Date: 2009-07-26
From: Manchester, VT

To: Manchester, VT
Miles today: 0.0

When we arrived at the house, Jeff took me for a tour and brought me up to my room, which I was to share with two older southbound men. Mr. Pink came out of his room at the same time and didn¢t so much as blink when he saw me. He just muttered something to Jeff about me taking a zero day for sure the following day (even though he had not talked to me since Dalton and knew nothing about my ankle!). After I put my things on one of the beds and watched Ringmaster's trick (he was delighted at my squealing reaction before he had even released the ring), I knocked on Mr. Pink¢s door and asked him if we could have a little chit-chat after I took my shower. Confrontation time! I was so happy to find both shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom (and blackberry tea sage, at that- fun!). I put on my new outfit (lost on blind eyes), and went downstairs to get a bag of ice to ice my ankle. ¢What do you want to talk about?¢ Mr. Pink said after we made a little small talk. I told him I had questions. He wouldn¢t answer the bigger questions, so I asked him if the story he told about his (supposed) ex-fiancee was true. He immediately pulled out his cellphone and asked if I wanted to speak to another person about it. I told him, no, that I wanted to talk to him, that I was not accusing him of anything, just asking. I told him some of the things I had recently heard about him, all of which he denied. He said that he was not interested in dating anyone, and that if people thought that about him, he would try hiking alone or with other guys for awhile. Although, he gave no explanation of his behavior towards me, I accepted his claims and thanked him. He said he was going to the bathroom and would return shortly. He did not return. Instead, he went downstairs to pop in a movie.      Although he was not treating me decently, for some reason, I felt more comfortable staying in his room than in the room with the southbounders. He spent most of the night on the internet, looking at people¢s trail journals and whiteblaze. I asked him if he had read mine, to which he responded "no". I felt a bit hurt about this. At one point, I asked him why he never asked me anything about myself, to which he replied, "I don't think you like talking about yourself." (End of discussion) I didn't get it...    In the morning hours, he would become increasingly rude to me. He refused to give me a hug goodbye, and accused me of not hiking the trail for the right reasons. ??? He never even asked me why I was out here! He said that because I was following the white blazes, that I was not out here for nature like he was, and told me that I was not enjoying myself. I was so confused. His words made no sense, and there was nothing I could say to make him think otherwise. Erik was upset that this guy was taking my emotional energy away from me- that I should be putting it all towards hiking.    Mr. Pink continued to ignore me at breakfast and my energy built up inside, resulting in great amounts of frustration. He said again that there was no need to say goodbye to me- that he¢d ¢see me in a few days.¢ He had absolutely no concern for my ankle or more importantly for me as a person, at all.    I packed up my things, still not sure if I should take a zero, or head out to the trail in the afternoon. I had to go back into town to ship my old clothes and my umbrella, which I was now finally ready to give up, back to Erik. I had lunch at the bookstore caf© and perused the store for awhile. When I was ready to go back, Jeff happened to be close by after picking up another hiker (Feels Like Today). I returned to my room and took a nice, long nap, which felt great! Freefall and Johnny Thunder had also joined the group (I knew I would see them again) and they felt bad about my ankle. Freefall was really nice and gave me a bunch of ibuprofen, as I was running low. I got to taste the hot cake that they had also made in Dalton (but I did not get to try). I iced my ankle, wrote a little, listened to some music, and got to sleep in my own room!