Déjà vu

Similarly to two years ago on New Years, I am once again stuck in the snowy blizzard that is Colorado in the winter. In an effort to make it home a day early for Harvest Moon BWB and I left Denver at 7am yesterday, but only made it 88 miles east to Limon before the roads were closed due to "Adverse Conditions." To be honest the snow cops were right to close it down because the winds were gusting up to 43mph with whiteout conditions. But now, the roads are clear! The sun is out! The wind has stopped! But we are still stuck here in Limon with the threat of several more hours before roads are supposed to open. Puleeeeez.

On Wednesdays I tutor a 14 year old boy that some might say I have about as much in common with as a flower pot. Until now. After explaining that he couldn't have a job yet because he was too young, he went on to mention this:

"If I had any money anyhow, I would just spend it all on fireworks. I love fireworks. $3,000? I'd spend it on fireworks."
-Dillon

I. Love. Arkansas.

Yesterday Brandon, Ben and I went for a nice day hike out and around Bowers Hallow Waterfall(pictured below). The day was a cloudy gorgeous 58 degrees or so, making for perfect hiking conditions and excellent lighting for photo taking. I would recommend checking out more of the photos from the trip here. 

From the archives

This made me laugh because if you're a catholic or used to be a catholic you know it's true. The situation is Holden Caulfield is talking to some nuns. 

"I'd have enjoyed it more though, I think, if I hadn't been sort of afraid, the whole time I was talking to them, that they'd all of the sudden try to find out if I was a Catholic. Catholics are always trying to find out if you're a Catholic."

-J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

I guess I can't stop myself, here I am blogging again.

This is simply a quote I liked from a book I read quite a while back that I have even posted about previously. 

"That was the funny thing about a dictatorship: it was great for culture. If there was one sure way Pinochet could support poetry, it was by staging a military coup, shooting a bunch of people, or tossing some tear gas around once in a while. Literature became not a pointless abstraction, but a pointed one. The history books were empty but the poets spoke volumes."

-Patrick Symmes from Chasing Che

This one's for my lava lamp(and Rbill)

On Saturday morning as I was heading out the door for work, I noticed a chill in the air and so grabbed a jacket from my coat rack. This would have been nothing to note had I then not heard a rather loud thump followed by a heavy glug glug glug. Yes, the jacket I grabbed caught hold of my lava lamp sitting on the desk below it and pulled the ancient artifact onto the floor. The cap had somehow lost it's top in the oddest of ways and the innards began pouring out.  So, with 2 minutes at my disposal to leave the house before I would be late for work, I hurriedly soaked up two old t-shirts worth of the dull blue yet somehow glowing liquid, set a fan in front of it and made sure my pets were outside before jetting off. Seeing as I received this blue lava lamp with a gold base for my 8th birthday, the thing was only 14 days shy of seeing it's own 16th birthday. Now all that's left of this childhood favorite toy is a very large and very odd blue stain in the guest bedroom.

I'm quite certain that anyone who is actually still checking this blog has realized my postings have all transfered to my smugmug where I keep my photos. I started this blog in order to have an online record of some of the photos I took that were most memorable to me and also to have a place to keep family and friends up-to-date on my travels in Latin America. Seeing as both of those have been cancelled out for now I have little reason to continue posting. Besides that I am a terrible writer, so I'm basically going elsewhere in order to avoid embarrassing myself by confining my post to a somewhat text free website.

If you'd like please check back around May 2010 when I will hopefully be moving to Eastern Europe for 27 months! I was recently accepted into the Peace Corps and am waiting for them to inform me which country I will be going to. Although I am not certain, it is likely I will be sent to a location that in general lacks broad internet access, meaning wordy post will be more relevant seeing as people back home just might wanna know again what's happening with me far far away.

Thanks again everyone for checking up on me, and enjoy the archives! 

SaraT

Ahhhh

Between the temperature, the flowers, the bugs, the woods and the awesome woodchopping session I had just about an hour ago, I finally feel at home

.

Back to the ol' CR (and not the colorado rockies)

Well I'm back in Costa Rica for 6 weeks or so, though I guess it's down to 5 weeks given that I got here last tuesday. I don't suppose I've done much more than wander from café to café drinking coffee, reading and eating delicious bread items from bakeries. I don't really feel too bad about this though seeing as it is my vacation and all I was really wanting to do anyway was lay around beaches in the first place. So I spent this last weekend in Jacó, which is a small beach pueblo on the Pacific side. It's typically a bit more of a party destination than I prefer(seeing as I'm traveling solo), but after my first night I stayed around 2km outside the center of town and felt much more relaxed. Mom arrives today and tomorrow we will begin a slow meander on down to Panamá where we will meet up with Jack, Sendy and Sophia. I'm posting all of my photos pretty much here for June and here for July because it is much easier to upload and sort through when in a larger program meant for photography. A warning though, I am not picking and choosing which photos I post there due to the fact that I forgot to bring very much extra memory with me, and so have to delete photos weekly.

In following the last post about moving, here is an example of what it looks like to live out of a bag for 6 weeks...

This is what it looks like to move.

Though it turns out I've always really liked sleeping on the floor.

Keepin' it Classy

What a nice family! More photos here of the 2nd Annual Brosh Farm Hat Tournament.

Battle for the Chastity Belt, 2009

This year the Fayetteville women's team won the tournament and brought home the chastity belt, woo-hoo! Since I upload all my photos elsewhere these days, I thought I show off my favorite photo that I took this weekend and add a link as to where you can see more if you'd like. 

p.s. the fayetteville men's team won their division as well.   http://tease.smugmug.com/gallery/7527420_6LzAG#501575913_rkBHE

Yesterday

So I went hiking yesterday with my friends Brandon and Ben at a location that I am not so sure of. I took a few too many photos to really post here, so I'm gonna direct anyone who's interested to my online photo gallery of this trek.

Here's the link

If that's what you're into

Normally I dislike making post based on things I've read or done or think, but prefer to keep this blog simply photo oriented. I mean, who really wants to read a bunch of stuff other normal people do or have opinions on to a certain extent anyways?(sike!) That being said, I really liked this passage from a book I read a few months ago called "Chasing Che" by Patrick Symmes. From his original diary from his motorcycle trip way back when, Guevara says:

"So the coin was tossed, turned somersaults; sometimes coming up heads, sometimes tails. Man, the measure of all things, speaks through my mouth and recounts in my own words what my eyes saw. Out of ten possible heads I may have only seen one tail, or vice versa: there are no excuses; my mouth says what my eyes told it. Was our view too narrow, too biased, too hasty, were our conclusions too rigid? Maybe so..."

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to most people.

C'mon hogs

Ahhhhh the heartbreak! In the last 5 seconds we missed 2 layup shots more or less, failing to tie the game.

I really like our new coach.

Not a great photo, but here is Sanches pictured on an invisible persons shoulders being lifted to the goal.

We are so close!

During half time, rather than a performance from the Dancing squad, Quick change entertained us. We were all sitting in our seats, jesting about the coming quick changers-that is until they blew our minds and left us speechless. Great performance, majic is the best!!

ice-tastic!

So in case anyone hasn't heard, there was a pretty good little ice storm that came through Northwest Arkansas and hit Fayetteville pretty bad. For a reference, today is the first time I've had power since Monday, and I am just one of 100,000 who lost power due to the storm. Also, the University of Arkansas has been closed for 4 days straight now which hasn't happened since 1917 or something. Needless to say it was on one side very beautiful, but on the other extremely damaging. Here are a few photos that don't even begin to explain or capture what everything looked like in actuality.




There were downed power lines everywhere. I feel fairly certain that every street in fayetteville had a power line or two on the ground.


Wilson Park.

Upon opening up my front door.

Suelo is a full time window watcher. He's also pretty cute. Am I turning into the cat lady? I think I have around 80% too many photos of my feline.

Messing with changing the focus.

What exactly is it about cats and boxes?

I got a new camera yesterday

So here are a few simple photos of things I took last night/yesterday afternoon. Also, I am usually a die hard Nikon person, but I mixed it up this time.
There is a super macro feature that allows me to be within one centimeter of stuff and it turns out clear. Pretty cool, eh? It's what really sold me, expect many bugs on plants post in the future!
Eye out window.
Dark rooms.
Stamps!

I thought the reflection my cats water bowl made was a little cool....