8-11-12

So we just got back from vacation in Colorado this evening. It was OK, I guess. My family doesn’t deal so well with being all cramped together for a week. It’s actually worst the first couple days and gets better as we go, but the first couple days are terrible. I also don’t deal super well with altitude, so that makes the first couple days a little nasty as well. My dad gets really crabby on the drive out there, and doesn’t like navigating new areas. After I get over my initial bad mood, I start to enjoy seeing everyone else miserable. Terrible, I know. But it’s easier to laugh at people being in a bad mood than letting them put you in a bad mood as well. So we didn’t do a whole lot while we were out there. We drove around, saw the mountains, went to a couple parks/sites. We stayed with relatives a couple of the nights, which was really fun. I love the relatives out there. One of them told me a story from his chemistry class back 50 years ago or whatever. He got one of the highest grades in the class since he’d memorized the periodic table for the test. He scoffed a little when I said we were given the periodic table for out tests nowadays. But if you think about it, what good is a test that you could ace if you just had a periodic table with you? What does that teach you? It really drove home how much the focus of teaching has changed, from memorizing the fundamentals, to understanding and applying the fundamentals. Our tests are still hard, even with the periodic table. They’re just way different. The trip was also a little frustrating since we were so close to the Coors plant, and you get a couple drinks with the tour (at least a couple years ago when we did it), but my 21^st birthday isn’t for another two weeks from today. So I didn’t get to go sample Coors products on a tour. The best part of the trip was this one hike I went on. It was a really steep trail from the top of a pass to the top of a mountain. My mom and Lils stopped maybe a quarter of the way up to wait for me to finish (my dad was waiting in the car since he doesn’t like climbing with no air). It was a cloudy day with occasional drizzles. When I was standing on top of the mountain, I started hearing thunder, so I got down pretty quickly. When I got down to my mom and Lils, they’re hair was standing up from the lightning in the area. Mine was too, but I hadn’t been able to tell since I was on my own at the top. It’s a little scary how easily I could have been struck by lightning while I was up there on my own. That’s what made that the best part of the trip for me, though: learning of the danger after the fact. We got back tonight, and there is no sign of our cats. They’re outdoor cats, and we left food and water for them and the garage door cracked. However, they’re not here and there’s signs that raccoons have been in the garage. We’re not sure what happened to them. Hopefully they’ll show up in the next couple days. Anyway, I don’t want to go into every little thing we did on the trip, so that’s all I have for now. I’m typing this on my laptop and will probably get this posted Monday. I haven’t had any internet since last Monday, and probably won’t get on the computer until tomorrow morning since Lils is hogging it tonight. I move back to school in one week and classes start one week from Monday. I can’t wait to see Vee and my other friends again, though it will be sad without Barry. I haven’t seen any of my friends from college all summer. Vee and Barry weren’t that much fun to text this summer, and I suspect they were busy with their own things. I guess I’m not really a big texter and I’m not close enough with anyone else to text them over the summer. I guess I did text Anneh (pronounced ann-EH) a little, but that was all I texted for my college friends. I really don’t know how it’s going to go without Barry around and Vee not living close to me. I will have one class with Vee, but I’m still worried about drifting away from her. I do love that girl sometimes. This summer she texted me a couple of times: she made a Grindr (some gay dating site or phone app or something) account using one of our friends who’s a guy as her alias. He has no idea she did that. She just loves talking to gay guys. I asked her what they did when they found out she’s a girls and she was like “Oh, they just think I’m confused.” Lol. She knows exactly what she’s doing. Facepalm. Anyway. I guess I should go. Until later, my nonexistent readers.