2244Monday, August 8, 2005 | 11:35AM |
That’s how many miles we drove. Ok, so maybe I rounded up, but it’s because there’s a road in Austin called FM 2244, and it’ll help me remember that our trip was almost exactly 2,240 miles roundtrip, including driving to and from Denver and Boulder. The first couple of days didn’t require we use our car, as Stacy’s Uncle Ron drove us (along with her Aunt Ann) through the mountains. But on Monday we went river rafting and had a lot of fun. I fell out of the raft at one point, but surprisingly enough, I wasn’t scared. It was actually kind of refreshing… cold, but refreshing.
Tuesday we explored downtown Denver. I discovered that they don’t have dedicated photographers for the legislature, but it was still cool to see their Capitol, which was designed by the same architect as ours in Texas. We ate lunch with Ron downtown at a food court on the 16th Street Mall, and checked out a gallery called Camera Obscura. It had a really great book collection.
Wednesday took us to Boulder, where I had the opportunity to speak to Ken Iwamasa, a graduate photography professor for the University of Colorado. It was actually my second time to meet with him, but he didn’t remember the first, as I had just shown him my beginning portfolio, and didn’t know what I was doing. This time was much better, and I ended up learning a lot about their program. I’d really like to go there now, but it’s not easy getting in. So I’ll be working on a new portfolio, based largely on our conversation. I wasn’t inspired in any particular direction, but just to produce a new kind of work.
We drove down to Colorado Springs on Thursday, but it rained all day so we didn’t get to see much in the way of sights, though we did visit Garden of the Gods. And the highlight was getting to see my 2nd cousin (I think that’s right) Nikki and her husband Adam, and their two kids… and their awesome boxer, Calvin. We had a great time eating at their place and catching up.
So on Thursday night, I received a call which I couldn’t return (signal problems) until Friday to meet with yet another professor in Boulder. I took her up on the offer, and we drove out there once again. Lucky for me, I also got the opportunity to meet with her and yet another professor. Their feedback was also invaluable, and it proved to me even more how much I’d like to go to graduate school in Boulder.
We drove back to Midlothian all day Saturday, and finally made it back to Austin on Sunday afternoon. I took the whole evening to organize my e-mail (finally!) in Outlook. See, I’d let it get so out of hand that I had over 1,400 e-mails in the inbox; 500 of which were unread. So with that done, I made it to bed, but I couldn’t fall asleep. I guess it’s the time zone thing. That, and vacation. And now I’m back at work, pretty rejuvenated. The only thing is, I’d really love to live in Colorado. I probably said that after last time, but this time we looked at houses, and it’s something we could actually afford. We’ll see what happens.
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