Fascinating

I was wrong... the pronghorn has been clocked at sprints up to 70 mph. Now that is freaking cool, and something that North Americans should brag about!

You know what else is cool? The land in central Yellowstone has been rising at approximately the same rate as your fingernails grow.

I hope not to experience this one, but there are around 2,000 small earthquake tremors picked up by seismographs in a typical year in Yellowstone.

A bear may spend 20 out of 24 hours in a day - eating! They eat 35 pounds of food in a day.

Did you know that the feathers of a bald eagle weigh more than its skeleton?


A fully developed rack of elk antlers weighs as much as a 5 year old child.

This cute little rodent is living in a hole in a park in the center of town.

Some crazy fool thinks they can get $85,000 for this wolf pack sculpture.

Made it to Jackson, WY

Enjoying my morning sitting in the Snow King Resort listening to some summer time construction. Before we left we watched a special on Yellowstone from Animal Planet and I think humans are just like the animals here. Taking advantage of the summer months before it turns to cold, harsh winter. There is activity everywhere. People hiking, biking, playing sports, running. You can tell the town is filled with "outdoorsie" people. What a great environment. I'm sure those who stay here full time love it in the winter too, but I am glad to be here in June. It's gorgeous. The air is cool and crisp and they sky is clear. The wind blows and actually evaporates the sweat on your skin. Ahhh, coolness. The temps are up to 80 F so just perfect.

We left Wilmington at 6:00 am so after getting up at 4:15 (thank god the airport is close) we flew in to Atlanta for a very short layover and then off to Salt Lake City for another very short layover and finally on to Jackson Hole. The airport is tiny, and I've flown into some tiny airports.

We are all set to pack up in our rented Subaru Outback when the stupid thing won't start. We tried a bunch of things, hey maybe the doors need to be closed, is it in park, and nothing. Come to find out the battery is dead so the guys says, hey is it just you two? Do you have a lot of luggage? So he offers us an upgrade to a convertible Mustang. I immediately think of driving through the crisp air of Yellowstone with the top down and say, yeah! So here's the hot car...


He looks like an old man trying to act young, huh?

We drive from the airport to the town of Jackson (just a 10 min drive) and the room is not ready yet, so we decide to head up the mountain. This is a ski resort so the hike is not long, but basically straight up. I (not sure why) decided to carry a backpack filled with tons of crap. So I trudged up. Dad did great. Hiked quick, took breaks and says he felt fine. We had a bit of water with us, not enough, but some. Finally made it to the top and were rewarded with these views...

Looking NW at the Tetons

Dad looks pretty good, heh?

Looking S from the top of Snow King Mountain.

The town of Jackson, WY

Me and Dad at the top of Snow King Mountain

After hiking for a couple of hours we checked into our room (I'll take a pic later) and cleaned the sunscreen and sweat off and headed out to dinner at the Mangy Moose. Dad's coworker suggested that we eat there. It's a few miles away, up the valley, in a town called Teton Village. A rustic decorated restaurant with moose heads, pronghorn heads, deer heads hanging on the walls. We ordered yummy micro brewed beers and I got a big, fat burger and dad got buffalo meatloaf. We were starving from not eating much lunch and hiking so we gobbled up the food and of course stuffed ourselves.

Here's me standing in front of the restaurant.

This sign is in Teton Village. This place reminds me of a small Vail. Not sure why the pic is so washed out.

After dinner we decide to go for a ride north to see if we can spot any big game. Dad is dying to see some moose or elk. We followed a road that turned into dirt and began our search. We didn't see much, but we found a lot of mosquitoes. Suckers.
On the road back to Jackson we spotted some pronghorn. Dad pulled off and tried to get a shot with my little camera.

Ohh, proghorn butt shots. This was not going to satisfy dad, so he tried the mega zoom and well without a tripod this is what you get...


blurry pronghorn butt.


And to end the day... The sun sneeks behind the Tetons, ahhhh

Blahaoge sonenaogmen ooo shhe sojjkojj

I think I've been saved. Well, I sort of think I have. Hum, maybe not. Ok, so remember me telling you that I was going to get the microcurrent treatment? Yes, so I went and well, I haven't followed up on my blog because it was strange. The woman who gives the treatment, let's call her Kay, started chatting to me about Jesus, God and the Holy Ghost. For those of you that know me, you know that I've struggled with my "spirituality" for a while and although I believe in the message of being a good person, I am not sure about this whole bible thing. A few of my friends and I joke and refer to it as the "Book of Fables", because although the stories are quite interesting, are they messages from "God"?

Ok, so back to my original story. So this woman, Kay, and I see each other a few times a week for my treatment and well we talk about this "mission" stuff. I feel comfortable asking her questions and being open about my doubts. I really like Kay. So Kay mentioned that a woman was coming to town to "talk" about the "word of the lord". She is a prophesier and god talks through her. Hum, interesting, in an anthropological sort of way. I brought it up to my mom and said we should go. My dad was out of town and this is not our usual thing, and well I thought, huh, this could be fascinating.

Now I have the images in my head of the holy rollers in West Virginia, praising the lord and giving shout outs to his name. My mom made it clear that she would not be holding any snakes. Honestly, in my head, I was really hoping that I would be pleasently suprised, and the sterotype would not be true.

We show up right on time (it's gentic) and sure enough there is 4 people there. A half hour goes by and my mom enjoys sitting still as much as I do, and a few more people arrive. A overweight, southern couple stand up and sing songs of jesus. They actually had quite nice voices and the tunes remined my mother and I of some Allyson Krause songs. The songs "entertained" us for a bit and then the speaker, let's call her Dolly, calls us (22 in all) up to the front so that she could lead us in prayer. We are holding hands and she is inspired by the lord and asks a young local pastor to lead us in prayer. Lots of praise the lord, amens, and have mercys go by and we are still holding hands. I grew up in Rhode Island and I use that as my "excuse" of why I don't like to touch people. We are not a touchy family, yeah, yeah, I know... Ok, so you see that I am already out of my comfort zone, since my intention of my anthropological investigation was to be an observer only.

The prayer ends, we hug each other and head back to our seats. The singing duet sings 2 different songs twice (yeah, I know, strange) and Dolly begins her "thing". As she introduces herself and her background and inspiration, a man in the back (at this time we didn't know that it was actually her husband) starts speaking in tongues. Yes, you read correctly. Speaking in tongues. Huh, ok, so are the snakes in the fridge?

Dolly gives a speech that kept my interest. An hour goes by, my mom is fidgeting. The other guests are amening, giving shout outs to jesus, and speaking in tongues. Ok, not bad, I'm just sitting back observing.

Then.

Yes, then, Dolly says she is going to start her "ministering". I am thinking, ok, so the formal stuff has stopped and people that want to talk to her can wait in "line" and she can minister to them.

Nope.

Not like that at all. She begins calling people up. Dolly calls a woman up and shouts, praises, gives her some message from god and then the woman falls back, shaking, is caught by the "helpers" and she proceeds to be covered by a blanket and lies on the floor.

Huh.

Ok, then Dolly says that there is someone that has been having back pains. Huh. Just that week I had told Kay that my back was killing me and Kay set me up with a massage therapist to help. Huh. Dolly is asking for the person with back pain to come up and well, I didn't budge, didn't make eye contact with Kay who is now sitting behind me. I'm not moving. Then I notice one of the host of the event walks up and is "healed". Whew, I'm glad she had back pain too.

Dolly goes through some more people and then points at me and says "The woman in the pink shirt". Since 90% of my shirts are pink it wasn't a surprise that she meant me. Crap. I did not sign up for this. Being the good sport that I am (ha ha) I went up there. Aren't anthropologists that immerse themselves the most successful?

I'm up there, staring in Dolly's eyes. I feel the stares of the audience burning in my back. The two "catchers" are behind me. She starts to hear from god. She is shaking and saying to me that "you are a messenger. You are going to minister to people. You have been on lots of journies and you will spread the word. The holy spirit is there and ready to enter your body." This whole time she is looking into my eyes, holding my arm and pushing on my head. Pushing so hard my legs are shaking a bit to keep me from falling over. She starts to sway me back and forth the whole while praising jesus. She asks me if I want to be a messenger and accept the holy spirit and to this I reply "I don't know, it seems like a lot of work". She is wearing a microphone and later my mom tells me that the whole audience can hear my response. Dolly grabs my stomach and pushes harder on my head. She starts speaking in tongues and asks me to let the lord speak through me. Open your mouth and speak in tongues. I am still staring into her eyes. I am trying to open my mind. Ok, I'll be your vessel. I open my mouth and





Yup, nothing. I opened my mouth again and she is shaking me, pushing at me, shouting. Nothing. She asks the audience to stand up and pray for me. The devil is resisting. She leads us in a prayer as the whole room repeats after her. Nothing. I close my eyes, open my mouth, clear my head. Nothing. Then it all just seems kind of funny and I start to imagine my mom sitting out there. My little ole mom. Oh, shit, I start to giggle. Just a bit at first and then I open my eyes. My legs are really shaking now, as the pushing has become more intense. The giggling turns to laughter. Dolly is worked up. I am laughing and she claims: "Lisa has been saved, she is born again!"

37? No you are not a day over 32...

I love knowing what I know now. Ahhh, the aging process. Like most people I would not go back to a younger time without my current experiences for a million dollars. Having said that I am not enjoying the physical aspects of aging. My right hip hurts. Strangely enough the only thing that makes it feel better is jogging. Not walking, jogging. Ok, so I have to fit in some jogging, not too bad.

My skin is not as elasticy. I hate this part. My favorite part of a man (other than the obvious) is the wrinkles around the eyes (crow's feet). I love that on men, but honestly I don't really want them myself. A bit is ok, but not too much. Oh and the wrinkles on my forehead, not too down with that. You know what else pisses me off? The lines from smiling, and I don't even smile that much! My skin texture has always been frustrating. So, before I get too wrinkly I've decided to try the "Microcurrent" treatment. Just google it and see that it is a treatment where your muscles are stimulated and encouraged to produce more ATP, so in a sense be more productive, which is the characteristic of a younger cell. At $75 per treatment it's not too bad. Last year I paid $150 for a microdermabrasion faciel, and I got three. So I figure for the same price I can get six microcurrent treatments for the same investment. Oh and the best part is that because it's supposed to stimulate muscles that I can correct some of my "droopy" eye problems (which may be exasperated by my "color" problem). Have you seen how ridiculous I look with the brown eye? Kind of takes away from that symmetry that we all know and love.

I'm off to the appointment, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Managed to get my painting home... I had to take it off the wooden frame, roll it up and, well, the packing part is kind of a long story. I spent a few days worrying about how I was going to get a tube to carry on the plane, so a friend and I went down to the place I got the picture and there was no one around, so I just grabbed a tube out of the back room. It was a nice rigged piece of PVC that was taped up. When I got it home I realized it was too long, so I cut it and well because I'm so handy, I cut it too short... So the painting ended up getting rolled and crammed into my checked luggage. It made it home with only a few injuries. I laid it flat on the table until I took it to the frame place. Well I go in and just want a wooden frame for the painting to be wrapped around, no actual frame. Ok, guess how much. $140. Yup, that is freaking crazy. None-the-less I still love it. Now I just have to convince my parents to store it for me until I decide when and where to "settle down". So here it is again. The painting that made it half way around the world.

Tune Up?

I am not one to talk, but today I was talking to an old friend. He is in his mid forties, single, never married, no kids. He just broke up with his girlfriend and his good buddy is basically in the same boat. Now let me remind you that I'm not one to talk, but I said, what is wrong with you two? (I can say this because they are both actively looking for "romance") Of course the typical reply that women are crazy came up and I said, yeah, but all your friends and family members are married. He decided to explain to me that settling on a crazy women would be like settling for a car that was severely out of alignment. The car, because of is alignment "issues" would pull you around in all directions and well - he doesn't want to drive a car like that. HA, how do you like that?

Stupid IRS

I need to rant... ok, I went to get my taxes done and as you know one of the major selling points of working overseas is the "tax break". Well it's a bunch of crap for teachers! Yeah, you get tax free income ONLY IF you are out of the US for 330 days... I managed 297 days, so I am going to pay taxes on my earned income in freaking Burma. It basically amounts to $1730 that I will loose by being short 36 days. I'm digesting all this while grocery shopping and think, hey, I should go on a little trip out of the country. I could use that money and leave for 36 days and bam, I'm set. Problem is that I have "things" going on between now and when I leave for my next job. Crap, crap, crap. I'm going to do some looking anyway...

Hummm

On the radio this morning I heard an interesting commentary. I tuned into the middle of a conversation about the chemical attraction between men and women. Pheromones. I know there has been a lot of studies on this but this is the first time that I've heard that scientists now think that when a woman is on birth control pills that the manipulation of hormones actually affects the pheromones she releases and therefore affects the men that are attracted to her. Fascinating.