Confession

"Bless me father for I have sinned.  It's been seven months since my last confession."  That's how I started out last Saturday and I sure heard about my lack of enthusiasm for confession.  The priest told me I should be "celebrating the blessed sacrament more often."  I'm not sure I think of going to confession as a celebration.  Growing up a Protestant and understanding at an early age about the Reformation and why Methodists were different than Catholics, I still very much identify with confessing my sins to God directly, in private prayer.  I think I'm getting better at not committing sins or at least committing them less times.  Did that come from getting older or confessing sins to a priest?  My penance this time was to take my husband out on a date.  He sort of did that for me when he took me on his motorcycle for ice cream this weekend.  He went faster than he normally does because he knows I love the speed.  Good man.

It's been hard going back to normal life after the trip to Peru.  Pushing your body for ten hours a day is a beautiful thing.  It's makes muscles and feet sore but knowing that you have it in you to keep up is so great.  I've caught the bug for long-distance trekking.  We actually skipping out on Thanksgiving with family to go camping in the Sierra Nevadas.  I used to hate camping but now, I know I can do it.

I'll shoot myself later for saying this but it's sure nice not to have kids now.  We can go on these big trips and take off for the weekend with not very much notice.  It's a nice break from a lot of heartache the last two years.  I was supposed to call the RE after we got back home but I'm not even remotely motivated to start any program now.  Maybe next year but not now.  Life is good right now with just the two of us.  

We've Returned from Peru

The big news to start with is I lost five pounds.  The guide said this wasn't a weight loss trip because we would be well fed, but hiking steep mountains for 10-14 miles a day will make you lose weight.  And I couldn't escape the fertility subject.  I threw up the morning before the start of our trek and the guide asked me if I was pregnant.  No, I'm not.  A fellow trekker, after describing our fertility problems (OK, I brought it on myself) said, "well, you might be pregnant now."  "No, I'm not."  "How do you know?"  "Because I know."  I would have just missed getting my period until the day we got home but LAN Airlines (I hate them) booked us on a flight from Lima to LAX a day after we were scheduled to leave.  So, we had some unexpected time in Lima.  Not bad, but not great.

It was an amazing trip for sure.  Well worth the time and expense.  I can't remember the last time I took two weeks off.  The trek pushed me further than I thought I could go.  By the seventh day, I absolutely didn't want to walk anymore but I had to.  There were no more mules to carry anybody.  There was personal drama, relationship drama, religious drama, and not much serenity.  But as I kept saying to myself on the trail, "I'm still alive."  And back home and at work for which I am very grateful.