Sunday, October 25, 2009

Details

Wow, it has been two months since I posted last. I hope that gives you an indication of what the teaching world has been like so far. Yet, here on the quintessential lazy Sunday, I feel the nerve to do not much of anything, and be guilty for it too.

I left you with a summarizing of my trip over the summer. Now, as epic as that trip was, it was captured in many photos, maybe not reducing the need to relive it though words, but for time constraints and the mere elapse of time, many an event has taken place since August 15th.

The trip, to circumnavigate detail, was awesome. I saw a lot of this country and the areas that it is trying to preserve, that being much of the west and the country's national parks. Hoping along though central New York, around (and into) the Great Lakes then making a quick stop in good ole' Green Bay. From there, busting through Wisconsin, making an epic stop in Minneapolis for one night only, and then crashing into the Bad Lands of South Dakota at twilight was unforgettable, not to mention the lightning storm I was caught in camping out in the open prairie. I awoke in a dazed fury, hit in the face by rain and threw the tent in the front of my car, and before the wind blew me over, I crawled into the back seat and slept...uncomfortably.

From there, it was a national park parade. Badlands to the Crazy Horse monument, which was actually crazy...no really, look it up. Then onto the town of Deadwood, S.D. where I met some very lovely and accommodating ladies (I'll leave your thoughts to your thoughts, though all was kosher, I promise). After paying my respects to Wild Bill and Calamity Jane, though I stayed in there preferred hotel room (Where they got on their....business time) that evening, I moved onto Mt. Rushmore...wahoo.. and then over to wind cave national park, which is 150 or so miles of underground tunnel wahoo!! for reals.

After emerging from the cold caverns of the Earth, and then should have been gorged by a Buffalo, I cruised through southeastern Wyoming (where I saw a sign for a town with a population of...1), to then rolling into Rocky Mountain National Park where the Alpine Tundra be, with some sweet elk. Then onto Colorado National Monument, which was a smaller, more beautiful Grand Canyon-esque. Black Canyon of the Gunnison, which is just a sheer gash into the Earth of sheer glory. Stayed there for the evening, cruised on over to 4 corners, which is a plaque in the ground, and then through Payson and into my humble abode in Phoenix.

There is a certain element to pushing things off, in that sometimes, not all the time, they lose their inherent quality, much like the journey I took. But, it is also hard to clearly encapsulate an extensive experience as a whole...it must be broken down into it's individual parts and explored in detail.

At this point, I'm going to try and choose one thing, and go into the grandest of detail of it, regardless of all that takes place in life. I notice that I try to get it all, which severely depletes the value of what I'm talking about, which is basically the reason why I started doing this thing. And I guess that is something that can be said for life as well; try not to do it all at once. Do what you can when you can, but if you try and take it all on at once, it gets overwhelming, dilutes in value, and nothing is truly taken away from it. Besides, as I have taught my students, being vague and too general sucks. Details, details details.


Oh yeah, and watch out for this guy!

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