so i mean this is the modest modest possible way,

personal quote of the day:
“money is a shitty excuse not to do something that will make you happy.”

i’m going to continue to live by this.

“when are you gonna get a real job??” they ask.
NEVER! and besides… it may not be the norm, but honestly, unless you’re in the medical profession; on a daily basis, how many people put their lives in your hands? yeah, i’m looking at 4 to 10 every day on the river. and that’s not including the other boats on the trip. real job my ass.

i love my life, sure, occasionally i get stressed about cash, but really, its not very important to me.
as long as my dog gets to eat, ill make it work.
I have added an official destination on the road trip!!  i’m going to see my lovely cousin/one of my best friends in Massachusetts. this means also, that i will get to visit a few other wonderful people in that area, because hell if i’m only an hour or so away, why not!?  AND like i said, money is a lousy reason not to go! i mean from DC, its about the same distance home as it is to Boston, if i need to, ill get a temp job in New England for a week to make my way home!
boy, this is fun!
refusing to allow oneself to worry about trivial things is VERY satisfying. i highly recommend it!

so this temp gig, the food delivery thing… kinda lame, i mean, don’t lazy people eat on thursdays? i’ve been on call since 4pm, it is now 7.45 and i have yet to make a delivery. boss-man type dude texted me a few minutes ago to acknowledge that i’m probably going nuts right now and say hes working on things to get us more orders….hope it works! i’m looking for other work too… odd jobs and whatnot since i’m leaving in a few short weeks.
so how this works is i get a text message from foodtoyou.com when there’s an order in my area, it tells me what restaurant and the name and address of where im taking it. pretty cool setup. but it’s a fickle beast and right now, she’s LAME! so i’ve been sitting here feeling quite popular but frustrated. i keep getting texts from people, we’re looking at like 6 or 7 different people in the past few hours who have texted me to say hi and every time, i’m like,”WOO! a delivery!” then its not. don’t get me wrong, i’m feeling very loved right now, but my hands are getting sore from crocheting beer muffs.. i’ve made 5 today! but i am starting to get fast! hopefully i get a delivery tonight… it would be nice to toss a few bucks in the pocket so i can have an almond croissant from the gallery/cafe dawn the street tomorrow… they are AMAZING! i don’t even like sweet stuff in the morning, but i make an exception for these.

okay, the irony of me bitching about lack of work after the intro is not lost on me. This gig is to sustain me financially while i’m here, i’m not looking to save up a nest egg… but it wouldn’t hurt to make a little cash just so i can play even more!

okay so i got distracted and am now publishing this… at 9pm… no deliveries tonite…. oh well… at least i’m no longer acting like a desperate teenager waiting by the phone in hopes of a prom date.  hehehe i’ll leave you with a photo from not too long ago…

view of a new friend thru my gimlet (raw photo)

this is from last thursday at the kareoke bar… they had delightful little martini options where they give you a little glass and a shaker with 2 refills. for like $3 im a fan!

hurry up and wait! hurry up and wait!  so this delivery thing…
i dunno man…  5  hours, 2 deliveries…. sure its wednesday… but really? THATS IT? so i made $10 plus $17 in tips.  grerrrrAAARRRRGH! yeah not gonna sustain me til my roadtrip. good thing i have that bowl game gig coming up… but still i need to find an additional income suppliment…

WHO WANTS A BEER MUFF?? $15 each (12 oz size, also available in 22 or 40 oz sizes!), hand made by yours truly! custom colors are encouraged! they make great gifts! and i will be happy to work out a quantity discount!  shipping by christmas might even be possible! i can work on these while im in the waiting portion of my job. please?  i can make matching hats to go with! and i have paypal.. .id just have to figure out how to use it for this!

ergh… im supposed to meet some friends for 2 for 1 margaritas… but i think my budget may be telling me to take a raincheck… thats okay  i’ll feed my misfits addiction and make more beermuffs so next time we go out we can use them and hopefully sell some.

my temporary roomate, anna’s crazy bitches… maybe ill post some more recently past adventures photos and pics tonite…   see ya soon! on another note… a good friend and i are considering a trip to Africa next year, hopefully work a river while there, leaning toward Uganda, if you’ve been there and/or have any potentially helpful advice, please, by all means, share!

i have so very little to say…. but i’m thinking of you.

moon over turbodog.

I feel as if i’ve done NOTHING today…. and honestly, it’s not far from true.  aside from getting up a few dozen times to let the dogs in and out the back door here at my lovely friend Anna’s house, I’ve pretty much been on the sofa all day.
I felt REALLY unmotivated today.  and i’ve found myself hooked on a hulu show called misfits… thanks alot Anna… hehehe.   Actually, it’s  quite good. im not gonna give anything away but it’s about a group of young adults who are all doing community service and a freak storm gives them all superpowers. it’s a little dark at times, and definitely not for the easily offended but it’s really well written and im already halfway through the second season!
i did cook dinner when anna got home…
and i took a shower today.. so i’m a good smelling bum…
wow… i’m lame today.

I know, i know!~ i’ve been a terrible nomad over the past couple days, but hey everybody needs a break every now and again. besides, i could argue that ive been working all day…. i’ve been crocheting while watching the show, had an order of BeerMuffs* to get done for a friend before christmas.
*Beer Muffs are a coozie with a  mitten attached to keep your hand warm. i decided to create them a few years ago, a coworker had crocheted a coozie and i liked it so i started making and selling them. on a cold day i decided to start addling the little sleeve to it to keep my fingers warm.  since then i’ve sold probably upwards of 60 or so in different sizes, i make them for cans and 12oz bottles, bigger ones for 22ouncers and of course i also make them for 40’s! sometimes i even add a little pocket to hold a cell phone, cigarettes, or whatever other vice you partake of while drinking. i’m gonna make a pile of them and carry them around when i go out once this custom batch is done… everyone can use a little extra cash every now and again… actually when i lived in Boise a few years back heather and i were at a bar using ours, i gave one to the bartender as part of a tip, and also ended up selling a set of 10 custom muffs to a guys for his friend’s new bar they were buidling.  i used to call them cozy coozies… but i find beermuff more fun to say!

BeerMuff

OOH! but i am quite excited, i discussed with Jim Snyder about having my jimmy styk made this spring! for you majority of the world who don’t speak whitewater, Jim Snyder is the creator of some amazing wooden paddles as well as other perty darn cool stuff like squirtboats (we’ll get into that some other time) ANYHOO a jimmy styk is a custom made wooden guide paddle. each one designed specifically to suit the paddling style of the intended owner. they are absolutely beautiful to look at, are geared for just the right type of flex and rigidity for maneuverability and control for the owner and can aid to prolong the career of a whitewater professional. my shoulders are my livelyhood, a paddle made just for me will allow me to work my shoulders less, therefore helping me last longer! yay!! (that also means less need for vitamin I)
 i’m excited!! a good number of my fellow guides have these and have let me try them out… each one is drastically different in feel, i cant wait to use mine!  i actually do need it too, it’s not just because i want it… the very last day of my commercial season this year, the last trip of the year my company ran on the Gauley in fact, i broke my guidestick.  so it really is time.  i mean, sure i can fix my other one… and i will… but it’s time. this is more than a summer job to me.

beyond that… i did a whole lot of sitting around….
spoke to the other half of my brain for awhile… i’m so proud of her, shes publishing a wonderful novel soon! “Detective Dougherty and the Demon’s Tears” i’ve had the pleasure of reading the first few chapters (one through 3 on her blog )… and the torture of having to wait for more! when it’s available for download as an ebook, you better believe you’re gonna hear about it!! she’s been busting butt  to get the rewrites done on time…       ~ http://www.sarahwaterraven.blogspot.com/p/detective-docherty-and-demons-tears.html ~  
        click the link above to read the first 3 chapters, be sure to leave feedback, she will appreciate it!

you know,  i never knew that getting a book published was so involved… for anyone who thinks like i did that how it works is: the publisher likes your book, sends it through editing for grammar and syntax then starts printing… you, like me, are mistaken… just because they like your book doesnt mean you wont be doing rewrites for months… there is in fact a reason for the higer costs of some books… makes far more sense now why they charge so much for nonfiction (and texts)… not only do they have to go through all that, they also have to check all of the facts! it’s really involved!!

hmm… anything else to add right now…???  meh…. im sleepy, time to crash.  please, if theres anything you’d like to know about me, ask! some direction for my babbling may not be a bad thing.
g’nite!

I had a lovely day of hanging out with my lifetime best friend and being crafty.
BEADS EVERYWHERE!!!  i actually didn’t spill them for once! weird.
i did however remind myself why i rarely will make jewelry using thread with beads instead of wire. ITS A PAIN! and it takes forever!  i did make a really pretty necklace tho. id post a pic, but i forgot to take one.
it may find its way to etsy someday… if i ever get around to actually putting that store together…. someday i’ll use that account.    otherwise, a fairly uneventful day.  i really enjoyed it.

i  thought about my blog today… perhaps some more background is appropriate…. considering i have little to say about today.

i am currently planning a major road trip… this being said, i’ve already driven from west virgina to idaho since october.  stopping at home in ohio and then working for a month in montana.  so since the end of october, i have traveled more that 3000 miles.  i’m planning on adding another like 7000miles by march. yeah…. my car, i bought last november with 80,000 miles, it is currently at approximately 98,700 miles.  oh and i spent over a month in puerto rico last year, as well as just not really driving  for 2 months.
yeah, my dog and i, we get around a bit.  you would think that after all this, saying, “lets go for a ride” would make her run the other way… but every time, she gets all excited and starts jumping around, and when you open the car door, you can’t keep her out. Shelby is an excellent road trip dog!

my friend has this theory, that dogs stick their heads out car windows in order to get high.  the reasoning being that dogs have incredible senses of smell, and getting that much stimulation,  that fast much be overwhelming to the senses… affecting a dog the way drugs affect people.  i’m not sure about it,  my pup looks pretty lucid here… but then i cant resist asking her if she wants to get high now when i open the window for her… im pretty sure she now knows this means the window is going down….

Road tripping with my dog, always looking for new adventures!

Not much of a conversationalist, however, she lets me know she’s there for me. On this day we were trying to hit Yellowstone NP, we got there shortly before dark to learn that not only does it cost $25 per vehicle to get into the park (good for a week), it was closing in a week and i would be working for the next 6 days.  I was a bit bummed, i think she could tell… we did have an amazing mini road trip that day anyway, southern Montana is gorgeous! i interpreted this look to mean, “Don’t be sad momma, we’ll make it someday!”

our mini road trip route that day… not so mini… about 300 miles i think. but absolutely beautiful! yes there are pics… but so many, it’s gonna take awhile for me to get them up….  they’ll be included in the vicariously thru me and/or the drive by shooting albums later.

I believe the biggest downside to my traveling buddy being a dog, she gets to sleep through all of the flat states….  i did all of the driving.  it is amazing  to me that she can sleep through my singing with the radio…  following river season… it takes a while for my voice to come back. it aint pretty.  in fact sometimes she sings along.

ANYWAY…. my road trip will be after Christmas, leaving Boise and (if i can swing it financially) hitting  theTahoe area for some snowboarding and winter whitewater boating…
 Absolutely aiming to be in the SLC viscinity for new years eve to visit my sister and a bunch of other awesome people for a few days on a hoity tioty type mountain where i’m going to have to get on skis for the first time in over a decade… i’m sure that will be fun to watch! yes i will post pics!
after Utah, i’m heading east a lilbit to Colorado to bounce around the state and visit some of my favorite snow bums and hopefully do some snowboarding with most of them!
After that I’m headed to LA to visit more lovely people who i haven’t seen in nigh forever… then picking up a good buddy and heading east.
The plan so far after that…is to camp a night on the rim of the grand canyon, visit friends in texas, hit up nola… stop in myrtle beach to see my sister and niece then dropping my bud off in DC for school…
after that… who knows!?
 IF i can afford it, i’d absolutely love to add Boston into the mix as well as visiting the other half of my brain, and soon to be best selling fantasy author (her first novel to be published later this month) in Canada before heading home to hang with the fam and work for my dad for a few weeks before heading back to the Cheat Canyon in mid to late march.

i googled the loop, starting with home, entering all of the specific stops i’d like to make, including the maybes (tahoe, boston, cananda) and it comes to approx 10,166 miles. roughly 8.5 days of driving alone. yeah, i think i this may fulfill my goal of big roadtrip… might even satiate the wanderlust for a bit…. maybe… i did afterall get invited to go to Africa for next winter… SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!!!

inicidentally… in case you’re wondering how i can possibly afford this…. technically, i cant. but as long as my dog’s fed and my car insurance is paid, i’m not gonna worry about that.  let this be a lesson to you, saty in school… but if you dont… drop out early so you don’t have a ton of debt! ha!

yes, i am aware that im not necessarily a good influence on young people… but you could do worse too.

alright, on that note… i’m going to bed. happy adventures!

went out with patrick and had a great time… checked out his buddy’s band, they were pretty good, fun to watch, i’m not really into the punk scene too much anymore… but it’s still fun live! then we strolled over to the neurolux…
I ran into my friend annie out and about in boise tonite, we worked for the same raft company back east, but at different times…. met thru our exes. it was awesome seeing her, i was in her favorite bar, thinking i need to text her a hello…then she walked by, i almost fell off my stool trying to get up to say hi. i like her alot, shes way fun!…. shell be out of town for a bit but when she get back, its on, we’re gonna have some fun!

 well… good night tiny growing world!

holy poo! 21 people have looked at this already! i feel special!

so ive thought about this blogging thing and i don’t want to bore people with the every detail of my life… altho i  also dont want to leave out interesting details…. a conundrum.

 i talk too much about myself i’ve decided.  this is a good venue for such things i figure, because if you get bored you can just leave the page and i wont know the difference.

so thursday i found a job, then instead of filling out more applications the pooch and i went for a hike.
later, heather and i went wandering around Boise, it was first thursday where all sorts of bars, restaurants and artists have fun stuff going on, free wine, snacks, etc… good times! ; Then we chose specific places.
on thursdays at Pengilly’s saloon (bar?/pup? i dunno) one of my favorite spots, a band called the frim fram four play, they’re a 4 piece jazz band, play alot of standards, just really fun, chill atmosphere! anyway, heather and i went out to enjoy the evening and and along with becoming reacquainted with lots of lovely people ive met once or twice before, i made some new friends too. following frim fram, we went to a tiny little dive where heather knew just about everyone, again many ive met before, and it was kareoke night. we proceded to make complete asses of ourselves, in the best possible way, and had a blast!

i spent most of yesterday doing mostly nothing. my justification being that well, if i don’t do much, i don’t spend money. (this i decide was stupid because i only have so much time here).. then i went to the grocery store… hungry… bad idea.  spent a little more that i would have liked to, but it’ll last a while so oh well. cheaper than eating out… made spaghetti squash with homemade pesto sauce… delicious. i’m so modest.
 i went out around 10 to hang out with a guy i met at pengilly’s the night before.~
who knew an guy would not play games and actually call the next day? weird. nice.~
so we met up for a beer and chatted for a few hours closed that bar down, went next door,  had another beer, a chocolate porter… cant remember the name of it but YUM!  hung out, chatting for a while closed that bar down. incidentally the bartenders at both bars, no joke, identical twins. the bartender at the second used to tend bar at the spot a block from my house when i lived here 2 years ago.  he referred to his brother next door as an old man when we told him his brother had kicked us out.  it was funny… to me anyway….    my new friend and i hung out a while longer after the bars closed, maoed on some pitapit and watched some dexter at his place. dont let your imaginations run wild, nothing happened. we just both dozed off on the sofa and i woke up at 4.30am and went home. how stupid would it be for me to let anything romantic start when im leaving in a couple weeks?  yeah but i’ve got a very nice new friend 🙂

today i obviously slept til noon.  got up and went with Anna over to her friend Kim’s here we had too much french dips and french onion soup DELICIOUS! and just the right amount of mimosas yummy too! we all went out for a little while to watch the BSU game, the bar was all folks 60s and over, and with 8 minutes remaining in the first half it was BSU 27-0 yeah… Anna and I bailed. chill evening hanging out, and here we are…
well, im going out to see a band in a bit with my friend Patrick, i think…. so yeah, i know this has been very illuminating and again i was talking about myself too much.  oh and if you were wondering,  the realization (not the first time ive had it btw) came more from the fact that i really don’t know all that much about my new friend… i mean, i know a bit, but not as much as i think he now knows about me. i think the whole answer the same questions about myself day after day thing (part of being a raft guide) gets a person into the habit of babbling on and on about themself.  i really should post some recent pics… perhaps ill put a few up now.. enjoy!

*just putting a couple very recent ones up now, but i’ll go thru and post a link to the entirety of my “VICARIOUSLY THRU ME” artsy series once i get it uploaded to a photo friendly website. i’m over facebook photo uploader freezing nonsense

i will however share with you the chronological progression of an awe-inspiring sunset i watched as i drove across idaho on tuesday.

the cool  yet annoying thing about sunsets is that no matter how incredible they look in the photo, it never comes close to how amazing it was in real life.  none the less, check these out! it was… wow.

these do it no justice i tell you! the sky was ON FIRE!  i would not have been the least bit surprised to find out a volcano had erupted nearby that night.

i pulled over a few times to take pics, that’s how pretty it was, i stretched out the 7 hour drive for it!

I dont know how to blog.
I’ve thought about doing it for a while, its been suggested plenty of times, but I dont know… I just don’t really know what to say.

I carry a little leather book around in my purse, most would call it a journal, but I am REALLY inconsistent when it comes to writing in it. In fact, I’ve carried little notebooks around for years and thats always been the case. i love having one with me, i love knowing that if i have deep thoughts or poetic musings i can write them down in a place where i will be sure to find them later.  but i have this insecurity about actually writing in them. its as if i dont want to ruin the pretty little leather bound book with my innane thoughts and observations. i bought the thing for $0.40 cents WHO fahkin cares? yet still i hesitate to write in it….

So here we are… in a blogspace…. and im already babbling. its not as if i really think many people will read this. i mean certainly some of my friends and family; as they want to be supportive, and also maybe would like some insight into how i, a 27 year old with no specific direction, other than EVERY direction, actually ticks.

So a little background… I am a nomad. Not the i have no home kind of nomad… more the i like to travel and whether i can really afford it or not, im gonna do it… kind of nomad.  I have a home, in mid-western rural suburbia, a fantastic place to grow up or settle down, but at this juncture in my life, i refuse to do either. i mean where’s the fun in that? its too close to the norm.  i have friends and cousins my age and younger, getting married…having kids… and all i can think is, “I’m definitely not old enough for that!!”
My family is absolutely wonderful, i had a great childhood, awesome parents. and the longer i live the way i do, the more my friends who live in similar fashion distance themselves from unaccepting, or maybe just misunderstanding parents, the more i appreciate how accepting and supportive my parents are of my lifestyle and career choices.  i sometimes feel like my mom’s biggest problem with my travels is that i dont leave her grandpuppy with her enough….

How, one may ask, can a nomad have a career? doesn’t that kind of require you stay in one place? generally, yes, but not so much in my case.

 ~ insert bad joke: Q- how do you know there’s a raftguide at the party? A-they’ll tell you.~

Yep. i am a whitewater raft guide. class V in fact, the rivers i run are no joke.  And being as commercial rafting is a seasonal endeavor, it allows me to pursue my other interest on the off season. or i can find a river in another hemisphere to raft for their summer…. (i have yet to do this, but its on the list)
on the off season i try to find something challenging and new…. well at least new…. i have worked as a ballroom dance instructor, a sushi chef, machinist, chocolatier, camp chef at a hunting outfitter… i’ve skipped working all together in order to visit friends and play (this hurts a little financially, but is WAY worth it!)

anyway this blog is a way for me to journal my travels and allow those that know me, and really anyone who’s even vaguely interested to get an idea of what im up to… and see some of my photos.
for anyone who doesn’t know, some of my photos are merely snapshots… but many are from a more artsy perspective, i see things differently than most and i attempt to capture the way i see things and the way a moment feels to me with minimum editing. i may adjust lighting or exposure a bit, or i might tweak the saturation of the color, but i dont cut pictures other that cropping and i dont paste anything into them. eventually i want to be able to sell some of them, whether it be in a gallery or just offline or whatever, so if something catches your eye and you would like a print, we can probably work something out!

so introduction was… long…. but hey if you read fast its not that long! hehehe
I’ve just come from Montana, i spent a month there working as a camp chef at a big game hunting outfitter.
 While there, I lived in a canvas wall tent with a woodfire stove in montana… in november…. it wasnt as rough as it sounds except the part where i had to have breakfast and coffee ready at 5am… but once the hunters left at 6 i just went back to bed so it worked out.  my dog LOVED living at camp, unlimited opportunity to run around, chase squirrels, chipmunks, black angus… yes, cows…. and she got to help me do the dishes, my dog gained weight…  i spent my saturday nights off hanging out with a friend who manages a hostel in town, the free time in the days basically curled up on a sofa in front of a fireplace in a coffeeshop with my computer in my lap, catching up with the world (there was no contact from the outside world in camp)

 Currently, i am in Boise, Idaho for a month. i’ve been here many a time, spent a winter here a couple years ago, ive got alot of friends here, one of who’m ive known since we were 2. This is a really great town with a TON of stuff going on, but it’s physically a very small city. it’s in a valley surrounded by rolling foothills with mountains in the distance. people are generally open and friendly. most people are motivated to go outside and play. there’s more whitewater in this state than anywhere else in the country ( i have yet to paddle any of it…grr)  there is great snow nearby for skiing and snowboarding, hotsprings not too far in a few directions out of town… lots of hiking, biking, etc. there is art and theater, heck, boise even has a ballet, an opera, galleries all over the place… basically, a pretty cool place.  at this point, its my secondary home base.
I’ve just gotten a job, (technically i’m an independent contractor) for a food delivery service, it works with dozens of restaurants in the area, delivering to homes and businesses.    -not so challenging…i know… but i’m leaving for a road trip in a month, and if i get a job with the first interview, im not playing that game anymore. so i win!  hehehe
anyhoo, that starts in a couple days, until then, im wandering about trying not to spend money.  i will (hopefully) get some of my recent pictures up on here in the next few days, with some captions and whatnot… but first i have to figure out how this whole thing works.