Wesley

Today I found out that my friend Wesley took his life.  

I cared for you so much, Wesley - I was so concerned, and now my concerns have turned into a reality.  It’s a bad dream, except it’s not.  But I know God is cradling you in his arms now… because God is the only being in the entire universe who can love you the way you deserve to be loved.

Dramamine is my Drug of Choice

Hello readers of my new blog!  My name is Jessica, and I will be serving as your sole entertaining/informative/hopefully inspiring being every time you come to this page.

Some of you may be well aware that I have two blogs already.  One is the home of my year-long photo blog project, 365 at 21; the other is my more professional ongoing online portfolio, Life Without College, in which I write about things relevant to living life....... without............ going to........... college.  You guessed it!

I am not abandoning my other two blogs in the slightest; in fact, one might argue that I "don't seem to have enough time already" to "work on your blogs you already have."  And this may be true.  Bear with me here.

The thing is, I feel there is something missing.  I miss the days of olde when I could blog about whatever I wanted.  Photo and anti-college blogs are confining, as much as I love them.

Thus, my non-confining blog.  The everything blog.

I'll let you know a few things about me before I officially begin, so that we are all on the same page.  I love to write, you see.  I love to write about everything.  I write a lot.  This blog may consist of me writing a lot, about whatever comes to mind.  I may write about cell phones, or when the ice cream truck came when I was three, or spend a great deal of time musing why I suddenly decided to boycott purple when I was 14 and only just remembered that I actually love the color.

Or I might post about my adventures in cookie baking, or how I handle long distance relationships with towns on the other side of the USA.

It is up to me.

Or you!  You can ask me to write about something as well, and I shall do my best to comply.

I also may showcase some artwork (or illustrate my writing) from time to time, as I am attempting to become an artistic person.

Today I flew back from Las Vegas, NV, and I am sitting here in Fuquay-Varina, NC, thinking about how I need chap stick and healthy things like sleep.  BUT I could be feeling much, much worse.  You see, ever since I turned 20 my body declared that it would NOT be functioning as a happy-go-lucky individual anymore, and I would have to learn to deal with my problems.  One of these problems (for there are many) is extreme motion sickness.  I used to be able to read in the car, in a plane, ANYWHERE.  Now I can't even ride in the car without getting sick.  Plane rides are gross.  Helicopters are unbearable.

Until my father suggested Dramamine.

Problem solved.

It's that simple!  I take half the recommended dosage and I feel nothing except happiness that I am enjoying eating my 27 snacks on this lovely bumpy cross-country airplane ride while reading a great book about genetic imprinting!

~Jessica  

At last, we hike!

Today I finally went on my hike!  This is a picture I took about 3/4 of a mile into the Canyon.

I also talked to the HawkWatch International people and got a lot of good information, though there happened to be a slow point in the day when I showed up, so I didn’t get to see any hawks actually tracked.  I *did* wish I had brought a pair of binoculars, though; the three people there on Raptor Duty had some mighty spiffy portable telescoping equipment that made them look very awesome and official.

Not to mention, I rode in my very first helicopter!  It had never occurred to me until we actually got to the airport that I had never been in a helicopter before.  It occurred to me once I was in the air that I never wanted to be in a helicopter again.  Nonetheless, it was beautiful to fly over the Canyon, over to the North Rim, which consists of another ecosystem entirely from any other part of the canyon.  It was an experience.  But have I mentioned, “NEVER AGAIN!!”?

Grand Canyon Day Two

On our second day of the Grand Canyon, I saw an elk in real life for the first time!  This was very exciting for me, having read a lot about elk and caribou in their context as wolf prey (not that there were any wolves to bee seen at the Grand Canyon… sigh…).

Anyway, this one was walking around the old train tracks at about 3 pm, minding his own business, I guess.  I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but I didn’t want to get closer as October is really not the time of year to go around approaching elk bulls.  

We had taken Grandma on a bus ride along the eastern rim, and had just finished eating lunch when I headed out to catch a bus to the more western rim and saw this fellow.  I had intended to talk to some HawkWatch International people who were tracking hawk migration, but by the time the bus FINALLY got up to Yaki Point, it was very windy and rainy, and they had packed up and were getting out of there.  Fortunately I found out that they would be there every day, and not just every other day as implied by the brochure.  I also didn’t go hiking as I originally planned, as I did not like the idea of being blown off a cliff and into the canyon, as much as I was dying to get inside…

First view of the Grand Canyon...

Bryce Canyon

Today we moved on from Zion National Park to Bryce Canyon, about 90 minutes away.  We gazed a lot and hiked some; finally, I sat down here to write while my family went to go climb to some crazy high peak.

The Case of the Missing Hot Sauce

I have done many, many things today.  Most notably, I have found myself in a beautiful hotel two miles from Zion National Park in Utah.  But, before I got here, my family and I were unstoppably drawn to a tourist trap, about 15 miles up the road from our hotel.  

The tourist trap, which has a name I cannot currently remember, served ice cream, had many relics of tourism, and a petting zoo with some carrot-obsessed alpacas, a donkey, a few horses, some deer, and a rabbit.

One of the features of the store inside was its extensive collection of hot sauces.  I approached it skeptically, and soon found my suspicions confirmed: in the midst of so much hot sauce, there was not one bottle of Frank’s.

Fail, Utah.  

At least you make up for it by being pretty.