real live rodeo experience

my sister recently introduced me to a new and fantastic place.  everyone needs to go there.

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a while ago i went to my first real live rodeo.  i've been at (or in the vicinity of) rodeos before, but never at the actual rodeo part, where the cow roping and riding around barrels and bull riding happens.  noe (which is pronounced know-y) and i tried taking pictures of all the amazing things, but nothing really worked out.  so here is our evidence, in which you can't even tell where we are (but the giant cowboy should give you reason to believe....according to noe)

doba (as in qdoba), claire (uh, duh), big rodeo cowboy mayor guy, noe (who was desperate to take photo with said big rodeo cowboy mayor guy)

noe, claire, doba

claire dancing with a 17 year old (sometimes it's hard for me to remember that i am not, in fact, 17 anymore, but this kid made it very obvious), a 17 year old that noe found while she was soliciting for boys (she is 30 and married...). but instead of dancing with them herself, she guilts other people into dancing with these poor solicited souls.

texas nature

when arley comes to visit, we are going here!  i can't wait!  some water to go with this heat will be really great!

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i do like the trees and the plants here.  even though they cause "the worst allergies in the country."  some of the trees still have flowers on them from when i got here in may.  the flowers grow 8 feet tall.  however, the bugs in these trees and flowers are big enough to bite your face off.
and did you know that crickets are very black and spidery and creepy?  and they fly??  but don't worry about me.  the two that have gotten in have been caught, and tortured, and eaten by the heroic oni cat.

the art of unpacking. and re-unpacking.

i just kinda like this one... (try not to cringe, mama!)

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it took me a while to unpack once i moved to texas.  in fact, i still have a few frames to hang on my walls...
not that that should be a surprise to anyone.  it takes me weeks just to unpack a suitcase from a 2 day trip.
i was finally making some progress, working so hard to feel at home in my little blah apartment.  and just when i started to feel like i was getting there, that progress was cruelly, cruelly undone...

the newspapers were originally all stuffed in the blue thing.  but Someone thought they would do something about that....

morning. it's really real!!

everyone probably knows all about this little guy, but i love him!!

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it just so happens that, occasionally, i do see the morning happen.  i even have proof.
once upon a time my car blew up (which may or may not have occurred due to the fact that i ran over a parking curb - it was an accident, ok??).  anyways.  i was without a car, and so had to walk to the bus, and this is what i saw:

disclosure:  i discovered poladroids waaaaaaaaay before instagram.  i'm no facebook hipster, even if i do like independently signed, totally unknown musicians who wear panama hats and beachy waves in their hair.  that's totally and completely irrelevant.

tomorrow = a few days later

i like a song.  suprise.  i can't tell if it's a love song or not...

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once upon a time, my sissy and i encountered some deadly alligators (remember?  i said i'd tell all about it...).  it was mostly my fault.
i thought it would be really great, and really american, and really 90's to get floaty alligators.
i always wanted those cool shaped floats when i was little and saw them taking up half the swimming pool.
like these:

so when i saw the chance to get some really amazing alligators, i couldn't pass.

anyways.  once upon a time, when i was still a baby (aka no study abroad, no degree, no boyfriend [does having a boyfriend mean you're growing up?], the list goes on), i almost got killed by an alligator.

i made a very bad choice to float the river with my sissy, who did not almost get killed by an alligator.  in fact, she was befriended.  jerk.

i told my sister it would be so great to go to steamboat and see our friends (aka. her friends) and float on my shiny new alligators.

it was basically a death sentence.

we got all sunscreened up and had our alligators nice and full of air.

within two seconds of getting in, i was bucked off and scraped my knees on the rocks that were approximately 3 inches below the surface of the water.

things were not looking good.

within about 5 minutes i was bleeding.

and then the rapids came.
(this is the yampa we're talking about.  in late august.  very dry. very rocky.  the rocks stick out of the water and cause rapids and try to impale you.)

i was basically riding my alligator's belly.  hanging on from below.  the stupid thing was so slippery that i couldn't stay on.

i'm usually not a big bruiser.  it takes a lot, and about 3 days for a bruise to show up.  but by the end of our float my knees were both purple, as were my elbows.  and hips.

and you know what?  my sister wasn't even wet.

here is the evidence:

on the way to float.  super excited.  no idea that every second we're coming closer to death itself.

first 3 seconds, and i've already been bucked off.  my whole right side landed on the rocks.  ps.  sister's fine....

alligator wrestling.  it. must. pay.

mikah and gary the alligator were feeling very zen.

the end.

mikah's face:  that was so much fun!

claire's face:  there's still a chance these things could kill us.