My Side of the Mountain/Story

For the record...

All summer long... no, let's go back further- all year long Quinn and I have wanted to take off for the weekend and spend some time together.  We both live so close to family and friends that it seems it is never just the two of us.  We finally picked this last weekend for the big trip... but there was a hitch.  Quinn got two speeding tickets and we ran out of money.  No problemo, we decided, we can still accomplish weekend-de-la-rekindle-the-relationship by heading up to the cabin for free.  I had really been looking forward to alone time with Q because A) it's hard to

 come by: everyone and their dog loves him, and 

2) we needed it because things have been rocky lately and we haven't been connecting. You can understand my surprise, then, when I mention that the day we were leaving, Q called and said he had invited his friends up for the night on Saturday.  Heck ya I was mad!  It was our weekend alone, one we had been planning for months, we needed it, and suddenly he's got the masses coming.  Setting the record straight:  I love Quinn's friends, they're great, and we do need to get them up to the cabin so they can become my friends too, but this was one

 weekend Q had agreed to supress his inner social butterfly.  What could I do?  I decided to put my foot down and retain my romantic weekend with 

Quinnihana.  I made him call his friends back and cancel, I told him to blame it on me, which is fine.  I need space anyway and I think his friends already think I'm weird (which is true... I have issues).  So, story out and about- sorry to everyone who thinks I put a kebash on their plans for nothing.  The last time I got away with just Quinn and only Quinn was so long ago I can't even remember it. We really needed it.

Now, for those who will feel better to know that it was

 a pretty miserable experience, here goes:  

We fought pretty much 

the whole time because I feel the inner need to converse and Q sees no reason for conversation for the sake of conversation.  Also, I had another one of my bi-monthly meltdowns over finances. On top of that, we hiked Pine Valley Mountain and it was wretched.  We've done it twice before but this time it KILLED us!  17 miles up B

rowns, across Summit, and down Forsythe.  I don't know if it was the humidity or what b

ut my heavy panting and lung-gasping for air never did quite level out.  It was torture and somehow I, a 28 year old tap teacher, managed to throw out a hip

and couldn't sleep all night.  Sheesh!  They must have added a few miles and several switchbacks since last we hiked the mountain.

Quinn literally collapsed more than once on the trail and I started swearing at the 15 mile mark. At one point I was so delusional that I swore I was being stocked by a mountain lion and yelled for Quinn to "WAIT UP" for half an hour.

The good news is that it's been raining up there so the trail was unrecognizably green and we actually belined straight to the Forsythe

 trailhead down in the flats (which has never happened)!  

The avalanche is still very visible and we met some interesting cowboys up in the meadows.  Because it had been so stressful and excrutiatingly painful, we treated ourselves to Brandin' Iron when we made it down... Not quite the splurge, we stuck to beans, salad, and bread in lou of the budget.  

So, I apologize for canceling Quinn's impromtu party that he never told me about until the day we were leaving on our romantic get-away.  If you don't hate us, please come to the cabin next month.  We are planning a big bash and you're all invited... even if you hate me.