TFC DAY #11

bang bang
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DAY #11

of course we got a fire today.  i just started a new book.  i had to start one.  i couldn't bear the extreme sports going on, so i had to at least try to tune them out.  there was a coin flipping tournament.  the prize for the winner was a really ugly hat. 

luckily the tournament was over by the time we got called to the "clay fire". 

when we got close-ish to the fire you could see the smoke pretty well.  when we got closer, the smoke was huuuuuge.  it was almost a mushroom!  the kind where the smoke rises so tall that it falls on itself and makes a mushroom.  those are the bad ones because the smoke starts creating its own weather.  little did i know, this would be the start of a 30 hour shift of sitting (aka sleeping) in the truck.

Lesson # 7 - walk very far to go pee.
this is because the "trees", which are barely taller than i am, are much too small to pee behind.

i saw a dust storm.  it was pretty crazy.  at first you could sort of see a storm coming, but as it got closer, it was just this huge line of dirt - dust?  and as it went over the fire, it just started blowing up like crazy.  it was just brown and purple and orange.  we were in the perfect, safe, place to watch, but some overhead guy got all nervous and made us drive 5 miles out of the way. 

aaaand. we stayed til after midnight.  every one else was where we were supposed to be camping, but our three trucks couldn't go back because the storm was making the fire blow up along the road we needed to get back.

when we finally got back, i just wanted to sleep.  i didn't sleep for like 6 hours straight because we were watching the dust storm!  so i was getting ready to make my little camping spot, and i heard someone talking about how the ranchers play music really loud by their garden at night to keep the GIANT VICIOUS PIGS away.  so i decided i was going to sleep in the middle of a group of boys so the vicious pigs could eat them and be too full by the time they got to me.  then one of them started snoring.  then another.  and another.  there were like five boys snoring all at different paces. 
i'll take the pigs any day.  so i went really far away and slept by the yard and hoped i wouldn't find any bugs.

yes, i should be studying right now.

funny. 
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people who say they wish they could go back to high school blow my mind.

my memories of high school include:
one friend who "liked to do the rest of our hair and makeup."  turns out, she would make us look bad to make herself look better.
three bouts of laryngitis because of the stress
countless stupid fights.
and another friend who liked to do photo shoots.  turns out she most likely wanted me to look like a 17 year old alcoholic, while she got to look like the artsy one.
proof:

THE 17 YEAR OLD ALCOHOLIC

note:  she did my alcoholic makeup, my alcoholic hair, and gave me the alcoholic dress to wear, because "it complemented my coloring".  of pasty-alcoholness...

THE ARTSY INNOCENT HIGHSCHOOLER

note:  the innocent high school outfit, the innocent (if insane) high school hair, the innocent high school makeup.

disclaimer:  i thought about blurring her face to protect her identity, but as 3 people read this, and anyone who knows her will know who she is regardless the instant they see her hair, i figured "what the hell".

my friends were sweethearts. 

to make myself feel better, i'm going to put it down to my good photography skills...

almost disaster

even better acoustic.  oh, how i'm a sucker for anything acoustic.

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i was trying to make a blog, and i almost had a huge disaster!!! 
i was trying to make an underline (shift+underscore thingie) and this is what happened to my page!

i didn't know what happened!  it was so sad!  i don't even know how i figured out how to get it back to normal!!!!!

TFC DAY #10

uhhh. mazing.  my latest fav.  weird lyrics, i think about shooting people, but super catchy, and amusing video...

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today we finish the tongue fire.  timmy decided to call me tinkerbell.  he said i pee more than anyone he knows.  i said that he should be impressed with how hydrated i'm staying.

booker is being the biggest jerk in the world.  the nice day must have been my warning that it was coming. 

slept the whole way back to midland.  again.  i guess the sleep part is one of the pluses of this trip - i am pretty well caught up, and may have a few extra hours stored for the future.

i'll admit.  i was walking back to the engine from a potty break...

TFC DAY #9

sooo funnnny. i love the enlightenment at the end: ooohhhhhhh!

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the weather is so hot in this place that you can't eat.  i have been sick from eating (no puking, thank goodness), the past 5 days, at least.  so this morning, i came up with a brilliant plan and just had chocolate milk for breakfast.  they don't have that thin, watery, lucerne or flavorite or whatever brand of milk.  no way, jose.  it's thick and creamy and tastes like some hershey's syrup just barely got mixed in.

we got called to a fire today.  only 4 hours away this time.  it is known as the 'tongue fire'.  i like to call it the chaos fire.  overhead has no idea what they are doing, and every overhead is telling different crews to do all different things, so no one really knows what they are supposed to do. 

i made friends with the dozer guys today.  we were in briefing and i sat by one.  i looked over, like you look to see who you're sitting by, even though you're not really paying attention, and i had to do a double take.
i told him:  whoa! nice 70's stache!
and he told me:  hah thanks, you look like kate winslet.
and i told him:  haha that's funny.
and he told me:  no it's not.  you seriously look like her.
       *that's the SECOND time someone has told me that!  i must be gorgeous!
70's stache and phil, who actually turned out to be jake, lost the coin flip and the other dozer ended up coming to the tongue fire.

LESSON #6:  when you think you are tall enough to clear a barb wire fence - you aren't. 

yes, i got caught on a barb wire fence.  timmy and booker had to rescue me.  i thought i was tall enough to just go over the top, swing one leg then the other, you know?  well, i swung one.  and when i tried to swing the other - i couldn't.  so i tried to swing my first leg back over to my side.  no happening.  so i was just stuck straddling a barb wire fence, waiting for booker and timmy to pay attention to me calling them.

i think this is near the part i got stuck on...

georgia o'keeffe, part deux

good mood music. 
i love how she plays with the rhythm in this song.

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i ended up having 17 blooms on two orchid plants.  5 on one, 12 on the other!  super exciting.  i think all of them but 2 are still alive. 
i took pictures of the other flowers, which are less pink and more green.  super pretty. 

they're even pretty from the back.

pretty good camera usage (useage?), eh?  blurry background!?

i didn't even know i could do that!

maybe you can find something for your background, mamacita?


haiku of the day:

homework really sucks
where is my attention span?
go write your paper!!

wedding vows

gorgeous gorgeous cover of death cab for cutie.

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a long time ago - i was really big in my poetry stage - i found this poem and decided i was going to use it for my wedding vows.  every time i find it again in all the clutter that is my stuff, i like it even more.  it's beeeeautiful:


i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
                                          i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)
                                                                    e.e. cummings


are you crying yet?

from here