Hot Air Balloon Festival

Yesterday I went to Indianola for the Hot Air Balloon Festival. I googled-mapped directions and got going REALLY early in the morning so I could watch the balloons be blown up.

I left the apartment around 6am and according to my directions it took about 45 minutes to get there.

Well, I'm not sure what happened, but I missed pretty much every turn I was supposed to make and as a result ended finding all sorts of random country roads - most of which weren't paved. There were cows to my left, corn to my right, rocks under my tires, and fog was drastically altering my visibility. It was a party.

I have NO IDEA how I actually ended up finding the balloons. I actually found the balloon launch site which wasn't at all what I was trying to find, but it worked out much better. It was very exciting. I was basically driving and then pulling over and taking pictures.

The problem with not following the directions to get there is that when you try to use them to go home, nothing really looks familiar and that doesn't exactly boost your confidence. After turning around three or four times (and watching my gas tank empty) and making a couple of phone calls, I sorted myself out and was able to get home just fine.

Actually, I think getting lost is kind of fun. Heck, I found a super awesome golf course where I watched the sunrise through the fog, beautiful farm land, and all sorts of cool stuff. Plus, I was DARN proud of myself for figuring it out.

Here are the pics!


Fog over the city - if you look super close you can see the Principal Building


Sunrise at the golf course

The Dark Knight

The other day I went to Jordan Creek Mall to see the new Batman movie The Dark Knight... and I've decided that I'm decidedly undecided about it. I would probably have to see it again to really say for certain if I liked it or not.

I feel like they crammed a LOT of action/plot/character development type of stuff into that movie. Consequently the film clocked in at two and a half hours which I feel like is a big commitment for a super hero movie. Although, I suppose Spider-Man was in that general ballpark, too. Oh, and it took a chapter out of Lord Of the Rings' book (and by "book" I really mean movie...) and ended about eight different times. Ok, maybe not eight. But they faked you out a bunch of times.

Of all super hero movies, I definitely think this to-be trilogy is the darkest so if you're into that kind of thing, you'll enjoy this movie a lot. There was A LOT of action in it, also. Almost too much at some parts. I struggled trying to keep up with the battle scenes because there were a bunch of quick cuts of characters' faces - almost too quick for my brain to process.

While I'm on the fence about the movie itself, I can appreciate Heath Ledger's performance as INCREDIBLE. It's eerie in that it was really easy to see how the character of the Joker got into his head and, if you buy the rumors, why it required the very anti-anxiety medication he accidentally overdosed on. It was a stunning performance. He was dark, disturbed, and yet also funny at times. Oscar-worthy? I think yes.

I also have to mention that I love Gary Oldman (Sirius Black to you, Potter fans) as Commissioner Gordon. Perfect casting there. And I think Christian Bale is totally believable as an eccentric-billionaire-by-day-crime-fighting-vigilante-by-night type. Plus Morgan Freeman had a small role. And who doesn't love Morgan Freeman?

So, bottom line... long, dark, confusing at times, great stunts, and notable performances... any good? See it for yourself and find out.

Rural Iowa

There's a new country song by Adam Gregory that has a line in the first verse that goes a little something like this:
"Baby let's take a drive, top down, underneath the Carolina sky/ We can watch the fireflies try to out shine the stars..."

Well, I don't know about Carolina, but last Friday I spent the evening with a friend in the middle of nowhere.

And it was AMAZING.

The point of the trip was mostly to watch the swarms of fireflies that hang out over farm land. They don't come out much in the city and I really wanted to see and take pictures of them.

As it turned out, there weren't as many fireflies as we expected but I was more than OK with that because after the fireflies were done for the night, the STARS came out. And, goodness, were there stars. I was totally in awe.

My friend Ryan kept saying "Oh, this is nothing..."

Yeah, well that kid grew up on a farm away from all the city lights whereas I've been suburb-hopping for my whole life. Not that I'm knockin' the 'burbs, but you just don't see stars like that.

I don't remember the last time I could clearly see the whole three constellations I can actually identify.

But it wasn't just the stars and the fireflies that made it awesome. It was SO quiet and peaceful out there. We pulled off on the side of some road and except for the occasional car going by (and the beeping coming from my camera that I realized was actually quite obnoxious in the serenity of the country) we didn't hear much of anything. Well, I didn't. Ryan could hear cars on gravel roads a million miles away.

And it SMELLED good. I mean, REALLY good. Like... clean. There wasn't any smog or pollution or any of that nasty stuff in the city air.

It was just so awesome being out there. I mean, I was three feet away from a bean field watching the stars and fireflies. A lot of people make fun of Iowa and say there's nothing here but fields. First of all, that's not even close to true.

And second of all, those fields are incredible.

Fewer things are more gorgeous than rural Iowa. I promise.

So fireflies are a wee bit camera shy, but I did get this awesome picture of a car cruisin' down the road we were on...

Drake West Village

This past year Drake admitted so many freshmen that they exceeded the number of spaces that were available in the freshmen residence halls, so the extra freshmen were moved into Morehouse, an upperclassmen hall.

Guess what? They did it again.

And, like last year, the remaining freshmen will be moved into Morehouse. There's just one problem... I was supposed to live in Morehouse.

Well, I'm going to turn this frown upside down because all the residents who were supposed to live on the second floor and basement floor of Morehouse have been moved into Drake West Village, an independently managed apartment complex just off campus.. for no additional cost beyond room and board (which, of course, is still expensive, but not quite as expensive as the monthly rent.)

Construction has been going for quite some time now with good ol' DWV, and it sadly wasn't as popular with the students as it was expected to be, but it is nice and brand new and I'm excited to live there.

I'll be living in a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom apartment with, and this is a the best part, a full kitchen (I'm talking full-sized fridge, oven, sink, microwave, dishwasher, disposal, and all that good stuff). All roommate pairs that were set to live in Morehouse together still get to live together, just with another pair of roommates. My roommate was actually my resident last year, and as it happens, another pair of former residents were also set to live on the second floor in Morehouse, so now the four of us will be living together in an apartment in the fall.

Am I a little nervous about living with three ex-residents? Yes. It's going to be hard to transition from RA to roomie. I'm also nervous about living with three other people in general after living by myself for so long. But, I DO get my own bedroom which will be beyond wonderful on those days where I need a little time (and space) to myself.

but you know what? that kitchen is going to rock... :P

There would be pictures if their website would cooperate...

Harry Potter Weekend

It's hard to say if anybody else has noticed this, but it seems to me that ABC Family has a Harry Potter movie marathon during every imaginable holiday weekend. I'm not exaggerating here.

So far I've seen a Harry Potter movie marathon during Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas (TWICE!), Presidents' Day, AND the Fourth of July.

Now, let's think about this, people. Halloween... ok.. I would call that appropriate. Witches and wizards and stuff. Ok, Halloween is cool. Thanksgiving is stupid. This just in: the British don't even celebrate Thanksgiving. OBVIOUSLY. That seems just a titch illogical. For Christmas... it's a bit of a stretch. Granted, there are some glorious Christmasy scenes in most of the Harry Potter movies and, more to the point, glorious Christmas music by Mr. John Williams. But it's definitely not a Christmas movie. On the same note, though, I don't think Home Alone is a Christmas movie, either. It just happens to take place at Christmastime. So... I suppose I can accept Harry Potter at Christmas, but it's kind of a gray area.

But for Presidents' Day and, more importantly, the FOURTH OF JULY!?! Nothing says "God bless America" like spending all weekend inside watching movies about a fictional, BRITISH wizard, his buddies, and all their shenanigans. Yay.

Maybe, just maybe, ABC Family was going for a little irony or something. Fourth of July does, after all, celebrate our freedom from the British. But if that's really what they were trying to do, I wouldn't have picked Harry Potter - a British phenomenon that took America by storm. Seriously? That's like asking the Beatles to sing the Star Spangled Banner.

Yay, America!! Better than England since 1776 - until J.K. Rowling filled cocktail napkins with stories about a geeky teen charged with the responsibility of saving the entire wizarding world. You go, USA!


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4th of July - Res Life Style

The summer RA staff decided that for the 4th of July we'd go to Urbandale for a parade, come back and have a cookout for the residents, and light some sparklers and stuff. It was actually quite a lot of fun. I don't remember the last time I went to a parade that I wasn't in. It was awesome; there were a bunch of fire trucks and classic cars and stuff. That night I really wanted to go see the fireworks downtown, but I was on duty so I had to stay in the building. That was kind of a bummer, especially because almost everybody had gone out to do something fun. But not all was lost because Trevor (an RA in the building) and Tibb (who will be a hall director in the fall) were both around and while I was outside watching the fireflies, they came out and we lit sparklers and things. We also walked to Mcdonalds for ice cream and saw the illegal fireworks that were being set off somewhere to the west of us. It was pretty enjoyable, aside from the mosquito bites.

Here are some pictures :