Wyoming... Pt. 3- How Could it Get any Worse??

I woke up at 5am to elephants stomping around in the room above me... wait, I guess they weren’t elephants, so I suppose it had to be 3-5 sumo wrestlers in the room walking around oh so gingerly. After fighting the urge to get a stick and bang on my ceiling (where was I going to get a stick?) I put a pillow over my head and got another 20 minutes of sleep before my alarm went off and I had to get up and ready for a 7am departure to Pinedale... oh what fun. The drive, like before, was boring and long and I ate sunflower seeds the whole time just to keep me occupied and give me something to keep me awake.

Upon arrival McD told me that she would be sending CoPilot with me to do a large area assigned to me in case I needed help. Awesome! I wouldn’t have to go it alone... little did I know that had I been alone, I probably would never had made it back alive!

CoPilot and me set off in my car (with me driving and him earning his name CoPilot). The area we were doing was about 10-15 minutes back the direction that we just came from, so we set off, enjoying the fact that we had someone to talk to besides our imaginary friends. CP told me when to turn off the main road and this is when we got our first look at our new area... it was huge... and as soon as you got off the main road ALL the roads were unkempt dirt roads. Remember what car I got from the rental place?



We threw ourselves into work and found that this wasn’t going to cut us any breaks at all. CP did the first block while I drove, stopping in front of each house, which went well. I did the next block (so that we got even numbers between us) and as I was driving down the road I asked “Is that a fence in the middle of the road?” Yes, indeed it was. Someone had decided, HEY a fence would go great here! and built said fence right through the road. Turning around was the big problem and we ended up going through the weeds and dirt to get to a driveway that would take up back to the road... Don’t mind us folks! We’re from the government!

Fast forward to after lunch. We are hot and dirty and have come across more roads that don’t exist or don’t connect than we can count. We are constantly editing the maps and roads. CP was doing a block and we came to a particularly bad spot in the road where the bottom of the car kept making these fun crunchy noises as it scraped on the dirt from the ruts. I turned the car so that we could finish the block and shortly after I brought the car to a hault... this is what I saw...



That’s right. There in front of us about 3 feet was the road we were trying to get to and between it and us was a ditch about 3 feet deep. CP and I sat there just saying over and over, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME??” “REALLY?” There was no way to get to the road by this way and the road was so narrow that CP had to get out and help me turn the car around without falling off the road.

Once we were out of that...

In one certain area there were no numbers on the houses except for the first one on the road so we had to guess what the other ones were... #50... the next one should be 52, the next should be 54... oh there’s a house down here with a number... #66?? Well that is the opposite of helpful... CP and I looked at each other... fuck it... go with it.

One thing that kind freaked us out all day was all the white pickup trucks that we saw. I mean they are EVERYWHERE! If you live in Wyoming for so long do they give you a white truck as a prize for surviving hell? That would be the only explaination why people stuck around...

They liked to look meanly at us as they drove by in their huge trucks, spewing dust and exhaust into the air. Don’t mind us, this is just your tax dollars hard at work....

As the day progressed we swore a LOT more often and a LOT louder. Especially when we came upon roads like this that were completely unpassable.


How do people even live here???

At one point we ran into our ACL Sandwich... wha? We pulled along side each other and asked “What are you doing here?” The first thing out of his mouth was “This fucking sucks!”. Our sentiments exactly. Turns out that he had the outside of this hell hole while we had the inside area. Something that really was upsetting though was that we overlapped and that shouldn’t happen EVER. We went our separtate ways and CP and I felt bad for Sandwich because he had to go it alone... and then we realized that he had an SUV and we had and Aveo... the sympathy stopped right there.

We were to meet the rest of our crew at 5:30 and around ten till 5 we were getting close to finishing our last block. It was a biggie and giving us all the same problems that we were having with previous blocks (roads to nowhere or that don’t exist). We were coming up to a road and turning right when I looked to the left and said to CP “That kid is pointing a gun at us... ... That kid is really pointing a gun at us!!” Next thing we knew there was a loud PING on my side of the car. I immediately stopped and CP and I got out to look at the car. There wasn’t any damage but when we turned to look for the kid he was headed off on his bike. Since we were running so close to the deadline we decided to continue on since there was no damage to the car(at least not from the BB gun.)

We pulled in front of a large house and as we were trying to figure out what the address was a man came out and we explained who we were and why we were sitting in front of his house. He was really nice (which is kinda a shocker when that happens) and we got the info we needed from him. He told us that if we go up this little dive next to his house it would be easier to turn around up there than in his driveway. Wow... thank you! so up the little drive sure enough was a large flat area for us to turn around which I did and then headed back down the drive... for a second anyway... until the passanger front wheel slipped off the road and we were successfully in a ditch not going anywhere! SHIT!! Luckily, like I said before, this guy was super nice and when he heard the commotion he came out and got his truck and a chain and pulled us out. I sat in the car and manned the controls...



As you can see, I’m working hard.

After this fiasco we said fuck it all and went to the meeting place... but not before stopping to get beer to take back to the hotel so that we wouldn’t have to run out later.

At the meeting place we found out that we were going to leave some of the cars there and carpool back to Rock Springs!! Yay! Me and CP went with Sandwich and was that a fun ride! We swore and told horror stories about our areas all the way back. By the end of the trip I had successfully lost my voice and was hacking up a storm. Very lady like.

As soon as I got back to the hotel I took a shower and changed into some nice clean clothes! Plans were that everyone was coming back to my room to watch the Nuggets game and drink beer. My mini fridge was stocked and we ordered pizza. The end of the day was fun, chilling with all my co-workers, drinking beer and eating pizza. There was plenty of swearing and telling of stories. I was just happy to not be driving on dirt roads any more.

The Nuggets won and the night ended. Could tomorrow possibly be any worse???

NOT the same shit!!!

So these past few days have been GOOD to me!!

Thursday night I went to the Nuggets game and ended up winning the King Soopers gift card by playing Price Is Right AGAIN! That's right, another $100 of free groceries! The game went into overtime and we won in a very exciting finale. It was the first game I've ever seen go into overtime in person, so I was pretty amped. The game was televised so it didn't even start until 8:30pm. Needless to say, by the time I got home I was exhausted!

Friday while at work, I got a call to interview for a new job!! It's a phone interview first and then, if they like me, I'll go on for a face to face interview. It would be more pay and that would be a very very good thing.

Finally, and this is the MOST exciting part, yesterday I found out my roommates are moving out!!! The one across the hall in the master bedroom, is moving out at the end of the month and I'm moving into his room!! I'll have a room twice the size I have now, my own bathroom, a walk in closet and my own little balcolny! I'm rediculously excited! The other roommate, who I currently share a nasty bathroom with, is leaving as soon as he can find someone to take over his lease. If he can't find someone, he'll be leaving the 15th of June (beware the ides of June.....!! lol). I can't wait to not share a bathroom with him. It's pretty bad when you have to put a post-it note up on the door frame that says "Please Flush" so that he remembers to do so... what is he like 5 years old??? Anyway... I won't have to deal with that anymore!

The best part is, my rent is going up $25 since I'll have the master bedroom, but if I get this new job, $25 isn't nearly what I would be paying if I moved out and found a place by myself. This way, I'll be able to SAVE some money instead of living paycheck to paycheck. I'll be able to save for a while and when my lease is up, then I'll be able to move out on my own with a cushion :).

I hope I get this new job, for real real, not for play play.

On another note, my dad ran the Arizona Rock and Roll Marathon today!! He finished in 4:12: 18. Good job Dad!!! He wanted to finish in under 4 hours, but HELLO!! he ran a whole marathon, I think that's awesome enough!

Well I'm off to do some errands and then to the chuch to help set up some lights. After that football and chillin!

That's from last week... not bad eh?

Slice like a ninja, Cut like a razor blade...

My Vanilla Ice video... yes, that's right, I said VANILLA ICE ICE BABY!

In case you want to sing along, here are the lyrics

VANILLA ICE

You Bitch....

Amy, that bitch of a friend, decided to put me on her tag list... damn it all to hell... now I have to follow through because I'm no cock tease!

5 things to do on my list

1. Pay off my bills and start saving!
2. Break my lease and move out. My roommates are assholes!!
   
3. Buy a planner. I didn't think of this because I went to a 4 hour time management class either.... I really just want/need one.
   
4. Call Andrew
   
5. Find a new job... my life kinda sucks...

5 things i like to snack on

1. Popcorn! (movie theatre variety... like real movie theatre, not that boxed shit)
2. Martin's Potato Chips... damn I miss south central PA
   
3. Doritos... I always forget how much I like them until I have one... and by one I mean 20.
   
4. Cheese... I'm lactose intolerant and I love cheese like nothing else... figure that one out!
   
5. Pretzels... call me lame but a good pretzel with some cheese dip is AWESOME!
   

5 things I would do if i was a millionaire

1. Pay off EVERYTHING (all loans, debts, etc) for me and AMY!
   
2. Create college funds for my sister's 5 children!! Harlan, Myles, Hollis, Elden, and Carter!
   
3. Create something really special for my parents. They can afford to go anywhere they want, but I would make or send them someplace someplace really special that they never thought of.
   
4. Figure out how to send my sister and brother-in-law on a trip with just the two of them. Between Patrick's family and mine I'm sure we could get the kids taken care of!
   
5. Buy a house in downtown Denver. I love it here... it would be nice to have a great house to live in.
   

5 places I have lived

1. York PA
   
2. Beverly, MA
   
3. Hawaii (I was on a cruise ship on all major islands weekly)
   
4. Hershey, PA (yes where the chocolate factory is!)
   
5. Denver, CO!
   

5 jobs I've had

1. Record jockey at Camelot Music
2. Seamstress and all around lackey for the Millersville University Costume Shop
   
3. Production Assistant at North Shore Music Theater
   
4. Stage Manager at Hershey Park Entertainment
   
5. Production Admin. Assistant/Sales at the Opera Shop.

5 people I'm tagging

I don't really have anyone to tag... I'm pathetic I know... The only blogging person I know that actually reads my blog with any regularity is Amy... and she tagged me so that doesn't really work out. Maybe Courtney will do it as an email or something... we are often bored at work with nothing to do :)

GO NUGGETS!

PS~It was 80degrees here this afternoon... I *heart* global warming :)

How you have a 5 day weekend...

Weekend Rewind

Welcome to Monday where the kids go back to school and you go back to hell… er… I mean work.



My weekend started Wednesday night. I was pretty tired after work so I went home, laid down and was relaxing when Ben called and told me to go get Kimberly (who just go into town) and come down to Micha’s bar and hang out with him and Jordan and Travis. Ok… So I called Kimberly and took a shower (not at the same time of course) and started my hour+ drive from home to Arvada to south Denver. When we finally got there we were just in time to take a few shots and then head down town to Earl’s and meet up with some other ship people. At this count we have Me, Kimberly, Ben, Micha, Jordan and Travis from the ship together… you already know this is going to get bad. At Earl’s we meet up with 3 other girls who were on the ship (who I never knew) and Brian. This now adds up to 10 ship people all together drinking… help us all. So far I’ve had 3 shots. After leaving Earls I’ve had an additional cosmo, mixed misc. drink, and a glass of champagne. We head over to The Front Porch which was packed so we went across the street to 5degress where I tacked on a beer, a Captain and coke and a plain rum and coke… oh yeah, and I haven’t eaten since 4 in the afternoon. It’s now about midnight. Yay me. At some point I didn’t know where everyone was so I went outside to see if they were smoking. Nope, they weren’t so I go to head back inside and the bouncers wouldn’t let me back in!! I can only imagine it was because I was VERY visibly intoxicated. Next thing I remember is sitting on the sidewalk against a brick pillar of some sort leaning to the side and puking my guts out. I also remember thinking “if I open my eyes I am going to die”. Somehow we got into a cab and went home… WAIT… My car is still downtown!! SHIT! Well that was taken care of for me, Kimberly turned into the DD and took care of my car and all misc. drunk people for me. Ben remembered not only to set the alarm for me, but that I had to work the opening shift instead of my regular shift. There was no denying I had a wicked hangover from anyone at work. Kimberly brought me my car in the afternoon and I hugged her and told her thank you many many times in the parking lot. What a great friend!!



Whew… so that was Wednesday…

Thursday I went to the Av’s game with Steph and had a great time but did NO drinking!! I had some lemonade and a terrible pretzel and the Av’s lost pretty bad.

Friday was pretty awesome. I left work and went to Ben’s to meet him and Jordan. We hopped on the Light Rail and went to Pat’s for some wings and happy hour drinks (yes, after getting hammered on Thursday I was back at it by Friday). Yum, wings and Tastekakes!! We had tickets to the Nuggets game so around 8 (it was an 8:30) game, we went over to the Pepsi Center for the game. It was Chauncy Billips’ first game back in Denver as a Nugget so the place was alive with excitement for our hometown hero’s return! I went to the Altitude store and bought a big foam Nuggets paw to wave during the game. I sat next to Thomas and Casper, his friend, Ben and Jordan sat behind me. I was, of course, ready the whole time for the picking of the Price Is Right contestant of the game. For those of you unfamiliar with the Price Is Right game at the Pepsi Center quick explanation: during the first half (or first period for hockey) they say “who wants to be on the Price is Right? Show us your King Soopers club card and you could be our next contestant!” Then you have to jump up and down waving your card and if they put you on the jumbotron (spell check doesn’t know the word jumbotron??) and flash “WINNER” under you then you get to play! So then they take you to the top of the section you are in and you get to play high low for a $100 King Sooper’s gift card. Well, when they asked to see the club cards I jumped up and waved my card and my big foam paw like my life depended on it… and you know what… I got picked!! My dream was coming true, but then again, I had to actually play the game while on the jumbotron in order to win the gift card!! I was really nervous for some reason, probably because I didn’t want to be the idiot that can’t win high low. Well, not to worry, I got through and WON!!! I was so excited I hopped up and down all the way to my seat! To add even more excitement, the game was super close but we were nailing the free throws and came out to win in the end! GO NUGGETS!!! After the game we went to the bar and drank until they closed and we had the lights turned up on us.

Saturday morning I had to go to work for our workshop but it was really interesting and I had a good time. After taking a quick nap I went over to Ben’s to watch some college football with him and Jordan. Jordan wanted fried chicken so we went to the only place we would take someone who wants fried chicken, Rocky Mountain Diner. They have the best chicken and gravy and mashed potatoes in the whole world!!! NOMS! Once we got home it was a night of Mario Kart and Lethal Weapon. Bed was much needed that night.

Yesterday we took Jordan to ESPN Zone downtown to watch football all day. We got there at 10am and that’s when the drinking started. I paced myself because 1) It was 10am… hello! 2) If I was going to be drinking all day I needed to keep it slow, and 3) I can’t afford to drink for that long strait!! I got really tired and cranky around 2 ish and decided to go home. I went to bed around 4 and woke up at 730 feeling like shit. There’s a sickness going around work and I got it. I was feverish all night and I think I finally fell back to sleep around 11pm after tossing and turning and putting the covers on, taking them off, pulling them on, throwing them off…. Etc….

Today…well today, back to the grind for me. I’m tired and achy but I’m still going out tonight to see Kimberly before she leaves to go back home. We are just going to grab some sushi and a drink or two and call it a night, I just can’t get wasted on a Monday… not this week anyway!!



So that’s that. I know this was long but it was a pretty interesting last couple of days and thought I would share.



PEACE!

My year in review....

You may be saying to yourself, Taylor, it's not the new year yet, how could you possibly do a year in review?? Well my uninformed friend, yesterday marked my one year anniversary since I packed up 2 suitcases and moved to Colorado. What a year it's been! I can't believe how fast it went. In this time I've had 4 jobs (one temporary, 2 part time, one full time), bought a car, moved twice (within Boulder and then to Westminster), had countless visitors come to see me, and have totally lived up my fair share of free tickets to events through my work.

I've kept all my ticket stubs in my checkbook since I've moved here... I've taken them out today to start over, let's see how many I've accumulated!

Colorado Rapids (soccer)- 5
Colorado Avalanche (hockey)- 10
Denver Nuggets (basketball)- 13
Colorado Rockies (baseball)- 10
Colorado Mammoth (lacrosse)- 1
Concerts and shows - 10 + both days of the Mile High Music Festival
Avenue Q
John Mellencamp
Eddie Izzard
Blues Traveler/Live/Collective Soul
Sheryl Crow
The Peking Acrobats
Bon Jovi
Billy Joel
Van Halen
The Nutcracker

If you're adding all this up, that equals 51 days of events! That's one for every week I've been here... well minus one, unless you include the Av's game I'm going to tonight! Yay! I think that's pretty impressive especially if you consider that all of the Nuggets, Av's, Rapids and Mammoth games were FREE!!

Anyway... everyone at work is at the LDI convention in Las Vegas except me, the shop guys, and the ladies in accounting. LAME! This morning and early afternoon have been pretty crazy for us but I don't mind. What I hate is the fact that I was invited to go in March and then I was told that I wasn't going! What a bunch of shit. Pair that with evyerthing else that's been going on here lately and if I didn't know better......

Hey everyone look!! We got grapefruits at work today!! Thanks Uncle Stan for getting us fruits that are completely impractical to eat at your desk... or anywhere that doesn't have extensive knifeware for that matter!! See our office gets a new fruit every Wednesday during the month of October. Peaches, Pears, bannanas, now grapefruits... we were doing ok until now. What's next week Uncle Stan... whole pineapples??!? Honestly...

.

And another one bites the dust hey hey...

So that's 9 employees that have quit OS in the 9 months I've been there. Averaging one a month, way to go! Shouldn't someone, somewhere, in upper-management land be asking some questions?? Like, why are people who have been there for 20+ years leaving all of a sudden?? Why does a company of just 18 employees turn over completely in just over a year? I know that answer!!! Geez, seriously, why isn't anyone curious or puzzled by why we keep bringing in new employees but our business isn't growing?? Who knows, Maybe that person quit too....

Riddle me this... my computer automatically spell checks everything I type no matter where I type it which is pretty cool. However, when I write in this blog it suddenly doesn't understand contractions... If I'm in a word document or an email, it doesn't yell about contractions at all... strange things are happening.

So it's official... well, several things:

~The RED SOX are going to the division finals~

~I'm registered to vote in Colorado~

~I have a COLORADO license now! (my first one outside of PA)~

~Free pitchers of beer aren't always the blessing they seem~

~Mashed potatoes from the KFC are always good, no matter what~

Hockey season officially starts this week!! Horray!! I'm pretty sure I'm going to get to go to the Av's opener but it's not official yet. Pre-season basketball starts this week so I'm pretty amped at seeing Rocky (the Nugget's mascot) back for more fun filled antics! Oh yeah, and the basketball game or whatever...


I was talking to my mom and dad tonight and was bitching about my job. I think mom finally gets it that it's not just me that hates it there once I told her my boss just quit. Mom says "why don't you just quit?" Don't get me wrong, I love my mom to death, but she doesn't quite understand what it's like now a days only making 18k a year... It doesn't seem to go very far after rent, car, gas, groceries... you know, the things you need on a daily basis. I told her that wouldn't be a very smart idea, she agreed but encouraged me to keep looking... don't worry Ma, I'm looking every single day... every fucking day. It's like a bad habit.

Hey, maybe now that I'm back to blogging I'll bring back weekly cheers and jeers... that'll be fun!! Maybe next time... I'm due for some much needed sleep!

Until next time my friends...