So not to go on and on about the last almost two weeks, but Matt has been overwhelmed with his work schedule, not so happy with his lack of free time, so allowing him a little time to figure it out, I believe if we care about each other as much as I believe we do and we talk we will figure out how to make this work, there is nothing wrong with this guy, he just works a lot, a lot ! I do believe that it will happen naturally because I have never met someone I felt so compatible with, at 32 I feel I know myself pretty well and here is this guy who I dream about cute little old houses at the base of a mountain, having a slew of dogs and just being. Yes the kind of guy to get all types of domestic with, so just need to have some patience and hope that it works out this way. Sigh patience is not one of my strengths, and over-thinking is my downfall, breathe Crystal… I need to have a little faith which has never been easy for me.

Anyway time to get our tushes in gear, it’s the wedding day.. Congrats Mike and Samantha!

The first night we only hikes about 4 miles in to set up camp, cook dinner, battle a short rain storm which ended our campfire early and sleep 12 hours, we both had limited sleep the night before and were exhausted. Saturday morning we got going around 8am and with one wrong turn hiked about 18 miles on that 80 degree day, I had forgot to tape my heels up on Friday night so I ended Saturday with bleeding feet, and exhausted. We found what Matt coined as an Oasis at mile 16, where those who only want to do half the hike park, it had a water pump, picnic tables and a composting toilet, so a nice 30 minute break there before hiking 3 1/2 more miles. We set up camp on mile 19.3, we had hoped for the spot at almost 20 miles because it was on a Vista but of course it was already occupied, so we set up camp and didn’t even have fire because we were both tired, so we ate dinner and headed to the tent to sleep what was another 12 hour night. I was up a few times because being situated next to a river made me have to pee on a couple occasions.

Sunday was another 80 degree sunny, day what I would have gave for some cloud cover, especially since a few miles was through fields of Mountain Laurel and not very dense Beech trees. It was a tough day for me, my feet were hurting and my back was sort of tired from carrying over 45 lbs of weight on it. We did the last 11.5 miles on that day getting to the Southern trail head around 4:30. We were hungry so we made our way back to Wellsboro to have a beer and food to find the place we were going to eat had a limited menu on a Sunday night, meaning they were out of everything but Chicken Cheese Steaks, so we had our celebratory beer and headed the direction of home, stopping in Tioga for dinner at a family style restaurant, where we were the youngest customers, to the point the teenage waitress “explained” to me how to sign a credit card receipt. Matt drove the whole way back home as putting shoes on was not an option for me and we made it home around 1:30am.

Here are some pics, which fall in no particular order… Crystal and Matt’s Backpacking Adventure, 33.6 miles total in 48 hours…. The parts of the trail near the rim were amazing, there was some miles where you were just in the woods, endless u-turns crossing water, some with footbridges, some with slick rocks, some just barely any seasonal water. It was an adventure, 33.6 miles is my longest weekend backpack yet, and 18 in one day is my longest day of hiking. Overall it was good…

Well the past week or so has been busy and chaotic. Dealing with a mouse chewing on wires of my car to make lights on the instrument panel go crazy, an interview last week with UMass and another follow up one today, fingers crossed. Looking at apartments with Liz, we believe we have found a place we like, the landlord wants a two year lease, WHAT? But we are in talks right now to see if she would allow subletting in a year if need be. So classes for this term ended this week, so finals and papers due, work and looking for work, packing for Matt and I’s weekend in PA. I am all over the place right now and I am overwhelmed and waiting for June, because in the next two weeks I also have a Bachelorette Party for Sam, Rehearsal Dinner and the Wedding. Then Memorial Day Weekend Plans of camping on the Cape and if all goes well moving the week of June 2nd and 3rd. I will breathe in about a month !

Anyways I am excited for tomorrow, Matt and I are leaving in the morning for Pennsylvania, about 370 miles tomorrow but we are in no rush, we have a shuttle for tomorrow at 4pm in Ansonia to the southern trail-head for the West Rim Trail, then we hike, trek back to the car, 31 miles. So plan on hiking about 4 miles tomorrow evening to the first area for camping, then a big day on Saturday, 15 or so miles, then Sunday either finish up or just spend some time in the woods, this is a trip not just a race to the end. We have until Monday night, hopefully getting back at a decent time on Monday and maybe cook dinner and relax. I am very excited for this weekend, first it is a long distance hike, no it isn’t the AT but I need to start somewhere. Second, I have four days with Matt, this being scary as this is our first get away that is more than an overnight together and we are relying on each other for the 4 days, patience may get tried but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Third, with all the craziness going on right now, I need to get myself in the woods for a bit, a few days to clear my mind, make sense of all my craziness right now, I hope to come back Monday to sign a lease for an apartment and maybe have a job offer, that would make this the best next four days ever.

Oh almost forgot this past weekend Mike P. hosted a Grill Off, I really missed hanging out with this group of friends all together and Sunday Matt and I grabbed some WooDaddy and did a small hike at Wachusett, cause the poor guy had to work all weekend, which made me sad but I simply kept saying”I have him for 4 days next week”. I’m really happy in general, I am just waiting patiently for all the balls in the air to drop, too much to think about right now.

Yesterday was a great day, I returned from my last delivery of the day at Sprout and was told I had one more delivery, at first I was like “Really it is 3pm, where did that appear” and then she followed it with “being delivered to your house” it was a wrapped bouquet of Oncidium Orchids. Ahhh Matthew asking me if I was still out for my deliveries called and ordered them for me… I took them home and used some Session beer bottles with some left over Martha Stewart Halloween labels.

That made my day, pretty grand fella he is, he makes me very happy and I am super excited for our upcoming backpacking trip, will be challenging, 30 miles but should be amazing.

Today was my interview with UMass, I am very much hoping I get the job it would be a 5 minute commute to work, the role would be challenging and growth potential is good. Been writing my paper for my Management class all evening and needed to take a break, so listening to some Lana Del Ray, looking at some ultra-lite weight packs for the trip, and thinking how friggen busy the next month is going to be.

In preparation for moving, could be June 1st or June 30th, who knows yet. Looking at places with my friend Liz, found a couple places we would love to live in, 3 bedroom units with double parlors and crazy fun built-ins. I needed to deal with Merve, he is the large, out of control philodendron that took over the loft, but 2 feet of Merve would not be easy to move, so other than the clippings I took about a month ago, which have started decent roots to give to Matt, I cut like 7 other LARGE clippings.

Merve Pre Cutting....

Baby Merve

Post Cut, the soil is still nutrient filled as he is still thriving

and had some help taking down the blinds yesterday from Kelly and Matt, what a pain but they needed to come down.

The move from the loft this time will be time intensive if only because so much needs to be taken down or out. The light fixtures, the built in closet etc… I want to stop moving someday…

But and the BIG but is a decision was made about the backpacking trip in two weeks… Matt finally agreed that the unknown weather of the Presidential Range the first weekend in May makes for a nervous backpacking trip, so we have decided to be like sane normal people and hike it at the end of summer, thank you.

So after getting my new Backpacker magazine in this weekend and seeing what seems to be a pretty amazing 30 mile hike in Pennsylvania, we have decided to give it a try, less elevation gain but it is considered the “Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania”. The West Rim Trail, aka WRT (as all serious trails need acronyms) it will be. 30 Miles in the Tioga State Forest .

Already procured the back country camping permit, called and ordered a WRT Hiking Guide and spoke with the people from Pine Creek Outfitters about shuttle service so as to only need one car.

I am very much looking forward to this trip, I hope to get my pack lighter than the last backpacking trip as this hike is more than double the distance, but I haven’t done any hiking in PA so for me this is awesome. Plus this is 4 days with Matt in the woods, true test of our relationship if I do say so myself. This allows for MANY more hiking trips between now and the end of summer to lead up to the Traverse, although 23 miles will be a MUCH harder hike.

Well last weekend was action packed and busy to say the least. Friday night Matt ended up having to work until 3am, so he came over after work and we woke up in the am to go to brunch and then run errands. Grabbed WooDaddy and then off to REI to pick up a couple things for our backpacking trip we planned for Sunday into Monday. Would have loved a couple nights but Mike and Sam’s Jack and Jill was on Saturday night, figures the one weekend that I have the WHOLE weekend with Matt. So we did all our running around then got ready and headed to Connecticut. The plan was to stay for a couple hours at the J&J and since we already packed our packs and threw them in the Jeep we were going to just head to the Berkshires and hike in about a mile to set up camp in the middle of the night, always good ideas stream from my head. But in route to the highway I looked for directions to Mount Washington State Forest and there was mention of the park closing at dusk and there being a gate.  So we decided not to chance it, headed home and slept from 11 to 3:30am and headed out at that time.

We arrived in the Berkshires for 6:30ish, and started what we believed was a 15 mile trip, later learned we missed a part of the loop up to Mt Frissell that would have given us the last 2 miles of hiking, oh well next time. We hiked all morning and much of the afternoon, and around 2:30 we got to where we were going to camp overnight, set up camp and took a well earned nap, HOW THE HELL WE WILL SURVIVE THE TRAVERSE I HAVE NO IDEA. MT. Alander  had a nice steep incline for about 800 feet of elevation gain, so even being in the corner of MA-CT-NY it was still a decent climb, but it isn’t the Whites. Matt started a fire, I filtered some water for drinking and cooking and we were asleep around 9pm, awww the joy of camping, early bedtime is allowed. In the morning we woke up around 6am, packed up camp and hike the couple miles back to the trail head. Since we had issues with the borrowed backpacking stove, we had cooked dinner the night before on the fire, so breakfast was what I thought was going to be a Halo bar.

Once we got out of the park we decided to look for a place to eat a hot breakfast, so we found Mom’s Country Cafe, we were able to sit outside on the 70 degree spring morning on the deck, overlooking the river and a field full of deer, it was pretty awesome.  The only bad part of the day was Matt had to go to work from 2-10 then 11-7am two days in a row, so it has been a tough week, I feel bad he has had to work so much.

Other than that dealing with some drama with family, lots of school work as I am in week 6 of 8 and busy beaver at Sprout. Tomorrow I have off due to interview in Westwood, wish me luck…

So Friday night Matt came over for about an hour as he took the overnight shift at work, seriously he worked like 5 shifts in a row, I am not sure how he does it. We chatted about things and I finally got the nerve to ask if we were together or I was just a gal he was dating, getting brave in my old age, well we laughed and made it “Facebook official” just because. How grown up are we? I don’t really care either way, he is a fabulous guy who I love to be with, who I can dream with, and make plans with. Speaking of which… The Presidential Range Traverse in May, yup I have been talking about doing it with him since we met, but I haven’t wanted to put it out there incase I backed out or such. But I think it may just happen.

Matt had to work on Saturday and I knew he would be exhausted so I told him I would see him on Sunday, I went hiking with my friend Mark and his friend Laura at Monadnock during the day, we took the Pumpelly Trail, so a nice 9 mile day, the sun was out but it was windy as hell. After the hike I was heading to the Boynton for Jen (AKA Boobs) B-Day dinner, I wish I wasn’t so tired or I would have made a later night of it, but I love that girl so I at least made it to the dinner.

Sunday morning Matt was fishing with his dad, which I was A-Ok with, the boy has been busting his ass at work and I knew this would be something that made him happy, other than me trying to cheer him up.  We met up in the afternoon and headed to my parents house for Easter Dinner. I was able to get most of my school work done in the morning so it all worked out. He was then introduced to the rest of the clan, I believe he did okay. Sunday night was a relaxing night for us and one for us to start thinking of some hiking for this coming up weekend.

I stupidly forgot my purse at my mom’s so Monday headed down to Connecticut, ended up doing homework there, drank lots of coffee, went yarn shopping and chatted with my mom most of the day, I was heading back to Worcester because Matt was able to work 3 11-7 shifts this week which meant some quality evening time together, or Gym time… During the day Matt and I decided this coming weekend would be about hiking, the Jack and Jill for my brother and Sam and then hiking/backpacking in the Berkshires. So Sunday we are leaving super early to get a 15 mile hike in, camp out and come back on Monday in time for him to get to work. I am excited to have the weekend with him, it will be the first full weekend we have had, no work for him. YAY.  We have been trying to hike and workout as much as possible to make sure the Traverse is not killer, lets hope.

This week has also been good for the job search, three interviews one with Steward Health,  Milford Care and Rehab and UMass, all three good solid positions. The compliance role at Steward Health seems the most up my alley, but I have an open mind to all positions right now, I need to be back to work full time.

Here is to a FABULOUS week so far, I am off…need to go meet the boy for some gym time…

The issue with this job search is usually by now I would have had a few interviews and possibly a job offer and so far the only interviews and request for interviews have been located in the Mid-Atlantic, but my resume is “Under Review” for about 8 positions, and most being here in Worcester. The pt job at Sprout is giving me a false sense of security but in reality unemployment will run out at some point and I need to have a solid position.

The housing thing, well I secured a price I can pay for rent at the loft until the 90 days are up, I need to move by June 30th, which means I also need a full time job, as Liz and I are looking into getting a place together, one place we are anxiously wanting to check out together, come on job I need you so I can move.

I am getting use to Matt’s new schedule,it isn’t easy and it is going to take flexibility from both of us to get the quality time we want together, but I know he makes me happy, he is not overly complicated, we love doing most of the same things, sans fishing and knitting we match up pretty well. Damn work and life has to get in the way of us just having ridiculous fun together all the time. He doesn’t mind my quirkiness and that is always a plus, like when I break out in my “trail dance” in the middle of a hike. He is motivated, hard working and in reality I just want to “up my game” with life because he is the type to inspire such. He isn’t a guy I need to fix, he doesn’t have blaring red flags or issues. Now I just worry that I am not enough, welcome to Crystal’s over-thinking 101. I worry that anything too good will never be around for long, but fuck it I deserve something good…

Anyways off to get ready to head over to be Floral Delivery Gal Extraordinaire.