Joy

It's November.

Do you know what that means?

That's right! It's Month 2 of the Christmas Season!

(Just like Wal-Mart, I start celebrating Christmas on October 1.)

(I don't shop at Wal-Mart, but if I did I'm sure I would see Christmas stuff starting in October.)

(I'm not too good for Wal-Mart, I just don't happen to shop there.)

(I'm from Missouri so I can't hate the Wal-Marts, but, well, you know...)

(Target.)

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It is full of tradition, good food, hanging out with people you love, yummy seasonal drinks at Starbucks, presents, festive decorations, many parties. It just is so wonderful.

To prove my point, I'm going to share with you a timeline of my 3-month long Christmas season and then you tell me it's not awesome.

Sept. 6: Seasonal drinks start at Starbucks with the release of the PSL, aka Pumpkin Spice Latte. I realize Christmas season is coming and I am stoked.

Oct 1: Christmas season starts. We start playing the "Pop/R&B Holidays" station on Pandora at work. Not all day every day, but it is enough to start getting pumped.

Oct. 31: Christmas Season Holiday #1: Halloween. I've always loved passing out candy on Halloween and you know I love me any chance to wear a ridiculous costume, but my love of Halloween has increased since moving to Williams. They do Halloween up right around here with kids of all ages running around town, people passing out candy everywhere, parties, haunted houses, etc. Things like Halloween are really made for small towns.

Nov. 1: Holiday Drinks start at Starbucks. Egg Nog Lattes are delicious though make me want to barf because they're so rich. And I get all my drinks in a festive red cup. My latte consumption increases 7-fold. (Seriously.)

Nov. 1: Half-price Halloween Candy. Enough said.

Nov. 8-13: I go to Boston to see my brother. This isn't really a tradition, but it is going to be awesome.

Nov. 13: Williams Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Lost Canyon. We invite the whole town to a pre-Thanksgiving dinner at Lost Canyon. Seriously about a quarter of the town comes. Again, small town awesomeness.

Nov. 24: Christmas Season Holiday #2: Thanksgiving, aka Friendsgiving. Pumpkin cinnamon rolls while watching the parade. Cooking all day. Building a fire and doing the full-page crossword. Watching all the Friends Thanksgiving Episodes. And, this year only, Friendsgiving will be taking place in a house in Zion with 15 of my closest friends from Williams. This is guaranteed to be awesome.

Nov. 27: Williams Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting. There are no words to describe this event. It is something you must just see.

Nov. 28: My brother's birthday. I always waste the good present on this one and then don't know what to get him for Christmas, but it always means that we're really close to being home and acting like kids for a couple weeks. Christmas is near.

Dec. 1-20: December Christmas Movie Marathon at the Chateau. We play a Christmas movie a night, starting with Elf and including some of my personal favorites: Home Alone 1 and 2, Muppet Christmas Carol, Love Actually, and Charlie Brown Christmas.

Dec. 3-6: Debbie and Kate Go to New York. I'm returning to the Big Apple with my roommate who has never been. So we get to go see all the Christmas cheer: Rockefeller Center, store windows, Christmas markets, Broadway shows. My heart is happy simply thinking about it.

Dec. 14: Lost Canyon Staff Christmas Party. Last year this took place at something called the Winchester Steakhouse and included a country legends cover band. I can only imagine what this year will entail. It is rare that our entire staff is forced to be in social setting together and it always equals something really great.

Dec. 15: Housekeeping Half Day at Lost Canyon. Every month, one department on camp gets our whole staff for a half day so that you can get big projects done. It also is required that you include an hour of fun and games so that we get to just hang out. My month is December. So, I get a ridiculous amount of work done and I get to force my friends to do things like play telephone charades or do karaoke. I think you can see why this is awesome.

Dec. 17: Home to Missouri. The festivities really kick into high gear. I will meet my brother at the airport and immediately start laughing, arguing, and all around being loud. It's really the truest form of me.

Dec. 18: Mizzou vs. William and Mary. My dad hasn't told me for sure that this is happening yet. (Hint, dad.) But I'm going to go ahead and put it on the calendar. We always do one family sporting event per Christmas. Some years it was Blues games, but my parents have a suite at Mizzou games now, so we've made the switch. It always includes dinner somewhere in Columbia and strong moments of reliving my college years.

Dec. 20 (approximate date): Christmas Decoration Night. We will start by decorating our tree. Not the pretty tree because my mom will already have that up, but our tree with all our childhood ornaments. So ugly, so nostalgic, so great. This night will also include the traditional Tichelkamp Nativity Challenge. Whoever gets baby Jesus wins. I have a lot of wins built up, so my record is fairly secure.

Dec. 23 (again, approximate because my family hasn't made the switch to Christmas excitement quite the way I have): Moon Family Christmas. My mom's extended family. Cousins, aunts, uncles, all at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Doesn't matter how old I get, this is still a joy. (Various other extended family Christmases may or may not be included around this time, but they are less consistent because "people have their own families now." Grandma Moon will never fail us single people.)

Entire duration of trip home: Lots of satellite TV, lots of games, lots of food, lots of snarkiness. (Probably some drama- can family time go without it?)

Dec. 24: Christmas Season Holiday #3: Mom's House Christmas. We will have our traditional Christmas dinner. The dishes were chosen when my brother and I were 5 and 6 and my mom asked us, "What do you want for Christmas dinner?" We chose what we thought were the dishes you would serve at a fancy dinner. Some additions/subtractions have been made over the years, but the core stays the same: steak, shrimp from a box, pink salad (jello concoction for those of you not from the Midwest), broccoli cheese casserole, assorted candy/cookie plate for dessert (baked on Christmas Decoration Night). Dinner is followed by presents and then playing one of the games that we received as a family from Santa.

Dec. 25: Christmas Season Holiday #4: Dad's House Christmas. We no longer do early morning wake up, present open because my oldest brother has kids that are old enough to care and they have to do Christmas at their house first. So we sleep in, wake up, put A Christmas Story on TBS on the TV where it will stay on all day, and make Christmas Day Lunch including ham, sweet potatoes, cheesy taters, green bean casserole, homemade bread, and red velvet cake and pecan pie for dessert. This is followed by presents which is followed by a wrapping paper war. We then hang out for about an hour while my brother puts his kids' presents together and we all play with them. We watch part of A Christmas Story and then shift into the traditional Family Game Night portion of the evening. This tends to include too much booze and someone crying, but we still love it and do it every year anyway. I can count on laughing real hard and eating a lot of chipped beef dip (sounds disgusting but is, in fact, delicious).

Dec. 31: Christmas Season Holiday #5: New Year's Eve. I normally spend this at home with my brother and sister, playing games, drinking wine, and being awesome. But I will be back in Willy for it this year. Not sure what will happen but I'm positive it will be fun and low-key which is always what I need after holiday nuttiness.

OK, did you read all of that? And can you still begrudge me for the 3-month celebration? It is totally deserved.

Happy Christmas Season, everyone!

Song of the Day: All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah

Compromise is Key

Almost 2 years ago, I moved to Williams, AZ.

I made this move for a lot of reasons: the job I love is here, some really cool people are here, we have the Polar Express.

One reason I did not make this move: to find a husband.

Intelligent, funny, goal-oriented, compassionate, adventurous, late-20s to early-30s bachelors don't really exist in Williams.

It's fine. I've made my peace with it. I don't hate Williams for it.

Mainly because I feel like Williams and I have come to a good compromise. I will sing its praises to everyone I talk to as long as it keeps providing me with cute tourists to ease the sting.

Seriously, I find it weird, but really attractive men vacation in Williams, AZ. You would think it would be all old people and foreigners (which, for the most part, it is), but what I didn't anticipate were the hikers. They love the Grand Canyon. And being outdoorsy. And cute.

They also love to shop in our Safeway.

And I love to show them some small-town hospitality over the produce.

Yep, I accept this compromise Williams. Because I don't really want a husband that bad. But harmless flirtation in Aisle 9? Yes, please.

Song of the Day: The Perfect Space by the Avett Brothers

Life.

I slept until noon today. Which was glorious and much needed.

And then I went to the coffee shop for 2 hours, where I was planning to post on my blog but ended up getting distracted by facebook and the 12 separate people who came in that I know and want to catch up with.

Such is life in a small town.

And now I'm a little late to the "team leader meeting" I'm having with my Area Director/friend Miriam and Wyld Life team leader/friend Christin. It will involve sangria.

Such is life when you're awesome.

So rather than a long post, I'll just tide you all over with my new musical obsession. Enjoy.

Song of the Day: Down in the Valley by The Head and the Heart

Bonus Song of the Day: Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart

Recap

It's been almost a month since I've written on my blog. Sometimes I go a month without writing on my blog but that's normally because my life is kind of boring.

Not so, this time!

My life is FUN!

(Seriously, it is.)

And since I will never be able to write all the posts that in the past month I've thought, "This should be a post!," I will instead just make a list of all the fun things that have happened in my life in the last month.

1) Work Trip to the WFR.

I love my job. And I love other people who have the same job as me in a different place and love it too. Because we have a relatively small staff for the kind of work that we do, it often feels like nobody really knows what you do day to day. So it's really fun and encouraging to sit down across from people who do know what you do because they do it to. We talked HK and laughed a lot. Enough said.

2) Friendsgiving!

Every year on Thanksgiving, we have a big dinner for anyone who is away from family. This was especially fun this year. We started in the morning with cinnamon rolls and the parade, followed by a delicious Thanksgiving dinner (for which I baked 4 desserts), followed by a marathon of Friends Thanksgiving episodes, and finished things off with the hanger-arounders drinking wine in our sweet hot tub. And the next day Debbie, Susie, and I went to the movies and saw Harry Potter (and two other movies that we snuck into afterwards... Don't tell on us). Seriously awesome holiday.

3) Williams Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting!

Incredible.

Here's a picture of Santa:

Here's video of the children singing a song about cowboys at Christmas:

And here's some video where the mayor of Williams yelled at me and then lit the tree. (I promise I was not heckling him. I would never.):



As you can see, it was quite the event. I love my little town. (Let's just say, there was more video. I spared you my commentary.)

4) Elf

We watched Elf after the Christmas Parade. Then we watched Elf with our YL kids. Then we watched it at home. I love Buddy.

5) Lost Canyon Christmas Party

The Lost Canyon Christmas Party was held at the Winchester Steakhouse here in Williams. There was a country legends cover band involved. I don't think I need to say anything else.

Jen loved it.
6) The Sing-Off

My roomies and I love, repeat LOVE, this show. Committed is my favorite.

7) No snow!

It hasn't been snowing! In fact, it was 64 degrees here yesterday. I have been in a constant good mood because of this. See, now I'll be able to handle snow when it does come because it won't mean 5 months of non-stop snow. Hopefully.

Yeah, so obviously a lot has been happening. I love this time of year because it always equals a whole lot of hanging out and parties and gatherings and more hanging out. There's really nothing that makes my heart happier.

Can't wait to head home next week for a solid week and a half in MO. It is much needed and I'm really looking forward to catching up with everybody. If you'll be there, pencil me into your schedule because I probably want to see you!

Much love!

Song of the Day: Poison and Wine by the Civil Wars

I Was Wrong, I Was Very, Very Wrong

Remember when I said I fly out of Phoenix on Thursday morning?

Yeah, turns out I don't.

I fly out tomorrow morning.

So, that's fun. I lost a whole day. And, that means that I get to drive to PHX after Campaigners tonight so that I can get there really late and get up super early in the morning to catch my 7:30 AM flight to Oregon.

Just making it to Thanksgiving, people.

But the mega-plus in this situation is that my work trip is to the Washington Family Ranch, aka Wildhorse, aka the Canyon, my alma mater and one of my altogether favorite places on earth.

So, that doesn't suck. Nope, it doesn't suck at all.

You know what else doesn't suck? The awesome amount of fun I had with 30 of my closest high school friends and the leaders on my team at Weekend Camp this weekend.

We did stuff like this:

And this:

And hung out with this guy in a bear suit:

While the boys mainly did this (What's up, Ladies?):

And the other female leaders and I mainly did this (yes, I'm wearing a heart-shaped sign that says "Hand Check."):

And my bestie Kristen was here. There's no picture of that, but she was and it was fun.

I seriously love me some Williams kids. They are crazy and fun and crazy fun.

Also, I'm really tired. And cough-y because it's freezing cold here and I yelled really loudly all weekend.

Oh, and the Williams Thanksgiving Dinner was awesome. There were like 400 people here which is almost 1/6 the population of Williams. And most of them were church ladies. And they did a mash-up of Jesus Loves You and What I Like About You.

These are my people.

OK, I'm going to go do the 900 millionty things I need to do before I leave in 5 hours.

Yikes.

Song of the Day: Best for the Best by Josh Ritter (There's something about this song that feels good in the Fall. I think it's the guitar.)

I Miss the Internet

So, turns out I was really tired because I was about to fall deathly ill.

Seriously.

At one point, I contemplated who would get my Blazer and my books.

Or maybe I'm really dramatic and it was just a flu bug. Whatever.

More importantly, I still don't have internet at my new house. And the ONE internet provider we have here in Williams said that we live too far out to get it. Now, we live 1/2 mile from camp and we have internet there, so I'm going to be making some more calls.

I need it.

And I'm pretty sure satellite internet isn't going to cut it. I read a lot of reviews.

In better news, we do have satellite TV, so I for sure got to watch my Tigers beat Oklahoma last Saturday. I made my Northern Arizona friends who couldn't care less come and watch it. And I made Roxy wear this:


She was really happy about it. As was I, because that was one of the most epic games I've ever seen.

Can't wait for Nebraska this weekend.

So, to sum up, I almost died, living in the middle of nowhere equals crappy internet, and Mizzou football makes me really happy.

What else is there to say?

Song of the Day: Wildflowers by Tom Petty (Sometimes when you look for songs on youtube, all you find are weird videos like this. But I still love this song. And also I enjoy the family pictures of strangers intermixed with stock photos from a PC and Jesuspics.com. That's not weird.)

The Williams Fair

You probably don't know this, but Williams is awesome.

And also sometimes a little sad.

Here's video proof:

Williams, AZ at its finest.

To expand a little, when we drove by at 6:45 PM, the carnival wasn't even open. When we drove by at 9:30 PM, there were legitimately 4 people on rides and another 8 milling about and they were in the process of closing up for the night. Add in the 4 carnies it takes to run the place and it wasn't exactly a crowd.

But I'm not sure you can ever count on a crowd at a Route 66 traveling carnival in Williams.

Oh, how I love me some Williams.

Good Morning

I live in Williams. And Williams is a little hard to describe. But I'm going to tell you about everything I saw on my 10 minute drive into work this morning, and how that paints a pretty accurate picture of my town.

I pulled out of my driveway at 7:45 and immediately looked left, preparing for my morning wave to my neighbor. He was right where he always is, in his driveway crushing aluminum cans. Not really sure why he's always crushing cans at 7:45 AM, but I know it has something to do with veterans. Of course.

I drove on and gave another friendly wave to the old-lady morning walkers in our neighborhood.

I got out of our little subdivision and onto the street that leads into town. As I was starting to pick up some speed, I noticed that there was a man darting back and forth across the street about half a mile up. He managed to pick a side of the road to walk on by the time I got to him. I was thrilled to see that he was wearing jorts, a John Deere hat, no shirt, and sporting an awesome farmers tan. I got a head-nod from that guy and continued on.

I made it into downtown Williams and immediately got stuck behind a ginormous, extremely slow-moving RV. Let's just say they were having a lot of trouble maneuvering and I was having a lot of trouble not flipping them the bird. Route 66 at its finest.

Add in a couple stray cats, tourists wearing fanny packs in the middle of the road, and some wandering teenagers, and you have my daily life in Williams.

I love this town.

Sunshine is My Friend

Up until approximately 3 months ago, if you had asked me how I feel about winter, I would have responded with the following:

"I love winter. It makes you feel all cozy and I read lots of books and there's Christmas and Elf and so many wonderful, magical things. Winter is AWESOME!"

I was laboring under a false illusion.

I never knew it, but I, in fact, despise winter.

I know I have been really whiny about it the past, oh, month, but I just can't help it. I feel like I shouldn't be grumpy about it because it is actually fairly warm today and completely sunny, but there is still snow everywhere. Seriously. Everywhere.

My hatred was thrown into stark relief by the trip I took to see Spring Training in Phoenix yesterday.

It was warm. And I got to wear my ssekos. And I went to a baseball game, where it smelled like freshly cut grass and barbeque. It was like heaven is going to be (I'm pretty sure).

And then we drove back to Williams and there is still snow.

Yes, it's pretty. But it is time for baseball and barbeque. Come on, Williams. Let go of winter. Let's move on. It's time.

Song of the Day: Laughing With by Regina Spektor

I Love Safeway

I'm 25 years old. I drink alcohol sometimes. I do so responsibly. I don't drink and drive. I don't ever get belligerently drunk. So it is completely appropriate for me to buy a whole lot of booze at our local Safeway before I have a bunch of friends over to play board games tonight.

However, I live in a small town, where a lot of people live pretty miserable lives. They tend to self-medicate with a combo of liquor, drugs, promiscuous sex, and other unhealthy behaviors. And I'm trying to demonstrate that life can actually be a lot better than that.

Oh, and I recognize half of the people in Safeway every time I go in and I'm pretty sure they recognize me. And know where I work. And half of them are teenagers.

So I had a plan today. I went into the store, got everything I needed and left the liquor for last. I made my way to that end of the store, picked it up (under the watchful eye of a girl across the aisle looking at bread and wearing a Lost Canyon sweatshirt), and then headed to the checkout.

And I'm feeling fine at this point. But then the checkout man took about an hour to check out my stuff. I'm not kidding when I say he spent at least 2 minutes trying to ring out a granola bar. I had 6 more of them on the conveyor belt. I think it would've worked to use any of them. But no.

And he started picking all the food out and leaving just the liquor on the belt. So as the line started to build behind me, it seriously looked like I was just buying a case of beer, the giant bottle of vodka, triple sec, rum, a couple bottles of wine, and limes.

Again, I have no moral qualms about purchasing all of this, but it was just one of those situations where I just kept thinking "really?!?"

So I went to the coffee shop and had a green tea smoothie to celebrate my patience. Well worth it.

Song of the Day: Suga Suga by Baby Bash (They keep playing this on the radio and every time they do, I have to jam. Mainly because it reminds me of 2005. And who didn't love 2005?)

Goats and Wolves and Bears, Oh My!

I live in Williams, AZ. I have to say, this was not exactly where I expected to be living at 25 (or ever), but it has turned out to be pretty awesome.

I mean, there's so much here.

We have a Safeway, the Grand Canyon Railroad, the Polar Express (winter months only), a restaurant called Miss Kitty's Steakhouse, the World Famous Sultana Theater (local bar), carriage rides, a large RV park, several hotels, a Denny's with a bar, more than one Route 66 souvenir shop, a daily western shoot-out show (summer months only), and lots and lots of stray cats (seriously, it's a problem).

You're probably thinking, "Is there anything in the world that could possibly make this place even more awesome?"

Well, I completely understand your disbelief, but yes, actually, there is something that could make Williams more awesome.

Our town is proud to present to you...

BEARIZONA!!!

Yes, you read that right, Bearizona. Like Arizona but with bears. Our very own drive-through wildlife park, set to open in May 2010.

I have a blow-up mattress with your name on it. I'll expect to see you all in May.

Much love.

Grumpopotamaus

Paige wins the bonus points! Good work, Paige. I'm so proud.

You know what the worst part of living in a small town is? The lack of anonymity when you're having a bad day.

Sometimes, I'm grumpy. I want to go into the grocery store and continue to be grumpy while I do it. I want to tap my foot impatiently and sigh out loud while the person in front of me sorts through their coupons. I want to roll my eyes and make mean faces when things are ridiculously expensive or hard to find. Overall, I want to be a grouch.

I also want to make obscene hand gestures at people when they cut me off or follow way too closely and throw my hands up in disgust when they're driving too slow for my tastes.

I can't do any of these things anymore. Because I live in a tiny little town and people know who I am. Even if they don't know me, they can probably figure out where I work. Or I'm at least going to see them again the next time I go in Safeway or drive down that street at that time.

So I have to smile and make polite conversation. It's horrible.

But on the bright side, when I'm not grumpy I get the pay-off of having Safeway bagger friends and neighbors that wave at me. I guess the good does outweigh the bad.

You should come visit and see it for yourselves. Just a thought.

White (Pre-) Christmas

It's snowing right now. I'm listening to Sarah McLachlan's christmas album, drinking yummy tea, and generally enjoying my life.

All week long, I've been grumbling. It snowed 2 feet Monday night. I can't tell you how simultaneously beautiful and inconvenient this was. My housekeepers missed a combined total of 5 days of work between being stuck and illness. This did not work out well for me.

But this was the last group we have before the new year. And now I'm at home on a Saturday and all my work is done. And it's snowing more on top of the 2 feet. And I literally can't help but love my life.

How many of you were picturing that I live in the desert because I said I was moving to Arizona? Yeah, that's what I thought too, but I live at 7,000 feet and we have pine trees and snow. Crazy.

Here's some pictures:

This is my front yard. Narnia?

Matt, Katie, and Roxy playing in the snow Tuesday morning after we attempted to get my Blazer out, got stuck, and had to dig it out and push it all the way back to the house. We then spent an hour playing in the snow and making chocolate chip pancakes before getting picked up by our boss in the plow truck. It was an adventure to say the least.

Katie waist-deep in snow (kind of).

Roxy goes bonkers in the snow. She loves it.

And my favorite snow picture, of a couple of the dorms at camp. You can see how deep the snow was on the sides of the pathway. Isn't my work pretty?

And looking across the field at the clubroom and another dorm.

A week from today I will be home in Missouri and I'm so looking forward to it. Trust me, no matter how much you love to wander, it still feels good to go home, decorate a tree with your childhood ornaments and be surrounded by the familiar. Let's hang out if you're in MO!

Song of the Day: Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan

I Don't Like to Rush

OK, so my new "blog at lunch" plan is flawed.

Why? Because after eating my lunch and checking my email, I have exactly 6 minutes in order to blog about all the awesome things that have happened to me in the past few days.

Like the fact that I filled up my Blazer with gas for the first time since I got here. My commute is pretty sweet and is saving me some serious cash in gas.

I also don't have time to tell you that I've stayed up past 10 for 2 nights in a row now! The adrenaline is wearing off and I'm realizing that I can handle my job and life with out quite so much franticism (franticness?).

OK, my time is seriously up.

I'm panicing a little because I can't obsessively reread this post to make sure there's no grammatical errors or typos. Don't judge me too harshly, I guarantee you I will change them later if I come across them.

Much Love.

I'm Just a Small-Town Girl

I took me an hour and a half to get 10 things at the grocery store and an iced Americano at the coffee shop.

Both of those things are within a half of a mile of each other and 5 miles (max) from my house.

Why did it take so long?

Well, because I live in a tiny little town and strangers love to talk.

This makes me very, very happy.

My trip to Safeway was extended by a solid 15 minutes because a lady stopped me in the middle of an aisle to chat about Lost Canyon, people she knows that work there and the fact that she's really excited about the early Thanksgiving Dinner we invite the entire town to. (BTW, I wasn't even wearing Lost Canyon gear, I had a Wildhorse sweatshirt on and that was enough.)

Then I hit up the coffee shop where I chatted about trick-or-treating and cleaning toilets (seriously) for another 10 minutes.

When renting a movie last night at the Redbox, I talked to a 12-year-old named Michael about how excited we both are about Up coming out in a couple of weeks. He's got it in his Netflix queue and he is pumped.

Combine the town's propensity to chat with the awesomeness that was Williams trick-or-treating last night and the fact that if you hang up over 500 Christmas lights the city gives you a discount on your electric bill, and this town has officially embedded itself into my heart.

Song of the Day: Dream by Priscilla Ahn