Nothing but Song

Feeling :  awake  Listening :  Wanna Be - Dizzee Rascal f. Lily Allen  Reading :  Nothing, I need some new books!

Working six days straight and then getting only two days off is tough on a young body.

I got back from my trip to the Grand Canyon Sunday afternoon, but after closing and then opening my store within 12 hours, I didn’t have time to flesh out my recollections.

More here, especially if these thumbnails don’t load.

I slept most of the trip down to Flagstaff, waking up only long enough to stretch whenever we stopped. First, we stopped at the Hoover Dam which I had never seen before, and THE Route 66 in Kingman, AZ. We decided to stretch and get some fresh air. Me and my niece C ran across Route 66 (just to say we did) and put our fangs up, it was great! I threw my arms up and yelled at our family that was still across the street, and this dude in a Mustang honked and joined in my screaming. I was all, “WTF?” But I didn’t care. My dream is to drive from one end of Route 66 to the other. Maybe someday.

We got a bit lost trying to get to Mormon Lake, so my cousin’s boyfriend decided to rent us rooms at the local Ramada after dinner at Coco’s on Friday night. It’s a good thing he decided to splurge on the rooms, because by the time dinner was done, it was already 10 o’clock our time (11 o’clock theirs), so imagine what would’ve happened if he hadn’t. We would’ve had to try to find our campsite in the dark, get the tents up, get settled, and all that. That would’ve been ugly.

I had to share a bed with C, who fully took up the whole bed. I kept waking up, because I kept finding myself closer and closer to the edge of the hotel bed. I put a pillow between us, because I like to cuddle with pillows when I sleep since I don’t have a boyfriend, rofl. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the little turd used the pillow for herself! She says she’s not used to having all the space, so I let it slide but teased her for the rest of the weekend for being stingy with the sleeping space.

Saturday morning, we had the continental breakfast the hotel provided, and drove up to our campsite at Mormon Lake near Flagstaff, AZ. As soon as we were settled, set up the tents, and had lunch, we got into my cousin’s van - crammed with 5 adults and 3 kids (1 of whom was in a car seat) - and drove almost 2 hours to the Grand Canyon. I don’t think my cousin realized how far away Mormon Lake was from the Grand Canyon. I slept the whole way of course. I felt loads better when I woke up.

Spent a few hours taking the edge of the canyon in. It was beautiful. There’s no other phrase, word or sentence to describe it. Or even do it justice. You have to experience it for yourself. I wonder what it was like before the Department of the Interior had to set boundaries. You know me and history. The writer in me wants to sit there, and soak up the inspiration that has been left behind since people first started going to places like the Grand Canyon. There is so much beauty in this world, and people are so quick to pass it by. Makes me sad.

I wanted so badly to stay, breathe that fresh air, lose myself, maybe have a spiritual episode of sorts. If I didn’t have so much responsibility, I would prolly have wasted away, daydreaming and writing. I walked past a lady who was crying from the sheer beauty of the expanse. I couldn’t believe that it had affected her that much, and how such beauty will bring someone to tears. We didn’t really have time to fully explore, since we had to get home by nightfall and they had warned about scattered showers.

On the way back from the Canyon, we stopped at this campground that had a distinct Flintstones theme. C wiped “SANTI” into an Air Force missile set up nearby, rofl. Slept the whole way back. C said I had a good shoulder to sleep on. I get that a lot, sadly enough.

Had burgers for dinner, and s’mores for dessert. It’s a good thing Mormon Lake is a small town and the campsite had its own general store. We kept running back and forth for stuff to buy. Had to go to bed early since we had to make it an early day. Ate remembered to pack her queen-sized inflatable mattress, and thank God she did. If she hadn’t we would’ve had to sleep on the bare floor. It was like sleeping on air.

After breakfast, we broke our campsite down and got ready to go. The showers were $2.00 for 5 minutes so nobody took a shower, except for the baby. The drive up was uneventful. The Amber Alert sign warned us that taking the Hoover Dam home (which would’ve been much easier) was going to be difficult, because Sunday traffic on the Dam is awful. Weekend warriors and all that. So it advised us to take this really weird route home that we weren’t even sure was going to get us home on time. It wasn’t so weird after all, because it sent us right through Bullhead City, AZ/Laughlin, which is a stone’s throw away from Henderson, and home.

We decided to come visit Bullhead City/Laughlin on another day, since the Colorado River passes right through both cities and you can swim in it really easily. Bought Powerball for my dad (who says I got the wrong amount and wrong day), but I never buy lottery so I dunno what I was doing. We got home a lot quicker than we thought, and I had more than enough time to get ready for work.

My body is still aching. I haven’t been sleeping the whole night through so my body’s not healing. I got to bed at 1, if I’m lucky, and then I wake up at 7 because that’s when my sister leaves the house and she usually goes through the garage (which my room is over). My room is kinda crappy, you can hear EVERYTHING because it faces the street on two sides. So if someone roars down the street at 2 in the morning, best believe, I can hear it. I should prolly move my bed away from the wall, because I can’t keep living like this.

And once I’m up, I’m up. I think it’s because of my allergies and opening and then closing at work too, and perhaps that little thing that comes once a month. But I don’t have any money to buy some Claritin, to at least alleviate that problem. So I have to suffer until I get paid on Friday so I can see how I can fit it into my budget.

School starts next week, as well as my new job. God, I can’t believe how quickly summer is ending. But I have a lot of things to look forward to, such as knocking out 1 of 3 semesters I have left in school this winter, saving up more money for spring break at Disneyland (that I hope my friends will be able to splurge on), and stuff like that.

?: “How has your summer been?“