I've been shocked....literally

So last night at work we got a little bored. As you may have heard, a Bored Sarah is a Bad Sarah. For whatever reason, we decided to start messing around with the crash cart. That led to hooking the defibrillator pads up to me, which than we decided what could it hurt if I got shocked with 1 joule. Considering we just shocked a lady with 300 joules to get her out of V-Tach, 1 joule did not sound like much at all. So, I sat on the bed and the apprehension was probably the worst because of not knowing what to expect. It shocked me. It was probably one of the craziest things I've ever done. I had the pads on my lower chest so it wouldn't affect my heart....to much. It basically felt like someone just squeezed you, really really tight. It pretty much knocked the wind out of me. The doctor was present the entire time, basically just to laugh at us. It was hilarious, it still cracks me up. Why would we do such a stupid thing? It has been almost 5 hours now and I still feel so weird. I feel a little sore, like someone kicked me. And it seems like I notice the presence of my heart a little more than I normally do. Probably because I'm paying attention to whether or not it is still ticking.... Good times!

Where have I been?

Well, some of you may or may not have noticed, but I've been gone. After my six days of work, I packed up and headed out camping. I go where I've always gone camping, the upper peninsula. I usually don't have any type of agenda, I just get in the car and go. This trip I ended up first west of Marquette and than all the way west into the Porcupine Mountains.

The first night I stopped at a campground where I was 1 of 3 tents in the entire campground. Out of 110. Pretty sad I thought. I got a spot right next to the playground so I had an endless stream of children running by. Kids are absolutely the greatest. They just crack me up, so simple minded and innocent. I did pretty much freeze that night. The temps dipped down into the 40s and I was very envious of my trailer neighbors and their furnaces going off every couple of hours.

My first day of hiking I spent more than a hour driving around trying to find the Black River Falls. The directions I got out of a book did not match up at all with what I had on my county map. And all the street signs aren't real names or anything like I'm used to. Instead they are all numbers and letters (PS2, PD3, PPR, PU4, etc). Eventually I did cross the Black River and found signs pointing in the direction of the falls. After another 15 minutes of two track dirt roads, the road ends with a trail to the falls. I was surprised to actually find another car in the parking lot. On my way down the steep trail, there were 2 ladies trying to carry some camping equipment down the hill. I offered to help since I was headed that direction. We made small talk and whatever and I went on my way as they started to set up camp. After I finished taking my pictures I headed back up the trail to find them barbecuing hot dogs. I talked to them some more and they offered me some food. Normally I would pass it up, but it smelled so good, I was so hungry and I had no idea how far from any place to eat, so I decided to chow down with them. After I graciously thanked them for their hospitality, they told me to come back later that night for lots of beer. I laughed and told them I would probably never be able to find this place again.So after my free lunch, I headed further north to Canyon Falls. Basically it is a canyon that has been whittled by some very fast moving water. You can walk down along the canyon and the river for miles. There were quite a few people there, so I don't know why I was so startled when this nice boy started asking me about my camera. I stopped what I was doing and talked to him for awhile about photography and all the falls in the area. He was there with a bunch of friends but he wanted to take me even further north to Houghton to see Hungarian Falls. He was cute and I liked his accent, so I'm surprised I said no. But I really couldn't work going any further north into my trip.
So after that stop, I did go to a couple of more waterfalls, including my favorite Bond Falls. I would definitely say it out does Tahquamenon Falls. It was pretty spectacular.
The campground I stumbled across for the night had the most helpful energetic camp ranger I think I've ever met. I was headed to the Porcupine Mountains the next day and really had no idea where to start as far as that was concerned. He said he has been trying to get into that headquarters for years now and so he knows everything and anything about the place. He was a wealth of knowledge. I spent probably a hour talking to him. When I stumbled out of my tent at 730 the next morning, I don't think I even had my tent zipped back up when he popped around the corner asking if I had decided what I would be doing in the Porkies that day.

I don't know what it is about traveling alone, but people treat you so much more different. Feeding you. Wanting to take you different places. I can't say that any of that would have happened if I had been there with a group of friends or whatever. That and I think that the Upper Peninsula just houses more friendlier, down to earth people.

So my third day of the trip included four waterfalls and even a trip into another time zone! The day included my second favorite falls, Sandstone Falls. The most spectacular thing about it is the huge rocks that surround the falls. These four falls were so remote and the trails were so difficult, that I seriously did not see anyone on any of these trails.I met up with some friends to camp with and explore the Porcupine Mountains that evening. I wasn't able to do as much hiking as I had planned due to the lack of energy and ambitions. But we did get some hiking in. I went to both the lowest point and the highest point of the mountains. It was pretty awesome. And there were a ton of backpackers out in the woods. Something that I would consider doing if I knew what the hell to do. There were even a pack of probably 6 or 7 young female backpackers. I was impressed!
On my way back across the Mackinac Bridge, I decided that I would pay for the cars toll behind me. Kind of like a pay it forward type deal. So I told the lady, she just said "okay," nothing else. I wondered why she responded like that. I wondered if people do this more frequently than I would have thought, so she didn't think it was a big deal. Or I also wondered if she may have pocketed the money. I tried to watch the car behind me when I pulled out. They sped up on their way out of the toll booth, but I don't know if they were trying to catch up or if they just drove fast. When they did make it up near me, they didn't look over at me or anything like I would have expected, but than they got stuck behind me in road construction. I would like to think that they were on vacation and that their last impression of the upper peninsula would be what mine was, there are some really nice people that live up there.

Getting to know my neighbors....

Let me first tell you how dangerous tubing is with certain individuals. When people have the need for speed and they are amused by being as mean as possible to get someone to fall off the tube, it hurts. Especially the next day. Of course the stellar sunburn I got does not help matters at all. But I have so many bruises on my legs and arms from tubing yesterday, I feel like someone beat the shit out of me. But what is even more fun is drunk tubing. Endless laughs!

So my weekend neighbors have been up for the past week or so. They come and go like I do, so we've never really talked, just waved on our way to wherever. They have a bunch of little girls who have been out in the woods at night screaming endlessly. I want to go hide in the woods and give them a real scare. I came home tonight with groceries and had been in and out of the house several times. While I'm gathering the rest of the bags in my hand, I turn around and here is a girl (maybe 11 or 12) standing not even 2 feet away from me. I'm all the way in the garage so I don't know how she so quietly snuck up on me (maybe she is part Indian), but she startled me. And I think I swore. Actually I'm sure I did. She was asking about the kittens who I was lucky to get rid of 2 days ago. Apparently she had been going into my garage and taking them outside to play with. I wondered in the back of my head how sometimes they would get outside. But she almost cried when I told her I got rid of them. Her dad (whose name I don't remember due to my lack of active listening skills) came over and I made small talk with him briefly. I assumed since it was almost 10pm and the kittens were no longer around that the little girl would follow her dad home. Wrong. She starts following me around in the garage and outside. I would take stuff inside and she would wait in the garage until I came back out. She even offered to help me, which I thought was sweet, but just go home already!

Yes, she did finally leave. And now I am a step ahead on getting to know my neighbors!

I guess I'm getting old...

I spent the Fourth of July at a friends cabin. There were a bunch of little kids there that entertained me as much as I entertained them. I spent a ton of time in the water tubing with the kids and spent probably a hour teeter tottering with a 3 year old 30 pound child. Someone taught her to say, "keep it moving lady." It was pretty much like doing a hour worth of squats. I'm pretty sore today. I also hung out with them and we did completely mindless activities. We fed the ducks, threw sticks into the lake and played catch with a beach ball. Sure I act like them, but my body isn't as young as it used to be.

The Five Degrees of Kevin Bacon

For lack of things to talk about, I am 5 people away from Kevin Bacon, here's how:

I picked up a hitchhiker last fall whose
daughter went to Interlochen Academy
who met John Travolta who
was in Look Whose Talking with Kristie Alley
who was in She's Having a Baby with Kevin Bacon!

And here is another:

I know a Mike
whose son went out with a girl
who was at a party and met Alyssa Milano (from Who's the Boss)
who appeared on The Tonight Show
where Kevin Bacon also appeared

How lucky am I? Yup, you don't have to say it, you're jealous!