The Spring Break Grab-Bag: Part Deux

Last year's Spring Break culminated in a Spring Break Grab-Bag and I figured it was only right to do another after this year's Spring Break. . . the only problem is that the week after S.B. has already passed without a blog from yours truly. For good reason. Last week was one of the busiest weeks I've had in some time, and I'm sure that you are interested in what went on (as well as on my thoughts on some recent events - - you are here, aren't you?). . .

So, without further ado, I give you the second annual Spring Break Grab-Bag!

- I'll start with the most recent events and work my way back (Memento-style!). Heather was home this weekend (car check-up) so we had some good hang-out time! We shopped (I bought her two pairs of sandals from the FL; I picked up a couple 25%-off books - Mike Greenberg's WHY MY WIFE THINKS I'M AN IDIOT: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A SPORTSCASTER DAD and Billy Crystal's 700 SUNDAYS) and ate (El Torito for dinner on Saturday night - fantastic as always!) and rested (I read all day today while she worked on homework - - that's the difference between us you see: She's a great student and I'm a terrible procrastinator. More on that later. . .). Our time together always breezes by and things like stupid Crapspeare class seems to drag on forever. . I don't get it. Anyway, we had a great weekend! Great weekend :D

- So this week. . . Well Monday I had orientation at BJ's (well, actually at the Residence Inn in Palmdale). That was pretty exciting, and I'm looking forward to working there. It should be quite lucrative, especially those first three months (shh. . . don't tell them I'm leaving after July. . .). Instead of bowling like usual on Monday night, I went to see GRINDHOUSE with Justin and Cy. What a fun three hours plus that was!!! I really enjoyed Robert Rodriguez's PLANET TERROR (a grotesque, campy, and hilarious-at-times zombie flick) and I thought the faux trailers were hilarious (especially the one directed by SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ director, Edgar Wright called DON'T - - - viewers beware of graphic, yet hilarious, material!)



And then there was Quentin Tarantino's DEATH PROOF. Well, watching this at 2100 (when the movie started - not DP, the whole thing) was a bad idea. You see, DP is mostly dialogue, something that ol' QT is a genius of. However, at 2315, all you really want is stuff to get either blown up, run over, or whatever. I would like to see the whole thing again, and I might in the theaters. If I don't, I'll most certainly buy it (gotta add to the QT collection!) and watch it then! If you are a fan of either guys, do yourself a favor and kick back for a three and a half hour film that is nothing but entertaining!

(GRADE: A-)

Tuesday was a school day which ended in me sitting by my computer NOT working on my five-page Shakespeare paper that was due on Thursday. I had chosen to discuss whether or not the 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You was a good adaptation of William Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew or not. . . Yeah, a weak topic, but I thought I could ramble for five pages pretty easily. I was wrong. I could not, for the life of me, get started!!! Most of Tuesday night was just me trying to find anything to do but write that damn paper. . . I worked most of Wednesday and preceded to do the same thing on Wednesday night. Even though the paper was due Thursday (at 1545), I had no desire to do it. I was INSTANT MESSAGING with my Heather and that took precedence over everything else at the time (we were discussing our future plans - always exciting!). Before I went to sleep at 0230 on Thursday morning, I had three pages and no idea how to get two more done. I ended up skipping Journalism class on Thursday (actually, Professor Hood let me go - he's the best!) to finish it. . which I did! Five pages of perfect bullshit that will probably get me a high C to a low B. I love my writing! . .

The problem was that besides the essay being due, we also had a midterm on the same day! (Not that I would have studied anyway. . ) Well somehow I pulled a 9.5 out of 15 on the fill in the blank (impressive, considering I didn't read the plays or sonnets - also, one of those scary-looking smart girls got an 11; I was happy with my score). Then it was time for the hour long compare/contrast essay on two sonnets. I sat there for half of the time wondering what in the hell I was supposed to write about. I do not understand these poems that Shakespeare wrote, so how am I gonna compare them to each other! I ended up biting my fingernails and looking at all my classmates speedily write down their brilliant answers. My thoughts: "You might be doing well on this essay, but I'm going to be SO much more successful than you!"; (after a girl looks at the clock) "Sorry sweetheart, your time to perfect your essay is running out. . ." and "Well, I guess I should start. . ." And I did. In a half hour I compared the two sonnets (8 and 128) in three full pages. I was impressed with myself. I probably got another mid C with that essay and that puts me right on track to get a C in that class, which is what I've resigned myself to. I'm ok with it. I really am. . .

After that, I worked all day on Friday and then waited impatiently as Heather made her way home, leading to our aforementioned fantastic weekend. . . Speaking of the FL, though, I have to say that I still enjoy working there. My knowledge of the shoes is growing and I still LOVE the discount! If I could be employed at one for the rest of my life (just one day a week, for like two hours!) I would be so happy! Either way, it has introduced me into the world of athletic shoes, and I'm ever-grateful! My bank account, on the other hand. . .

- Ok, so my Lake Powell trip. . . Wow! Are you ready? Am I? Let's find out together!

The five of us Gotts hopped in our rented motorhome on Tuesday afternoon and set out for Williams, Arizona, our first destination. After a VERY LONG eight-hour drive, we arrived at the motorhome hotel (you know, where they have all the hook-ups and such) and began to prepare for sleep. We all headed to bed around 2300 or so, but as the night progressed, it got colder and colder. It was soon hovering around freezing outside, so my dad woke up and went to turn on the heater. . . Problem: The heater did not work! That night was one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life. Not only was my bed pretty iffy (not the softest of mattresses. .), I was practically (and literally) freezing! Well we all woke up kinda upset (my dad especially, who had not gone back to sleep after trying to fix said broken heater - he said he ended up walking off his frustration around the motorhome park. . . poor guy!) but readied ourselves for our journey to the Grand Canyon. There is a train that goes from Williams to the GC and we rode it up there in the morning. We got up there just fine, and when we did, this is what we saw:

















It was beautiful. . . We spent almost all afternon up there, going on a tour of the great sight spots, and we got some good fam pics (or sibling pics) out of it:

















(that's the sister and me) - - - It was fun, except for these nasty little gnat things that were EVERYWHERE!!! And when I mean everywhere, I mean just that! I dont think that these pests serve any purpose on this planet other than bothering the crap out of tourists at the Grand Canyon. I believe that.

On the train ride back, I taught Aimee the old grade school game MERCY, which apparently she had never heard of. . . that was fun.


















And thanks to my new IPOD, some of the two-hour plus train ride went by pretty fast. All in all, it was a cool experience (it was my second journey there - my first was when I was like 3). We bundled up that night (I wore a sweatshirt, my jeans, socks, and covered myself with three blankets) so we were ready for the cold. It was not as bad and we woke up feeling better than the morning before. We then hopped back on the road to head to Lake Powell.

It was about three hours later that we arrived at our hotel and most of the other family members were there already. Pop, Mom-mom (my dad's parents), Aunt Debbie and Uncle Karl (my dad's sister and brother-in-law) were all there and showed us to our rooms. By the time I got out of the shower (that was job one!) the rest of the crew had arrived: Cousins Travis and Josh, along with Renee (Travis' girlfriend) and my Heather had driven in from Las Vegas. Now that everyone was there, we got situated in our rooms and veged out til dinner time. We ate at the hotel's restaurant all three nights we stayed there (which had its pros and cons like everything else). This was our view from our table:


















The food was good and the service was, well, it was ok. Josh and I both agreed that we could have done better, but it was fine.

Heather, Aimee, and I went to the spa that first night until it closed at 2200 and then we went to bed. We were up at 0530 for a 0600 breakfast on Friday morning and then it was off again, this time to a small airport where most of us (save for the petrified Aimee and the willing-to-stay-on-Earth Mom) would be getting an aerial tour of Lake Powell: This was us waiting to go up into our "coffin with wings" (you can see the excitement written all over my face!) - - -


















And then this was all of us after we had returned safely:


















It was a pretty cool time up in the air, although I wish I could have had a little more air (and I was reassured by the air-sickness bag in the pocket in front of me!). We had some nice views of the Lake Powell area, and then arrived back on the ground without a scratch! We then were off to our next adventure, a canyon tour. We off-roaded to get there (via a 4x4 truck owned and operated by the Native Americans who put on the tour) and then spent the next couple hours walking through this amazing tunnel that has been created by the wind and the rain/floods of the past thousands/millions of years (whatever you believe). It was incredible to see the way nature looks in its most, well, natural (sorry, I used the word twice. . .) sense. Looking straight up out of the canyon while traversing through it provided some sights like these:

































A man named Chief Tsose led us through the canyon and he was very knowledgeable (he should be - he grew up playing hide and seek in the canyon!), funny, and talented. He played a flute-like instrument that when played in the canyon, resonated for hundreds of feet. It was a beautiful experience and Caleb was even offered the chance to play by the Chief, but he passed (this is a picture of their interaction:)


















That night culminated in dinner at the same place and then some family fun afterwards. It was a blast to hang out with Travis and Josh. I had not seen Josh since our Maryland trip in December of 2004, so it had been way too long! Saturday was made up of a later breakfast (0830) and then a relaxing early afternoon before we headed to the big dam (its the second largest in the U.S. I guess, behind the Hoover Dam) for our River Raft tour.
















I was mistaken when I wrote here that it would be "White Water" rafting. You see, that would imply speed of any kind. This trip was the slowest tour thing I think I have ever been on. It was neat to see the canyon walls from the bottom, looking up, though.


















At least our tour guide was entertaining ("32" - for those who went!) through the sun (at the beginning, it was unbearably hot), rain (it got overcast and began to spit about halfway through), and wind (I thought Heather was gonna blow off the side of the raft at one point!). Four hours later, we sleepily got on the bus to take us back to our cars. We got back, cleaned up, and then went to the Anniversary Dinner. Like I said last time, the trip was for my grandparents' 50th Anniversary (which is actually in October). We celebrated their marriage with laughter, tears, and an all-around enjoyable experience.


















(from left: Josh, Pop, Heather, Aimee, Caleb, Renee, Mom-mom, Travis)

The trip was what they wanted to do (Pop had been planning it for several years after having taken a tour bus - he is a driver - up to that spot) and it was the VERY LEAST that we could do to go. The two of them do so much for all of us! Thanks you guys for a memorable experience and a true chance to get away from the stressful world of work, school, and responsibility. I will never forget the times that we had!

And neither will you, now that I finally blogged about it! . .

I do have opinions on the whole Don Imus thing (stupid mistake, yes. cause for termination, yeah. deep-seeded issues, more than likely. . .), the NBA playoffs (o, it's coming!!!), and my SUMMER MOVIE PREVIEW is on its way (its ready to be typed out!). But you will have to wait for that - - it's almost 0100 and I have to work at 1000.

Hope you enjoyed all of the words (and the pics!!!) I had for you this time! Less time before the next post - I promise!

- - - ". . . why I love sports so much. There is nothing in the world better than investing everything into something that means absolutely nothing."
- - - My new mission statement, care of Mike Greenberg!

Goodnight