Tucson was fun

I was in Tucson for my cousin Alison's wedding. It was really fun, and it was great seeing my family again. I got to see my aunt, all us grandkids/cousins, my mom, my brother and Grandpa. So cool.

Highlights from my trip:

• Amarillo's airport isn't big or a destination, so it's hard to get flights anywhere. I had to fly from Amarillo to Denver (stayed on the plane) to Las Vegas (three-hour layover) to Tucson. The flight from Denver to Vegas was annoying because a woman was sitting next to me and kissing her finger to turn the pages of a magazine. Not licking it. Kissing it. Annoying.
• But also on that flight was a woman heading to Vegas for her 40th birthday. She was surrounded by her annoying, loud, stupid friends. Once we got over Nevada, they walked around the plane asking people to put a dollar in a bag. They'd draw the seats of people who put money in from a hat and give the number they drew to that person. Gotta gamble once you get to/over Nevada!
• The flight from Vegas to Tucson was annoying because I was surrounded by high school girls apparently going to some synchronized swimming competition in Tucson. Loud, annoying girls.
• Tim and I went to a store Friday night to get the last stuff for our mom's Christmas present. When we went to pay, a woman in front of us bought something like $60 of stuff and paid with singles. ALL ONES! Ahhh! Who does that? Why does she have so many ones? I made a joke about her working in a strip club because everyone tells that one. But she was old too. Dumb.
• I had In-N-Out my first night there. Yes! I love that food. And the fries well done are so good.
• When I was waiting in Tucson's airport for my flight out of there (to Denver and a four-hour layover!), the UA men's basketball team walked off the plane I was to board. I saw the team! And coach Miller! I only recognized him. I've been out of school for so long, I don't really know anyone. I just know names, not faces. Though I did look up their roster later and put some names to faces. Pretty cool.
• Once again, a decent-sized city makes me realize how small Amarillo is and how I really want to live in a larger city.
  

It friggin' snowed today

I woke up around 10 a.m. and heard cars driving around in the parking lot. It sounded wet, so I figured it rained overnight. You know, like we were expecting.

Nope. Temperature plummet plus wet equals snow. Boo. I'm staying indoors today.

Cadillac Ranch

Tim and I went to Cadillac Ranch a couple of days ago. We bought some spray paint and drove out there. With no idea of what to write, we just came up with the first things that came to our mind. See what we did below:

10 Cadillacs buried halfway in the ground sit in a field off the interstate just west of town.

The first thing Tim wrote was "Buy war bonds." All righty.

It was a little messy out there. We cleaned up after ourselves. Our two spray cans had some paint left, so we left them there for some high schoolers who showed up.

Some women were finishing up their work as we showed up. Pretty cool.

Oh no. It's ruined.

Tim runs to another car.

Artsy shot.

Cool face. Tim painted the eyes.

Ah, yes. The giraffe conspiracy.

Gotta nuke something.

It was pretty cool. Yeah, I waited more than a year to visit it, but I'm glad I finally got around to going. And it was fun going with my brother.

Tim visited

My brother came to visit for a few days. We went to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, which is the largest history museum in Texas. We also went to Cadillac Ranch and drew on some cars. I'll post some pictures after work. I have to resize them and hope my Internet doesn't cut out.

I'm back from vacation

I went to two friends' wedding over the weekend (they married each other). It was a great experience. I got to see lots of friends again, I got to travel, I got to take a vacation, I saw pretty trees changing colors, I got to go to Cedar Point and ride my favorite roller coasters, and I had an all around great time.

I also got to play around with my SLR camera. Oooooh. It was amazing. Between my two cameras, I took more than 1,000 pictures of the wedding, friends, hanging out and Cedar Point. Some of the pictures looked really good. I might upload some here, but I'd have to resize them from gigantic.

But I really needed this vacation. It was fantastic. I love my friends.

Speaking of friends, my plans to get back to the Cleveland airport fell apart. But a friend of mine who lives in greater Cleveland offered to give me a lift to a motel near Cleveland and drive me to the airport the next morning. What a great guy.

Being in Cleveland made me realize how much I love big cities. He drove me around a little bit. We visited another friend, who was totally surprised to see me. That was so fun. But I also enjoyed driving around the roads and seeing all the businesses. We drove by downtown Cleveland. I like it because the tall buildings are pretty cool.

And it made me realize how small Amarillo really is. This city's got about 200,000 people, but that's it. There are no suburbs. There are two interstates, but they just pass through the city. Not much of a loop. Downtown's small and not too lively.

Don't get me wrong, I like Amarillo. Anything larger than Kayenta is cool. But Amarillo's not big enough for me. Ever since I lived in Tucson and Denver, I've been an urbanite. I love cities. That's all there is to it.

This was pretty corny

A co-worker, Brittani, and I went to a corn maze yesterday. I got to really try out my new camera. There were two parts of the maze. The first part took us about 40 minutes, and the second took us about an hour. We got so lost a few times in the second part.

But it was fun. The skies were clear, and it was in the 80s. What great weather for mid-October.


There was a slide. The view above the corn was no help.


It was pretty fun. I'd never been to a corn maze before, and I had a good time.

After a year

Wednesday is my one-year anniversary at the Amarillo Globe-News. I'm really happy here, and I've been given so many opportunities. My design, editing and headline writing skills have improved vastly, and I'm doing a lot more with the Internet.

I got my camera today and am currently charging the battery. I can't wait to try this sucker out! I guess I'll be making more blog entries with photos.

De shuttle photos

Half of the photos I took with the SLR didn't come out because the film was damaged. Boo. But the pictures that did look really cool. Man, that thing's big. I'll scan some photos and post them here sometime.

Camera!

I ordered my camera, and it's being shipped. I can't wait! It should be here Tuesday. I am nervous because UPS was the only shipping option, and I've had such bad luck with UPS. I want to boycott UPS, but it's hard to when it's the only option. So hopefully things aren't screwed up. It even requires a signature, which is one plus.

I bought my tickets to fly to the wedding. Things seem really good right now. Except the weather. It's cooling off a little after two days in the 90s. But it is fall now, so I guess I'll have to start dressing warmer.