Spring has Sprung

Pardon the cliche, but Spring has definitely hit Ellensburg hard within the last few days! The weekend was beautiful and today is up in the low 80's temperature-wise. Sunny, not windy, warm enough to go outside without a good wind jacket on!

This last weekend Jay came over and we did an overnight camping trip into Umtanum Canyon. We left Saturday morning around 10:30 and got to our camping spot (about 3.5 miles or so) around noon. The trail is pretty well maintained for the first mile and a half or so, but gets a little brushy after that - and that's where we ran into the ticks! Apparently it's tick season, because they were everywhere! Jay's poor little bulldog was covered (we picked off at least 20), and when we got to our camp spot we found a couple on us too. Considering that it was my first "back-packing" trip, I think it went rather well, although we still have a couple kinks to work out, particularly: my fear of blood-sucking bugs (and the resulting paranoia), my caffeine addiction (and the resulting headaches that come from not having any), and my need to constantly be eating something (and the resulting back pain that comes from carrying that much food). I guess I'm just more of a car-camping girl.

As far as school goes, it's getting to the busy point. The first few weeks are usually pretty relaxed, but coming into the halfway point is where assignments start piling up. Unfortunately this halfway point is coinciding with the nicest weather all year, but I suppose that means I just get to do as much work as I can outside during the day and spend those insufferably hot evenings in the library.

In some-what related news, I received a letter in the mail announcing that I made honor roll with my grades last quarter! Hopefully this quarter will be just as good! I've decided not to do the SOURCE presentation this year, but there's always the possibility of submitting it next year. This quarter is just too busy with two literature classes, and by this time next year I will most likely be in classes with less time-consuming homework so it will be easier to do the SOURCE presentation to the best of my abilities!