I think we’re a bit overdue for another open thread for personal stuff. As per usual, no trolls, no flames, no being a butthead.
I’ll paste in some recent personal comments from other threads.
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Open Thread for Personal Stuff: November Rain Edition
That sounds either like someone who just isn’t that into you, or is an alcoholic.
Super long comment ahead:
Yesterday I went on a hike with my older brother, a cousin of mine, and a friend. We went to this large state park close to Morgan Hill, CA. It was the scariest and most difficult hike of our lives.
It started out pretty nicely – the weather was just right, the sky was clear, and the fall colors were beautiful. Eventually, we reached a point where a large, dried-up creek intersected through the trail we were on. We decided to hike down the entire creek because it was dry and because we thought it would be a much shorter trip than taking the trail all the way to the top of a large hill.
The creek, as we expected, was very rocky and treacherous. But we thought we were going to reach a junction halfway through that would help us get back to the starting point much faster, so we kept hiking. Things got a bit scarier once we saw two deer carcasses – one that was very old and dried up and another one that was just recently disemboweled by a cougar. So basically we were at a high risk of being attacked by cougars in that creek area.
Once we had reached the junction, we found it to be an extremely steep dried-up trench going all the way up the side of the hill. Not only was it too dangerous for us to take as a shortcut, but it seemed like it would take longer than expected and my friend sprained his ankle again earlier. I insisted that we keep going down the creek since it was the only route we knew would take us to the place we needed to go. Eventually we all decided to keep going down the creek.
At this point, it was about 6:00 PM – the sky was getting very dark, and my vision got way worse. All of us were experiencing severe fatigue and anxiety. The path ahead of us was starting to get pitch black and nearly impossible to safely navigate. And then we reached a point where we could climb up a large hill next to the creek – we climbed it because we thought it would help us figure out where we were.
By the time we had gone up halfway up the hill, it was 7:30 PM – the sky was completely dark. We had lost hope in getting through the creek because it was so dark and dangerous, so we decided to camp on the hill until the early morning and then continue our hike. We had no cell phone signal at all, but then I managed to get signal for ~5 minutes and called the visitor’s center of the park – I only had time to briefly tell him about the creek we were going on and the train that intersected with the creek.
Because I wasn’t able to say much on the phone, we lost hope in getting help from a park ranger. I started having panic attacks and crying my eyes out because I was afraid of cougars finding us and making our families worried and upset, wondering where we were. I was also feeling horrible because I had lost the park map, which wasn’t very useful for anyone TBH but I still felt like everything was my fault. Everyone else managed to help me calm down eventually, but I was still terrified. Even my friend, who has a tendency to distance himself from others, consoled me and patted my back – that helped me the most for some reason. Later on, we all huddled together next to a tree since it was starting to get chilly.
And then my brother heard a car driving in the distance. He got up immediately and started screaming at the top of his lungs to get the driver’s attention. I got up too and started waving my cell phone light and screaming “HELP! WE’RE ON THE OTHER SIDE!” A light came from the car (probably from a flashlight) and then after more yelling from all of us, we heard a voice coming from that side, telling us to keep going down the creek and to meet him somewhere along the path. We were suddenly filled with adrenaline and rushed down the hill, which was very dangerous to navigate at night – one wrong move and one of us would have been tumbling down the hill towards a creek bed full of sharp rocks and boulders. We were starting to lose hope again until we FINALLY saw a flashlight in the distance and the man approaching.
He helped us get out of the creek every step of the way. And he said that he received a call from the visitor’s office about someone calling about being stuck in a certain creek intersecting with a trail. In other words, someone at the visitor’s center actually told the ranger about my call. We were so fucking grateful that the call actually helped. Not only did we need the ranger to help us find our way out and drive us to the place we parked at, but we also needed his help in crossing the most dangerous part of the creek: a sharp drop into a shallow pool of water with rocks at the bottom. Without his help, we would have probably died trying to cross that part since the rocks were very slippery and wet. Somewhere along the way my brother pulled his calf muscle and we had to wait for him to recover for about 5 minutes. The sky was beautiful – it’s rare to see so many stars in the sky. We were even able to see the Milky Way galaxy.
Around 10:00 PM we finally got to the ranger’s SUV, and he drove us up to the parking spot we were at. And then we thanked him profusely and left the park. Since we were exhausted and we couldn’t go into a sit-down restaurant because my brother’s shorts were ripped open from behind (we had to do a lot of sliding), we decided to go through a Taco Bell drive-thru and get copious amounts of junk food. And then my brother and I dropped off my cousin and my friend and we went straight to bed.
I’m so grateful all of us survived. This hike has been a life-changing experience. We stuck together and managed to stay safe even though we were all completely unprepared. We are never going to hike down a creek again, but I think the experience was valuable in many ways. I feel so grateful that there are still people out there who are willing to lend a much-needed helping hand – the ranger told us that, even if he didn’t receive the call, he would be up all night trying to look for us.
I like this photo I took at work this morning:
http://sdrv.ms/1cxWxls
That sounds harrowing, Ally. It’s easy to forget how quickly you can get so very miserable as the weather turns sour, you’re tired and don’t quite have your bearings. Luckily I’ve never been in quite as dire a spot, I only remember hikes with the scouts going somewhat awry with the worst rainfall in years striking the night we were going to camp out.
Ally, that must have been very scary indeed.
Ally: That’s an experience all right. I’m glad it worked out well.
@Ally, that sounds like a terrifying experience! I’m glad you got out ok, and that you were able to find something important in it.
So, this is really petty compared to everything everyone else is dealing with right now, but I’m doing NaNoWriMo and am kinda regretting it. The whole miserable lack of self-confidence I get when I try to focus on my writing is coming through full-force. I still think I can pull through, but I think this is gonna be a tough month…
@DireSloth:
The miserable lack of self confidence is part of the entire idea. Keep at it! It all starts with the worst mess possible made better bit by bit, which I’m sure it will.
@Thread:
And I thought I had a bit of a bad day because I lost a favorite tree of mine in a recent storm. Disability! Psych fallibility! People irritability! Navigational sillery. At least my loss is just of a metaphorical kind, not an actual dead relative.
Good luck, people. I am sorry to hear things are less than optimal, and I hope they become much, much better soon.
Commiserations, condolences, virtual puppy-hugs for those who need them (and virtual beatdowns for evildoers)!
I’ve been lurking sporadically because I’m currently rest-home shopping, for my not-so-old but sadly recently brain-damaged mother. It’s… um, interesting. And exhausting. Comparing the shiny brochures with the Ministry of Health audits is headache-inducing. There’s also the guilt. So far, the whole family/friends network has been supportive, but then there are the times when I’m visiting Mum in hospital and she’s in a terrible mood and she’s begging me to take her home and there’s just no way.
Plus there’s the whole cultural idea of a rest home being where you dump your elderly relatives when you get tired of them (thank you so much, Simpsons!) My grandmother spent years railing against the very notion of going to a rest home, even when she could barely move due to two types of arthritis and she would fall over and be stuck for hours at a time. Didn’t help that the first rest home she ended up in was so crap that she broke her hip there (with no trace of osteoporosis either so it was an almighty tumble she took, with someone supposedly helping her!)
Gah, all the stress-induced headaches (tension AND migraine, yay!) at the moment make me think I’m headed for a brain haemorrhage myself. Hey, there’s family history of it on all sides, but my GP doesn’t think I need a scan or anything. Maybe she thinks with any luck a painkiller overdose will get me first. Or I’ll wander out in traffic because I can’t see straight.
You guys can have all the booze from my self-pity party because I’m trying to avoid the hangover!
ha ha, so many parentheses with exclamation marks
Hugs for all, there’s some rotten stuff going down.
Ally, that sounds terrifying, I’m glad you all made it okay.
Kim, I am SO sorry about Harvey. Extra hugs.
Fi, you have all my internet support. I’m the designated decider for when my dad is no longer capable of making decisions (his father died of Alzheimer’s, and he’s terrified of it, and fully expecting it to descend upon him at any moment). The good news is, he really doesn’t display any of the signs Grandpa did, and is way older than Grandpa was at the time. But still, not something I look forward to at all.
On a positive note, having burned my cookies last night, I threw them out this morning (after eating six of them anyway) and made a grain-free banana bread with pineapple chunks and pecans. Very nice.
I’m so sorry for all the losses and struggles people are experiencing. I really wish I had some good advice, but everything I can think of sounds stupid.
I signed up for NaNo but haven’t started it yet. I love the idea of my book floating around in my head, and I know it will turn to crap as soon as I try to write it down.
::drools::
Yeah, does that banana bread travel well via email? 😉
The recipe:
http://paleomg.com/hummingbird-bread/
I haven’t started mine either, but tomorrow is my official start (I’m doing Candy Haven’s FastDraft at the same time, and it goes way faster. You write 20 pages per day).
Last year was the first time (after about 5 attempts) that I actually won NaNo. The most amazing thing I learned was that stuff that I think is shit while I’m writing it is actually pretty good when I go back and read it later (and I’ve forgotten how much more beautiful it was in my head).
Also, Forward Momentum! Even if it’s shit, write it down. If you end up with pages of “This is my next sentence. What do I write now? Why did I even start this stupid thing?”, all those words count toward your daily goal, and you can ditch them in your editing phase, AFTER November.
Ooh, that recipe, so many coconut products! Love coconut in all its forms.Thanks!
That recipe looks so easy, but I’m just betting our supermarket wouldn’t have tapioca flour or half the other ingredients, for that matter. This place isn’t quite a food desert but by god, it’s dictated by the stocking of Coles and Woolworths, and they just stock the same stuff.
Grrr.
But I’m buying the groceries today, so dammit I’m adding those to the list just in case I’ve underestimated ’em!
Kittehs, you could probably just use a cup of regular flour, and a half cup of regular sugar instead. I’m doing the grain-free thing because gluten makes me depressed and anxious.
Hugs and beagle kisses to all who want them.
I am giving a giant middle finger to the corporate retail big shots in the USA. Seriously, Black Fucking Friday does NOT need to start on THANKSGIVING. There is NO reason that people need to be shopping on 5pm Thanksgiving – and making poor retail workers work on that day.
Fortunately, I am not expected to be in work until midnight, but still WTF! It would be nice if you considered your employees to be human just this ONCE (cause Ceiling Cat forbid you give them benefits or anything). And yes, Big shots, I blame YOU not the people shopping on that day- just because some people are assholes and do not realize that associates are *gasp* people who might want to spend time with family/friends and relax does not mean you should cater to their every whim. The customer is NOT always right, something you might actually know if you had to spend any amount of time with said customer. So FUCK YOU. FUCK YOU right in your holiday bonus.
Thank you manboobzers for listening. Here is your regularly scheduled pictures of Cute:
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/33/88/70/338870ef417b8035e66882f5a546ea03.jpg
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/ce/61/9e/ce619e173d6ed31ad9bb1ab7afd01be0.jpg
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/60/82/9f/60829f17ee207977a8778ac0c293af8b.jpg
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/42/eb/d3/42ebd3fd645243b36de78ce2359a2f19.jpg
They’re making you do a midnight shift?
WTF?
On top of all the other things you said (totally agree), do you normally work daylight shifts? What the hell sort of hours are these?
WRATH
Oh, FFS. Neuroticbeagle, your corporate overlords are assholes. I know you knew that, but it needed to be said.
Also, Fall Back Day. I like the extra hour, but I DO NOT like the fact that it’s 5:20 pm and pitch black outside. I hate winter.
We only close two days a year. Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
But, all in all, the only day we have to work is inventory. The rest is pretty much work around. I got told last year I should have taken the weekend around Christmas off. This year I might.
Neuroticbeagle: that fucking blows. I refuse to go out on Black Firday, and I’m sure as shit not going to interrupt my turkey coma to go out on Thanksgiving Day.
I hope the greedy assholes who thought this up get something very itchy in a sensitive place that doesn’t respond to any creams.