apparently you thought i didn't know what sweat was. well now i do. i certainly do. i glisten like i'm covered in diamonds. and by diamonds i mean beads of wetness that attract dirt like a freakin magnet. basically what i'm trying to say is that i'm as dirty now as i usually get in the canyon. nothing i'm not used to. but the sweating is strange. in the good ol' state of az i guess the stuff just evaporates instantly. although here i don't really have to apply moisturizer.
so i'm in costa rica. and i gotta tell you. despite the sweat (which is substantial, if you couldn't tell) this place is sweet. it's surprisingly tough to get into the swing of not having a schedule. of basically having a month to do whatever you want and not really having any responsibilities other than "get here, leave in month, get on plane, go home". (yeah my life sucks. dude, seriously i am not gloating. at least not a lot.) anywhoo, i live in a pretty cool jungle house that's about a 5 minute walk to the beach. i've got a few chill roomies. i've got a HAMMOCK. i've got some dogs. i've got the internets. all is pretty good.

so once again, i feel it necessary to state that i haven't died. i've just been working in the flaming bowels of hell for the past few months. and that doesn't mean that i haven't been having a blast. that means that my place of work has now reached one hundred billion degrees. it's so hot out here, i can't tell you the number of times i've had to scrape my face off of the floor and glue it back on. so a quick recap of the last few.
i've gone on three trips down the river, the first one being the training trip in which i got to get a good feel of who i'll be working with. it was a good time even though for the most part i was so worried about screwing anything up that my usually fantastic and staggering sense of humor took a seat in the way back and stayed there for a while. to the point where some of my friends had to keep asking why i was so quiet, to which i would reply "cause i'm cool" ha haaa! so after that i worked in the shop and on the float trips for a bit and then went on a one boater with my buddy oak and i just got back from my third trip with my friends jeffe, jim, and christine. this trip was so fucking awesome!!! the people were great, the river was sweet and the tips at the end of the trip were nothing short of amazing. and by amazing i mean $1200!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i almost threw up and shat myself at the same time when it was all counted. fluah fluah, poooop poooop. like that. so now i'm back home and all is well. my little brotha has decided to come and work the river for the rest of his summer and he'll be here in about 3 or 4 days. that's gonna be fuckin cool. the gentlemen situation is... interesting. we'll leave it at that. i'm off. i'll be back soon. ish.

i move out of california tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. as per usual, it's after midnight and i can't sleep. this always happens. without fail, the night before i set off on an adventure, no matter how tired i am, i can't sleep. i suppose if i were asleep right now i'd be worried. well... no. i'd be asleep. but somwhere in my brain the worry would be. sitting. politely waiting for me to wake up and then it would suddenly spring to life and fill my mind with doubts. "did i sleep the whole night? what does that mean? this does not bode well. clearly if i were supposed to be running of on yet another journey my body would have been too hopped up on excitement to actually rest. this must mean i don't really want to go! screw you non-fun adventure! ha ha haaaa!"...

what the hell am i talking about?

but i just got the call. 10 trips over the summer!!!! 10, ten, TEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! and for those of you who don't know what the hell i'm talking about, i got the call from my boss man out in AZ that i'll be working 10 whitewater trips down in the Grand Canyon over the course of the summer. and i could throw up. i'm so excited/nervous/giddy/scared!!! the nervous/scaredness comes mostly from my gross lack of muscle mass. which is kindof a big requirement. my training trip launches on the 4th. so i figure i have 15 days to get my ass into some sort of shape. i remember what twoadays felt like in highschool. lets see if i can recreate that. OH MY GOD 10 TRIPS I'M SO EXCITED!!!

spontaneous camping/kayak/rock climbing trip. aaaaaand go! see you guys in a few days!!!

there are some times when i just don't feel like writing out the events of my life, no matter how hilarious or mundane those events may be. the past week and a half was one of those times. but for the sake of archiving, i will now give a brief glossing over of said events. ahem...
last weekend i drove down to san diego to visit ms. wendy maples. i also drove down there just to get away from here for a while. more on that later. wendy is awesome and she never changes and never ages. we had a blast. i got to see a show she directed. the cast was a group of teenagers and the show was geared toward middle school kids. the topic was about acceptance and tolerance and it was really freakin good. i realize it's been quite some time since i've seen live theatre, but these kids really blew me away. the whole thing was really well put together and they really held the audience.
on sunday we went to breakfast and it was busy so we put our name in and walked into the porn shop next door to wait (like you do) and i discovered upon entering that i knew 5, count em' five!, gay porn stars that were gracing either the covers of magazines, greeting cards, or large and girthy insertables! and i thought my stint as a hotel front desk girl in west hollywood was a waste of time!! as famecity put it, "i feel you have touched greatness." touched it indeed. needless to say, i'm pretty wicked proud of myself, and the guy working there was likewise in awe. we then went out to the movies and then had a nice dinner and then i drove back home.
this most recent weekend i spent covered in wood chips and paint as i (pretty much) single handedly remodeled my uncles bathroom which my cousin felt had grown stale and outdated. boy was she right. and the mindless physical labor was great since it took my mind off of my growing worry about my uncles descent into depression. although i would have really liked to have not been the one to do all the work when she decided that she didn't want to do anymore because she was a little tired. i might be in my twenties, but i know when i'm being taken advantage of. however, the bathroom turned out great. there are still a few finishing touches to be made.
so that's about it. tomorrow is valentine's day and i'm heading out to a raggae festival in laguna. life is good.


challenge: in honor of this most holy of corporate holidays, i challenge all to go out and get themselves kissed and/or felt up. preferable the former. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYBODY!!!

i'm about to get done with the first 8 hour "office" work shift that i have worked in almost a year. i now do part time work for a meeting facilitator company and i was supposed to meet a group of pharmaceutical big wigs at the airport this morning, but the company decided to fire their receptionist over the weekend and needed a last minute temp and i fit the bill. i have been so bored all day long. good money, but really bored. really really bored. i answered phones. and that was it. we had about 25 phonecalls. all day. but on the good side, i had the internet and i searched for my future haircut. it will be mine just before i leave for the canyon. i also indulged in online "window" shopping. that's where you put all the stuff you want in the shopping cart but you don't pay cause you're pretty poor. i have to do this again tomorrow and i'm going to bring a book and perhaps a crochet needle. did i mention i'm old now? anyway, time to clock out.

it occurs to me that i am seriously bored with my life right now. to the nth degree. i've started sleeping more. and that isn't good. so i've made a decision to shake things up a bit. i realize that i now have less than two months til i leave this place, but the stagnancy is starting to erode my brain away. and i've never really been scared to go out on my own, it's just a little intimidating when you don't have friends at your side. once again i have to remind myself that in the event that i do make a complete fool of myself when i go out, i'm probably never going to see any of these people again. and as i recall, i've never pointedly looked at someone who is alone at a bar and thought, "oh poor thing." in fact i've never noticed at all. so to assume that people would look at me with pity were i to venture forth on my own is silly. if anything people won't notice me at all! and that's just great... sortof. but other than that, there are a few things that i'd like to do before i head out of here.
1) learn guitar basics
2) take a self defense class
3) take a yoga/pilates class
4) go to more live music venues

in other news, i babysat for my cousin the other night and the event has solidified my resolve to not have children who suck and who other people hate. a 4 and a half year old tried to throw tone at me. me. tone. oh... oh silly child. silly silly child. he got so mad at me becuase i was laughing at him that he told me to shut up. at that point i gently, yet firmly explained to him that we were in my house and NO ONE tells me to shut up in my house, least of all a spoiled bratty 4 and a half year old. needless to say that my voice was tempered with a steely undertone of righteous superiority and the threat of violence. little bastard got the picture and pouted for a while until i suggested we watch cartoons, which i love. but no. my kids will not do that. i can honestly say that my children will only throw tone once. after which they will be immediatly taught that they can't throw tone.

i saw brokeback last night. i am wrecked. totally wrecked for like the next week. i was bawling like a 6 year old who scraped her knee and knows how to work the crowd for sympathy. my aunt/cousin took me to go see it because she couldn't get it out of her head and we were both just destroyed. for those of you who haven't seen it DO NOT READ AHEAD:

( the moment that sent my into a blubbering fit )