Today I am dying my hair.

I currently have bleach sitting in chosen bits of my hair. When that’s out I’ll add the purple and possibly some teal. I thought about going whole hog and dying my entire head but eventually decided against it.

This has been a long time coming. Those who have known me for awhile are most likely not shocked. Those who met me while I was on the road might be a little surprised.

The thing is, my hair has rarely been its natural color since I was in high school. Even when I had dreads I almost always had at least a couple purple or pink dreads mixed in there. Dying my hair bright colors is one of the joys of my life.

A sample of hair colors over the years.

Purple is my favorite, but pink has its charms. The orange was fun and the green quickly faded to a yucky yellowish but was nice while it was new. The blue on top of green was a fun mixture and very Sailor Neptune-y (it wasn’t quite as blue as the pic looks up there).

In contrast, this is what I looked like during my walk across America:

Clean hair on the trail = instant joy.

(Ha. I still remember the happiness of that day. It was in Indiana on a ridiculously hot and humid day, which truth be told they were all kind of ridiculously hot there in the middle of the walk. Anna was getting over heated, I was sweaty and gross and it had been too long since my last shower. I stopped at a gas station for some water and to ask around for info on the area. Two of the ladies that worked there were charmed with Anna and offered us a free sandwich, some water, and a ride to a nearby campground. The campground was run by a friendly Australian chap and had not only showers but laundry too! After cleaning up I was walking around the campground and was invited to dinner with some fellow campers. It was a good ending to a hot tiring day.)

See the thing is, when I decided I was going to walk across America and heavily depend on the kindness of strangers I decided that I would need to go au natural with the hair. First impressions are important. And like it or not, right or wrong, people have preconceived notions about (what they may see as) crazy hair. I wanted to make the best first impression I could. By Ohio I had also taken out my lip piercing.

But now I am free to do what I wish and when my sister sent me a gift card for my birthday I knew exactly what I’d gift myself with: fun colored hair dye.  I’ve had the dye waiting for awhile but haven’t had the energy to get up and do anything with it. I’ve been a tad depressed the last bit of my life and haven’t felt like doing much of anything. Period. At all. Today I realized that if I’m too depressed to even dye my hair fun colors…well that’s just a new level of sad for me. So I got up and decided to do something about it. Today is the day.

So as I said, I currently have bleach sitting in chosen bits of my hair. When that’s out I’ll add the purple and bits of teal. It will be glorious.

Possible pics later!

 

Update!

Sad news. The bleach did not take. But fear not! I will be going out soon to get more bleach and try again. I’m not giving up!

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All or Nothing

You ever notice things seem to come all at once or not at all?  The past week has been hectic for me – I feel like I went to not very busy to omg stuff to do all the time!

My child watching gig is increasing in hours (yay!) due to his mom starting college part time, then Guild Wars 2 came out, book writing is getting serious, and then I signed up for this Coursera course, Gamification, which started Monday.  Oh, and I’ve been working on resume/potential-job stuff too.

Seems like there’s not enough hours in the day suddenly.

Anna reminding me that no, we can’t just lounge in bed – it’s time to get up! Things to do! Babies to see! Dogs to walk! Go go go!

I’m sure it’ll settle down in a bit when I’m more used to the new additions to my schedule and work out the new balancing act.  Busy is good!

It honestly is – increased hours means increased money, book getting serious means it might actually get finished soon, Guild Wars 2 is a dream, and this Gamification course is really interesting stuff.  I’ll talk more about that at some point, but right now I’ve gotta dash to get ready for baby time.

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MicroAdventures

A little while ago I stumbled across  Alastair Humphreys and his idea of the “microadventure”:

Simple expeditions and challenges which are close to home, affordable and easy to organise. Ideas designed to encourage ordinary people to get Out There and Do Stuff for themselves, even in these tightened financial times.

 

I absolutely love this idea. It really stresses how Adventure is not a destination, but a state of mind.

You don’t need to be flying across the globe or walking across a continent to be having an adventure. Having an adventure is not limited to those that are rich or have the finest fanciest gear or even those who are at peak fitness. Adventures are for everyone, and the idea behind microadventures really highlights that fact.

A microadventure can be anything – any outing or expedition that is a challenge to you and an inspiration to yourself and others.  The main thing is your attitude and way of thinking. It’s not just a walk in the park, it’s an adventure – a microadventure! This could be tenting with the kids or friends in the yard for a weekend. Taking a hike up that mountain the town over. A roadtrip exploring new-to-you areas. Running a marathon.  Exploring the woods out back of your house.

Who knows where your next adventure might lead. This one lead to poor Koopa being stuck in a tree – but that’s okay, because it was surely a grand adventure getting up there!

The important part is getting up and out and challenging yourself.  Because that’s what adventuring is all about – challenging yourself and others to push beyond the norm.  As Mr Humphreys says,

“Adventure is stretching yourself; mentally, physically or culturally. It is about doing what you do not normally do, pushing yourself hard and doing it to the best of your ability.”

 

So what will your next microadventure be?

As for me, I’m off to continue my adventures in horse wrangling (aka there are new horses in the field and I’m going to go introduce myself to them, hoping that they’re as friendly as the others so that I continue Operation Horse Sense).

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Writing is Hard Work. Mostly.

Writing is hard work, except for when it’s not.

I’ve been really pushing working on my book, hoping to get the first draft finalized before the Guild Wars 2 head start date (August 25). I want a free mind for diving into playing – plus it was a handy solid goal to set for myself.

As far as accomplishing that goal….there’s still time, but I’m having my doubts.

The problem I’ve always had with writing is that it seems to either be effortless or impossible. Either the words just flow from my mind to my fingers to the screen, or I stare there sitting at the cursor blinking at me mockingly.  Lately it’s been more of the latter.

When I was in grade school I had a terrible time writing. Finally I asked a teacher for help – I explained that I could think up wild stories in my head and could even tell an okay tale but had an impossible time actually writing anything down. I asked what the problem might be and how I could go about becoming a better writer. Her answer: I was just lazy and obviously not trying hard enough. Not exactly helpful advice.

Luckily I had other people in my life to ask. My mother and my best friend both had excellent advice that has helped me to this day.  The two bits of advice were amazingly simple but made all the difference.

1. There is no Right and Wrong way to write.
2. If you can tell a story you can write a story.

The first seems simple but was pretty big. I was caught in the idea that there was One True Way to tell a story and was convinced I was always doing it wrong. The pressure of doing it Right was often enough to just blank my mind to nothing.

The second was really the eye opener though.  To this day I keep this rule in mind. If I’m blocked or stuck on a particular piece I just start talking out loud. Or I imagine a conversation between myself and a friend – how would I tell the story to them? Then I just write all that down, minus the hand gestures and non-words of course. ;)

It’s worked out really well. I may not sound perfect or scholarly, but I sound like me. I like sounding like me.

I’ve had to remind myself of these tips when writing my book. I have this idea that A Book is a certain type of writing and needs to be Proper.  I had an epiphany a few months back; this was my book and I could make it any way I wanted. If I wanted it to be a picture book with short stories I could do that. If I wanted it to be all in limericks, that was my call. If I wanted to skip whole parts of my adventure that was up to me to decide. There is no right way when I’m the creator. It was a pretty liberating realization.

As for if I’ll reach my self appointed deadline….we shall see. Lately the writing has been more on the impossible side rather than the effortless, but I just keep chugging along and reminding myself it doesn’t have to be perfect etc.  Eventually it’ll get done.  Eventually….

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Sad Horse News

Sad news everybody, Operation Horse Sense is on hold indefinitely. :(

Last week I woke up and got ready to head out for my daily dose of horse only to be confronted with an empty pasture.  I didn’t say anything, hoping that the horses would return. The owners will sometimes bring their daughters over and take the horses out for a ride, so I was hoping this was the case. However, after a long weekend in Rhode Island visiting family we came back to a still-empty pasture. *sad trombone*

There is good to this. The horses were really tearing up the pasture and it could definitely use some recovery time. Also I don’t have to worry about horse-dog interactions when I take the dogs down for a swim in the ponds. Also also, I have been using the well trod paths left by the horses as a bike path, which the dogs find highly amusing.

Overall I think I made some excellent progress in my week of Operation Horse Sense. I got to the point where I actually voluntarily touched horses without flinching or being terrified all of the time. I learned a bit about horses and horse behavior, and overall it was a positive experience.

I’m not 100% comfortable around the big animals, but I’m a lot more at ease than when I started. So that’s something. And who knows, maybe the horses will make a return before the end of summer.

For now, though, I’ll entertain myself riding the trails on my bike while the dogs chase along.

Horse trails make for excellent bike trails.

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Operation Horse Sense, Step 2, video boogaloo

Today’s lesson about horses: Horses are super pushy, but it’s not aggressive they’re just like that.

Here’s a slightly embarrassing video of me confronting my horse fears:

I lost a bit of the quality when uploading, but I think the sheer terror still comes through nice and strong.

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Operation Horse Sense

So, little known fact: I am a tiny bit terrified of horses.  True story. Please don’t mock.

I denied this fact for a long time, because how could I have an awesome Pony Express/Arrows of the Queen/Tortall/etc type of adventure without a trusty horse sidekick?  Anna’s great and all, but she’s no horse.

So, upon suggestion from one of my Twitter friends (thank you Jeshe!) I have made it my summer Quest to befriend the horses that reside in our field.

(Backstory:   These are not our horses.

My parents have 6-ish acres of pasture. Several years ago some neighbors stopped by to ask if their horses could summer in the pasture. They fenced off a section for the horses and left a bit just for hay. It’s a handy arrangement – they get hay and a lovely summer pasture for their horses; my parents get the field kept mowed and a few bales of hay for their chickens. Everybody wins!

Each summer it’s different horses. Some have not been very nice or friendly and have not exactly helped my fear.)

So far it’s slow going. Horses are just so big. They are big and powerful and mysterious (to me). And they have dead eyes that give away nothing of what they’re thinking. And I am completely clueless about horse body language. Every jerky sudden movement seems like angry threatening gestures to me.

Here is what I know about horses: don’t walk behind them, don’t let them know you’re afraid, watch their ears for….something.

That’s it. Oh, and that if they wanted they could crush my skull with their giant hooves.

But I aim to get over all that and conquer my fear. For the sake of Future!Me and my Future!Adventures.

Step one was successful. This involved being in the field with the horses. Baby steps, people. The fear is strong.

Sharing the same field, not a single fence between me and the horses. Progress!

Bam. Look at that! No fence between us, just the grass and horse poop. Those beasts could have charged at me at any time and crushed me to death, but I remained strong and walked all over that field! (In truth the horses totally ignored me and couldn’t care less. They didn’t even really mind when Boomer charged up and barked all up in their face. They really are very nice horses.)

Step one will probably have to be repeated a couple of times. Before the horses arrived I’d walk down the field with the dogs every morning. It’s a good walk, with lots of room for the dogs to run and two different ponds for them to swim in. I stopped going when the horses arrived both because of the mentioned terror and because I wasn’t sure how horses and dogs would interact. Turns out they’re both fine and basically ignore each other…most of the time.

So now our daily morning walks are back on. I figure I’ll keep walking with the dogs and eventually it’ll be no big thing.

So Step 1: being in the field with the horses – no fence or anything between us.

Step 2: Touching the horses.

I’m starting Step 2 with a fence between us. Still scary. Today I briefly pet one of the horses. It was a day full of bravery.

Close enough to touch. Which I did, because I’m brave.

Look at that horse right up there in my face and all. I pet her once and then called it a day. Always end on a positive note!

People who are easy or experienced around horses are probably laughing right now, but whatever. My quest is my own and it is a worthy one! Some day in the future this will all pay off and I will ride my trusty steed off into a grand adventure.

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Experiminting

My hands smell deliciously minty!  And here is why:

A couple of weeks ago I noticed the massive amount of mint growing wild in my parents’ yard. As you can see here:

So much minty goodness!

All that you can see there (obviously minus the trees in the back) is mint. And that’s not even all of it! That is but one section!

It smells wonderful and is a nice ground cover, but I got to thinking that there must be something we can do with it. Mint shampoo or soap or some kind of delicious treat, something. So I went to the internet and looked around and…was kind of disappointed. Soap and shampoo were out (too many other ingredients I don’t have on hand and would have to buy), I’m not that fond of tea, and that seemed to be it. Unless you wanted to add it to salad or use it as a garnish.

Then I found this: Homemade Apple Mint Skin Toner  Seemed perfect!

(I had to first look up what exactly one did with skin toner, but a quick Google search cleared that up.)

All you need for the recipe is apple mint, apple cider vinegar, and water. It’s super easy. You take some vinegar (2 Tbs) and put it in a jar, then chop up some mint (3 tsp) and add that to the jar. Then you let it sit for about a week.

Mint and vinegar, sittin’ in a jar.

Mine doesn’t exactly look like the picture with the recipe, but I have faith it’ll turn out spectacular.

After about a week you strain the mint from the liquid, add some water (1 1/4 cups) to the minty vinegar and bam, you’re done.

I’ve made two little jars. If it turns out not to burn my face off I’ll be giving one to my sister. Either way I’ll let you know how it turns out.

If you have any other ideas for what to do with fresh apple mint, let me know! As you can see, we have a lot of it to work with.

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This Time Last Year

I’m working on re-vamping and updating the website (so if you notice things disappearing or moving around, no worries, you’re not going crazy, that’s just me fiddling) and found this entry from about this time last year:

One Part Hippie, One Part Nerd, All Parts Awesome

Walking across the country, or any long term walk, is not always glamorous. Or even comfortable. I rarely know where I’m going to sleep each night, and more often than not sleep is on the ground in a tent. Showers are few and far between, and it’s hard to tell when I’ll even see a proper bathroom. It’s long and occasionally boring and hard work. It’s lacking most of the comforts of home.

So what do I miss most out of all of those comforts? Is it the easy access to a bathroom? The proper meals? The comfy bed and pillow?

No, what I miss most, and I what I end up thinking about a lot during the day, is pretty nerdy. Out of all of those comforts of home, I’d say the one I miss the most is video games.

A week ago or so I was climbing a mountain when at the top I suddenly heard an eagle scream. It was a pretty cool moment, hiking this old dirt camp road straight up a mountain, and then at the top a large field with an eagle soaring above. But what did I immediately think of? Assassin’s Creed and Guild Wars, both games that have eagle screams worked in to certain areas. And as much as I was enjoying the majesty of the moment, I suddenly had a strong longing to go scale tall buildings and jump in to hay carts. Or to run around in the cold of the Shiverpeaks and help out some dwarves.

I am totally enjoying myself, don’t get me wrong. I like the challenge of walking, talking to strangers, seeing the small little towns and farms. I like sleeping in a tent, and I have a super comfy sleeping bag. I don’t even really mind not having a proper bathroom to pee in. I just wish there was some way to hook up a solar powered Xbox 360 or a super laptop that I could play Guild Wars on now and then.

Because I am a nerd. True story.

That’s from June 25, just about a year ago now. I still remember in vivid detail that exact moment in West Virginia and hearing that eagle scream.  It was just one of a long list of really awesome moments on the road.

What amuses me is I’m pretty much in the opposite situation today.  I play a lot of video games these days (mostly down to Skyrim, LoL, and Guild Wars) and always have the comforts of home at my fingertips.  Instead of missing gaming, these days I’m missing being out there on the road. I miss sleeping in a tent, the feeling of accomplishment after struggling through the heat and hills all day, meeting strangers along the road…I miss it all.

I miss it all, but for now I’m enjoying the here and now and soaking up the pixelated adventures.  I have no doubt someday in the future I’ll be out having an offline adventure somewhere and be thinking about gaming. Because that’s just how I roll.

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An Update

I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately about what I’ve been up to since I finished my Walk.  Figured it’s about (past) time I update my blog and maybe throw a few answers out!

Well, I’m still in Maine still crashing at my parents place.  It’s not the most ideal situation, but my adventuring tapped out all my resources and my parents are pretty generous of letting me stay here rent free in exchange for being so entertaining and awesome help around the house.  I was originally planning to be out of Maine by January, but that, obviously, didn’t happen. And about a month ago or so my car died, so now I’m a little bit stuck here.

Luckily, I’ve found a part-time job that comes to my home! I’ve been watching a little boy since March. He is super adorable and I’m having a lot of fun playing with him each day. He was a wee 10weeks old when I met him and couldn’t do much but be adorable and bat at toys. He’s now a big 6 month old boy who has mastered crawling, laughing, grabbing stuff, and has even started on real foods (baby foods, that is).

I’ve had nannying gigs before and really do love working with kids. His mom is someone I went to school with and, as I said, drops him off each afternoon. It’s really been a perfect experience.

Walking with the baby in the field. He loved all the waving tall grass.

As for the book….blah. I have been slowly slowly working on writing the book about the Walk, but I’m having a much harder time than anticipated. I originally planned to have this done this past Winter. The new goal is August. We’ll see.

I’ve got to admit, I’m having a lot harder time adjusting to Not Adventuring than I thought I would.  I knew it would be an adjustment, I’m just really surprised how hard it hit me. I was on my own, independent, physically fit and walking up to 30+ miles a day. Seeing new sights and meeting new people every day. Then bam! I’m right back where I started- back in Maine and at my parents house. That alone would be a tough adjustment, but then if you add on a dead car, being literally stuck here, not much sun and blah weather….it’s been rough.

A picture from the winter, Anna and Boomer frolicking in the snowy field. As you can tell, Anna has not minded being “stuck” in Maine at all.

As for future adventuring….I’ve got ideas. I’m never out of ideas for adventures! The trouble is I’m tapped out financially. And honestly, when I convinced my family* to back me up on my Walk Across America one of the things I promised was that after this I’d try to “settle down” and get a “real job”. They’ve been patient with my vagabond lifestyle, but it’s probably time for a change.

So while it’s not what most people think of as an adventure, the next one will be finding a career path.   I’ve got some ideas that I’m pretty excited about and I’ve thrown some applications out there. No word back on anything, but I’ll keep trying.

And hey, if anyone out there wants to hire an adventurer (and her dog) for anything, please do contact me! (I’m totally serious. Whatever it is, throw me an email – Ameranth.at.gmail.com.)

 

Oh, and I’ve also been playing as much Guild Wars 2 as I can during the Beta Weekend Events.  The game is amazing and I get a kick out of seeing “Ameranth” and “Anna” whenever I run through the Black Citadel. I don’t think that’ll ever get old.

My Engineer saying hello to Ameranth and Anna in Guild Wars 2.

 

 

*Not that I need my family’s permission to do stuff, I just really like to have their support and so do my best to convince them of my wacky ideas.

 

 

 

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Someday….

You know what I think would be fun? Taking a road trip across America loosely following my walking path and seeing all the people who helped me along the way.  It’d be pretty nice to be able to let the ones who don’t follow online know that I made it safe and sound.

And road trips are always fun!

I’m imagining we’d go in a tricked out VW Van.

Travel in style! Plenty of room for a bed and storage of gear.

I think Anna would really take to van travel.  She’s excellent in a car (as many people across America can attest to), and I think she got a little bored with the constant foot travel.  I think travelling in a van, and taking day trips would really suit her.

We could stop places and do day hikes and explore areas we couldn’t get to while passing on foot.  Maybe schedule in some organized public/town walks.   Do some public speaking at local schools, encouraging kids to get outdoors and explore more. I don’t know. These are the things I contemplate and dream about. What my next adventure will be, what I’d do differently, different modes of travel.  It’s fun to plan and dream.

 

Edit to add:

After reading this blog entry my mother commented: And to think, that’s what I suggested you should have done the first trip.

To which I replied: Yes, but it wasn’t the right time for that kind of trip. I needed to go on foot first.

Which is true. Everything in it’s own time, and all that jazz.

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A Quick Update

For those of you wondering, yes, I’ve been working on writing a book all about my adventure walking across the US.

I had, rather foolishly optimistically, hoped to be done by now. That is very much not the case.  I got a good start back when I arrived in Maine, then sunk into a miserable depression and got nothing done.  I suppose, in retrospect, it shouldn’t have been so unexpected.  The combination of winter in Maine (cold, gray, short days) and ending such an awesome amazing adventure was quite a blow.

However, the tides have turned and I am back to being productive. Huzzah!

In the coming weeks I plan to post bits and pieces from what I’m working on for the book.  Chopping bits down to a good blog-entry size to give all you awesome loyal followers a sneak peak at what’s to come.

So thanks to those of you who have stuck with me, and if you have any questions you’d like to see me answer or topics you’d like me to write about, as always feel free to email me (ameranth at gmail dot com) or comment on any of the entries here.

And because I know you’re all curious, Anna has been doing great. She is, at long last, fully rested and recovered from our adventure. And she is just loving the snow. Forget all that desert, it’s all about the snow covered forests for Anna!

Anna, checking for more partridges in the trees.

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Depression? Anxiety? Challenge Accepted.

I’ve talked about approaching life as a game before, specifically in how I approached walking across America.  That approach doesn’t just apply for Epic Quests, but can be applied to every day life.  As with any game, you just have to understand what it is you’re playing and adjust your gameplay.

I clocked hours and hours of play time on my Walk, and leveled up pretty much to the max. The challenges were tougher, but level appropriate. When on the road, an acceptable goal and achievement to aim for was walking 20 miles, or crossing a state line, or maybe something more like talk to X amount of strangers.  But I’m not on the road anymore; the game has changed.

The name of the game: Depression and its less popular add-on, Anxiety

I’ve been stuck on a low level dungeon of this game since December.  I’ll level up and think I see the stairs up the next level, when BAM, killed by an ogre lurking in the shadows.  It’s been frustrating, to say the least.

You have to adjust expectations and achievements to the game. You have to tackle challenges and go after achievements that are level appropriate.  It’s not always easy, and you’ll find yourself getting frustrated, but that’s the way it is.

For example, today’s first achievement was Getting Dressed. (Okay, if I’m being honest here, the very first big achievement was Getting Out of Bed.) Achievements that followed were along the lines of Brushing My Teeth, and Eating a Healthy Breakfast.

These may seem overly simple or silly, but as I said, you have to adjust your expectations to the game you’re playing.  I have to remind myself that I’m starting off fresh. The game has changed; I lost all the XP and leveling up from walking across America, and I’m starting off a low-level noob.

So now I have to figure out how to level up in a whole new game.  It’ll be tough for awhile, but I’m up for the challenge.

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