Date: 2009-10-17
To: 1 Year 9 Day Anniversary Update
Miles today: 0.0

Hey everyone! Not sure if anyone still checks on this journal or not, but I thought I¢d throw a 1 year and 9 day anniversary update up here nonetheless. So what¢s been going on in Certain¢s world for the past year you ask? Well¢¦plenty actually. Last entry was sharing that I was about to start my new job. Obviously I did, and I TOTALLY love it! I have never ever ever in all of woman-kind¢s history been able to say that I completely love my job. Let¢s just say I¢m serving my community as an advocate, fighting to create social change in an area that affects every single one of us (men, women, children, elderly and everyone in between). Pretty much what I had been saying I wanted all along. I have amazing co-workers and it feels so good to wake up in the morning and go be part of something that is way way bigger than yourself. Of course it¢s stressful at times, but what good things in life aren¢t?Incessant and I made it out for a weekend on the AT. It was awesome, until we got back to the car and someone had broken out the driver¢s side glass. Yup¢¦this was at Rockfish Gap, so beware folks. The park ranger found it at some point in the weekend, left his card in the seat and was nice enough to actually tape a plastic bag over the window for us. Nothing of real value was in the car, except maybe the CD player, but the only thing they took was the stupid coin drawer with maybe $5.00 of quarters in it. Oh, and they took 20 of the 21 CD¢s that had ¢The Narnian¢ a book on CD about C.S. Lewis. Hope they didn¢t really want to hear the end since they left the last CD in the car!   They didn¢t even TAKE the CD player! Duh¢¦..sort of makes me think they belong on that show, World¢s Dumbest Thieves. So it could have been worse for sure. Anyway, the weekend of backpacking/hammock camping was awesome¢¦we were the only ones at this location and we had the best time in the world out there. It always feels like coming home to me. I was amazed at how much my feet hurt after a mere 5 miles though. Man¢¦you lose it REALLY fast don¢t ya?Other huge news (for me anyway) is that 1 day before my summit anniversary, I rode home on my first Harley Davidson Motorcycle!!! I¢m sure you all remember me slobbering over these things¢¦I¢ve wanted one for 30 years, and I finally got one. It¢s a 2008 Sportster Nightster 1200. Of course all decked out with custom skull accessories and high performance exhaust/air cleaner that makes it a bit louder than stock. I¢m really popular with my neighbors right now!   Hey¢¦any excuse to wear all leather right? ? Leather saddlebags are soon to be added, as soon as I get the mounting hardware. I realized that going for rides gives me that same sense of freedom that I had while hiking through the woods by myself. It¢s a total sensory experience, smells¢¦sounds¢¦bugs splatting on your face and even a leaf falling from a tree that hit my nose going 55 mph that I thought cut me because it hurt so badly! LOLOk, enough about the Harley¢¦I could go on forever. Incessant is just happy that I have found yet another reason for us to HAVE to buy GEAR!!! GEAR GEAR GEAR!!! On a totally different note, this past year also brought some hardships. My mom was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. She had surgery (lumpectomy and some lymphnodes were removed) and chose radiation only. It has not spread into her body, so she didn¢t want to put herself through chemo. I totally respect her wishes of course. Our bodies are truly the only ¢things¢ we have total authority over (or should anyways), but even that is something taken away from some people. She completed her radiation a few weeks ago and now we¢re just waiting until she can get scanned again to see where she¢s at. Any healing positive thoughts you could send her way would be greatly appreciated. In honor of my mom and on a funny note, Incessant and I participated in a race here in our town that has been happening for 18 years to raise $ for breast cancer. There were almost 3000 women in this race! We lined up and scoped out 2 other women we felt certain we could use as pacers and I¢ll be honest¢¦we were 100% sure we could beat (neither of us are runners by the way). Well, the race was 4 miles long and we passed them¢¦then they passed us, then we¢d go up a hill and pass them, and they¢d go down a hill and they¢d pass us. It went on like this until the last curve where you have to go down a steep hill, turn around and run back up where you have 1 final mile. They passed us going down and we never saw them again! They BEAT us! Now, you¢re all probably wondering what the big deal is right? Well, the 2 women we chose to use as ¢pacers¢ was a woman in a wheel chair being PUSHED by another woman!!   Serves us right huh? In our defense, I did stop for a few minutes to grab a sign that had my mom¢s name on it so that I could run the last mile with it, but honestly, they were ahead of us by that point. We are still laughing about this by the way. Other exciting thing is that Incessant and I are flying up to Maine for Thanksgiving and spending it with Auntie Mame & V8!! We¢re SO FREAKIN excited! And it was also amazing to hang out with Persistent, VigilAunti & Y, and tons of other people at trail days. I¢ve really missed Persistent¢s sarcasm and eye-rolling (she¢s still not a hanger, but I snuck a hammock bumper sticker on her car for a while before she found it and ripped it off in disgust. Some people are just slower than others I guess). I suppose that¢s about all for now. I¢ve had a few folks email me asking if I was blogging somewhere else like facebook. Nope¢¦I tried and quite frankly, I think I journal¢d myself out with this thing, so I prefer to post the occasional update. I¢m always open to emails from folks though and my contact email is still posted on the ¢About¢ page of this journal. I hope you are all doing wonderfully and that you enjoyed reading some of this season¢s journals. Take care now, I miss my cyber-hiking-family.~Certain