Sugar Lumps - Flight of the Concords

An entirely obnoxious/ridiculous/inappropriate song, but hilarious. Definitely watch the music vid if you're going to check it out.

Just got back from my family vacation- six days divided between Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. The views on the hikes were so pretty, typical Western stuff you see in old paintings at Grand Teton. Of course, we saw all the incredible geysers, mud pots, hot springs at Yellowstone as well as taking a look at the canyon & the waterfall from all different sides. Not to mention catching the sunset. I know this is going to sound strange, but one of the things I loved the most was the airport. It's just a small building & that's probably why I enjoyed arriving/departing from there. There's no tunnel that takes you into the plane; instead you have to walk across the tarmac & climb a set of stairs to get inside. I guess I just like being places I don't usually get to go- this case being the asphalt where a plane could easily run some one over. Lots of turbulence on the plane but I didn't mind it. This is my first trip since I can probably remember where I haven't had a camera to take pictures but I know I made my brother & dad take some for me..yay?
Anyways, I thought the people watching was great & my brother & enjoyed it. Our two favorites were a little Japanese boy looking angry & upset sounding so indignant as he yelled out a wordless phrase pointing in the opposite direction that his dad was going in. Only cute when they're young. The other was a fmaily in front of us on a trail- the mother, father, & their sixish year old son were having an argument about how the mountains in Grand Teton formed. It was clear the mother was getting frustrated at both of them for arguing w/ her about erosion & sediments when just as we were passing them, the boy said, "Mom, just because you took three years of geology doesn't mean you know about every single mountain." In just words, that doesn't seem funny, but I'm always pretty bad at telling stories anyways. But it's more for my benefit to remember, right?
Another favorite story of mine was when I was in the bathroom & two women walk in after me. One of them remarks on how much toilet paper there is & I figure she's talking about the half used rolled strewn on the bathroom floor. They're joking around & one tells the other, "don't deny yourself the toilet paper!" After they come out they explain to me they had been camping for six days & normally wouldn't be so excited. I didn't really care anyways because it's definitely an exchange my best friend & I would have...except we'd have it even if we didn't camp at all.

Well, it's safe to say that summer is effectively over. I have less than three days to mentally prepare for the mental bloodbath of Monday. By that I mean one class that essentially runs from 8am-3pm w/ an hour break that will be taken up by a meeting. Go big or go home right?
It's probably the right time to reflect on the summer. But honestly, I'm more focused on the upcoming year & everything that I have to do. So to sum (hah hah, half pun) up these last few months, they've certainly been trying but I've learned a lot. I feel like I've lost & gained, but most importantly I've gotten become a little wiser of the world & work politics. I've grateful for all the experiences & I know they'll guide me well in the future.

Last thing- has anyone else noticed that almost all our sources of news in this country is full of trash? There's so much gossip it's ridiculous. World events are rarely focused on while pointless stories about actors' pets get a larger timeslot. Reporters clearly manipulate the way they deliver a story as well as anchors making comments to guide the watcher to the same position they decided. It's awful & another reason why I'm not bothered by the lack of a TV. Just about everything on the air is full of dumb reality shows- there are few programs that are educational, neutral, or informative anymore. Something I've been thinking about for a while as I ate my lunches in the break room but pretty much was confirmed when I watched the news w/ my parents over the last week.