To start off I would like to thank my sister for making it possible!! Tiff you really are the best, I will forever be thankful!:) From there I guess I'll kinda go in chronological order... i'lll first say i was totally broke, so the obvious chore I gave myself was finding a job that I wouldn't totally hate, like the previous summer. So I filled out many an application and it seemed like the ones I wanted most at first didn't give a care, which in turn was better for me in the end. On a mission to get a bike map I happened upon Performance bike shop and lo and behold they were hiring:) Also in the next few days it seemed that the movie theater nearby was also hiring... And so it happened i acquired two jobs, and actually recieved interviews for more! I am very happy with where i worked all summer!! All my bosses were great and I made many great friends from these places... to name a few: Joan from PBS and of course basically everyone else there.... i'll be missing Mel's stories for sure:)... sorry chuck not you though.. you still owe me 20 bucks!! From UA- Staci (tigger), Josh, Anne, and of course lots of others... Even the managers were very cool- like Brennan-who likes to climb (Adam, Nancy, and Barb as the upper mgt. were great:)!)

From there I guess I'll go to my activities beyond work... Tiff and I made a visit to Estes Park for a hike, in addition to a few separate hiking trips... and our night-time outings:) Since I'm into rock climbing, I suppose i should have been out quite a bit more, but when it comes to new places it's hard to get into the scene if you have no idea how to do it... Found lots of people who climbed but no one to go with... So eventually I conjured up enough money to get a pass to a gym and after another few weeks took a class- outside. That was my ultimate goal- get on some real rock. It was through this that I met all my cool new climbing friends:)!! Quay- our leader helped make the experience quite memorable... Through two days of trying out the real rock sit, we bonded as women sometimes do and became freinds (at least as i saw it).... I feel we'll get together again to climb or just hang... There seemed to be a few of us who seemed to take to climbing and longed for more time on the rock than others... Ingrid, Susan, Nanette, Michelle, Marla, and I seemed to get along quite well... we all got together at Susan's for a great night of chatting:) Though I'm no longer in colorado we all still try to keep in touch:) We all are hoping to climb together when i come back out! That next weekend after climbing was my sister, robb, and I's white water rafting trip... ruled!!! My only regret is that I had to leave that next week.. although I did get a hiking trip in with Nanette and also a few visits to Morrison to go bouldering... The total highlight of my summer was when I happened to ask Mia Axon and Sari Nicoll if i could take pictures of them at Morrison, like they were just any climber... I soon found out who they were, still slightly doubtful but having a blast anyway... got some cool pics of Mia and a great sense that both Mia and Sari truly thought it was a great thing for a young woman to be into climbing! Made my year I think! So basically I think I had the best summer of my life... even though i worked a heck of a lot, it was the atmosphere, the opportunity, the comraderie, and friendships I found that beckoned me to stay. It was so hard to come back to school here in Illinois. I miss the constant shadow of the mountains, the 1/2 hr access into them, my sister giving me that look telling me to shut up at 11 pm while telling her about the nasty chick at work or what excitement happened in my day, my sister's stories, all my new freinds, and Joan telling me not to leave and to live with her in an apt... (which she still does) I so badly wish I could be there! My heart will always belong in Denver I think... hopefully soon I'll be albe to fill that hole that is there right now... May is too far away....

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