Four Corners

I spent most of Labor Day weekend with my best friend Kelley in southern Colorado. The rest of our time was spent here and there- a little in Utah, a little in New Mexico, and a little in Arizona at the Four Corners Monument.

The monument is in Navajo Nation territory and marks the only place in the US where four states share a quadripoint. It's pretty fun to stand on a spot and be in four different states at once.

I had to wait and wait to get this shot of the spot without anyone sitting or standing on the center for pictures. 

This is the seal in the center of the monument, kept shiny by all the bums that sit on it day after day.

Around the center are the four seals of each state.

Surrounding the four corners point are booths where the Navajo people sell interesting hand-made pots, dream-catchers, jade jewelry, knives made of buffalo ribs and the like. Three sides of the monument were FULL of vendors, Utah's side was totally empty. We WERE there on a Sunday, and NOBODY is open in Utah on the Sabbath!

There is a blurb about each state which made for interesting reading on the day, but right now, its a little boring. If you're interested in how each boundary came to be, you'll have to do your own reading. Yay for Wikipedia! Either that or go visit yourself. I don't want to tell you EVERYTHING.

Okay, it is actually pretty interesting. Who were these men, and how did they get their jobs? Why did they accept? What was it like to trek across such empty wilderness?

Here is a view from the monument of the vasty nothingness that is the desert. A place where a person could so easily get completely lost. 

Thank goodness today we have GPS technology so you always know where to go!

And yes, I pooped at the four corners. I think I was in Arizona.

I wish I could do that...

Source: artfulevidence.blogspot.com via Dwynne on Pinterest

I think this is nicely done watercolor project. I have always liked water colors, and always knew there were better ways to used them than I knew how, and much better ways, meaning modern, than to use them for old ideas like these:

Last time I tried to paint was a couple weeks ago, but I got frustrated with my lack of skills and put them away again. I did try tutorials on Youtube, etc. but everyone seemed to only teach how to paint "happy little trees," simple flowers, mountains, water.


Anna once told me that if I looked all over the internet and collected other people's ideas, pretty soon I'd start getting my own ideas. So I shall. After all, the bug to paint will eventually bite me again.

VALIDATION

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/03/spiders-are-scary-its-okay-to-be-afraid.html

My 2nd 30th Birthday

Life usually allots us only one thirtieth birthday, but I stubbornly insisted on having a second one. My first one doesn't count. It stunk. My plans to go up Provo Canyon to see the fall foliage, bbq, etc. flopped when my companions fell ill and cancelled.  I spent the day entirely alone. (This is sad.)  I still went up the canyon, by myself, and drove down to IKEA, by myself, ate there, alone, and selected curtains for my room without the benefit of a second opinion. Here they are:

I think I chose well, for I still like them, and they are a great improvement over the bedsheet I had hanging there for the first couple of months I lived in this room.  Notice, though, the disgusting color of the walls. I have hated it from the beginning. The "accent wall" has GOLD faux paint. Poorly done, I might add, and I've been living with it for too long. So, the problem: what color, out of all the colors out there, would I choose to paint my walls?

I spent months deliberating over these swatches... alone in my room staring at the walls. I finally selected "Serene Plum Grey" and went to Walmart to buy it and left with a gallon of "Dew of Silverberry" instead- I fell in love with it on the spot. Thus the fun begins!

Friday, the day before my second 30th birthday, my new fabulous friend Crystal and her husband Eric came to spend the night and to help me PAINT!!!!

Well, Crystal helped me paint, but Eric pooped out. He fell asleep on my bed while Crystal and I painted into the wee hours... and then we got a little half-hearted about it.

Pictures of the finished project will have to wait... I still have a lot of painting to do.

The next morning was my Re-do 30th Birthday at space camp!

Top Row, left to right: Andre, Dwynne, Heather, Michael, "Weevs," Trent, Natalie, Carlyn
Second Row: James, Megan, Eric, Crystal

Andre and Michael are old friends from CA, Crystal and Weevs also work at Infogenix, I know Carlyn, James and Megan from Minecraft, Natalie and Trent through Crystal, and Heather is Michael's date. A fun group. Everybody totally got into their roles.

Weevs was our Commanding Officer, the Admiral. James was our Captain, the second in Command. Crystal was third as the Exec, then Michael as Security, Megan as his Deputy, then Heather as Surveillance, then ME as Chief of Operations.

We were aboard the Deep Space Station, Magellan, an old Cardassian space station that was captured by the Federation during the war:

At one point during the mission, I found myself commanding on the bridge. Does that tell you how many people died?? A LOT. Then the ship blew up. The crew was supposed to go find a bomb that pirates had planted in the Briefing Room, then take it to the transport pad on Deck 2 so that I could beam it off the ship, but they all kept getting shot before they could find the bomb! We had to do this about three times before they finally got it to the pad and I finally got it beamed into space- and by then, I was alone in the bridge until the others "revived" and came back to join me. There were two objectives, the first was to rescue slaves out of Klingon space and the second was to make it there and back into Federation Territory in one piece. After blowing up three times, we eventually made the jump into hyperspace back to Earth and our time ran out. (2.5 hours in the simulator- not long enough!) We kind of made our objectives.

Michael at his Security Station before the mission began. I wish I had a picture of him gripping his Phaser Rifle- he never let go of it once we discovered pirates aboard. I don't think he shot anyone.

Andre up at Strategic Operations- he requisitioned parts from me all through the mission to build us a cloaking device. I don't think he got to finish it, though. He died a couple times too often.

It's super dark, but here is the crew on the bridge. (I need a real camera!)

We had gigglefits of fun! You can read more about the DSS Magellan here, and about the crew positions here, if you're interested... meaning, if you're as nerdy as me. I have found a new favorite thing to do!

It was a good 30th Birthday Re-do Party.  My twenties are complete. I can move forward now.