death march, 2008

so the Big Walk is done. finito. and i kind of miss its presence in my mind and in my life. the dread/excitement/planning/training. i suppose i need to do some internettin' to see if i can find another tortuously long hike to rule my life for the next couple of months...

thoughts from the road (in no particular order):

1) it takes a long time to walk 31 miles. a really, reeeeally long time.

we kept about a 3.26 mile/hour pace, on average. and that includes the times we stopped to stretch, eat, go to the bathroom, etc. that means it took us NINE AND A HALF HOURS. you'd best be in good company on a walk like this, or you might really regret it. the walk itself is one big mental challenge to begin with, and if you toss is a high-maintenance, extra-annoying friend or two - you can forget it. if you find yourself saddled with a tag-a-long that you picked up along the trail, just fake a leg cramp and let him get ahead... or just suck it up and jog for a while to ditch her. it's worth it in the long run. but a walking partner is pretty key on a long trek. there were times on saturday of extreme boredom mixed with stabbing pain in my ass-cheek that, if i had been alone, might have led to a slowing pace or a short break or two. but just having someone else there really kept my pace up and helped to lessen that evil voice in my head saying "oh, don't be silly - just take a quick 5-minute break... who'll know the difference? who?"

2) the sierra club does a swell job with pit stops and porta-potties.

there was a breakfast break, a snack break, a lunch, and then a final snack break along the trail - all about 7 miles apart. usually, just when fearful boredom was setting in... or thirst... or shrinking tendons... or all of those things, a cheerful volunteer would come whizzing up on a bike saying "Just 2 more miles until the next stop, folks! anyone need some water?" really, it was great. we only stopped for a few minutes each time, but it was enough to stretch for a minute and break up the monotony.

3) late april is a perfect time for a walk in the woods.

except for the threat of torential rain or late freak snowstorm, late april is a beautiful time of year. the trees are a lush and damp, throbbing green. pale leaves and dark tree trunks, flowers masking the poison ivy. plump turtles in the canal. even the snakes looked friendly. it wasn't too hot for most of the walk, and we crossed the finish line just before the rain started. it really could not have been better. and no bugs!

4) harpers ferry is FAR too hilly.

just to keep things interesting, the sierra club plans the hike to end on a high note - and by high, i am referring to elevation. the last mile or so is basically straight up hill. ! whose bright idea was that? "gee, after 30 miles of slogging through the woods, nothing sounds finer than a fierce one mile uphill climb on uneven cobblestone streets... let's do it!" and the volunteers are so sly about it, too, as if they are embarrassed about such a sadistic plan. you come off the trail at the end of mile 30, then climb a steep staircase up to the rail bridge over the potomac river. hey, nice view, nice breeze, hey we're almost done! then at the end of the bridge you run into a volunteer who says "congratulations! great job, guys! just head over to that volunteer over there by the road! have an oreo!" okay, so then you get to the next volunteer who won't look you in the eye, and just mumbles something about "go to that intersection over there and it's just straight ahead for another mile..." hey, that doesn't sound bad, right? until you get to that intersection and turn the corner - and you see nothing but steep steep cobblestone street. FAIL. but then you buckle down and walk, because that's what you do. but there aren't any signs or volunteers anywhere to be seen. you walk and walk and walk. then you think, "surely i've gone a mile by now?" but all the volunteers are hiding. they are avoiding you because they know this is a bad idea. and you begin to wonder if you are walking in the right direction. then you see the top of the hill. yay! top of the hill! we must be at the end! right? wrong! you keep walking, downhill now, fighting the panic that you've passed the finish line and now are walking for no reason... you ask folks sitting on porches and get cryptic replies such as "how far have you walked so far? 30 miles? well, you've got a ways to go yet..." then you spy another hill approaching. still, a suspicious lack of volunteers. so you suppress the tears, scrunch your toes, feel a blister pop, and then keep on trudging. because that's what you do. then! lo and behold! at the top of hill #2 you see a white volunteer t-shirt in the distance! without any fanfare, the volunteer says "you made it! just follow this street to the community center!" then she quickly looks away. you follow where she pointed, and see that it is ANOTHER DAMN HILL. a short one, yes, but still a hill.

like i said before, harpers ferry is just far too hilly.

5) moleskin is good. but arch supports might be better.

so a few weeks ago, i got some terrible blisters in a training hike. right on the heel. deep suckers, too. the newly hatched skin that was revealed by the healing blisters was very tender and pink, and i was afraid of getting more blisters in the same spot. so! i bought some moleskin and taped up the outsides of both heels, as well as the edges of my outter toes. man o man, is that stuff great. it felt like i was walking on pillows for about 20 miles. then my arches started falling and that hurt pretty goshdarned bad.

6) the Harpers Ferry G.A.S.

so as i was getting ready for the hike, i stumbled into some blogs written by veterans of the hike. one guy mentioned the Harpers Ferry G.A.S. - the Grimace and Shuffle - as a trademark of the community center where the hike finishes. and i couldn't have said it better. that's what everyone was doing. baring their clenched teeth in a snarl, while shuffling along with bowed legs and a bent back. usually accompanies by bursts of sounds like "oooch! eeeech! urg." the 100K folks were rolling into the finish line as well, and those dudes were in rough shape. dead eyes, slack mouths. some of them were laying around on the linoleum tile wrapped in blankets muttering "i can't walk, i can't walk" or just pretending to sleep until their rides arrived. the community center also provided vegetarian chili, pizza, salad and all sorts of goodies for a post-hike feast. after eating a bowl of the veggie (with approx. 27 kinds of beans) chili, i can say that there is a whole 'nother meaning to the Harpers Ferry G.A.S.

all in all the walk/hike was a great experience, and it felt sooo good to finish. and i probably have much more to say, but i can't think of anything else right now. it is now the 2nd day after, and i feel almost back to normal!

things on my mind. i haz them.

okay, so that lost post was a trickster. i wrote it a week or so ago, then got sidetracked and forgot to post it. it languished in my draft pile until today. y'all get a two-fer-one deal today! i was feeling bad for not posting lately - but not anymore, suckahs.

my boss has been out of town most of the week, and i have been riding the swinging pendulum between hyper-productive and eyes-glazed-over-lazy. i suspect it should average out to be a decent week once it is over, but man alive. there have been some highs and lows. on wednesday, i had a pile of suspicious looking papers to go through and some annoying work to do. but i couldn't make myself get started. i punked around in the internet for a bit, but that can only be entertaining for a limited amount of time. there came the point when i couldn't even think of anything diverting to look at online. so instead of getting down to brass tacks, i just kept refreshing my hotmail inbox until quittin' time. my brain hurt from the laziness of that afternoon. then yesterday, i worked my little fingers to the bone. i live to make my easy life hard. i can't win.

i think i am also learning a valuable lesson about makeup. i don't wear much. i cover up zits when i have them. i wear mascara most every day. and that's about it. but i happened to be at CVS the other day and decided to waste some money on some eyeshadow. because i wear eyeshadow so often. ? i liked the range of colors in the multipack, and most were pretty light. so what's the harm, eh? well, i wonder if there is a makeup manual out there that advises against shimmering eyeshadow over the age of 30. if there is not, then maybe there should be. or maybe i am just being too critical. but dang if the shimmery bits don't call attention to the elephant-hide-y texture of my aging eyelids and under eye area. i will probably continue to wear it, however, until i see a picture of myself on someone's flickr page looking like a aging country singer in las vegas. then i will stop wearing it. maybe.

so i am enjoying my last day of having pain-free movement in my legs. i tell you, it's a privilege that most people don't appreciate enough. i suppose it's not my last day forever, but it'll certainly be a while before i feel normal enough... because.... tomorrow is the Big Walk. the C&O Canal One Day Hike. there is a 50K option and a 100K option. scott and i (and julie and some others) are doing the 50K option. !! that's about 31 miles. and that's a lotta lotta walking. if you can't conceptualize how far that is, think about what is 30 miles from your house. maybe an airport? your grandma's house? a nearby city? now think about strapping on your shoes and walking there. it's pretty slow going and kind of painful towards the end.

i've been training for several weeks for the event. i started out walking 8 miles, then 13, then 17, then 20, then 21. that's as far as i got, and i am counting on being able to go those last 10 on the day of the event. i usually hit a wall around mile 20, which involves some pretty intense foot pain. but i have new shoes now and good blister protection so i am confident that i'll make it fine. scott has not been training, particularly. his longest walk has probably been 7 miles. and that involved stopping off at museums and strolling around the monuments. i am a bit worried about how tomorrow will unfold. i don't want him to get hurt. he assures me that he'll be fine, that it's no big deal. and i hope he is right, and that i have just been a big flabby wimp this whole time. i hope he can slam me with a big ole "i told you so!" but yikes. i'm sure we'll both finish all 31 miles, but it'll be a question of who ends up with blood squirting out of his or her shoes at the end and whose tendons atrophy so badly overnight that they can't get out of bed on sunday morning. only time will tell! :) so keep us in your thoughts on saturday. the 50K trail starts at Whites Ferry, MD and the walk ends in Harpers Ferry, WV. we bribed some friends to drive us out there in the morning, and another friend to come pick us up.

things i am worried about: getting rained on all day; being annoyed by my flappy, generic rain poncho; relapse of my horrifying blisters from a few weeks ago; the nerve in my right ass area that is prone to pinching and pain.

well that's all i can think of to write at the moment. i'm off to get a bunch of work done, then space out for a while, then work maniacally until 4:30. over and out.

the daily grind has taken me over.

THIS POST WAS ACTUALLY WRITTEN ON 4/16, BUT DUE TO TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES (read: total laziness) THE ACTUAL POSTING WAS DELAYED. APOLOGIES ALL AROUND.

well, i had planned a multi-part posting about the work that went into re-doing eric's apartment - but now that it is over and done with, i am over it. :) one of these days i will get around to putting up pictures of the before and after - but until that fine day, you'll just have to imagine the wonderland in your own minds.

so i have a ton of work to do in my office, but i was just down in the archives ripping apart cardboard boxes and filling dumpsters. that means i am dirty and dusty and disheveled and need a break. i also ran into the IT Guy on my way to the archives, and he said hello. and laughed as he walked away. which normally would be puzzling, but i know what he was laughing about. and it ain't pretty. i had almost forgotten about it, but how could the Fates let that happen? how?

jennifer and i went for a walk around the building grounds yesterday afternoon, to celebrate the fact that a) it was a gorgeous, crisp sunny day, and b) that we were finally free from the excruciating and time-wasting all-day training workshop to "learn" how to use the new microsoft 2007 word and excel. it's word, people. who the f@$k needs all day training?? so anyway. we were finally free. our IT folks were installing MS2007 on all our computers and mine was frozen in some endless loop of updates... so off on a walk we went.

as we wrapped up the walk, we started talking about some (god only knows what - i can't even remember now...) topic that may or may not have involved fatness, awkward situations, and possibly doctors' offices? as we walked down the hall back to our offices, it seemed relevant that i attempt to convey the spirit of this by using body language, hand gestures, loud sound effects along the lines of "bee-yore, bee-yore, bee-yore," a bit of dance, all cobbled together with some intelligent narrative such as "like, that graphic they always show on, like, news to show swirling fatness? like?" this dramatic interpretation took place just as we were walking into my office. in fact, i was so caught up in performing the necessary gyrations and arm flailing that i didn't even catch on at first... but as my final words of "...to show swirling fatness?" still hung in the stale office air, i turned to see the poor IT Guy sitting at my desk staring at us. i'm sure he said something witty, or even just something like "your updates are done, just log on and you'll be ready to go," but all i could hear was the hot white-noise of the blood rushing to my head. and the cackling laughter.

Apartment fantabulizing - The Telling, Part 1: gory details

okay. holey smokes. what a weekend. eric's apartment is done. done! well, almost. i have to go over tonight to hang a picture, mount a shelf, and deliver a cabinet. but...

jeezums. i worked my *ass* off, i'm sore, tired, smashed up a bit in places, melty-feeling in the head... but exhilarated too. it was a wonderful challenge, and require quick and creative thinking and wiley use of the wallet. but i got so much accomplished with a limited budget. it's odd to think $500 is a small budget. but it is! especially when applying that $500 to what amounts to 3 rooms/areas of someone's living space. especially when that someone has hardly any storage. but shelves cost money, especially when you are trying not to make the space look exactly like an IKEA catalog. it's easy to see something and say, "gee, that's only $79.99!" - but do that a couple of times and suddenly half your money is gone and you've only got a few things to show for it. it's shocking. but here's how the costs break down:

Terrapin Traders: $ 32.14
Home Depot: $ 29.38
IKEA: $ 406.57

Total: $ 468.09

I have to buy a few more anchors to hang stuff, and I'll ask eric if there is something that he wishes i would have gotten... then i'm done, man, done.

An itemized breakdown (i realize you probably don't care, but i am trying to preserve all this info in one place in case i want to come back to it future-wise):

Terrapin Traders: $32.14
One steel media cabinet on wheels
One solid wood bookshelf
One industrial magazine rack

Home Depot: $29.38
1 quart of black enamel
1 quart of Killz paint
3 foamy paintbrushes
sandpaper
carpet cleaner
1 small sheet of thin MDF, cut to specs

IKEA: $406.57
1 TV unit
1 tall skinny bookcase
1 tall wardrobe unit
2 kitchen shelves repurposed for closet racks
1 compact computer desk in a jazzy green/blue color
2 huge floating wall shelves
2 floating CD/DVD shelves in a froggy green
2 other CD/DVD shelves
2 metal rods for various reasons
3 magnetic strips
1 bathmat
2 packs of lightbulbs
1 metal shelving unit
2 roman shades
1 pack of screws
1 pack of hooks
1 pack of anchors
i think there is more, but i can't remember what...

Free from work:
Neat steel filing thingie that was being thrown out from the library. Perfect size for wii games, and other games, controllers, remotes
Plain cardboard magazine boxes that were being tossed by the Physics Today magazine peeps

Items from my own stash:
Fabric remnant from old curtains

no to shabby eh? now the tricky part. the time spent. I worked pretty much non-stop from 9:30am on Saturday until 9:30pm. that includes 2.5 hours spent buying stuff. and 9:00am until 9:00pm on sunday. and oddly enough, the time just whizzed by. courtney helped for a few hours on saturday (and i couldn't have done it without her. she and i carried 18 gazillion heavy-ass boxes to and from stores and cars and apartments. plus she has a big enough vehicle that i didn't need to rent a truck. and she helped me put together some of the trickier IKEA pieces) and ashby and courtney helped for a couple of hours on sunday. ashby was key in dealing with piles of clutter while i tackled big stuff. and she helped with artsy stuff like choosing things for walls and shelves. so about 20 hours of solid work. i did all the leg-work ahead of time - design plan, shopping plan, picked everything out from IKEA ahead of time, shopped at various stores for ideas.

it was the most fun. and hard work. but i can't wait to do it again! i've been taking notes, and keeping track of "holy shit! i didn't think of that!" moments. it should get easier.

Next up, Apartment fantabulizing - The Telling, Part 2: the fun stuff, explained.

i'm back!

okay, so i've been busy! i swear i have. i'm not sure what i was doing, but i'm sure it was something. something rewarding and worthwhile...

so the Bad Cat ate the tops off of most of my pepper seedlings last night. grrrr. i will assess the damage tonight after work, but judging from what i saw this morning... it ain't pretty. in the words of the wise and patient Miss Hannigan, "Kill, Kill, Kill!"

in cheerier news, i am redecorating eric's apartment this weekend!! wheeeeeeeeee! i absolutely cannot wait to get started. i've been itchin' to get my hands on his place for years now, but i never wanted to offend him by offering. but through a strange twist of events, he asked me! and gave me a $500 budget!! eric is going to be in NYC from friday evening until sunday late night, so i have to get it done over the weekend. i don't want to just clean up and organize - i want him to walk in on sunday night and simply fall to his knees. well, maybe not that dramatic... but still. i want some visual impact to say "this is a new place!"

now, i haven't watched a lifetime of HGTV and TLC makeover shows for nothing. i'm taking hints from the "pros" and trying to stretch my money to get the biggest bang for my buck. i am also blessed with good luck and creativity in space-management (is there such a thing?). but even this project was posing some problems that i could get past. eric has (hoards?) a multitude of media - VHS tapes, DVDs, film reels, obsolete gaming systems and cartridges, odd stuff. you name it and he probably has a small pile of it on the floor of his SMALL EFFICIENCY APARTMENT. and for those non-city-dwellers, that means a livingroom/bedroom, bathroom, a large closet, a hallway, and a separate kitchen. so better than a one-room studio, but still. not much room at all. and limited ways to rearrange the furniture, since the couch has to turn into a bed at night.

but today. oh, people. today i made a sublime discovery.

well, i suppose i made the discovery three years ago when someone told me about this place. and i suppose it wasn't exactly a discovery since tons of people already knew about this place. but oh, this place. it blew my mind.

TERRAPIN TRADERS. if you live anywhere near college park, MD, and if you are looking for filing cabinets, shelving, desks, couches, chairs, display cabinets, clocks, racks, TVs, old media and laboratory equipment... THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU. and e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y cheap. as in, "are you serious?" el-cheapo. and especially if you are partial to mid-century industrial and office furniture like i am. if you've ever contemplated stealing a chrome-and-teal chair combo from a waiting room in the bowels of a state university... or if you actually *liked* your dorm furniture... boy, are you in luck. i picked up a nicely shaped solid "wood" shelf mounted on jazzy triangular legs for $7.00. it's banged up, but i plan on painting it black so no matter. AND. this uber-cool short metal cabinet on casters, with two front doors that close over some shelves inside for only $25.00! the top is scratchy looking with one dent, but i plan to put an upholstered cushion on top for additional seating so that doesn't matter. and magically, the total rang up to be $27.60? there must be a sale on or something. so those are two less things that i have to buy at IKEA. i had been planning to buy two similar items at IKEA, white particle board with no visual interest, and for about $150. !!! so that frees up another $125 for buying other stuff. woot!

while walking home from the dentist yesterday, i decided to take a detour down U Street to check out this furniture store called millenium decorative arts, which sells mid-century/danish modern-ish furniture. old stuff, no repros, and most of it is gently used which means less money. i wanted to find something nice, to jazz up the rest of the IKEA stuff. well, i got there and the durn place was closed! they've changed their hours and are now only open from friday to sunday. so i stood there, kinda miffed, staring at the door... when a pile of scrumbly furniture caught my eye. looks like millenium was getting rid of stuff! most was a pile of broken shelves from some kind of larger unit, but right beside my foot was this cool wall-mounting desk with 2 drawers. solid maple! the bottom of one drawer was stained on the inside from what looks to be spilled fountain ink.... but that's the inside of one drawer. who gives a flip! not me. so i picked it right up and walked home with it. and it was heavy.

either i'll use it in eric's place, or i'll keep it and use it somewhere at home someday. it was too nice to just leave there.

and speaking of the dentist, have you ever had your top teeth filled? i had a small cavity yesterday in one of my top front/side teeth, and the novocaine numbed my entire lower face - including my entire nose! i nearly had a freakout/asthma attack because it felt like i couldn't breathe. then i walked around drooling for a few hours. and now my jaw hurts.

pity me, because i deserve it.