Not The Face!

Days Walking - 53

My cold has gotten even worse. I'm descending into hell and possibly pneumonia and a young death. I am into the sexy productive cough phase, and am bringing up yellowish frothy phlegm by the mouthful. With the wind mask, I can't even spit it out.

So lady-like, I know. Sorry. I hope to at least make an attractive corpse. If the crew doesn't eat me... Fresh meat would be a prize for us. Start with the rump, guys, ok? Not the face! Not the face!

Also, these last couple of days I've been troubled by, ah. The Hum. A deep, low, unceasing drone. Mostly and most noticeably at night but during the day too. I'm the only one that hears it, so clearly I am insane. Mebbe it's the start of an ear infection. Or Vibroacoustic Disease. Or Inner Ear Cancer.

I feel awful so I'm not going to talk for long tonight. Here's Adrian.

- - Big pause with mumbling back and forth for thirty seconds - -

Uh Hi. This is Adrian. What am I supposed to say? What? Ok, talk about the day. Litany's coughing day and night and sometimes I want to choke her. But that has nothing to do with the coughing. Now she's giving me The Finger isn't that nice. Ha now's she's choking on some coughed up gunk that's what you get for being rude. I'm just going to step outside now it's a lovely night. The wind has died down and it's very peaceful. I can't believe I'm here a lot of the time. When you go on a camping trip it's a quick weekend and then you go back to your normal life but this isn't a quick weekend. I wake up some mornings and feel as though I'm late for work or something.

I have a lot of time to think these days and I spend a lot of that time regretting the foolish mistakes I've made. I hope this trip doesn't turn out to be one of them. It's surprising how many bad choices one twenty five year old can manage to accumulate. I don't want to die in the frozen butt crack of the earth before I get a chance to make amends with some people. Cheryl, if you're reading this I'm Sorry. I know I never said it properly before but I am.

I don't know how long we'll actually be able to keep this up. Chile is a great goal but let's get realistic it's not going to happen. One of us is going to break a leg or puncture a lung and they'll be out and then there were seven. Jake will get Anneli pregnant because really its just a matter of time lets face it and they'll have to go home and then there were five. I'll be happy if I can just say I hiked from Barrow to Fairbanks that's plenty impressive in my book. I know this is supposed to be an fun adventure log and I guess I shouldn't be so doubtful about our goal. I'm sorry if I'm a realist.

Ok so this is turning into a depressing thing let me give the phone back to Lit. No I'm done. I don't have anything else to say. All right.

- - -

Hello...
My name is Church. Allow me to take a moment to warn you all about frostbite. It can strike in a very short time. First you'll feel a pins-and-needles sensation followed by numbness. Watch for bluish, white or waxy skin. Do not try to treat the condition yourself, get yourself to a professional medical practitioner ASAP. If your fingers, toes, ears, nose and other extremities are valuable to you, heed my words.

It concerns me somewhat that Litany spends a great deal of her time thinking and talking about blogging. If it's not talk about yesterday's blog, it's talk about what tonight's blog will be. This is not altogether a bad thing, as it is an important tie for her, and grounds her in the real world.

But if she is not discussing her own blog, she is discussing the blogs she enjoys reading. It's likely a phase that will pass, hopefully before her laptop suffers a fatal injury. I don't want to imagine Litany's mental state if her access to the internet was suddenly suspended. Let me refine that by saying I would be interested to examine the clinical results but would not want to be present for the study. Case in point, Gabe and Litany had an eight minute debate yes I timed it about whether or not she had a crush on Kato. "Yer Crushin on Kato" Gabe would say, followed by "Am Not." from Litany. Amusing at first, and then black-comical, and then sad.

Field medicine is proving very different from domestic first aid. Most domestic treatments are for a thumb cut on the tuna can, and similar. Certainly no frostbite. I've never worked as a trauma surgeon and am not looking forward to our first true medical emergency of the scalpel and sutures type. I worked for years growing up as a veterinary assistant and have done nearly two years of human pre-med work. I should say that I prefer working with animals.

While we're on the subject, I miss my dogs. Mom would call them hers, but Babs and Buster know who really loves them don't they yes they do. I also miss padding barefoot in the rain, down the conglomerate rock cement steps of my apartment complex as I dash down to throw my laundry in the dryer. I am not a huge fan of footwear and am sans shoes whenever possible. These last few months of forced footwear have been grating and I am looking very much forward to the temperature returning to reasonable levels. I welcome rain.

Here.

- - -

Hey it's Jake. I just want to say, Mr. Cathay, if you're reading this or even if you're not f*ck you for saying I would never go anywhere or amount to anything. What kind of an assh*le teacher says that to a student anyway you bitter old f*ck? Don't give me that child psychology bullsh*t, that was a messed up thing to say and you know it. I'm seeing things and meeting people that you can't even dream about. You probably still live with your mother.

- - -

It's me again - Litany that is. I thought today might make an interesting 'let everyone talk' thing, cause my throat hurts, but only three of these lazy people would participate. Jeez, how hard is it? Just talk into the phone. They can blab all day, unless it's something that matters. Anyway I'm gonna say night night now. Sorry.

Litany Webb, signing off

Jump to Start..........FAQ..........Previous Post..........Next Post