My vacation schedule can be summed up like this:
Get up around 5:30 am
Eat breakfast
Leave around 7
Ride bike about 20 miles, stop and eat, take pictures (repeat this anywhere from a gillion to a zillion times)
Shower, change, rest
Dinner
Go to bed around 9:15
Repeat

I was really getting used to it and then POOF! it was over 🙁
I promise I will post some pictures
The ride was amazing, including super-challenging terrain (Even compared to the Rocky Mountains, where I rode in 2006, this was pretty hard! And unlike the Rockies, where every hard climb was followed by a nice long descent, this ride just seemed to gradually go up, up, and up some more, as instead of being a circuit, the route was point to point. Plus, going west-east, the wind was always in our faces. I had a bad feeling about this when my flight from Providence to Phoenix was 10 minutes early b/c of tailwinds), great scenery, and awesome people.

I was apprehensive about going alone, but because I had no friends there, I had tons of opportunities to talk to people. I connected with some awesome folks! Despite the fact that I was totally the youngest person there- people were making fun of me saying I had to ride my bike b/c I didn’t have my drivers license yet- I found it pretty easy to talk to almost everyone and there are a couple people I could see myself staying in touch with. One of whom, I was actually thinking of last night… I was in a rage b/c my upstairs neighbors were keeping me awake. It sounded like they were dragging furniture across the floor all night… for the first hour I tried to take deep breaths and relax but I only have so much patience. Two hours, several tears, a tylenol pm, half a dozen doors slammed, a frantic call to my mother, one request to stay at my parents’ denied (don’t get me started on that one!), and one broomstick banged repeatedly against the ceiling later, I thought, WWKD. What would Kurt do? Kurt was one of the people on my trip who just exuded peace and light. I know, that is so hokey! But its true! He was like camp-counselor meets athlete-meets hippie-meets guy old enough to be your dad practically but is so hot anyway… So I digress. I think Kurt is totally drug-free yet he is one of the happiest, most serene people I have ever met. Actually I think I will ask him what he would do. When I get an answer I will post, if you are curious. It might be a while though. I will have to write him a letter since he doesn’t have email. (Seriously. He. Does. Not. Have. Email.)

Actually I would like to invite you, my dear readers to give suggestions on what to do about said neighbors. This is what I have already tried already that doesn’t work: a fan, ipod, music, ear plugs, sleeping on the couch with the tv on, sleeping on the couch with the tv off, telling myself its not that bad, tylenol pm (as of last night. it always used to work in a jam), asking them to please be quieter (and if you don’t know their nicknames, according to me, they are Thug and Thug Jr.) I am scared of them and I am afraid to go up there in the middle of the night in my jammies. And I keep thinking about all those stories you see in the news about idiots with guns and I imagine this on the front page of the Providence Journal: