Yurt, Yurt, Yurt

So, it happened a couple weeks ago, but here are the details of my snowshoe trip to a yurt in southern Colorado (Trujillo Meadows, just west of the reservoir that my family camped at when I was a child) over MLK jr. weekend. There were five of us that went, compared to last year's 8 in the same size yurt. Imagine all that space we had this year!

I started getting blisters on my heels from the very beginning. :( So I spent Saturday morning with a wilderness first aid book taking care of them. The forest road that we followed out to the yurt had been plowed, so halfway through the hike, four of us took off our snowshoes (the fifth person was on skis) and walked.

I became known as an instigator because I started a couple of heated discussion Saturday night. I'm pleading some innocence because I simply read something from my Outside magazine, I didn't come up with the topics on my own.

Tory Murray's Yurt!
The Yurt (yurt, yurt)

A Grey Jay, we saw several and Chickadees

Wednesday Play Day!

So in my efforts to enjoy moments while working on getting things done (I haven't mentioned that I am taking a national exam in April for board certification), I am trying to designate Wednesdays as the play day. I have to be at work earlier on Wednesdays and so not really worth trying to get some things done. This past week, "play!" was the first thing I wrote on my list for Wednesday (how many times have I typed Wednesday so far?). I took my dog Vuyo to the foothills of the Sandias - Embudito trail. Very nice. This weekend (really later today!!!), I am snowshoeing out to a yurt in northern New Mexico.

A view from the trail
Vuyo's love of burrowing into the snow. I was rushing so much to capture it, I didn't take the time to compose it (i.e. getting my hand out of the way)

The top there was my goal. Alas, I had to turn back when it was quite close.

Christmas Organizing

My room in the middle of rearrangingThe final result

Man, oh man, I can't sleep. My computer arrived today and after about 6 weeks without my own stuff on my own computer, the thought of doing all sorts of things, like catching up on my finances on Quicken (exciting, hey?) is keeping me awake. So I have gotten out of bed after climbing into bed just over an hour ago and downloading the Quicken 2010.

I also received a letter from Mark today. I was torn between setting up my computer and sitting down to read his letter. The letter won out first, the computer took second place.

OK, so on to the actual blog post about Christmas:

When your parents come to town just start rearranging the house. I have decided that is a good sort of valid reason for things being messy. So I started moving things around in my bedroom before my parents arrived on December 20.

Mom and Dad were in Albuquerque for one week, leaving the day after Christmas with everything they had been storing at Nate's house. They left their dog behind, no room in the truck. OK, so they also wanted some stability for the dog over the next 5 months while they transition between two states, households and retirement. Three dogs in the house now.

I felt like there was no end to the gifts I received from Mark for Christmas. Christmas Eve, I received a dozen red and white roses, but the card said that wasn't really my Christmas gift. Then a box was delivered that my brother wrapped and put under the tree. That was a dozen jumbo chocolate-covered strawberries Christmas day I was notified of a subscription to Backpacker magazine. Marks says that he received a Christmas gift from his parents that I will really like, but have to wait to see it instead of him telling me what it is (feels almost like another present, just with the excitement and suspense) and then he also said there's more. So the Christmas excitement and anticipation is still around.

Wilderness Clarity. And Snowshoes!

Vuyo at Tree Spring Trail

I knew someone out there would clamor for a picture of me

My new snowshoes!

I'm still waiting for a functioning computer to access pictures about some previous events. And today it is pictures from my cell phone.

I took the week between Christmas and New Year's off and it provided the opportunity to organize my room and my projects, but then I also became engrossed in getting things done, like going through my papers from graduate school (from 5 years ago) to see what is really worth keeping. I kept telling myself I would take a day and go hiking in the mountains, but just needed to get these few more things done.

This past Friday (January 8), I started talking myself into hiking after my clinical supervision. Then I thought, "I'll go tomorrow, I want to get this, this and this done." And THEN my new snowshoes arrived! What better nudge did I need to get into the wilds. When I met with my clinical supervisor, he mentioned a quote he saw recently on a daily calendar:

"Busyness is the rape of relationships." -Charles Swindoll

Sounds harsh and drastic, but i would definitely say that spending time with a friend is more important than reading class notes from psychodynamics.

Time did slip away from me a bit, but I spent an hour in the Sandia Mountains in the snow. I hadn't realized how thirsty I was, it was really refreshing to be out there. Thinking I might need to borrow my boyfriend's resolution from last year to do something outdoors every weekend for the year.

Then I came back home and went to an appointment where I had my eyebrows waxed for the first time (indulgences or self-care?). I say it is part of the overall plan to look even better when I see Mark in February then I did the last time he saw me. Of course, the last time we saw each other, we spent 5 days backpacking in the Grand Canyon, so I don't think I have to work too hard. ;)