Take Anything You Want...

...just leave me my exercise routine.

Do you know...

how there can be those fleeting moments in even the most egalitarian of relationships in which you are absolutely certain that you hold 100% of the power?

This was one of them, courtesy of my email this evening:

"Bryan Schnittjer said you two are in a relationship...

Bryan said you are in a relationship on Facebook. We need you to confirm that you are, in fact, in a relationship with Bryan. To confirm this relationship request, follow the link.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team."

Looks like the jig is up.

Back to Life

We are back from our tramp around the Northwest! Almost 3,000 driving miles, close to as many pictures, and several bear scares later, my body is still three hours behind while my mind is dreaming up the days ahead. It was a good trip, full of unexpected reunions with friends, amazing vistas and varied terrain (glaciers, mountains, subalpine fields, rainforests, the Northwest Pacific coast), BBQ shacks and espressos galore, a minimum of showering opportunities, solitude in the backcountry and teeming cities that I've long desired to see and dreamed of moving to (we shall see). Throughout, I had an intense feeling of gratefulness for the ability to go and see so much of the world; I know that's a gift not to be taken lightly. Gratitude and the desire for many more kinds of people to have the financial ability to appreciate the vastness of wild places == these are my souvenirs.

And no -- to my twinned regret and relief, we encountered not a single bear (nor any other predator, for that matter). The closest we came were some distinctive claw marks on an unfortunate tree and some early-morning tracks. After seeing those, I think even Bryan agreed that THAT is close enough!