Prepare for War

If I lived in a house in the woods forever, I would be so productive. Alas.

There's a lot of administrative things I need to get done. But besides that, I played basketball a few times, went running, and even did some yoga. I had some barbecues with my PT friends and let me tell you, I love a good burger. I volunteered at the food center for several hours (and even convinced Caleb to join) and met a guy who was a crackhead for 20y before he quit.

It snowed most of the week, which
hindered my running only slightly. 

The most monumental part of this week was finishing a "short" story I've been working on for a while now. It's inspired by a post off of reddit and it's about the Apocalypse and approximately 50pages long on a word document. Brace For It.

The other most monumental part of the week (which required much less work on my part) was seeing John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum. And It. Was. Crazy. I love these movies because they're all action (most of which is done IRL by Keanu Reeves) and no romance (since he's very dedicated to his wife, who is dead). 10/10 cannot rave enough. Put it on VidAngel or do what you gotta do, but this is a killer movie.

I bought brake fluid at CAL, a favorite store of my hick friends.
Remember how I inadvertently copy other peoples' accents when they talk to me?

I spent Saturday in the valley where Jeff & Brandee helped me fix my car, John & Sarah fed me and helped me with parking, and I got to go to Sam & Jake's wedding (where I hung out with their parents the entire time). Good day with good people.

Roasted & Toasted

The adventuring continued at Bryce Canyon this week - the deceptively cool day leading to a slow burn, despite my best efforts (and layering). We started with a nice 8-miler down to Fairyland, hitchhiked back to the bus stop, and had a picnic before starting round 2.

Amidst Fairyland.

After seeing the rocks up close, it was nice to get an overlook on the rim trail, Bryce point, and inspiration point. Grams gave us a quick meal and I was out of Kanab.

This lady isn't sure if I'm funny or crazy. Neither are we.

Roger's family brought the aloe and a delicious (second) dinner. We went on a lovely tour of Page and had a chill movie night getting ready for John Wick 3 that comes out soon.

From the top. (My face is red from the hike, not the burn.)

Tuesday, I took a dam tour with Roger's sisters, got mongoosed, taught them to play Totally Insane, and did some work on the court with Rog and Stu. After dinner, we ended up watching Fever Pitch - since they're all Sox fans - and they loved it. (Also me).

Another dam vacation. 

The rest of the week was chill and involved some fun projects, some administrative necessities, and a lot of sleeping since I was kind of sick. I watched most of the new Hulu series Catch-22 which is almost as ridiculous as the book, but not quite. I worked on a new addition to my In the World But Not of It piano book for children.

Moriah @ Spirit Week.
Isabelle: Moriah, what are you doing?
MGH: Nothing, freshman. 

Thomas served breakfast for dinner this week and let me tell you, the man goes HAM. But also bacon, sausage, eggs, pastries, waffles, OJ, the works. I brought some new friends since the usuals were out of town and they thoroughly enjoyed being showered with food and gifts.

The only pose I have that's appropriate for all audiences. 

TJ, Lindsey, and I had a good time at the Crater Caves hike. After some research and wrong turns, we did in fact find the caves. Turned a couple of us into savages, but we claimed our territory.

Full Gollum. MGH would be proud. 

Roger was back in town for a wedding, so we ate steak and watched John Wick chapter 2 as our final pre-theater event. Just the way they talk about him is awe-inspiring. The trailer that started all this is actually just Winston saying, "He's got a $14 million bounty on his head and the entire city is looking for him. I'd say the odds are about even." And scene. 

The crew. 

Saturday, I volunteered at the Family Food Center here in Flag. They had me outside, helping organize bimonthly donation pickups and ended up needing me for 4 hours instead of 2, which led to another mild burn, this time on my face and arms. I was entertained by the customers and another volunteer, an older bald guy named Andrew.

Sunday was uneventful, except for having part of the ice cream social early so the Sandalls could also partake. They're good people.

It's Done.

I’ve never been so glad for a break. This semester was ROUGH.  The good part is that I studied so much throughout the semester that there really was very little left to study for finals. But somehow, we found it and stopped only rarely for snack and sanity breaks.

Took a Differential Diagnosis exam, then played basketball and studied. Took an Anatomy 2 test, then played volleyball and studied. Took a Neuro test and rejoiced that I was done. Hallelujah. They all went well, all things considered. Brandi came over so we could watch a movie and go hot tubbing.

Thursday was terrible weather, but we had previously decided to take full advantage. Lizzy, Nazgul, and I had our end of semester cardio workout – everyone was sweating and nobody threw up.

Lizzy, Brandi, and I went fishing at Lake Mary and caught nothing, but it was nice to relax with my new pole and some homemade cookies.

After a short lunch break, we went to the boonies for a short hike to the Chocolate Falls, which were not actually falling. Despite the rain, I guess there’s only enough water for the falls to exist about two months out of the year. We thought we were getting the tail end, but we got the butt.

 

I told Lindsey I was going to take her on a real Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – style double date. We made pinewood derby cars out of vegetables and got ice cream. (Ours won, just an FYI.)

Brandi and I had planned to take a short trip around southern UT to visit some national parks and our good friend Thomas agreed to let us be co-signers on the annual pass he bought so we could get in for free. Unfortunately, it didn’t arrive, so we thought we were gonna be out $100 until we arrived in Kanab at Gram’s house and her son Richard offered to let us use his. Praise.

Grams fed us a hearty meal and lulled us into a short nap before we went on a short local hike to the beehives. We only got lost a few times and enjoyed the red rock. We made it back just in time for dinner and watched Justice League.

Saturday we drove out to Zion’s for a full day of adventuring. Per the suggestion of Richard, we hiked up Angel’s Landing – which wasn’t bad until we got to the second chained area, where it’s a narrow path, slippery rock, bidirectional traffic, and 2,000ft sheer drops on either side of you. That was a no for me. (This time.)

 

Hike 2 was to the lower emerald pools (the upper ones were closed d/t flooding). We were hustling hard, but it was a nice time.

Then we found the Archaeology Hike, with “ruins” all along. In actuality, the trail was super run down and unclear (since finding the hike entrance is a challenge) and the ruins were just more areas of grass and rocks with plastic signs that said “there used to be a storage shed here”. Brandi was mad.

Hike #4 was the Canyon Overlook and my favorite hike. Pretty short, lots of climbing on stuff, nice and sunny at the end. But I was exhausted.

We drove home and met the family for a nice meal at the nicest restaurant in town, Houston’s. Then I entertained company and only said a few questionable things and almost killed everyone by accidentally starting the gas stove. Then I went to sleep.

What's a Reading Week?

Just finished up my favorite unit in neuroscience - it's all about how to learn (both in school and sports) and is super relevant to everything in my life. But this would've been nice to have earlier. Nonetheless, we've had similar strategies and it wasn't hard to implement.

We'll study cancer (for example) for 20m, then write a question about it. Then we'll study hematologic problems for 20m, write a question about it, and review our questions on cancer. Then we study oculomotor exams for 20m, etc. We take lots of naps and do constant recall. Sometimes we even play a rousing game of ping pong.

Because all my friends love fishing and it was $18. 

Lizzy and I went on a nice stroll at Walnut Canyon and saw one of the guys I play ball with working the entrance station. Later that night, we had our year end volleyball party with drinks and apps, so we spent literally all day together.

Oh hey! Guess what else? I got a tuition waiver for next year! I'll be doing research, which was my 2nd choice to anatomy TA (but all my friends are doing it so I'll get to visit if I want). And I'm still working with Mark Cornwall, the man in charge of anatomy. But we'll be doing some taping-involved research, so it'll be fun to use my AT skills a bit. Part Two of the good news is that I was making fun of this terrible acronym this week that's supposed to help you remember early signs of cancer (but the A is literally 'a wound that doesn't heal'). My teacher John said, if you think it's trash, why don't you just make a new one? So I did. And he said he wanted to publish it in his next book.

Because I love the sunlight but it's gnat season. 

I've been putting my Amish bread to good use and Brandi has helped me deliver some to friends with hard finals coming up (and also helped me eat it, parce qu'il faut).

We had our year end dinner at the institute and apparently I was the only one asked to submit pictures, so we watched a 2m video of my friends on repeat for 30m. Then we watched The Last Jedi (because it was almost May the 4th) and had Leia Buns and blue milk.

Coco & Williamson. Delightful humans & survivors. 

Saturday, guess what we did. More studying. Then we went to a lunch/fireside at 12 where a trafficking survivor and an earthquake survivor told us about their nonprofit ARISE that helps teach Haitian kids about their worth so they'll never be susceptible to adults that would take advantage of and enslave them. WHICH IS EVERYTHING I WANT. They even partner with another Flagstaff-based organization that sends doctors down to do free surgeries. I'd be happy to go on either end of the spectrum and so would Brandi. So we went to their talk at NAU later and helped out with some technical stuff and got all the information we need to get involved. AND Williamson spoke delightful French and I just loved everything about what he does.

Fast friends. Love love love.