Edit: as it turns out, this is a pretty boiler-plate "what i did on my summer vacation" type post, because i'm writing more out of a need to have a record more than anything else. i'm so drained and overwhelmed that i don't have much more in me right now. Not my best work.
So. Thor'sday:
Wake up, set feet on ground, and regret it immediately. look down to confirm worst suspicions about bloody lumpy state of blistered feet. resolve not to give a shit about foot pain for at least three days, hobble to convention.
Field various hydrology questions, curse water, and feet. catch some interesting lectures by hatcher and steltenpohl, try not to look too excited when "friendly" argument breaks out over orientation over such-and-such fault. make mental note to be utterly certain and meticulous in future research efforts in order to avoid ever being on the losing end of such a debate.
Drink a bit and run around town defiantly denying growing foot death during lunch break, return, catch some more talks, make for dinner with the crowd, have enlightening though somewhat depressing conversation with teachers and usgs folk about the current calibre of grunt-level survey "geologists," take some pretty pictures against brilliant sunset with liz and ashley.
head to hotel, drink two or three warm trunk beers in rapid succession, stumble back to town for exciting after dark ghost walk of old wilmington (yess, the website is terrrible). have to say i was excited about this all day, having found a flier for it walking around by myself the previous day, then spending many conversations trying to rope folks into going with me. like i may have said, i was determined to be a good tourist this time around, and things like ghost walks just fall into that category so well. i was pumped.
and it was awesome. there's nothing like walking around a proper historic district on a dark and windy night and being told ghost stories. the guide was cool enough that ashmac and i deemed him drinkworthy, and after the tour we did more of wilmington after dark. good tourists indeed! if i were a better writer, this is where i would have told you all about the sound of water lapping under the river walk, and rooftop bars with magnificent twinkling views of old wilmington, and ancient theaters, alive, empty and lonesome with long shadows and groaning creaks, and frightening old architecture, roofs caved in with trees growing up to the sky outside, and the way the city seems unwilling to let anything go, inhabiting every haunted or hallowed corner, writing new stories between the crumbling lines of lurid and violent history.
if i were a better writer, that's what i would write about. but i forget so much. it's 5 nights later now, and so many of the details of this trip have faded already that i'm really beginning to understand the merits of carrying around a pen and viable paper at all time.
friday morning was for being tired and deciding that all of the sessions that day were just too wet for my liking, and so after a short recoup/curse my feet session, the rest of friday was all about walking in insane patterns around old town, just me and my headphones and my feet, just the way it used to be -- just the way i love it. if there's one thing i miss about tallahassee, it's being able to walk across town in the middle of the night, for whatever reason. just having that simple option makes me feel so free and light, that i can walk all night without noticing the pain.
saturday i left.
now i've been home for four days. it feels like four hours. it's been a blur. i was home alone sat and sun nights, a surreal experience after the last hypersocial week. basically all i did was watch doctor who, try not to walk, and try not to think about the amount of work on my plate. if at any point the distractions faded, a sinking and lonely case of post-trip sadness would sink in the cracks.
i've always been a sad sack after trips, or holidays, or deadlines, or after anything that i've spent a long time looking forward to or working for ends.. but now, just like every day for the last month, i've got too much work on my plate to wallow. i'll probably be out in front of it again just in time for the next bout of insane scheduling to set in. it goes: april 6th, 7th, 10th: concerts in asheville. all school nights. april 11th-12th: research in the capitol presentations and probably more touristing. april 13th: awards dinner cause i'm so. fucking. cool. april 15th-17th: petrology field trip to mount rogers.
if i've got this much underlying post-trip sadness now, what am i going to feel like when it's all actually over? probably fucking freaked out cause it's finals and presentations right after that.
the work is never going to end.
long live wilmington.
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