How did I get here?

On March 18th, 2013 I turned 27.  Yeah, not that old by most people's standards.  Definitely not old enough to be having some sort of midlife crisis.  I mused that it might be a quarter life crisis but husband reminded me that I probably wont live to be 108 years old.  Great.

While it's no 30, 27 is not a fun age.  My newsfeed is filled with babies. Babies crying. Babies eating. Babies sleeping.  Babies with Santa.  Even naked babies.  Thank god there was no facebook when I was a baby.  Either way, apparently I have reached the baby-making age.  However, I have no desire to participate in the baby-having and baby-raising part of this process.  Yes babies are cute, usually.  They're also loud, sticky, wet, smelly, loud, and whiney.  Yes, loud is in there twice for a reason.  Plus they do not enjoy participating in most of my favorite activities - namely backpacking, scuba diving, and snowboarding.

So as this baby-having pressure bears down on me, I have this (awful) subconscious mantra that when I have kids, my life ends.  No more impromptu backpacking trips for a weekend.  No more week long scuba ventures.  No more Christmas to New Years snowboarding/day drinking trips in Vermont.  Just wipes, bottles, and general household clutter.

So, anyone who has talked to me in the past few months has probably been forced to hear about my obsession with long distance hiking, and more specifically the Appalachian Trail.  There is nothing I want more than to leave all my responsibilities and hike for months on end.  Now, I don't want anyone to think that I have a crappy life and I want to run away.  I am in my first year of a great job as a middle school band director, I have a wonderful husband and a dog who knows the name of all his toys (yeah he's that good).  I just want to get out more and do more before my clock starts ticking, as every uterus bearing woman I've talked to assures me will happen.

That's why I started this blog.  I have decided that 2013 will be year of the Long Path - my first foray into the world of long distance hiking.  The Long Path is a 355 mile footpath through New York, running from the GWB (George Washington Bridge for you non-east-coasters) to a city near Albany, New York.  In order to get the End to Ender's patch, most hikers keep a trail journal as proof they did all the work.  Since it's the 21st century and all, I decided to do it in blog form.

So this is my trail journal.  And my scuba adventures diary.  And perhaps some record of the general shenanigans provided by the middle schoolers I work with every day.  And maybe some dog pictures.  He is pretty much the best.

See? Proof.