn't have enough water with me to keep me and the dog hydrated. He was already dead - we had to take a short side trip to a patch of snow so he could cool off. Poor thing, he is still sleeping it off and creeping around on sore muscles.

So, wisdom and a tired dog prevailed, and we turned around and headed back, with the determination to come back with more water, and lunch, another day. For the most part, down was faster. Except for the parts that were covered in loose rock. And the steep parts. Most of the trail actually. Down was the part of the hike where rocks and dirt worked their way into my sandals (which had been fabulously comfortable till this point) and started forming blisters on my big toes. OUCH! It was also the part where I started slipping. Yikes. Luckily I only actually fell twice (I never fall), and only got scraped up once. Not bad when you think about it.

The most beautiful part of the hike, other than the view from the top, was the part of the trail at the bottom that went along side the river. Beautiful, cool, wet, shady and green. I loved it!

There were three foot bridges going over the river like this one, but the best one of all looked more like this:

HAHAHAHA! Talk about an adventure... the whole day was one unexpected, funny surprise after another. Five hours after we started out, we limped back to the car and wound our way back home to get some cold water and some Ibuprofen. Next time I will be prepared! Hiking shoes, doubled socks, 5 litres of water, bug spray, lunch and an earlier start should make things less unexpected and even more fun!

No place like home.

St. George was fun. Hellishly hot, no doubt about it (people actually live there on purpose?!?), but still fun. I was down there to help out with a soccer camp held by the local college for high schools from the region. No, I don't really know enough about soccer to actually be useful; I went as an interpreter/driver. Luckily, even though I don't play, soccer does happen to be the one sport I watch for fun, so the work was highly enjoyable.

Every team played at least two games per day (sometimes three), and games were held in the morning and evening in an attempt to avoid the mid-day heat (up to 104°F most days). Even so, it was a blessing that there was almost always a lot of water available, helping everyone stay hydrated and sweaty, because the heat never really went away. The first afternoon we spent there we had skills practice with the College's head coach, but it was cut short because of the heat, and due to players getting sick from heat, the next session of skills and tactics was canceled. That left the next two afternoons free. All I had to worry about was shuttling the boys to and from the cafeteria for the mediocre (but free) food.

The first free afternoon I spent most of the time napping. The heat really saps energy out of you until you get used to it. Thank goodness the hotel room had AC. Luckily the second afternoon I was more alert and less desperate in my need for sleep, so I was able to spend my afternoon at the St. George temple. What a lovely place. It was really neat to go through there because some of my family (way back) helped to build it.

As much fun as I have when I travel, there is nothing I love more than coming home. Especially when home means cooler temperatures, eating ripe strawberries out of my garden, having internet access and being able to work on my own projects. Now that I am done with Costa Rica and St. George I have about one month to enjoy my summer and get all my projects done. Unless a miracle happens, I probably won't finish (especially if I keep blogging about everything instead of working). But I can make a good effort :)

On the road again...

Just to warn you, I am off the St. George for the week to help out with a soccer camp. So no, I am not slacking when I don't post anything. I am working. And I probably don't have internet access. Sad life.

¡Pura Vida!

I'm home! I know you have all been sitting on the edges of your computer chairs, waiting anxiously for word of my safe return. Not to worry, all is well! We got back late Tuesday night, and instead of assuaging your fears I have been lounging around enjoying myself ever since.

I know, I know... if I were a good blogger I would have sat down that very night and written every detail of our amazing/crazy adventure before it slipped through the cracks in my fragile memory - but... I am a well documented slacker, and thus here I am, four days later when everything has already begun to take on the hazy feel of a fabulous daydream and trying to focus my thoughts into coherent words. The sights were so fantastic, so different from my normal, mundane existence that even now they hardly seem real. Already the activities of each day, at the time so vivid and sharp, are bleeding together like the colors of a Polaroid carelessly left in the rain. Trying to think of a way to fit what feels like a lifetimes worth of adventures into a few blog postings feels simply overwhelming...

However, I took well over a thousand pictures to try and capture the experience, and I did upload a bunch (nearly 200!) of my photos onto Facebook and left a comment or explanation about each photo, giving a pretty good outline of everything we did (and, it's all in chronological order)!

If you aren't a Facebook friend of mine (shame on you!) here are some links to the photo albums that you can look through :) You will have to click back and forth from the main album page to each individual photo, but if you want to take the time, it is all there.

To view images from the first week (while we were with the tour group) click here.

For images from the second week (after we went crazy and struck out on our own) click here.

These should give you a pretty good idea of all the trouble we got into :)

Costa Rica was (obviously) pretty much amazing, and I would go back in a heartbeat if I was able to (but not before I learned a bit more Spanish!) Thank heavens my sis was there to lead the way with her amazing language skills - and that Spanish and Italian are so closely related!

I will try to write up more of the stories in a few days, but for now, the links to the pictures and the stories told there will have to suffice.