"You just made me feel like a man".
Umm what? That is precisely what a 65ish year old man with no teeth told me at Whole Foods today when I gave him a sample of Boulder Granola. How the hell do you respond to something like that? I'm pretty sure I gave a nervous, fake giggle back, but really inside I wanted to crawl into a dark hole...because I was pretty sure he was picturing me naked swimming in a pool of granola. Luckily that's about the creepiest thing I got all day during demos. There was one lady/man/womanish-man/woman who was talking about her time in jail and being a part of Occupy and how Americans don't have rights anymore. She told me to tell a cop to f*** off and see what happened...that'd I'd end up in jail. There's just no more freedom of speech according to this lady. In my eyes, maybe people are just losing their common sense...just saying.
But what you should really get out of all that is the fact that I am now a Granola girl. Yep, that's right, I tour around to grocery stores and give out free samples of Boulder Granola to the everyday shopper. I know my glamorous life astounds you. It's okay to be speechless. I will send you a signed package of granola if you wish. In all honesty, Boulder Granola is a freakin amazing company and the granola will change your life so that you will basically breath happiness on to other people constantly. Frankly, right now it's a great way to be making a few bucks and helping a local company that I strongly support. Plus, the people watching is worth it all.
Don't worry though, that is not the only thrilling thing going on in my life. I officially got a job for the summer! I got offered a job with Camp Thunderbird to be an extended trip leader in the Pacific Northwest. Basically I will be leading 14 year old girls in the backcountry for 6 weeks in Oregon and Washington. I could not be more excited! It's amazing what plans fall in place when you leave doors wide open.
Other news, I'm working on becoming a volunteer firefighter for Boulder Rural Fire Department. I had to submit an application to become a volunteer firefighter and got accepted to continue on to the first round of testing. Next week I take a written test, a physical test, then if I pass both I will go on to interview with the chiefs. If I make it through that, there is another series of testing and then Fire Fighter 1 Academy starting in September. God really is good my dear friends. The way all of this has panned out, no one person could have planned. Guiding in the summer, come back and start FF1 Academy. It's perfect. Both of these experiences are going to help me in the long run with my goal of wanting to work for WMI/NOLS as an instructor. I'm continuously trying to give each day up so that I can allow things to follow into place. So far...it's working.
I never thought Fire Fighting would be something I would be interested in until my WEMT course this past January. Luckily I had some pretty dang cool people around me to encourage me to look into it. Poor Mom having a kid in Border Patrol and another looking into Fire Service. Haha.
Besides all of those things happening, I've been trying to play and write music quite a bit. Some friends and I are hoping to get some open mic nights going. I think we could be really good actually. Pretty sure my neighbors hate me for playing guitar and singing at the top of my lungs all the time, but oh well.
I have so many things I want to do in life and I feel like this is just the beginning. I'm taking an Avalanche 1 certification course in 2 weeks, an Intro to Mountaineering course in 3 weeks, renewing my Lifeguard certification in a month, then off to summer guiding work, then Fire service (hopefully), etc. I'm looking at climbing Aconcagua in 2013, with hopefully some smaller mountain experience to come before that. In fact, I just opened a new savings account solely for adventure money. I'm so tired of saying I'm going to do something and then not. 2012 is the year that ends. There are so many good things going. I can't wait to see what else unfolds.
Pictures of life lately:
