new spaces new places familiar faces-- i choose black ooze are peculiar clues

since when do i take nearly a week to update? well, since i've been working a ton... including a 14 hour day on saturday. sorry for the lack of new content, but i am positive this post will make up for it... lots of pics, a new adventure, and a work story.
i'll start with the work story.
i work the zip line a lot and often find myself at the bottom of the zip working the dismount (person zips down, put up the huge ladder, climb up ladder, clip and unclip a bunch of things, climb down the ladder, put down the ladder, repeat). doing six hours of that in a row can start to take its toll. so, the other day, two kids--aged 4 and 10-- decided to sit at the bottom with me and watch the zippers from there. long story short, as i was waiting to give the go-ahead for the next zipper, the two kids decided to each take hold of one of my pant-legs and pull in the direction that gravity tends to pull. luckily i've got reflexes like a cat and a grip that tarzan would be proud of, so my shorts didn't make the journey toward the ground. but seriously, since when do i have to beware of pantsing predators?
next is very exciting... i made another trip to the thrift store to buy random cheap stuff that would add a bit of color and a personal touch to my newly re-arranged room. re-arranging and decorating has made my room quite the pleasant haven (trust me, after 10 hours of being out in the sun, a nap in my "cave" is a lot more desirable than most would think) so the pictures go as follows: view from through the door--wall to the right after walking in--wall to the left after walking in-- and wall that the door is on. any sort of color was a purchase from the thrift store... pillow, wooden blocks with "laugh often" spray painted on them, blanket, beach mat... speaking of beach mat...



the beach mat is my favorite thing... i hung it up on the wall, and used it to display some pictures. this decoration probably made me happiest.

next is from today... a group of 5 of us took an adventure to denver. it was amazing getting out of SMR for a day... such a refreshing thing. we went downtown, and our first stop was the denver REI. let me make it clear to you how i feel about the denver REI.
FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that's it in a nutshell... more or less. but this rei could eat the manhattan beach, santa monica, huntigton beach, and santa ana REIs and still have room for dessert. i'm considering nominating it to be the 8th wonder of the world. three stories high, at least a football field long (i'm pretty sure it's more), a starbucks, a massive climbing wall, and a river out back to have kayaking tests and clinics. it has its own parking garage, a waterfall, and a bouldering area out front. let me repeat:
FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so here are a couple of pics of REI and downtown denver.



this made me super happy... when the rest of the group went to see a movie, i got to meet up with my friend michelle from calvin, who lives in denver... so much fun, and it was SO great to see a familiar face... SO good. we went to this sweet coffee shop called stellas and just sat and chatted for a while. so great. turns out that there is a train that goes from fraser (a town 10 miles away) to denver, so i'll get to see her again sometime soon.

and to finish the post off, i've got a little treat: 5 signs of an outdoor educator
5. dirt on the hands and under the fingernails... permanently. no measure of soap and no amount of effort will remove all the dirt until removed from the outdoor setting for at least a week.
4. harness worn in the office--because only an outdoor ed-er finds harnesses so comfortable that they've forgotten it was on.
3. beat-up nalgene and a granola-y snack on hand during breaks.
2. ability to engage even the moodiest teenagers in a round of campfire songs
1. [extreme] tan lines as follows: v-neck and sleeves from staff polos, ankles and mid-thigh from longer shorts and appropriate active footwear, 'coon eyes from sunglasses worn endlessly for hours on end in the sun every single day.

thanks for reading... have a most wonderful day.