"Every man and woman- look alive!"

Woo hoo hello there- time for another postypost.
it's been a good week. worked tuesday in the bright angel restaurant- not bad, but super hectic. and on your first day youre just supposed to kinda watch and see how everything works... but i somehow ended up with my own section?? its like bussing/server helping, so its not just bussing tables. i mean its not hard or anything and ive worked in a restaurant before, but still... the servers were like getting on to me to do stuff and i was like really???!?!! this is my first day here and i have no trainer, i dont know where ANYTHING is. honestly.
anyway. had wednesday off, went for a run in the morning. ummmm, not as adjusted to the elevation as a thought. it was rough. then lunch, then went to flagstaff with nate, mike, and eli. it was a lot of fun, nice to get out of the park for a bit. hit up target, AHHHH i forgot normal civilization! bought some E.L. Fudge cookies, some granola, some popcorn, some batteries, a locker lock- good stuff. eli busted some vitamin water in the aisle, good. we then proceeded to drive around for a good 45 minutes looking for Bun-Huggers... but nate's garmen gps is WORTHLESS-- we could not find anything, ended up in a residential area and sketchily driving in circles by this cop like 6 times.. ended up finally going to some mexican place. it was actually really awesome (a kid's mexican restaurant for kids, according to mike)- it was featured on guy fieri's diners, drive-ins, and dives... how cool! it was real good, mmm. eli got the hugest burrito i've ever seen... this inevitably lead to conversations about poop and diarreah.. awesome. then headed back to gc. most ridiculous car ride of my life... "Would you believe me... if i told you.... that i had a dog named Diogi??"(d-o-g). Mike asked this question MAYBE 30 times, told us the story of his dog diogi, eli wouldn't believe him so he KEPT talking about it. somehow turned into him having a grandma named diogi, and another grandma named Seeaytee (c-a-t), and this lead to him having SIX dogs named diogi, and a grizzly bear named kriph (eli's roommate is named christopher and goes by kriph--another story), and penguin named kriphtopher. and him having his laptop for 94 years?? basically the conversation just spiraled way out of control, and continued pretty much the whole hour and half ride. mike kept asking "would you believe me---- if i told you...." and would add something ridiculous to the end. if eli said yes, mike would say it wasnt true. if he said no, mike would say it was true. i dunno what he was trying to prove with this really... it was honestly one of the funniest car rides of my life.
any vvayesss- worked again thursday and friday. got switched to the arizona room, which i think i like better. had to deal with some confusion about blue and red shirts..? got trained by the thai kids-- thus did not understand once again what i was supposed to be doing, but they were really nice and i like working with them. plus the az room is like 30 feet off the rim literally-so i have an awesome view of the canyon while im working. its not a bad job really, but i think im definitely gonna have to start serving soon, i cant buss all summer.. too monotonous.
anyway! what i've been waiting to write about-- the hike today! amazzzinnng!!! woke up at 4:30 to meet at the bright angel trailhead at five-- rough. met up with eli, lily, and meredith, and set off by like 5:15! gorgeous out already light at this point. got to see the sun rise over the canyon, INCREDIBLE, the light was slanting and beautiful over the rocks and hitting the canyon walls and it was nice and cool out and gorgeous. saw a mountain goat and her baby, cuties! they are really good at climbing vertical rocks.. i was of course fascinated by this. was a fun and easy hike down. went to indian gardens 4.5 miles down. its near the bottom of the first part of the canyon (there's two parts), and its lush and green, its basically a forest in the middle of the canyon. saw tons of lizards and mule deer and there were birds singing everywhere and it was beautiful out. we took a snack break and enjoyed it. i would love to camp at the campgrounds there at some point, it is honestly so gorgeous, and you can see the canyon walls rising all around you and they look incredible. THEN- another mile and half, pretty much flat, out to plateau point. this. was. AWESOME. you are in the middle of the canyon and its rising all around you, and you can see up and down the middle of it on both sides. i wanted 360 vision SO BADLY, i couldn't see it enough. the sky is just so huge and blue, and the canyon is so big and still and it's EVERYWHERE. once you get out plateau pt. youre only about 1000ft above the CO river, it was so much closer than i've ever seen it. and there are huge rock gorges on both sides of the point, and the north rim seems so close. it was honestly one of the most beautiful things ive ever seen. all you can hear is the wind and the river and its just breathtakingly huge and beautiful. i seriously cant even begin to describe it. and we got to sit out on the rocks and relax and take it all in, and there was no one else around, and we got to snack and fend off the rock squirrels and chat and it was a lovely thing! i had to pee in one of the rock crevices- good. AMAZING! my pictures won't even begin to do it justice. EVERYONE needs to get to plateau point during their lives.
the hike back (6 miles..4.5 of them UP!) wasnt bad.. until the end. we had lily's would-you-rathers to keep us focused! at 3 miles from the top it started raining.. and thundering and lightning! we all loved it though. it was adventurous and awesome- we just kept hiking. eli had a ridiculous yellow poncho, you could hear it flapping in the wind from like 100 feet away. the rain and thunder was actually really cool, it sounded really cool down in the canyon and it kept us from getting hot. very rugged! but the last mile and a half was reallllly tiring.. yikes. but finally got done! 12 miles! in 8 hours, with lots of breaks. im definitely gonna feel that tomorrow. yikess.. wet, dirty, and exhausted, never felt better! we all zipped home and showered then went to the az room to get real food, none of this e-caf biz. i ate... pork! i haven't eaten pork in AGES, but i NEEDED meat! and wanted it to, yes. so had barbeque. didn't feel too great afterwards.. but hey. my new rule is that if i hike 10 or more miles in a day, i will eat meat afterwards. good rule. well, came back after that and slept, have been in bed ever since. exhaustion. and no work tomorrow- SWEET! might get some frisbee going.
so yes. just another awesome day in the grand canyon. there is nothing like hiking, especially in a place as cool as this. dude i am LOVING it here!!
i'll probably get to bed again pretty soon... i just wanna sleep! write more soon.

(ps- the title is from Warehouse, my favorite dave matthews song from my dave matthews days. i was listening to them recently in remembrance of leroi moore (still can't believe he died, such a good saxaphonist)- and i heard this song and those lyrics and remembered how much i used to like them in high school. and the way he sings them is great too, he just really sounds so alive himself. listen to the live at luther college version of the song, you'll see what i mean. i just felt like they were fitting for the day/for my summer in general!)