el paso-bringing back memories of rigor, and finally being official!

i really shouldn't wait this long, because i lose some of the details in the mix...so, since austin. well..we had el paso, and that was quite a trip. the last time i was in el paso, we were just passing through around 18 years ago (or more?) on our way to juarez for a mission trip with my k-life group...and that was where jeff yelled, "it's rigor! my pet dog!" i looked out the window and saw a dead dog with all four in the air, going through rigor-mortis, and i chuckled...i don't know that any of the high school students got it. so now whenever i hear the word rigor in the education realm, i think of jeff's 'pet dog' on the side of the road and giggle. i'm such a child.

sorry we didn't get to see angelica or claudia; and i even forgot to tell crystal i was going to be in town!

 so yes, we arrived in el paso, and we decided to grab lunch at an authentic syrian restaurant. when we walked in, the ladies who owned the place were sitting around having a gossip-session, watching the news, a couple days after the election. that was special! we sat ourselves, and the lady told us that the boy would be right out. well, the boy arrived and took our order. when he came out with the plate of hummus, etc, he failed to bring extra plates until we were almost done. then when he brought the food out, i didn't receive what i had actually ordered. i ordered a gyro, i got chicken. hmm. oh well, i ate it anyway- and as for the refills-i think they were refilled about 3/4 full. when jane asked for napkins, he brought 1. a single napkin...i guess we were supposed to cut it in half? not sure. but it was obvious he had difficulty with his vision (i don't know how that impacts one to bring a single napkin)...and then we saw the owner bring out a burrito for herself and her friends...i guess you can do what you want when you own the place!

we had to run to make a couple purchases at that point, as it was going to get down into the 50's. jane got a sweatshirt and some warm socks. i purchased some warm socks, as well, because they were pretty nifty. unfortunately i left said socks in jane's car, and we were at different hotels. oops. and when i got up in the morning, it was like 30` out! impossible, i tell ya! we did starbucks for breakfast, and made for the regional center. the contact, claudia, was a doll! we had a great session, and the participants were lovely. they left with a lot of information, and were wanting to stay for the 2nd session, but alas, they could not, so hopefully they will be able to join us in january! jane and i have a pretty good chemistry together and i think the participants appreciate the humor.

because what say's 'let's eat!' more than a fountain with water dribbling from the mouth, and a vividly colored aztec warrior maybe getting ready to paddle his conquest?

i chose to take off that evening, so that i could get home-but since the flight didn't leave until like 7-so we were able to do an early dinner before heading to the airport-the restaurant was lovely, and our waiter spoke to us in spanish, so that's always fun, especially since it was a mexican restaurant. pretty sure there was another issue of napkin trouble...i don't know what it was about el paso...anyhoo, my flight was delayed, so i didn't get home until nearly midnight.

the weekend flew by, and monday we had a training in the fort worth area, so i was up early and when i arrived, deAn was already there! she's great! she has a servant heart and a willingness and desire to be helpful-a true leader! so we met with the contact to start getting the room set up; computer, lighting, sound, etc. this was going to be a full crowd. so we started getting hand-outs handed out, and deAn actually took off to purchase more earbuds, as there weren't enough for everyone (again, full-house). jane did most of the morning and afternoon sessions, as deAn hadn't really had much of a chance to observe her and the way she does stations, so it was another good day, and i was able to be home for dinner-local is nice.

tuesday i finally had my quick interview for my global entry pass-tsa precheck. yes!!! and...i only had one flight left this side of the new year to use it...on thursday to amarillo. the drive there took longer than the interview itself. when i arrived, i had to use the restroom, so i walked in, and there was a man standing at the sink washing his hands. i looked at him, he said, "i think you're in the wrong one." went back, looked at the sign on the door-not transgender, not men's, it was the female restroom..looked at him again on his way out, maybe he wasn't a he...oh no, he was a he, and he looked at the signage on the way out and i heard him say, "oops! sorry!" hmm...chuckle.

breathe a little easier-not as worried about walking super fast toward security in order to beat the security line crowd

in the interview itself. the guys started asking me all about illinois, because i was born there...i really don't remember much, except for my babysitter, her family, some of the church families, going to the arch....yep, that's about it. i was happy to answer any questions i could, because i was now official! i'm a traveler.

coming soon-amarillo and thanksgiving-

have a great week! julie

if i'd had the shooter marbles with me, i would've knocked the slow walkers over!

alrighty then, so wednesday, the girls all left, and it was very lonely going back to the hotel. culture shock...

i'm tellin' ya, it was rough.

 so i took a nap...because that's what you do when you're alone at a hotel in a foreign city. and i looked around and realized that julie k had lost her marbles...not really. she had found some shooter marbles the day before...which was strange, because i didn't know kids still played marbles! so i looked it up, to make sure there wasn't a new game out there, and i saw that kids were actually racking up debts playing marbles and stealing to pay their debts! WHAT?! so i am sending the marbles back to ju, with a warning to not play against those street kids!!

you can't really tell here, because there is nothing to compare it to, but they are bigger than they look.

so, back to the hotel...i got a text from jane, who was going to be doing the TX Success training with me the following day, and we met for dinner. she found a place that sounded pretty good, so we met there (it was about a half hour away from me, but the drive was good, so not a big deal). they had these special kosher hot dogs- a special for the big game! so i got the cleveland (not to support them, it just sounded more appetizing), and it was pretty delicious. we had great conversation, and it was decided that since it was such a small group, i would do most of the morning presentation-as far as the power point went.

we ate outside, because it was such a beautiful evening (and it was freezing inside!)

got back to the hotel, and watched the remainder of the game, which kept me up later than usual, as you all know. but i was vested now, in cheering for the cubs for julie's sake! what a nail-biter!! go team!

the next morning, getting up was a beast, but it had to be done! the regional center there is beautiful! the morning went off pretty much without a hitch. jane jumped in to add whatever additional points were necessary-i'm sure it won't be long until i hit them all, and she can just take a nap during that section...they did learn some new things, though, so that was good! and then in the afternoon it was even a smaller group, so it was like a round-table session. good times!

we went to the little heb for lunchy-type things, and i swear, on the way out, i don't know what people were doing, but they were in my way, and it drove me crazy! i mean to tell you, if we'd been walking any more slowly, i feel my blood would've coagulated...people walking slowly, me trying to maneuver around them without being rude, and saying something-pursing my lips together so tightly i think they may have lost all color-jane observing this, almost laughed, as they would start to move, then stop, then zig when i was trying to zag...it was almost as if they were doing it on purpose! oh. my. this is when my patience wears thin. and for real, heb, why you gotta' make your entrance/exit like a funnel? #notcool

once the training was over, and questions were answered, we bid each other farewell, and i drove back to dallas-and it was raining. most of the way, it was raining. traffic in construction + rain= exhausting drive.

but i had time to recuperate, so no worries. i did have to go in to the office to make more copies, but apart from that, i was home. and home is good. i don't think i did anything of consequence over the next few days. i mean there was this election thing, but apart from that...

up next, el paso!
night!
julie

utah, wow! you impressive beast-of-a-state, you!

it's still hard to gauge exactly how much time i'll need to get to the airport and get to my gate at a decent time. i think part of this stems from having worked for the airlines; the other part is that nagging necessity to be punctual (OVERLY punctual). flying out on tuesday was no exception.

i opted for extra space and chose an exit row window...my mistake was that this aircraft had 2 exit rows, and i sat in the fwd, which means that my seat did not recline. add to that the fact that i chose the wrong side...i missed the great view as we were drawing closer to vegas. oof. the only positive was that the flight attendant had slid into our row to get out of the way of those boarding, which saved us from having a middle seat occupant...thank you, flight attendant! so i re-positioned when we got to LAS.

salt deposits creating a beautiful landscape flying into slc

bacon and letter writing-bacon goes with everything!

 jane picked me up at the slc airport and we were off...to the doctor. she wasn't feeling so great, so we stopped into the one-stop-shop-doc-in-a-box and after she diagnosed herself and told the doc what she needed, he wrote up a script and sent us on our way. while there, i noticed that they had a special little corner set up under the t.v., which was a little awkward...not sure why it was set up like this-time out box-like in hockey a penalty box, perhaps? (no one puts baby in the corner came to mind)...or maybe a privacy area for breast feeding, but that would be counter-productive, as the t.v. was right there..terrible designing of space... much of my wait was spent analyzing this, and feeling sorry for the lady who had just filled out her paperwork and told them she'd hurt herself on the job-she didn't want to fill out workman's comp (as it was a brand new job for her), but legally they had to file it that way because she'd mentioned it, so she had to redo paperwork..boo. anyhoo...

after stopping at the pharmacy which google maps told us was in the parking lot (unless it was a superhero thing, like wonder woman's jet, that info was incorrect-so we went into target). from there, we grabbed lunch, because it was about a 2 hour drive to our hotel, through the mountains. getting to the little burger joint was a mini adventure as we missed the turn and had to make a loop. and we were on the road-one annoying thing is billboards of ears. everywhere-with no real advertisement...not sure if it was an ear doctor, plastic surgeon for ears...man who listens well..still don't know exactly, but there were at least 10 of these things littering our viewing pleasure. the mountains changed with every turn as far as the flora (0 fauna in sight). 

upon arrival, i will rarely turn down the opportunity to take a nap! (one of my super powers). at the appropriate time, we reconvened for dinner and asked the receptionist for suggestions, to which she excitedly suggested groggs. so we were off to helper, ut about 5 minutes away to check out groggs pinnacle brewing company (the view is nothing like what is shown...when i think pinnacle, i think highest point, right? nope. pretty flat and routine). and we were very excited about the spinach dip...then it arrived. the food-ok. i think jane enjoyed her salad more than i enjoyed the philly...i need to stop expecting my philly to compare to the one i had in kc so many years ago! that said, she may not have enjoyed the salad so much, had she poured the "bleu cheese dressing" all over it...mayonaise. it was a ramekin of mayo...miracle whip even...(the cooks were probably thinking..."hmm, we don't have bleu cheese, this is the closest thing we got...they'll never know!) anyhoo, they did have the coolest jugs, because the history of the place is that they used to actually be a brewery as well.

definitely a 'locals' joint! 

spinach dip? dip with spinach on it...on bread. lori said it best in a fb comment: looks legit.

great souvenirs, but i've cut back on purchasing things b/c they end up at goodwill; pics will suffice

afterward, it was too early to go back, so we explored the area of price. price seemed to be an old mining town. one of the first things that caught my eye as we drove under the quaint little bridge and around a small hill. it was a backyard that screamed "child predator!" you know, the overgrown weed-look, with a couple of old ice cream trucks (the real deal, with the music and all)...i half expected a clown to show up in the door and wave us in...then we came across this gem, which perhaps really made great shaved ice, it was just the sketchiness of where it was.

there were ample mexican restaurants in town-which was surprising, we didn't realize that there was such a presence of hispanics in this area. i wish i'd gotten a good pic of the downtown area, because it was really a great backdrop-beautiful old town feel! ancient everything. there was an original jc pennys, the theaters, it was pretty cool-here's a link if you want to see what it really looked like! once it got dark, we went back to the hotel to get our rest.

the following morning, thankfully jane was feeling better, the meds were working, and our training was a little later, so we grabbed brunch at the local diner we'd seen the night before. there was only one lady manning the entire place, which was hoppin', and mostly men. we shared breakfast foods-each getting what we needed to survive the day! then we made our drive to huntington. it was an easy little drive and once we arrived, the streets were super wide. apparently, from what i just read, the roads were designed this way back in the day to be wide enough to turn a team of oxen around.

once again, a training success, and it was fun watching aha lights, and teachers that looked like they were seeing and learning something that would be a valuable tool to them in the classroom. love it. i think they really got a lot out of the hands-on portion and working through the different segments they'd be using. in huntington, they only have half days on wednesdays due to their bus schedules. so by the time we finished, the teachers were ready to jet.

and as soon as we were done, we decided to be adventurous. we drove another 2 hours south to moab, to see the arches national park. we were very fortunate to arrive after the ticket-takers had already left for the day, so we didn't have to pay the entrance fee. but we stopped into the visitors station and purchased the national parks passport, as it is the 100th anniversary!

then we talked to the ranger, and asked her what would be easy to do in the amount of time we had before it got too dark. she pointed a couple things out on the map, and once again we were off to the races. first up, balanced rock-such neat formations! i loved teaching about the erosion and weathering with my fourth grade class, so this was fascinating to me! there were some formations that would be exhilarating to climb! then we returned to the car and headed for the arches. i didn't look at the map again to see what the lady had circled, so we went into the parking and started out on our little hike up to the delicate arch...there was some steepness, it was a pretty good little hike...there were parts i would've loved to 'trail-run', and at the time we were there, the trail itself wasn't too busy. i probably should've warned jane that i'm so used to trying to keep pace with shea and the kampers when we'd go on trip at k2, that i was used to being challenged. we did stop a couple of times to 'enjoy the scenery' (cough). at one point there was this older gentleman who appeared out of nowhere with work-type clothing, and kinda a red-flag; jane was in one area and i was on the other, and this one, he was a strange cookie. not sure if he made it or not, but it seemed like something out of 48 hours... i'm fairly certain that had i said "we're almost there" one more time, it would've been etched into jane's memory forever (i'm the we're-almost-there-gal) GO HARD OR GO HOME!! but truly, had it been easier to arrive, it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable nor enjoyable. the way it should be, the best things in life make you appreciate the journey!

the pictures speak for themselves-the majesty...

you would think that going back down would be easier, but the truth is, going down is just not great on the ankles, knees or back. it was a beating- i'd rather go uphill any day. we did arrive at the parking lot by dark and at this point, we hadn't eaten since brunch, and it was about 8:00, so we went into moab, as there was nothing on the way back to the hotel. so after getting moab, ut t-shirts (jane is starting a collection, and me, well, i needed something to wear on the way home!) afterward, we stopped at moab brewery (you'd think all they did around here was brew!) but the meal-i tried the jamaican burger, still trying to match up to the sweet/savory burger i had back in miami at kush! it was good, but not a match for kush's guava burger!!

i drove back that night, and jane kept us busy by googling to entertain us. we learned that the area was rich in uranium, there is a bacteria that makes the rocks look green, the difference between a mile and a nautical mile, and that nautical miles have something to do meridians-and to really understand this nautical mile thing, you have to go back to some geometrical understanding (not good, as the only reason i passed geometry was that ms. fasquelle probably felt sorry for me or was amused by the equations i used to somehow make connections), the etymology of the mile is roman, feet, acres, all goes back to the furlong and how far an ox can plow without resting. p.s. from now on, anyone traveling with me may now hear me referring to distances in furlongs-prepare yourselves! 

we got back to the hotel sometime after midnight. completely worth it!! i emptied my shoes out-sand from the hike, and was too tired to shower. so i woke up early the following morning to shower right before we were to take of for slc to fly out. the problem with doing this is that i had to straighten my hair, which leads to having to cool the iron down quickly enough in order to pack it up without my carry-on smoking and going up in flames. so there was this effort:

the trip home was uneventful through denver and (as always) it was great to be home again.

julie