So free, so cavalier

2006-07-29 - 8:19 a.m.

I just finished up the fourth of seven consecutive graveyard shifts I'm scheduled for. I think it's possible I'm handling them better than I did last time I had to work them fifteen months ago. I mean, I sleep fairly well during the day and I've been having no trouble staying awake all night. And tasks that I'm supposed to do that are unique to this shift just make more sense than they did last time. If it wasn't for the fact that this makes it much more difficult to see Lolo, I would rather enjoy this shift, I think. One perk I hadn't anticipated about working this shift is the sex. I'm such a morning person that I'm usually more in the mood in the morning than in the evening while Lolo is definitely not a morning person at all. But now my "morning" is coming in the evening so we're nicely aligned...although Lolo's schedule probably won't allow for that to happen again.

A couple of weeks ago my parents came visiting and drove me down to California. We camped along the way at Mt. St. Helens, Silver Falls State Park in Oregon, Crater Lake, Lava Beds, and Castle Crags. It was really cool. We hiked the 10-Falls trail in Silver Falls which really does have 10 different waterfalls along it, several of them very spectacular. I've never been to Crater Lake before but it was absolutely gorgeous. We went spelunking a little bit at Lava Beds and my dad and I climbed to the very top of the dome of Castle Crags. After the camping we stayed in Sacramento for several more days. Every day I was there it was over 100 degrees out. I totally enjoyed the heat. I got the chance to see DeenPo and another pharmacy school friend, Grace plus my undergraduate friends Flik, Tigger, the Babe, and Doodle. It was great. A wonderful trip--except I was lonely for Lolo the whole time.

Mt. St. Helens with Silver Lake in the foreground

Next week I'm going backpacking for four days and three nights on the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier with my brother, dad, and Lolo. It had been eight years since my last backpacking trip and Lolo had never been backpacking before so the two of us decided to go on a practice run last weekend. On our Rainier trip we're hiking about eight miles a day. We decided to take it easy--four miles a day and just one night. We hiked up the West Fork Foss trail in Stevens Pass to Copper Lake. It was beautiful and the camping was fun, but we were miserable a great deal of the time we were actually hiking. For starters it was the hottest weekend on record for Seattle (three days in a row over 90) and then our packs were just really heavy. I don't think I overpacked much at all--I can't really think of much I packed that I could leave out. I'm a little scared of our Rainier trip now. It's twice as far each day, two more days of hiking, and our packs will be heavier by two more days worth of food and clothes.

Copper Lake