Goats...Yes, I Said Goats!!

So, yesterday a surprise wandered onto our front lawn. Two goats. No idea where they came from. but they were friendly. They even tried to eat off the barren trees and bushes. I found it completely hilarious.

Just a crazy moment in the prairie.

Blizzards on the East Coast vs. the West.....

From my three months living on the prairie, I've met three people from the East. They've all said they will take the West's version of a snowstorm over the East anytime.

Well....I've officially survived my first Colorado blizzard and I have to say....it was scary! Once you've driven past the edge of Colorado Springs, there's nothing. Not even a gas station for two miles. No McDonalds. No CVS! Nothing! The only thing there that will greet you is darkness. There are no street lights so you seriously have to stare at the lights of the car in front of you if you want to reach the land of the living again. Seriously.

Monday night as I was driving back to warmth and safety....though the car was quite comfy if you ignored everything around you....the wind was howling and the snow was going horizontally. That's not supposed to happen. On top of that, we have drifts out here. Half way down the street I live on, there has been a ditch for who knows how long, but when the snow came it kind of got stuck and just pilled up. Driving across it is like driving through a marsh or maybe a ski slope. That was not fun.

In reference to the East, this blizzard happened on Monday and the snow is almost gone. You can barely tell we had a storm much less any amount of snow more than a dusting. In the East...the snow would still be there Christmas Day... just saying. However, I'm not a huge fan of driving in zero viability so honestly, not sure if I like the West's version of snow more than the East or not. Maybe it will be different in other parts of this state.

Friendly!

Compared to the East Coast, Colorado natives are so friendly and helpful! Whether I'm digging through my purse to find a penny or I drop something or even putting on blinkers when changing lanes! The people seem always willing to help you out and give you the right of way. I love it out here!!!

In the past week, I've met two people from the East Coast, one from CT and another from MA. Both have said they noticed the same thing. It's different pace of life and sense of calm not rushed. I'm curious when the snow comes how they drive. People have told me that there are many from CA who live here and they have NO idea whatsoever how to drive in snow. SMH. Just like New England.

I also love the faces I get when I say I'm from Connecticut. Their jaws just drops. At least they don't ask, "Where's that?" like people in New Jersey do.......seriously!?

Prairie Life

One huge difference from my hometown in CT and Falcon, CO is the fact that there are animals. Don't laugh. I'm serious. Sure, in CT we have squirrels and raccoons and woodchucks. Not really that spectacular. However, in the prairie, there are antelopes, cows, horses, frogs, bunnies, chickens, pigs and probably a whole lot more I haven't seen yet. They are everywhere! I am however pleased to say that the area doesn't smell like manure like most of Iowa does......

I also find it somewhat nerve wreaking, coming from a busy town next door to Hartford, that most people around here are very trusting. Now, my dad made it a point to get to know our neighbors and here is the same. The family I'm living with now have no idea where the house keys are....why, you ask? Because they never use them unless they are gone for weeks at a time, which hasn't happened in quite a few years. Even when we went camping for the weekend, the doors were shut like the windows but not locked. Weird for me but slowly becoming natural. I don't even lock the car doors here. On our street, you pretty much know what vehicle belongs to who. It's a rather short street and it's dirt to boot. Until recently, there were potholes everywhere. Thank goodness the county decided to fill them in. Before that, we had to drive in the middle of the road, but hey it's a quiet street. We never run into anyone coming the opposite direction.

It's also very quiet out here. Reminds me of Ithaca, minus the drunk Freshmen. You can see the stars quite clearly and the blood moon we saw recently was pretty cool. Down the street, there's a new Walmart, Domino's, some fast food places and two banks. Being used to driving 15 minutes to the nearest Walmart, this is awesome! Who'd expect that in Colorado!!??! But as they say, the West is booming!

Another Check Off My BUCKET LIST!

Don't ask me why, but for the longest time I've been DYING to go to a rodeo and this past week I finally went in my cowgirl hat of course! I can honestly tell you that I wasn't the only one. :) AND it was dollar day which made it even better. I would have worn my cowboy boots too if I had them with me and it wasn't 90 degrees out. Oh well. Next time!

The rodeo itself was a lot of fun even when the power went out and it started to rain buckets. Thank goodness, CO's version of a rain shower lasts less than 15 minutes. So after it stopped, it only took us a half hour or so to become try from the heat. While the power was out, the "ringleader" and his sidekick started coming up with jokes in between songs, all western/old classic songs like Sweet Caroline. (That song was the only one I recognized....). 

We watched bull riding which one has to stay on the bull for more than 8 seconds and one poor guy lasted 7.9! So close!!!! There was also barrel racing and one horse got hurt so we all sent a prayer for both the rider and the horse. The girl was beside herself and had to be carried off. Also had Bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping and down roping (where two cowboys on horses rode after a young steer and roped it tying it's feet too). Many times the young steer would try to get up after it was down and quite a few starting running even with the ropes on them! With team roping, it was just two cowboys getting both ropes around the bulls neck before it runs off. 

Overall, it was a great night and I can't wait to go to another one! If you haven't gone to one, I STRONGLY suggest it :D

I LOVE COLORADO!

Tired of Country Yet? NOPE

It's been a week since I've been in Falcon and loving the emptiness of it. Though the people I'm staying with have told me that there used to be more empty fields than there are now. In the past, six years more houses and stores have been built surrounding Colorado Springs.

This miniature city, Colorado Springs, reminds me of Manchester, CT or maybe Waterbury. So many stores and literally everything you could want you'll find within a 15 minute radius. I like how the house I'm in is in the countryside yet less than 2 minutes down the road, there's a Walmart. Back in CT, it took us 15 minutes or more to the nearest Walmart. Though we did have a grocery store less than 2 minutes away. I could definitely get used to this!

A few days ago, a friend of mine came to visit! So excited! We hadn't seen each other since IC graduation. We went to Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls. Though getting to the Seven Falls proved to be quite a ride. We didn't want to wait for the shuttle since we weren't sure when the rain would start so we decided to drive there and park closer. Well, we followed the signs and then came up upon a dirt road. Unsure what to do, we continued up the dirt road. Well.....this road twisted and dipped and ascended. There were quite a few potholes as well. However, the view was gorgeous! After a good twenty minutes on this road, we see a map and got out to look at it. From my perspective, since it didn't have any landmarks other than this peak and that peak, I deduced that we should keep going since it looked like we didn't have that much farther to go before we would go down the mountain. About 5 minutes later, we came upon a ranch. There we asked whether or not we were close to Seven Falls. He shook his head sadly. It was way back where we started. Clearly, the state of CO needs to have clearer signs!

So after twisting and turning yet again down the mountain with stops to take pictures we found ourselves where we began. However, my friend's GPS was taking us all over town. So I turned mine on. I asked her while we were following mine, "If mine leads us somewhere else other than our destination, what do you want to do?" At this point, it's 4 pm in the afternoon and we started this trek around 2:30. Well, have dinner! Luckily, we found it and had an amazing time minus, the climbing up to get closer to the waterfall. I suggest you workout a little more before going up there :D

The End but Wait.....

Well.....camp has officially ended. Family Camp was different yet fun. The kids were great and I loved seeing the eagerness from the parents. Always asking questions is one of the best ways to learn anything. Each family had it's unique inner-family drama of course but when they worked together, everything fell into place. I wish my parents had access to this type of program. I honestly think we all would have benefited better. Maybe my life wouldn't have been catastrophic at times. Who knows what if really, but in the end as one staff member put it, "We all have a different path. We all have different gifts. Maybe we find it, maybe we don't but the point is to keep going and not give up." God has put us here for a reason and created each other for a reason. He didn't design us to be alone. He knows we need companionship, love, acceptance, encouragement and all the rest. Life is tough even for the hearing world, but we have a bond as Deaf people and that bond is something to hold on to.

People have asked me if I'm excited to be done and I reply with "1/2 and 1/2." I'm super happy to be done with the drama, the living on top of each other, the conversations that I have no desire to be a part of, disrespect from both kids as well as just sleeping in a bunk bed. I'm looking forward to a new chapter, new beginning, new town and hopefully new friends.

It's been an amazing, hard, challenging, interesting ride here at Aspen. I didn't die on a mountain so that fear hadn't come to pass :D So I'm eternally grateful to have been around people like me. I still wish I had grown up in this atmosphere but can't change the past. I have no idea what God's plan is or why he had me mainstreamed instead of at ASD, but I know He knows best and I have to keep trusting He knows what He's doing regardless if I can barely see it.

Getting it Done

So the end of camp is slowly creeping up on us staff....we are half ready to leave and half sad we have to say goodbye. Today the campers are rafting and going to the Hot Springs, both of which they are seriously excited about. All the staff has gone a bunch of times so none of us are excited ourselves, but we are glad the kids get a chance to experience this.

The elementary by far has been a great group to work with. Love their smiles, energy but they do lack the will sometimes. We tell them they can do something and they reply with they can't. Have they tried before? Nope. They just have it in their heads that they are incapable of doing something...... You never know until you try. Isn't that the saying?

Thank goodness the sun has been nice to us Aspen Camp people this past week because the weeks with the middle schoolers have been nothing but rain! Now it's still cool in the mornings but not as freezing as before. Finally, feels like summer again! No different that the weather I left behind in CT. Though people have told me it's humid out there now. HAHAHAHAHA I'd rather have rain than humidity.

So far so great, though excited for next week!

Breathing

Elementary are here and I feel a little bit more free"er" because more often that not the middle schoolers who were here a few days ago were a headache. Some I will say were great to work with, most just made me shake my head every two seconds. The kids that are at camp now are a blast and have wild imaginations. I don't remember much being an eight year old but I do miss the simple life they have. Their biggest worry is probably......will I get to sit next to my best friend at lunch today? Pfft! Big deal.

As camp is almost done for us seasonal staff, we can feel the heaviness in the air. Always tired. Always having our heads drooping. Our laughter isn't quite as boisterous as before. We haven't torn each other apart which is a good thing but I for one am done with the camp life. Bunk beds are only fun for so long.

I love the fact that I've been able to send postcards to my family, friends and church family. It's been great "seeing" their reactions through text messages. Can't wait to send the last few next week!!!

Driving on Overload

Summer Camp is officially halfway over and I'm feeling overwhelmed most days. Partly because of the amount of kids here right now and because how many of them don't listen very well much less understand and implement the word "respect" in their lives. It's sad really.

The situation makes me think of a lot about raising kids. I wonder how the kids with such bad attitudes got to where they are now, middle schoolers. Granted, all I know about raising kids is from what my parents have said and what I've read/heard from others. In my perspective, it starts with the parents or whoever raises them. If the parents don't take the time to invest in their children's lives, show them what respect looks like, punish them when needed, love them all the time and cultivate their eager minds then they can potentially grow up to be too proud, inconsiderate and have a lack of awareness of other's feelings.

I've seen this first hand where kids who grow up without feeling loved or appreciated in turn don't give back. For me, when I was going through a tough time in high school I didn't feel appreciated at all. Which led me to crawl into a shell and not trust anyone. I didn't care about anything because no one cared to hear my opinion on anything. I just wanted to be left alone.

Anyways, to end this on a positive note camp has had it's interesting turns. For example, being startled by a deer less than 20 feet from me early in the morning. Kids have jumped up and down saying that they are reserving a seat for me at dinner. (Didn't realized I was liked so much.) Kids teasing me and trying to scare me. (Though I feel like kids just like to do that to older people....)

So far so good in the life of a new Coloradoian :)

First Week of Camp

Goodness O Goodness! I've made it to a full week with campers!!!!!! I still feel that kids are beyond frustrating. A camper the other day asked me, "Do you want kids?" I replied, "I don't even know if I want any." It's the truth. I'm around so many kids all the time, it's hard to think about my own someday. Kids don't listen, they misbehave constantly, they give me a headache some days and they just have no respect. I have a hard time dealing with that sometimes. Granted, I will start teaching them at a young age what respect means and hold them to it!

On a brighter note, camp is going pretty well. Tomorrow we are taking them backpacking. Don't really want to go but I have the whole next week off cause that week is backpacking WEEK verses tomorrow through Friday is only two nights :) I think I can find the silver lining in that!

The job itself it going nicely, I like my coworkers and my bosses so far. One is ridiculous but the good kind. I've become friends with most everyone and can get along with them alright. Sometimes there are conflicts but so far we've been able to resolve them rather quickly. I like this gang.

I was sick for the last three days because of a cold. Lucky me. I realized the reason why it wasn't going away was because I thought my medicine lasted longer than it actually did; only four hours. Go figure. Now, I'm alright but not quite 100%. Hopefully, I won't die on this backpacking trip. SO PRAYYYYY!

As for Colorado in general, I really can see myself living here. Though now I really anxious to explore not only other areas in this state but other cities and states like Seattle, Portland, Omaha, Chicago and dip down into NM and TX! We shall see!!!! :)

New Experiences

So....I climbed a mountain. No, not one of those silly hills in CT, a real live green rocky mountain! No joke. I seriously thought we climbed a million feet up but in reality only ten thousand. When we got halfway, I was thinking, "You're joking! This is only the halfway spot?" Oh boy, we got a ways to go still. The view was spectacular when we arrived at the camp site but the trek.....oh goodness.

While we were up there in tents, it rained. I mean RAINED, big fat droplets along with thunder that sounded like someone dropped a huge metal bowl right next to you. One of the other tents had to be moved because a puddle decided to form underneath. Thank goodness we didn't have to move ours. I was exhausted and so I took a long nap.

Glad someone woke me up for dinner but was not happy that it was indeed still raining. Sigh. We had the most interesting food....freeze dried. Yeah, I had freeze dried lasagna. All I can honestly say is that it was interesting. Would I volunteer to have it again...NOPE. But it didn't make me gag. Unless I didn't gag because I was starving. Who knows.

Now I've been camping in the woods before with family and my Girl Scout troop but it was nothing compared to this. Nada. Carrying a huge backpack up a mountain for three hours is not my idea of a good time. No, I'd rather read. But regardless of my sweaty tired experience climbing a real mountain and camping out on it, I have to say seeing God's creation up close like this is breathtaking.

Higher and Higher

Oh Goodness. Today was a whirlwind. I don't even know how I got the courage to do what I did today. Freshman year, I went jumping into the Ithaca gorges. Today, I did the flying squirrel. Yup. The video will show you what I mean. Intense. This is coming from the girl who grew up loving roller coasters then suddenly hit high school and hated them. I can probably count on both hands twice over how many times I thought I was going to die by doing crazy things like this. Shaking my head.

Before I did the flying squirrel, I went climbing with my team. It wasn't too bad though when I got to the top, I started freaking out. My legs started shaking. I'm not afraid of heights but this was high! After I got used to it, I wanted to go again! I was too scared though to take pictures from the top so next chance I get I will totally do that.

After that morning, the rest of the day was boring. Tomorrow, we are going backpacking for two days and a few of us are a bit nervous. I've never been backpacking before and the last time I went camping was with the family when I was in middle school. So this will be an adventure absolutely. Looking forward to the pictures, I'll be taking :) not the rain that's supposed to happen  tomorrow though......

Last night, we went to Aspen and it reminded me so much of my home away from home, Ithaca. Man, I miss that place! My eyes were watering. The best four years, but looking forward to making my mark on the world and in my career. Found some nice shirts and mug I really wanted to get, but I have a feeling I will find it cheaper elsewhere. Aspen is a tourist spot and everything was sooooooooooooooo expensive. To give you an idea. A sweatshirt at one store was 80 dollars, a shirt was 25 and a pair of running pants were 40. SMH! The shirts I bought were in the 50% off bin. I would not have bought them at regular retail price. NEVER! I plan on exploring much of Colorado so I'm sure I will find deals elsewhere in this square state! :)

Till next time!

Beginning Days of Orientation

So here I am high in the Rocky Mountains at the Aspen Camp for the Deaf!!!!!!!!!! I'm so nervous and excited my head just might explode. When I first arrived at the Denver airport looking for my group, I wasn't even sure I wanted to join. It was only because of my bundle of nerves. I knew I'd probably have the same reaction like my first few weeks at Gallaudet and so far I'm right, but this time I'm ready!

The last two days have been a whirlwind of activity beginning with choosing a bed, taking a tour of the campus and meeting everyone. There is one nurse, eight counselors, two interpreters and myself, who has been dubbed "The Photographer." My job includes much more than that but that's who I am when I'm around them. It should be fun and it's a creative job which I LOVE! It's just the initial jitters I have to overcome. Everyone has been great at including me and making each other feel comfortable and welcome which is a huge help.

We've also had quite a few sessions on topics like communication barriers, finding identities and a real emotion discussion on deaf identities and how we as a minority separate ourselves to the point where we don't respect others' choices. It's been great to learn about each other and how different we are yet the same. Family plays a huge role in Deaf Culture and I love that we are united in that sense. It's similar to race and religion where when you find each other, you have an instant bond.

My first assignment is tomorrow night where I will film something lol and then learn how to upload that to social media etc. I will find out more information about that soon. It will be great to learn how to use a GoPro, IMovie and a DSLR camera.

So far so good! The weather has held up nicely though it's freezing in the morning before 9am and after 9pm. So I've been sleeping in my sweatpants.

See ya next time on Chapter Colorado!

Two Days and Counting....

So....I've begun packing, but I've now realized I need a bigger suitcase. How do you fit your life into a suitcase anyways!?!??!?!

In two days, I will be flying from Bradly International Airport to Denver International Airport with a layover in Minneapolis. Shortly after I land, I will be in a van with other staff members driving towards my new home at the Aspen Camp for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing where I will be the new Outreach Coordinator. Finally, my prayers intertwined with heartaches have been answered! I've been searching far and near for a position where I would be able to use my love for writing and ASL in one place and here it is!!!!!!!!!!!! In the grand old state of Colorado.

Scary but exciting. Exhilarating yet nerve wreaking. I know deep down I'll be alright. I felt the exact same feelings before I left for Europe, college at Ithaca and when I went to Gallaudet for a semester. I'm usually pretty good at making new friends and getting used to change, it's just the thought of starting over and being really on my own is what thrills me and throws me off balance.

After camp is over, my plan is to see what else this state has to offer. I want to explore each city (Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Aspen, Glenwood Springs and Grand Junction). I've already been in contact with fellow IC alumni who are already in the area as well as one 2015 grad who will be moving soon as well! Am I crazy for doing this? Possibly. Am I sane? Doubt it. But I know that God is with me and I have people praying for me. I will definitely miss those I've come to know from previous jobs and college friends I'm leaving behind but no worries, I will be back for Christmas! I most definitely won't miss the piles of snow though!

Thank you all for your part in shaping me into the Ruth Jackson I am today. Hugs all around and feel free to visit!

Ruthie
New Colorodian :D