Packed!

I am leaving tomorrow! Dont' be sad, readers, keep that chin up, it's only for a few days. I have spent the last few hours packing. But its not like it took me that long to do the packing, it was like, grab some stuff, put it on the bed, watch TV. Grab more things, cross it off the list, watch some TV. Grab a snack, get more things, watch TV. So what should have been like, an hour long (at the most!) job turned into like a four-hour event. I can't help that I'm addicted to my TV! Plus, I'm leaving for like, 4 days! Do you know how much TV I'm recording in that amount of time?! I'll tell you - 12 - which is actually not much, but I'm leaving 10 hours of TV already on there, so it'll take some time to get all caught up!
I'm going to Disneyland - I know this is a surprise to everyone. I haven't been in a long time though, so everyone shouldn't judge me for how often I go! It's been since February! That's right, like 4 months! I'm excited to go, I wish it was a little longer of a trip, but it'll still be amazing.
Really, that's about all that I have for now. Don't be sad with no blog entries...except I wouldn't really have anything to write during the 4 days anyway, but I'll see if I can't wrangle up a good entry when I get back.

Ow ow ouch

I have not spent a lot of time outside this year. I mean, I work all day during the prime sunning hours, and then on the weekends, I do all of my errands that need to be done, then soccer games at night, so there is again not a time to really spend out in the sun, collecting myself a tan. I spent one afternoon out in the sun, and I got a little bit of a burn, but then the next day it was practically gone, so I forgot about it.
This Saturday, I was at a pool birthday party, and I was psyched, and for many reasons. A: I got to wear my cutie new swimsuit (for the first time this year!) and B: that meant prime sun time! Woo hoo! We got to the pool to do some swimmin', and wouldn't you know it, the sun was being hid by clouds. I was ticked- come on! My first day to spend outside, and clouds are there too?! Shoot! So we just started swimming, and kept at it. After an hour or so, the sun finally came out, and the clouds were all gone. We swam, and ate, and swam (without waiting the customary 30 minutes before getting back into the pool-I'm surprised we didn't drown!) and spent all day outside. I felt about halfway through the day that I had gotten some sun, and I was psyched-maybe I'd finally get a tan! By the time we were cleaning up and wrapping things up, I was feeling stiff. I actually looked at my skin and it was looking red. I shrugged it off, but a few hours later, I was in pain and my skin looked like a lobster. Wearing clothes was pretty impossible, and I felt like I could barely move. Sleeping that night was a joke-I had to sleep on my back, with only my head on the pillow-if my shoulders got on there, it killed me.
I woke up this morning, and I am still red. But I'm so red and burned that it almost has like a purple tinge to it. It hurts. I know this is my own fault for not being as diligent with my sunscreen as I should have been, but oh man. I regret the sun time a little. Showering this morning was ridiculous, and wearing clothes is like torture. Luckily, my face doesn't hurt as bad as my shoulders/neck/chest do, but making facial expressions hurt. I am radiating heat. People that sat next to me today commented on that, and I just had to laugh, as I was fanning myself off with anything I could find around me.
I will be applying aloe religiously, and avoiding the outdoors and heavy fabrics until the pain stops. Hopefully the pain will go away soon, and I'll peel all the red away. I'll be smarter in the future and hopefully this will be the only time this summer that I have a burn like this. I'm here as a cautionary tale to those who already know better but have forgotten. Only YOU can prevent sunburns. Well, you and the sunscreen you choose.

Hike!

I love to hike. I do it as often as I can, because come on, its great! You're up in the mountains...next to natures...or trying to avoid touching it...its all an adventure! Recently, Chelle and I have been hiking every week. They have been some awesome hikes, full of laughter and girlish screams as we trip or fall or something. We just did Stewart Falls, both ways of it (spanning two weeks-since we did one way one week and the other way the next week) and they were both good. This is basically a recap of the adventures and accidents.
The first week, we took the Alpine Loop up there, which is a great hike. There was a part, when we had first started going, that Chelle told me to go out in this field so she could take my picture. I obliged, and on my way, brushed up against some sort of stinging nettle. It burned my leg! It stung, and hurt and tingled, and by the time we got to the top, where the falls are, I had convinced myself that maybe the water there would be healing waters, so I put my leg in there. It neither helped nor hurt, so I just ate my fruit snacks and looked at the view. Chelle had a cut in her foot, she had gotten that earlier, and she decided to put her foot in the stream, maybe it would heal her too! Needless to say, we found out the next day, that no it hadn't, an infection or something had actually settled in instead! But good to know, for the future, that water isn't magic. Good tip.
The next week, we took the Sundance route up, which I thought would be easier, since you take the ski lift up and just hike down. At one point in it, I tripped while stepping over a log and ripped off half of my big toenail. Ouch! I should be paying more attention apparently! Then later, on the falls, Chelle tripped whilst going over the river. Holy cow are we clumsy! As we made our way back down the mountain, we heard, in the trees behind us, a big clatter, and a lot of tree movement. We stopped dead in our tracks, waiting, listening. Chelle, at this point, had swung me around so that I was in front of her-I'm pretty sure she was trying to sacrifice me if whatever it was came after us! There was more clatter and movement, and then, it stopped, and through the trees, all we could see was a big dark shape. Slowly, and quietly, we moved, kept making our way down the mountain. The entire way down, behind us (Well, more like, behind and to the side, since it was in the trees, not the trail) we could the trees moving, and then we'd turn and see a shape back there. Needless to say, I was like, freaking out at this point! We hurried as fast as we could, and got to the end safely, thank goodness!
I don't know if every hike will be this eventful, but I guess we'll keep having to go on them until we're pros at everything! I already know that should we ever be in trouble up there, our cell phones usually work, and I over-plan, so we'll have enough food for like, 3 weeks. And if nobody comes looking for us by that time, we can just become those crazy woods ladies.