Well well. Look who's back.

Well well. Look who's back :) Yes, it's me, the girl of no schedule, who finally made it back from Cali at about 3:30 this morning. I stepped out of DFW airport, and my first thought was not, "ah, home sweet home", or "hello, good 'ol state of Texas", or even "well, it's nice to be back". Instead, it ran more along the lines of "holy crap, it feels like a giant sauna out here". And it really did, even at 1:00am or whatever time it was right then. Amazing.

Well, I feel that my massive fan base (is that one or two words? help me out, other spelling nazi) would like to hear a recap of my adventures as of late. I am trying to think of a good way to give the readers digest version of the last couple of weeks instead of the War and Peace version. That's what my dad says to me everytime I tell him I've got a story for him - "Readers digest version, Elise". I figure I ought to give the same kind of consideration for other readers :) So here goes

Maybe a list will work:

1. Take spanish final at 8am two Thursday's ago

2. Leave Lubbock at about 11am the same day with my brother, Nathan, headed west

no, I don't like the list approach. I think I will just expound in a normal fashion on what happened, starting now. We drove all day Thursday, got to Clarkdale, AZ at about 8pm in screwed up, we-don't-recognize-daylight-savings-time-because-somehow-we're-above-that-nonsense, Arizona time. We hung out with Nathan's good friend Steven's grandparents that evening, which was nice, and then we left the next morning after eating some freshly picked peaches for breakfast. We took the 17 back up to Flagstaff instead of going straight to the 40, because I wanted to see Sedona. And no, it had nothing to do with that song about "There is no Arizona", and everything to do with the fact that I've heard it's really beautiful there. Well, not much to do with the first anyway....I don't listen to that...anyway....

Sedona certainly did not disappoint. For those of you who haven't ever seen this place, try to imagine a mix between Yellowstone and maybe some place like Red Rocks in Colorado - I mean, this is a little town, with the most laid-back atmosphere imaginable, old and young hippies, earthy stores, and tons of little coffee bars abounding, with unimaginably beautiful red rock cliffs rising on either side of you, and canyons of forest below. The temperature was right around 80 or 85, and it was the middle of an August day. I mean, seriously. Talk about ideal. Also, my brother and I find that it is imperative to listen to appropriate music for the atmosphere we are currently in. Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Live Art, disc 2 seemed like it would fit perfectly. And it did. Are you jealous yet?

We then got stuck in a huge, standstill traffic jam in the middle of the Mojave desert. For an hour and a half. The temperature was 118. No lie. Some moron got in a wreck and jammed up the whole road for about 10 miles. Yes, I did say 10 miles, and yes, I did say 1 1/2 hours. 118 degrees. Overheating cars. No A/C. Deliriousness soon set in, and resulted in my brother saying "Wheeee!" about every 5 - 10 seconds after we finally got going again on a road that was somewhat rollercoaster-y. What a day :)

L.A. The city of the angels. In order to keep this even somewhat readers digest-ish, let me expedite. Santa Barbara (with some Jack Johnson and Ben Harper playing live at the Bowl, which is up in the hills of Santa B), Isla Vista (tons of beach houses, one of which we were lucky enough to know the residents of, overlooking the ocean), Carpenteria Beach, Ventura Beach, Malibu (with some Pepperdine Law), Zuma Beach (in Mali), Pasadena (which is awesome and has great personality, a great strip, and pretty interesting nightlife :)), Santa Clarita, more Malibu with two really fun girls, one of which was housesitting for some beachfront property on Malibu Beach.....I mean, seriously. Plus, if I would have extended my stay (once again, as I had already done so twice, oops) I would have been in San Diego as we speak, and shortly would have been heading back up to L.A. with a brief stop off at Laguna Niguel. And all of these things are within an hour and half of each other.

Ahhh....only 4 more months until I can make the move for real. It was, however, really annoying to be out there for a while like that, get to hang out with the people I know there, meet and then hang out with even more people, (awesome people, by the way), and then have to come back. To Lubbock. I guess I'm just ready to get on to the next stage of my life, and to start the stage and then have to put it on hold to take care of the little matter some like to call graduating...well, we'll just say it makes it much harder for me to take my studies seriously this fall. And for those of you who already know what a stellar student I can be, this is a little dangerous :). Oh well, I do like Tech, and it's always the people that make the place, and the people in good 'ol L-town definitely make the place :) YOU people! Haha, what a moment we all just had together. I sincerely hope all is well for all of you, and if anyone wants details about anything in particular, I'll be more than glad to oblige. Or, if anyone wants to hang out, I actually broke down (as sad as I am to report this) and got a cell phone. There were some who were genuinely beginning to hate me for not having one. So, I give a salute to all of you rebels who are still hanging in there without one - stay strong, stay strong. And with that, I will end this post, and try my best to go back to the daily posting as soon as I am back in Lubbock - which will be Thursday. Adieu and Ciao :)