The Final Countdown (6 days)

Exciting news: Monkey Business Institute improv comedy was voted NUMBER ONE COMEDY/IMPROV by readers of Madison's very popular and well respected paper: The Isthmus. We even beat out the more well known Comedy Club. This is great news for our group and I am performing with them for my very last show on Friday!

It is my final week in Madison. Next Tuesday I will pick my dad up from the airport and we will start our drive back to North Carolina (after a quick stop at the Terrace, of course). I can't believe I've been living in the midwest for 7 years!

I've been having so much fun that I don't want to leave, but I know that summer can't last forever. The past couple weeks have been filled with MANY visits to the Terrace, going out on a boat, playing in some more improv shows (guess I didn't have my last one after all), and Mali's blowout 25th birthday party where we watched Wet Hot American Summer on the side of her house, made use of three different grills and had plenty of beverages (one of these caused me to sleep most of the day Saturday AND Sunday).

I also went to this kid's play place called Bounce U with my improv group. The workers said something like "this is the first time we've seen anyone older than 6 in here". We sure showed them....


I've really been enjoying my consultant work for NTP, I have great bosses who are so excited about what they do, and am looking forward to actually becoming a federal employee in a few weeks (joining the family business). I will, however, really miss my mid-morning and mid-afternoon naps.

I've been SO lucky to have such amazing friends, coworkers, and been part of Madison's most famous improv troupe.

I had my last Out-on-a-Limb-Prov show on Sunday. It was a fun show, but a little bit sad :( Friends came out to see me and celebrate the end of the beginning of my great improv career.

I've decided to enjoy Madison as much as possible while I'm here (and now homeless since my lease ended today), so last night we hit the terrace. Laura is back in town visiting and Brett just moved here to start law school!
The movers packed up my stuff on Wednesday and its on its way to North Carolina. I handed in the keys to my apartment this morning, now everything I have left fits in a couple of suitcases.

Devil's Lake

A few weeks ago a bunch of us went up to Devil's Lake for a weekend of camping and (unexpectedly) climbing. I hadn't been car camping in years, and I forgot how much fun it is. You can bring EVERYTHING.

On Friday we all arrived, had some food and went to bed. Saturday we went on a long hike to see the views of the lake and attempted some rock climbing.

A view of Devils Lake
Lucy's crew (Matt, me, Mali and Sean)
Mali and I with a statue of a dude
Sean telling Lucy secrets
Friends!
Best friends! Matt "helping" Mike with the ropes
Devils Door

We could not find Balanced Rock. I don't know why.
Mali talked me down. Life is worth living!
But I accidentally fell anyway and had to climb back up.
Climbing ropes everywhere
Oh wow, someone caught me in this natural, candid pose!
Everyone tried climbing and, to my surprise, we all made it to the top. As you can see I worked hard and paid lots of attention when Mike was climbing in preparation for my own go at it.

Me before the climb, faking confidence
But I made it higher....And higher!
Can't even see me (I think I'm behind some branches)A cool shot of Ron climbing

Lucy climbing on Mali's shoulders, she is special.
Saturday night we celebrated not dying and cooked up some delicious food. That night I slept like a rock and Sunday after breakfast we headed back to Madison.

The end of a vacation

My last night in Red Lodge was a Sunday, but we decided to go out anyway. After Jim and Mary fed us a very strong pitcher of Margaritas (after a 2.5 hour hike which turned out to be a 4.5 hour hike at a dizzyingly high altitude), we hit the our favorite Snow Creek bar one last time.

We thought it would be a quiet Sunday night and we would be able to just chat, summarize our feelings about the trip, discuss the quality our friendship (HA!), and I would attempt to calm the girls down about how sad they would be when I was gone. I said to stop crying, they still had each other (but let's be honest, what's the point if I'm not there?)

Anyway this was all interrupted by the winner of the Red Lodge 2005 Staring Competition. Kate took him on!
And she won.
Kate and Lizza put on fake smiles. They were brave on my last night.
This guy tried to dance with us. At least I think he was dancing.
Anna was not having any of it.

The next morning we documented how sad we were that I was leaving

Wait a second....
I think people express their emotions in crazy ways when they are upset.

Goodbye girls!!!!

The last words I heard before boarding the plane:
Anna: "It is so sad that Kyla is leaving"
Kate: "Are you guys hungry?"

Walkin' to the Lizzle Fizzle Crizzle (Lake Forest Creek)

Today Lizza, Kate, and I went on a little hike in the Beartooth Wilderness.

The hiking book told us about a nice little day hike, about 10 miles, to a beautiful lake and back. We thought, "what a great idea!". We packed my backpack (which I had to carry) with a jug of water, (no map), graham crackers, and bugspray. Then we hit the trail.

I encouraged everyone to drink lots of water
Lizza wasn't sure about drinking water from a milkjug
Kate, of course, committed completely

It was a very nice hike, in the beginning. We chatted, drank water, enjoyed some waterfall, and encountered some very sweet pack dogs. We wondered if they would carry our things, but they were not thrilled with our ideas.



After hiking for a few hours, we thought to ourselves "shouldn't we have reached the lake by now?". Confused, we asked passing hikers if we were near the lake.

"Oh no", they chuckled. You are still about 4 miles away from THAT lake. It was getting late so we decided to turn around. After all, we had to go to Bogarts for dinner and margaritas tonight!

Jim and Mary forced us to drink beers and margaritas.
There was lots of money on the ceiling, someone made it rain.

Dave Rand, we love you!

Me, probably thinking about Dave Rand.

Yesterday we woke up early and drove to the Billings airport to pick up Lizza. Kate and I were really excited to see her.
Then she arrived and the initial excitement wore off (but as good friends, we faked it).
Not knowing what else to do we immediately drove back to Red Lodge and Kate's dad took us out for beers at the Tap Room.





Later that night we went out to mingle with the locals and sing some Karyoke.
In this snapshot, Lizza is trying to give the man singing (with an extreme mullet) flowers. Sadly he is married.

The next day we decided to drive over the ominous "Bear Tooth Pass". To prepare for our extreme car adventure Elizabeth armed herself for the day.
These pictures are beautiful, the scenery wasn't bad either!



After the epic drive we stopped for lunch at Cooke City. We all got the special: the pulled pork bbq sandwhich.
Disclaimer: This blog was written with stolen internet in the dark, sketchy parking lot of the Hideaway Inn. Please excuse it if it is bad.