Day Trippin'

Me, Jackie, Sharleen and Heather

Sometimes you have a truly fantastic day and this past Saturday was one of those days. I had gotten the elusive Saturday off from work and thought I should make the most of it so I asked my girlfriends if they'd be up for a day trip to Sedona (Heather had never been). Everyone thought it was a good idea so we all met at my house Saturday morning. I thought it might be fun for all of us to wear a fandom shirt since we're all about our fandoms so we did! It was funny because all day people kept complimenting us on our shirts and would say, "I like your shirt...and your shirt and your shirt...I like all of your shirts!", haha!

I volunteered to drive since it was my idea to go on this little excursion and also because I've been to Sedona a bajillion times and know my way around. However, driving still gives me a little bit of anxiety so my stomach was feeling a little iffy for a while. When we got to Sedona Sharleen told us about this place called "New Center for the New Age" and said there was a "healer" there who looked like Sauruman (pictured on the right). So we pulled over to check it out. As fate would have it, he was available that day for a reading so we all agreed to have a 15 minute session with him. This was my first time seeing someone like this so I was a little nervous/giggly and didn't really know what to expect. He was really soft-spoken and weirdly enough, I felt super calm as soon as he started talking to us. He had to do an accelerated session for us since there were four of us and we only had 15 minutes. He did a quick palm reading (Jackie got skipped for some reason) and he told me that I was going to "make a lot of money doing what I do" so that was cool since I've been poor for most of my adult life. Party. Bonus. Heather got told that she dwells on the past too much and Sharleen needs to exercise regularly. For the most part, he mainly talked about himself which was a bit of a bummer but he did have some good advice for us. For example, we need to drink more water, eat more fruits and vegetables and we need to think happy thoughts because we all create our own realities. You are what you think. My old man is one of those "New Age" types so I've been hearing everything this dude said my whole life but I dunno, he said several times that we need to practice being happy and having more fun and after our session I didn't feel any anxiety for the rest of the day. Weird. We had wanted to take a picture with him but sadly, he declined.

 Next we drove to Oak Creek Canyon and hung out at the creek. It was hotter than I had anticipated that day so I was a little overheated and had to get in the water. It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be and I felt really refreshed. After that we were all getting pretty hungry so we drove up to Flagstaff for lunch. I rarely spend much time in downtown Flagstaff since I hate parking but I didn't have too much trouble finding a parking space and it was fun to finally get to explore the area. We had lunch at a really cute cafe/bistro called Macy's. I got a mozzarella sandwich and a fruit cup that were major nums. Flagstaff has kind of a Portland vibe and made me think about my time there and being on my own for the first time.

After lunch we walked around and did some shopping. We found a great candy shop called "Flagstaff Chocolate Company" where I bought some peanut brittle and some excellent salt water taffy (which I'm eating as I write this post). On our walk back to the car we saw a double rainbow which was a really nice way to end our day in Flagstaff. On the drive out of town it started raining like crazy and we got to see the entire rainbow and even where it ended in the trees (had never seen that before). Since we had left a little later than I had hoped I had to drive back in the dark which was a little scary. My car isn't good at going up hills so it would slow down like crazy and people would get right on my bumper. There was one guy who I thought was going to run us off the road. He even flashed his brights at me which was supremely rude and Heather flipped him the bird. When he passed us we saw his license plate said "GWAMMA" and Sharleen said, "You just flipped off Gwamma!". It was funny. Even though it was pretty intense driving down winding hills in the dark with crazy drivers afoot, I think I did pretty good driving-wise and am happy to say I got everyone home in one piece.

So although I didn't really get to go on holiday this summer, it was nice to get out of town even if it was just for the day. And I'm happy to have fun people to go on fun adventures with :)