Dear Michelle: We did it!

We made it through one class of heaven, and one class of death.

This semester I had two classes, Behavioral Neurobiology (381) and Child Development (320), with Michelle. And to be honest, I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't been in those classes!

The great thing about having Michelle in both of these classes was that we had both our favorite and our least favorite class together. So every Monday and Wednesday in Behavioral Neurobiology, we would be full of smiles and interesting stories from the weekend. And every Tuesday and Thursday, we would practice any ounce of patience we continued to have after weeks and weeks of Child Development with Higley.

We’re both Psychology majors, but I started the semester with a clinical emphasis, and she started the semester with a social emphasis. Anyway, we both ended the semester with a cognitive emphasis.

Michelle was not as outspoken about her hatred for Child Development as I was, so Higley probably liked her a lot better than he liked me. I promise you that she hated it as much as I did though!

Good Times:

I remember one time when we were so fed up with 320 (which really isn’t that unique, as it happened pretty regularly twice a week) we made a list with the people around us why we couldn’t withdraw from the class (would go below scholarship credit hours, can’t risk a W on our transcript etc…)

“This is no classroom…it’s a tomb”

When we were learning about how girls retain more fat, and someone (probably Jeannie) asked if that was part of the reason why babies love softness etc… and Dr. Higley responded, “All I have to say is… thank goodness women are soft.”

The first thing Dr. Larson said in 381 was “This… is the best class at BYU.” We probably didn’t think so then, but it definitely turned out to be!

When Tracey said, “Did Elder Scott give a talk saying that or was that Slife?”

When Dr. Higley was asking how many points extra credit was worth, and you said “one hundred,” and he believed you!

When Dr. Larson was imitating the guy on the slide for autonomic nervous system; “There’s a snake and I’m in my tighty whities!”

When Dr. Higley talked about Prolapse, and no one in the class had ever heard of it. We all freaked out. I went home to figure out if it was true, and was devastated to find out that it was.

When we were talking about the sympathetic nervous system and Dr. Larson said “In Florida they didn’t screw around… That was a poor choice of words.”

When we found out that the American Neurological Association recommends that we eat fish twice a week. I don’t remember if it grossed you out, but I remember groaning.

You never got frustrated at me when I would imitate Neurotransmitters or something by giving them high, squeaky voices, and act out what they were supposed to do.

“And nobody wants an Uncle Herniation!” (I now realize that is a real term, except uncal instead of uncle, but it was funny at the time…)

And my number one memory, when I found out you had catalepsy! I will probably tell stories about that until the day I die. “I have a friend who literally collapses when she gets scared!”

Michelle, thanks for keeping me sane this semester! I’m sad that we don’t have any classes together next semester. We should have taken Higley’s Monkey class!

Good luck on your 320 final today!

Three Days

Until I get to see

      

5 days until I get to see

  

   

And 9 days until I get to see

 

I can’t wait! My family is amazing!

P.S. I didn’t forget Jamie. I see her all the time!  :)

EEG Lab: Giver of Death

This semester I am taking Behavioral Neurobiology, which is one of the coolest classes I’ve ever taken. We had to write three papers, and my second paper was on the same topic that my teacher, Dr. Larson, researches. Thanks to not procrastinating and my amazing TA, Ann, it turned out to be a pretty good paper and I was invited to work in the lab because of it!

I was really excited, and it’s proved to be just as cool as I ever thought it would be. Working on a research team is amazing. I love going to lab meetings. They make me feel like a legitimate researcher, even though right now I’m just a helper.

I work in an EEG lab, which measures the electrical activity in the brain. We study error processing.

Now, you have to understand the title of this post. Last year I did two EEGs for class credit. They. Were. Awful.
I thought it would be really cool, and it kind of was, but it was also miserable.

Here’s a picture of me with the EEG net on. Doesn’t it look great? This was taken the first time I did an EEG. The net is soaked in salt water, to improve the conductivity, and then they squirt salt water under most of the sensors. So when the net was taken off, it looked like I had crimped my hair on the top half, and not the bottom.
(The first time, I had a date right after, and I had to run home as fast as I could to take a shower. Haha.)

Then, I had to do a Stroop task. I’m sure you’ve all seen something like it. Here’s a picture of a regular Stroop task. Usually, you say the color, and not the word out loud.

The task that I took was a little different. It would either say "color" or "word". For example, if it said "word"… BLUE. I would press the button for blue, but if it said "color" before the word popped up, I would say red.
It was hard, it was long, and it didn’t help that I had to look at really weird pictures between every trial.

Anyway, the one that I administer is not that bad. It’s a flanker task, which looks like this:
<<><< or <<<<<

But it’s still not fun for the participants. I can’t wait to see the results though. Here I am, the giver of EEGs. The giver of 90 minutes of flankers, PASATs, and blood pressure tests.

But if you go to BYU and want to make $15, it’s not that bad.  :)

Variety Show

I am done as an Activities Chair! It’s been a lot of fun, but I am excited to try something else out, and it’s definitely nice not to have so much pressure on me anymore. I definitely would have done things differently if I were to start over, but overall I’m please with how the semester went.

The La Casa boys did a hilarious dance where they essentially made a snowman, snow angels, etc… This picture is their interpretive dance of a snow angel.  It was hilarious.

Since I was busy putting the show together and getting my act together, I told Hunter to do the whole bottle-blowing thing that I usually pull at ward parties. He was awesome and did it. We didn’t practice at all, but pulled it off surprisingly well!

This act was the finale. I didn’t mean it to be that way- Beau put the schedule together. I got 14 girls together on Sunday and we made this skit. I’m sure you’ve seen the Youtube video that we copied. Unfortunately, I made all the signs and didn’t have enough time to fill them all in (I had to find fourteen Snuggies!), so you couldn’t see the words all that well. It was a lot of fun, and it turned out pretty good.

 

Once during the show we had some technical difficulties, so I went on stage and did my arm trick. Then, they had a human body trick competition and they wouldn’t let me enter because mine was “just weird.” As opposed to “cool.”

Whatever.  :)

Harry Potter is Saving My Life

If it weren’t for the knowledge that I will be watching

in just one day, I don’t know what I’d do.

I’m so done with this week.

Only 5 days until I get a week off. It can’t come fast enough. And yet, since I lost most of my paper and had to start over…it will come too fast.

Don’t you hate when that happens?

Blech.

I have to run a 5k tomorrow.

Ugh. Have I mentioned that I hate running?

Anyway, my goal is to finish without embarrassing myself too badly.

Which, you know, is a good goal considering my mom runs way more and way further that me and my sister is a PE major.

Wish me luck!

Hiking in Washington

Jamie and I got to go home last weekend because Matt and Hunter wanted to go to a mission reunion.
I loved being home. We got to see our new dog Lucy, and that was a lot of fun. She’s such a great dog. When Mom picked us up from the temple, she and Jamie went to Albertons and I got to take Lucy on a walk. I couldn’t believe what a good dog she was.

On Saturday, we went hiking at Twin Falls in North Bend. It was so pretty! Dad really wanted to try out Lucy’s new backpack. He was so excited about it. She ended up carrying all Dad’s water and it was probably a good thing since it probably tired her out.

Believe it or not, this island was relatively difficult to get to. Mom wouldn’t come, so she took pictures.

We all had fun watching the UW/ Oregon St. game. I was the only one who was rooting for Oregon St. That was only because I want TCU and Boise St. to look good though. It was a really exciting game!

Church was so much fun on Sunday. I loved seeing the Primary Program after working with them this summer. I miss that calling. You could definitely tell that I rarely practiced “The Holy Ghost” with them. Oops!  :)

The drive back was long. Around midnight, Hunter gave me “How to Drive a Stick 201,” so I’m pro now. I tried it once while we were waiting for Jamie at a gas station around 1:30 am. I am officially the only one who didn’t kill the car this weekend.  :)

Loved being home, and I can’t wait for Mom to come in few days! However, I can wait for that stinking 5k on Saturday…

Free Cupcake

I got a free cupcake on the bottom of the ramp today. Complete with cute box, napkin and tiny fork.

They were trying to promote their new cupcake place.

Too bad I don’t like cupcakes…  :)

Jamie’s Birthday

Jamie had an extremely exciting birthday party. I could barely handle all the excitement (see below).

SHe got some great gifts. That’s actually not sarcasm. Matt and Kristen got her good gifts, and Kara, Callie, Jeanelle and Mom got her the camera she’s been wanting, so that was exciting.

Though, probably the best gift of the night was Jamie’s gift to herself… the Camp Rock DVD. (Don’t sign up for the Disney movie club. Whatta rip)

These are the many faces of me. My favorites are the double chin picture on the top right and Jamie and I sleeping. We were tired. Like I said, we were partied out.

Happy Birthday Jamie! I hope you have one next year.

Hardest Word Verification Ever

My friend Diane started a blog this weekend, due to much pressure from her roommate, Heidi and I.  Blogs are the best things ever. 

I tried leaving a comment on her blog, and had to get through the Himalayan security they had.

Word Verification.

I got it right on the first try. But still, they could at least separate the letters!!

(P.S. Sorry for the abrupt change in how I write on this blog. [i.e. lack of pictures every post] I think it’s from reading so many blogs from my friends in the ward that don’t use a lot of pictures and just write funny things. I enjoy reading those, so I’ve started to change the way I treat this blog. But I promise I’ll have pictures up soon Kara and Mom!)

Blow Dryers

Who needs alarms when you’ve got roommates?

Textbook Covers

 

I think it’s weird when book covers have absolutely nothing to do with the subject. Like my Neurobiology textbook.

What does surfing have to do with Neurobiology? All this textbook says is that the subject is so painful that they have to put something “cool” on the outside to try and attract readers.

But the brain is cool. They don’t have to go and use marketing to get us to want to read it. No one is going to read this textbook unless they have to. Make the cover relevant.

Like this one.

Or even this one.

UpDATE

This is what I wrote in my journal:

“So I went on that date! He was a nice guy, but SUUUPER quiet and didn't really have any opinions. So I felt weird because I was always talking about me. So I would stop, ask him a question, and then remember why I had just been talking about myself for the last five minutes… because he has NO opinions, and very little to say that is interesting. For example:

Chrissy: "So what do you like to do?"
Nick: "Um, I like to study"
Chrissy: "Haha! I meant apart from school, but that's cool. How come you like it so much?"
Nick: "Why wouldn't I like it?" (or something just as uninteresting)

Okay, so I'm being harsh. I didn't have a miserable time or anything. I just miss having really interesting intelligent conversations.

We walked down by the soccer fields and I saw Uncle Ross and Aunt Sue! It was really funny! So we talked with them for a couple minutes.

Nick and I walked up to the Hinckley center, and watched some of the videos in there. Some of the honor code videos are quite amusing.

We walked around from about 7-9 or so and then I said that I had an intramural game so he walked me to the JSB. Then he asked me if I would be interested in doing this again sometime. Ughhh. I didn't know what to do, so I said "Sure, why not!" and then he asked me when I would next be available, and I said this week was going to be really busy because of midterms.” I really hate it when they do that. When you’re face to face, what are you supposed to say? Ugh.

He invited me to watch one of the Sunday sessions with him, but I told him that I couldn’t because I was in SLC. Then he called me today, but I was in class. But he texted me that night and asked me if I wanted to get ice cream or something tomorrow.

After getting a pep talk from my roommates, I sent a text that said “Actually, none of those times work for me, and to be honest, I don’t think I would be up for going on another date. I’m sorry. Thanks for inviting me though!”

I felt really bad about it, but I don’t know how many people have said that we just need to be honest and tell them we’re not interested. So I did. I hated it, but I did it.

Surprise!

 

I have FAST internet! For the first time in two years! Even in my room!

I might not have to go to campus now every time that I need to use the BYU website or a database.

What a nice surprise!

Take THAT 381

I just killed my Behavioral Neurobiology midterm.

I’m pretty happy about it. Especially since Dr. L said his students generally did poorly on the first midterm.

No, I did not ace it. The 100% score on the testing center screen continues to elude me, but as I was walking home, I felt like I had just gotten 100%.

I even did a heel click on the way home.

R.I.P. Bic

I was going to update all of you on my date, but this is far more important.

At the beginning of every semester (and sometimes multiple times during the semester), I go to the BYU Bookstore and pick up a couple packs of  BIC Ultra Round Stic Grip Ball Pens. They are the best pens on Earth, and I absolutely love them.

Why? Becuase they’re not nice enough that you have to be constantly worried about losing them or borrowing them out. Also, they don’t bleed through paper as easily as the super nice ones. Pens are way better than pencils, because it looks so much more satisfying and legitimate when you write with them. And these ones are the best. You never have to rewrite things because the ink wasn’t present the first time you tried to write it, but it also doesn’t smear when you accidently rub your hand over it.

Have I convinced you? These are the best pens in the world. Everyone agrees. I know this because no one ever gives them back when I let them borrow one. (Okay, this happens with most pens, but usually only with pens the borrower is satisfied with. I’ve never gotten one of these back!) People love these pens.

So WHY did BYU stop carrying them?

There I was, preparing for school to start in August, going downstairs in the BYU Bookstore and heading to the place where my Bic pens are kept, and there they weren’t. I looked everywhere. All I could find was the same type of pen in blue. But you can’t take notes in blue! Writing in blue is five times worse than writing in black.

I thought it was a fluke, and didn’t sweat it, since I still have some from last year. However, I’ve been running low (I lose pens a lot) and so I went there again today. Cautiously. Trying not to get my hopes up. And yet, I was crushed again. I searched all over. They were not there.

How infuriating. Why couldn’t they have removed all the blue pens? Or any of the other 50 different kinds of pens they carry?

Therefore, I bought two other pens. And spent almost twice what I would have if I had gotten a pack of 8 of my favorite pens.

And they probably don’t even work.

 

 

Although, one IS made out of a recycled water bottle!

Take THAT, The Man.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog

Rachel Z. introduced this little movie to me last Friday. I had never heard of it, but apparently it was a huge deal during the writer’s strike. I thought it was really good, although I’m going to have to watch it again to fully appreciate it. What makes it good is that it takes one little concept and creates this 45 minute movie that really demonstrates it.
The fact that it was a sing along blog kind of weirded me out, but the songs are actually really cute.

Here’s what the plot line is:
”The story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to.”

Anyway, here’s the trailer. Doesn’t do it justice, but ah well.

 

This is just the beginning of the movie. Obviously you don’t have to watch it, but I thought the first two or three minutes were really funny and cute. Definitely a good start to the character development.

 

Thanks Rachel for introducing this to me!

Happy Birthday to Jamie!

It’s my sister’s birthday today!

Usually I try to find funny pictures, but how about ALL the pictures of Jamie’s face?  :)

Anyway, I absolutely LOVE my sister! She is so much fun. Here are some of the things I love about her.

Jamie is super good natured. For example, she has a terrible memory, but she just admits it and laughs it off.

Jamie is by far the bravest one in the family. She is also the most determined. Jamie is the only one who would do extreme sports without a second thought, and I admire her for that.

Jamie is dedicated. She stuck with diving and Japanese, and lots of other things, even though they were hard. I’ve always admired her for that.

Jamie always lets me play with her. Even though she’s really busy, she still finds time to do things with me, and lets me hang out with her and Matt.

Jamie lets me drive. She also drives fast when we are driving to and from Utah. So I let her drive when we need to go fast.

Jamie has really funny road rage. No one would ever take her road rage seriously.  ;)

Jamie was the best roommate ever. Period.

Jamie is really friendly to everyone, and makes everyone feel special and important. Everyone loves Jamie. I remember at Stake dances when everyone would ask me how Jamie was doing. People even asked me to dance so they could ask how she was! It was ridiculous, but Jamie is just that nice to people.

Jamie makes really good cloud cookies, although I can’t vouch for her “experiments”  ;)

Jamie is a lot of fun and is always up for doing fun things, unless she’s tired. Haha!

Jamie lets me borrow her clothes. She also lets me steal them.

Jamie is very forgiving.

Jamie takes the gospel seriously and is an excellent example to me, at church and at home.

Jamie is the best journal keeper I know.

Jamie lets me listen to whatever music I want in the car.

Jamie is really good at including people in the fun things she is doing.

 

Jamie is such a great sister to me, and I love her!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMIE!

 

He’s saved in my phone as “Nick Marb Guy”

I got asked out by a random guy on campus today. I hear about these stories all the time, but it’s never happened to me.

I was walking into the MARB and this guy just started talking to me. We talked for a minute or two, and then he asked me if he could get my number because he’d “like to get to know me better”. I didn’t see any harm, and I was kind of shocked, so I gave it to him.

We’re going on a date on Wednesday. We’re just going to walk around campus. I’ll be sure to have something I “need” to do in case it’s super weird. He’s sort of “strait off his mission” kind of awkward, although it’s probably just him.

We shall see!

Fiesta a La Casa

Sorry this took so long. I haven’t had the internet for the last week…

After the disappointing BYU football game on Saturday, Diane, Rob, Michelle, Heidi, Sarah, and I went to the Pizza Pie Cafe. I love that place. I think Jeff and I went to it like 6 times in two or three months. I love the salads and the interesting Pizza flavors they have. (Is flavors the right word there? Probably not…)

I am really bad at putting myself in pictures, so I only got two pictures of me today. And I’ll probably get in trouble for one of them…

Anyway, we all had a really good time at the PPC. I really like this apartment. The other day their door was open, so I just walked in and talked to them for awhile. And Diane, Heidi and I watched Gilmore Girls the other day, which was fun.  :)

This picture was just for fun. It absolutely was not because we had too many people in the car, and so I had to be in the back.  ;)

 

That night was the FIESTA at LA CASA.

La Casa is this sweet house on the corner of 700 N and University. Everyone who lives anywhere near it knows it as the house with the trampoline and tandem bicycles. It is the coolest house. Unfortunately, it is not BYU approved, and since BYU is cracking down on that this year, they might have to move. That would be a major bummer for the ward.

The cool thing about La Casa is that it has a patio on the roof, and you can have parties up there.

The picture above was taken from the roof, looking down on the other half of the roof.

The party was a lot of fun, and the boys who live there made a really funny skit that they performed for us that was their version of the Count of Monte Cristo. They even had some songs, which was funny. 

After the skit was a dance party and a mustache contest. It was a lot of fun, and I’m really glad they are all in the ward!

This is my roommate Mckenna and her friend, Richard with their mustaches.  :)

Tuesdays With Morrie

 

On Thursday, Lauren and I went to see Tuesdays With Morrie at BYU. Kara had warned me that it was really sad before, so I brought a bunch of tissues.

When I got there and looked at the program, I was super excited because Matt Meese was playing Mitch, the student. Matt Meese is one of the biggest reasons I love Divine Comedy. I have no idea what the show will be when he is no longer a part of DC.

It was kind of weird at first to see him in a serious role, but I really enjoyed the show. The first ten minutes or so was really fun, because the actors interacted with the audience a bunch. There were some really funny parts, and I was glad Matt Meese was playing the role.

And then towards the end of the play, it got really sad. I am a baby, so I started crying about 5 minutes before everyone else even shed a tear, but it was nice to hear the entire audience sniffling by the end. I love that sound.  :)

It was a very cute play, and the two actors were amazing. One interesting thing they did was leave the stage crew onstage the entire time, and so we could see them helping the actors with props and things. It was a little strange at first, but I ended up really liking the change. Also, every set was on the stage at the same time, but it worked out really well, and I think the simplicity was really effective for the telling of the story.

Lauren and I with our tickets.

Hiking Timp

Sunday night at ward prayer, a guy from La Casa mentioned that he and some friends were going to hike Timp that night and anyone was invited. I talked to him a little about it and decided that it was probably now or never, and decided to go.

When we got there at midnight, there was a group of 13 people that were coming with us. I was one of the drivers. When we got to the base, fate was not on our side. To make a long story short, we accidently went on the wrong trail so we had to go back to the beginning. When we got back, some nice guy told us that we should probably pay the dues so that are car didn't get booted, since over 100 got booted last year. All I had were coins, and when we put them into the envelope, it wouldn't fit into the spot available for the envelopes so we just shoved all the coins in individually and hoped they would accept it. :)

We didn’t get a very good before picture. I’m didn’t even show up in any of them. Ah well.

Then we went on another wrong trail. This experience was definitely the blind leading the blind. A couple people in our group had hiked Timp before, but it was several years earlier and they were just followers. Luckily we turned back after only after about 10 minutes of hiking. That trail may have led us to the top, but some guys convinced us to turn back when they said they had been hiking that trail for 20 minutes when they heard a car pass. We figured that probably wasn't the right way to go…

When we finally we going on the right trail, 4 members of our group decided that this was not what they had bargained for, and decided to leave and go to some hot springs (which they ended up not doing). This group included the people who had initiated the hike, so we were left with 8 girls and 1 guy. Not ideal circumstances…

Joan and I took the lead. My flashlight was pathetic so I basically just relied on Joan's except for a couple times when I got out my iPod and used that. It was pitch dark. We kind of joined up with another group at the beginning, so there were like 30 of us. The hike up was just long. You had to watch every single step so that you didn't trip over some root or rock. After probably an hour and a half or two hours, we kind of stopped and asked the people behind us if they needed a break. This girl replied "We're not in your group" in a not-very-nice manner. We waited until they all had passed and then realized we were no longer with our group. It was only Joan, another girl (in the blue BYU sweatshirt) and I. We waited for a couple minutes but when they didn't show up, we decided to keep going. Since it was a bunch of girls, we figured they had probably just needed a lot more breaks than we had taken.

I couldn't believe how long the hike was. Even though prior to the hike, I knew that it was going to be close to 6 hours to the top, I don't think I was really mentally prepared for that. At about 3:30 am, my feet started not responding quite as fast as I would have liked… I found myself stumbling some, but not very much at this point. I was also starting to regret that I hadn't made up for the lack of eating on Fast Sunday, and had only eaten a sandwich, some carrots and a bowl of cereal. It was starting to get extremely cold too. Out of the three of us, I was definitely the most prepared for the cold. Poor Joan was only wearing underarmour, a t-shirt and pants. She would have been wearing shorts too if I hadn't made her change before we left. Luckily I brought an extra hat for Joan, and happened to have 3 gloves, so I gave one to the other girl and tried to get Joan to take the other one, but she wouldn't.

The hike was primarily silent. No one talked because we were all pretty tired, both from lack of sleep and because the hike was pretty strenuous at times. We all knew we needed to conserve our energy. Us three girls were rarely by ourselves, which was nice. We would join up with one group, and then pass them, and then join with another one ahead. A little after 4, I started having a pretty hard time and convinced my group to take a slightly more substantial break. That actually helped me out a lot, but my mind was really starting to wear down. Joan was doing fine mentally, but she was getting extremely cold without a whole lot of protection.

We got really close to the "Saddle" and the winds starting coming more frequently and much harder and they were literally like getting hit by ice. Every time a gust would come, we would all turn our backs on it to try and shield our faces. We were in this highland type place by then, and there was not going to be any protection from the wind for awhile at least, and we were starting to doubt whether or not it was smart to continue. Joan kept saying she was legitimately worried for her body because it was so freezing. She said she couldn't feel either of her arms. We stopped to discuss our option when we saw people coming up the trail. It was our group! We were really happy to see them.

We all huddled in a group and discussed our options. There were a few that really felt like they needed to go back down now. There were several reasons for that. People were not prepared for the cold, and we thought we were ahead of schedule for the sunrise, so we would be getting there and then sitting in the freezing winds for a sunrise and then have the entire hike down, which we knew would take several hours. Then Lucy said that some guy on the trail said we were about 2 hours from the top. I think that was the deal breaker. We had already been hiking for over 4 hours, and the thought of hiking for two more was not appealing. Also, we weren't as on schedule as we thought we were, so that was not ideal either.

A couple people would have gone to the top. I wanted to finish, but then I finally accepted that it was only my pride that made me want to keep going. I didn’t want to go down without making it to the top. We considered having one car leave and one car continue, but decided it was better to stay as a group. The final decision was to start down. It wasn't a half-hour before we knew we had made the right decision.

The hike down the mountain was one of the most mentally challenging things I've ever experienced. I kept remembering a guy from my ward saying that he fell asleep several times on the way down while he was walking, and then woke right back up. I could definitely tell I was close to that stage, and it really scared me. Most of the hike is not exactly hiking through plains or anything. On the contrary, most of the time it was an extremely narrow path that had an extremely steep drop on one side. We had several scares, although we were extremely blessed in that none of the scares actually produced an accident, although Lucy hurt her ankle (but was an extremely good sport) and everyone stumbled and fell several times. It was mentally challenging because:

1. it was 5-7 in the morning, and all of our bodies were hating us for the lack of sleep we were giving it.

2. We had already been hiking for 4-5 hours and our legs, backs and the rest of our bodies were exhausted (I mean, when's the last time I've done physical exercise even close to this!?)

3. It was still pitch black. We couldn't see anything except what was right in front of us. It was almost worse when it got like 2% lighter, because then we could see how dangerous the path actually was.

4. We all knew (although were trying to forget) that the hike down was going to be several hours, and although we wanted to know that soon we would be sitting in our cars and then going in our nice warms showers and beds, we still had a long time before that would happen.

5. I knew I was going to have to drive when I got back down, and I was very concerned that I wouldn't be able to.

And then my stomach was screaming at me to stop and eat something substantial, but every time I took a bite of granola or something, I just felt ill.

Jacquelyn was the group's mom. She’s amazing. Whenever anyone needed to stop and rest a minute, or eat something, she was there waiting with us, and talking us through our tiredness. When we finally got down to where we were passing people on our way up, she was super energetic and wishing everyone luck, while I would merely grunt, and that was only if i felt obligated to.

I’ve never been so happy to see cars as when I finally did. The last fifteen minutes was terrible because you kept expecting to see the cars around every corner, but they were never there.

When we got there, I had Lucy, Tracey and Chelsea reenact how cold it was. This was the best they could do.  :)

We dragged ourselves out of the car to take an after picture. I knew I would be glad if I did, and I really am.

The drive home was scary. I’ll leave it at that.

I took two 3 hour naps and did homework in between on Monday. At FHE, it was just as bad as I thought it was going to be when people asked if we made it to the top. We defended ourselves well though.  :) I had a good time talking to some of the girls about the funny things about the hike though, so that was a good experience.

It was really hard to walk up the stairs the next two days, because my right leg was so stiff and my groin hurt, but overall I wasn’t as sore as I expected.

It was a good experience, and I’m really glad I did it. If I were to do it again though, I would not go for the sunrise. 5:00 AM would be perfect, and would eliminate most of the issues I believe. The sunrise was really great and the hike would actually be beautiful if I could have seen any of it. By the time it was light enough to see how pretty a hike it was, I didn’t care. Haha.  :) I would like to do this hike again though, with the lessons I learned. In a year maybe.  :)

Horray for Timp!

 

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