Hiking, bakpacking and camping

I appreciate manicured nails, Cosmo mags, little black dresses and other stereotypically girly things, but more than anything else, I find so much peace and become quite centered in the untamed, pristine woods, grasslands, or mountains. I love being surrounded by something so much larger and grander than perception allows me to grasp. Being out where there is little if any evidence of human alteration is what really resets me and makes everything in life come into a clear, crisp focus. I hate to sound snobbish, but I think I enjoy camping for a completely different set of reasons than most people do. To me it is not just a time to take the RV, TV, beer and chairs to the outdoors and create an outdoor house. While that can be fun with family and friends, true camping to me is the most sensitive spiritual experience to be had. When you leave behind all the non-essentials, take only the bare minimum, go into the woods without a plan of where you will end up, and have the intent of being intimate with the Earth itself, that is when spiritual things will happen. I don't want to sound all new-age hoity-toity, but it is how I like to experience nature.
Hiking is also great with select others. I sound like such a selective snob! But when hiking, it is of utmost importance to me that whomever I am hiking with also understands the deep meaning of each tree, every stone, and can appreciate the beauty of the natural world sprawling before us and walk upon the land with intent and reverence.
I guess to me, pristine nature is like a temple or church. So when i see people disrespecting nature; littering, ruining flora for no purposeful reason, taunting fauna, and acing like they own th land; it is analogous to a devoted Christian seeing their church, with all the symbols of Christ and God, in flames with bystanders pointing and giggling at the smoke.
To me the outdoors are not to be tamed or conquered. Whoever tries is like Don Quiote jousting with the windmills. Nature is to be cherished, we are the stewards of the land, not the owners.
This summer I plan on taking as many camping, hiking and backpacking trips around the pacific northwest as I can between work and a few summer courses. So if you have a true reverence for nature and want to go on some outdoor adventures with nature and myself, let me know, good camping company is hard to come by!

Collections

Over the years I have had many odd collections. Breyers were huge for ages (and I still cannot part with a few of them, actually), and there were pound puppies, of course. Then there were lizards (sand-filled, hand-made from beads, and plastic) and pogs. Oh man, I wish pogs were still around! Those were super fun. I remember playing pogs with my sister and her friend, Sara and then going out to jump on the trampoline. Enough on that tangent!
More recently I began a marble collection. They are fascinating to me and I really like the vintage-y feel of them. And my most recent collection is.............FUNKY VINTAGE WINE GLASSES! I don't know if it's truly a collection yet, as I only have one so far. But I am hoping to get a good collection, no two the same, so at my future fun parties, everyone will know whose glass is whose. I am just enamored by the sophistication of some of the old wine glasses I see in antique shoppes and think thy are so unique. Plus, I like how when you flick really good quality crystal, it resonates so crisply. So, that is my new collection in case you were wondering.

What an odd day it was.

Some days looks can get you a lot. I usually don't consider myself very attractive, I'm sort of awkward, not stereotypically beautiful. But today I felt really good about myself, really confident with my personality and felt like I could conquer anything that came up. So, that confidence must have had some sort of a radiant effect, I don't recall opening any doors for myself (except at my apartment), I was offered a cut in the line at the bank by a gentleman in front of me, and then came the video store. I had a gift certificate there I needed to use, so I went in and asked if they had a certain movie for sale and I was just overlooking it. They did not have one for sale, but the clerk pulled one out of circulation for me, then said to go pick out four more movies and he'd only charge me for two! Looking back, I really should have said no, but I am poor, and enjoy movies, so I accepted the offer. I don't know if it's just coincidence or if my being confident really had that much impact on how others treated me, but it was an exceptional day!

Long TIme, no Blog!

I have gotten some complaints about my lack of blog activity, so for all you whiners, here is a random blog! I hope you all are happy.
I don't really know what to write about, so I will do a list of random things that make me giddy, happy, exhillirated, or the like:

• bubble wrap
• jeans that actually fit and are long enough
• freshly plucked eyebrows
• the smell of campfires
• big, open fields surrounded by forests
• track jackets
• rich humic soils
• peeling oranges in one peel
• steel drums
• music by Bob Marley and the Wailers
• music by Hootie and the Blowfish
• music by Dave Mathews Band
• music in general
• wildflowers
• the smell and taste of coconut
• driving with friends when it's sunny out
• aviator sunglasses
• chunky, tribal-esque bracelets
• little black dresses
• the magic bullet blender
• north face jackets
• hiking
• the smell of fresh cut hay, especially fescue or alfalfa
• bucking hay
• getting done at the barn in the summer just as the sun is setting
• hammocks
• laying down with sleeping horses
• examining the exquisite musculature of horses
• clavicles
  
• tee-shirts and scarves
• knee-high boots and elbow length gloves
• smiling strangers
• swings
• long philosophical chats
• yerba mate
  

This list could go on and on and on, but alas, I will save some more for a part two!