hello, rei

how impressive is it that i got my backpack AND my pink shorts AND my boots in one shot? i spent a good amount of last night at rei, bugging the employees about which water filter they thought was best and the benefits of using a dry compression sack over, say, a grocery bag. i felt kind of silly asking all these fairly basic questions and then telling them i was going to hike across north carolina, but hey, i am. one guy overheard me in the store, he's going to hike the AT starting in a couple weeks, and he had the gall to come up to me and tell me he didn't think most of the MST would be that interesting. well, sir, i don't think YOU'RE that interesting. he's not from here, he doesn't get it. i grew up here, a tar heel born and bred, and i have loved the mountains and the sea and now i'm going to connect the two and see everything in between as well. i left  rei with just a 4 oz bottle of dr. bronner's, a collapsible toothbrush, and a trowel (confession: i have never pooped in the woods and i'm not excited about it) but i'd made a wish list too, walked around the store and beeped things in like i'm getting married, and now it feels like those last few items are more mine, i have named them and claimed them, and they and a few months are all that stands between me and the start of my epic journey. 

and more snow

the power was out most of yesterday, and i had to resist the urge to wish all the duke energy workers a merry christmas when i was out walking bix to kaitlin's, praying that the electricity would be back on by the time we got home.  the walk back down our street was a little extra magical because yes - their light is on, and yes - their light is on, and look, they have twinkle lights wrapped around their railing that yes - are on.  and when we walked in the front door, nothing made me happier than to see the little red light on the dvd player lit up.  snow frolicking is a million times better if afterwards you can a) shower and b) curl up in your cozy house with a homemade pizza.  so that is what i did.

how can i explain that we took this personally?

man walks into a room

nicole krauss

february is the worst

the only good thing about february is that it's the shortest month of the year.

in chapel hill, it's when we get hit hardest with winter: right when we decide we're fed up with cold weather and will it just get warm already, BOOM, there's the snow we'd been waiting for back in december when we all felt cheerful and christmasy.  and for half a second, you say HOORAY IT'S SNOWING but as soon as it turns to ice - which it inevitably does - you remember it's not what you wanted at all.

but i am glad it snowed: i went sledding, threw a couple good snowballs, got a couple quiet workdays in, and didn't bust my butt on the ice once.  my mountain blood kicks in for a little and i am not cold and the world is beautiful and we get to dance in the snowbanks.

no-poo update

so.  no-poo.  if my hair were bob-length, i think things would be going beautifully.  that part of my hair dries in these lovely glossy waves.  the part below that, not so much.  it's straw-like and staticky as all get out, which isn't a problem i've evvver had before.  i'd just done the baking soda/acv thing on tuesday, so i didn't want to do it again, but i went to the gym last night and got sweaty and wanted to wash my hair with something and i'd seen eggs and honey as alternate recommendations.  so i tried the egg first and it was not a good experience (eggsperience).  it was slimy and gross and i think my water might be too hot because i'm pretty sure when i rinsed it out, little bits of egg got cooked in my hair, and that's just not a thing i'm going for.  so i did the honey, which was fine??  i diluted it with shower water and my hair/scalp doesn't feel dirty.

this is how i feel: you're supposed to hang in there for at least three months for the transition period.  i started on february 7, and while my hair is definitely transitioning, it's not doing the greasy thing i anticipated, which means that i'm putting heat protectant on my hair and straightening it, which probably isn't helping the coarse, straight, damaged feeling after it dries and before i've done anything to it, not to mention i've got some hardcore split ends going on (sorry, dad).  i'm going to keep going full steam ahead, even though my suave keratin shampoo is calling to me from the corner of the shower, and by the time the three months are over, i'll only be a couple months out from embarking on my epic journey, so why stop then?  not sure if this is a good thing or not, but it's probably related: my hair seems to be drying faster than usual.  and i'm hoping, like lots of bloggers have promised, that it'll grow faster too, because mermaid hair.

so that's what's happening in my hair world.

other news: i'm not snowed in at all anymore, i went to mike's gym last night and my legs feel like wet noodles, it was 7 degrees when i woke up this morning, and (spoiler alert) mindy lahiri is pregnant (!!!)

snow puppy

having a dog seems a lot like having a child in a lot of ways, and one of those ways is how excited i am to see him experience things.  the beach!  the river!  snow!!  good news: he loves it.

snow and eating, eating and snow

this weekend!  sarah and i drove up friday night (no crashing macaroni grill in our onesies this time, sorry world) aka galentine's day, and danielle had decorated the place with streamers and those triangle flag things and gotten us galentine's presents, because she is the best friend ever and truly knows how to celebrate friendship.

we went skiing/snowboarding (helloooo muscles) and we'd been kind of worried about it being too cold but honest to goodness we could not have had better weather for the slopes.  it was sunny and beautiful and just warm enough that i swapped my underarmor for a long sleeved tshirt and then it real-snowed a little bit and i made it down the mountain several times without breaking anything and didn't spend TOO much time on my butt and was even successful getting off the ski lift over 50% of the time.  and sarah was a champ, and danielle was a pro, and we all had the greatest time and ate great snacks and decided that we each had two or three runs left at the same time.

and then the eating started.

we got hokkaido takeout because obviously and ate it while we watched friends.  let me clarify: we ate it while we binge-watched eleven episodes of friends, the galentine's episode from parks and rec, the anna howard shaw day episode of 30 rock, two more episodes of 30 rock for good measure, and when harry met sally.  it was glorious.  PLUS danielle baked us amazing things (strawberry chocolate chip cookies pictured above) and we made a cheese plate and a grape plate and drank cranberry ginger ale like our lives depended on it.  and outside it was snowing and the wind was blowing like crazy and oh boone, i missed you.  it was the best valentine's day ever.

and then!!  we braved the 6-degree weather to introduce danielle to waffle house and get sarah some coffee (worth it) and looked at yachts on air b&b and packed our stuff up and pointed george weasley the hyundai elantra down the mountain and went on our way.  as self-appointed road trip queens, sarah and i have a lot of traditions.  examples: never listen to david sedaris unless you want to fall asleep, sing all the words you know to girl talk, and always get soda shaq.

soda shaq is this weird beverage made by arizona iced tea and sponsored, bizarrely enough, by shaquille o'neal.  there are four flavors (vanilla, orange, blueberry, and strawberry) and each flavor has a different picture of shaq on it.  soda shaq.  i found it at a 7 eleven one day and never looked back, and when i introduced sarah to it, it was clear that we needed soda shaq every time we took a drive together that lasted more than two hours.  and then, suddenly, 7 eleven stopped carrying soda shaq.  we know because we stopped at three of them on our way back from erika's and then called about five more, and then contacted both 7 eleven and arizona via facebook/email until arizona finally answered and said "check cvs!"  so lo and behold, we went into this dinky cvs in wilkesboro of all places, and there was shaq's face smiling up at us.  and all was right with the world again.

and then i got bix, who had stayed with my dad, and he was SO EXCITED TO SEE ME HIHIHIHIHI so i scooped him up and took him home and we played and played and played and then i got in bed to read and he snuggled up with me and, you know, having a dog is just the best.

boone is the place for perfect days. 

feelings i have about the reactions towards fifty shades of grey:

sexual violence and domestic abuse are awful and should not be glorified in any way.

all violence and abuse is awful and should not be glorified in any way.

i have never noticed any movie that glorifies violence receiving the kind of criticism that fifty shades has received, and while yes! this is great! we should be having discussions about the glorification of violence in films and how that affects people's acceptance of violence on and off screen! -- is this because it's a movie that focuses on violence and abuse whose target audience is women instead of men?

i do not.

last night we were watching bachelor, cause that's what we do on tuesdays, and working out very hard (ahem!) and the added bonus was that because sarah no longer works until 9 on tuesdays she could come too so sarah and aileen and i had a nice little girls night watching chris mack on all the girls and the girls talk crap about each other.

and then a thing happened.  a thing on the bachelor.

britt is this gorgeous little angel-human with killer hair who puts on makeup before she goes to bed, just in cases.  she and chris kissed on the verrrrry first night, and he gave her the first impression rose, and i think she's beautiful but maybe kind of uppity and a tad bit whiny and sort of a diva.  anyway, she and carly were talking because everyone else was on a group date, and carly reveals that britt (DUN DUN DUNNNN) doesn't shower.  not like, never, but not like, often either.

and then my heart said SOUL SISTER!! because the closest thing i have ever found to a spirit animal is this pigeon:

i mean i do shower, of course, but that doesn't mean i have to like it.  or do it evvvvvery day.  and now i like britt 4862130498 times more, even though the rest of the bachelorettes seem fairly disgusted.  dirty hippies (but not too dirty, please and thank you) for the win!