Vedauwoo, Ames Monument, and spontaneous roaming

No, that's not a sound you make when you sneeze.

Vedauwoo (pronounced vee-da-voo) is this huge group of granite outcroppings in the Medicine Bow National Forest, about 30 minutes west of Cheyenne. Vedauwoo was known to the Arapaho's as "Land of the Earthborn Spirit", and suffice it to say, it's a fitting name.

Since we're still very new to this area, and since I'm still fairly homesick for Washington, and especially since the holidays are (almost) over and we have more time now, we decided to start exploring our surroundings. You know, make attachments and memories and all that jazz. So yesterday we headed out to Vedauwoo to explore, since we've heard so much about it.

When we left our house, it was sunny and 40 degrees- brisk, but certainly tolerable. But the time we got up to Vedauwoo, however? 18 flippin' degrees. Luckily, we were all fairly well bundled, though we collectively wished we'd brought our gloves!

Here's me and my little guy taking refuge from the wind

Despite the fact that it was colder than a witch's ass up there, we hiked around for about 45 minutes or so. It's gorgeous up there, even in the dead of winter. The rocks are amazing, and I can certainly see why it's a climber's paradise.

Do you see the face!?

After exploring for awhile (and shortly before our fingers froze off), we got back in the blessed warmth of the car and followed the signs across the freeway to the Ames Monument. The monument is in honor of Oliver and Oakes Ames, who were instrumental in the first intercontinental railroad across America. It's basically this gigantic, 6-story, granite pyramid rising up out of the plains.

Ames was a fairly quick stop, because the wind had picked up and (as you can tell in the above pic) we were all curled up inside our jackets trying to stay warm! The monument is located in Curt Gowdy State Park, so once the weather warms up to a tolerable temperature, we're going to go back and find some hiking trails out there.

After Ames, we headed back to Cheyenne for dinner. This was our view…

The skies here are amazing, which makes the spontaneous exploring of our surroundings even more beautiful. Maybe this place will start feeling like home after all!

Good news Thursday

That's an understatement!

Sweet Baby Jesus, today has been a good day. I feel a little uncomfortable getting too excited about it, because I have that superstitious side of my brain that feels like if you openly acknowledge something good, then it will end up going away.

But after such a long string of struggles and obstacles and bad news and letdowns, today was a breath of fresh air.

So first of all, our new mortgage guy did our official credit pull yesterday in order to start our financing paperwork. I was a little nervous, because he said he would call us first thing this morning to give us the update on it, and he didn't call...

But it turns out that he was just busy with a couple of closings today. Phew!

The Husband spoke with him early this afternoon, and our credit is... well... quite wonderful! Not only did our scores jump up fairly significantly since the first mortgage guy pulled our credit in May, but that stupid credit reporting that gave us so much grief a couple weeks back is GONE BABY GONE!

My guess is it fell off due to its age.

You know, just like it was supposed to. Just like we told the previous mortgage guy it was supposed to. Just like we told the collections company itself that it was supposed to.

So suck it, Alaska!

Muhaha.

I think they already did...

So the new mortgage guy has several more closings tomorrow (lucky bastards), so it looks like we will have to wait until next week to sign our disclosures and lock in an interest rate. But our paperwork is good to go. Which is an indescribable relief.

Then after that little tidbit of fabulous news, I spoke with our builder. I had been trying to get in touch with her to see if she had ordered the carpet we picked out last week, and she's a tough lady to get ahold of. But I did, and while she hasn't ordered the carpet yet (apparently she's doing it tomorrow), everything else is ordered and we are totally on track to be done by the end of October!

She also said that the only potential snafu is the well. The well water has to pass very strict regulations (apparently some of the strictest in the country... which I guess is good for water quality) and it takes at least two weeks to complete the process. If they pass the first test, we're good to go. If they don't, however, it can be as long as six more weeks to get it re-tested.

It's like a government regulated Punxsutawney Phil.

Anyway, if the well fails, that pushes back our closing date several weeks, which sucks in an unbelievable way and totally screws us over.

BUT!!!

Being the blessed soul that she is (or decided to be today, anyway), our builder said that in the unlikely chance that the well fails the particulates test and has to be retested, we can go ahead and still move in and just wait until our new closing date! She knows had badly we hate our apartment and how badly we want to be in the house, and I guess she felt sorry enough for us to grant us early occupancy.

And I'm more than willing to take her pity if it means getting in my house on time! So that was excellent to hear.

And then, to make a good day even better, we found out that The Husband is getting a 2% raise! I mean, nothing life changing by any means, but more is more, and we're more than happy to take it!

So, like I said, today was a good day.

Spontaneous Saturday

So yesterday began as any old "I have this to do" day, but turned into quite a fun family day.

Spontaneity. It's a good thing.

Starting out, I had planned to go hit up the paint store and grab some paint chips in order to get an idea of which colors we liked and what would go well with the carpet and flooring we had picked out earlier in the week.

However, that got more complicated when we swung by Home Depot first and ended up changing our minds regarding the carpet choice and the potential flooring choice.

Sigh.

Too. Many. Choices.

We actually found a carpet we liked better- a couple shades darker, more plush, still well within budget. So that was good.

But in finding that, I began to question our flooring choice. Was it too dark? Did it have too much red in it? Would it clash with our potential cabinet choices (to be determined in about a week and a half)?

So we headed back to the wood flooring and began hemming and hawing over the bajillion options.

We left with about six or seven samples, because we couldn't decide...

We then swung by the Sherwin Williams store, and my brain momentarily broke. When you find yourself standing in front of an entire wall of paint chips, it's like your brain just goes "NOPE!"

We laid out the carpet and flooring samples, and then began pulling colors and holding them against our flooring choices. Right away we were able to remove three of the flooring choices from the running. Away from the artificial light of Home Depot, we realized that two of our samples were way too light and one was way too yellow.

So that narrowed it down.

We then just sort of went with our gut and picked out colors that we knew would go with our existing furniture and decor. Back at our old house in Washington, I had been planning on painting the main walls a toasted almond color, with an accent wall in a rich, deep red. So, lacking creativity, we went with that same game plan for the house down here.

Stick with what you know, I guess.

The colors we chose also look good with the carpet choice, as well as the four remaining floor samples that we are still debating on. After the house is framed- which should be this week, weather permitting- we are going to meet with the builder and the cabinet guy and pick out the cabinets, countertops, and tile. That will help us choose a wood flooring that looks good with it all, and then we will be able to get everything ordered and have accomplished a huge chunk of the To Do list.

Phew...

So after settling on the paint colors, we decided to head up the road and explore Old Town Fort Collins.

It's so cute!!!

Apparently, the main thoroughfare was the inspiration for Disneyland's Mainstreet USA.

Yeah, that's how cute it is.

Right?!?

Tree-lined streets. Cafes, bistros, art installations, super cute boutiques, yummy restaurants, street performers, hippies, tourists, families. It's a fun mish-mash of all walks of life, all forms of expression, and a fun dose of Americana.

It was quite lovely to stroll along the streets, window shopping, actual shopping, and people-watching.

It reminded me of my favorite city of all- Nelson, B.C.

God I miss Nelson. Must plan a visit there in the near future.

So after our stroll through Old Town, we were headed back home when I spontaneously decided to head out to Horsetooth Reservoir and Horsetooth Mountain Park instead.

So beautiful up there!

The red rocks and the green vegetation- stunning! And we were heading up there as the sun was starting to sink lower on the horizon, so the colors were amazing.

Not only did we find a new place to hike, we may have also found the site of our future cabin!

Footloose and cancer free

Hey hey!

I'm back and better than ever!

Suffice it to say that Thursday and Friday sucked big time, but I'll get to that.

First of all, the weather in Seattle is Ah-mazing! Holy crap I'm loving it!

The only problem is I have stupid school stuff to do, so even though I wanted to go hiking today, I don't think that's a responsible thing to do. Boo.

Oh well. Summer is almost here. Which means no school! You better believe I will be hiking the crap out of this summer!

Also, my garden is starting to sprout! It's been so freaking cold lately that nothing was happening, but now that the sun made its reappearance and the thermostat is a-rockin', things are beginning to grow! It's supposed to stay nice for the next several days (fingers crossed) so I'll be keeping an eye out for those cute little sprouts curling up and pushing the dirt out of their way.

Okay, so on to Thursday and Friday.

Thursday was "prep day", which is basically a generic medical term for "you will be miserable and hungry all day".

After taking the kids to school, I cleaned my house and slapped on the pretty as quickly as possible, then proceeded to take the four 'starter' pills at exactly 9 am.

For the next few hours I subsisted on tea (lots of tea!), water, and Jell-o. Now, I'm not a huge Jell-o fan to begin with, and when it's the only "food" you are allowed to eat, it makes it all the more depressing. I really came to hate that unnatural, jiggly substance by the end of the day.

The Husband came home from work early, as I was... shall we say... uneasy at the thought of leaving the house and being trapped in a car for 30 minutes to pick up the kids from school. Ahem.

While he headed out to get the kids, I prepped the gallon jug of electrolyte solution that I had to drink.

GAG!!!

The nurse had suggested mixing it with Crystal Light to make it taste better. I can't imagine what it would have tasted like without the Crystal Light, as my flavored concoction still tasted something akin to a homeless man's bathwater.

I will never, I repeat NEVER, drink Crystal Light again.

Blergh!!!

The only way I could get the electrolyte stuff down was with it being ice cold.

Like, ice ice ICE cold.

That was the only way it was tolerable.

This also made me super cold. At this point, I hadn't slept well in several days and hadn't eaten solid food in 18 hours. Because of this, I was under my electric blanket shivering, which made drinking this solution even more miserable.

But I got through it, and my system was, uh, cleaned out sufficiently...

I didn't sleep at all Thursday night. Partly because I was nervous about the procedures on Friday, and partly because I was still dealing with the after effects of the electrolyte stuff.

Friday morning my alarm went off at 5:50 am. Gag. I hit snooze once, but I just stared at the wall. Even though I'd maybe gotten three hours of sleep (at most) and was utterly exhausted, I was wide awake.

This was it. The day of reckoning.

I got up, got ready to go, and once my mom arrived to watch the kids, The Husband and I headed out.

Naturally, it was a bright and sunny day, and since I had to wear my glasses for the procedure (no contacts, safety precaution), I got an instant headache. I just curled up in the front seat, covered my eyes with the sleeves of my sweatshirt, and grumbled begrudgingly.

Hubs and I were both nervous, so there wasn't a lot of talking during the 35 minute drive to the clinic.

I got there, got checked in, and within a few minutes a nurse came to collect me from the waiting room. She had me change into one of those medical gowns that do nothing to hide your modesty and gave me little booties to put over my socks.

She walked me back to the triage area, where I nestled into a reclining chair with several warmed up blankets (at this point, the best part of my morning!).

It took them three tries to thread my IV catheter into a vein, so I have a massive bruise on my right hand from the burst blood vessel. It looks gross. Luckily, they were really good at what they were doing (minus the missing the vein part) so the multiple pokes with a needle didn't hurt.

After this, The Husband was brought back, and we waited for my doctor to come and explain the process to me. After he did, we waited a few more minutes, and then the nurse came to collect me and bring me back to the procedure room.

This is when I got really nervous. Up until this point, I had thought Hubs could be in the room with me, but it turns out he couldn't. Gulp.

I was shaking at this point, and the nurse could tell I was silently freaking out, so she chitchatted with me about my tattoos. Apparently she goes to the same tattoo parlor I do, so we discussed the different artists there and how it's the best one in the area.

Once she got me situated, IV cords and all, on the exam gurney thingy, she injected the Happy Drugs into my IV, and this is where everything gets a little... fuzzy.

I've had to ask Hubs several times since Friday "so is this what happened?", "they said this right?", "I think I remember this...yes?"

It's weird not being able to trust your memory and having whole chunks of time be missing!

Anyway, after we got home I spent the rest of the day either in bed or on the couch. I felt like crap! Anesthesia affects me quite strongly, so it took a long time to fully leave my system, plus after having not eaten for a full 24 hours, those two components combined to make me incredibly weak and nauseous.

BUT!

Once I did start feeling better, Hubs grilled me the most delicious steak and roasted the best potatoes ever, in celebration of the fact that....

... Everything came back normal!!!!

My colon and intestine and stomach are all good to go!

No polyps! No cancer! No gremlins!

I am waiting for the results of the biopsies to test for celiac's, and a couple other things. But regardless of those results, it will all come down to making changes to my diet. Compared to other, more life altering possibilities, I am more than willing to alter what I eat!

So yeah, all good news!

Mother Nature can suck it

So the weather has been crap lately. Absolute crap. And I'm a little bitter about it!

It's like Mother Nature realized it was nearing the end of March and that she hadn't yet met her quota on snow, hail, wind, and torrential rain, and decided to make up for in it a 72 hour period.

Monday the boys were outside replanting some of the spruces that had been knocked over in the wind, and yesterday not only did the spruces get knocked down again, but so did the red maple.

And our greenhouse.

Yes. Our greenhouse got flipped over on it's side like it was a dinner table in Jersey, taking the huge wooden shelves that were inside with it. Needless to say it's severely damaged, and I'm disgruntled about it. When the greenhouse flew it also knocked down and broke the big wooden T-stand that held our tomato and strawberry Topsy Turvy's, and crushed the kids' kiddie pool (which they haven't used in quite awhile, but I'm still annoyed it's smashed to smithereens). So yeah, our yard looks like a tornado swept through, hence my bitterness.

But there is one thing that is keeping me from going completely postal and divorcing nature altogether.

Spring is here.

Mother Nature may be in denial, but she's a fickle bitch anyway, so her opinion matters little. It is still technically spring whether she likes it or not.

And spring means hiking!!!!!

I love hiking. I love being out amongst the trees, in the mountains, smelling the fresh air and listening to the birds and taking in the beauty that is Western Washington. It's where I find my peace.

Now, I'm not one of those hard core hikers whose sole goal is to make it to the top of the mountain as quickly as humanly possible.

*cough*cough*Age*cough*cough*

I prefer to take it a little slower and enjoy my surroundings.

I also enjoy being able to breathe, and as I learned the hard way this past summer, hiking with *certain* people (Kotyks) is like asking to be punched in the gut and have the wind knocked out of you for three hours straight, all while struggling to keep up with their ridiculous pace and simultaneously not make it too obvious that you're wishing for the sweet hand of death to release you from this misery.

Love you guys!

It's just that, I'm not in terrible shape, and yet I was still having my ass kicked. Like, totally, mercilessly, unabashedly handed to me.

And I expect Age to literally run circles around me. As previously mentioned, she's kind of a fitness goddess.

But I also got shown up by her dad. Who had just had OPEN HEART SURGERY a few months prior.

Yeah, to say it was demoralizing would be an understatement.

And their perspective?

"That was a nice walk, eh?"

Dude, you just climbed a world-renowned black diamond ski mountain in what I'm pretty sure is record time, and you consider that a "nice walk"?

Dear god I hope I never witness what they consider challenging...

But I digress.

There are several hikes that I am wanting to do this spring and summer. Some that I've already done and just want to do again, and others that I haven't done yet and am dying to go do.

Since we have kids, not all the hikes we do are hard core. Two of our favorite kid-friendly hikes are Lime Kiln and Old Robe Trail.

Saw blade on Lime Kiln

Lime Kiln is a beautiful hike, and isn't terribly difficult, so kids are more than able to come along. The trail starts out in lush, beautiful forest (beware of horse and dog droppings, not everyone is as courteous as they should be). It then opens up to some four-wheeler paths, which aren't as pretty (and are private property, so stay on the path). After awhile you turn left back onto a trail (and back onto public lands) and follow the trail down along the Stillaguamish River. Along the way you'll find relics from the mining days- saw blades, pots, a rusted-out stove, bricks, and various other weather-worn scraps. About two and a half miles in you'll come to the lime kiln. It's pretty cool, I must say! After that you continue on another mile or so before dropping down to the river, which is a perfect place to have a snack and relax (or if you are the intrepid hippies we came across last time, it's the perfect place to start tubing down the river half-naked).

The only indication there is a hiking trail there.

Old Robe Trail is in the same park as Lime Kiln, on the opposite end. It is a historical town site, and after dropping down the switch backs (which are not as easy on the knees as the site claims) you meander through a pleasant trail and along the Stillaguamish River. Washouts in the last few years have made the trail more difficult, so I would recommend only bringing older kids past the washout marker. After that, you are following the old railroad tracks. You have to scramble over a couple pretty sketchy slide areas, but once you do, you can follow the tracks through old railroad tunnels. It's pretty neat. We've never gone past the second tunnel though, as apparently it gets a little more dicey further down, and we've never felt comfortable taking the kids out there just in case. But I've always seen families hiking out there every time we've gone, so maybe it isn't as scary as we've been told.

Two of my personal faves so far are Heather Lake and Mount Pilchuck. Heather Lake is challenging, but still kid friendly. Mount Pilchuck is not kid friendly at all!

Heather Lake

Heather Lake is gorgeous! You are deep in old growth woods the entire time, and it has some breathtaking views. Definitely bring a camera! There's a little bit of switchbacks at the beginning, but then it is a straight trail after that. It's fairly steep, but our kids were able to do it (with plenty of rests and drinks of water). Once you get closer to the top, you are likely to encounter some late season snow- which the kids thought was the greatest thing ever! Shortly after that you come to the boardwalk that encircles the lake. Stop, rest, and enjoy the subalpine views!

Lookout Cabin- Mt. Pilchuck

Mount Pilchuck is by far my favorite hike. It's brutal, but it's amazing. It's also the place where I managed to hike the entire thing without incident and then rolled my ankle in the parking lot (as mentioned in my post about my tendency towards clumsiness!) This hike is no joke, and as the warning sign at the trail entry states, Search and Rescue gets called up there multiple times a season. If you're hiking it in summer, you should be fine, just follow the yellow dots and arrows painted on the rocks. But if there is any snow still on the ground? Be careful, please.

Ladder of death

The hike starts out in the forest, but after awhile you come to a rock field. This is the first of many, and I believe the fourth one marks the halfway point. The rocks starts out smallish and more jagged (perfect for a sliced knee), but as you ascend the rocks turn into boulders the size of cars. Towards the top you start to feel like you're on another planet. It's very cool! The rock fields are interspersed with dense forest and scrubby alpine meadows, and there are a few points where it's good to be fairly loud as you are in 6-foot tall brush that could very easily hide a bear. At the top you come to the final rock field, on the top of which a lookout cabin is perched. For someone who hates heights, this was the worst part for me- climbing the ladder to the cabin. You are literally perched on the very tippy-top of a very tall, very pointy mountain. It was terrifying. And awesome. Side note: make sure you hike it on a sunny day, otherwise the killer views are wasted!

I am also looking forward to doing some new hikes this year. Friends of ours recommended Iron Goat. I'm dying to do Hoh River, since you're hiking through the rain forests of the peninsula. And apparently the Enchantments is an amazing hike as well, though that requires a bit more travel time from my neck of the woods.

There is also this hike (I forget the name) but it's up in the North Cascades. It's very long and fairly difficult, but you hike through alpine meadows and rim one of the main glaciers up there and I'm DYING to go, but apparently it suffered some serious damage a few years back and I think it's closed for now until the WTA gets up there and makes it, you know, not a death trap. But it's calling me, so I plan to keep a lookout until it pops back up on the site again!

First World Problems

Okay, so not to be totally obnoxious or anything, but...

Who's got two thumbs and has a new iPhone?!?

This girl!!!!

Well fine then... party pooper.

Anyway, I got a new iPhone 5 last night, and I'm super jazzed because... well, I had the iPhone 2... and I've had it for about four+ years now... and it stopped working reliably several months ago...

So it's nice to have a phone that, you know, functions. And doesn't shut itself down randomly out of some sort of technological protest or something.

So that's the latest news in my life. Exciting stuff, eh?

Moving on!

I'm taking a break from schoolwork for a little bit, because my brain is about to protest in the same manner my old phone did. Just shut off and refuse to come back on for a few hours.

And that would be inconvenient, as I have a multitude of things to get done today.

So I'm taking a breather, drinking some tea, and, well, I guess complaining about First World Problems? God, I suck.

Sorry.

The weather has been crap lately, and while I usually don't get bummed out with Seattle's rain spells, this week it has been annoying me a bit. Mostly because I seem to keep finding the deepest puddles possible to accidentally step in, and I'm running out of clean socks because of it.

Plus, I haven't had a good hair day in what feels like forever.

Partially because of the stupid wind and rain (and hail, WTF has been up with the hail lately?!?) but also because I desperately need a hair cut.

But luckily I can control one of the above issues (and clearly that's not the weather, I've tried, my powers are not nearly strong enough yet), so I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow, and I'm probably a little TOO excited about it.

See, I have long hair.

And long hair tends to go from flowy and manageable to wild untamable mess remarkably fast.

And then it becomes difficult to brush. Or shampoo. Or just keep it contained in a somewhat presentable manner.

And my hair is wavy too, which adds a whole new level of pain-in-the-ass-ness.

Combined with the wind and rain and hail... and it's been a ponytail day for a couple of weeks straight.

All the blustery-ness of late winter/early spring has also left me pining for summer to come.

I love summer.

Summer is my lobster.

(please tell me you get the reference)

Summer means hiking and camping and bonfires and road trips and gardening and total blissed out relaxation. No school. No schedules. No restrictions.

Did I mention I love summer?

But summer does come with one issue.

One haunting, tormenting, uncomfortable issue.

Shorts weather...

All women have hangups over their body. Boobs too big, boobs too small, tummy too squishy, arms too wobbly, too big of a butt, not big enough of a butt. You name it, there are a million women worried about it.

For me, it's my legs. I've always been self-conscious about them. I have these spindly calves and itty-bitty ankles, so I feel like my legs look like upside-down triangles. And as with most women, I hate my thighs.

So shorts weather makes me... uncomfortable, to say the least.

But since I am of the mindset to understand the things I can change and accept the things I cannot, I get that I have my mother's legs (thanks, ma!), so the spindly calves and ankles thing? Not much I can do. Bone structure pretty much is what it is.

But!

I'm getting a treadmill today, and I'm going to do something about my muscle tone, so even though my legs aren't proportioned how I'd like, at least they can be more shapely, and then I will *hopefully* feel more confident when shorts weather rolls around.

Plus, that whole Couch-to-5k thing is hard to keep up on when the weather has been as crappy as it has been lately. Being able to run inside will greatly help that as well.

So bring it, summer! Muhahaha!

Klassy

Anyone who has known me for over ten minutes will come to understand that I am, quite possibly, the clumsiest person alive.

It's true.

I'm a total klutz.

Like, epic levels of clumsy.

It's pretty amazing, really. The ways I manage to find to hurt myself are impressive.

And amusing. To others at least.

(Since I'm the one in pain I usually don't see the humor until afterwards...)

But yeah, I have mad skills when it comes to finding new and exciting ways to injure myself. There's the tried and tested methods, like opening mail and getting a nasty paper cut, or walking through a door and swinging my arm up into the doorknob (almost a daily occurrence).

But then there are the head-scratchers. Like hiking up an entire mountain without so much as a wrong step, and then rolling my ankle in the trailhead parking lot, ten feet from my truck. True story.

OR!!! Trying to scare my cat off of the kitchen counter, cutting the corner too close, and running my hip into the corner of the granite at full speed. Yeah. That one dropped me to the floor in pain.

But my greatest achievements? Those come from hurting myself without actually doing anything. Yes, I am just that amazing. I don't even have to be moving to hurt myself. I can be standing still doing something totally mundane and somehow manage to get a paper cut or a bruise or some other source of searing pain.

I'm like magic.

Or a danger to myself.

Whatevs.

So today I find myself with a severely limited range of motion in my neck and right shoulder. (Not convenient when you're right-handed)

See, I have this thing going on with my neck. It's been happening for a few years now, and it started when I'd just randomly wake up in the morning with a blindingly sore, stiff neck, and it could take anywhere from a couple of days to a few weeks to fully go away. Then, more recently, it started happening while I was awake and I became more aware of what was going on. I mean, I still have no clue why it's happening, or what exactly is going wrong, but now I at least know that something in my neck shifts, and I'm guessing it pinches a nerve or something? It's the weirdest feeling, followed by... well, a lot of pain and discomfort. The last time it happened was a couple of months ago while I was jogging (see what I mean, I don't hurt myself with the actual jogging like you'd expect, I screw up my neck instead... it's a gift)

So anyway, it happened again today. And I'd like to say it's from doing something heroic like lifting a car off of a trapped baby or falling from a tree whilst trying to save a kitten, but in reality, I was just brushing my teeth.

Yeah, I'm that special.

Procrastination set in...

I'm supposed to be studying for an HR midterm. But my brain got fuzzy and I'm getting a headache, so I'm taking a breather.

HR is... well, it's alright I guess. Not as dry as I'd expected, though I have a few insufferable brown-nosers in my class that make it slightly painful to deal with. It's a requirement for my degree, so I've just got to muddle through a few more weeks. Then it's on to a few quarters of electives and I'll finally have my Bachelor's! It's taken a bit longer than planned but, hey, at least it's happening.

SO I started the Couch-to-5k training this week!

I know! And my ass muscles are sore to prove it...

Hopefully I actually stick with it, because I think it'll pay off if I do. Bring it on, shorts weather!!!

It's a beautiful, sunny day in the Seattle area today, and I'm a little bitter that I'm stuck inside studying. But my goal is to have my midterm done by tonight and have all weekend to play. Hopefully the weather gets the memo and sticks around a few more days. I'm a little twitchy and could use a good hike. I feel Mt. Pilchuck beckoning me back, but it's way too snowy up there still and I don't want to be another search-and-rescue statistic for that mountain. I think I'll hold off on that one until further into spring. And Age, you're coming with me!

I also have plans to hike the peninsula this summer. I figure since my state has a rainforest, I should at least go and walk through it, eh? I have a lot of hiking plans for this summer. We'll see how many of them come to fruition.

As you can probably tell, I'm getting antsy for spring and summer to come. I want to get outside, work in the yard, play, hike, all that good stuff. Contrary to many people's assumptions of me, I'm not as big of a prissy chick as I appear to be. I love being outdoors.

And yes, you can actually enjoy outside even when you hate insects.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

Amen to that

Glad we cleared that up. Back to studying...

Back in the saddle again

Hiddely-ho internets! It's been awhile... But I'm back, bitches!

I had a blog many moons ago, back when blogging was less mainstream and more...

*gulp*

... hipster-y...

I know, the horror!

But then in a fit of writer's block and doldrums I erased it (three years of work!) and never looked back.

Until recently, that is, when I realized that I needed a creative outlet again. A way to express my constant, rambling dialogue that goes on my harried little brain. And so, here I am!

Don't really know what more to say. I don't really have a specific "plan" for the blog, per se. I know many people start out with the intent of "I'm going to write a travel blog", or "I'm going to show of my culinary masterpieces", or "I just really like pictures of cats"... but that's not me. I'll talk about many things on here, most of which will likely seem hilarious or culturally relevant to me and be nothing more than a *headscratch* and *facepalm* to others, but that's okay!

I'll talk about parenting and vegetarian cooking and my sad attempts at getting any of my work published (I know, a blogger who is an aspiring writer...SHOCKER!!!). I live in the Seattle area, so I'll toss in some Emerald City love here and there. I'm a student, so there will be venting and swearing during midterms and finals. I also love hiking and road trips and books, so I'm sure I'll throw a few of those in there from time to time to mix it up.

But basically, as with most things in my life, I'm just going to wing it and hope for the best!

And away we go...