quick update! :)

Wow, I haven't updated this thing in a long time. Yellowstone is still quite chilly. Everyone here who is a returning employee (and even residents of neighboring towns) say that this is the coldest they've ever seen it so late into the season. Basically, everything that has happened this summer has been unprecedented...from the emergency evacuation due to the three-day power loss to this 40 degree-snowy-windy weather to date (June 22). Lucky us! Haha. No, but all that aside, Yellowstone has been such a great experience thus far. Working 5 days a week isn't really that bad. The shifts are a bit lengthy but it's worth it to have such an awesome place to call home. Something unfortunate did happen last week though; a 20-something-year-old guy (a visitor, not an employee) got into a fight with his dad at their family reunion and jumped off into a waterfall. The place where it happened is near the Canyon villiage which is about 17 miles away from Lake (where I live). I'm not sure if he knew that he wasn't going to make it alive after jumping... So yea, he leapt out into the freezing cold rushing waterfall and it took rescue crews more than two days I think to discover his body. The horrible part is that his whole family witnessed this and only a few days after it was Father's Day. It's very tragic and very selfish. Speaking of unfortunate things...a little over a week ago a man who was hiking by himself (which is HIGHLY looked down upon in bear country) surprised a mother grizzly bear and her cubs and ended up being mauled, bitten, beaten up and staggered away with a broken arm. Apparently he somehow got himself to a point where there was cellphone service at which point he called for help. It's so crazy here. Stories like that sort of put everything in perspective. Back home I don't want to walk down a dark alley by myself for fear of being mugged, raped or murdered but here I don't want to walk anywhere by myself as soon as dusk approaches for fear of being charged/gored by a buffalo or mauled by a bear. Whewwww. Too scary to think about.

Dear god, Ameh Mahvash....forget every thing you just read. Haha. Anyway, well I just popped a few Nyquils and I think they're starting to take effect...yes I know it's only 1:26 p.m. but I feel so crappy that I just want to be knocked out. I thought my cold had gone away but it snuck up on me again and I lost my voice for 3 days (like, completely lost it) and now my eyes feel like they want to pop out of their sockets. Pleasant, huh? I miss everyone! I miss home!

Until next time.


Smile, in case someone's watching!