Civilization

Camping is over!! I took a shower!!

I feel sort of bad for Ben, because camping with me must have been the most annoying experience of his life. It's really not that I even hate camping; I don't mind sleeping in the tent, I don't mind bathing in the river, I don't mind eating camp food, and I actually really love hiking. Some spiders got on me, and I only screamed once. Unfortunately, I forgot all about the good experiences every night when it got dark. You might not have realized this, but: a) I'm really, truly afraid of the dark, and b) it gets insanely dark in the Oregon woods. Needless to say, I became annoying after sunset every evening, and began going to sleep at sundown just so I wouldn't have to huddle around the fire in paranoia.** Because, of course, you never know when the rocks might rise up and stone you to death in the night. Also, serial killers are actually shape-shifters who take the form of old stumps every night. No matter how many times you shine your flashlight on them, they will remain in stump form, but don't be fooled -- they're coming to get you.

But anyway, I'm in Seattle now, safe and sound. I arrived this evening, and Kenzie picked me up, took me to dinner, and showed me around the Microsoft complex (which is pretty much a small city). The train ride up was pretty uneventful, and the scenery was nice. The woman sitting next to me spent pretty much the entirety of the 3 hour ride applying make-up, and even managed to somehow paint her nails. I was somewhat curious about why she was doing this, but she was obviously a big talker and I wasn't about to start any sort of conversation with her (I know this because she managed to tell me that she had rheumatoid arthritis even though I had headphones on). Luckily, the woman across from us asked her some sort of question, so I got to passively eavesdrop on them while pretending to listen to music; it turns out that she was meeting one of her ex-boyfriends from 30 years ago. They dated when she was 20 (she's 50 now), and hadn't seen each other since, but she had a dream about him last month so she looked him up and he invited her for a visit. Odd!

**re: the fire... the only joy of having night fall, of course, was the treat of getting to sit around a nice fire. Unfortunately, one night a rock in the center of the fire got too hot and exploded, sending flaming wood and hot embers everywhere. I am now almost as afraid of campfires as I am of the dark.