So much recent excitement
Chapter 1: Good Luck
So, the thing that motivated me to drive from Estes to Ft Collns was meeting potential roommates and seeing their place. I drove down into the valley on Sunday evening. Mark and Dawnetta seemed nice and the house is clean and good, but the atmosphere of their home didn't scream out the me: THIS IS IT! I left to think about it, look around town, and find a hotel. So here I am living at the Super 8. Expensive, impersonal, horrible continental breakfast. On the upside: wireless and Outdoor Life Network on cable (Tour de France on all day!). I needed to figure something out quickly, and rushed is not the ideal state in which one should be when trying to find a home. I was glued to roommates.com, hoping like crazy. I heard back from one more place, and went to visit: great people, but messy. That would drive me crazy, I thought. I called Dre to confirm and, yes, it would indeed make me looney. I called Mark (home-owner in ft collins, none of the other Marks) when I got back and asked if living at his place would be okay. He said, "We want to meet more people," and other stuff as desperation crept up into my brain. But THEN he said, "We understand your situation, though, and if you would like you can crash here while you figure things out." Yay! So, I'm buying time in the form of a daily lease, basically.
Chapter 2: Job Search Leads to Dillemma
Ah the job search... Wouldn't anyone rather be thrown into a pit of boiling acid filled with spears than have to go through this? Just kidding; it's not that bad, but it's not great. So, I'm driving around town picking up applications and replying to classified ads. One of those classifieds was for a job in Estes, and I called on a whim. They said they would call me back. I fill out and drop off all those applications I picked up earlier. I watch Le Tour. I finally eat good food that I make. I wonder what the heck I am going to do. I wish someone would call about a job. *ring, ring* Estes Park place, it wasn't supposed to be you!
I decided to go up to Estes and fill out an application anyway. Let's face it, it's hard for me to resist Estes. I figure I'll go to Kind Coffee and the park while I'm there, so they day won't be lost no matter what.
I got into town early, so I went to the Mountain Shop and wished that I had some spending money for things that I don't really need. When 10 rolled around I went to the Inn at Estes Park. The managers talked to me for 3-4 minutes, sent me outside for .5-1 minutes, then came out and offered me a job. Crap! What do I do now? I have to decide by Sunday. More complicating factors: they provide housing, it may or may not be seasonal. The only thing to do was to go to Safeway, not because I was hungry, but because that's where the best cell reception is. My mom's response was, "Well that wasn't supposed to happen. What are you going to do now?"
Chapter 3: The Best Part
Since I was in Estes, I went by the Y to visit Karen, my boss from last season. She is cool, and so I was really glad to see her. (She is really hard to catch around the office.) She asked if I was going to come back next year and invited me to the hikemaster cookout, which is one of the funnest things ever. Yay!
Chapter 4: My Hair Product Almost Killed Me
The next thing I did was head into the park to go to Lake Haiyaha, which had been calling me since I came though the area the first time. Of course, the park was beautiful. I was enjoying my hike, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, flowers. Ahh... When I got to Haiyaha, I could tell that some weather was a'comin'. I quickly ate a Clif Bar and left. I didn't eat quickly enough, though. I got caught in quite the storm: lightning, thunder, rain, hail, temp dropping like a rock. Okay, I have a jacket. No big deal, I thought. I was in an area that was pretty safe as far as lightning goes, so I wasn't too worried. That was before all the hail and temp change started. Here's when my hair product turned on me. So the rain starts coming down pretty hard, and, not surprisingly, it was landing on my head. Also predictably, the rainwater was being carried down from the top of my head by the force of gravity. What started happening was this: the rain was washing my hair goop off and into my eyes. I almost died because I couldn't see. I was hiking along a pretty rough trail, approaching blindness. I was wet. It was starting to get cold. The hail was starting. If I would have hurt myself because I couldn't see, I would have been stuck out in the rain, left to get hypothermia and die! When the hail got really bad, it was really hurting me. I tried to take shelter under trees here and there, but I was getting too cold. Since I'm so susceptible to hypothermia, I knew that was bad. When I get near the brink I start to go a little nutty and make bad life decisions, so I really didn't want to be stuck out there all cold. I hiked quickly along telling myself, "It doen't hurt. It doesn't hurt..." and "This is going to make a good story later." This storm wasn't letting up! The trail was flooded. I was soaked and it was still hailing. I really wished that they hadn't just lengthed that trail. By the time I made it out to the shuttle bus I was so hungry, a little bit out of it (very little), and my forearms and hands were on the brink of numbness. But I survived without injury. Yay?
Chapter 5: The Hardest Part
So I got back to my car all soaked and knew that I had to get some dry clothes on. The only thing I had was what I came to Estes in: a pair of jeans and a (white) button-up shirt. I can't tell you how challenging it was to put on those jeans. You know how hard it is to put jeans on in the car? Well, how about in the driver's seat (others were full)? How about in the drivers seat when you're soaking wet? Let's just say I ALMOST drove off pants-less. Remember that white shirt? Yeah, so as soon as I put that on, my bright pink bra was shining through the fabric (because it was wet, recall the alternate clothing list above). Despite that, I NEEDED to go to Kind Coffee. A nice hot drink was the best recovery I could think of. I went in and got a chai despite my indecent state, and yes, it was very busy.
Chapter 6: Hope
That evening, I met some potential roommates. I really liked them and their house. I got the feeling that the place could really work for me. I am waiting to hear from them. If they will have me, I will go there and pass up the Estes job. If not, I don't know.
Chapter 7: Right Now
Gotta go watch le Tour!
So, the thing that motivated me to drive from Estes to Ft Collns was meeting potential roommates and seeing their place. I drove down into the valley on Sunday evening. Mark and Dawnetta seemed nice and the house is clean and good, but the atmosphere of their home didn't scream out the me: THIS IS IT! I left to think about it, look around town, and find a hotel. So here I am living at the Super 8. Expensive, impersonal, horrible continental breakfast. On the upside: wireless and Outdoor Life Network on cable (Tour de France on all day!). I needed to figure something out quickly, and rushed is not the ideal state in which one should be when trying to find a home. I was glued to roommates.com, hoping like crazy. I heard back from one more place, and went to visit: great people, but messy. That would drive me crazy, I thought. I called Dre to confirm and, yes, it would indeed make me looney. I called Mark (home-owner in ft collins, none of the other Marks) when I got back and asked if living at his place would be okay. He said, "We want to meet more people," and other stuff as desperation crept up into my brain. But THEN he said, "We understand your situation, though, and if you would like you can crash here while you figure things out." Yay! So, I'm buying time in the form of a daily lease, basically.
Chapter 2: Job Search Leads to Dillemma
Ah the job search... Wouldn't anyone rather be thrown into a pit of boiling acid filled with spears than have to go through this? Just kidding; it's not that bad, but it's not great. So, I'm driving around town picking up applications and replying to classified ads. One of those classifieds was for a job in Estes, and I called on a whim. They said they would call me back. I fill out and drop off all those applications I picked up earlier. I watch Le Tour. I finally eat good food that I make. I wonder what the heck I am going to do. I wish someone would call about a job. *ring, ring* Estes Park place, it wasn't supposed to be you!
I decided to go up to Estes and fill out an application anyway. Let's face it, it's hard for me to resist Estes. I figure I'll go to Kind Coffee and the park while I'm there, so they day won't be lost no matter what.
I got into town early, so I went to the Mountain Shop and wished that I had some spending money for things that I don't really need. When 10 rolled around I went to the Inn at Estes Park. The managers talked to me for 3-4 minutes, sent me outside for .5-1 minutes, then came out and offered me a job. Crap! What do I do now? I have to decide by Sunday. More complicating factors: they provide housing, it may or may not be seasonal. The only thing to do was to go to Safeway, not because I was hungry, but because that's where the best cell reception is. My mom's response was, "Well that wasn't supposed to happen. What are you going to do now?"
Chapter 3: The Best Part
Since I was in Estes, I went by the Y to visit Karen, my boss from last season. She is cool, and so I was really glad to see her. (She is really hard to catch around the office.) She asked if I was going to come back next year and invited me to the hikemaster cookout, which is one of the funnest things ever. Yay!
Chapter 4: My Hair Product Almost Killed Me
The next thing I did was head into the park to go to Lake Haiyaha, which had been calling me since I came though the area the first time. Of course, the park was beautiful. I was enjoying my hike, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, flowers. Ahh... When I got to Haiyaha, I could tell that some weather was a'comin'. I quickly ate a Clif Bar and left. I didn't eat quickly enough, though. I got caught in quite the storm: lightning, thunder, rain, hail, temp dropping like a rock. Okay, I have a jacket. No big deal, I thought. I was in an area that was pretty safe as far as lightning goes, so I wasn't too worried. That was before all the hail and temp change started. Here's when my hair product turned on me. So the rain starts coming down pretty hard, and, not surprisingly, it was landing on my head. Also predictably, the rainwater was being carried down from the top of my head by the force of gravity. What started happening was this: the rain was washing my hair goop off and into my eyes. I almost died because I couldn't see. I was hiking along a pretty rough trail, approaching blindness. I was wet. It was starting to get cold. The hail was starting. If I would have hurt myself because I couldn't see, I would have been stuck out in the rain, left to get hypothermia and die! When the hail got really bad, it was really hurting me. I tried to take shelter under trees here and there, but I was getting too cold. Since I'm so susceptible to hypothermia, I knew that was bad. When I get near the brink I start to go a little nutty and make bad life decisions, so I really didn't want to be stuck out there all cold. I hiked quickly along telling myself, "It doen't hurt. It doesn't hurt..." and "This is going to make a good story later." This storm wasn't letting up! The trail was flooded. I was soaked and it was still hailing. I really wished that they hadn't just lengthed that trail. By the time I made it out to the shuttle bus I was so hungry, a little bit out of it (very little), and my forearms and hands were on the brink of numbness. But I survived without injury. Yay?
Chapter 5: The Hardest Part
So I got back to my car all soaked and knew that I had to get some dry clothes on. The only thing I had was what I came to Estes in: a pair of jeans and a (white) button-up shirt. I can't tell you how challenging it was to put on those jeans. You know how hard it is to put jeans on in the car? Well, how about in the driver's seat (others were full)? How about in the drivers seat when you're soaking wet? Let's just say I ALMOST drove off pants-less. Remember that white shirt? Yeah, so as soon as I put that on, my bright pink bra was shining through the fabric (because it was wet, recall the alternate clothing list above). Despite that, I NEEDED to go to Kind Coffee. A nice hot drink was the best recovery I could think of. I went in and got a chai despite my indecent state, and yes, it was very busy.
Chapter 6: Hope
That evening, I met some potential roommates. I really liked them and their house. I got the feeling that the place could really work for me. I am waiting to hear from them. If they will have me, I will go there and pass up the Estes job. If not, I don't know.
Chapter 7: Right Now
Gotta go watch le Tour!
posted by Ashleigh @ 8:09 AM
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