George Washington National Forest

Highlights:
~Spent 45 minutes driving up and down one road, fairly certain I was around where I needed to be but not quite sure I wasn't lost. Almost went home when I couldn't find my friend in the middle of the forest.
~Ran over an opossum. I can still hear the squish.
~Drove to the West Virginia state line...we hope
~Got yelled at for throwing plastic in the campfire cause it's bad for the environment, from a woman who drives an SUV
~John stayed home so my tent was lonely but I survived
~Went mudding
~Had an epic bonfire.

More pics to come when Winny sends them. She has a very nice camera!

Westmoreland State Park

Sorry for neglecting to put this on the blog sooner...

John and I decided to do a last minute camping trip (meaning on Sun we decided to go the next weekend) to kick off the season. At that time the forecast called for sun and highs around 55. Still would be chilly at night but tolerable. And although it's early and many parks around here are not yet open for camping, those that were seemed available. Well by Weds Shenandoah was full and the forecast was calling for rain. So we picked a small park with less trails and still decided to go. By Friday they were predicting snow but no way were we canceling.

Friday night we headed out, and weirdness, the random park I choose means we have to drive right by his parent's house. We stopped and wandered around the cemetery looking for Big Gran's gravestone-since I hadn't been. We never did find it. Dear John, it's cool to remember more than "it's by a bench, I swear". Anyway, got to the campsite and started to set up while there was still a little light. Then we went and broke on of the polls on my tent. Some duct tape and a splinter later we were setting up in the dark, but that's why we have headlamps! Then it was time for a nice fire to keep us warm.

Saturday was actually beautiful. Cold in the morning but it warmed up. We hiked almost every trail in the park. This isn't that impressive, as I said Shenandoah, land of many mountainous hikes, was full so we just went to a tiny place off the Potomac. 6 miles of trails total. So many of them had freakin stairs so it was a workout at times. Not what we had hoped for a week before, but it was still fun.

We got back to the campsite and started a huge fire that we burned for hours and hours. And we just ate, and talked, and burnt stuff, and ate some more, until it was bed time. Sat evening was much colder than Friday and yes, we did wake up to snow. Poor John was pretty chilly in his crappy sleeping bag, but luckily mine is pretty good. I was still chilly at times but much better than my old bag would have been. We packed quickly and left.

On the way home we stopped by his to see the parents. Caroline dropped snow in "Pop-pop's SHOE!" and ran away screaming when she saw me in the kitchen, standing between her and mommy.

Then we were home and had the best, warmest shower ever.

Ugg roommate search...

Kelli is moving out at the end of our lease because she's ready to be a big girl and live on her own. If I could afford to do so in this area I would too, so I can't blame her. But that means Gabe and I have to find someone else to live here. Otherwise the house is too expensive. And it's not fun.

We've had people who ask to have cats even though the ad clearly says NO cats since we have allergies. One person had a kid. One person wanted to move in with her boyfriend. We had people cancel the "interview" at the last minute. One who claims she had an experience over the weekend that made her realize she couldn't live with dogs. A very sweet girl came by who may have worked. Except she doesn't have a job.

Then today! I scheduled someone to come last minute, she just emailed last night. We're waiting on her when Gabe's outside smoking and I'm taking out the recycling. A car pulls up-I assume it's her. I think how nice it is that her friend came with her to make sure we weren't murderers. Then after sitting here a minute or two the car pulls away. Assume it's not the girl. 10 minutes later, she's 5 minutes late so I check my phone and email so see if she's lost. Email saying she's not coming. Apparently the place is too far from her office. Which is in Old Town. Which is where I work. My commute is 15-20 mins, in traffic. I think it was her who came to the place and she decided Gabe and I were way too awesome for her.

I have been getting desperate. Hopefully the two people who are supposed to come see the place on Weds actually show up. And are normal. With jobs. And no spouses.

Kearney Casino Night

Every year, my company has a big "All Hands" meeting where we talk about boring things like how much money we made in the previous year and stuff like that. It's really boring if you have to edit the powerpoint so you know a lot of stuff already. But they try to make it fun. And there are awards. Apparently I'm cool because I won the Presidential Award! Anyways, afterwards there is Casino Night, were we loose fake money at the craps table. Still, an awesome time.

We're too adorable sometimes.

Erica may be more excited about the award than I am...at least at this moment, I was pretty overwhelmed.

Josh also won an award!

Group fun!

It says I have ethics...and some other things. Haha

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Big Devils Stairs

I wanted to write something a little more "formal" about this hike, to practice for possible travel writing submissions. But I am just not feeling it at the moment. So maybe I will update this later. For now:

I joined a bunch of hiking groups when I first moved to Virginia but have either been too busy or too scared to actually go on any events. Well I finally made myself go since John was busy and I needed a hike so very much. Even though most of the people were older than me and will likely not become friends I see outside of this group, I am glad I went and stepped out of my comfort zone.

Big Devils Stairs is only a 5 mile moderate hike. It was a good way to get back into the swing of things. I could have done more and pushed myself but this was a good workout. And the view at the half-way point was awesome.

I almost kidnapped Cheyenne the Sheltie who was far too adorable. We had to cross a lot of water since it was early in the Spring and there was so much snow melt. Little Cheyenne was ok with most of the water but one part looked a little too deep and she would not cross. I wanted to give her a big hug.

Best part of the day that was not on the actual hike: We're about 10 miles from the park entrance and we see a guy jogging alongside the highway, towards us. As we get closer we see he is wearing a neon orange ski mask. And carrying a stick/spear pointed out as if he were jousting. Hilarious!

Outside!

It was nice outside yesterday so I actually had the chance to go out and enjoy the woods. John and I went to a park we've been to before but started on a new trail. It wasn't anything special but being out was refreshing. I am glad the weather is warming so I can get back to doing things I love. I am so not a winter person.

I also became disgruntled because I would like to join John on a trip to Yosemite in June but my job will probably not grant me vacation, since it's summer. I was told when I took the job that I could not vacation in summer because it was our busiest season. But after reviewing some numbers, it turns out that's not entirely true. July was our busiest month by far in 2010. Feb and Nov the least. But all other months were just about equal. So it's ok to vacation in January but not June, even though we had the same number of proposals in those months. In reality any week I choose throughout the year has the potential to be busy or slow. There's no way of really knowing until the week prior. So I think I should be able to take vacation any time I want.

I guess it will be good to save my vacation days until October and do something great, but I need someone to go with and somewhere to go. Alaska will be too cold by then!

My little seedlings are doing well so I will soon have a lot of herbs and salad greens. I wish I had my garden still so I could plant more.

I made pretty awesome ribs last night. Used a recipe from Top Chef. I also made honey rolls, which are delicious with strawberry rhubarb jam. I'm going to make cinnamon raisin bread next weekend. My new found bread making desire probably means I should get a bread machine. John may still one from his mom.

MIA or just lazy?

I have not written in awhile, mainly because I have not been wanting to write an emo post. I'm tired of emo posts. Seriously, I need to be more positive. But it's been hard. So since last writing, here's some stuff that has happened:

~Mom had a very serious heart attack, the day after her birthday. I went home to take care of her and the brothers. It was exhausting-physically and mentally. I don't think I have recovered from the experience.

~I have started the search for a new roommate. Kelly is moving out when our lease is up. I hope we find someone cool who wants to go hiking.

~I bought cute new hiking shoes. I have not had a chance to try them out and it's making me antsy.

~I planted some seeds so that I can have lots of herbs and salad fixings. Of course I can't plant nearly as much as I want since I don't have a real garden anymore but at least it's something.

~I decided the answer to all of my problems is to be a travel writer or an editor at Backpacker Magazine. For now I will probably settle for subscribing to said magazine and making lame attempts at writing about my hiking excursions. But I'm working on it.

~I stayed home alone while John babysat-so he could try to prove to himself that he would not be making a mistake by having kids with me. I do not know if the mission was successful but it was not a failure either.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today's my mom's 50th Birthday! I'm sad that I am not in St. Louis with her, but hopefully we'll get together in the spring and celebrate appropriately.

Working on the weekend

I have been meaning to write a post about some difficulties I've been having but just can't seem to say what I want so it's still brewing. So you get this rant instead.

I've been really frustrated with my job recently. I've never really felt like I fit in there since I work with a lot of republicans who just golf and work. But I felt my team was ok. Except for the fact that some people think I'm halfway to the looney bin since I love the outdoors. Or they feel the need to talk about how important a large diamond engagement ring is. But this is not really the problem.

Two weeks ago I worked 45 hours in 4 days. I then took off Friday, which was nice. I drove up to John's on Thursday night and had a little extra time with him. Still, worked my ass off. And really, it was for a huge project. An extra 5 years of work for our current St. Louis contract, which is ending. Quite a big deal. Everyone else worked for months on this with tons of long hours. If we win it will be so worth it. And things, though they were time consuming, went smoothly. And at the end the partner-in-charge said he wanted to steal me away and make me a tech writer on the project, since he knows I'm from STL and liked my work. My partner said "you can't just hijack my employees, I found her first." Long story short, it was hard but I felt very appreciated.

This week was slow until all hell broke loose Thursday around 3:30. I was supposed to go to a happy hour but ended up skipping because I was so stressed out and upset. It was a HH for this young ladies club I joined, so I was meeting strangers. If it had been regular happy hour I could have used the drink, but I was not in the mood to meet strangers and be very social. Which sucks because I need to make friends.

Anyway, a lot of stuff happened which basically means I will be working Sunday and probably long hours Monday and Tuesday. I know one thing is really important-actually a revision for the St. Louis proposal that basically means once we submit the requested changes we win it. So very worth it. Everything else, not so worth it. And my problem is none of the overtime is really necessary. But that's a whole other rant. What became the last straw was that I said I would make myself available to work on Sunday. There's enough stuff due in the beginning of the week that I do need to get work done Sun or we'd miss a deadline. We made a plan that seemed pretty reasonable to get all 3 of my proposals out the door by the end of Wednesday. Then as John and I are walking to dinner on Friday night I'm getting these emails basically saying I needed to have everything edited by Sunday morning. NO reason at all that this needed to be the case. So I basically said I was busy until Sunday morning and would get started then as planned. This didn't initially go over well but now I don't even have the file to edit yet so I couldn't have done it today even if I had agreed.

Anyway, long story short, I am willing to work overtime when it needs to happen. I knew that was the nature of the job. But if I make a plan for getting my work done that involves me still getting to enjoy part of my weekend, don't make me feel guilty about saying no to some ridiculous new plan. And don't make stupid new plans for no reason other than certain people are freaking paranoid and suck.

I sooo deserve a raise. And more vacation days.

Also, let me take off a week in June so I can go to Yosemite. And then again in October so I can go...somewhere that is not the United States.

When I went to John's work happy hour this woman gave me her card and said to contact her if I wanted a job. I am thinking about seeing what she has to offer.