Settlin' In

Well here I am - and I'm quite happy to be here. However, when I woke this morning I literally had no idea where I was and exclaimed to myself in my head, "Oh, I'm in Aspen!" Kinda strange. Went out with old friends last night and didn't hit the hay until 2:30am but woke up at 8am, tried to go back to sleep but wanted to hike so bad so I got up and laced on my boots and drove over to Aspen mountain and trucked up the Ute ("yoot") trail. I took it slow, and man did I realize how much better shape I was in general last summer than I am now. I had to stop on the way DOWN because my quads hurt! I can't WAIT to become a hikin' fool though! I'm gonna get in such good shape.

My roommate here has turned out to be the other female audio intern and I like her a lot - she has similar interests, is very laif back (from South Carolina) and I think will be easy and enjoyable to live with. At first I had a different roommate but she'd been here for almost 2 weeks, made friends, and wanted to live with a new friend so she assured me it had nothing to do with me but she wanted to swap with the other girl that HAPPENED to be the other audio intern. So all worked out.

I'm looking forward to this summer so much - I'm really excited. All the people here are great, I can't wait to record and can't wait to get started on my archiving project. I've gotta run now and meet the old man Gairt and his honey Jane for a celebratory welcoming dinner at a Pan-Asian restuarant downtown.

There's nothing like returning to the same placea year later to reflect on what's actually happened in the last year, and how you grow. I think I was in a very different frame of mind last year, and I think this year it's healthier, more fun-loving, friendly, excited, open, honest, true to myself, and...yes...aaahhhhh. I'm happy.

Gotta run!