An Entire Week of Fun Smooshed into One Post

I'm back!

Currently I'm laying comfortably on my bed with my laptop stretching my legs.

I suppose it's time I reveal the 'big' secret...I was in...

COLORADO! Durango to be exact.

Boy was that an adventure and a half.

When we arrived at the cabin, home base for the week, I was assaulted with a slow-motion reunion hug by my cousins,* Anna and Julia. This I expected, since they are my favorite cousins and that's just what we do.

They were watching for me on the balcony

I checked out the place. Of course Anna, Julia and I got the basement. That could probably be considered our natural habitat as once we go downstairs we usually aren't seen again till it's time to eat. In our room downstairs we had a large wardrobe. I opened it out of curiosity and then after staring into it I did the logical thing and climbed inside.

No Narnia. But the fact that we could sit inside it would come into play later on.

Another important discovery was found inside a bin of toys.

Google images is my friend

This rug.

Okay. There were no pucks or whatever else goes with shuffleboard in the bin. So we just kinda stared at it for awhile, after some creative logic we spread it out on the floor and started dancing.

It says 'Shuffle Zone'

What else were we supposed to do???

Then we hung up a sign saying it was required by law to shuffle in the shuffle zone. The rug was placed at the bottom of the stairs and left there for the rest of the trip.

We spent the evening catching up and playing I Spy Spooky Mansion Deluxe.
And Still Pond

And then mashing the two together.**

That night we ate in.

The next day was spent talking, playing with legos, and watching Disney Movies. We also watched Barbie: Life in The Dreamhouse.

Surprisingly funny...

We ate out that night.
There were a few notable moments at dinner.

Julia's Soda Confusion.
When the guy came back to refill Julia's glass of Dr. Pepper this happened

Waiter: What do you have in here?
Julia: *looks at empty cup* Uhhhh...ice?
Waiter: Just ice?
Julia: OH! No! Dr. Pepper!

The next key moment happened instantly after. I had gotten root beer (which came in a bottle and therefore with a glass of ice to pour it in.)

Waiter: *points to glass of ice* You just have water in here?
Me: Uhhhhhh...sure

The final interesting moment happened at dessert.

I was reading the menu and instead of reading what it said, which was

Featured Flavor from The Durango Creamery

I read

Featured Flavor from The Durango Cemetery

We then ordered it like that, much too the confusion of our waiter.
The featured flavor was vanilla with bits of kit kat by the way...

The next day we attempted to scare Karen, but the family was out Jeeping so they didn't get back soon enough.

The most important part of this day though, was Marble Hornets.

We watched all 63 videos of the webseries with times ranging from 30 seconds to 15 minutes. It's an expertly done webshow. Perfect balance of mystery and horror.

We took a break around Entry 58 and went downtown.
We walked up and down whatever street it was we parked on. I bought the third book of the Mysterious Benedict Society. It started raining and we went home.


The next day we made our movie, something that we do every time we meet. We also scared Karen by jumping out of the wardrobe from earlier. We were paranoid for most of that day due to Marble Hornets. Lunch (leftovers from the second night) had accidentally been frozen into a solid block that took about half an hour to de-freeze.

Thursday was Mesa Verde day. Which was kind of cool due to the fact it was the Anasazi cliff dwellings and well...Anaz...

I got a book at the place we stopped for breakfast, Plato and a Platypus walked into a Bar.

A philosophy book, which only now I see the irony in.

Before the tour we saw a bus with the tag line "Goin' Places with Smilin' Faces" which Karen made the official phrase of Anna, Julia, and I.

We ended up taking the Balcony House tour. Highlights of the tour included a thirty foot ladder and a twelve foot tunnel.

We premiered our movie that night.

Friday was our last full day, and the one that had the most events.

We were forced on a hike up to mushroom rock.

Which in all honesty was climbing up a mountain.



Yes that tiny house was where we started.

When we got back I convinced Karen to watch Marble Hornets. She watched Entry #1 and then we decided to move downstairs.

Unfortunately our doors had randomly locked and it took about thirty minutes for us to get in.** We had about twenty minutes to celebrate our room access before we left and went into town again. We checked out the Toy Store and bought tiny animals and bells. While we were looking about the (overpriced) candy shop, Karen decided she needed to use the restroom.

So we headed over to the Information Center. The second we walked inside I exclaimed in excitement that the benches looked cool. While Karen took care of business we sat down and rang our bells for a little bit before we were called over by the people at the front desk.

Apparently they wanted us to be the first to draw on their new chalkboard. She handed us some sidewalk chalk and told us to draw things we loved about Durango.

Karen freaked out a bit when she finished her "seated activity"*** but calmed down once we explained why.

When we left I told Anna and Julia that they probably had decided we would be the perfect ones to start the wall from the second I shouted "LOOK AT THE BENCHES!"

We came back to home base and hung out for a bit before going back for dinner.

At dinner, my cousins and I sang ALL of Winter Wrap up, joked about our trip, and confused the heck out of yet another waiter.

Julia: Do you have root beer?
Waiter: Yes we do.
Julia: In that case I'd like a Dr. Pepper.

After dinner we headed back to the house and stayed up until 2am.

Saturday morning we packed up and left (I also had been retweeted by @radiomadison so woot!)

Finally I'm home and ready to slide back into a lifestyle of doing nothing.

I'll also be getting back to regular posts

Hopefully they won't all be this long. (:



*The cousins that built the legos that the OTHER cousins destroyed in EVERY. FREAKING. YEAR
** "A black picture frame!" "Fell on a still pond."
***The sign that hung above the toilets at our house informed us they were 'low flow' and so we might want to consider flushing twice during our seated activity to avoid clogs. It was a running joke through the week.

Tony

This, surprisingly, has nothing to do with the Tonys. No. Not that.

No, I was thinking to myself about what my next post would be about and I realized it's been a while since I told you a story. A nice true story from my wonderful life.

So, I dug deep into the depths of my grey thinking matter and found just the story to tell you all.

The story of Tony.

It happened a few years ago, the week after my spring break. My fave cousins, Anna and Julia*, were here as it was their spring break. We had decided to go out to lunch, our families did, so they picked me up to school and we drove to Red Lobster.

Now here's what I can tell you about Red Lobster. They have really good biscuits.

That's about all I could say before this fated day. Now I can tell you that they have Tony.

So we arrived at the restaurant. Hungry, thirsty, a little bit excited to see each other in my cousins and I's case. We are seated and introduced to our waiter, a friendly fellow named Tony. Par normal restaurant standards, he took our drink orders. Now this is, in the story of Tony, his call to action. Or something.

Anna, Julia, and I get lemonade. There's nothing particularly special about it, we all suck it down like it's the first liquid we've seen in days. Being a good waiter Tony comes back and fills our glasses back up.

And that's when it gets weird.

Because every time he passed by since then, he filled our lemonade.

After that first gulp I never got the drink down past halfway. Heck, at one point he filled my glass, I took a drink, and he freaking filled it again!

I don't know what he learned in his training, maybe he was told that the costumer should never have to ask for a refill and he just took it to heart and soul. But I swear, if I would have managed to drink the whole glass, Tony would have dropped dead.

To make matters worse, we happened to have an inside joke about a Tony.** So Julia was reciting it, drawling out his name right as he walked past. He didn't say anything about it, or react in any other way than filling our glasses.

It got to the point that every time he walked past, we all pretended to be taking a really long drink. Which worked up until the point where he just stood there waiting.

So here I am, about to burst from to much lemonade consummation, and I'm taking a ridiculously long drink. Tony is just standing next to me holding the pitcher of lemonade and staring at me. So I hold his gaze, willing him to leave, and he just stands there. Finally I gave up the charade (because I needed to breath) and put down the glass. He filled it and moved on.

Really, in conclusion, I didn't finish my food because I was too full of lemonade.

I suppose he's the best service I'll ever have. I think of him often, normally when I'm staring at my empty cup of soda wishing for a refill.

*These are the cousins that I build legos with and stuff. They're really awesome
**The joke involves a garbage disposal being mistaken for a lemur named Tony...you'd of had to been there...

Every. Fraking. Year.

WARNING! I AM ABOUT TO RANT.

First off, you need to know I like to build things with Lego. And giving my liking to writing sometimes building a fantasy world in Lego with mini figures helps get the creative juices flowing.

Now I can tell you that I have two younger cousins that come over for thanksgiving, and every single year my Lego world is destroyed.

It's gotten to the point were I have to choose what's most valuable, box it up, and stick it on the top shelf.

Yet somehow, no matter what measures I take, destroyed.

I think the only way at least SOME of my things can be saved is for me to hide it in my closet on the very top shelf in the back.

As much as I'd like to see the damage I really don't want to know.

Now let me add another layer to my anger. I have another pair of cousins that build things too.

It's one thing for me to rebuild my stuff, quite another to rebuild someone else's.

I see these other cousins about twice a year and thanks to those destructive little boys the majority of Lego time is spent rebuilding.

I think I'm going to post the next chapter of Sad, Tortured, and British on FictionPress now, get my mind off Lego

*UPDATE*

It got worse. My heart breaks a little more everytime I look at it. I want to stop but I can't, it's like a bad car wreck I can't stop looking.

Part of me wants to rip apart their creations to see their reactions. Tell them that what they are feeling, the anger and sadness is what I'm feeling, only worse because they just wanted something to do. Ask them if they even considered what they were doing.

But I can't. I can stand up to people and tell them off about just about anything. But every year when this happens to my legos, I can't.

I suppose it's because I know they won't get it. Curse me and this knowledge because I'd probably feel alot better.

Then again I also hate conflict and would rather keep the peace, in that way I'm such a pushover.

To top it off I don't have a bed tonight. So yeah...today was fun.

Oh I also have to clean the mess up, not because they won't (Their parents will make them), I just know that...

Who am I kidding? It's over.

I just heard someone tell the kid their broken...thing...was an easy fix and it just sunk in. I really wish you could see this guys because you would know what I mean.

Well in conclusion to my sad and angry rant:

My(and my other cousins's) entire lego universe is destroyed

I really liked said lego universe


Silver Lining?
1. I have so many pent up feelings left, so I am going to be really productive in terms of writing tonight.
2. Lack of a quiet place to sleep will force me to stay awake meaning I can finish Fringe
3. I can also pick up the remains of my shattered universe.