High school feeling.

You know when you are in high school and there are parties, and dances and Friday nights out at the football game ? Do you remember that feeling of excited anticipation? Do you remember feeling so lucky that you were able to do this this weekend? and then afterwords you're high on life, completely euphoric? That's how I feel about dancing. :)

Happy ginger.

I wanted to do a quick little blog post as I lay in bed after dancing. Last week and rolled my ankle and was unable to go dancing on the weekend. It was amazingly hard not to do so. While I did have a great time with good friends it wasn't the same as going to dance. Dancing here in Fort Collins is Such a great wonderful outlets for me that I can't even begin to describe it. Not to mention the people. The people I have met through dancing are some of the greatest people I've met in my life. I don't know how it's only been two months since I've met these people. People who have excepted me for who I am and welcomed me with loving arms into their little group. The whole idea of it makes me happy inside and out :)

This is me just after riding my bike home in gorgeous 65 degree weather. 

On a completely different note I must talk about wildlife. Apparently I am afraid of raccoons. I've seen a few lumbering about the town but never any close-up. However I have seen several deer right along the trail and geese and other various waterfowl. However tonight while riding home I was terrified that a raging raccoon would come out of the bushes and attack.  

Am I right?!?

At least it wasn't melting snow or anything....

Oh wait. 

The story of how I lost my phone is really just your typical, girl puts hundred pound dog and her self into a kayak. My day started out wonderfully at 7:30 in the morning. Had breakfast, watched several episodes of "how I met your mother" and relaxed on the couch. About this time the friend that I was texting with, reprimanded me for wasting my day off. Especially with it being such a beautiful sunny day. It was about this time that I decided to take myself, my kayak and my dog upup to Horsetooth reservoir. 

Upon arriving I found a good launch point near the swimming area. There were several other people, as well as dogs so I decided to wrap Eko's leash around my waist and then harness him to me so that I could walk him and carry the kayak at the same time. That's an important detail later in the story when I nearly die. So I get myself and my dog, who is tied to me, in the kayak and begin to paddle out. Eko did a wonderful impression of a good dog for about 25 minutes. We paddled out almost across the lake. I even let him out of his harness. He sat snug between my legs, gently with his paw just outside of the kayak dipping delicately in the water. We were heading back when he decided to drop the act and jump out of the kayak. 

He paddled around nonchalantly for about three minutes before he decided to get back in the boat. This whole time I was paddling, not right next to him but, near him trying to sort of lead him back to shore. So he tried to jump back into the boat. He gets most of the way up and I'm thinking "hey we can do this ,we'll be alright!" and then he gets all of his weight back in, and completely flips us. 

Keep in mind we had a record snowfall this winter, so the water is frigid. My first immediate thought was "crap! flip the kayak back over!" so that's immediately what I do. Then I realize that my phone had been down tucked into my swimsuit so that it wouldn't get wet, and now it's been underwater for about 15 seconds. I grabbed the phone and put it up over my head and simultaneously try to hold on to the boat without letting it roll again. We've been capsized maybe 30 seconds at this point. Eko has had enough. He tries to get in the kayak again. All he manages to actually do, is knock the phone out of my hand and fill the kayak up  with even more water. This is about the point where I scream fuck, panic and seriously think the kayak may sink. Also about this point I realize I'm missing my right shoe. It's gone. Gone forever. My next thought is "shit where my car keys?!" luckily I had them in a buttoned pocket so they were okay. My backpack however which had a notebook, my checkbook, and a couple other random things was completely waterlogged-wet in the kayak, luckily it didn't fall out though. I start to swim back to shore. I'm attempting to push the kayak with my arms and kick with my feet also trying to keep the kayak from sinking because it's so full of water. Remember that little detail I mentioned earlier about theleash being  wrapped around my waist? Well that meant that the tail of the leash kept getting wrapped up in my legs which made it that much harder to swim. Eko repeatedly tried 

to get in the kayak, using me as a ladder. My back and neck and arms are super scratched and the cold just adds to the pain. Eventually I push Him far enough away from me that he gets that he needs to swim on his own back to shore. After I've been swimming about five minutes or so, two guys from the shore notice me struggling out in the water. They start heading out and ask if I'm ok. I told them that I was fine but I was worried about Eko.  He Knows how to swim but he doesn't do it all that often, so I'm worried about him wearing himself out before he gets back to shore. One of the guys tried to get him up on a paddleboard but he wouldn't  have it so eventually the guy just led him back to the shore. The other guy comes out to me he ends up towing my kayak back to the shore, while I swim. It was so cold and my legs are so tired I couldn't even feel them by the time I got there. I profusely thank the guy and then we proceed to empty all of the water out of my kayak. 

Meanwhile Eko, the has made it to the shore and there are two other dogs running around. Knowing his history, I was terrified that he was just going to attack them in an all-out brawl. Much to my surprise he was so relieved to be back on dry land he was playing with them! Once my legs gotten back to their working properties, I kayaked over to where Eko was.  I thanked the guys profusely again and again and again. Since lost one of my shoes in the debacle one of the guys carried the kayak back up to my car for me. And that my friends is how I lost my phone.

Marvelous May!

May has been super fantastic! I found something I that I am absolutely in love with. Dance. While I've always danced, it's mostly been in the comfort of my home. I've found that Fort Collins has a wicked awesome dance scene if you know where to go. So all month I've been doing that. Two or three times a week. It's quite fantastic. Other than that the weather has finally warmed up! I've been attempting to ride my bike to work daily. That doesn't always happen, but when it does I take spring creek trail. Spring Creek bike trail is located through the center of fort Collins going east to west, so I take it for about 1.5 miles west before I head north to work. I get to see some pretty cool stuff on the trail. Sometimes I take pictures and put them up on my Instagram. Some of them have been previously unpublished. These are a just a couple of the locals I've happened upon while riding. Also I did some hiking last weekend, with my new friend Ben. We went up to horsetooth falls and hiked all around. It was pretty swell :)

First snow day!

Today was my first true snow day. Work closed early because of the weather and more importantly icy road conditions. I came home and built a snow fort.

And to think, this only took me about two hours by myself.

My legs were really cold and red after.

Strange things...

Last night I had some very strange dreams. One of them was so frightening that I woke up unable to move for several seconds. I had a dream that the house I was living caught on fire and the police department came to put out. Then they had to test all of our clothing to make sure it wasn't going to catch fire as well, while we were wearing it. So the fire department torched me and of course my pants caught on fire. They immediately put it out but it was terrifying! I woke up completely frozen in place but drenched in sweat. Weird.

Weather Wonders :)

I love and respect the weather. I think that the weather gods know this and take it into account. The day we arrived in Portland it was rainy and beautiful. There was relaxing and napping and reading :) The next day was sunny and gorgeous. Perfect day for the beach. Most of the photos taken on the whole trip were taken on the beach. Oregon beaches are absolutely stunning! I would love to visit in the summer. Of course while along the coast line we decided grilled cheese were in order. And what better place to have grilled cheese than at a cheese factory!!!!! The next two days were, again, sunny and glorious. We walked around downtown and ate scrupmtious foods. Enjoyed life :) At Powells (which is a used bookstore that takes up an entire city block!)They had this cool pillar in the Sci-fi area that sci-fi authors signed. Had to snap a few photos. While I was gone there was supposed to be a big blizzard, here at home. Apparently it never happened. The day I got back, however, it stormed! Well stormy-ish. It snowed all night and in the morning it was beautiful and magical!