Sometimes, despite a long list

Sometimes, despite a long list of errands to run and things to pack, a girl’s just gotta work off some excess energy and stress. I met Jason, Debbie, Curt and Sara out at the new Gilruth for a workout. They finished all the renovations over the holidays and I hadn’t been out there yet. Despite my wish to be able to say something sarcastic about the “employee activities” people, I have to admit that they did a really nice job. The workout room is huge now, with tons of weight machines, and tons of ellipticals and treadmills. They have a bunch of flat screen TVs (though just ask Becca how easy — or NOT easy — it is to get them to change the channel) and you can plug your headphones into a receiver on each machine to listen while you run or elliptical or bike or whatever.
In short, it’s a real gym now. We’ve caught up to the modern era.
I did half an hour on the elliptical machine while watching the end of the Tech-UNC basketball game. I must have been bad luck — when I arrived, Tech was ahead by a few points, but UNC ended up winning by 7. Of course, in reading the game summary this morning I found out that Tech was up by 20 at one point. And they still lost. Geez. Katie and Joel were also there, and maybe the did not cheer loudly enough! I also did some of the weight machines, but without any real method behind it. I’d like to start doing some strength training to help with my running, but I am both intimidated and bored by weight machines.
I spent the rest of the evening either running last-minute errands or packing. I am about 2/3 packed, and feeling ok about things at the moment. I think my new half-camera, half-other daypack is going to work out about as well as expected — my only complaint thus far (not having actually worn the backpack on an extended dayhike yet) is that I think the water bottle pockets on the sides are a little too small for a typical Nalgene bottle. However, my worries about needing a pack cover disappeared when I realized it has a built-in pack cover that stores in the bottom! Cool. Anyway, I made my decision — I’m taking it instead of my old non-camera daypack. If it doesn’t work well, I’ll sell it when I get back.
I have just a few more things to get tonight. Moleskin for potential (and probable) blisters. A new pair of sunglasses. Some Clif bars. Yup, I’m about ready to go. Hopefully I will finish packing quickly tonight so that I have time to do my web design project! Ugh for homework that has to be done two weeks early, but hooray for vacation.
I am listening to my “calm music” today to keep me from freaking out too much. Counting Crows (the blue VH1 album), Jack Johnson, James Taylor, Mozart.
Photos of Patagonia keep popping up in the rotation on my desktop, leading me to believe that my computer somehow knows I’m going on vacation. I just minimized my windows to open up Matlab, and BAM — there’s a sunset photo of Fitz Roy. I’m going to be there looking at it for real on, like, Monday. Whoa.
Two days till Patagonia…