We went to Albuquerque today. I don’t know what I was expecting it to be like but it wasn’t anything like I thought. I am definitely glad we went and that we saw it but I am not sure I am a fan. Oregon is just so amazing and seeing all these other places makes me appreciate my home even more. I think I don’t like New Mexico for the same reason I don’t like Bend. Everything is dry and the plants are ugly and there is just nothing bright and happy to make me happy.

Plus all the houses are the same color. So bland, too bland! So that being said, we decided that an hour in Albuquerque was all we needed and we headed for Arizona. We are in Flagstaff right now and in the morning we will head off for the Grand Canyon. Flagstaff is freeeeeeeeezing. It is 27 degrees and there is a light dusting of snow on the ground.

It’s about 130 miles from Albuquerque but we got tired of driving and decided to crash at a cheap hotel. This cheap place to rest our tired eyes does include wireless internet though… and waffles in the morning! woo hoo!

Today we dared to enter the gates that surrounded Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. We got some good pictures but I was seriously scared. I thought we weren’t supposed to be in there because everyone had name tags on and all the girls were wearing skirts… you just had to be there to appreciate my fear, haha. Michael ended up convincing me it was alright to go in and so we did, but I was still looking around very skeptically half expecting some Morman to come up to me and ask me for some ID or something.

Why we were there we figured we may as well find the Great Salt Lake and take a gander at it, I mean the whole city is named after it and it’s a lake of salt for crying out loud. When we found it I was a little let down, there weren’t even any salt bergs floating around (yes salt bergs… like ice bergs but not, and I’m kidding). It wasn’t too great. It was big, but not great. Plus these seagulls tried to poop on us and whenever the wildlife tries to poop on me I just know I am in a bad space, the wildlife loves Laycie! We ate our lunch with said seagulls hovering about so we threw our hood over our hair in case any bombs were dropped.

After lunch we headed off for Arches National Park. We drove and drove and finally arrived just in time to drive around and take a few cool pics. The place is amazing! The drive to it was amazing also. The world never ceases to amaze little old Laycie.

We were going to try to camp out somewhere around there but the sites were full so we figured we may as well just truck on over to Albuquerque. We encountered a couple animals that might have been foxes, a truck driver who was swerving all over the road and a couple scary gas stations.

We went through Colorado in the dark so I can say I have been there… but I have no clue what it looks like. Tomorrow we are planning to hang out all day right here in New Mexico!

I added more pics to the road trip set…

Yesterday we left Salem in the morning and drove, drove, drove all day. We saw so many beautiful things and have lots of pictures but we’ll just be uploading a few along the way and when we get home I will upload a proper photo set.

On our way out of Oregon we stopped at Multnomah Falls, took some pics and then continued on our way. We took a scenic route off I-84 and drove HWY 30 for about 10 miles, which was a very good choice because it was sooooooooo pretty! We got back on I-84and drove for about 600 more miles and got to see even more amazing scenery! Oregon is so beautiful and living there makes it easy to take for granted.

We whizzed through Idaho (literally, we only stopped to pee, hahaha!) and today we are going to explore Salt Lake City a little bit. My first impressions last night we’re kinda funny because it seems like they somehow managed to fit the word “temple” into every street name. I’ll be back with another update soon! Hope you all are having a good Monday!

My flickr link is over to the right ===>
if you want to see some of the pics so far…

I have been way mega super busy this term and thus have avoided all the people I care about… Today was the first time in months that I hung out with my family. I gave Katie a cool hair cut along with some highlights and we also had a little bit of fun in there somewhere…

If you view the photo set you can see a picture of Kendel’s 5 month baby bump. We are all real excited for a new little addition to our lives.

This term is over and tomorrow Michael and I are leaving on a totally fly by the seat of our pants road trip to New Mexico. I will try my best to update the blog whenever we run across some wireless. I sooooooooo need a week of something that involves not sitting at my desk, and some sun would be nice too.

I am the crazy cat girl, and word is getting around. Blacky, who I thought was a sweet little cat in need of my love and attention, is actually just laughing in my face at my lack of strength when it comes to turning away from a cute little furry face, or in her case a face with a big puffy eye and a nose full of snot.

Here I was all worried about her while she was just out telling the neighborhood that I’m easy. She told every mangy furball she ran into to just hang out on the porch down the street and that soon food would magically appear and if they wanted to move into the house they should go get some illness, preferably something with visible symptoms such as swollen body parts, hair loss and leaky orifices, this would be the all access pass to the crazy cat girl’s loving arms.

Here I thought I was a nice animal lover… but no, I am the laughing stalk of the cat community. I am a pathetic cat hoarder and they are all going to maul me next time I step outside. I mean, look at these pics… what have I become?!?!?!?

Look at my porch… I don’t even have food dishes out there or anything!

I walked through the living room and was startled by this little face:

Look at this fella lurking from afar:


Yes I realize that the fact I have pictures of these three separate events might seem weird… but I am weird so it only makes sense. I think they might try to attack me if I go outside… I am afraid!

Blacky came back last night! I opened the door before I went to bed and low and behold she was sitting right there on the porch. I was so excited I scooped her up and started talking to her in my crazy cat girl way and this seemed to make Spunky very angry… She had been bugging me for attention all night and here I am giving it to the one furball she hates the most.

I went to bed happy that Blacky was alright but I was also a little stressed because I had a final in the morning. I dozed off to sleep and was abruptly awaken by a loud noise that sounded like a 10lb box of detergent dropping onto the top of the washing machine… when in fact it wasn’t a box of detergent… it was a 10lb cat. Thanks for letting me in is what I think Blacky was trying to say as she repeatedly woke me up throughout the night by making loud noises what seemed like every 10 minutes.

My final was at 10 this morning and it went pretty good. I have two more to take on Friday and then I will be completely done with this term! I am very excited to start off fresh… even though fresh always turns sour within a few weeks.

So Blacky’s back, I have one final done with and Spunky is just laying out in the living room maintaining a low constant rumble of a I’m really pissed at you and this dumb cat growl. It’s a good day.

I made the cats stay outside while we were gone and when we got home Spunky and Badger were hanging around the door but Blacky wasn’t. I called and called for her but she didn’t come.

All day today I have periodically gone out and yelled for her like the crazy cat girl I am but she has yet to turn up. I hope she’s just out hiding somewhere and that she will return soon. I really like her!

This week is finals week. I have one on Wednesday and two on Friday. I am so excited to get these over with.

I got to sleep in today so I am well rested and no longer waaaaaaaay too tired to care about stuff. So now that I am back to caring… what is all this crap weather about?!?! I am really sick of it. Though, it is perfect weather to study in so I shouldn’t complain.

I really want to go get some junk food from the store but I am trying to be a good girl. I ate about 4 candy bars a day this weekend so I kinda need to detox for a day, at least… haha.

wow, this post sucks!

We went to San Francisco this weekend and we took a couple pics. It was a fun spur of the moment trip but I was waaaaaaay too tired to be my normal awesome amazing self. Did I mention I was tired? Yeah so I didn’t sleep at all Thursday night because I was trying to finish something to turn in on Friday but I didn’t finish anyway.

My plan was to wash my hair and blow dry it Friday morning, which I did, then I wouldn’t have to wash it this weekend but the fact that I was sooooo tired from not going to bed that night prevented me from being totally aware in the shower and I was half done blow drying my hair before I realized I did not rinse out all the conditioner and my hair in fact looked just as greasy when I was done blow drying it as it had when I got into the shower to wash it. That was awesome.

Nothing like an effort wasted by forgetting to complete a crucial step in the plan… 1. wash hair 2. rinse 3. condition hair 4. rise. Damn that step four! I however was waaaaay too tired Friday to care about my perfectly straight greasy hair. I dealt with it. It was frustrating but I was, again, waaaaaay too tired to care.

I got home from school at about 3 and we left right after I packed my crap up. Why did I not have it packed before? oh, c’mon. I know you know the answer… I was waaaaaay too tired. So leaving this late made it so we got into San Francisco at about 2am.

What you may not believe is that at about 10:45 pm, after I had slept about an hour, I in fact was more alert than Michael and so I drove for 2 hours while he slept. I have no idea how he slept since I blasted the stereo and sang along to all my rock songs, which for the most part are just a series of screams, just to keep myself alert. I mean, I was alert… I just wanted to be sure it stayed that way.

I crashed so hard once we got to Doug and Rod’s house. They have the most comfortable guest bed ever to be slept on by guests. Michael woke me up a couple times but then made fun of me for it the rest of the day because I was so sketched out every time he came in and said something. I was like, whaaaaa? what’s going on? what time is it? haha. yeah, me = waaaay too tired.

I barely managed to get up and put clothes on. I put my super greased out hair into pig tails and pulled on my American Eagle Hoodie. It’s pretty much the best look for me. haha. So we drove over to the book fair, 45 minutes away from Doug and Rod’s house, and dropped books off for our friends. The book fair was the whole reason we went to SF. I mean, having your gas paid for is a good reason to go on a trip. I just wish… what? oh, that I was waaaaaay less tired. I also wish I would of bought a cool book.

We kidnapped a cute girl and went off for a fun filled day that involved a long search for food and places to shop. We basically drove around… It was completely fine with me actually. I had a blast. I was waaaaaay too tired to be walking all around and spending money I didn’t have. Driving in the car around an awesome city is my idea of goodtimes!

We did go to a little view point on one side of golden gate bridge and we took some cool pics. We also went to this cute little town called Sausalito and had ice cream cones and looked at all kinds of random stuff in the little shops. I also learned on this trip that my favorite flowering tree is called a Cherry Blossom.

Sausalito was really sunny which was nice because it was cloudy before we crossed the bridge. I love me some sun. Sun makes Laycie happy. Laycie is like a plant who needs the sun to live. Without the sun Laycie wilts and is a sad little excuse of a person. I tried very hard to refrain from talking in the third person right there… but what can I do, my fingers are moving faster than my brain right now and I can only sit here and laugh at what I am typing. Why might you ask? because I am waaaaaay too tired.

One last small tidbit of Layci-nfomation: I am completely in love with Amy Winehouse! She’s the dope sheeeeeeeought and you should definitely check her out if you like music. Yeah, she rules!