Quick! Memory barf before it fades

Field School Top Memories in Whichever Order They Pop into My Head

• Stepping out of my tent to pee at 3AM at the Great Sand Dunes National Park, CO, and gasping out loud at the Milky Way across the sky.  Cursing the freezing weather and my outdated glasses...
• Zooming through Onion Creek to our campsite in a van going 95 mph.  Endless stretch of road, nothing but rocks in sight...
• Avocado and sausage at the Mt. Shavano summit, gasping for air as we chewed, watching a Delta plane fly by below us
• Every dinner after a hard day of mapping.  Even the questionable food always tasted delicious to me.
• Watching the sun rise behind the pastel layers of mountains while driving through South Park, CO (Yes, that South Park), listening to bluegrass
• Big bowl of green chili after each fourteener climb
• Getting snowed on while descending from Mt. Lincoln -- then we hiked/drove back several thousand feet down in elevation, and it was 103 degrees.
• Chugging a Coors Banquet tall boy (courtesy of our professor) at our vans after the last sizzling day of mapping and passing out giggly in the car.  Then, passing out giggly on my bed with boots, backpack, etc. still on.  Altitude gets you drunk fast.
• "Lights" dubstep remix cranked up way loud, on washboard-bumpy cliff road with a view
• Showergasm (the only appropriate word) after 6 days of not showering in the wilderness.
• Mr. Poopy, the army ammo can with a toilet seat on it -- at un unmatched luxurious location of a hill surrounded by beautiful aspens.
• Grilled pineapples, mashed potatoes, pork chops, and filet mignon at campgrounds, thanks to our TA who has worked at downtown Athens restaurants
• Dancing our butts off in downtown Cañon City after a map deadline
• Throwing rocks (at what, you ask?  At whatever you want to.  Actually is really entertaining) while waiting for our flat-tire-d truck to catch up

Almost all of the above are from the weekends and the two weeks of field trips.  The weekdays/weeknights of mapping, which made up most of field school, aren't something I would repeat, just something I'm glad to have gone through.  Those memories I have not tried to nor will I try hard to retain, but the evidence for those experiences have been etched on my body instead...  As gigantic cuts and bruises on my legs and arms!!  So, here, I add an extremely satisfying memory, from the mapping weekdays:

• Crushing cholla (an especially nasty variety of cactus that was everywhere) dead by throwing big rocks on them

I really won't stop thinking/talking about field school for a while.  I'll never forget the last six weeks.  It was a life-changing experience.  I'll write more later; right now I've got to go get ready for a night out in Athens with my fellow geologists!