Blog Separation Anxiety

Dear blog, I’ve missed you. It’s been 35 hours and 52 minutes since I last saw you, and I haven’t been able to get you out of my head. Please don’t think I’m purposefully neglecting you - it’s just that I’ve had no internet access. I’m experiencing some serious separation anxiety. And I’m beginning to wonder if this is the healthiest of relationships. We have, after all, known each other for only a week. I’m afraid I may begin stalking you.

Ryan, ferocious dog and I have been in the Catskills since yesterday for a long weekend retreat — hiking, swimming, more hiking — and no internet. I always welcome this kind of hiatus, since Ryan is a serious technophile, while I resent cell phones, Blackberries, and anything that makes me immediately accessible to anyone other than myself. As friends and family will attest, I am frustratingly hard to get a hold of.

But now I’ve developed a sad little obsession with my fledgling blog. How is it doing? Is anyone reading? Do I have any newcomers? How about new comments? If only I could blog about the forest fire that Ryan and I were hiking in, completely unaware until a park ranger found us and told us they were evacuating.

Ryan, Keely dog and I went on a 7.5 mile hike around the Gunks today. We did actually smell smoke a few times, but assumed there were people with campfires nearby. “Mmm, I love the smell of burning wood,” I said. “Yeah, until it becomes a forest fire,” the smart-alecky Ryan replied.

Hours later, as we were driving out of the park, a ranger was standing in the middle of the road, flares lit, flagging each person down to make sure we were on our way out. “Are you the ones who were parked at Jenny Lane?” he asked. It comforted me immensely to know the park police were actually keeping track of us. We are city slickers after all, the type of city slickers who don’t bother with trail maps, and think nothing of smoke in the woods. I still think it smelled good, though.