enroute to sf

i'm currently waiting for my second delayed flight of the day. this time however i'm in colorado, one of my favorite places to be stuck. apparently this is in part due to cloudy weather in sf, but it also seems to be due to a delayed flight that's currently occupying our gate.

i'm a little nervous for this weekend. i generally go into races feeling prepared. this time i feel prepared to finish but not to kick butt and take numbers if that makes any sense at all. in packing yesterday i was pulling out everything i could possibly need...windbreaker, rain gear, headlamp, papaya pills, salt tabs, extra bladders for my hydration packs, water bottles in case i end up not wanting to wear my hydration back (its only 3.9-4.6 miles between aid stations). i have extra shoes, extra socks, extra clothes. hopefully i won't use most of this stuff, but it never hurts to be prepared. the lady at checkin this morning accused me of having a rather large bag for only going for a weekend. while on some level i agreed, i also wondered if she'd ever seen an athlete pack...i have twice as much stuff as most people for any given trip simply due to the need to pack running clothes as well as normal clothes and i don't even pack excessive amounts of running clothing unless i need to for whatever reason.

i am currently working my way through 'desert solitaire' by edward abbey. so far its great. moab is one of eric's favorite places and i've only driven through. as its not somewhere i have current plans to travel to, i figure i can at least learn more by reading...that and i just like nature writing. the book is based mostly off of abbey's journals while he was working as a park ranger at arches national monument before it became touristy. the colors for our wedding are plum and sage green. eric suggested having purple sage in some of the floral arrangements. abbey mentions it early on in the book saying "purple sage: crush the leaves between thumb and finger and you release that characteristic odor, pungent and bittersweet, which means canyon country, high lonesome mesaland, the winds that blow from far away." so, although we will be getting married in texas, a bit of moab and the canyonlands will be present at our celebration. not to worry, orchids, or a little bit of hawaii and the tropics, will be present as well!