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May 8, 2002
It's hot in here. Our

It's hot in here. Our apartment seems to be about 15 degrees warmer than anywhere else in the city. We've got fans going full blast and still I'm sweating like a.. like a... like a guy who's trying to come up with a good simile.

Three days of volleyball in a row, then orienteering with The Green Guides on Sunday in Jersey, then a 20 mile bike ride yesterday. I'm beat. Tomorrow volleyball rehearsal, then game day Thursday. And this weekend, who knows what kind of shenanigans Liz has planned. Next weekend beach volleyball tournament, then Memorial Day in Delaware. Sheesh. Maybe I should just take June off.

The Green Guides is a group of kids from Inner City Outings (ICO), a division of the Sierra Club, which is, I believe, a division of General Motors. General Motors, in turn, is a subsidiary of the Chubb Group. Really, ICO is a group that works with city non-profits and schools to take inner-city kids on camping trips, wilderness adventures, and other activities they would probably never be exposed to. The Green Guides is a sort of elite group of kids from several of the organizations, the ones who are, how do you say, better, and they're doing more advanced stuff, and leadership training as well. This is the same group that Liz and I did the Wilderness First Aid with.

So, on Sunday I walked with them over the George Washington Bridge to Fort Lee Historic Park in New Jersey where we had a crash course in orienteering, and then completed two courses. When I thought orienteering, I thought we were going to learn general map, compass and navigation skills. In fact, orienteering is a competitive sport. You do use a map and compass, but the goal is to find checkpoints and get back to the start faster than anyone else. It's like a high speed scavenger hunt in the woods. And while we were told over and over how the sport attracts people who care about nature, we saw most of them trampling through the woods with wild abandon, ignoring any kind of trail etiquette, just trying to be faster than their rivals.

We had a good time though, and my team won both courses, I made sure of that.

Hey, dig the detail in this post.. I'm motivated by the fact that some people signed on to my mailing list. I used to feel comfortably like this stuff was just passively sitting here, waiting for someone to come along. Now I'm pushing it at people, albeit at their request, and saying, "lookit here. read this.", so it should probably be at least marginally interesting.

Shirt seen in the village (not by me): Phuck Phish.

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