Exactly one week from now we will be fidgeting around in our sleeping bags under the stars.
ONE.
WEEK.
Angela boards a plane to L.A. less than 48 hours from now and I cannot even begin to imagine how she feels. Today we hugged goodbye for the final time before we will be reunited at the San Diego airport this coming Friday the 19th. I anticipated feeling more emotional/frantic/SOMETHING... but rather than getting together and staring at each other in shock and disbelief, we cozied up and hung out like everything was normal. When will it hit me? Why is it so surreal?
The to-do lists are piling up, constantly being re-written and expanded upon. I probably have 8 of them in circulation. My goal tonight is to consolidate all of these lists into one master list and GET TO WORK.
Things I somehow still have yet to do
- figure out my audiobook/music/podcast situation (NIGHTMARE)
- packing up the rest of our belongings (luckily mostly clothing & kitchen items remain)
- REI
- need to make a camera "case" for the trip
- send off the rest of my food boxes
Things I did manage to accomplish this past week
- I found a nice long sleeved desert button down hiking shirt
- I mailed my first food boxes (compliments of Ben)
- Health insurance has commenced
- Trekking poles and food box are (hopefully) in San Diego by now
- did laundry....
- realized I need to re-evaluate my sock situation
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| injinji toe socks |
I will be trying out Injinji Toe Socks for the beginning of the hike. Ben swears by these ridiculous seeming socks and I had a very hard time accepting them. A lot of hikers vouch for Injini's and claim they keep away blisters and other foot problems (particularly between the toes).When I first put them on they made me feel ill. I could not get over the strange claustrophobic feeling of the fabric between my toes. Forcing myself to wear them for the remainder of the day, I gradually got used to them... sort of. Actually - it took me a very long time to warm up to them.... but now I can wear them without feeling sickened.
I'm giving them a shot. We will see how it goes. They feel great while hiking and have not given me a problem yet when going uphill or walking on a flat surface, however, going downhill is a different story... I have found that having fabric between your toes eventually creates the feeling of little knives cutting you with every downhill step (because of the friction? I guess?) and it is very uncomfortable. I hope this is something that can be remedied with a different size/weight of sock.
This is just one of the challenges that has come up last minute and this past week has not proved to be very productive in terms of checking things off of my list... again.
What this past week has been, in actuality, is a week full of social obligations, financial chores, gatherings, being late to work, leaving work early, loading and unloading my bounce box (which is an explosion on the floor), and ultimately just needing sleep.
It's time to get serious.
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| I'm devoted to Justin's nut butter. |
This weekend marked the end of our seemingly extensive "farewell" streak. Saturday was the big shindig and Ben, Angela and I were overwhelmed by the fun, kindness, love and generosity of our friends. There was food, drink, reindeer pelt, antlers, plaid closet purge, jams, hugs hugs hugs hugs hugs, drawings, goodbyes, and plenty of shake face.
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| they thought of everything. |
HUGE SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to Meg & Rian for volunteering to host such a fabulous send-off party. Our hearts were warmed and we had the. best. time. ever. We have the ultimate group of friends and we love you all immensely.
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| not pictured - everyone else (there wasn't enough plaid to go around) |
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| some little treats. |
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| love. |
I will be updating more frequently now that the departure date is inching dangerously close...
Stay tuned. Tomorrow I will discuss fitness and how we went about training for the trail.
5 comments:
You found a good long-sleeve shirt for the desert! Did you get a poly-blend one from the thrift store or are you going to safari-style techy shirt route? I am still torn between the two and it is, hilariously, causing me a great deal of anxiety. I have a thrift store one that looks better but then the techy one is more functional? What do you think?
Well...... I found mine at Forever 21.
I intended on going the thrift store route and didn't look hard enough and was super picky about it being synthetic. Then I ran out of time. I flat out refused to go the obscenely expensive safari tech shirt (why would I pay $85 dollars for a shirt that is about to be complete filth/is the most unattractive thing I own/is made in China?) I couldn't justify it. I spent about $10 on a Lloyd Center shirt. It's fantastic!
If I were you I'd go with a thrift store one if you found something that is at least semi-functional and not cotton! I just got to a point where I couldn't even begin to think about cruising around to different thrift stores/stores/malls searching for individual items. Why didn't I consider the outfit sooner?
Is the techy one more functional? The only way I can imagine my Forever 21 shirt is less functional than other, more advanced, shirts is that the armpits are kind of tight. I'll probably end up frantically cutting armpit holes very shortly after starting the hike.
Forever 21! That's a great idea. If found a windshirt and a bunch of cheap socks at Ross dress for less. I forget about the mall sometimes...
In my mind Injinji is only Louie's crocheted panda pencil case
olenka. I just laughed so hard and so loud for so long. everyone upstairs is talking about it.
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