The Sickmiller Express

This has been one long month. One looooooong month. I can’t wait for May. I don’t have too many exciting things happening in May but I don’t think it could get much worse. I’m so stressed and I don’t consider myself a stressful person (as in full of stress not one who causes stress, either way though). A college friend is coming out to the area at the end of May so we’ll get to do some camping and he might come up to Silverton for a night so I can’t wait for that.

The train starts up next weekend and I’m excited for the town to fill up with people again. Locals think I’m a bit mad for wanting the rush of people and supposedly I’ll change my mind by the end of the season. For now though, I’m excited.

ALSO for the finale of things I’m looking forward too. I just got an email confirmation from my parents. They have bought plane tickets and will be coming out in the beginning of June. CAN’T WAIT for that. YAY.

The last few days? Bought a bed, went and picked it up in Grand Junction (longest day ever), then got sick and missed three days of work. Decided it was time to head to warmer pastures and ended up at Chaco Culture National Park near Nageezi, NM. It was our first time visiting New Mexico and was well worth it.

The park was very isolated and we spent a good 8 miles bouncing along a dirt road to get to the gate. Before that dirt road there was a sign that said the campground: FULL. Uh oh. We didn’t spend too much time worrying about it though because the sign was so far away from the actual entrance to the park that I wouldn’t imagine anyone would go and change it during the day. We headed straight to the campground (it was technically outside the park limits), grabbed a sign in envelope, and started scouring the sites. While looking someone alerted us that they were leaving and we could park outside their spot and wait for them. Yay! It was one of the neatest campgrounds we’ve seen in a NP. Our site was awesome, the perfect place to sit around a fire and appreciate the park. We didn’t do any real hiking because I was still feeling kind of lousy but since it is a culture park a lot of the features didn’t require too much walking. Here are a few pics for your enjoyment! (Click to enlarge)

If you only want to look at a few make sure you choose ‘Pueblo Bonito from the inside’ and ‘Fajada Butte’. Those are the best two for getting an idea of the park as a whole.

On the road to the park. There was a guy waving a big orange flag. Adam thought he needed a ride. I on the other hand new it would be something else but I was expecting it to be a piece of machinery

Adam at the park entrance. Wearing his pajamas.

Our beautiful campsite!

Pueblo Bonito – the largest great house

Pueblo Bonito from the inside.

Danielle and the ruins

They must have been a small people

Fajada Butte

Adam around the fire. Yes, that’s a pallet ON TOP OF THE FIRE RING. It made me nervous for a very long time.

Home sweet home! Kind of…

Before all this other stuff happened I made this blanket dog for my friend Katie’s baby. It was huge. Note to self: from now on look at the dimensions on the pattern packet.

Anyone see it this week? I bet my parents did. Anyway I thought it was a great episode and it kind of makes me want to rant about TV these days. What is with all the negativity and exploitation that goes on? I can’t handle most of those judge shows and a lot of the daytime talk shows. I have this saying, “it hurts my heart”. I don’t watch negative TV anymore and luckily I don’t have to see the previews anymore because of the DVR. I just don’t get what is funny about people getting their feelings hurt or embarrassing themselves. Like American Idol (don’t even get me started about the use of the word idol), I actually heard people say that they LIKE the beginning few episodes where the judges make fun of the ‘bad’ contestants. They say it get boring when it’s down to all the ‘good’ people. I can’t believe it. I used to watch ALL the American Idol episodes (Kelly Clarkson’s season) and the later episodes were my favorite. The interesting part is seeing who people are voting for and listening to good singers perform. I’d also like to point out that I’ve seen this type of show televised in other countries and you never saw the negativity that is broadcast here. It was all about helping the contestants become better at what they are doing.

They also mentioned TV news. I generally don’t watch it but Adam has been turning it on in the morning as we get ready for work. Somehow nothing ever seems like ‘news’ to me. I don’t want to hear about weather and traffic. Take those out and give me more in depth explanations of how the economy functions, more events from around the world, enlighten me, teach me something, and for goodness sake if I ever die in a car crash DON’T PUT IT ON THE EVENING NEWS.

Not much going on this weekend. I’ve been looking forward to it after the last two weeks. We were VERY busy two weeks ago and this last week has just been generally a little stressful. My plans for the day? Do some sewing, play Mario and Sonic Olympics and then on to dinner and our Netflix movie.