The Weekend

The weekend has treated me good. I spent most of Saturday doing homework. It was pretty shitty outside (as if that usually stops me from venturing out into the wilds) so I figured I wouldn't be missing much by spending hours at my desk with my nose in a book or two. Despite how much I actually got done, my mind was wondering...a lot. With me leaving on the 12th which is right around the corner, my mind has sorta been spinning with things I need to do before I head west. Procrastination soon put those thoughts to rest temporarily and I managed to fight my way through said thoughts so I could study and actually finish my work early for once. The evening brought some fun had with some old friends. I first visited a friend of mine I met while taking my basic wildland firefighting class (S-130/190) a few years back. Her, her husband, and myself had a couple drinks for a few hours bring ourselves up to speed with our lives and reminiscing on times spent training together. I left them in Springfield where we had met up for Adams Morgan in DC to meet up with a good friend of mine I hadn't seen since I graduated in 2003. When I got to our friend's house, I was surprised as to how many people were actually at this place...to be honest, I didn't even know it was a full blown party as I found out when I walked up to the place. To my surprise, there were about 8 people I hadn't seen since high school that I actually missed! It was heartwarming hanging out as an adult with several friends that you grew up with. It's also amazing hearing the stories of what these guys were doing with their lives. My friend Haig is a biologist working in New York City. My friend Patrick finished his Masters a year ago and is now a film producer in the metro Washington DC area. My friend Jason just started taking his board exams to become a doctor. We all spent the night reliving memories from middle school and high school after which I reminded myself to make a conscious effort to try to keep these guys in my life rather than move so far from my childhood as to forget how good of friends these guys were. I left the party around 0500 to head home hoping to salvage some of Sunday rather than sleeping all day.

I spent today cleaning my car and some of my room. I also, for some reason, spent a lot of the day trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life when I get back from Utah. My schedule is looking anything but orderly...or fun. I'm doing 17 credits worth of classes all on Mondays and Wednesdays...from 0900 to 2140 with a few breaks in between. Since I'll be living in the DC area for more than a month for once, I'm planning on joining Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group (SMRG), a non-for-profit Search and Rescue organization based out of Vienna, VA. New Member training for them runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My normal duty crews with the Ashburn Volunteer Fire & Rescue Dept. are Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1800-0600 the following respective days. Throw in plans to be a little bit more active with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) as well as the mountaineering chapter of the club and my weeks are looking absolutely crazy. Saturdays should be fun as to they're never going to be same be it fire & rescue classes, SAR classes, PATC outings, hanging out with friends, or climbing, backpacking, skiing, etc. But all of that is 5 months away and I've barely thought about life in Utah yet...