What a Day!

Today I climbed a mountain and watched the Huskies defeat Oklahoma in the final four innings of the second game, which means they've advanced to the World Series in OKC next week. Whew!

I dragged myself out of bed at twenty after six this morning so I could get to work early and leave early for a meeting with three other recruits. No recruiters were involved: everyone is off for the Memorial Day weekend, but we wanted to PT anyway. When I looked outside in the morning, I was disheartened and didn't know if I wanted to follow through on my promise to come. It was solid gray and drearily wet. I also wanted a couple eggs this morning, but got out of the sack too late to do anything like that. So I munched on Nature Valley "Oats & Honey" bars that I picked up yesterday after Jazzercise instead (I used to eat them all the time back in college).

I caught up on busy-work during all four hours of work and then promptly headed off to join up with people in Bellevue. I drove all four of us past Issaquah to Tiger Mountain. It was seriously wet out. I laced up my GI boots from ROTC. I almost didn't use them because I thought they might look silly with the workout pants I was wearing, but I suddenly realized that I didn't care what I looked like. It was just black boots with black pants after all. And they ended up saving my life on the trail (my feet's life). They really are marvelous for hiking up and down mountains. Great ankle support, and although my feet were drenched from sweat, they were relatively comfortable in the broken-in leather.

Goodness, gracious! was it a difficult hike! Three miles up and three miles down in the pouring rain. The trees provided shelter for the first bit, but by the time we were getting to the top we were hiking in a small creek. My thin pants were sopped and sticking to my legs and I had long since opened my outer shell to ventilate... and my sweatshirt didn't stay dry. What didn't get wet from the rain got soaked with sweat. It was really hard to keep going up some inclines, but I didn't stop. I only took a drink after Bradley reminded me to, and he stayed with me most of the time. The last half-mile was a killer. I was ready to be done. I stopped for a second or two twice, I think, just because my legs could hardly move. But I used little bursts of energy to keep me going. It's amazing what we can do if we decide to. I almost decided not to. :) At the top of the mountain (2,5oo feet) all we could see was the mist being blown by the wind right at us. On a clear day you can see the city and valley, I hear. Oh, well! It really was about getting there. We shared some string cheese and I ate some more Oats & Honey bars.

I was worried about coming down since my knees can get rather sensitive about all that pounding on them... but I did some side-stepping and jogging to make it easier on them and they came down just fine.

When I got home I had the most wonderful shower in the *world* and then a little snack... zucchini and grapes and a small taco. And then I got my pajama pants back on and slept for two and a half hours. When I woke up, the Huskies were just finishing the first softball game, winning 3-0. And then they announced the next one would start in a half-hour at 8:30. Yikes! I've played some double-headers in my past, but I always thought it was a little too much for one day. Danielle Lawrie pitched both games and struck out around 15 batters in the *second* game. Whoa! So as I sat listening to it, I decided I'd like to go to at least some of the second... so I did. I drove over to the U, found a free parking spot (because it's the weekend), walked a half-mile to the stadium and saw if I could get a ticket. They were still selling standing room only, so I got one of those for $3 and went in. I stayed on the 1st base side for a while, but then realized I could get the whole view from the outfield. And that was much nicer. And they won again, 4-0! I saw the final four innings and lots of exhilarating, nail-biting moments. So neat!

What a day. And tomorrow promises to be fun as well!

Jp