Now I'm pointed north, hoping for the shore

I feel like the vast majority of my blog entries lately have been very image-heavy...and they've been more sporadic recently, I think because uploading and linking in so many pictures takes a long time, and given how busy my schedule is already, I intimidate myself out of posting. So in an effort to get better about that, here are just some post-midnight musings, sans photos.

Today at work, my coworker and friend Brant spent the day asking customers, "Hey, what do you get when you spread icing all over a thesaurus?"* Apparently in the mood for quotes, at the end of the evening, he also quoted Dr. Seuss to us all, as general food for thought: "You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

That's been my problem this week. And by "in love", I mean in love with life: with this amazing state in which I live, with Alan and Seyeon and Becca and Shari and Elodie, with my amazing parents, with all the wonderful friends I've made in Seattle, with my body for allowing me to do all the things I do, with nourishing food, with bluegrass music, with books and public libraries, with dreaming about the future, with the mountains and the water and the 65-degree sunshiny summer days, and with the best cat in the world that's alseep on my butt right now as I type this.

Despite being off coffee for over three weeks now (okay, minus during Ragnar), I've had so much energy at the end of every day that I can't sleep for the life of me. Tonight's a perfect example; I was so exhausted when I woke up this morning that I could hardly drag myself out of bed, and I just stood in my kitchen in my PJ's, rubbing at my eyes and feeling miserable...but not a drop of caffeine today, and here it is, nearly 1 a.m. and I just feel so darn giddy about things that I don't want to go to sleep; I'd much rather stay awake and keep enjoying this high.

What's keeping me up at night? Big ideas. Upcoming, tentative birthday plans to drive out the Olympic Peninsula and backpack around a bit with Alan and potentially Seyeon and Leo, too. Maybe running the Leavenworth Oktoberfest Half-Marathon this fall. Having signed up for WTA's hike-a-thon in August, for which I'm going to take a break from running for a month and instead hike my butt off and raise money for the Washington Trails Association. Also, considering trying to take some community college classes this fall, an idea that's making my heart want to explode with excitement; I was burnt out on school by my fourth year at Oberlin, and I didn't have the slightest interest in continuing education at that point because I needed more time to grow outside of academia, recenter, establish some more independence, get to Seattle, and ultimately, figure out what kind of career path I really want to be putting myself on...writing? Editing? Publishing? Communications? Business/entrepreneurship? Teaching? Higher education? Psychology? Counseling? But that time has come, and suddenly my path feels crystal clear...like a fog has lifted, and now it's just a matter of putting it all into action. More on that soon.

Well, I thought I could do a whole entry without photos, but I was wrong. A few from my Granite Mountain hike earlier this week with Cam and David are begging to be shared.


David scopes out the meadow where we plan to someday return and camp.


Camba checks out the view.


The ladybug that hitched a ride to the top with me.


The Cascadias continue to serve me well.
Thanks for tuning in, folks. The title of my entry is a line of lyrics from James Vincent McMorrow's beautiful song, "If I had a boat":


Enjoy listening to it if you're in the mood to share my mood on this fine evening. Add James Vincent McMorrow to that list of loves at the beginning of this entry...so fantastic. Thanks, as always, Grey's Anatomy soundtrack, for introducing me to stunning musicians. Off to sleep now, I hope. Good night, beautiful world.

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*"A synonym bun!" And this is why we love Brant.