This weekend was somewhat of an exercise in self-control. I wasn’t close to flying off the handle or anything like that. In fact, it was quite relaxing despite my car getting broken into on Saturday night. Don’t worry, they left the $300 worth of climbing gear I had in my trunk. I know that was weighing heavily on all your minds.

The Itch that’s Turning into a Nervous Twitch

It’s been a loooooooooooooooong time since I’ve had an adventure. Like, really long. The last time I was hiking amongst the rocks and tourists was all of 2 months ago at Red Rocks. I know, right? Poor me. But here’s what you don’t understand: I’m used to weekly weekend adventures. Typically, Anh and I get to go climbing, go camping, spend time on some water, spend time away from the city, just about anything to get our fix.

Not only have we not been on a mid-to-large scale trip in two months, but we really haven’t had any weekend trips either. I guess two weekends ago we spent A night at a local state park in hopes of camping in the rain….and then it stopped raining on our way over. We didn’t even build a fire or eat any brats. Hmph.

Not only have we not had any real weekend trips, but we don’t really have any planned until we leave for Mexico the first week of June. THAT’S A LONG TIME, YOU GUYS!!! We might be able to sneak one in the weekend prior to leaving for Mexico, but we might also be running around, getting ready.

This is not good. Withdrawls are soon to follow.

The Itch You can’t Reach

So now my urge to get outdoors is being hindered by our schedules. It’s truly turning into that itch that’s right between your shoulder blades that you just can’t reach by yourself.

My vacation time away from my corporate gig is already spoken for, for most of the year – a week in Mexico, a week in the Black Hills, a week backpacking somewhere out West, an undetermined amount of time at Breckenridge snowboarding and/or skiing (I’ve done neither — ever). And at the same time, I keep getting more of these wild adventure ideas in my head. Mostly Anh’s fault. I blame her.

This itch is growing too. It started with just wanting time to speed up to the next planned big trip. Then it changed to weekend trips to semi-train for the bigger ones. Then different locations were talked about. And now we’re discussing true multi-day mountaineering.

Gee! When and how can we pull this off?!?! How bout now?! No?! DAMMIT!!!

Scratching that Itch

In my feeble attempts to calm myself I’ve turned to magazines, the internet, movies, this blog, and YouTube. I thought that reading, writing, and watching about these things would help hold me over until the next trip.

Not true.

In fact, it’s gotten worse.

I’m not running out and buying crampons and ice axes, but sometimes we go to REI just to find the next treasure of gear I can justify spending money on.

I’m really not sure what I can do about this. I think it’s something the CDC should look at. Honestly.

There’s really not much more I can do. I think tonight I’m going to pretend pack for a week-long trip and see what the pack weight is. From there I’ll try to get it lighter and lighter. I mean, that’s a thing, right?

Do any of you suffer from this? What do you do? Is there a salve I can use?

Thanks in advance!



Don’t Miss Your Chance

I was stuck in Corporate America for 9 years. I was miserable.

Then I took control.

You can too, and it starts right here.