Backpacking

Went backpacking with some peeps these last 3 days. We went up to Savage Gulf in middle Tennessee. We hiked in 6 miles the first night and I wowed everyone with a trick to start a fire i learned from "Backpacker" the magazine. The crew consisted of myself and another very experienced backpacker and somewhat novice outdoorsman and the rest of the bunch were noobies (robert, taylor, max, kelly, leah, and emily who wasn't a noob), otherwise known as noobz from here on out. The first night I decided to sleep outside in my sleeping bag by the fire. It's an amazing thing to sleep in the woods under the stars without any roof over your head. It is quite possibly one of my favorite things to do backpacking :-) Then one of my least favorite things happened: it started to get rained on in the early morning. I had setup my tent the night before just in case and quickly got all my stuff in the tent before anything got really wet. I decided while it wasn't raining hard that I'd fertilize a plant or two before the storm got really bad. Right in the middle lightning struck and the flash practically blinded me. At first I thought it had been close so I stopped and ran to my tent. After getting into the tent I realized that the thunder was late and that the lightning strike had occurred many miles away. Turns out that the clouds seemed to have acted like fiber-optic cable with the light from the strike making it seem like the strike was right next to me. Pretty swanky if you ask me.
The next day we got up VERY late. We didn't get on the trail until 10:30. Usually on my trips that I take with experienced peeps we are taking our first or second break at 10:30. The reason for getting up so late was the rain. It rained on us all day Friday. We had a pretty rigorous last mile and a half or so up this hill. We had to go up hill whilst scampering across wet rocks right next to cliff edges. Cool stuff :-D Anywho, we got to our campsite and we started to setup. I saw a dead tree and had a bit of a survivor-man moment. I ran over and started cutting away wet bark and sure enough the core of the tree was dead DRY wood! Robert asked if I had been through survival training. I took it as a compliment and told him that I had read a lot about survival. Later that night it took us an hour to build a fire. An hour of blowing on embers, feeding wet wood, getting smoke into our eyes and lungs, and then starting over with the blowing. It was the hardest fire I've ever had a hand in starting but it was the best and most appreciated fire I've ever had a hand in too. Later that night I went to the privy (read outdoor hole in the ground) with the 3 girls. I told them about how concerned I was that morning with it being rainy and how I wasn't sure how they would hold up. I then told them that they had done a great job and proceeded to teach them how to find spiders in the dark with a flashlight.
The next day we got up late again. Taylor and I got up early and drank all of my hot chocolate (2 packs each). I would have offered some to anyone else up... but no one was up so our second cups were our rewards for being the early birds of the group. We left and hiked the 8 miles over relatively flat terrain compared to the day before. After that we ate at Ryan's buffett. AMAZING after 3 days in the sticks. Then we drove home.
I forgot to mention that I possibly recruited Robert to come raft with Hi-C next summer. He's an awesome dude and the company would be better with him on staff provided he makes it through training.
It was an awesome 3 days for old friends, new friends, and the strangers we met on the trail. We toughed out a day of rain to have a beautiful third day on the trail. All the noobz said that they would do it again given time to recover and I told them that they were no longer noobz. It's [backpacking] a narcotic I need to get a hit of more than once a year!!!!!

New Experience

I experienced the closest thing to what i would call the feeling of "love at first sight". Cheesy yes, and a more accurate description would be infatuation at first sight. I saw her and everyone in the room disappeared. I was fixated on her light blue eyes and had to consciously tell myself to keep from staring at her. I wanted at that moment in time to just get to know everything about her. I can't explain the reaction... anywho... we hung out a bit and after getting to know her, I can't stop thinking about her. Too bad she has a half way decent boyfriend :-P She grew up with multiple siblings and doesn't appear to be selfish/high maintenance. She enjoys doing things outside too. She has a kind smile that would light up a room and a ready laugh that she uses a lot. All very spiffy traits with the ladyfolk. So basically I'm pretty smitten for this girl after A) knowing that she has a bf B) knowing that she lives not here in birmingham and C) there is probably little chance of anything happening between us. But still... I am left in a state of awe... I don't understand it. Perhaps she will fade from my mind with time, or maybe I'll always think about her. Maybe we will meet later on in life or maybe we were only meant to meet each other once. We'll see how this new experience affects me.

just for clarification: i don't expect this to be a permanent imprint on my mind, i just felt like writing about it since i never feel like this after seeing someone.

Going backpacking!!

Going backpacking and then climbing on saturday. should be an excellent couple of days for it. we'll be up at Savage Gulf TN. I'm totally stoked!!! Lataz!!!!

Just a few good reasons to partake of the marital fruits.

this is awesome. if you ever have a spouse who just isn't into it as much as you are, you need to refer them to this link.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,317189,00.html

Some people would be better off smothering themselves with their pillow in their sleep.

Had an awesome customer tonight. She was the biggest bitch i've ever seen... in my life. She starts off by coming in wanting to return a really technical piece of climbing equipment. Our policy is that we can't do any kind of refund or exchange on climbing equipment. To save you the specifics on why, i'll just generalize and say that you can't guarantee that the equipment was treated properly and hence can't rely on it to save someone's life. It's a policy to protect both the customers and the store. There's the background, here's the rest:

She comes in wanting to return an Ascender. She says that it's a left handed ascender and she needs a right handed one. I told her that we couldn't take them back, but called over a former manager to verify. She then gives me this monologue about how she's spent 60 dollars in gas to come get it and then to bring it back and our company shouldn't have sold her this piece of equipment and we should have known which one was the right one... i stopped her and simply stated that she'd have to wait for our current manager to come back. I then tried to ignore her but she kept wanting to talk about how that's not right for us to do that and we could take it back and send it to the manufacturer; it's our loss if we lose money, she shouldn't be held accountable.

Now let me take a break to highlight some alternatives to what she did
1. She could have known what the fuck she was looking for before she bought a piece of equipment that is going to save her fucking life!!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!!
2. She could have asked if we did returns on merchandise just like every other customer.
3. She could have read the sign stating that we cannot do returns on climbing items once they leave the store.
4. She could have called ahead to verify before she drove all the way from fucking tuscaloosa to return something.

So now that i proven that she is a dumb ass let me continue.

My manager gets back and she gives him the same sob story. Mr. B, being the awesome manager that he is, told her he couldn't do anything about it and the responsibility of the purchase is on the customer. She insinuated that we didn't know what we are talking and that we should know about these things and he simply replied that we are knowledgeable about our products but if she were buying a technical piece of gear like that, she should have known what she was looking for because it's kind of an issue of her life and all. Apparently she realized that she was cornered so she then said that she didn't appreciate us tricking her into buying faulty/wrong gear. On a side note: the guy who sold it to her was there and said he pulled out both ascenders and that she chose which one she bought. i don't remember the rest but Mr. B held firm and informed her that we were qualified to sell the equipment we carried but again that it was her responsibility to know about what she was buying. (I think that she thought that since we work at an outdoor store we must be certified professionals in every facet of the outdoors)

Take a breath before you read this next sentence.

She then called her daddy (he was not present at the time of purchase and the ascender was not for him) and tells him that we tricked her into buying this and now she can't get her money back and we are just a terrible company and handed her cell phone (with her dad on the other line) to Mr. B.

Fucking awesome isn't it?!!? This girl is fucking 20 something years old and calling her daddy to help her because she's a fucking dumb ass.

So anyways, since he had gotten the skewed version of what happened, Mr. B spent about 10 minutes talking to him and explaining why we couldn't take it back. Apparently peoples lives and federal regulatory laws don't mean shit when his little girl is upset.

Mr. B told him to call one of the owners. The owner called Mr. B and made him take it back. On a relevant side note, before calling her dad she called her boyfriend and he came in wanting to know why we couldn't take the Ascender back. Oh wait, we were just kidding, she was a woman and didn't know what she was talking about but we'll let you get the money back since you are the boyfriend. While Mr. B was talking with the girl's father, she was standing off to the side pouting and he was trying to console her like something terrible has happened. I wanted to beat his fucking ass for being such a spineless bastard and a waste of sperm as a man.

Mr. B was not happy about being told to do the return and im not either.
1. This girl has just been shown that all she has to do in life is run to daddy and he'll fix everything. Maybe when she needs him for something important he'll be seriously ill or unable to answer the call.
2. Mr. B has basically just been told to stuff it when he was looking out for the interests of everyone else except for this one customer. He was upholding company policy and keeping other climbers safe. Apparently that wasn't important enough because this one chick had never been told "no" in life.
3. Worst of all the owner just put other customers at risk. This girl said she hadn't opened the box and she probably didn't but that doesn't mean the next person will be the same way. All they have to do is come back and whine and they can return something without verification that it is still able to save someone's life when they need it. Just for clarification: these pieces of equipment are made out of aluminum to save on weight, but aluminum if dropped can get micro fractures that can cause equipment failure... not a good thing when your life depends on it.

i said this to a friend when i got online:

me: if i would have had a ____ (object edited out in interest of self preservation) i would have _____ (action edited out in interest of self preservation) her right there in the store... not to satisfy my frustration but to rid her fucking genes from the damned gene pool before she procreates

Friend: aww

couldn't you just beam some x-rays at her pelvis and sterilize her?

me: she could still be a surrogate mother

Friend: sigh

me: really... the fact that we have to breathe the same air bothers me as of tonight

Friend: but then her genes wouldn't carry on

me: before i never knew her but now that i know she and people like her exist... it really bothers me

new experiences and passion actualized

i went to camp shelby for 2 weeks of leadership training. it was awesome. i ended up graduating at the top of my classes and i learned a lot of stuff about the normal army that i never knew (since im in a band unit and all). i met 16 other unique individuals and had some new experiences as a result. the most notable experience (not related to military stuff) was meeting and talking to a fellow biologist who happened to be at Outback steakhouse one night when we went out to eat. She was sitting next to one of my classmates and he started talking to her. Once he found out she was a biologist he promptly goaded me to switch seats with him (he was married and knew he wouldn't understand her biology speak anyway). Her name is heather and we got together for dinner/coffee two more times. she has restored my faith that there are sane/smart/attractive women out there; that is not a cut at katie, kiki, nancy, and the very few other females who would be exceptions from that statement. anywho... i got her phone number and email and hope to keep in contact with her because she is quite cool.

this training has motivated to get my shit together for the PA program more than anything ever has. i love getting up early to work out with those i will work with all day. i love slaving through bullshit with soldiers only to go out at the end of the day and down some drinks together like we have been lifelong friends. i love the discipline and attention to detail that is required to be in the military. i love the camaraderie of it all. i always thought my main passion was science and medicine, but i realized at this school that my main passion is to work with soldiers, with all that science/medicine stuff a very close second. Soldiers are some of the finest individuals you could ever meet from a professional stand point and i can't wait until one day i am in charge of taking care of their health needs. luckily there is a job in the Army that takes care of fulfilling both of my passions. now its just a matter of some paper work and some waiting and i'll get my answer as to whether the PA deal with happen next year.