They're Coming Back to the Arena

For those of you who have known me for any amount of time, you know that Wyoming Cowboy Athletics hold a special place in my heart. From the time that I was very little, I was trained up to love and cheer for the Brown & Gold…growing up in a college town makes it inevitable.

When I was a teenager, my love for Cowboy Basketball outweighed my love of pretty much everything else. Whether or not this has anything to do with a crush that I may or may not have had on a player who may or may not have played for them…is yet to be determined. There are some ongoing studies…I’ll keep you posted on the results.

Anyway…the point is that I recently learned that next month former Cowboy Basketball players from several decades will convene in Laramie and will play a reunion game. Although I can’t say that I watched all of the slated players in their prime, there are several of them who were my heroes of heroes in my youth. Theo Ratliff anyone? Reginald Slater? Roman Totta? Sadly Dean Noseep isn’t going to make it…but I guess you can’t have it all. I can’t wait to see them in action again!

Wow…I thought I was excited about the New Kids on the Block Reunion, but I think this might even trump NKOTB! If only they could get the New Kids to come and do the halftime show, I’d be in Memory Lane Heaven!!

Work Is Crazy...In More Ways Than One...

So...it's the beginning of Fall semester in Laramie, and things are crazier than they've ever been. Our enrollment here on Campus is up almost 30% from this time last year...and I am totally feeling the overpopulation. Folks are just coming out of the woodwork. I really don't even know what that means...but if it means that my office hasn't seen a moment's worth of peace for about 3 weeks solid...then yeah...it applies. Anyway...I think that if people spend too much time in the woodwork...and then come out of it...to talk to me...the woodwork has done something to their brains.

For those of you who have never been to Laramie...it's not THAT big of a town. I mean, we have what we need, it's not some hillbilly back-woods hole in the ground, but...you know, you could get from one side of town to the other in 10 minutes or so. Not so huge. LCCC is located just off of Grand Avenue...which, if you live in Laramie, you know where Grand Avenue is...if nothing else. AND...we're right by Wal-Mart...and if you're alive, I'm pretty sure you know where Wal-Mart is. I'm horrible with directions, and I can usually find my way around. It's not that tough of a deal. Anyway...I just got off the phone with a new student, who has her first class at LCCC tonight. She asked me, number one, which level of the building her class was on. (We only have a one level building) Then, she also needed the physical address of the campus, so she could mapquest her way here. Um...seriously? I can't even imagine what city she thinks she lives in...because the directions to the campus are "Head east on Grand. Turn on the road before Walmart. Ta-da...there we are." It'd kind of be like mapquesting your way from the Deli to the Produce Section at the grocery store. In the time it took you to type in the coordinates, you could have already found your destination...just by wandering in the right direction. (UPDATE: As I was typing this blog, the lady called me back to say that our address doesn't exist on mapquest. I LOVE IT! So, I gave her the two part instructions. I hope she can figure them out.)

In addition...Mitch, who works over in Advising, just told me that when he went into the bathroom, he found an old man, "with huge buck teeth" (it really does create a better visual if I throw that in there) doing chin-ups on the beam that connects the two stalls. When Mitch asked him to stop doing said chin-ups, as our bathroom stall beams are not built to support excessive chin-up usage. He was apparently surprised, and expressed what an unusual request it was...to ask him to stop. Yeah...what were we thinking? Then, after being obnoxious for a while, he demanded that Mitch tell him where he could find a chin-up bar outside of the building. I'm not sure where Mitch told him to go...but he might try using mapquest to find his way.

Tanning Room Catastrophes, Take Three. And Four.

Yesterday I went tanning. Really…the fact that I’m blogging about it…should tip you off that it wasn’t such a stellar experience. I mean, honestly…how many bad things can happen to a girl in a freaking tanning room? I really can’t blame all of my woes on tanning…but the fact that so many of my woes occur in those rooms…just makes me wonder. Or…maybe it’s a sign that I spend far too much time in tanning rooms. Who knows? Sigh…

Anyway…I was getting ready to tan. I was taking off my shoes when I felt a snap.

OH MY GOSH!!! The elastic broke on my shoe…rendering that strap totally useless. Are you kidding me? These are my freaking 120 dollar Danskos we’re talking about. Don’t you think that if you are paying 120 dollars for a pair of shoes that the effing elastic should hold its own?? I think I’d be less angry if it had been the buckle that had broken or something…because I feel like I could get that fixed. Maybe I can get the elastic fixed…but WHAT IF I CAN’T????? I’m going to be so so mad.

After the initial shock of having a disabled shoe, I continued getting ready to tan, and I heard the distinct clinking sound you hear when something metal falls on the floor. Looking around, I couldn’t see what it might have been…there was nothing on the floor. Reaching up, however, I found that the dangly heart thingy had come off of one of my favorite dangly heart thingy earrings.

OH MY GOSH!!! I looked and looked and couldn’t find it anywhere. I’m sure it’s underneath the tanning bed. Of course I wasn’t going to try to retrieve it…we all know what happens when I try to fetch things from uncompromising places in tanning rooms.

So…the moral of the story is…I’ve got a crippled shoe and half an earring. I’m sure you don’t care…but I’m totally depressed.

Now I'm Going To Have the Creepy Crawlies All Day...

So basically I kind of like to consider myself to be a tough broad. You know, I'm not afraid to get dirty, and although I DO like to wear makeup and have my hair done, I'm not one of the girls who stands in the bathroom at Bear Lake for 3 hours fixing her hair for a night of flirting with the hot guys at the next camp site over. This might be because we didn't have any hot guys at the next camp site over from us...(there was a pair of questionable girls that made William uncomfortable)...but still...I'm not one of THOSE girls.

Anyway, in spite of my rugged exterior, there are a FEW things that freak me out...and near the top of that list...nasty gross spiders. Probably the only thing that is worse to me is a bee of any shape or form. But spiders...not cool. Not that I've ever been a fan of them...but I think my skittishness increased 38 fold when we had wolf spiders in our house in Utah. Oh my crap...those things are the DEVIL!!! They are huge, and scary looking...and freaking FAST. Oh how I hate them. Especially since one morning I woke up and, when I grabbed my cell phone to see what time it was, squished one as it was strolling across my keypad. WITH MY BARE HAND. BARF BARF BARF. I still get the chills whenever I think about it too much.

The point of the story is that today in the bathroom...I had a visitor in my stall. And he WASN'T little. I haven't seen that big of a spider...that close to me...since I scraped that rodent sized one off my hand back in Salt Lake. Fortunately I avoided having a heart attack...but it was close. WHAT the crap was this creep doing inside the College? Freaking jerk.

Random Summer Fun

So I was just going through my camera and found some pictures that I must have taken when I was not in blogging mode. So...here are some pictures of some of my fun nieces when they visited us here in Laramie...

Man I'm So Boring...But I Did Go To The Lake!

So I've had some complaints...("some" being one from Sharon)...I haven't been blogging a lot. I wish that I could say that I've been so busy or caught up in such exciting things...but in actuality...I just haven't had a lot to say. I get it...I'm lame.

This past weekend, actually, I did get to go to Bear Lake and had a great time with great friends. Kristi, William and I drove over and met Lacy, Val, Sarah and Sarah's kids, Sam and Emily. So much fun to spend time chatting and laughing like old times! Our campsite was pretty nice, not too crowded, and maybe best of all...had flushing toilets and showers. There is nothing quite as lovely as "roughing it" without having to smell like you're "roughing it." Also, without having to smell anyone else's...anything. =)

My camera was never in the right place at the right time...(I kept putting it in the wrong bag)...so I didn't get many pictures...but here are a few from the trip.

The Lake That I Love

William...going to give the whale/dolphin/floatie a try...

Nothing compares to a Bear Lake Pedicure...

Me and Emily. I really wanted to take her home with me!!