The Aftermath

We made it out alive! There may have been a few points where we thought it would be otherwise, but all in all, we conquered the trail.

The picture above is actually from the day after, when we went to meet our friend Billy and his dad, and went to Bickle Knob. It was a nice relaxed day after the insanity of the previous 24 hours. If you look carefully, you will see that we spell out T-I-R-E-D... which we definitely were!

We ended up hiking the whole North Fork Mountain Trail in 24 hours... when originally we had planned to do it in about 36. Why? Because we are insane.

But it was incredibly awesome to see the views we got to see, and to know that we pushed ourselves past any thinkable limit and hiked 22 miles straight in one day (the 2 beginning miles were hiked the previous night before camping). All in all, it was worth it I think. Would I do that whole thing again? Maybe not. Unless I turn into a superhero. Then we'll see.

More details to come...

The Death Hike

So a group of 7 of my friends and I are going on a little hike this weekend. And by little I mean 24 miles.

I have never done anything remotely similar to this in my life, but I'm pretty excited about it. We will be carrying in all our own water (dude, that's a lot of added weight) and supplies to camp Friday and Saturday night on the trail. When I say I've never done anything like this, I mean, I've never hiked that long, had to hike carrying supplies, or even camped outside for real. (Unless you count the youth advance when I was 15 at a campground or having a tent set up at Relay, which I don't.)

So all in all, I may die. It will be a fun death though I am sure. I'm quite positive I will come back from the weekend with all sorts of insane stories to tell or embarrassing moments when I realize how much of a city girl I really am. (I mean, I do claim being from suburbia... that has to say something.)

Still... it will be an adventure. And if I die, well, it has been nice knowing you all, and blogging about my randomness. :D

How much can $1 buy?

Alright, on top of being busy constantly, I always have about a billion things going on in my mind... and yes, many of them are usually bouncing around at one time. From what does arsenic do to these cells to poverty around the world to recycling to cleaning my apartment to hanging with friends to the good book I am reading to watching a movie to what I have to do for work to coffee to so.zo to the kids I work with to family.... well, the list usually doesn't end... and it is all happening rapid fire at any point in my brain.

So as I was driving down to KY at 60mph (yeah, like a grandma, but I got 30 mpg in a CR-V!) I was thinking about tons of things. I was kind of hungry cause I hadn't really eaten that day. I was planning on holding out for Sonic (one of my loves) I just got too hungry to wait. So I decided to stop at a McDonald's to get something. Now usually I would never do this, because McDonald's in and of itself kind of grosses me out. But I had a coupon for a free chicken sandwich, and I figured, hey, its free, and I'm hungry. (Side note - the buttered bun, bad idea McDonald's.) I went through the drive through and got my free sandwich and a sweet tea (ok, it's horrible for you, but I am southern, right?).

So my whole meal ended up costing me $1.06. Pretty cheap. That made me happy. Especially since everything has gotten to be more expensive recently.

BUT, I got to thinking. Do you know that about 1 billion people live on less than $1.08 per day? Yeah, they probably live entirely on what I just paid to get a sweet tea. you can argue what you will about things being cheaper in other countries and whatnot, but come on. Reality is that we take for granted what we can do, and what we can buy. There are many times I don't even bat an eye when paying $4.00 for a latte. How spoiled am I?

And in reality, what could my money that I spend on extras do for someone who lives in extreme poverty? Maybe just my little bit couldn't do a whole lot in the grand scheme of ending poverty, but what about everyone's little bit?

Can the rich afford to help the poor? Most definitely. Will we? I sure hope so, but it will take changing the way we look at what we have and can do. I mean, could we all give up a coffee or a fast food meal a week? Sure. Is it easy, pretty much. But will we change?