Winter

The nights are getting colder and the snow is starting to fly! It's time to find a winter time blanket and hide inside.

Frog Legs

Apparently eating frog legs is a delicatessan. Not sure where, but we had to try it for ourselves. Of course they just tasted like a weird version of chicken.



My Crazy friend Aaron likes to play with frog legs and talk to them.

Why I talk to homeless people.

As we were sitting on the steps of my friends porch a man with the longest beard I have ever seen approached us. He asked for a glass of water and said that he was having chest pain. He appeared to be homeless and missing a few screws as many homeless are. Being that I am a future nurse I asked him about his chest pain and all the other health questions you would expect for this. This opened a flood gate of conversation. My friends quickly disappeared inside, not willing to bother listening to the crazy man on the street. I on the other hand spent the next 45 minutes conversing with the man. He was not entirely homeless. He was an ex-vet in Utah receiving treatment at the V.A. hospital for heart problems. He told me that instead of only taking one of his pills he took four because it was better. Being that I just did a clinical rotation at the V.A. I was a bit more intrigued to help the man. He told me he lived off $15 a week. That's incredible cause I probably spend that in a day. He rambled on about things I did not understand, but it didn't matter because I believe just talking to someone made a world of difference. I talked to him about his medication and how it was important to take it as prescribed. He read me my horoscope and then thanked me for my time and skipped on his way. My friends think I'm crazy for spending the time to talk with him. Maybe I am, but I find it interesting to talk to a complete stranger about their life and how they ended up where they are today. Ex-vets are especially good for stories and are appreciative to those that are willing to take the time to listen. You never know why someone is the way they are. It doesn't hurt to take the time to lend an ear every once in awhile, even if you can't understand what they are saying.

Yes, Hot French men I will go with you to buy chocolate.

So long story short. I ended up in Chile after booking a flight at 2:30 in the morning. I won't even explain cause it's just another one of those things I do without thinking too hard. Anyways, so here I am hitchhiking from the ski resort Termas de Chillan, a beautiful little ski resort 5 hours south of Santiago. After unsuccessfully holding my thumb out and having not one, but two different trucks of guys pass me without stopping, I realized that Chillean men must be gay or I'm completley hideous. I decided I might as well hike back down to the cabin I was staying in when around the bend in the road came a truck full of men. They stopped and offered me a ride. They were professional snowboarders from France shooting the 2010 billabong catalog. There photographer was fluent in english and very easy on the eyes. The snowboarders were pretty damn hot as well. They asked if I were traveling alone and I said, " Sometimes you just have to travel alone or you'll wait a lifetime waiting for someone to go with you" The beautiful french photographer, with his great white teeth and charming smile replied, "That's right you don't need some stupid man to hold you back." I didn't say anything about men, but apparently traveling alone implies you are single, which I am, but that is besides the point. So as we are driving down the mountain engaged in conversation about traveling the world they ask if it is okay if they stop and buy chocolate. They seemed to have run out of chocolate at their condo and they love chocolate so much. Is this seriously happening? Hot and love chocolate! MMMMMM! The rest of the story is a secret. Ya right, they dropped me at my cabin and I never saw them again, but oh the thoughts in my mind.

M'embrasser déjà!

Have I gone even more crazy! I think so but life wouldn't be fun otherwise.

So after taking a nice trail run through the mountains today I thought about how nice it would be to do mountain marathon. Little behold when I got home from running in the front page of my newspaper there was an advertisement for a half mountain marathon in Utah. So I decided to check it out. Now I am stoked on getting in shape to do two trail runs on August 16 in Utah and one in Bend, Oregon September 27. So now I need to get motivated to run every day and stop eating cookies. If getting in shape and having an awesome time doesn't motivate me, maybe the cash prizes for the top runners will. So I looked up this video to get pumped up and I realized I am nothing like these people. This is going to be tough!

On a quest to sweat.

Now that I have finished my first semester of nursing school I have a few weeks to regroup and try to get my insanity back, and loose the 15lbs I've gained from my constant study eating. Therefore, I am on a quest to find a sweat lodge to detoxify my mind, body, and soul. I have always wanted to go to a traditional native american sweat lodge. I have heard of medicine men that attempt to heal a person through detoxifying the body through a ceremonial sweat. I hope to find one in the west and am even considering taking a road trip to Vancouver, B.C. to not only enjoy the beauty of Canada, but also to partake in a sweat lodge. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I'm finding it difficult to locate a place that performs these ceremonies. If not I will remain in Utah and just backpack and camp for a few weeks till the insanity begins again.

Life of a nursing student

Some days I wake up and wonder what I'm doing. Other days I wake up and wonder what the hell I'm doing.

Wow! I finally figured out how to retrieve my password so I could post some random, unimportant stuff. I officially started nursing school today. After 8 years of traveling, working as an archaeologist, being a wildland firefighter, unemployed, homeless, bum, I am finally on my way of to achieving my goal. The next year of my life will consist of clinicals, school, clincals, school, homework, crying, stressing, wishing I were somewhere else, library, crying, and having a good old time learning new things. Congrats to Jess and Kate for finishing nursing school. I will hopefully be right there with ya in a year.