Grump Girl will not be subdued. I have set up camp in Bad Attitude Land, and I have no clue why. It's a mystery, but something is going on. I had a great time on vacation. I was excited to come home to my bed and shower and clean laundry. I love seeing my friends. My skin is clear. I have hundreds of On Demand movies and shows at my disposal. I even have a kick ass tan, which never happens and you'd think would lift the spirits a little, but no. I'm pissy, and I'm annoyed that I'm pissy. I can't blame the hot weather, because less than a week ago I was skipping up into the hills of the desert under the blazing fireball. The apartment is coming along, but I'm stomping around with vases and candles making grouchy mrrr, mrrr, mrrr-mrrr noises. The only satisfaction I get is from pounding nails into the wall (in a huff, mind you) to hang my pictures. Tonight I cursed the soggy broccoli in my chow mein. I keep crashing into curbs when I park my car. Kitty flops out on the couch to stay out of the way and keep a wary eye on me. It's not pretty.

Oh God. It's couples night on Wheel of Fortune. After racking up $15,000, a woman botched solving the puzzle by saying on rather than in as part of the phrase. Her husband was t'oed, and I feel bad for them because they were so excited. I might as well just turn to The English Patient on HBO.

On to lighter topics...A friend of mine pointed out that I've spent a lot of time blogging about the beginning and end of my trip but nothing in the middle. He's right, and I feel silly for forgetting to talk about it, because it was great. I'm glad I got to share this experience with Amy and Keith. After Zion and Bryce Canyon, we visited the North and South Rims of the Grand Canyon, spent a couple of days camping with my cousin and his friend at the South Rim, headed up to Durango for Mesa Verde and river rafting, stopped for a tour of Antelope Canyon, and then drove down to Sedona. At each place, we encountered tourists from all over the world, which was cool. A nice English guy even gave us a bunch of groceries at Zion, since he was heading out of the country.

It's hard to believe we fit in so much. Every place we saw was so beautiful in its own way. The stars were so brilliant each night. I'd never seen anything like Bryce Canyon before and we did a pretty hike there. The Grand Canyon overwhelmed me with its beauty and size. We stopped to admire a gorgeous sunset as we drove in to the South Rim. You take pictures, but there's no way a picture can capture it. I loved the sound of the wind blowing through the trees as you got closer to the canyons. The air patterns must make it sound different than regular wind and leaves. I liked believing that the trees were telling us what an amazing place we're visiting. I always noticed it, and it always made me happy.

My cousin, Alan, and his friend were tons of fun, and it was great to break up the trip a bit by spending time with them. We cooked a yummy spaghetti dinner one night, which was nice after relying so much on restaurants/fast food. As Amy, Keith and I were getting ready to settle into the van that night, two guys in their early 20's approached us to ask about disc golf courses. They'd overheard Alan and his friend talking with us after dinner about their tour of the courses in Arizona, so we called my cousin out of his tent to chat. The boys sounded kinda surfer/stoner-ish and referred to everything they liked as tight. "That course was so tight, dude!" But, it turns out they live within a couple of miles of my cousin in Minneapolis.

Antelope Canyon made me want Peter Lik's Ghost even more. It was one of my favorite stops, but shockingly none of my photos turned out like Peter Lik's. It was nice and cool in there. The canyon is on Navajo land, and the tourists sit on benches in the back of pickup trucks to be driven out to the canyon by the guide. That's the most thrilling part, as the sandy, rocky road is incredibly bumpy and you're bouncing around with only a little rail to grasp.

Durango was such a cute town, and it was good to see green at that point. Our campsite was on the Animas River, and I could listen to the river running from my bunk in the Party Wagon while falling asleep at night--so serene and relaxing. I can't wait to river raft again. The trip we took was pretty low key, but the bigger rapids were really fun, so I want to try a more difficult route next time. Our guide was cute and funny. One minute he's telling us that the river is a great place to fish, and the next he was saying how back in the day the mines totally polluted the river and, even though it's undergone major clean-up over the years, he won't eat the fish caught there. Huh.

I hope to make it to Sedona again soon, maybe in the spring or fall when it's not so hot. I'd like to have the opportunity to hike up the rocks a bit more. Sedona is referred to as a spiritual mecca with energy vortexes, spas and lots of woo-woo stores. Naturally, I was fascinated. We shopped a little and visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross, Cathedral Rock, and Bell Rock. While I found all three spots peaceful, Bell Rock actually felt like it was buzzing with energy to me. Amy and I climbed up on it a bit and found shade under a tree. Although our time there was brief, it was memorable. We had a really good conversation, and I was constantly aware of how special our surroundings felt. I loved it.

The only sad and scary part of being in Sedona was the wildfire in the hills that was heading toward Oak Creek Canyon. It was only 5% contained, and homes were in danger with people being evacuated. There were also big fires on the Navajo land as we drove home too. It was really weird and oppressive to see the sky covered in smoke and to breathe it in.

We made a last minute plan to leave Sedona early so we could stop at Six Flags outside of LA as the last hurrah of our trip. None of us had been to an amusement park in a while, and we were pretty excited about our plan to ride big rollercoasters, but we broke down on our way out of town. We had to trade in Six Flags for Cottonwood, which didn't seem fair at the time (Cottonwood started to look more and more like a hick town the longer we were there), but then we got to see Jerome. I have to say I'd never heard of Jerome. When Amy suggested going, I was like whatever. I didn't know what to expect, but I figured we would only be there an hour or two, see some little ghost town, and then bail.

Well, I hope you'll check out the site, because we spent the perfect afternoon there. Besides all the history, which was really interesting, Jerome is home to tons of artists. I had the best time looking at all the work (not to mention buying a few small things) in the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery and talked with one of the contributing artists to the Celebrating Women Who Changed History exhibit. We had lunch at the Red Rooster Cafe, where I ate the most delicious caprese sandwich (so good!) and tried White Truck wine. I have dreams about that lunch. Must find White Truck here since it's the best summer wine. Our waiter, an actor, was very charming and funny. He kept us entertained the entire time. We browsed through really cute shops and admired gorgeous views. I almost want to say I'm glad we broke down, because otherwise we wouldn't have seen Jerome. It was worth it.

We spent hours and hours on the road, and music was a big part of that. Amy and Keith are really into ambient and techno music while I'm more of a rock girl, so we got to experience each other's tastes through our iPods and MP3 players. Keith set it up so we could hook up our players directly to the van's very nice stereo system, and we listened to a lot of different stuff with periods of quiet in between.

I feel like a lot of my travel memories will be triggered by certain bands or songs, and I like that. For instance, Amy and Keith hadn't heard The Long Winters before and took a major liking to The Commander Thinks Aloud. That song got a lot of play on our drive from Zion to Bryce (as well as other stretches of our trip), and I heard that the crew compartment's breaking up about a gazillion times. But, as my mom is now fond of saying (she surprised me with this in email the other day), it's all good. Goldfrapp's Black Cherry album reminds me of driving from Durango to Mesa Verde. ABBA's Take a Chance on Me = Going to the Grand Canyon. Massive Attack = Driving out of Cottonwood. Bjork's Greatest Hits = Grand Canyon to Durango. DCfC's Plans = Yakima to home in the middle of the night. It kept us sane. There are many more, but I'll stop myself. You get the picture.

Wow. This post has turned into a novel. I hope I haven't lost you. I'll have to see if it's a big mess tomorrow.

Someone just mowed the lawn, and now my apartment smells like fresh cut grass which is pretty sweet and summery. I'm cheering up. I better go dig through some boxes so I can slam a breakable or two down on a shelf before bed.