I Love Stanley

7/15/10

Today was another busy work day. But at 5 o’clock on the dot I clocked out and went to go find my Volleyball team: BD Idaho. My team consists of me, 7 ft tall Andrew, Josh, and Dustin. Every other Thursday on the front lawn at the Lodge, Redfish holds a volleyball tournament with first place cash prizes. Not all of the teams showed up so we only played 4 teams but it was so much fun. I loved every second of it! Probably because our team kicked butt and we won first place. A whole $15 each was our prize. That is 2 hours of working out in the Gazebo! Our team dominates and I am counting down the days until our next tournament J

After volleyball later that night I went up to the weight room and worked out with Shaylee, Josh, and Adam. It felt great. Shaylee and I are new workout partners J

7/18/10

So yesterday I worked. It was a great day at work. It went smoothly and pretty stress-free. It was absolutely wonderful. When I got off, Dustin asked me to take his car into town and pick up his laundry because he would be working all night. Being the kind soul I am, but really just wanting to drive, I took Megan and we headed into Stanley. Ahhhh, it felt so good to be driving once again, especially stick. So we take his car and laundry back to the lodge so he could check to make sure we got the right clothes. We did, mission accomplished. Megan and I also decided to go camping on a whim. We borrowed Dustin’s “3-4 man tent” bought a lighter, got some wood, threw sweats on, grabed our bedding, and drug Kristine and Becca along with us. We were pretty excited. We had our smore items and some more junk food.

Off to Stanley lake it was. We drive a little ways into some random road and found a free campsite. Awesome. Becca started our fire, Megan and Kristine worked on the tent, and I documented the night. Especially the part when the tent was set up and we realized that Dustin’s “3-4 man tent” was in fact a 2 man tent. That’s okay! We told ourselves it would be….fun! we carried on with our night and started making smores. I don’t know how I always end up getting injured up here. But here is how it happened. So I am making my first smore with a wooden stick that is long but bent in the middle. The marshmallow lights on fire, I try to blow it out, I blow one side out, start to turn the stick so I could blow out the other side, the stick turns too fast and the flaming mallow ends up on my face. Ummm OUCH. My friends laughed and I was in excruciating pain. Now I have 3 blisters on my upper lip. Not awesome.

Then we decided to put on war paint. Also known as charcoal. It totally completed the night. Especially when Kristine decided to just go all out and cover every part of her skin that was showing in charcoal. It was so freaky. She blended into the darkness and all you could see was her eyes. Absolutely terrifying. Pictures just don’t do it justice.

As we start to tell scary stories, a truck pulls up into our camp. Not cool. But it ended up just being Megan’s Cowboy “friend”. Somehow he found out where we were camping- just a little sketchy. But when he left, he left us his hand gun because he was worried about us.

After that we just talked around the campfire, put it out, then talked inside the tent for a while longer. Then came sleep, or shall I say lack-of. I was stuck on the outside of the group with no blankets (my sleeping bag was under everyone cushioning them from the rocks) and no room in 20 degree weather. To sum up the night, it was miserable. Finally at 6:20 am I managed to squeeze out of the tent and get in Megan’s car where I listened to music for another 40 minutes before everyone got up to leave.

We left and megan and I had 30 minutes to get ready for church. Somehow we managed. I went and got breakfast with Dustin then he took me to church. After church Reese was waiting for us in the parking lot so we could go to Mountain Mama’s Art’s and Crafts fair. It was pretty sweet. I bought 2 more hand made copper rings and an awesome necklace.

As for the rest of the day goes, I slept on the beach for an hour and a half went back to my bungalow and slept for another hour. It was much needed sleep. I am still sick :/

7/16- Today we had a Gazebo meeting with the managers. To sum it up, it just made me frustrated. But as I started working, I realized that we did not have anymore Caesar dressing for our salads and wraps. I went to the kitchen to talk to Kelley about it and he said that I would have to make it from scratch. TJ gave me the recipe and sent me to work. It took me forever! The worst part: dealing with the anchovies. I was working across the table from TJ and as I scooped out the little anchovies from their container the smell wafted to my nose and I started gagging. TJ just laughed. And I just gagged. Then it was off to another busy day at work. And when I went into the kitchen later that evening to wash some dishes, a slow song came on the ipod and TJ came over and started dancing with me. everyone just stopped and watched. A little awkward. After work Josh and I did Yoga in the weight room. His girlfriend gave him a beginners yogo DVD and a yoga mat for his birthday so we did some yoga. It was quite entertaining to watch this big jock do all the poses haha. But it felt goooooddd.

7/19- Today was a great day. Want to know why?

1- I had Sushi

2- I watched my #1 all time favorite movie ever: INCEPTION

3- I did both of the above with some pretty rad people.

4- I did all of the above while being in the most gorgeous place in Idaho.

So here is the story of my day. It was my day off, and Reese and Kelley’s as well. So what did we do? We went to Sun Valley where we ran a few errands for Redfiish then we waited, waited until Sushi on Second would open. It was so worth the wait. We had deep fried Calamari and Mahi Mahi Tuna covered in cilantro, lemon juice, and some other herbs for our appetizers. I got a roll with Shrimp, avocado, and creame cheese. I tried Kelley’s rolls. One had spicy tuna and the other had salmon and Ahi tuna and caviar rolled around in wasabi on top of it. AHHHH it was all so delicious!

To top off a day filled with sushi, we went to the movies in Hailey to go see Inception.

It Blew.My.Mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was an INCREDIBLE movie. I cant stop thinking about it.

7/20- Today I pulled a 13hr work day. To be honest, it wasn’t too bad because it was insanely slow. But it was still really long and I went home and fell asleep within seconds. Not too exciting.

7/21- Today was another 12 hr work day. I went to housing afterward and showered and got ready to go hang out with people only to end up falling asleep on Megan’s bed.

7/23- I thought I had to work another 12 hrs today but SURPRISE I did not! That was a relief. So I went home at 5 and took a 3 hour, much needed, nap. Then I went and hung out with Becka, Rachel, and Jessica in Becka and Kristine’s room in the Ritz. It felt good to get some girl time in and break away from hanging out with guys 90% of the time. But after a while I did end up going to the bunkhouse for Vinyl Friday (Perry and Wyatt own a record player and it is so sweet) where it was 99% guys: Perry, Wyatt, Dustin, Lucas, Mike, Adam, and Shauna. They had the lights off, the black lights on, and the lava lamp on. Haha I love these guys. But then Adam, Josh, and I went to the boat box once again. Always a perfect ending to any day for sure J

A Months Worth of Catching Up

I have been keeping up writing down my days, but not so much with posting them on my blog. Sorry.

But here is what I have so far....

6/28

After work I took a nap. After my nap I decided to walk down to Point campground where we were suppose to be having FHE. Brennen Clegg rode up on a tandom bike and gave me my very first tandem bike ride ever! It was a little frightnening but way fun at the same time. He rode me down to the beach area where they were setting up a volleyball net and playing. There were too many people there so I decided to go to the boulder to see who was climbing that night. It ended up being only a few redfish employees and a bunch of people I didn’t know and they were all just chilling on the top. So I left. I went to the G-spot (general store) and bought some T-shirts. Then I headed back to housing because It was getting dark. It was Josh’s birthday so there was a huge bonfire! Everyone was pretty crazy. Some people were acting like they were five years old, others were pretending they were awesome rappers, one kid whipped out some sweet beat boxing while one guy started chewing out another guy for no reason. There were some new faces as well. A few girls and one guy. When most of the group left josh and adam and I sang Garth Brooks songs. Then Lucas came by but he left too. By the end of it, it was just TJ and I for a bit. We walked to the ritz but I was too tired to hang out by then. I got back to my bunglalow by about 3. Good thing the next day was my day off.

6/29

Today was my day off as well as Megan’s and Emma’s. We decided we were all going to lay out together. We were suppose to meet Emma at the lodge at 11 but when we got there it was cloudy and windy and Emma was nowhere to be found. Meg and I wanted to go try out the paddle boats. I highly do not recommend going on the paddle boats while it is that insanely windy. It was like trying to paddle boat in the ocean. Virtually impossible. Nick told us that we wouldn’t sink. Pretty sure we got incredibly close to doing so. We decided we had enough of paddling one way only to have the waves take us the other way. So we hed to the corrall for lunch where we run into Josh and Adam, we invite them to go to the rope swing with us. Dishwasher Dustin ended up going with us as well. It. Was. Awesome. I finally had the courage to do it and I don’t regret it one bit. It is such an adrenaline rush. Then megan jumped on with me as well and the dustin on it too. SO FUN. But meg fell trying to get off and scraped up her name pretty bad. Then Adam almost fell off but luckily he had a death grip on that sucker because that would have been awful if he fell. When we were done swinging we went on an adventure to explore all of the old run down shacks. When you actually look inside of them, they are way cool and interesting. We decided to go explore up some hills and we ended up finding this super sweet old car. Probably a good 60-70 years old. It had tons of bullet holes going into the drivers seat and then about two or 3 bullet holes that through the driver’s seat and out the back of the car through the trunk. I want to know the story behind this mysterious car!!!!!! So we wanted to take a group picture by it and I open the door so I could stick my head out the window and I sliced my knee on one of the bullet holes on the door! Don’t panic, I never got lock jaw. So all is good. But it was a sweet cut, you could see my cartilage and blood was gushing every where. We then made our way down towards the river where we found part of a train with bullet holes in it as well! All in all it was an incredible day spent with some awesome people and I felt like I was a kid again exploring in the wilderness. Trust me, we will all be back to explore some more J

6/30

As usual I worked 9-5 today. After work was through I was so tired and didn’t feel like walking back to housing right away so I took my book and sat myself down in a chair in front of the lodge. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes, got dinner in the corral and then went back to my chair. Lucas came by and sat next to me and we talked for a few hours, then TJ came and sat next to me for another few hours and we had some good bonding time haha. When he left I played volleyball with some strangers, one of the employees and it was tons of fun! After that it was getting kind of dark so I figured I should head over to housing. I went up to the weight room and hung out with Lucas and Andrew while Josh and Adam worked out. Then we played darts. I am definitely not the best dart player in the world, but it was still exciting and we had a good time. Even though lucas and I lost.

work, sat on porch of lodge for 4 hours:read, slept, dinner, came back talk to lucas, talk to TJ for 2 hours, he drank, talk about girls, free dinner, played vball with Emily and random guys and college vball girl, went up to weight room hung out with lucas and Andrew while josh and adam worked out, played darts, me and lucas lost, the all decided they were my big brothers,

7/1

another day at work. They all kind of blur into one. A guy got mad at me when I told him we didn’t have recycling. Evidently we do, but i had been informed that we didn’t. oh well. After work I watched everyone play volleyball while enjoying my free soft serve ice cream, just one of the perks of working at the gazebo. Redfish put on a big volleyball tournament with cash prizes and everything. I couldn’t find a team in time so for now I just sat and watched and envied their playing time every second. I went to dinner then headed out to play ultimate Frisbee for 2 hours with a bunch of the single adults and the Clegg family. I played for 2 hours without touching the Frisbee, I guess that’s what you get when you play with a bunch of guys who assume you don’t know what you’re doing even when you actually do. When we got back to housing meg and I built our own fire!! Yep it was awesome, and we make smores and everything. Nick, Dustin, Katie, Jon, Bryant, and Adam hung out with us for a bit until we put it out. And josh always said I could never make my own fire. I guess I proved him wrong.

work, move cashier, guy got mad for no recycle, watched volleyball ate ice cream, had dinner, went to ulimate and played for 2 hours without touching the Frisbee, me meg built our own fire had mallows hung out with nick dustin Katie adam jon bryant

7/2

cut off work early, ate one of TJ’s sourdough cinnamon muffins mmmm, ????

7/4

Today I worked in the kitchen ALL DAY. I was there from 9-5 and truth be told, I loved every second of it. Especially when it was one of the busiest days of the season. I pulled pork for probably 3 hours! Yeah, talk about a whole lot of pork! It was probably 2 pigs worth. And I made a bunch of wraps and salads. Then I went straight to church. I can always count on Sundays to allow me to call my friends and family because I know I will be at church in town. So I was able to talk to my mom and grandma. After church we always head straight to the corall for dinner. Don is awesome and makes sure to save food for us.

I went up to the fireworks at Stanley with Jessica, Britney, and Becca. While we were driving there I discovered something…. deers squat like dogs while they poop! Yeah it was way weird.

So when we get up to the park I run into Lucas and Trista so I went off with them to go find more of our redfish crew. It ended up being me, Lucas, Trista, Jon, Mike, Josh, Adam, Josh’s girlfriend, Perry, Wyatt, Shaylee, Matt, Alec. It was super fun! Lucas Adam, Josh, and I started singing different American songs, eventually we got all of Stanley to sing along with us. It was epic.

I went back to housing with Lucas and we hungout in the bunkhouse for a while then around the bonfire. I went to bed early. I know, super lame. But Jamie Lee Curtis was at redfish. I didn’t see her because I was in the kitchen all day but Chelsea had a conversation with her. I thought that was cool.

7/5

So before I went to bed the night before, Megan had not gotten home yet and I didn’t even know where she had went and usually I always get home way later than her. I was a little worried but not too much. When I awoke in the morning her truck was still gone. This is when I started panicking! I was so terrified that something horrible had happened to her. If she wasn’t at work then I was planning on going to Jeff Clegg and having him call in a search party. Luckily when I got to the front desk she was sitting there. I let her know how freaked out I had been and made her promise to leave a note before she leaves and never gets back!

So I worked all day. It was super busy. No big D though.

A little bit after I got home from work, we went to Stanley Lake for F-ing-H-E (FHE) where we had dutch oven food cooked in 7-up and played games at the lake. I went to bed early I am getting so lame at that. but I couldn’t sleep later at night so I stargazed by myself in the middle of the night.

7/6

Today was my day off! These are always days that need to be celebrated. It was a beautiful morning waking up at 10 instead of 7:30. Meg and I went into town to do laundry because it is about 2 dollars cheaper than the laundry mat at redfish. The laundry place is connected to the side of Papa Brunee’s (the pizza place) kind of an odd location if you ask me. anyways, Cowboy stopped by and said hi while we were there. We also had to run across the street to make an errand at the post office for Rachael. While we were waiting for our clothes to wash we went to the Stanley Museum. It was legitimately awesome. I always forget how cool museums are, especially the ones in small towns. They had an antique “bad blood sucking machine” that doctors used to use. All I can say is that I am definitely glad that technology has come a long way. All in all the museum was so fun to look around in, and it was free! You have to love free entertainment J while we were waiting for our clothes to dry I walked over to the library and bought myself A LIBRARY CARD! But for some reason I have become ADD when it comes to reading books. I used to be able to zip through a book every couple of days, now it is so hard to get into any. I checked out about 4 books and have yet to read past the first few chapters on any of them. Maybe one of these days I will finish one…..

Once our clothes were finished we changed into our bathing suits and headed to the lake to sunbathe! It felt marvelous! Aahhh I could have slept all on the beach but megan had a date and had to leave early and then it got chilly so I went and chilled by the lodge with Dustin, Reese, and Bryant. We all ended up going back to Reese and Kelley’s shack to play video games. I wasn’t that great so it didn’t keep me entertained for long. Instead I went to the lodge to get dessert. Unfortunately they were out of a lot of their famous desserts so I had Grandma’s Chocolate cake instead. It was quite scrumptious. Megan and I felt like it was a movie night so we went over to Kelley’s shack to borrow some movies (they have an insane movie stash). We watched Signs and The Dark Knight with all our roommates and Cowboy. It was a pretty great day.

7/8

I only worked from 9-2. We were over staffed and I was feeling like I was going to pass out for some reason so I offered to leave early. I spent the rest of my day trying to take a nap, then went to the lake to lay out with Megan. Ahhh it felt so good. But the sun was too hot for me to be able to sleep so here I am at 8:30 and dead tired still. But I did run into the Clements’ family, minus Hailey. That was a little sad that I didn’t get to see her but it was still a fun surprise to run into her family! Then we went to go get dinner. We were so excited because it was homemade pizza, but the second we got to the corall, the last slice was taken. It shattered my entire universe! So I had salad and cereal for dinner. Then I went and read on the tables by the Gazebo and Emily came and sat by me and we chatted for a bit. There’s nothing like relaxing by the gorgeous lake while the sun is setting to end a day. I went back to housing and now I am back in my bungalow hoping desperately that someone will make a fire tonight. We have not had a bonfire in FOREVER. Really depressing.

7/13

Today I was still sick. I was sick all day yesterday on my day off and it started Sunday night. Sunday was pretty bomb. I had the day off so I went to early morning church with Megan instead of going to the 5 o’clock one with my other roommates. After church meg had a meeting in town so I stayed In the car and talked to sarah for a good hour or so. It was so nice to finally talk to her again! J after that I went to the lodge where I ran into Travis McDaniel and Nick Berlin. That was so exciting! They had a gig at the lodge that night so they came to scope things out.

I was so exhausted so I went back to our bungalow took a shower, then tried to take a nap. After 5 minutes of laying down I heard a knocking at our door and then in pops my little brother! Surprise!! My family and Lisa Banks and her boys came up to Redfish! My mom wanted to watch Travis McDaniel sing at Redfish that night and I don’t blame her because he was AWESOME! Along with the Bodo Brothers! They were all so fantastic and I had an absolute blast listening to them for 5 hours haha. I also bought both of their CD’s….so exciting!

My family then left and I went back to my bunk where my roommates were watching the new Shrek movie. I sat and watched the rest of it that I didn’t finish the night before because I went to go hang out with Josh and Adam in the weight room again followed by watching an episode of Curb Appeal.

Anyways, after finishing Shrek I made my way up to the bunkhouse to hang out with whoever was chilling up there. At first it was just DJ Dustin and Perry. Then Reese and Sierra showed up and throughout the night Dishwasher Dustin, Yusa, Kelley, Trevor, Tony, and Luke came by. I pretty much just sat and ate delicious strawberry cheescake ice cream and listening to music while everyone played beer pong all night. Dishwasher Dustin and Luke owned everyone winning 7-0. I was impressed at least. There was actually I fire that night so I went to check it out for a bit but it was kind of lame. Just a few people there. So I went back up to the bunkhouse and chilled there till about 2ish.

The next day, my other day off, I was sick!! Probably from lack of sleep. So I slept a lot, went and layed out by the lake, then slept some more, then went back to the lodge where I ran into Josh getting off of work. So we hung out in the corral for a while and went to the general store so he could charge a 21 cent fireball to his tab haha. We went back to his bungalow and hung out some more until we decided to go to the boat box! I love that place and would totally go more often if I had a car. It was just me Josh and Adam. We listened to Alabama the whole way there, I love those boys. They are like my favorite older brothers I never had haha. I pretty much just chill with them in the weight room every other day while they work out. Like right this second., with Perry and DJ Dustin as well. As I am writing this. ANYWAYS. We get to the boat box and it was so sweet. Chilling in a nice hot tub on the side of a river at 11:30 at night under the stars. It was so sweet. We had some pretty nice intellectual conversations. We were there for about two hours and saw about 20 shooting stars. Gorgeous! Went home. Went to bed.

Woke up late, still sick. I was so delirious the first couple hours of work. I was getting made fun of so bad haha. I would walk into the kitchen and just stand there not quite knowing where I was or why I was there haha. It was horrible. Overall though, it was a way fun work day. Probably one of the first in a long time. Shaylee and I have grown closer and have a lot of fun together, especially when it was as slow as it was today. I made a total of 1 nacho and 2 burritos, pathetic. Shay and I pulled some more pork. So fun. We pretended we were performing surgery, we had to spice it up some way.