Another Adventure!!

From : graftonstreet
Sent : Monday, June 19, 2006 5:02 PM
To : maijabee
Subject : sea kayaking

talked to j. a bit and ...... it looks like a sea kayaking trip just might become a reality this summer. D. will be here the whole month of august so I have a baby sitter. San Juans seem like a nice destination. I assume that you'd be joining us, especially if we stay at your folks house for a night. :) anyway before that we may wish to get you into a boat at least once. we'll also need to figure out an itinerary. leaning towards the cheaper the better.

Yeah!! Looks like Maija's getting ready to go on another adventure. I love summer!!

Oh Hum

What to write, what to write. So, I've decided to get out of dodge. I'm going to move to Oregon. I haven't decided yet if I want to move to Portland or Eugene but I'm thinking that this should all go down next June. That's just 1 year from now. In the mean time then I've got to get my finances under control so I've got a lot saved up for first and last and incase I don't find a job right away. I've got to finish my last semester of school which is going to take money as well. I've got to start looking on line for apartments, maybe contact the Ward out there and see if people are looking for roommates. I should probably update my resume and maybe post it on Monster or someting. If nothing else, I should at least start figuring out how to check out the job market. Hmm.. interesting. This may take me two years. So, what has inspired this desire to pick up and take off? Well, I've been fighting the feeling for about a year or two already. I love Utah and I've been very happy here but I just feel that I've gotten to old and to mature for this town. It may also be that I've started wearing my Young Women medalian necklace in the hopes of attracting some pencil necked geek in a white shirt and tie and it turns out that it doesn't work! The only person who has noticed and subsequently asked me out is a guy with tattoos all up and down his back and neck. He asked me about it and I told him it was advertising. He laughed and thought it was an interesting idea. He says he may not look the part but really, you can't judge a book by it's cover. Good or bad. Awesome. Anyway, yeah, I'm done with Provo. i just hope to go out with a bang. I'm going to have to take every advantage this year. That means, I've got to do everything that I can do in Provo in June this June. Because, hey! this might be my last June here! Yippy! Oregon will be fun. I can just tell.

Maija goes accoustic

So, on this last camping trip with J. the big joke of the trip was that J. brought a guitar. If you can imagine a nice guitar (yeah right! He bought it at a garage sale for 40$) all double wrapped up in two dry bags tied to the back of a big raft, it made quite the picture. But it was for me a highlite. J. and I were in the same boat and the first day on some of the long slow stretches of straight water he'd pop the sucker out and play. It was fun to have him play songs I know and get to do a sing along. I suck at singing but it's fun to belt it out anyway. I think that there is nothing nicer in the whole wide world then a guitar at a campfire. J. said, and I agree, that he wouldn't want to be around one without a guitar. Well, the only way to ensure there is not only one but also someone who can play is to learn to do it yourself. So, I know I've previously mentoned in an attempt to better myself I started guitar lessons... well, I've picked it up again full force. And, because I don't have two drybags and because I've always got to be just a little bit different I am pleased to announce...dun du du da... ta dah!!... I bought myself a mandolin. It will fit in ONE dry bag! Yeah! So, I'm going to teach myself to play and I'm very excited about it. And just in case it turns out to be too hard, well, I was sure to pick a very pretty one that will look beautiful gathering dust on my wall. Good job Maija!

I know, I know...

Yikes! I haven't written in so long now, I have so much to catch up on its a bit overwhelming. So, I'm just going to start writing and when I get tired of it I'll stop. So, now you've had fair warning. Okay, first of all I went on a week long rafting trip down Desolation Canyon the week before Memorial Day. I went with my friend Adventure J. and about 14 other friends. We took 4 paddle rafts, a duckie and J.'s kayak. We spend 4 days on the river doing about 25-30 miles a day. During the flat water points we'd just paddle and coast and anticipate the rapids. Sometimes we'd pull over for lunch and sometimes we'd do a floating lunch where we'd tie the rafts together and make a big barge. When we were ready to stop for the day we would pull over on river right when we saw a sandy beach and set up camp. We went for some hikes, saw some abandoned cabins that Butch Cassidy used to hide out in in Robbers Roost, some petrogliphs, everything. I had a book race with J. that was a lot of fun. Trying to see who could finish theirs first and that was a lot of fun. One of my favorite memories of the trip was one night J. and I lied in both ends of the duckie and read until dusk. It was a very nice, very relaxing trip. I got nice and tan and just the littlest bit burned. Perfect. I came back nice and rejuvinated. I'd like to fill my summer up with trips like this. I love backpacking/back country adventures. I wish I could live out in one of those little cabins, or maybe a teepee somewhere and just spend my days sitting under a tree and wondering about catching a fish for dinner. Phenominal.
Okay, another fun thing... a couple days ago I did a Sauna. My friend K. went on his mission to Finland and when he came back he built a Finnish sauna in his back yard. A little cedar hut with a wood burning stove that has hot rocks on top and a bucket of water. I spent about 3 hours going in and out and in and out. First we started with dry heat, just sitting there until your body starts to sweat profusely. We had the tempurature at about 190 degrees. Then, you take a dipper of water and through it on the rocks. When the steam hits you at first it's SO scary because it's SO hot and you have to take a deep breath and let that hot air into your body and let it just sort of consume you. You have be sure not to panic because you want to but just sort of accept it. A very interesting lesson for something in life, I'm sure. Once you've taken all you can stand you run outside and there is a cold shower. It's crazy!! But it feels so good. So, then you wait a bit and do it again. K. had built a fire in his back yard so we sat around that before we were ready to go back into the sauna. Okay, in my perfessional opinion the first bit of "landscaping" I'm going to do when I have my own house is to build a sauna. If you can imagine I'll have this nasty dirt yard with no order and then a beautiful sauna just sitting there. That was just so much fun.
On a different note that might not be so much fun I had to move. I had to leave my cute little house with a tree and a yard and a garage and a garden and move into an apartment with noisy neighbors that stomp above me and asphalt. Lots of asphalt. But I live there all by myself which I like. Actually, it scares me how much I like living alone. I wonder if it's healthy.... But anyway, I have it all set up now mostly just the way I like it. And home really isn't as much where you hang your hat as it is where your heart is anyway. Which by the way is out in some teepee somewhere with some mountain man in leather and I really wish it would come back because I need it here at this stupid apartment, but I digress...
On the last note, I've started to wear my Young Women's medalion necklace. I know, I know. I've already been teased a bunch for it. But the point of it is this... I'm tired of Non LDS type boys asking me out all the time, because I go out with them and like them and it sucks that I can't marry them. So, to kind of discourage them I'm going to wear the most obnoxious sign of my religion. I mean, worse then the CTR rings which I might start wearing as well. I figure I can't realistically fast for 40 days and 40 nights like some people did, but I can do something else that's just as painful. So, until some good LDS boy asks me out, I'll take all the crap. Bring it on Sucka's.
Anyway, I'm tired now. So much love to all!