Back to the grind...

I'm back in class for the post spring break push. Should be an interesting one--I don't have a lot of exams this semester but I have some serious paper-writing to do and I'm absurdly behind in one class. Get that gun to my head so I can finally be productive.

Had a good spring break hiking the appalachian trail in Georgia with my friend Matt Brown and then visiting the fam in Michigan and Chicago. In Georgia this time of year all the hikers you meet proudly refer to themselves as thru-hikers (indicating an intent to spend 6 months hiking the entire 2,000+ mile length of the trail) but I think half of them quit in the first week or two and very very few end up hiking the whole thing. This unlikelihood, however, does not keep them from looking down on the lowly "sectioners" like me and brown, who were only there for a 5-day stint. They're also obsessed with "trail names" which are basically just monikers that they like to identify themselves with exclusively during their trip. Trail names are generally supposed to be given to you by fellow hikers on the basis of something stupid or memorable you do. They can be anything at all (including very stupid), from Gonzo to Mighty Thor to The Way Seeker. On the first day we met a girl who introduced herself very earnestly as Lotus. There were two guys hiking with her and I'm pretty sure both them were seeking access to her lotus patch. We passed a surprising amount of our time hiking by mocking Lotus and her many suiters.

Naturally wanting to fit in, Brown and I frequently pretended to be thru-hikers as well and took on trail names of our own. I was of course the legendary Appalachian Ninja, due to my many Ninja-like characteristics (cunning wit, tempestuous quickness, proclivity for lightning-fast flashes of capricious violence, etc.). Brown was Merman (emphasis to be placed on man in Zoolander fashion), because of his keen affinity with the very abundant rainwater we were blessed with on the first day. His oneness with the wetness is truly awe-inspiring. While it might seem like complete misery and relentless complaining to the untrained eye, I saw it for what it really was. He did get a little crabby when it started hailing for a spell, but I can only assume that was because he was afraid of drying. In his defense, his raincoat was torn to shreds within the first half hour of hiking, but he's the one who fell like 4 times.

Appalachian Ninja sighting/attack (we enjoyed using the panoramic function to put ourselves into photos multiple times):

unclehood

Both of my nieces are absurdly cute (I'm not counting the 3-month-old yet because babies all look the same to me). They're the kind of blond-haired blue-eyed kids that prompt total strangers to stop their mothers on the street to tell them how beautiful their kid is. And they're really fun to hang out with for an uncle. I love being an uncle. It's like all the perks of being a parent and none of the nasty responsibilities. I get to hang out with my nieces and nephew when they're being fun and adorable, and then hand them off to their parents when they're being snotty little brats. I don't mean to call them brats, because they aren't at all, but lets face it, every kid can be a brat sometimes. Hell, so can I.




My to-do list for the next 12 months:

go to cedar point
snowboard
donate money to kiva.org
use the kayak that i bought after my freshman year of college and only used once
hike some more appalachian trail
visit D.C. and new york
buy a moped
vote for barack obama
start an obscure holiday
build a human powered flying machine for red bull flugtag
write a short story
go sailing again
run a half-marathon, maybe a triathalon

retooling

i just renamed my blog. apparently i like very literal titles. anyway, i think i might also retool this thing into an actual blog, as opposed to just a rarely used online journal that no one even knows about. for now i'm going to use it as an idea box.

so, some things i think are awesome right now:

1) the red bull flugtag contest, which you can enter by proposing and then building a human powered flying machine. it doesn't actually have to fly, since the most competitive category is most original/showmanship. most teams just build a giant cow or banjo or drumstick and one person rides it while the rest push it off a cliff into some body of water. i think this is one of the coolest ideas ever and i plan to enter it someday.

2) the fact that there is a random stuffed wolf that will stare you down from a display window in an alley one block off the main street of hinton, iowa that very few people know about.

3) www.kiva.org

if all goes according to plan, i'm going to hike the georgia portion of the appalachian trail over spring break with a buddy. i'm really excited - it's been far too long since i've done some serious hiking. i think being out of touch with everything for a week or so is exactly what i need right now.