Family Time and a Request

Less than 3 days before I take off! I am back in Seattle after spending 4 lovely days in Charleston, a precursor vacation to my vacation. I got to see lots of family, nearly everyone I planned to (Sorry I missed you Aunt Kay!) Besides just visiting and enjoying the weather, I used the trip to undertake some non-critical but nonetheless important preparations.

My mom and I did some shopping to round out my resupply boxes with ‘morale’ items. Aunt Barbara and I pampered our feet and I decided that sparkly toes will move faster. I am certainly more prepared to face a bear after discussions with Aunt Anne, Uncle Sam, Sam, and Virginia. My dad helped me cope with the notion of weeks in an arid environment with a day surrounded by water, spectating the regatta and boating about the waterways. Hanging with Richie and Alex made me feel hip enough to make trail friends, and Nana, Papa, and Uncle Tommy imbued me with wisdom and good sense. To everyone, I enjoyed seeing you so much, your support means a lot!

But I am not writing just to ramble my many gratitudes, I have a purpose! I have been thinking about how I will have A LOT of time this summer with only my own thoughts, especially before Louise joins. I expect to spend a good amount of time oohing and aahing over all the nature, but I think boredom is inevitable walking 10 hrs a day through many miles of identical landscape. Music and audiobooks will help as long as my phone battery lasts, but I did come up with a more fun idea.

I was remembering how I had to memorize the Saint Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V in 8th grade. It’s such a rousing and fun passage, I would like to know it again. Then it occurred to me that there are plenty of things that would be cool to have memorized. Poems, speeches, monologues, lyrics, ghost stories, fables, myths. This could be a great way to spend hours alone on the trail. And perhaps make friends? (Here is the request) I asked a couple people and got good suggestions. But would love more! If I can get my act together, I will print them out real small and make a little booklet. If you think of something in the next couple days, send it my way, either by email or text or Facebook or the contact section of this blog. A link to a webpage, a pdf attachment, copy pasted text, anything will work. I can’t guarantee that I will memorize everything but it will all make good reading material. I’m not yet sure if I will want to carry the weight and bulk of a real paper book.