Hotel Washburn

Today I blog to you live from the state's premier 5 star resort in Monticello Utah. Situated below the picturesque "horse mountain," Hotel Washburn can boast the highest rate of return visitors in all of Utah. And once you know all the amazing ammenities of this establishment it is not the least surprising that guests return as often as schedules allow. In fact there is hardly a weekend that goes by that all the rooms are not completely booked! Some of the aforementioned ammenities include the following:

*A rousing wake-up call as early as 12:00 noon.

*Made to order comfort-food for every meal. I suggest the waffles.

*Pristine mountain air.

*The aroma of a real wood-burning stove.

*A museum exhibit entitled, "Fashion Through The Decades-A Look Back At What The Washburn Girls Wore." (A must see and terribly moving.)

*An entire cupboard devoted entirely to sweet treats, and if you time your visit right-around Christmas or Father's day-those sweets will undoubtely contain See's Chocolates.

*An assortment of activities ranging from reading to napping to learning to cook. And I dare you to deny the activities director, one Spenser Simpson, when he graciously invites you to a card game or two.

In fact things have been going so well here at Hotel Washburn, that they have recently had to expand by "securing" up to three additional rooms at the adjacent Hotel Chapman and four additional rooms at Hotel Simpson located only 15 minutes south in Blanding Utah.

I can think of no better way for this blogger to ring in the new year than a stay here and I highly recommend a visit here to everyone-that is if you can get a reservation.

Happy 2008

Old

Having just turned 27 I have hit what some might call a "quarter-life crisis." This numeral, which seems innocuous, is in reality much too big a number and too many steps past 23 for me to feel entirely comfortable with it. Each year starting around the end of October I have started what I call the "aging-reconciliation-process." The process basically involves me telling people that "I am ____ years old." With the blank being filled in each year with my approaching age rather than my actual age. I don't know if I started this process each year because I was so excited to be another year older, or if it was because I really needed those extra couple of months to mentally adjust to the change.

However, 2007 has proved to be the end of the "aging-reconciliation-process." I didn't even want to say my actual age let alone the new/bigger number that was coming. I have been, GULP, 27 for a couple of weeks now and I am just barely able to say it. During my struggle leading up to my birthday I did, as I always do, talk about it with my friends and family. So many people have made "cute" comments about my feelings on aging and I wanted to share a few with you.

54 year old woman: "Please you are so young, you have all the time in the world."
*Note: Don't mom's always have to say that kind of stuff whether they mean it or not?

23 year old woman: "Well, how old are you going to be?" (I respond) "Oh." (making a face that looks like she just swallowed something undesireable) "I thought turning 23 was hard."
*Note: I hope that she has crows feet and gray hair at 27

19 year old girl: "I think its silly when people struggle with aging, I have never had a problem getting older."
*Note: That's because ALL children look forward to getting older!

21 year old guy: "Well I guess you can start dating guys in their mid-thirites now."

30 year old guy: "Don't worry, no one really expects much else from you."
*Note: Oh really, you, of all people, are going to judge my life. Ironic.

27 year old woman: "You should probably just get a cat or 2 or 500 and call it good."
*Note: Dawn-remember to discuss self-hatered with therapist.

You were probably thinking at the begining of this post that there would be some back story, the meat of my struggle,the touching moment where I had a personal epiphany and realized that 27 is not old, or I am okay with being 27, or some other load of crap, finished off with a concise morale of the story. Sorry to disappoint you, but that is not the case, I am still struggling with being 27 years old, I just don't like it. However, I am hoping to get used to it soon so that I can enjoy a few months free of age-related struggle before I get to 28 (heaven/therapy help me.)