And then the floods came....

I've just returned from what may have been the closest I ever hope to come to surviving an apocalypse. 

What's being called the 1,000 year rain and the 100 year floods in Colorado, seemed to have come out of nowhere....but has left a devastating mark on the state.

I can't believe I was there to experience.

And so thankful to have gotten out unscathed.

A number of my fellow road reps and I were in town for the yearly fall study abroad fairs. Little did we know that within 24 hours of most of our arrivals, we'd be madly trying to get out of the state. I had gotten into Denver Sunday night and was on campus Monday morning before the rain began.

We were at an outdoor fair and when it started to drizzle a little bit, we didn't think much of it.

However, the rain started then...and it never seemed to stop. The idea of building an ark didn't seem that crazy 2 days into it.

After making my way down to Colorado Springs, and briefly visiting the Garden of the Gods (you can clearly see the clouds starting to roll in again) before the days event, the real storm of the century began.

I was heading up to Fort Collins, about a 2 hour drive for Colorado Springs, after grabbing some dinner and running a few errands.  I should have left right away, when it was still light out. Lesson learned #1.

It quickly became one of the scariest drives I've ever done. Rain was pounding and blinding and cars were slipping and sliding.

Everything in me was red-flagging the entire drive. I should have stopped. I know that now. But my travel stubbornness took hold (as it usually does) and I powered through and thankfully, managed to finally make it to Fort Collins.

After getting a good night's sleep, I turn on the news and the reports of massive, state-wide flooding are starting to come in. I couldn't believe the photos.

After a bit of confusion, we found out that the day's fair had been cancelled as the campus had been shut down. It was a bit odd, it didn't seem like Fort Collins had been hit that hard....but turns out, everything surrounding the city had.

Most of the reps got out of FC fairly early on in the day. Friend A and I decided to stay in town to have breakfast with the office since our flights weren't until later that night. Knowing what I know now, we should have tried to get out faster.

Regardless, we had a great time with the office, ate a delicious breakfast and headed out for the airport.

Cue: The apocolypse begins.

As soon as I hit 25, I knew the floods were bad. Roads were being shut down up north, traffic was completely backed up and as the minutes passed, less and less options to the airport were there.

This is one moment where I was so thankful for technology, because I could follow the road closures on my phone. The fact that the major highway in the Denver area was flooded was a telling sign. I ended up finding some back roads around Greeley that were still open.

But as I drove on them, they clearly should not have been. You could see the waters rising all around. I've never seen anything like that. Whole houses submerged, RVs floating, road signs practically hidden. 

At this point, the rain had stopped, but I was driving so quick to get out of the area. I was very, very lucky.

In the midst of my drive, Friend A calls me. She wasn't as lucky and had gotten caught in the middle of the Freeway closure. As I made my way to the airport, I was trying to help her around all the closures. We had my boss on the line trying to help as well, most memorable line of the trip: "Just do whatever ever it takes to get out of there. I don't care about the cost"

Friend A finally made it to the airport. But it took her almost 6 hours.

The scene at the airport, once I arrived was something out of Walking Dead or Outbreak or Hunger Games. People everywhere, cars lined up at the gas station, hoards of traveler trying to get out any way possible.

It was insane. Thankfully, Southwest was trying to get passengers out as quick as possible and ended up booking me on a much earlier flight. Kudos to them.  

Everyone I know made it out safe, but I do know that a lot of people had a lot of damage and many lost homes.

It was scary, and thankfully, now it's just a story for the books.

An Amazon-ing Summer

It's been a while since I've been back from Ecuador. I must say, I didn't write about it before because the experience I had there was so incredible-both summers, that I don't think I had the words for it until now. 

First, let me say, I still can't believe that I spent a total of six weeks of my life living in the Amazon jungle.

That actually happened. Somedays, I can't help but ask, "is this real life?" 

And lucky girl, I can say that it is.

I won't get into all of the stories and the sordid details of our time there, but I will say that I don't think I've ever been so dirty, so smelly, so happy and so at peace in my entire life. 

The community that we lived and worked alongside was simply inspiring. They are so young and so filled with a flame of conviction and activism that I wish I too had in me. I couldn't help but soak in their experiences and try to learn as much as I could from their life. 

We bathed in a river, we sang songs in the rain, we sat around an early morning fire and share our dreams. 

I don't know what we left the community with (I hope it was something positive) but I know what I came home with. 

I hate how discredited indigenous communities around the world are. They know how to survive in ways that I don't. They can look at a plant or hear the chirp of a bird and know exactly what it is. They understand the importance of nature and of the land. 

They understand so much more than I do, yet, I'm the one who is given more worldly value.

It's so wrong.

I wish the world could see my friends, get to know them and cherish who they are and their history. 

I'm pretty sure it would change a lot of things. I'm pretty sure it would also help stop environmental destruction...and maybe even prevent global warming. 

(Yes. That is a real thing.) 

My last year of school begins now.

I cannot believe it. This teaching weekend is the beginning of the end.

In a mere 9 monthes. I will be Mastered. Fin. Done with school.

It's such a werid thought. I know I'm a year behind the rest of my classmates...but I feel like everything has worked out the way it should. I only have one class yet, then next semester I'll just be writing.

And writing. And writing.

I'm in the midst of a research course. The last stop till the thesis.

Holy crap. The thesis.

Shit just got real.

Footsteps from War

Last summer, I went to Okinawa with my 90 year old Grandfather. He had been in the Marines during World War II and had fought on Okinawa. I had grown up listening to his stories of his time during the war and knew that going on this trip with him was going to be once in a lifetime. 

I had actually hoped that my dad would have been able to accompany him, but since the dates didn't work out, I was more than happy to get to return to Japan. I guess it maybe helped that I at least had a somewhat working knowledge of Japanese. 

My grandfather was pretty amazing (he's since passed away). To have taken a trip that long and far away was inspiring. I hope that when I'm 90 I'm a) still alive and b) as mobile as he was. 

We spent hours on that plane, and then in Guam and then finally in Japan. They were in the midst of a typhoon, so it rained a lot, but that was okay. We wheeled (gpa had a handy wheelchair) around Naha like nobodies business. 

We were on a group tour with a number of history buffs. It was pretty funny. I was def. the youngest, one of the very few females, but we had a good time. There was one other Vet on the trip. These two were pretty much rock stars on the trip. They even got on television and in the newspaper. 

We visited a number of sites, mounds, hills, monuments. Experiencing this alongside my grandfather, seeing him relive it and watch how quickly he remembered details and friends he lost was just humbling.  

It was very neat to see where my grandfather fought in the war. Regardless of personal opinions we may hold, he...and many others risked their lives for our country. I am nothing but grateful to our service men and women. 

So. We met Again.

It's happening. Soon. Just not yet. Consider yourself in the midst of a Trailer. Minus the music. And the acting. And, well, the movie.

But you get the point...

(photo taken by Angela Manginelli)

Talley's Folly

Awhile ago, I experienced one of the most personally moving pieces of theater, a small show called "Talley's Folly," which was written by Lanford Wilson (a playwright I am now obsessed with) and starting two of my absolute favorites: Sarah Paulson and Danny Burnstein.

This show wasn't impacting for all the normal reasons. It didn't have catchy tunes or a big set of fancy costumes. It was quite understated in fact. But what it lacked in "sparkle" Talley's Folly made up for in emotion and feeling and finding me in the exact moment of my life that I needed it to.

See, I've just been through a bit of heart sadness. Not heartbreak, but that sad state you sometimes find yourself in when there's an ending to something you truly wished hadn't yet finished. Love and relationships are tricky, tricky things, and it is never fun when you come to the realization that it wasn't meant to be.  But that's life and that's how you learn and you grow.

And holy shit, sometimes it sure does suck.

But whenever I find myself licking wounds after a breakup, the universe always seems to know exactly how to pick my spirits back up.

And this time it gave me the lovely gift of Sally Talley.

The show is your classic tale of "two lost souls finding in each other a respite from loneliness." Each character a bit of an outsider, lost in their own sadness and trying to rise from their past pains.  It is a story of two different people who hide so much in their own fears and are so worried about what the other may think. Little do they know that neither really care. Their love looks beyond any shortcomings or doubts.

What I loved about the show is that it spoke directly to my heart. I rarely allow anything to do that. Call it a fault, call it self-protection, but Talley's Folly punched me in my core.

Which is why this scene broke me:

Matt:....What I told you I have never before spoken for the same reason that you speak nothing to anybody, because we are terrified that if once we allow ourselves to be cracked---I think people really do think that they're eggs. They're afraid they are the---who is the eggman, all the king's horses....
Sally: Humpty Dumpty.
Matt: We all have a Humpty Dumpty complex.

And it is so true. We're all afraid of getting those cracks in us. Of being broken, of not being whole. Of allowing another person inside of our hearts and inner thoughts.

I love me a deep night of theater.

After the show, I saw Sarah Paulson exiting and of course stopped to take a picture. She couldn't have been nicer.