Something Worth Living For

Yo, listen up, here's the story about an active girl who lives in a food world. And all day and all night and everything she does is just cook that food inside and outside. Pasta at night and French toast in the morning and lasagna for lunch and everything is food for her and herself and everybody she cooks for 'cause she has got a lot of mouths to feed.

I hope you caught on to the tune that was supposed to go to.

The Nor Cal team left today: Anne, Maria, Katy, John and Tyler (Gryllz). They only left this morning, but I miss them so much already. Here are some things I learned from my new friends:

Anne: It's okay to be hardcore. Anne doesn't stop. At home, you all think I don't stop, that I only have a "Go" button. Anne legitimately does not have a red light. She stays up past midnight and runs at 4:45AM every day. She doesn't just run, she RUNS. All over the place. I feel really lazy when I think of all she does.

Maria: Grace, beauty, simplicity and eco-friendliness. Maria is so strong. Watching her rock climb is amazing. I still remember when Maria and Katy first came to Wyoming; they were so down to earth and fun. Maria works on farms and loves to do random push ups. She is the one person who consistently offers to help in the kitchen. I appreciate her love for nature and her natural strength.

Katy: Down-to-earth, awesome and adorable. Katy and Maria both dance with fire and it is the coolest thing to watch. Check out these photos; she is just spectacular. She is the kind of girl I always wish I had as a friend.

John/ Johan: Intelligence and patience. I will miss John's constant willingness to help out in the kitchen in the morning. He was the first person I saw almost every morning and he always listened to my kiddy jokes and gave me some of his own.

Gryllz: Secrets, secrets are no fun. Oh Gryllz. I will miss that boy so much. I almost cried when I realized he was gone for the summer. I know that's dumb, but there is no one here who makes me laugh as much as he does. He left me a note on the fridge before he left and there is no way that note is being erased!

To send them off, we had two nights out. The first night, we all went to dinner at the Rustic Pine. There were a lot of us there and our waitress was hungover, so our food took awhile. To stay entertained, Colter, Gryllz, Sophie, Kaitlyn and I talked about bugs. Bugs. Wait for it... this story is horrible. It is the story of my terrible idea. Coltor talked about how he used to eat mosquitoes. Gryllz reminisced about eating pennies as a boy. Then the good stuff came. Coltor admitted to eating ants as a child. "They taste like sour patch kids," he said in that surfer accent of his. My eyes widened as I exclaimed, "Free sour patch kids?!" Uhhuh... you might know what comes next. I got out of my seat and started looking on the sidewalk.

"What are you doing," my friends asked.

"Looking for an ant to eat," I responded.

"Don't do it," said Brock.

"Here's one," said Rachel.

"Don't do it," said Sophie.

I did it. So did Rachel. She swallowed. I spit. It tasted like plastic. Not sour patch kids. That was disgusting! What was I thinking?

We finished the night up at the Overlook dancing to Michael Jackson and watching Katy and Maria dance with fire! Nani and I drove home and chatted for another hour before going to bed.

 The next night, we all went line dancing at the Rustic Pine. It was phenomenal! Tucker, Brock, Zito, Rachel, Katy and I sat and watched for a bit, then we all joined in. I'm going to become the best line dancer ever by the end of the summer! It was like the entire town was there last night! It really is the thing to do here. Again, we went to the Overlook, but this time I wasn't feeling up to dancing. My wonderful friend Nani and I chatted the rest of the night. I love this girl. She just brings so much joy to my life. She is so cheerful and hysterical. I'm so glad I know her.

Find something worth dying for then live for it.

What I love about the people here at SOAR is they have something worth dying for and they are living it: LIFE. They are all so passionate, so zealous about what they do for a living.

This past weekend, we all went out to Sinks Canyon to camp. On our way there, we passed a bike race in Lander. Riding in Christy's front seat, my ears perked up like a golden retriever's. "Bike? Bike!" My nose was pressed to the window. "Oooooo, pretty bike..." My eyes were peeled open. This is awesome! Bike race! Bike race! Hip Hip Hooray! I wanted to ride so badly! Soon, my mind was distracted by something else though...

Our first hour at Sinks Canyon, I got to check something off of my bucket list: Rock climbing. I am so excited that I got to climb! To start, I did a 5-6 and loved it so much that I moved up to the 5-7. I asked Jeremy if I could belay him so I could learn, but the entire time we were at the site, I was anxious to try the 5-9, which was the most difficult climb there.

Brock was standing at the pack line looking up at the 5-9.

"You gonna do it," I asked him.

"I'm here. I'll be disappointed in myself if I don't do it," he responded.

He was right and I knew I needed to do it, too. There was no way I was going to leave without getting my turn. I was the last person to climb, but I did it and I made it all the way to the top with Jackson's help belaying me. It was SO fun and now I'm stoked on it! Tucker took pictures, so I'll upload those soon.

That night, I froze my toes off. I couldn't feel them at all the next day, not while repelling, not while hiking, not while driving home... Why oh why must I have Raynaud's disease? But the hike was amazing!! I was in the CD group, so we had to put on scenarios to test the staff members' abilities to handle difficult situations. Since Margot is in a boot, she was a "slow hiker" and I was the "fast hiker". I was supposed to get impatient with her and start grumbling and shoving past people to get to the front. When I did that, no one seemed to notice, so I started yelling to the back of the line, telling her that she was too slow.

"Why are we going so slowly," I whined. "I want to go faster!" Tucker met my eye and the confusion on his face soon disappeared as he realized what was going on. He just smiled and shook his head.

"Margo," I yelled to the back of the line. "Why are you even here?! Why don't you just turn around and go home?"

Margo turned on the waterworks and Maria and Rachel ran to the back to comfort her. Andrew had to deal with me.

My performance was lacking though and I knew it. A few minutes later, John came to the front of the pack and cut in front of me. "Dude, what are you doing," I yelled at him. "I want to be in front!" I shoved him from behind and when Andrew turned to speak with him, I stormed off ahead of the group. Andrew began to run after me; once he caught up, he put his hands on his knees.

"Please hold up," he begged. "I really am out of breath."

"I don't want to go slow. She's so slow. Why did Margo have to come? And I don't want John in front of me. He thinks he's faster than me and that makes me mad. I'm way faster."

Andrew started to console me, "What should you do when you're frustrated  with someone?" Three people started to walk toward us and he stopped talking. "This is awkward," he said. "What if they think we're a couple who walked ahead of the group and is arguing?" We both started cracking up. The rest of the hike, we talked about surfing, Costa Rica, music and more. Andrew is awesome! So is Becca! I am so glad I got to meet them!

The bridge to rock climbing

I may not look warm, but I have five layers on. No joke.

Mackenzie and Birch

Matt and me

The crew

Sit back and enjoy the story of a girl who lives in a kingdom far, far away. A kingdom I like to call "Never Sweat" aka Dubois. This girl likes to ride her bicycle (she likes to ride her bike- thanks Queen), but in the kingdom of Never Sweat, the bike riding is no fun. She has gone on two rides in Never Sweat and on both rides, she has almost been blown off of her bike. Today, she rode ten miles out with the wind to her back on a false flat.

"Wow," she thought. "It took twenty minutes to go ten miles! I'm a stud!"

Then she turned around into the sunset and the wind hit. Oh, yes... that is why it was originally named Never Sweat. People never sweat there because it is SOooooOOOOooooOO windy. The sweat just gets blown off your body. But I finished my ride then lifted weights. I really miss my Pure Awesomeness class. My muscles are shrinking quickly and I'm getting a beer gut. A beer gut! Ewwwww I'm disgusting. Haha.

Oh, last thing... I spent 6 hours at Walmart today. That's two hours less than last week, but still a lot. The people there actually recognize me now. After getting three carts up to the checkout, Sherri started ringing me out. She disappeared for over 20 minutes trying to find dry ice for all of my purchases and when she returned, the order had been cancelled. She had to unbag everything and rescan it all again. Poor woman. That was a long day at Walmart.