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#159 - labor day weekend
September 03, 2001 @ 12:53 pm

Hello Scoobies! Sorry it's been awhile since I've updated, but I haven't really had much to say. Been having an awfully good weekend though!

I've spent most of the time writing new pages for my personal website. Sorry you guys won't get to benefit from that, but it's fun for me. I really do enjoy html. I've been thinking of posting a note that if anyone wants me to redo their site, I'd be more than happy to take a crack at it. But it would be something really simple like mine. Hmm, guess I just posted that note, huh? If anyone's still using a D-land template and wants to try something different, drop me a line & we can talk about it.

Anyway, Friday was spent at home, just working on HTML. There was a late night outing for junk food, which was largely disappointing. We even went to 7-11 to try these damn Bakery Stix that Ursa is always raving about, but the ones they had looked damn scarey, so we bailed on that idea!

Saturday Sweetie was working on his resume, so in between coding I was helping him proof his resume & adjust the template. Then we went Downtown to print his resume on a good printer (at his work), and I am still obsessed with Indian food. We were going to try the place next to his work that has a lunch buffet, but that closed like 15 minutes after we arrived, so we didn't bother. Instead we went up to his office, printed stuff, then he talked me into trying out the Westlake Mall's food court. He said there was an Indian place there that he'd never tried, but had heard it was good.

And it was good. Kinda good. It wasn't spectacular, but it was yummie and filling and there was ALOT of it. Then we went back home & I did my html some more. At some point I watched "The Adventures of Sebastian Cole" on cable. It was kind of a weird movie, but I knew this because it had been a movie at SIFF a year or so back that I had wanted to see & missed. I didn't expect it to be quite as boring as it was, but some of the transitions jumped in time without explaining much, so I think maybe it's based on a book. Another intrigueing book that I'll never get around to reading! The best thing about the film was Seb's step-dad. He had a really cool step-dad that I'm guessing had been with the family for years, because they really loved him, him & his sis. Well, Hank the step-dad decided to become Henrietta. Started taking hormone pills, dressing like a woman, and had plans to eventually get a sex change. Or, as Seb & his homies kept pointing out, he was going to "chop his dick off". Hank/Henrietta was an amazing character, and the actor who played the role did it wonderfully. This character was truly the most likable person in the whole damn film!

Saturday night we again went out late for food, just getting in the door before Kidd Valley closed. We live so close to this place & I work near another one, so I'm kinda burnt out on it. But every couple of months, you just want a giant fucking cheeseburger, y'know? So yummie burgers & shakes were had by all.

Sunday I woke up and announced that I wanted to go to Mt. Rainier. I had been trying to get there for the last 2-3 years during the right time to take pictures of the wild flowers, and whenever it came to mind, it was never the right time of year. It was supposed to be sunny that afternoon, so I pleaded my case & Sweetie said he'd think about it. We got out of bed, fucked around on our respective computers, and sometime around noon we got a call from JP. She & SL wanted to meet for brunch. Cool beans! I was TOTALLY getting hungry!

So we met them for brunch, looking over pictures of the wedding. They had some amazing photos! Their photographer was soooo NOT Satan, I am jealous as hell. Have I told the story of our wedding photographer, aka Satan? I'll have to look into that. It's not a pretty story.

So we had yummy breakfast & good conversation, hearing tales of Kauai (*sigh*) and looking at pics. Then came the bomb shell. After insisting on paying for breakfast, they said they had another gift for us. They then handed us a $200 gift certificate to Canlis, arguably the most expensive restaurant in all of Seattle. Ack! We haven't even bought their wedding present yet, because we kept forgetting, and now suddenly we don't have any money! And now they're giving us presents for being so cool for their wedding??? Ack! It was very overwhelming. I kept asking Sweetie what on earth we had done to earn that. All we did was drop off stuff at their house after the reception, then sneak into their house before they came home to leave a bunch of fruit & sandwich fixings so they could stay longer in their love nest without going out for food... I hardly think that qualifies for major $200 dinner on top of the presents we got from them already! Yikes! Maybe they won the lottery in Hawaii, and this is their way of secretly sharing the wealth???

After breakfast, we went home & it was nearly 3pm! So we got our crap together and set off for Mt. Rainier. Holy shit. We didn't have this much trouble LAST time we went! We missed signs twice, going in the wrong direction & having to double back. The second time, we bought a fucking map, because we didn't know what the fuck had happened - we'd been looking like hawks for the fucking sign!!

So does anyone here remember why this could have been an akward journey for us? I felt like a shit when I realized it, but we were already 1/2 way to Tacoma by then. We went to Mt. Rainier the morning after I told my Sweetie about R. Here I had thought I hadn't been since I was 15 with my mom & my 1st boyfriend, RH. Nope, me & Sweetie tried to go back in May. Probably did not remember because Paradise was closed & you had to use chains to get anywhere near anything, so we just hung out at a ranger station & a teeny trail for awhile, trying not to cry. Sweetie did not mention any of this during the trip, and despite more & more of it coming to me as we passed the places we'd been last time, I certainly wasn't about to bring it up.

We finally got to Paradise just before 6pm. We had left at just before 3pm. We had not expected such a horrible time getting there! All the fucking wildflower meadows were in MOTHER FUCKING SHADOW!!! We examined the trail map, and set out on the easiest one that promised flower meadows. I thought I was going to die in those first couple hundred feet up. Because it was straight up. My lungs were about ready to jump out of my body & run for shelter or something. Everything else was fine, but my lungs were totally not up to it. And then, oddly enough, the trail was pretty simple after that.

But as soon as it got flat, we sat at the first bench we could find to change lenses & film for the camera. As I finished up, Sweetie "psst" at me. I looked up to find 3 deer brazenly moving up the meadow towards the path in front of us.

I took an entire roll of film just on those 3 deer. They were beautiful, quite young, and sooooo close! It was a baby with a male & female, but we were kind of confused, because the "parents" looked like juveniles, not old enough to be having babies. Whatever, I snapped away happily, and the deer didn't bolt no matter what. Even though there were about 500 screaming children running down a nearby trail, oblivious to the fragile communion with nature transpiring 30 feet over from them. These deer had absolutely no fear, no matter how close the other group of people on our trail carefully came up to them. Eventually, the boy deer got on the trail and took it over to the next meadow, passing within 5-10 feet of the tourists. The "mama" & baby stuck to the grass to follow him to the other meadow. We packed up and went in that direction, because that was the way we were heading.

And found the meadow they had headed to was sweeping down the hill for quite a ways, with tons of deer in it! We took some pictures and kept on going, seeing more & more little groups of deer as we went. We saw about 30-40 deer during our trip. Including 2 boy deer that we thought were going to start having "deer sex", but they just kept rubbing each other all over. It was very cute.

I was starting to feel kind of sick, because I hadn't taken any pain relievers since morning, but we made a last push to go over a crest that we could see the clouds rolling over. We knew that if we got there, we could reach out and touch the clouds with our hands. We got up to the crest and were quite handsomely rewarded with the most amazing views. The peak was right there in front of us in all it's glory, so you could see all the gravity-defying glaciers just hanging there, not sliding down the mountain. And today was one of the days where the summit had it's UFO cloud on top of it, like a baseball cap. And we could watch the clouds slowly trickle over the top. But even better, we *were* in the middle of clouds. Of course, you couldn't really tell, since it's like fog that way, but the clouds would surround us, blocking sight of the mountain in front of us, the trees to either side of us, and the valley & other mountain peaks behind us. And then just as quickly the cloud would fly away! The clouds were hauling some ass at this height! It was fucking amazing! We believe that this little crest was between 5600-5700 feet. Pretty fucking high up, but not even half way up the 14400 foot tall mountain.

And all the while the clouds were darting around us, we were watching the sunset. And listening to some distant roaring water that we couldn't see. I didn't say anything, but I wondered if what we were listening to wasn't just the damn wind moving through the valley we couldn't see, making those clouds go so fast. We didn't see much of the sunset though, because it kept getting obscured by the clouds, and we didn't want to get trapped up there after dark. But right as we decided to leave, the sun came out completely from behind the clouds, and I took some great shots of it. I don't know how they'll turn out, but it was amazingly beautiful.

Then we headed back down, watching the "deer sex". I made up little songs to keep the cougar away. Sweetie was certain that with all the deer around, there wouldn't be any cougar. I said yah, but cougars do manage to EAT, so they SOMETIMES manage to be where the deer are. So I kept chanting my little "I taste bad" song that I called the anti-cougar song. We had read a few years ago when we stayed at the Hood Canal cabin that most cougar attacks on humans are because humans sneak up and surprise the cougar. Jogging through woods is not cool. You're supposed to make lots of noise so it hears you coming & gets out of there before you ever see it. And if that fails, make yourself as big as possible by raising your arms, and then shout at it. Bears are different. You just pray they don't eat you. Because you're not supposed to run or antagonize it. Eek! So just when we were going through the darkest area of the trail, this little mouse-thing jumps out at us! Thankfully, it didn't look like a cougar, or I would have screamed bloody-murder! As it was, it was pretty obviously a mouse-thing, so we just got instantly silent, wondering where it was going to go.

It looked like a kangaroo rat, but with the white stripe markings of a chipmunk. Weird. It scampered towards us, then off the trail behind some trees. Quick little bugger! Then I started singing again, certain that a cougar had sneaked up behind us while we were silently watching the mouse-thing. Then we were out into the open areas where you could see the parking lot, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

When we got to the car, I begged for us to stay and wait for the stars to come out. Sweetie relented, and we got in the car, opened the sunroof, and watched the sky darken. We kept debating whether this bright star was moving or not. The whispy clouds were going so fast, all the stars looked like they were moving until you just focused on them compared to other stars for a minute. Then a real satellite did fly over & we *knew* it was a satellite, and the bright star looked like it was going almost as fast in the other direction. But 5 minutes later, it was still overhead when the satellite was long gone, so we never did figure it out!

After dark, we got out and looked at the stars for awhile, but the full moon was about to come up, so I angrily said we had to go now. Because I am on a mission. A mission to take the perfect picture of the moon. And for once I had all the gear to do it! Except MOTHER FUCKING FILM!!!!! So we left before it poked above the clouds, but it followed us during the journey home. It was fucking beautiful.

Totally reminded me of that amazing VW commercial I love, with the 4 people in their little Jetta watching the stars and the moon, that quiet little song humming in the background. I would have killed to have that little humming song on the car radio during our drive. The moon was gigantic and perfect.

We got home at 11pm. We checked email and went to bed. Nothing like a car trip to wipe you out!

And here I am, Monday morning, in front of my computer once again, about to finish up my new pages. But it's ok to veg out in front of the computer all day today, because we communed with nature so much yesterday. Go us!

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