Validation

I've recently discovered I've been developing some alarming, adult-like behaviors.  These new habits include:

• preference for fleece jackets over hoodies
• voluntarily going to work at 5:30 am and working 50+ hours a week
• buying my own car insurance
• buying a car (not a truck)
• resolving issues with billing folks over the phone, immediately
• skipping a super awesome trip to Costa Rica because I need to save up for it

Perhaps worst of all, this morning when my alarm went off I almost didn't press snooze because I actually thought "You won't actually get any more sleep in the next five minutes."  Who thinks things like that?1?!  These things all seem like they're making me more boring, and one of my few life goals is to be interesting.  So I'm in need of a little validation.  I'm still having adventures, right?  Turns out I've done a few interesting things in the past couple months, all with Brent, and there's pictures, so I'll share them here.

High Creek Lake Backpacking Adventure

I used my tax return to buy some back packing gear, and then didn't go backpacking until September.  But now my stuff has been used, so it's totally legit.

 We didn't leave until 3:00 in the afternoon, but made it up to Mount Naomi in good time.  

 And we made it to High Creek Lake in time to make dinner and enjoy the sunset.  

 The lake was beautiful the next morning (ok, we didn't get out of the tent until noon, but it was not the afternoon yet....)

 And there were these things in the water (someone suggested they may be skud, I can't verify that).  

And there were salamanders!  Especially great because I'd seen a lot of dead salamanders at a field site the week before.    

City of Rocks Climbing Adventure

The next month, after car troubles, a marathon, busy schedules and some fall weather, Brent and I finally made it to City of Rocks.  City of Rocks is a state park full of granite monoliths that used to be a landmark for emmigrants on their way to California.  Now its a great place to climb.  

Some of these rocks are 2.5 billion years old (some of the oldest rocks in the West), but most of it is 28 million years old, a geologic feature called the Almo Pluton.  The Almo Pluton is formed when cooling magma intruded into older rock. 

 The complex cracks in the granite (known as joints) formed through the processes of contraction, extensional tectonics, and expansion due to weathering.  These cracks are super cool to climb, I wish I was better at it. 

There are lots of sweet lichens growing on the rocks.  Lichens are symbiotic organisms, a combination of a fungus and algae.  If that's not rad enough, they also are capable weathering away the granite.  Rad!

 It was pretty great climbing.  Brent is certainly much better at it than me, but is good enough to let me follow (and occasionally flail) behind him.  He also indulges me in pictures at belay stations.  

 I think this picture captures just how little I bring to the table.  But it's super cool at the top of these monoliths, they're full of panholes, weathered depressions.

We've pretty much mastered the simul-rap, which is difficult capture in pictures while descending.  

Mountain Biking

As the season was winding down Brent and I went on a brief mountain biking excursion.

  It was a pretty beautiful afternoon, 

 and mountain biking is totally cool on a full suspension bike.

 And Brent's beard was looking particularly wonderful in the afternoon light.

Wind Caves Adventure

I thought the adventure season was over after biking, it got pretty cold after that, but we still managed to fit one more hike in.  

The Wind Caves are a pretty standard standard Logan hike, and the views are great, especially given the half hour of easy hiking it takes to get there.

 The Wind Caves are caverns eroded by the wind.  I should know more about them, but...

 Anyways, it was a nice hike.  And served as some validation that I still do fun things.  And I have high hopes the winter will continue to be great!

I have an issue with Yam.

I'm currently having an issue.  Well, not currently.  It's been an issue for more than a year now.  And it is a person (of course it's not you), I'll call them Yam.  And I have to be cryptic about the issue, because it's not cool to bash people on the internets, especially a public internet space like this (but it's totally legit to bash yams).  This leaves me little options for venting, which leads me to believe I should simply get over it, focus on the positive people in my life.  After all, there is an end in sight!

As it stands, every time I communicate with Yam I feel my blood pressure rise and my face flush immediately. 7 times out of 10 I actually cry.  When I mull over it too much I start to feel my stomach roil (in part because I immediately seek a large soda).  And I've found myself exhibiting two really terrible behaviors because of this situation.  First, I can't think of anything good to say about Yam, but instead of staying quiet I complain about everything this person has done.  EVERYTHING.  Things that have no bearing on me.  This is awful.  Second, and perhaps even worse, I loose all sense of life perspective.  My life is actually pretty good, but it the midst of my mental rants (or vocal rants) I forget that I really like my job(s) and boss(es), that I've got a super boyfriend that I really like to be around, that my family is dang rad, and that I've got friends who make me happy.  It just seems ridiculous to be so irritated when I've got so much going for me.

Then today I had an awful realization that I've felt like this before.  Years ago I had this exboyfriend/friend, let's call him Cockatoo, that was kind of poisoning my life.  Well, I was letting him, in part because I felt like I needed him.  This lead me feeling victimized pretty much all the time, super lame.  It took years to realize what was happening, and it was pretty difficult to exclude Cockatoo from my life, but absolutely worthwhile.  So now I'm left trying to figure out how to exclude Yam from my life.  Unfortunately, I literally cannot do so immediately, there's work to be done.  I keep hoping that my desire to be done with this relationship will motivate me to work harder, but it mostly just irritates me.  So, any suggestions on how to deal with this?

Maybe I've just figured it all out, because I feel much better now.   Perhaps discussing the negative people in my life in terms of gross vegetables was the funny thing I've been needing all day.  Anyways, more positive posts to come soon (I swear, I really am trying to bring my blog back from the brink, but I'm busy...)