My job has been making my life miserable, lately. Too much going on, and I haven't been able to do any of my usual active stuff during the last couple of weeks. I can't tell you how much I despise being sedentary.

It makes me nervous and angry and itchy.

The trip to Mohonk went well. I was so grateful for the perfect weather. The way it�s been raining this year, I knew the odds were against me.

I ended up with four couples and one woman, who is one of my yoga students, as well as a friend of my friend who owns the yoga studio. If she felt awkward about being a 9th wheel, she didn�t show it.

The four couples thing wasn�t planned, it just happened that way. It was originally supposed to be five couples, but one couple dropped out, last minute. I have to say, that is the strangest coincidence, ever.

For years, Adam and I were the only couple amongst a sea of singles. I never thought it would happen, but people are starting to pair off. In some cases, for real. Nicole is back with tall, French, and awesome. I didn�t ask any questions. I didn�t feel like it was the right venue, and besides, I figured that if she wanted to offer information, she would.

I really liked the all-couples vibe. There�s a lot less showing off and posturing. No one is desperately trying to seek attention. Just people content with their social status. Two of the couples were fairly new, too, which is always adorable.

The only downside is that I didn�t get to hike. Yes, I did plan the trip specifically for hiking, but things happened. Saturday, we hiked the Labyrinth trail, which is the most touristy �hiking� trail I�ve ever been on. I�d been there before, a few years ago, but a lot of people on this trip had never been, so it couldn�t be missed. I�ve been on crowded trails before, but this crowd is nothing like a normal crowded trail. It�s full of non-hikers. On a trail crowded with hikers, people move. On this trail, people get scared and confused, wear the wrong shoes and clothes, and are holding out hope that they�re going to look somewhat well-groomed and decent, at the end. Not only that, but they�re stopping at every single tree, bush and rock to take a picture of every member of their party, with the tree, bush or rock.

Anyway, the mile and a half from the parking lot to the Mountain House was the only real hiking I got to do. I guess hiking really is a skill because, while I believe my friends are in good shape, I was leaving them in the dust. I don�t consider myself to be an insanely fast hiker, but Adam told me afterwards that I am an insanely fast hiker, as he was nicely telling me that as the trip organizer, I should not leave my group behind in the dust. But, honestly? I really just needed to use the bathroom.

Which I told him, but he said that on most hikes, he even struggles to keep up with me, despite being eight inches taller than me and in good shape.

After that short jaunt, Nicole mentioned that after catching a glimpse of me attacking the trail, she thought that I should take up trail running. I told her how I used to trail run fairly regularly, but mostly stopped because there�s been a lot of assaults in the park within the last year or so.

I never considered hiking to be a skill, since, after all, it�s just walking over uneven ground, and most human beings can handle that ok. I guess, like with anything, if a person does something enough, she gets better at it.

Not only that, but I didn�t get challenged by it. After the Labyrinth trail, most of the group was feeling beat. I felt fine and would have been happy to hike more, but I wanted the trip to be fun for most people and not be organized torture. So, we took the shuttle back, and went into town for some dinner. In that case, I would have been happy cooking veggie dogs over the fire, too, but again, I didn�t want to deprive them of real food and their one chance to be indoors the whole weekend.

The next day, people slept late, and I decided to let them. Then, a bunch of stuff happened, and we ended up not getting to the preserve until way too late, and we couldn�t get in. By this time, people were ready to go home.

Adam and I made plans to stop somewhere else on the way home to hike, but a bunch of stuff happened there, too. It was like the universe was conspiring to keep me from hiking. We finally managed to get to a tiny parking lot, where Adam swore there were trail heads into Harriman. We bushwhacked for an hour and found nothing.

After awhile, I figured going home was better than getting lost in the woods and dying, but I was frustrated enough to consider the two possibilities to almost be a toss-up. Hey, at least then I�d get to hike!

In the car, I was in full freak out mode from frustration, and pent up energy. Yeah. That was a fun ride home.

We didn�t hit any traffic, but when we got home, I discovered that the downstairs toilet had been running all weekend. I checked my email and there was one from a founding board member crazy-old-guy, of the religious organization where I serve as a board member. It was one of his ranting nonsense, extremely disrespectful emails, which was really the last thing I needed, at that time.

I ignored it.

Then the president of the board emailed me about me ignoring it (he was CC�d on it).

I tried to go hiking in the park tonight, but it was twilight by the time I managed to get out of the office, so no hiking for me.

Oh, and although I�d been vegan for the past few weeks, I had eggs and cheese over the weekend. I don�t know if that counts for anything, but it just adds to my overall feeling of discouragement, right now.

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