A beautiful day.

Dear Arizona,

When I got finally got back to my dorm an hour ago I had snowflakes in my hair.

I had the most exceptional day. I woke up in the late morning after a night of strange dreams (caused by the crazy night I had last night) and got ready to go to the big, shore, never-ending Pacific beach! I’m not sure if writing every detail would honestly convey how beautiful this day was. It’s sort of along the lines of that really cliché saying: You had to be there. But, you did. There’s was something that made everything really dreamy even though it really could have turned out to be horrible. So, I’m not really going to blog like normal. Instead, I’m just going to spit little scatter-brained phrases and moments and fragmented sentences out and hope that it does a little justice.

The gathering in the apartment. Warm sunshine on the field. Corner store snacks. Open windows and catching a glimpse of snow suddenly falling, running out, listening to the howls and yells and yips of the people outside as the most fragile of snowflakes just… whispered down. Soundless and barely there, not floating or falling. They were so the opposite of aggressive. It was like they tip-toed from the big white sky and slipped to the ground without disturbing a thing.
Packing everyone into the car. Needing to take two cars. An hour drive west to get there. Jamming out on the way there (When I’m Small- Phantogram + much much more). The craziest, most fickle weather on the drive: sunshine, rain, HAIL!, no- sunshine so intense the road ahead of us is golden due to the reflection from the previous rain… and then repeat.

Finally getting there. Running to the water. Extreme wind. So cold. But? So. Beautiful. Group picture. The little hole in my glove became apparent due to the chilliness. Trying to all sit in one car (failing). Trying to make a place to sit outside by using the cars as shields (failing). Retreating to the grassy dunes and setting up two tents over a tarp and then somehow make-shifting them so that they sort of meshed together (genius and also I applaud those that fashioned it.) Getting settled. Taking a walk along the water line south.

Logs. Crab shells. Sand dollars (all broken. But hey, money can’t buy love, so my broken sand dollars are still perfect to me.) More pictures. Snacks. The sunset and sudden brewing storms. Seagulls. Piling into the tents, snacking, laughing, regaining the warmth we lost on the walk while the sun set. Somehow, finally, tearing down and bringing everything back to the car (after the wind-spinning).
Me driving back. Me noticing some big differences between Arizona driving and Washington driving.
1. Very little lighting along the streets. Like. Very very little.
2. Snow…
3. Winding hills.
But. Me successfully getting back to campus. High-five, AZ! More good music was played. The snow looked like zooming stars.

Being back on campus and probably looking like a mob as we all piled out of two cars and shivered our way from F lot to the dorms. Going back to the apartment and having a little girl time. Reliving events and fort making. Chips. (So many chips. Jeez.) The rest of the gang joining in and then disappearing and then rejoining (after hotsaucepasta). Being ambushed with snowballs and finding that while in the apartment more snow had fallen. And now, there is a gorgeous white blanket of cold magical snow all over this beautiful forest.

Tomorrow, I plan to play in it. I hope that it continues to snow for a little while and I promise that I will take pictures of it! But now, I leave you with one little picture of the day and I sleep. I will post the others at a later date.

Stay happy, Arizona.
hugs and kisses forever,
E.