Paths

We had a such a great day together. I met up with Ballet Dancer and her black lab and got to the trail when the sun was high in the sky. It was warm until we got higher and then I was grateful for the LL Bean Thinsulate jacket that my Mom had bought me many years ago. I love it for outdoor activities and it’s a green thing because the material is mostly recycled. My Mom bought me a suit, this jacket and a long wool jacket. She gave great gifts. ❤

My altitude conditioning leaves a bit to be desired. We only snowshoed just under three-miles, but I want to get back up there soon. There’s a really funny story here too. I needed lots of help with my snowshoes. The ratchet clip and the teeth on the straps was confusing. I got them going though. Some packaging was accidentally left on and it’s helpful packaging for when you snowshoe.

Look at the snowshoe on the right. That plastic helped me on the trail! I want another piece.

I thought that my other snowshoe was missing a piece, so I went back to the outdoor store last night and the saleswoman explained in a non-sarcastic and kind way that it was the way that they had to be packaged safely. She didn’t say, “Dipshit, this is packaging, and can be removed.” She was so kind and didn’t even seem to be thinking that. She talked about this process is one in which inventions are made. I told her that she should get stock options and she introduced herself formally to me. Ha. So, I tried to email MSR today and it didn’t go through. I’m going to call them. I want another plastic piece because my other foot got cold. It’s not just packaging. Swear.

We bonded so beautifully yesterday. We went back to where Ballet Dancer had parked after our snowshoe and talked at a brewery. I had a bad moment of getting too hot though and was close to fainting. We were sitting by the fire and I can’t do that for very long obviously. The worst thing for me is a hot tub or hot spring. I just had to tell Ballet Dancer about the time that I fainted by a drain in the bathroom of a mountain resort during my ex-wife’s and my engagement trip. My ex-wife has this thing about drains (terror). Not only that, but I was right by a discarded Band Aid and had a feather stuck to me. It became a thing. ”No, you’re by a drain! There’s a dirty Band Aid! Why is there a feather?” I didn’t faint yesterday, and instead lifted my hair and laid on a leather couch while the nausea subsided. Ballet Dancer asked me if it was a hot flash, and I told her that thankfully, I don’t get those. I have never tolerated heat well though. It raises my blood pressure too much. Thus, no hot tubs for me and no hour by the fire obviously. I have fainted in the shower before too.

The only thing that really sucks is that she had just started talking to me about her life path and belief system when I almost fainted. I wish we’d picked up that thread of conversation again. She could be my daughter. I actually thought that I was pregnant at 22 and was excited, but I either lost it, or was never pregnant. She is drawn to older women, and thankfully, I’m in really good physical shape so I can do outdoor stuff with her. I’m so glad that she took that climbing class where I met her. I love having her in my life and want to learn more about her old soul journey.

Pins, Young Ladies and Facing the Music

I have taken off my homemade splint. The top pinky joint was broken, and the second joint dislocated. It’s going to take some time. I am using a hand strengthening ball at work when I’m talking to clients. I bowled without it, and in my third and final game I got my new approach down and bowled 152. I’ll take it. My other games were bad though so my average was only 115. We have made a small spare dance and also a bowing with crossed arms for strikes. It’s a hoot.

I have a gay bf. His name is Owen. We love each other. We talked again last night. He makes mannequins and is tall, gentle and sweet. He moves to OH with his soon-to-be-husband soon. The ladies on the lane next to us were cute and I think in their 20s. We’ll play them soon. Super fun.

I’m snowshoeing with my lady doctorate peeps. I have to face the medical school director and the neuroscientist on Saturday. It’s all good. Calm and cool. Time to shower and bike to work!

Blue-eyed, Millennial Capricorns

She embraced me too–super mutual embrace.  She remarked that I was obviously good people because I was acquainted with my best friend as is she.  I asked her if she was allergic to dogs and she exclaimed, “No, did you bring pups?!?”  I said that I hadn’t,  but wanted to drive and couldn’t do so if she was allergic due to dog hair in my vehicle.  She hopped in.  I drove west.  And when I turned off to start heading up to the trailhead from the highway I said, “It’s so beautiful up here. I’ve not been up here in a long time,” and she talked about hiking there last weekend.  I turned around and got back on the highway.  She was taken aback and did laugh, but was very surprised.  I actually had intended to head more west, but the road was confusing so we were heading back, so I decided to turn into the road that goes into town and she told me that she’d shot a wedding here.  I said, “I want to hike somewhere new to you!”  She said that she swore that it was right there only and hadn’t been on the back side of the trail.  We found the trailhead with her help and she started talking to me about what she is going through right now with a friend of hers and it is a lot–scary stuff.  That opened the door to my being really open with her.

The photographer talked about her family, she talked about her ex, so I talked about two of mine including my ex-wife.  And she told me where she’d arrived with her friend and care of her.  She’s solid.  She is also very sexy, multilingual, does a daily Yoga practice and dances.  She has her own businesses and has a flexible work schedule.  We talked about her bike too.  I want to ride with her as well.  She told me that she’d never done a high peak and that friends are always saying that they’re going to take her up one.  I’ll have to lend her snow pants and they won’t fit her super great, and we should maybe both rent crampons.  I am reasonably sure that I have two sets of trekking poles, but have to look.  I know the one that we’ll do and have done winter mountaineering one time on a rope team, so I feel confident.  We just have to look for the best high pressure day next week because it can get windy and miserable.  The forecast looks safest in 8-days. 

I talked about my recent shift into believing in polyamory.  I explained a few times that it’s weird to have many friends and one partner.  I talked about how odd it is that one person would believe that she could be all for another.  We talked about my best friend’s desire to be with a woman, and how it freaks out her husband.  I said that they should swing, and then realized that would mean that my best friend would also be providing some intimacy to a man other than her husband and it 1) really grossed me out, and 2) helped me understand that would be incredibly complicated.  It would be easier for them to have a woman that they had an understanding with, but it’s off the table because he’s jealous.  It makes me sad for her. 

She almost fell and noted how quick my reaction time is.  I would have caught her.  Parts of the trail were incredibly icy.  I’m going to have to buy new boots finally because there is a part of them that has no tread at all.  I slipped a couple of times, but it wasn’t anything serious.  We must have hiked almost 8-miles.  I keep my phone in my back pocket, but it lowballs things if I don’t specifically run the app and rely on it to run in the background.  If I run it specifically to track though, it drains my battery.  It tracked us at 5.8-miles.  Regardless, we gained lots of elevation and I was STARVING when I got home. 

It was a great first date.  We embraced again outside her car, and she said, “Nice to meet you,” and I said in her ear, “We’ve met.”  She blushed a little and laughed and said, “Oh, I know.”  She’s much more cautious than the climber.  She’s also almost exactly two-years older than her.  It’s really odd.  The climber’s birthday is one day in the next three-weeks (37), and the photographer’s is three days after that (39).  Incidentally, my best friend’s follows in three-days and my son’s three days after that, but they are Aquarii.  My love interests are blue-eyed Millennial Capricorns.  I like this part of my life.