from atlantic to pacific, it's all terrific

yesterday on the way back down to the city from a lovely weekend near Aspen, i stood on the Continental Divide at Independence Pass in the Rocky Mts, which was breathtaking, both literally and figuratively! at 12,095 feet above sea level, the air is thin (and cold!) but the view from above the tree line is stunning, and it's something i'll never forget. (snow in august, though not very common, really can/does happen!)

on the way out to Aspen on friday, we passed Glenwood Canyon, which is a scenic gorge on the wild and whitewatered Colorado river. and there were beautiful reddish rock formations not unlike some of what i saw driving thru utah in 2003. photographing them is (was) amazing but can never capture or do justice to what the human eye can capture when it sees natural beauty first-hand. every time i'm in the western part of the US, i'm in such awe of the natural, rugged geologic beauty. it's so different from the equally-pretty-but-different, gentler lush-green scenery back home on the east coast.

i can't believe school is already about to start up in a week. it's going to be doubly hard to go back to school (esp. my big bear of a research project) because i'll still be adjusting from Mountain time to East Coast time. eh, then again, it's only a two hour difference to overcome.

...but the kicker is that i've been staying up way late--and i mean *super late* here watching the Olympics on tv, so my body clock is all messed up. but my olympic swimmer boyfriends only come around once every four years, so it's well worth it. ;-) i have to say, i've really been enjoying watching all the coverage from Beijing, even when i trip up and accidentally click on a spoiler and find out the medal results before watching it happen (thanks to the internets).

i suspect i may have a full summer's worth (almost but not quite, maybe?) of catching up to do here. (no, really, i do!) but, every time i log onto a certain social networking site that rhymes with "ace-hook"...well...no one needs me to explain how it sucks me in and rids me of any and all journaling/blogging/writing ambition.

which is a shame, because i really do want to share the beauty of maine with you. i want to tell you about what a hidden(?) treasure it is to go up to a quiet and serene and majestic place called Quabbin Reservoir not far from where i lived for four years, in massachusetts, many moons ago.

every year, it's really hard for me to acknowledge summer is endng. as much as i like many of the things autumn brings, this is always the hardest seasonal transition for me. (not that you asked!).