I've been in Vermont for Lauren and John's wedding (the second one, the trend seems to be to have more than one wedding these days) since Thursday. We stayed at Lauren's parents' lake house in North Hero, Champlain islands. I'd never been to Lake Champlain before. It looks a lot like the coast where I grew up in Georgia, except the water is fresh (and 79 degrees!!).
Heidi, Jaya, Vicken and Sarah also made it out from Davis, as did Lauren's advisor, Truman. I don't think I would have come all the way out here if the Davis crew hadn't already committed. It's a long way to go, the flight is expensive, blah blah blah, you know.
I'm glad I came though. Lauren and John are a great couple, and it's always nice to "see the best of people", which is really what weddings typically do for people. Truman made the comment that he can tell when a couple is going to break up when he can sense contempt in their language. Lauren and John have no such contempt. I think of my last relationship, and contempt was all that was left by the end. I can tell I've learned a lot, because I immediately identified a guy at the wedding who has that manner of speaking where every comment is sarcastic, a contradiction, a challenge, or a criticism. But of course, he's always "joking". After the first day I mostly ignored him (or tried to...he kept talking to me for some reason).
I'm so ready to go home. I can't even think straight. Too many people for too long. Before the wedding on Saturday I took my rental car over to the Smuggler's notch area and tagged the highest peak in Vermont, at a wopping 4,000 feet. Here they have four-ers and not fourteeners. I didn't even know it was the highest peak in VT until someone told me. Maybe I should make that a goal when I go to a new state. I'm going to SC for a family reunion. Shouldn't be too hard to borrow the car and tag whatever hill is the biggest there. A quick google search reveals Sassafras Mountain, at 3560 ft. Apparently you can drive to the top since everything but the summit is owned by Duke Energy company. Sweet.
I left the lake house early to try to catch an earlier flight, but no dice. So now I'm sitting in a Borders store...waiting. A bunch of people have either missed their flights coming into Burlington or leaving, and I'm not feeling super optimistic, since my flight leaves at 5:15 and goes through Chicago...and it's pouring rain. I wouldn't mind staying in the airport (other than it being uncomfortable) if I hadn't scheduled a site visit at Vine Hill (W of Santa Rosa) tomorrow. 3 or 4 people are meeting us there, coming from different directions, and it took a while to schedule the visit. And we have to go pretty soon because this is the season where the flower we're going to look at is blooming. I think I'll lose my shit if I don't make it home tonight. Which of course, isn't really a useful reaction at all.
In other news, I'm thinking of visiting Lauren in Kenya when she's there (She's there August through October). We've talked about climbing Mount Kenya, which seems to be no joke. I really feel like I need to climb something alpine with her before I commit to trying to climb Kenya, but time is limited. Alternatively, she's going back for another month in the Spring. One of the summits is better in the Spring and another is better in the Fall. The only problem with a climb in the spring is that winter will have prevented me from gaining high elevations that I'd like to hang out in before a climb like that.
I know it would take a lot of time away from stuff I need to do here, as well as cost big bucks (I will have to do some money moving to afford it). On the other hand, Lauren is familiar with the country (at least more than I am, since she's spent several field seasons there), speaks the language moderately well, and is generally a great person. We'll see.
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