anna's mad nature adventure

well. here we go, then. my legs burn.

i get dragged out of bed this morning by my mother, who wants me to go running, because i didn't go to fitness friday morning. so i get up. i put on my running shoes, take my slippas and cell phone (even though its dead) with me in a small backpack, and jog down from my house to the Salmon Creek baseball fields to Cougar Creek, were I jog the trail there for a while. that was alright. there was a baseball game, parents and coaches screaming madly at their kids to run like hell, you know the whole deal. so i jog back to Kline Line pond, and run around there for a little while, take off my shoes, wade in the water, put on my slippas. then i see this nice, rough little trail that goes back toward Cougar Creek. so i say "what the heck, i havent gone for a hike lately" and start down it, wearing shorts, slippas, and a t-shirt, with my hair down and in my face. early into the trek, i pick up a longish stick to wave in front of me, to brandish against spiders and the like. this became especially important after i look up from the trail to find that theres a spider dangling from my hair. calmly i remove it, because if i started jumping about, it might go down my shirt or something. so i go on. the trail gets more and more overgrown (it isnt paved, mind you), i keep going, demolishing spiders and thorns as i go. so far i've had the odd scrape from a branch, but no biggies.

i finally get to this one point where i have to go right or left. by now, i'm bending over slightly because the branches are all hanging so low. i'm having to whack more and more stuff out of my way. i've found another spider in my hair. wading through a thicket of thorns, i finally get to where the ground is slightly open, but theres a bunch of tall grasses that are slightly stamped down in places from where people have walked before. i keep following the very vague path down to Cougar Creek. I can see the paved path on the other side, and people running by on it. i can hear the baseball game at the fields. i get so close to civilization only to find this damn river in the way, thats too deep to wade safely, and i prefer not to come out of it looking like The Swamp Monster.

and then what? some brown, furry thing leaps out of the water and squeaks at me. i yelp, leap around, waving my stick at it, but its disappeared, and i can see some sort of animal den on the other side of the river. i stand there for several minutes, staring at the spot of water where it disappeared. finally, convinced it isnt coming back, i turn around and go up a different part of the trail that goes downstream. theres bugs. everywhere. and lots of grasses, thorns, and bushes. i reach the end of that part of the trail, and try wading into a dead end to see if i can get any further. i feel something stinging my legs, and i leap out of that spot to now find that i ran into some sort of malicious bush that attacked me. i now have little burning bumps all over my legs. i have a rash.

so now i say to myself "ok, god damn it, we're done, i'm leaving". and so i turn around to the end of the trail to enter back into the forest. i wade back through the clumb of blackberry bushes. i now have scratches on my arms and legs (im wearing shorts, remember, and slippas). everywhere i look theres spiders, on leaves, on branches, on logs, everywhere. i get another in my hair, and finally i shriek and leap about, combing madly at my hair with my fingers. my legs are burning. and now i'm fed up with nature. i go storming out of that path, my hair a mess, all sweaty, a rash on my legs, scratches all over. i flounce through the park, back across highway 99, and away home where i take a shower, wash another spider out of my hair, and put some lotion on my legs.

damn nature, i say. "outdoorsy people" are just people who like the idea of being in tune with nature and trekking ruggedly through the woods and braving the fearsome trees. they would not recognize real nature if it came up and hit them in the face. real nature is vicious.

and then at 4:40 i went and saw War of the Worlds with brownie. that was uber fun, we both got very freaked out by the scary aliens. it was really good, though. tom cruise was awesome. and hot. hes on my good list, now. actually i think he was on my good list before, but he was hot.

"they're from somewhere else..."

"...you mean like Europe?"

"no, robbie, not like Europe!"

it was actually a pretty funny movie. really good. kinda weird. but good.

-anna

sidenote: i have gummy bears, sour gummy worms, and pumpkin seeds. hella ya. and tuesday we're going to the beach with brownie and kevin. that'll be uber fun ^_^.