Date: 2009-12-08
To: Why she insists on editing my journal...
Miles today: 0.0

Assuming you've read the previous entry from Break-a-leg, my AT '05 hiker friend and editor extraordinare, you'll know that some kind of response from me is called for. Or maybe not, but I think it's important to just kind of set the record straight about a few of the things she mentioned. Ok first, that spelling thing. I will absolutely conceed that spelling is not my fortay. Frankly, it's just not one of those things that ever made it to my "A" list. While I freely admit to being "spelling challenged" and, yeah, ok, maybe a little "quotation mark challenged" as well, I like to think of that as simply one of those endearing little "ideosyncracies" that all of us intrepid hiker guys are entitled to. Or rather, "to which we are entitled", just so she doesn't accuse me of "ending a sentence with a proposition". Ok, I might also be a little bit "puntuation challenged", too, in that I can never remember whether the period goes inside or outside the quotation marks. But I don't really think that makes me "a BAD PERSON.".She also asked to be reminded of why it is she is continuing to edit my journal, for the second year in a row. The fact is, there are an untold numbers of possibilities -- some of which, assembled eyes, I suspect you may have already guessed. Like, for example, she's sitting out there in Iowa, in the middle of a corn field, trying to come up with ideas she can write about as part of her Master's Degree in writing. And here I AM, feeding her a constant flow of absolutely fascinating details of REAL LIFE stories of my epic journey along the AT -- like what I had for breakfast that day, what time I left camp, and how many miles I hiked. You can't BUY that kind of inspiration and excitement! So that's one.And, let's see...Oh yeah, she's going to come to Trail Days in Damascus again this year, and that will allow her to bask in the reflected glory of her "number one hero" -- that, of course, being MOI! She is, after all, the unindicted head of my fan club, which is an amazing honor, I know, but I think she is probably deserving of it. I had thought last year that she was going to do the right thing and come up with a tee-shirt design appropriate for my fan club members, but it seems she forgot. In desperation, the best she could come up with was the one she stole from Governor Mark Sanford's wife: "I'm with stupid". I guess it sort of had an AT connection, but I didn't think it was all that imaginative.   Ok, that's two.And finally, since I'm actually a bit rushed for time here, let me just suggest the REAL reason that I think she begged me to allow her to edit my journal again this year -- and the reason I felt I just HAD to turn down all of the other aspiring journal editors who were pleading with me to let THEM do it:I think she does it because she is secretly maddily in love with me, and just doesn't want to admit it to herself. Which, frankly, is also kind of awkward, since she and my wife seem to have become the best of friends since they first met in '05, not to mention that fact that nothing will ever come of her inflatuation with me. Still, it's probably best if we don't tell my wife about this. Let's just keep it Break's and my little secret, shall we? Carry on, Deer. Edit away!P.S. The more perceptive of you, dear readers -- which obviously doesn't yet include my esteamed editor -- will undoubted have noticed that I actually mis-spell SOME words on purpose. It's one of those sort of literary devices that allows me simultaneously to enhance the humorous aspects of my journal while providing meaningful employment for my corn-field-bound editor. Pretty cleaver, eh?