(no subject)

On Friday night, a bunch of the seasonal workers who are living on the park got together to watch a movie in the visitor's center. When it was over, it was completely dark, and it was a clear night so we could see the stars. So rather than just walking home, my housemates and I spent a good long time outside, marveling at how many stars you can see out here. We even saw a couple of satellites--little blinking white dots, too faint and slow to be planes, but moving noticeably faster than anything else up there. I should be out here for a few meteor showers, which ought to be brilliant. I totally need to figure out when those are.

Slowly but surely, I'm learning what the plant and animal species are out here, which are mostly different from home. My favorite birds out of the ones I've seen so far are mountain bluebirds, which are Blue with a capital "B," and black-billed magpies, which are really spectacular-looking with their striking black-and-white coloring and long tails. Unfortunately, they also have a rather suicidal tendency to fly out in front of my car when I'm driving down the highway. >_