Have I mentioned that it's hot? I want snow.

I think I have heat exhaustion. Or just exhaustion in general plus a sunburn and mild dehydration.

Tried to hike another 14er on Friday. It was not a day for it. The hike wasn't particularly hard or long, but we weren't feeling it. Still hiked about 9 miles that day though. In the sun. I got very sunburned.

Then I went to the Renaissance Festival. And was in the sun for even more hours. And I may have been drinking.

So anyway, I feel ill and I can't cool down (mostly because it's 9 pm and 85 degrees). And my sunburnt scalp hurts heaps.

I know I shouldn't complain about the heat, but I do. And I'm going to work tomorrow because there is A/C in most places.

And this week I am packing all my shit up and moving it two and a half blocks away.

Then I'm going to Montana.

Flash Fiction

I wrote a piece of flash fiction for a contest my friend began.

The Peak

It wasn't that it was actually difficult. It just took time. So much time. One foot in front of the other. The trail went on forever, a steady, winding incline bordered by jagged rocks and sparse alpine flora.

Their breath was ragged, not due to effort, but because the air was so thin this high in elevation. Kal stopped to breathe. "You know, they say we're going to die soonest because of the elevation. We get more radiation than people at sea level."

"But we have so many other good things going for us. This is the healthiest state." Dani replied, taking a sip of water from her CamelBak. "No earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes or tornadoes either."

"Yeah, only flash floods and wildfires." Kal agreed, and started forward again.

Their pace was slow but steady. Behind them, the grays and browns of the trail and rocks gave way to dark evergreens interspersed with lighter aspen stands; ahead, only stunning blue sky above the never-ending trail.

They had begun at sunrise, watching the new day touch the peak in golden alpenglow. Down below timber line the hike was actually easy and they had made good time. It wasn't until they left the relative protection of 12,00 feet that the thin air slowed them down. But they were used to this; they'd been hiking peaks all over the state.

Kal glanced at his watched as he trudged. "We'll summit by noon for sure. Not a cloud in the sky."

Dani only nodded, saving her breath for the climb.

The view didn’t change much above 12,000 ft., just more rocks and small tundra flowers. Some pikas yelled at them as they passed through a field of strewn rocks.

"Looks like a bomb went off." Kal chuckled.

They summited just before noon as Kal predicted. As they topped the last rise, the world opened up around them. Dani sat and ate a sandwich while admiring the views. Below them on every side were the broken rocks of the peak. Further out, other mountains rose above tree line, vying for the highest point. They could see the tallest to the west. It was roiling with dark clouds.

"Looks like Elbert is making some weather."  

"It looks really dark, will it come this way? Should we head down now?"

"It's not the end of the world. Just a little storm." But as he said it, Elbert grumbled and woke from its dormant state.

Okay, so back to that whole self-control thing. You know, the thing I don't have. I think that after hiking a 14er I should reward myself with cookies. Lots of them. It's a bad decision. I negate my workout and also make myself ill. I'll blame the heat a bit for that as well. But really. I need to cease all sugar related activities. Or at least limit them far more than every before.

I want to do parkour. But I still haven't found a decent place or time. And it's certainly far too hot.

Autumn. Come quickly.

It is so. hot. I have always disliked summer. For the last several years I've lived and worked with air conditioning. My boyfriend's house is not so blessed. And that's where I'm moving next month.

Now, I am certainly not complaining. We all but live together anyhow, it'll just be more convenient to actually have the same address. And I really do like the apartment. And the rent is still decent. But the a/c is the small type that only cools one room (the living room in this case), and it costs heaps to run. And so we sweat. But there's only another month or so left of this heat.

I yearn for blessed autumn. With its vibrant colors and cool breezes.

Summited Quandary Peak on Friday. 14,265 ft. It wasn't terribly hard. Certainly a different experience taking a dog along. We brought Liam's sister's dog. He doesn't really know how to walk on a leash. Or in public. Or whatever. But it was nice. My Chacos hurt my feet on the way down. A whole lot. I'm getting too used to my minimal shoes. So Chacos and I are on a break. Indefinitely. I hope my Unshoes come soon.

also, Liam and I started a 14ers tumblr. Check it out: fyeah14ers.tumblr.com

On Pus

It's hard to relay this story in written form. The topic is pus (as I mentioned earlier).  Beware.

When we see animals in need of medical attention, we write up a short note about them in our computer program to let everyone know what the problem is.

At a staff meeting it was brought to our attention that someone had incorrectly used the word pus. Actually, they'd made up a word. Pus-y. But they spelled it 'pussy'. The sentence was this: "this cat has pussy discharge." Um. Gross. Not only is that not a word as it was intended, but occasionally these notes can be subpoenaed if needed in certain cases. That would be fun to explain to a court.

The grossness of work

Warning: some rather gross details to follow.

My job is pretty messy. I mean, I work with animals. I am constantly assaulted by all sorts of smells coming from all orifices of a variety of animals. I can deal with it though. I guess I've got a talent for breathing through my mouth. I wear boots and gloves to protect me from the worst of it. I've got all sorts of tools to use while cleaning kennels.

However, during my euthanasia shifts, things are often a different story. Firstly, death is not clean even though we aim to make it as painless as possible. Animals (and humans I'm sure) usually urinate and/or defecate when the systems shut down. But as I said, I can deal with that. The thing is, old animals tend to smell. Often it's because they've defecated, urinated or vomited on themselves. But also their fur tends to smell because they are generally unable to groom themselves well. And then there are the ones with cancerous lumps. Occasionally, those tumors ooze. That combination of smells just doesn't wash off easily. I've had it haunt me all day and deter me from dinner because of its tenacity. It was from an old dog who had many tumors, most of which had ruptured. She was actually dripping bloody pus (not the other way around, I'll touch on pus in another post.) But besides the disinclination to eat, none of these things make me physically ill. Not even the simple fact that I hold animals as they are injected with a fatal mixture.

There have been two really horrible incidents though. And I'm not sure if I should share them. Or even if I'm allowed. Just writing this much has eased some of my pent up tension.

I wish I knew how to have some self control. I need to eat better. When I get hungry I go into a sort of feeding frenzy and head straight for the vending machines. And I don't get just one thing, usually 2 or 3. Guh. And I need to do some sort conditioning every day. Ten push ups, 5 pull ups. A jog around the block. A swim that's actually a swim and not a splash around in the pool. Something. Anything. I just have a hard time actually doing it.

And I need to write. And I've realized that my charge up for writing is reading. So I need to read more than just on my breaks at work. I need to read at home instead of dinking around on tumblr and facebook.I'm not going to set a goal or anything, I just want to write. Fiction. Poetry. Tales from work. Anything.

Keep me to it?

I just watched the movie Perfect Sense. It's an independent film, I only knew of it because Ewan McGregor is in it, and I tend to watch all of his films.

It was really neat. A different twist on a sort of end-of-the-world theme. Some dreadful infection is taking away people's senses one by one. Each sense leaves with a different indicator. It was really cool to see how they portrayed life going on. Love still remained.

Some parts were very strange because of the lack of senses, but that was the point. It was extremely well done and left me with a sort of melancholy, but not really the bad sort, just the thoughtful sort.

I may need to own this film.

(sidenote: my movie reviews blog is defunct. I will be using this one primarily.)

I've been in a sort of blah mood. Trying to find a new job. Having a hard time finding something I can do that also pays about as much as I'm making currently. Trying to find something I actually want to do. Something that's fulfilling. I'm struggling because I still shudder at the idea of going back to school, but a Master's degree would help me immensely. Another option is to find a nice grant writing course somewhere. I think I'd be decent at that. I like to write and I feel that I'm good with words. I know how to research. I just don't have the experience to jump into it. So now I must decide if I want to spend something like $500 to take a workshop. Such decisions make me want to just sleep for a few years.