He's So Vain, He Probably Thinks This Post is About Him.

Everyone, I would like you to meet Charlie.




He's mah good buddy. He is the one exception to my 'nature sucks' rule. You see, unlike other birds, he doesn't fly away when I want to take pictures. He just smiles and poses.

"Watchoo lookin' at?"

He wasn't always such a camera hog. Oh no! When we first met, he didn't even want to acknowledge my existence.

See, here he is all aloof and standoffish.

But then he got curious...and decided to take a look.

But then he realized that I knew he was looking, and he whipped around again.

But his curiousity had been piqued, and he couldn't resist taking another look.

But, being the sneaky bird he is, he decided to fool me and try a sneak attack from the other direction. These birds, they're so tricky.

By now, Charlie had decided that the camera was fine with him! In fact, he kinda liked it and started doing all kinds of amazing, birdy things.

He calls this one, "Here's lookin' at you, kid."

Here, he decided to go a bit higher in the tree to do some "Amazingly alert hunter" poses...

...but he slipped...

...and decided that he might back down the tree a little.

"I'm too embarrassed to show my face. Go away."

Poor Charlie, he didn't appreciate how heartily we laughed at him...so he threatened to fly away and take his poses to someone else. So I told him how sorry I was that I laughed at him and would he please not leave. He was mad for a few moments but then he saw my camera again.

"Oh! Is that a camera?!"

Things I Hate About Nature (beware, sure to be a long post)

~ I hate it that any time you enter a: zoo, natural park, national park, state park, or any other park that houses and preserves animals you never actually see the animals.

~ Nature has a way of sticking to you. Like in my hair, or to my socks and it itches incredibly.

~ If by some miracle you actually spy an animal, its way too far away to photograph.

~ Since you have no photographs, no one believes you were ever out in nature or that you saw the animal.

~ It's cold.

~ It's hot.

~ It makes me bored and crabby.

The list goes on and on (actually it does, I have it in my journal but don't feel like including the rest here). Nature sucks. Except sometimes.

Sometimes you actually go out in nature and see things. Like these ducks.

Or these mountains.

Or these ducks and these mountains.

Then nature doesn't suck quite so bad. Until it starts raining or something, of course. Then it sucks just as much as ever.

There is one good thing about nature though, and you'll learn about it tomorrow. It's a friend of mine. We'll just leave it at that. Until then, I'll be enjoying the great indoors!

*BREAKING NEWS* Cory Goodwin Climbs El Capitan With No Equipment!

Well, it happened again. We took Cory out in public and he just started freakin' out.

Every time we take him somewhere cool, he has to start climbing things. On Maui it was a rock in the Bamboo Forest.

Just look how happy he is. All you need to do is give this guy a rope and a rock and he will be entertained for a day. Pretty sad. But anyway, we decided that since he was coming to visit we should take him to Yosemite, Land of the Huge, Big Rocks that Everyone Loves to Climb. See how nice we are?

Well, you can imagine how happy Cory was once we got there. He saw those mountainous rocks and just about fainted. His eyes got bigger and bigger until they finally saw....El Capitan! Da da da duuuummmm!

I tell you he was so awe-struck it was amazing. This was no puny little rock with a rope ladder like on Maui. Oh no! This, THIS was far grander!

He grabbed the nearest pair of binoculars and gazed up at it in all its glorious, rocky beauty.

And then breathlessly announced, "I'm climbing it!" He then proceeded to throw his binoculars on the ground and run through the snow. We gazed after him in silent shock as he padded his way across the snowy field and towards the forest that cloaked the base of the mountain. When he stopped a quarter of the way across the field (it was much bigger than it looked) and gasped for breath, we silently sighed with relief. He would realize how silly this was and come plodding back. But even as we were thinking this thought, Cory looked up at the mountain and took off again, obviously spurred on by the magnificent sight of the rock.

He finally reached the bottom of the mountain and began searching for a good path up. AH HA! There was a rope! He evilly rubbed his hands together and chuckled, "Excellent," drawing out the 'e' to give it maximum scare factor. And then because he did receive maximum scare factor he did it again, chuckling still more evilly, "Excellent."

He then proceeded to grab the rope and give it a good shake, just to make sure that any person who was using the rope would fall off and give him a turn the rope was secure.

Being the dedicated journalist that I am I followed him and got some shots of his ascent.

Here he is just after he found the rope and started climbing. Look how happy this guy is! Hee hee hee, he's thinking, look at this rock! It's HUMANGOUS! and I'm climbing it! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!

But he didn't allow himself too much time for evil laughter, there was the matter of actual climbing to get down to. So he focused more steadily on his current situation.

Okay man, gotta focus!

Whew! I've been climbing for a while. I wonder how far I've gone?

Not very. Hmmm.... Well, better keep going.

After hours of climbing he finally reached the top. Wow, I've been climbing for hours! But I just reached the top! Woohoo!

YAY! I'm on top of...

a really big rock.

So he didn't really climb El Capitan, but he can always dream...

Wow. That mountain is HUGE! Some day, I'm gonna climb it...

They Call the Wind Mariah

Today we are being blasted with a storm. Supposedly its the outreaching parts of some hurricane up in Washington....but that doesn't make much sense to me. Washington is a long way away and I can't imagine winds getting through all those mountains and still maintaining their 65 mph constancy. Wherever its from though, it is BIG! This is a quote from our morning paper: "National Weather Service forecasters warned of roof-ripping, tree-toppling, power-pole-snapping winds gusting to 65 mph." Have a nice day!

You know whats even weirder than those winds? The fact that the weather service was right. Currently two buildings, the post office and the Fed-Ex building, have lost their roofs. Streets everywhere are closed due to trees and power lines developing a habit of smashing down on the roads, making travel quite hazardous. Roughly 20,000 people are without electricity, and the list goes on and on. Roads closed, accidents on roads meaning more roads closed, trees falling closing more roads, poles falling on roads closing them. See what I mean? We can't go anywhere. So I've been spending the extra time doing something productive. No, I haven't been doing that homework, cleaning my room or taking down decorations. I have been serenading the house to "They Call the Wind Mariah"!

Mom and dad just announced they are going to the gym and ran out the door. Maybe they don't like my singing? Nah, that can't be it. They just feel like working out...in a gym that probably doesn't have a roof anymore....

Anyway, I'm off. Gotta learn that second verse before they get back!

I Love These Two Turkeys

Thanks so much for a wonderful Christmas you guys!

Happy New Year!

Binoculars

This family has a thing about binoculars. We can't leave the house without someone shouting out, "Do we have the binoculars?" or, "Where are the binoculars?" We, and I say this loosely because I never use the binoculars, seem to be obsessed with seeing things at 5x zoom, or whatever it is binoculars are. I don't use them because I'm fine seeing things from a normal distance, plus its like, so lame to use them. And I've learned the hard way that when I pick up a pair of binoculars, someone is always around with the camera. They wait until I look my best and then snap a picture that will appear on every piece of paper that our family owns.

Here I made the mistake of using them on Maui:

But this picture wasn't bad enough, I guess it wasn't quite blackmail material, so they had to put Veronica in there and snap another.

Anyone in this family will have seen this picture before. In fact, anyone in the state of Hawaii will have seen it. Actually, maybe anyone in the western United States and parts of the Midwest will have seen it. I even think it's been posted on here before, (but I don't know how to do links so you'll have to look for yourselves.) Mom and dad think its hilarious, and so they send it to everyone they know, and everyone they knows' neighbor. I find it slightly less amusing.
But I do wonder, how I managed to stay in the exact same position long enough, for Veronica to move in and pose? It must have been something really important that I was looking at. It was probably boys on the beach some rare animal that only shows itself every four years on the tenth day of April. Yeah, that's what it was. A rare animal. Yeah.

But whatever it was, it wasn't enough to put me off binoculars forever, unfortunately. Because about three days later I was duped into picking a pair up again.

Of course, this time I'm looking at whales, yeah it was whales I remember, and definitely not the boat of lifeguard trainees passing.

This time, I learned though. The experience taught me to never look through binoculars again, at least not when a camera is nearby. I may find myself squinting a lot, but I get by just fine. However, the rest of the family....well they're still obsessed. Poor souls.

They're always prepared. Just in case they need to whip those binoculars up to their eyes.

It consumes them. Once they start looking they just can't stop.

It's sad isn't it? I'm so thankful that I understood the dangers of over-binocular use early in my life and so will not spend the rest of it thinking how much better the current view would be if it were 5x larger.

And of course, I don't look nearly as silly as they do. Nope, through every situation I retain my coolness and my true personality shines through, unhampered by binoculars.

Time...

is a pretty funny thing. It made Alex and me into more sophisticated adults, advanced me through school, and now it seems changes beautiful things into even more beautiful things.

Let me explain. My family has this thing for visiting Mount Lassen. About once a month, we all pile into the truck and head off to the mountain for some "fun". Mom and dad usually enjoy themselves immensely, and me, well, I let them enjoy themselves immensely while I sit in the backseat turning up the volume on my ipod. However, after I started my photography class, things got a little different. I actually wanted to go up the mountain and take pictures. Now don't get me wrong here, I still sat in the backseat and turned up the volume on my ipod, that will never change, but now I actually had a purpose for being up there: to take pictures! The funny thing is though, that I seem to be getting the same picture a couple of times because, well, we go to the same spots over and over again.

So, last spring we went to Burny Falls:

And this summer we went to Burney Falls:

And now this fall we have....gone to Burney Falls!

I'm really starting to sense a patter here. I just can't wait until is snows and then I will have all four seasons! Woohoo! Yayness. how exciting.....

You guys should all come visit, we know this great place on Mount Lassen, we'll have to take you there.....

The Poem Lying on the Grass

I stopped to watch the world go past,

And found a poem upon the grass.

"Pick me up!" it called to me,

In words of prose and poetry.

I picked it up and held it fast.

"At last!" it cried, "At last, at last!

A bosom close to hold to me,

And share its store of misery.

"My fingers clutched this simple toy,

And spirit filled with boundless joy,

As I observed the human race,

Go past at such a frantic pace.

"Take me to the shining sea,

That I may rhyme more prettily,

And catch the muse of setting sun--"

The poem begged, and made me run.

I hastened after sea and sun,

But wondered where could be the fun,

Of rhyming in a better way,

Tomorrow than in yesterday.

"To the forest!" cried the poem,

"I'll make you feel right at home!"

But all I felt was just the breeze,

As I collapsed beneath the trees.

"It's no use running anyhow,"I said,

"You rhyme no better now."

"Then leave," it sighed, "me on the grass,

To call to those who hurry past..."

Sorry. My Bad.

Wow. Can you believe how long it has been since I posted last. Well, maybe you can, but I sure can't. And I know how you were all haunting my blog, waiting, hoping that today would be the day that I would return to you, so don't try to hide it. I know you were. Weren't you? Even maybe just a little bit? I thought so.

So.....what an interesting time it has been!

I received my final study abroad package.

I had my Girl's State interview. (which went extremely well by the way)

Alex spent Thanksgiving with us.

And....I guess that's all, but really, isn't that enough?

So since Alex and myself were together for one whole week, I'm sure you can guess we got up to some pretty interesting things. My camera went into a state of shock, it hasn't been used that much in ages.

We thought this was pretty cool. You see we took the first one on Maui, and thought ourselves very cute and clever.

Our official title is "What the .... is that?" As you can see, Alex is much better at looking confused than I am. Probably because I always look confused and so changed my facial muscles to what I imagine confused might look like, but instead get a normal look. Its my burden to bear. Or is it?

LOOK! I'm getting better! There I look slightly confused! Right? I mean, you have to see the confusion there. I hope. Maybe by the time I'm twenty-six, I'll be able to.

Did you notice something else in these pictures? Like, how much older (and stylish) we look.

Look how little we were a year ago~

The little, unstylish us:

The new and improved, amazingly beautiful us:

I think time has been our friend. Let's just hope the pattern continues!