Snowman Sunday

Today was the first day of ACMNP (A Christian Ministry in the National Parks) church services. Since both of my roommates are in the ministry, I went to breakfast with them & followed them to the amphitheater (weird word – am phi theater? Does not look how it’s pronounced! Or maybe we pronounce it wrong?). The services are at 8am, 10am, and 7:30pm today.

But guess what?

It snowed.

And stuck.

Sooo no one showed up for the morning services.

Our first little layman, Mr. Archibald Lumpy

We could have just stayed around until ten minutes or a quarter after the hour to make sure no one was going to show, but we ended up making a small congregation and a pastor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anna working on the pastor

 

 

Our pastor, who began to look like Sid the Sloth but ended up looking like Cookie Monster

And then we made a tiny friend for Mr. Lumpy – who remained unnamed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah we had a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It only snowed about an inch, but it made everything look rather beautiful for a few hours! Plus it was perfect packing snow.

 

A deer posed for us behind one of the dorms

Rampart Ridge Hike

I took this picture this morning, to show how the parking lot's filling up (even with the bad weather, it's still Memorial Day Weekend)

Today I took the shuttle down to Longmire at noon and set off on the Trail of Shadows again. Halfway around its loop, another trail heads off and up that mountain (Rampart Ridge Trail), so I took that today.

I hiked for about an hour uphill all the way (stopping frequently to catch my breath and lament how soft I’ve grown over the winter ). Then I started to hit the snow, and stopped for a while. I spread my coat over a log and sat munching on my GORP. (I also looked up the story of Jonathan and his armorbearer climbing up the cliff and defeating the Philistines as that story popped into my head as I was huffing and puffing up the mountain). I couldn’t decide whether to continue – in my tennis shoes, and risk losing the trail in the snow – or whether to head back down. But I decided to keep going, and am very glad I did.
I caught up with a hiker named Rick from Oregon, and we hiked the rest of the way together. I love meeting people from everywhere, and getting to know who they are. Rick and I hiked through the snow for a while until we reached the viewpoint – which was not much of a viewpoint as it was so foggy!

I’m trying out a gallery in this post, let me know what you think. You can click each picture to see it larger:

I took this picture this morning, to show how the parking lot’s filling up (even with the bad weather, it’s still Memorial Day Weekend)

Longmire from the Ridge

We saw a couple birds on the hike, they were amazingly bold and let us get rather close.

We kept hiking through the snow for about another mile and a half before the trail headed back down the hill. The snow was very high but packed hard from so many hikers – it was an odd feeling to be walking on the snow and come along a hole – to lean over and look down and find you were about 2-5 feet above the ground!

I ended up with shoes full of water and jeans wet halfway to the knees, but I’m glad I kept going. It was a good hike – more than 5 miles in all. I’ll go back in July or so and see how it looks when the snow’s gone!

More “firsts”… First hike on my First day off!

I had my first day off today, so after breakfast (french toast, in case you wanted to know) and computer work, I went to wait outside the employee dining room for the shuttle. We have two vans that drive up and down the mountain and take employees for free – they’ll even drop you off at hike trailheads along the way, and stop to pick you up when you emerge back onto the road.

So I stop outside to wait for the van. It was snowing, and with my head down I watched it fall. If you didn’t think I was weird before, you will now. Watching that snow fall was the coolest thing… The wind would catch it and swirl it in patterns. Like when the blossoms formed into a person in the second Narnia movie… you almost expected a face to form and laugh at you. This snow disappeared as soon as it landed on the ground, disappeared… And if it blew just right, fast and straight down, it felt like you were in space, flying through the stars.

Yeah. Like I told you, you think I’m crazy now. But it was cool.

Anyhow, a friend (Trish) decided to join me on the ride down to Longmire, and we did the short hike, Trail of Shadows. And then we rode the shuttle down to Ashford and back up, but that’s okay, it’s such a beautiful ride… Even though it’s foggy up at Paradise, it’s fairly clear down below, and the view along the whole way is beautiful.

I thought the pictures I took wouldn’t be that interesting, but looking back I realized… you can’t really take a boring picture near Mount Rainier. So here they are, pictures from my first (albeit short) hike here:

I was trying to get the reflection of the sky in this photo... the skunk cabbage was everywhere! I'm not really bothered by the smell though, and I think they're quite pretty.

This color is from the hot springs in the area. A Mr. Longmire "discovered" them over a hundred years ago, thought, "ha ha, cha-ching!" and started visitors heading up here to improve their health in the hot springs.

More colors from hot springs... Isn't God amazing?

I liked the colors of this stump.

My friend and co-worker Trish taking a picture of the stump

Do I know the name of this mountain? Mmm... nope!

My camera has a “miniature mode” that’s fun to play around with:

 

 

This is National Park Inn, I believe...

 

 

And here’s some more pictures I’ve taken from my window these last couple nights, just to show how amazingly different the mountains can look…

Right now the sun is coming out… so there’s hope this snow will melt. Tomorrow is another day off before I get back to work, so I’m going to work on school, than take a longer hike.

TTFN!

Sarah

Editing Tips: for those who can’t edit to save their lives (like me!)

So right now I’m in the process of editing my Nanowrimo novel. (If you’ll remember, back on November 30th I officially reached 50K – having started with nada, goose egg, the big o on November 1st.) *Basks in that sweet feeling of victory again*. My novel is still only about… 3/4, maybe 5/6 of the way done, however, and needs quite a bit of major plotline-tweaking.

Confession: I am not an editor. I always get it right the first time ( Just kidding!!). Not true, but usually I look at a rough draft and go “Okay, this needs to be changed… but how?”. Editing is not wired very well into my writer-brain.

Soooo, since I’m pretty helpless at editing, what did I do? Decide to post a blog post about how to better edit. Like a person with hydrophobia telling someone else how to swim! I was going through the tips on the Nano site and wanted to share with you the ones that really stood out to me. So, without further adieu, and in no particular order, here they are:

1. (One). Set the book aside, and sit and listen to that inner editor you’ve (tried? successfully?) silenced for so long.  Those “sneaking suspicions” and “gut feelings” about a boring scene, flat character, or cliché conversation are probably right! Write them down. Listen to them. If you want, wait and see if they match up to what other people say if you give your novel out to be critiqued. Now is the time to let your inner editor loose!

2. (Two). Make sure your main character is engaged in the story. Are they just observing, or are they feeling? Are they in the thick – “in the spotlight” (for your reader, in the story they might just be a chimney sweep) – or are they just skimming through? Challenge them. Stretch them. Give them fears that must be conquered or given into. Have them make a bad choice! There are few times the reader is more emotionally “into” the story then when the character is making a bad choice. We’ve all been there. “No, no, don’t do it!” Best way to get a reader hooked.

3. (Three). Make sure you’re describing with more senses than sight. Your character is smelling, feeling, tasting… so describe it. Bring things to life.

4. (Four). Read your book out loud. Very, very crucial. In my English class, we would form into groups and read aloud our drafts. Ofttimes we would discover awkward phrasing that wasn’t as obvious in black and white letters on paper. Reading aloud to a friend may be more comfortable than reading to empty air. If you prefer solitude, though, hole away in your room, or take a walk to a park and sit at a picnic table. With no one around. (If they do overhear walking by, they won’t be listening anyway. They’ll just think you’re a bit loony, talking to yourself. And hey, you’re a writer. Being labeled as loony comes with the job. ) Okay right now the reading outside is not an option for me as it’s 18 degrees, snowing, and cold at my house! But the point is – read your book out loud. Oh, and listen.

5. (Five). Don’t revise before you edit. This will save you a lot of time! In other words: move things around. Fix the plot holes. Cut, copy, paste, delete, add. Then edit. Fix the typos. Change the way the words flow. Otherwise you’re going to make a scene sound perfect, then discover deleting it altogether is actually what your story needs.

6. (Six). Make sure to get input from other people. No matter how much you listen to your inner editor, or slave over draft I and then II and then III with red pens, you cannot spot what other people can. Head to Ebay and buy some “thick skin” (cause you can buy anything on Ebay ). You’re going to need it – as some people will give you fluff that’s no help whatsoever – “Oh I loved it! Great job! Good book!” – and other people will tell you the truth. This part stinks. This part makes no sense whatsoever. And this part was so brilliant you remove it from your book on pain of death. If your critique-rs are honest, you’ll be battered down. You’ll be lifted up and find the encouragement you needed to go on, and to make your book even better. Just remember to buy that thick skin – I believe it’s on sale now for $23.99.

Well that’s the end of my advice (inspired from the Nanowrimo “Now What?” tips). Now I’m going to go and… try… to put them into practice. So much more difficult to actually edit than to advise people how to edit! But I’m excited because I know no matter how hard or seemingly endless it is, in the end my book’s going to improve. I’m going to like it more. Readers will like it more. That makes me excited.

Nanowrimo Update: Day 21

Drawing near to the finish line now, only nine more days! I can’t believe how much I’ve written, yet there’s still a lot more to the story before it’s finished.

My word count is currently at about 32,500 – and I haven’t written any for today so far, so I’m a day and a half behind. =S Finding time to write will be rather difficult, as these last days are also the last days of school, and I’ll be taking my driver’s test on the 30th. Why must it never rain but pour?

Speaking of the weather it SNOWED today!! It was so beautiful, but I still can’t believe it’s winter. I suppose it’s because I’m getting so old that everything is just feeling like a cycle. Winter was just here, how can it be here again? Ah, years are just traveling faster and faster.

But I am super excited for the holidays! Although Caleb will be in Korea we will be sending him a package with a lot of fun things *rubs hands in glee*. This will be the first Christmas we’ll be missing a member of our family… there will definitely be sorrow beneath our happiness.

But I hope the month of December does not get flooded with busy-ness, and that there will be time to relax. And enjoy some free time, before the winter quarter starts. *Sigh* Who came up with this idea of quarters and papers and exams for school anyway?

Enjoy this week – and Thanksgiving!