adventure, excitement... and retail

Saturday found me waking up after only four hours of sleep and packing (since I only ever do things at the last minute). I met Anna about thirty seconds before climbing into her car and setting out for... adventure!
Actually, the first part involved finding our way to her horseback riding lesson, and me reading Walden Two, and talking to my Aunt BeaJo (as opposed to the sleeping I'd hoped to do). But then... adventure!
Actually, before adventure came excitement: 1) good conversation, 2) awesome new music, and 3) Aberdeen. I was ridiculously giddy to exprience this small town. I was too excited to see it subjectively--this is where Kurt Cobain grew up, so I couldn't imagine it being as small and lame as it was. It was pretty, because all of Washington is, as far as I've seen. There were highschool students outside the supermarket offering free car washes, free bottled water, and free flowers. When we asked why they were doing it, they told us they were just doing something nice. Awesome. But otherwise, it really did appear to be a Logging Town. (But the best part: the sign, "Welcome to Aberdeen, Come As You Are.")
I stood on the muddy bank and took a picture of the Wishkah for Kim, and then we got back on the road... to adventure!

Of course, when I had made the decision to go on a camping trip, I also made the decision to go relatively unprepared. I had enough to survive--peanut butter, honey, trail mix, clothes. But the comforts and conveniences? Not so much. That just wouldn't be "me." Anna was kind enough to lend a spare sleeping bag and pad, and we purchased all kinds of food in Aberdeen (roasting mushrooms over a fire along with hot dogs and garlic bread? awesome). So really all I lacked would be the boots (which I left in Tucson). Waterproof? Ankle support? Screw that, I decided to abuse my red Chucks instead.
So that's the set up; now here's the setting: We hiked several miles of trail (well maintained, not very physically taxing) into the Hoh Rain Forest. It was amazing, but the description does no justice: very large trees, very green everything, the wonderful sound of the Hoh River, small waterfalls and streams to navigate around (or most often, through).
Three miles in, we set up camp. The exciting part here: we had to put our food up, out of the reach of bears. At this particular camping site, they had a line set up on a pulley, so we could clip our food to the line and raise it like a flag. We were told that the bears wouldn't bother us, but if a bear got into someone's food, they would learn to follow future campers and bother them. So if a bear gets into someone's food, then the park is shut down and they kill that bear. So we kept to food up.
Then we enjoyed further hiking without our weighty packs, which left us more free and comfortable to enjoy some of what we'd been walking past. There was one fallen tree in oarticular in which I could have parked my car. There were trees that had grown together in interesting ways. And, my favorite, there were trees that gave the impression of dancing.
There was also an interesting spot that grabbed my interest without explanation. It was like that spot in Mammoth Cave that grabbed me last year, where it had been closed for decades after a tunnel collapsed. Haunting. Intriguing.
We also met a fellow named Andy from Wisconsin who looked like Pestilence from Good Omens, but seemed like my friend Kyle. He asked if we were married, hah.
We met up with him again at the five-mile point--it was beautiful there, but he was moving on to a less populated spot, and we turned back to get to camp by dark.
We failed to figure out the cooking contraption she'd brought, and we spent the next three hours building and maintaining a fire.

It was remarkably nice to wake up in a rain forest. Our camp was right by the water, so once we convinced ourselves to leave the tent (for me, this meant I had to put on my cold, wet shoes), we started up another fire and had lunch. Looking at the river, Anna spotted a tree in the river which would be awesome for sitting on & reading. So I set about for a way to cross the river (meanwhile, she satisfied herself to crash in the sand and read instead).
This was fun, because it involved walking out on one fallen tree, and turning onto another fallen tree... this section of the river had collected probably hundreds of trees, and there were enough big ones connecting at odd angles to form an entire road system, resulting in a maze of huge dead trees. Eventually I found a way to cross, which at the end involved dangling from a tree and dropping--not far, but enough that I would have to find another way back.
At this point, though, I was just on a small island, still only halfway across the river, and there were no more trees to find my way to the tree I was looking for. But there were elk tracks on my little island. Weird.
Anyway, to get back was an adventure. I found myself walking to the very end of one branch and jumping to the next, or to the ground... I would normally be terrified, and maybe it was a result of being so far removed from my usual habitat, but I was pretty okay with it. A little nervous, but all it took to keep moving was to remember that the worst case scenario was I'd fall a few feet into a river. And I can swim.

I found Anna crashed in the sand, and went back to the tent and crashed as well. Considering we each had to be at work in the morning, we should have left much earlier, but too good a time was had to give it up. We did eventually pack up, though, and set out towards the car, and stopping to contemplate one of the streams before resigning to walk though it, and also to admire a gathering of elk in the trail. It was practically dark when we made it back to the car. Driving out of the park, we almost hit an elk and a cougar, and we did hit a rabbit and an owl. How does a bird get hit by a car? Wtf?
The drive back was highlighted by a conversation about heroes--who are they, and what makes them so? This is a subject that occupies my mind much of the time. Socrates tops my list of heroes: when faced with death, he was given options to avoid it. He could leave Athens. He could say he was sorry, and promise to not go about corrupting the youth any more. But instead he remained committed to his personal view: He had done nothing wrong. Not only that, but his accusers were doing themselves and their country a disservice by bringing this about.
So for me, it's a matter of conviction--living by the words you claim are worth living by. But not only conviction... one figure who commonly finds himself in my conversations of heroism is Adolf Hitler. I don't consider him a hero of mine, however he seems to possess any number of attributes I use in identifying the people who I do. So I still haven't figured exactly what it is that makes someone my hero...
This subject actually grew out of a conversation about lying--when is it better to lie? I contend that it never is. It's a gun I sometimes fail to stick by, but that does not mean I think I've ever made the better choice when I've done it...
Anyway, our five-hour drive went on like this until I finally got home at 2:00AM.

8:45 found me at the Barnes & Noble in Issaquah. I love the fact that, when hard-up for a job, I can count on walking out of a B&N with one. Ideally I'd prefer to work in a cool independent store, but really, I won't complain if I'm working with books at all.
The store's a bit of a drive (25-30 minutes each way), but that drive is a beautiful one. I cross the Puget Sound twice each direction, as I approach and leave Mercer Island. And Issaquah has a bit of a snobby feel, but it's real nice. Our store has a huge duck pond behind it, and across that pond is a rad sitting area, and a Red Robin. And our side of the pond has a movie theatre and a Trader Joes.
And the store is quite small--if you took the music section out of Tucson's store, the Issaquah store is half the size of what would be left. The receiving room, where I'll be working mostly, is a third of Tucson's. That means it's cramped. And it's a completely different vibe--all the employees are wicked different from those I've worked with before. It's a very political feel, but not at all uncomfortable. I guess it's really just about people who place importance on very different things from what I'm used to. We listen to NPR. We recycle the packing stuffs.
And it's a retail job, so I won't talk too much about it.

Anyway, I'm going to get moving... it's 1:00PM, and I haven't done anything today (except watch The Discovery Channel, and this). I've got to get into town and do some laundry, and buy the new Dresden Dolls CD (and talk myself out of seeing Indiana Jones, and buying the new Roots CD...)