9:16 a.m. - 2005-09-26
take that, muthafucka
First of all, M-dog, I apologize sincerely for leaving you out of my list. Please visit the guestbook and find the link to Maria's lovely and faithfully updated blog. Maria is the kind of person who can restore your faith in humanity on those particularly bothersome days when you just need the equivlant of a hug via the internet.
Now, as for my weekend. I have one word.
SPIDERS.
My wonderful boyfriend who restores my faith in humanity on a near daily basis took me to Tionesta, to his friend Derrick's cabin. We had a lovely lovely time. Kevin even agreed to go horsebackriding, which is a sleeper-passion of mine, in that it's still a passion but I do it approximately once every three years. We went to the Flying W Ranch, supposedly the largest dude ranch west of the Mississippi to visit it and I gave Kevin puppy eyes as I noticed the brochure offered hourly trail rides. Fortunately for me, while Kevin was not exactly "pumped" to climb onto the back of a large animal and entrusting it with his life, he is also somewhat of a pushover when it comes to things that make me excited. We made reservations and came back the next day. He gamely clambored onto "Brandy" a somewhat naughty quarter horse who was a bit pokey and a bit inclined to stop to munch the nearby greenery. My bay gelding, "Outlaw" was a fine steed and followed the lead horse and the guide obligingly through winding mountain trails. It was beautiful, refreshing and really really fun. I have mentally planned an overnight ride for sometime next year. Anyone want to come??
We had a generally nice time sitting around the campfire with Derrick and Amanda, exploring the tiny towns nearby, mutually acknowledging we could never live "out in the boonies." Amanda cooks a mean breakfast and we ate bacon that was (produced? harvested? slaughtered?) at a nearby farm and consumed ice cream on homemade waffle cones. I was dying for some vegatables and when the restaurant we ate at had a salad bar, I was pretty excited. However, a few tubs of ice berg lettuce, cottage cheese and pasta salad leave a bit to be desired. The steak was fantasic, though. I guess you don't head out to the middle of nowhere and hold out hope for tofu and asparagus. Sitting around doing nothing that requires thinking with people you enjoy is really important to do from time to time. So important that I still had an A+ time, even though I was completely and totally surrounded by spiders. They were everywhere. And lots of different kinds of them. Inside, outside. Both times I stepped out of the shower, there was a spider making a web directly above my head and I had to calmly shout for Kevin to come in and dispose of it as I stood rooted to the spot, wrapped in a towel and, the second day, quite mystified that such a thing would happen twice! As I settled myself on a blanket (about which i had inquired where it had been obtained from to assess the likelihood of a spider lurking in the folds of it) by the fire Saturday evening, content to learn it had just been retrieved from Derrick's car's trunk, a movement caught my eye and a large wolf spider (the big disgusting hairy kind that supposedly have a very painful bite) was darting toward me across the blanket. At one point, Kevin was gathering up his belongings and picked up a shirt. He held it up and gave a furtive glance my way and quickly headed outside to shake it out on the porch. I chose not to inquire further after he undoubtedly fibbed to me that it was "just some dirt, Honey."
Despite being practically engulfed by my biggest fear all weekend, I really had a fantastic time.
I arrived at my desk this morning, and sat down and picked up the phone to make a call into a large organization that I am hoping to get as a member. As the president's assistant answered her line, my eyes nearly popped out of my head as they focused on something really incredible and really awful. One of those large spindly-legged arachnids had SPUN A WEB between my computer monitor and my file organizer. I was so angry and in such disbelief that I didn't even wait to be scared. While emphatically monologuing about the benefits of Chamber membership, I picked up two packs of post-it notes and smashed that sucker to guts and detached limbs. Every day should begin with such triumph.
