I Now Have a Use For My Headlamp

{photo from Alex Ristea}

I haven't had much use for my headlamp since I got it this past Christmas, other than to go "Look Ma, no hands!" as I grabbed things and shined light around Christmas morning. But in less than two weeks it will finally find some real use, thanks to some fortuitous timing.

I'll be setting off for The National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming for 23 or so days to do an Outdoor Educator Course with Backpacking and Rock Climbing (more here.) I'd originally taken work off for another course, decided not go because of interference with working at the farmer's market, then decided to go, found out the course was cancelled, and then decided to just ask about this course. Since it was barely a month away, I figured the course was full, but it just so happend that someone had dropped out 20 minutes before I called to ask if it was still open. And everything fell into place from there: money, work giving me the extra days off, getting the okay from the farmer's market, not having to actually go to the doctors for the physical (okay, the transportation wasn't a breeze to set up, but that's a whole post in of itself.)


I'm excited. I've been looking at various NOLS courses for almost a year, and since grad school fell through for this fall, it's nice to be moving forward a little bit. Speaking of grad school, I've found a school stateside that I like a lot and in a lot of ways might be even more up my alley (and be much more in my price range.) So three days before my flight to Wyoming, I'll be taking the GRE. 


By all means, if you don't hear from me until after August 7th, don't be surprised. I'm either trying to brush up my horrifically rusty math skills, or evading bears in the wilderness.  

You're killing me, Wyoming.

There are several things that happen when you spend three weeks more or less by yourself...one of them is talking to/at everything. Animate object, people, inanimate objects...And thus, during my incredlibly long journey across wyoming today, I found myself shouting at a state.

Wyoming may be a nice state, and have some lovely things to see, but oh my, if you need to get through it in a hurry, it's a killer. It took me about 8 hours, roughly, with a few stops, and a decent amount of construction. And it made the car act weird. Well, Wyoming probably didn't, but I need a scapegoat, and Wyoming works well for that.

On other news, I am back in the midwest...woohoo for south dakota. Now only if I can get the car working, I will make it back to dsm/quad cities eventually.

Also, now that I have internet, I just found out I was accepted to volunteer for the AIGA design conference in early October. So I'm coming back to mountains soon! This is really awesome, because there is no way on earth I could afford this conference normally, so now I can go on another "vacation" for pretty darn cheap again. Now to find some form of employment...or I could just take a super extended vacation.

Well, it has been a long day, so I'm going to finish a few things up while I have the internet. Sorry to all those who have been trying to call, I haven't had cell phone reception since Montana. I promise I will call when I have reception again.

Peace, yo!