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ready to roll. campusrailjamtour.com 2.0

by jessie matanky, the person that probably gets my love for animated gifs better than anyone else in the entire world.

look folks! It's finally up. Design & development by Kait. Putting up with almost a year of working with me by Kim and Jan. I can't believe we did it!

Holidays! Last year I was in Argentina for Christmas eve sans Chex Mix and family feuding. Though my international 24th was one of my favorite Christmas eves to date, this year was a reminder of how fun it is when we round up the gang for sandwiches, wine chugging, and presents!

I thought crafting these awesome stockings would spice up the holidays. They did! Handmade by yours truly, with the help of a sewing machine and about 10 sticks of hot glue.

Twas Bones' first christmas.



We welcomed my bros new(ish) wife to the festivities this year.

She actually survived it. Not everyone does.

Bones somehow bought, wrapped, and delivered this amazing cat clock under the tree for me. Its amazing what one can do with the internet these days.

Holy cow.

Mom got me the Blanket of my Dreams from Pendelton- personalized and all!

My mom recieved the hottest gift of 2007- A Snuggie! This one extra awesome because it was seafoam color...

It was an extra special treat to spend time with my bro, since these days the Marines has been taking up most of his time (haven't seen him in almost 2 years!). He still has his stache-tat.

Like usual, my mom filmed everything.

Uncle Eric got a whole lot of individually wrapped bullets.

Nick was grumpy about all this 'family time' but this time he embraced it.

Grandma chugged a bottle of wine.

And Grandpa got some condoms.

....weird.

We clean up pretty good.

A magnificent evening!

To celebrate the winter holidays, I went back to Sin City for a weekend to visit Dad and Carey! Denny thought it would be a good idea to enter us into a LAS VEGAS TEXAS HOLD 'EM POKER TOURNAMENT. Now, this could sound like a good idea, but it actually being a good idea was still to be determined as we headed to the Red Rock Casino with shaky hands and a looming uncertainty of epic failure.

But believe it or not, it was pretty damn fun.

T-bone and Denny fortunately got to sit next to each other for the first 3 hours. I was all alone on the other side of the room, making friends and enemies with my complete disregard for poker courtesy and rules... and also somehow making all the money...

Here's me and Trish after playing for over an hour. If you can't tell, I have the most chips at the table. Seriously.

Trish and I brought a certain youthfulness to the table.

Here's me, winning.

Trish, Denny, and I all made it into the 4th hour of play, making it to the two final tables. We then all got kind of bored and decided to dip out before things got too bloody. We were getting hungry, and were itching to play some Blackjack.

After earning the title of 'Player that Goes All In More than Anyone Else in the History of Poker' The dealer awarded me this amazing plastic card. Hazzah!

Every year, my stepmom plans a trip for me, her, and my sister T-bone to spend some quality time together. All of our schedules are hectic (Trish tends to end up in China most the time, and it seems like I can only track Carey down these days via facebook), so these annual trips are a way to bring us back together at least for a few days! Last year we ventured to Bali and Taiwan, an AMAZING adventure that left us with great memories and horrible 'bathroom problems.'

This year, Carey decided to take the low road and do something a bit closer to home, with promise of dependable food and spa services. That's why last week we found ourselves going to a fancy-shmancy resort outside of Tuscon, AZ.

Needless to say, this place was awesome! From the delicious (and healthy!) food to the hilarious aerobics class to the heavenly daily massages, I'll be honest and say I've never felt to spoiled...

We did arts and crafts! My art degree finally paying off post-grad by impressing the other old ladies at the resort.

Each morning we rose with the sun, and after a delicious breakfast explored the area around the resort.

hxc hiker

The last day, the 3 of us did a challenge course called 'Quantum Leap.' It consisted of climbing up a 30 foot pole via ladder and staples and onto a 12x12 inch rickety old disc. Sounds easy, right?

Here I am, fearlessly ready to go first.

Here I am almost to the top, realizing how unstable and scary it actually is to be up there. Hence, 'challenge' course.

Finally made it!

It took no time for T-bone to get to the top, finishing her trip to the top with some fancy yoga poses.

It took Carey about 3 seconds to get up there. Woww.

I never believe it, but [we all] made it!

We left happy, relaxed, and energized. I even saw 2 baby bobcats playing, which was awesome... A great week away!

Oh yeah, and did I mention we ordered 4 desserts every night? That part was great too.