In terms of my job, my current project is reorganizing all of the membership files. This involves looking through each file and pulling anything older than fives years. After everything is updated I organize all of them alphabetically and make sure that the folders are in good shape/that they are organized in a way that makes sense. It's been taking up most of my day and it's mindless so things have been laid back. There's a variety of things that I need to do for my position in Theta so I've been able to work on that throughout the week and that's been really helpful. There's also another project that I got halfway through the week that involves cabin donors. I'll update all of the files and then I get to go around to the cabins again to make sure that everything is set up correctly. Since I was told that my job with decals is officially done I'm super happy that I get to go around and see more of the cabins again. It should be fun.
Some of the people in the office and I went downtown on Thursday to go to a nonprofit conversation meeting. The conversation was focused on time management, which was interesting. A majority of the conversation was focused on the corporate business world, and there's only so much that you can relate to that as a college student. It was still cool getting to hear about the other nonprofits in town and meeting the people who work for them.
There was also a huge conference here all week called Student Life. They played a lot of games on the big field by the Y's administration building, so for a few days I got to go outside and take pictures of their activities. My favorite thing I got to watch them play was a human version of Hungry Hungry Hippos. There was a huge tarp and plastic balls (think ball pit balls). Each team had one member standing and the other laying down holding a giant plastic tub. The person standing up would move the person on the ground around, trying to get the most plastic balls. It was absurd and so much fun to watch.
There was also a huge conference here all week called Student Life. They played a lot of games on the big field by the Y's administration building, so for a few days I got to go outside and take pictures of their activities. My favorite thing I got to watch them play was a human version of Hungry Hungry Hippos. There was a huge tarp and plastic balls (think ball pit balls). Each team had one member standing and the other laying down holding a giant plastic tub. The person standing up would move the person on the ground around, trying to get the most plastic balls. It was absurd and so much fun to watch.
Another thing I got to learn about this week was the Alumni Council. It's exactly what it sounds like- a group of people who try to keep past staff members of the Y engaged. The group is coming up to have an in-person meeting in late August. There's a good chance that I'll get to help with the planning despite the fact that their visit happens a few weeks after I leave.
The week has been super laid back outside of work. There have been a few game nights, but my favorite one was on Wednesday. The night started with a staff kickball game that the RA office organized. Normally I hate sports because of my nonathletic nature (I especially hate super competitive people during sports games- that's one giant NOPE for me) but after sitting at an office desk for 8 hours doing nothing but filing, I was ready to be around people doing something active. Besides, kickball was one of my favorite sports programs that I helped with at Sweet last year. My team lost both games but I had a lot of fun. I even scored a run so whoooo sports! I'm going to come back super buff, just wait (hahahahahaha). After the games were over a small group of us went to the administration building to play games and we ended up teaching a group of staff members from Columbia how to play Bananagrams and Apples to Apples. In hindsight those were terrible games for people who didn't speak English as their first language, but they were good sports about it and we had a fun time.
The weekend finally arrived and it was an absolute blast. Rachel, Amanda and I spent Friday night together. We went downtown and ate at a super good burger place called Penelope's and then took a drive up Trail Ridge Road. It's the highest continuous paved road in the US and its highest point is a little higher than 12,000 feet. Our goal was to make it up by sunset and thankfully we succeeded. We took a pitstop at a popular pull off section to take pictures and visit with some marmots (I saw three at once and my heart almost exploded with joy). It was beautiful because the sun was just starting to set so the sky was filled with yellows and blues and the mountains were getting a gorgeous purple tint to them.
By the time we made it up to the Alpine Visitor's Center the sun was working its way down the mountains so we knew we had to work fast. There's still a ton of snow so we looked around at that for a little bit and booked it up these stairs nearby to see everything from a higher view. We made it to the top completely out of breath from running and then we looked up and holy crap.
It was one of the most stunning things I've ever seen. Definitely one of those moments where the camera got the jist of it but didn't really come close to capturing its beauty. We drove down the mountain singing along to Disney songs and admiring the view of the cities in the dark. (Fun fact: you can see Loveland, Boulder and part of Denver from the top of Trail Ridge. So cool!) I came back to my dorm to a Parks and Rec marathon, which I gladly joined until about one in the morning.
On Saturday, Rachel and I fulfilled a goal from last summer and went canoeing around Lake Estes. We wanted to do it a few times but between other adventures and not realizing when the place actually opened and closed we never got around to doing it. We were only out on the water for forty five minutes because a huge thunderstorm came rolling in but we had a great time hanging out on the water.
Our timing was perfect, too because we missed the hail from that storm by about ten minutes. At night a group of us went to go see "Spy," which I thought was hilarious. The last fifteen minutes weren't great but the rest was super funny. Elizabeth and I came back and hung out in the lobby with people for a while, and then we attempted to make a hiking game plan with Kristina.
Around 1:00 AM, we all decided that we would hike Sand Beach Lake. It's at the Wild Basin trailhead so we thought it would be best for us to roll out around 8:30 and start hiking at 9. Long story short, we all overslept our alarms/wanted more sleep and just didn't get out of bed, and we ended up hiking after lunch.
Plan B was to go to Bridal Veil Falls, a fairly flat 6 miles out in the Lumpy Ridge section of the park. When we got to the parking lot, however, it was completely full. People parked like jackwagons (pardon my French) so we had to go back to the main Lumpy Ridge trailhead. Our goal was to be back a little before six, and the only feasible thing was about two miles past Gem Lake. It was called Balanced Rock, and even though we had all been to Gem Lake (and were not fans, might I add), we decided that it would be cool to attempt something new. Off we went.
Gem Lake is interesting because its view is more of Estes Park versus the rest of RMNP, and that's really cool to see up high. A group of friends and I even partially hiked there last year to see fireworks on the Fourth of July. We made it all the way to the lake with somewhat minimal complaining. There are these awful stairs that are at least one foot tall and they're just terrible climbing to get to the lake. My short little legs just can't keep up. It hurts just as bad going down too, which is unfortunate. We made it to part one of our destination and enjoyed the view before starting the next two miles towards Balanced Rock.
The terrain to Balanced Rock was a complete 180 from Gem Lake. It was lush and full of beautiful, tall trees. Kristina and I joked that we were being led to Narnia. It took a little while but we finally made it to the site and....
Well, it was cool for a few minutes. We were all a little bummed, but we stayed optimistic and started to head back. It had started to sprinkle and we had about an hour and a half until we needed to be back at the Y. We were confident that we could make it with plenty of time. Mother Nature, it turns out, had other plans for us. Instead of quickly hiking back, we got stuck in a 45 minute thunder storm. It was a scary one, too. Lightning was at least 5-7 miles away from us for most of the time. I said approximately one million Hail Marys as we hiked back. It was all downhill going to Balanced Rock, so it was delightful to hike uphill in the pouring rain. As the raindrops fell harder and thunder started to surround us, we all started to get nervous. Lightning is so incredibly dangerous at high altitudes- a group of people died last year from it- and we didn't want to have a similar fate. There was definitely a few moments when I really thought that someone was going to get hurt or we weren't going to make it back. It was that bad.
Luckily Kristina and Elizabeth had the sense to stop us from continuing back to Gem Lake because with it being so open and surrounded by rocks, we would automatically be a lightning target. We pulled over in a lower area and stayed underneath the trees. I felt awful for most of it because I was wearing Elizabeth's raincoat. I hadn't packed mine because the forecast was totally clear and when it first started to rain she said she didn't mine and gladly lent me her jacket. Once it started pouring and getting windy things changed. It was one of those moments where we were all soaking wet and the jacket didn't help a whole lot, but I still felt terrible seeing sweet Elizabeth freezing her butt off. We huddled together to keep her warm and tried to distract ourselves from the thunder that seemed to be staying right over us. It was a great bonding moment and we were overjoyed after thirty minutes when the rain finally subsided and allowed us to continue.
The descent took us forever because all of the paths were crazy flooded, but the last mile or so wasn't awful. There was a gorgeous rainbow that fell over Estes Park that we got to admire the whole way down.
I decided that I wasn't a fan of Gem Lake and would probably not be returning to it. Rachel and I both decided that this hike was just as bad, if not worse, than Bluebird Lake. If you haven't heard the wonderful story of Bluebird Lake, don't worry- I'll fill you in later in the summer.
We happily piled into Kristina's car, ate the most satisfying meal at Spruce ever (the whole "we thought we were going to die" thing most likely played a role in that...) and then went back to our rooms. I ended up going to the administration building to call my parents and then read and relax with Rachel. We ended up hanging out in Ponder Chapel with one of the chaplain's assistants, Michael. Michael and I were good friends last year and we frequently went to Ponder to watch movies. It was strange being back without our other group of friends. Even so, we had a blast watching John Mulaney's stand-up show.
About halfway through the program, I heard keys jingle. It was after the building closed but my paranoid mind didn't wander because I already knew who was going to walk in the room- our old friend/security guard from last year. I first met him after he almost gave me a ticket for parking near no parking signs to go stargaze (his words to me were, and I quote, "Let's see...there's a no parking sign here, here AND here!"). He let me off with a warning and then we ended up running into him two days later while we were watching movies in Ponder. We saw him on a weekly basis after that. Luckily he only vaguely remembered us and was super nice. As he left, we all laughed about running into him again. It's nice to know that some things will never change. :)
The week has been super laid back outside of work. There have been a few game nights, but my favorite one was on Wednesday. The night started with a staff kickball game that the RA office organized. Normally I hate sports because of my nonathletic nature (I especially hate super competitive people during sports games- that's one giant NOPE for me) but after sitting at an office desk for 8 hours doing nothing but filing, I was ready to be around people doing something active. Besides, kickball was one of my favorite sports programs that I helped with at Sweet last year. My team lost both games but I had a lot of fun. I even scored a run so whoooo sports! I'm going to come back super buff, just wait (hahahahahaha). After the games were over a small group of us went to the administration building to play games and we ended up teaching a group of staff members from Columbia how to play Bananagrams and Apples to Apples. In hindsight those were terrible games for people who didn't speak English as their first language, but they were good sports about it and we had a fun time.
The weekend finally arrived and it was an absolute blast. Rachel, Amanda and I spent Friday night together. We went downtown and ate at a super good burger place called Penelope's and then took a drive up Trail Ridge Road. It's the highest continuous paved road in the US and its highest point is a little higher than 12,000 feet. Our goal was to make it up by sunset and thankfully we succeeded. We took a pitstop at a popular pull off section to take pictures and visit with some marmots (I saw three at once and my heart almost exploded with joy). It was beautiful because the sun was just starting to set so the sky was filled with yellows and blues and the mountains were getting a gorgeous purple tint to them.
It was one of the most stunning things I've ever seen. Definitely one of those moments where the camera got the jist of it but didn't really come close to capturing its beauty. We drove down the mountain singing along to Disney songs and admiring the view of the cities in the dark. (Fun fact: you can see Loveland, Boulder and part of Denver from the top of Trail Ridge. So cool!) I came back to my dorm to a Parks and Rec marathon, which I gladly joined until about one in the morning.
On Saturday, Rachel and I fulfilled a goal from last summer and went canoeing around Lake Estes. We wanted to do it a few times but between other adventures and not realizing when the place actually opened and closed we never got around to doing it. We were only out on the water for forty five minutes because a huge thunderstorm came rolling in but we had a great time hanging out on the water.
Our timing was perfect, too because we missed the hail from that storm by about ten minutes. At night a group of us went to go see "Spy," which I thought was hilarious. The last fifteen minutes weren't great but the rest was super funny. Elizabeth and I came back and hung out in the lobby with people for a while, and then we attempted to make a hiking game plan with Kristina.
Around 1:00 AM, we all decided that we would hike Sand Beach Lake. It's at the Wild Basin trailhead so we thought it would be best for us to roll out around 8:30 and start hiking at 9. Long story short, we all overslept our alarms/wanted more sleep and just didn't get out of bed, and we ended up hiking after lunch.
Plan B was to go to Bridal Veil Falls, a fairly flat 6 miles out in the Lumpy Ridge section of the park. When we got to the parking lot, however, it was completely full. People parked like jackwagons (pardon my French) so we had to go back to the main Lumpy Ridge trailhead. Our goal was to be back a little before six, and the only feasible thing was about two miles past Gem Lake. It was called Balanced Rock, and even though we had all been to Gem Lake (and were not fans, might I add), we decided that it would be cool to attempt something new. Off we went.
Gem Lake is interesting because its view is more of Estes Park versus the rest of RMNP, and that's really cool to see up high. A group of friends and I even partially hiked there last year to see fireworks on the Fourth of July. We made it all the way to the lake with somewhat minimal complaining. There are these awful stairs that are at least one foot tall and they're just terrible climbing to get to the lake. My short little legs just can't keep up. It hurts just as bad going down too, which is unfortunate. We made it to part one of our destination and enjoyed the view before starting the next two miles towards Balanced Rock.
The terrain to Balanced Rock was a complete 180 from Gem Lake. It was lush and full of beautiful, tall trees. Kristina and I joked that we were being led to Narnia. It took a little while but we finally made it to the site and....
Luckily Kristina and Elizabeth had the sense to stop us from continuing back to Gem Lake because with it being so open and surrounded by rocks, we would automatically be a lightning target. We pulled over in a lower area and stayed underneath the trees. I felt awful for most of it because I was wearing Elizabeth's raincoat. I hadn't packed mine because the forecast was totally clear and when it first started to rain she said she didn't mine and gladly lent me her jacket. Once it started pouring and getting windy things changed. It was one of those moments where we were all soaking wet and the jacket didn't help a whole lot, but I still felt terrible seeing sweet Elizabeth freezing her butt off. We huddled together to keep her warm and tried to distract ourselves from the thunder that seemed to be staying right over us. It was a great bonding moment and we were overjoyed after thirty minutes when the rain finally subsided and allowed us to continue.
The descent took us forever because all of the paths were crazy flooded, but the last mile or so wasn't awful. There was a gorgeous rainbow that fell over Estes Park that we got to admire the whole way down.
We happily piled into Kristina's car, ate the most satisfying meal at Spruce ever (the whole "we thought we were going to die" thing most likely played a role in that...) and then went back to our rooms. I ended up going to the administration building to call my parents and then read and relax with Rachel. We ended up hanging out in Ponder Chapel with one of the chaplain's assistants, Michael. Michael and I were good friends last year and we frequently went to Ponder to watch movies. It was strange being back without our other group of friends. Even so, we had a blast watching John Mulaney's stand-up show.
About halfway through the program, I heard keys jingle. It was after the building closed but my paranoid mind didn't wander because I already knew who was going to walk in the room- our old friend/security guard from last year. I first met him after he almost gave me a ticket for parking near no parking signs to go stargaze (his words to me were, and I quote, "Let's see...there's a no parking sign here, here AND here!"). He let me off with a warning and then we ended up running into him two days later while we were watching movies in Ponder. We saw him on a weekly basis after that. Luckily he only vaguely remembered us and was super nice. As he left, we all laughed about running into him again. It's nice to know that some things will never change. :)
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