"I'm leaving in a Mustang" just doesn't have that "hit song" feel to it.

So, I'm ready to go tomorrow.  A couple more hours of work and then I'll change my voicemail message (always a happy moment) and then we're off.  Mary will be in charge of the house and the various animals, who will inevitably suck up to her and tell her they like her better than us, because they are all pretty much whores for treats and scritches.  ESPECIALLY the dog.  But, such is the way of pets.  They like the pettin'.

I have mixed emotions.  I'm more than ready for a vacation.  I need to do some serious vacating.  I need to clear my mind and use my muscles.  But I can't take the pets with me, and JD neither has enough vacation time nor the desire to spend a month hiking.  (A couple of hours, yes.  A month, no.)  So, no husband for talking and cuddling and general husbandly activities (I'm going to have to take out my own trash!  And cook!) and no dog to sleep on my feet.  You have no idea how big of a problem this is.  I jam my feet under that poor mutt every night and she comforts me with her presence.  And her weight. There is NO COMFORTING in the tent.  It's just me and my stinky clothes and my crinkly sleeping pad.  And my benadryl.  Because I find it hard to get to sleep without the dog.  Also, the other hikers don't like it when you jam your feet under them.

Also I am not looking forward to the drive.  JD is.  JD loves to drive.  But his driving makes me anxious and then he gets mad because I'm anxious and then we are in a car full of anger and it's bad.  It's really bad.  I have xanax to take but still, here I sit full of perturbation and unhappiness and we haven't even gotten in the car yet.

I'm thinking it's going to be a whole tablet day tomorrow.  Maybe starting tonight.

(PS JD?  If you just, say, doubled your following distance while I was in the car on long distance trips, probably there would be less clutching and more conversating.  Just sayin'.  Everything else is fine, driving-wise.)

Then of course there is Katahdin.  I'm going to see friends, which is awesome, but the mountain itself is intimidating.  On the other hand little kids and little old ladies climb it all the time, so I should be okay.  Slow, but okay.  MOM DON'T READ THIS PART.  Unless I fall off the mountain.  OKAY MOM START READING AGAIN.

The forecast for Millinocket on Sunday is currently a high of 79 and clear.  Of course, it could easily be in the 40's way up on the mountain, but clear is good.  Clear = probably not raining = probably not slick rocks.  I like not slick rocks on mountains.

CRAP!  I just realized what I forgot to pack.  I have no booze.  I'm going to have to hike sober.  Dammit.

Mary?  Mary is coming?  Does she have chewies?  Does she know I'm not allowed to take chewies outside?

Mary's coming?  I'll be under the couch.

Meh.  Don't care about stupid Mary.  I have laundry.

Meh.  Don't care about stupid Mary.  We have each other.

Oh, and btw?  This blog is going on hiatus while I hike.  Because two blogs a day is beyond my mental capabilities.  I'll be posting to my trailjournal as I get signal.  If you care to read, follow the link in the upper right hand corner, there.  No, your other right hand. (Your right hand is the one that doesn't make an "L" when you hold your thumb out. )  (Well, I guess it makes a backwards L.  Anyway, there's a link somewhere on the page.)

This explains all the bird droppings on the cars

Two things came up today.

1)  Inversion tables.  My naturopath pretty much demanded I get one, on account of the lousy marshmallows I have instead of disks in my spine.  So, now on the lookout for an inversion table.

2)  "What's your spiritual path?"  Atheist was apparently not the right answer.  She gave me this *look* and said that with how much I loved the outdoors, that I was more spiritual than I knew.  Because my migraines often start around 4 AM, she wanted me to start paying attention to things that were happening at 4 AM when I was outside.  What animals I saw, etc.  I mentioned that during the day I saw hawks constantly (not just out in the woods - in parking lots, crossing roads, watching me from trees at work) and she said she wanted me to go read a book wherein a guy apparently talks about the spiritual meanings of various animals.  Which, okay, interesting.  The thing is he has a lot of books.  And even multiple books about animals.

So I guess that leaves me upside down and confused about my spirituality.

I'm not averse to learning about other people's spiritual ways, but I tend to feel that whatever I'm doing is working for me.  I.e. walking around and appreciating what I'm seeing, and trying not to be evil.  That's about all I really require of myself.  I guess I'm a spiritual slacker.

Anyway, I took a shot in the dark and downloaded one of the books to my Kindle app, and I look forward to finding out why the author thinks hawks are dogging me.  So to speak.

Almost ready to go

My goodness I'm tired.  Long day.  Long day but good day.  This week is not turning out to be anywhere near as horrible (work-wise) as I had feared.  One of the horrible things is not happening at all, and another is going to happen while I'm out of town.   I can feel the tension draining out of me just thinking about it.  A third horrible thing may or may not happen, but I can handle 1 out of 3.

I went to a talk today about certifications.  I'm thinking about getting the CISSP certification.  Maybe.  The test costs $550, but work will cover it.  Test prep is anywhere from free to $2500, and would suck up a lot of my time for well over two months if done properly.  Although (she said humbly) I'm really good at standardized test taking, so that gives me an advantage.  And word has it that if you've done a lot of FISMA crap, that covers a lot of content in the test.  (This paragraph brought to you by Acronyms Int.)

So, there's that.

Also, it rained today and it cooled down a lot, and it's like some part of me needed that rain and is now happy.

This evening I got my maildrops packed up and ready to go.  I'll stop by the post office to mail them tomorrow.  That should be fun, with thirty pounds of food in them, waiting in line.  But then they'll be out the door and in theory I'll have food waiting for me in Maine.  That'll be nice.  Unfortunately my last mail drop is to a business, not a post office.  I don't really like to mail things that far in advance to a business, as they don't have a lot of room for boxes usually.  But it will only be there about two weeks, I think.  I hope it will be okay.  If not, it'll be in a town where I can get supplies to replace everything.

I posted my maildrop schedule in my 2011 AT trailjournal.  I'm not asking anybody to send me anything other than encouraging words. For one thing, I am already sending myself a lot.  And for another, I don't like to ask.  But if you think of me, you could send me a postcard (.. probably not to the private business, I'd guess).  If you do send me something, please tell me where you sent it and if it's a package or a letter so I know to ask for it.

My backpack and my daypack (because I don't generally use a suitcase when I could use a daypack) are both packed and ready to go.  I just need to get through this work week, and I am gone.  Vamoosed.  Outtahere.  I'll miss JD and the four legged ones, but I am definitely ready to put in some time on the trail.

In which TV makes me suck

So, after about four hours of sleep (how come I can never sleep when I need to get up early?) I got up before the alarm went off at 6, and got on out the door.  This weekend's walk around the park went much better, without the tail end of an illness kicking my butt.  It was plenty hot though.  My clothes were totally soaked by the time I was done.

I went over to the farm and explained to Pluto that I was leaving for a month.  I don't like to just leave without telling him.  You should never just leave without telling people you love.

And then I came home and got into dry clothes and debated napping vs movie watching.  Finally I headed over to the movie theater to see the early showing of Friends With Benefits.

I would love to be able to tell you it was great movie.

Unfortunately, however, the power was out when I got there.  No power, no movies.  I was so bummed.  And sleepy.  My plan had been to go to the theater and get a coke so I could stay awake to watch the movie.  No power, no coke either. I had to drive home sleepy.  I got home and was so, so, tired.  So I took a nap after all.  But it was a bad nap.

A good nap leaves you feeling all rested and happy.  This one left me tired and anxious, and my effing migraine came back.  I had disturbing dreams and woke up sweaty.  Bad nap.  No biscuit.

So, that was pretty much my day.  I should be cleaning the house up and getting boxes ready to mail but I really don't feel like it so I'm just sitting on my butt, watching True Blood, and gathering more and more malaise about me.  I like to watch things but I always feel gross after I do.  Does watching things do this to you?  It's like it turns me into an angry, unsatisfied teenager.  As if I don't already have an active, fulfilling life, and a real job which gives me the means to purchase whatever I want.  TV is kind of evil that way.

So, yeah, guess I'll go finish the episode I'm on..

Mitten free and proud

Oh wow, what a wonderful day.

First, I got to sleep in super late.  A migraine woke me up early, but I told it to eff off and I fell asleep for several more hours.  When I finally awoke for good, I took half an imitrex and today was one of the days when it didn't make me sick.  It just made my headache go away and that was it.

I sprayed two pair of socks with permethrin again, because I've lost track of which ones are treated.  Now I'm marking treated socks, somewhere on them, with permanent marker.  It won't tell me how recently they've been treated, but at least I'll know I treated them at some point!

Mid-afternoon, JD and I drove out to Bowie to see "Harry Potter, the final chapter".  Or whatever it's called.  Honestly I didn't think it was the best one, but it was pretty good entertainment.  I laughed, I cried (embarrassingly), I had a good time.  For the first time ever, the theater sound was not insanely loud, so I actually took out my earplugs and listened to the movie at the same volume as everybody else.  That right there was worth the price of admission.  Speaking of which, when the hell did a matinee start costing nine dollars?  Am I one of those people who can't believe that gas now costs more than twenty five cents a gallon?  Because I can't believe how expensive that was.  Also, my "small" (approximately a quart) coke was $4.75.  Of which I drank six ounces.  That's seventy nine cents per consumed ounce.  That is an expensive beverage.

Favorite moments:  Mom getting her revenge on against the crazy biyatch, Neville turning out to be the man, the Hermione-can't-act scene that reminded me very much of the Willow-can't-act scene from the Evil Willow days.  Though I am still confused about the resurrection stone, or at least how it was used in the movie.

While I was looking up movie times and whatnot, I came across a trailer for "Friends With Benefits".  Many of my online friends have extolled the virtues of this movie.  I was dubious.  I don't go see romantic comedies all that often, anymore.  Mostly I watch Harry Potter and Twilight.  Because I'm still fourteen, apparently.  But the trailer was actually really good, so I'm planning to do something that I don't think I've ever done before, which is see two movies in two days.

First I need to put in a couple of hours of hiking, after which probably nobody will want to sit next to me.  Which is fine with me actually.

Oh, so anyway, the rest of our excellent day/date:  We went on over to DuClaw for dinner.  We had a fun time and I pretty much bubbled over with love (but in a sanitary way) for JD, and also the food was good.  And the beer.  Then we came home and watched the latest episode of Warehouse 13.  And then JD went to bed because he is not the one who slept in until nearly lunchtime.

I've spent the last couple of hours checking my pack to make sure nothing is missing, washing a couple of things, and just generally getting ready to be in the woods for a month.  So exciting!  I texted Little Aspen.  She's working until one in the morning, so I'll wait until tomorrow (not too early) to call her.  However she did text me that both Peacetree and Toothpick are coming to hike Katahdin with us, and how exciting!  I haven't seen Peacetree since Nantahala Outdoor Center last spring!  Only a week until I see them all.  Little Aspen said she got Saturday off too so I'm guessing they're going to spend the night in Millinocket before going out to the park in the morning.  OK I'm getting too excited and I need to stop thinking about that so I can sleep.

Okay, calm, calm.  I'm breathing.  I'm not thinking about Maine.. Okay that's a lie I totally am.

I stashed silk long underwear top and bottom in my gear, and I think now I'm comfy with my clothing.  I should be warm enough. Oh and I experimented with my pot.  I cut down the wind screen so it fit under the handle, and then I heated water to see if having the handles outside the screen helped.  Answer?  No.  In fact it seemed to direct flame around the handle.  Ah well.  BUT.  I counted one one thousand, two one thousand, and so on.  At thirty one thousand I can comfortably touch the handles.  So I'm just going to add thirty seconds to my schedule, I think.  I'm leaving my mitten home.  I know, I know, I'm so brave.  Mitten free and proud.

Shew. Hibernating until it's cooler out.

Gosh dang it's hot out.  Too hot for writing.  Have some pictures instead.

System Administrator's Day isn't until next week.  I got gifts early.  Pink noise canceling hearing protection!

And a new multitool!

And burgers with my beloved

I need Hikers Anonymous

Is there a twelve step program for hiking?

I looked up the symptoms of addiction here:


"There are many different addictions, but similar symptoms span them all.
Some of the common symptoms of addiction are:

• Tolerance - the need to engage in the addictive behavior more and more to get the desired effect
• Withdrawal happens when the person does not take the substance or engage in the activity, and they experience unpleasant symptoms, which are often the opposite of the effects of the addictive behavior
• Difficulty cutting down or controlling the addictive behavior
• Social, occupational or recreational activities becoming more focused around the addiction, and important social and occupational roles being jeopardized
• The person becoming preoccupied with the addiction, spending a lot of time on planning, engaging in, and recovering from the addictive behavior"

Tolerance:  check.  Weekend hikes don't really do it for me anymore.  

Withdrawal:  check.  I get all cranky and achy.

Difficulty cutting down: check.  Holy moly, was it difficult when I got off the trail last year.  And I scheme for as much time out there as I can.

Activities more focused around the addiction: check. I've jeopardized my job by taking off to hike.  I tend to try to get other people to hike with me rather than go do "regular" social stuff.  I don't really give a hoot about most non-hiking stuff.

Preoccupation:  checkcheckcheckcheckcheck.  Hello, have you met my blog?

I can't even really tell you why I do it.  I just like to hike long distances.  I don't like it more than I like my my husband, my friends, my dog, my cats, or my horse.  (I do like it more than I like my job.)  And yet very often I take off hiking, and who suffers?  My husband, my friends, my dog, my cats, and my horse.  You would think that I would at least be able to say WHY it's so important to me.  I really can't, though.  It just is.  It's something I need to do.  I think if I could hike long distance and take all my loved ones with me, I would.  But horses aren't even allowed on most of the AT, and I don't see my dog being a long distance hiker, and I only have one friend who will occasionally let me drag her out on the trail.  My addiction just isn't compatible with the rest of my life.

I've cut way back at least.  Last year I took six months off to hike, and this year it's only five weeks.  So that has to count for something.