May 8, 2023:
Today was the day I was going to get my root canal done, so Boo offered to drive me to my appointment before work.
As we left his house, I said “I love how you keep your TV on when you’re away.”
He goes, “Yeah, I leave it on so Blue could watch his cartoons.”
Blue was his beagle dog.
During the car ride, he says to me, “I have a confession to make,” he took a long pause and continued, “I smoke pot.”
I thought he was going to tell me something crazy, but when I heard that, it just made me laugh out loud. I loved how Boo was one of those guys who didn’t try to be funny, but the shit that came out of his mouth was hilarious.
When I arrived to my appointment, the receptionist surprised me with the news that the doctor wasn’t in today.
“What do you mean he’s not in?” I asked.
“We left you a voicemail to let you know he wouldn’t be showing up today,” she said.
Turned out they left a voicemail for the wrong person. I’m not going to lie, I had a little bit of a panic attack. I hadn’t felt energy that intense in a while. It was one of those moments I had difficulty recognizing it was all perfect regardless of how it appeared to look. So, I just allowed myself to be natural and noticed a bunch of victimizing words come out of my mouth.
“I don’t think you understand. I don’t have a car and I had to hitchhike all the way here just to come to this appointment,” I said.
I was basically at the point where I wanted to sit there until they magically got me a new appointment. As the anger presented itself, it quickly turned into tears. I was not much of a yeller or a voice raiser. I could speak loudly for a moment, but then it would just turn into waterworks.
“I’m sorry. I’m just really overwhelmed,” I cried as I took a moment to come to my breath and recenter.
They understood and proceeded to call a bunch of places to see what they could do for me. Nothing was available and so I accepted the next available appointment in another town on a different day.
I went next door to the Comfort Inn to work on my writing and then Pringles came to save the day and pick me up. We stopped at the Subway in her town and the girl who worked there had a shirt that read, “If you voted for Biden, you owe me gas money.” We got a kick out of that.
Then, we drove to the Pearis Cemetery to find there was trail magic being done by a girl named Giggles. We saw a bunch of hikers and took a full van of them into town after they ate. Every time I was surrounded by thru-hikers, I remembered how much I loved being on trail.
Afterwards, I took Pringles out to eat at the Mexican joint. A group of hikers came in and sat beside us at the bar. I found one of the guys to be cute and so Pringles and I tried to figure out if he fancied any of the other girls in his group. We made some flirtatious eye contact and small talk.
As he was on his way out, Pringles shouted, “Hey! Have you met my friend, Freyja?!”
She asked him three times using different tones, implying that he should make his way over and talk to me. It made both of us feel super awkward, but it was really cute. We both attempted to flirt in front of Pringles, but basically said we would just see each other on trail. He went in for a fist bump and I didn’t see it the first time, so he put his hand down. Then I raised my fist for a bump and we both hit it weird and started laughing. I found those awkward moments to be so cute and humorous.
I came back home to Boo for the night. It was really nice to see him again after being out all day. We went out in his backyard to pass some time. There was a sweet, sharp scent of fresh cut grass and the nostalgic melody of oldies music playing through his speaker. He had a small bonfire going in the middle of his field, in attempt to burn out a dead tree trunk.
“I’ve been having a war with this silver maple stump,” he said, “I’ve tried everything for over a year and a half to get it out of the ground, but it just doesn’t seem to budge.”
Today was the day I was going to get my root canal done, so Boo offered to drive me to my appointment before work.
As we left his house, I said “I love how you keep your TV on when you’re away.”
He goes, “Yeah, I leave it on so Blue could watch his cartoons.”
Blue was his beagle dog.
During the car ride, he says to me, “I have a confession to make,” he took a long pause and continued, “I smoke pot.”
I thought he was going to tell me something crazy, but when I heard that, it just made me laugh out loud. I loved how Boo was one of those guys who didn’t try to be funny, but the shit that came out of his mouth was hilarious.
When I arrived to my appointment, the receptionist surprised me with the news that the doctor wasn’t in today.
“What do you mean he’s not in?” I asked.
“We left you a voicemail to let you know he wouldn’t be showing up today,” she said.
Turned out they left a voicemail for the wrong person. I’m not going to lie, I had a little bit of a panic attack. I hadn’t felt energy that intense in a while. It was one of those moments I had difficulty recognizing it was all perfect regardless of how it appeared to look. So, I just allowed myself to be natural and noticed a bunch of victimizing words come out of my mouth.
“I don’t think you understand. I don’t have a car and I had to hitchhike all the way here just to come to this appointment,” I said.
I was basically at the point where I wanted to sit there until they magically got me a new appointment. As the anger presented itself, it quickly turned into tears. I was not much of a yeller or a voice raiser. I could speak loudly for a moment, but then it would just turn into waterworks.
“I’m sorry. I’m just really overwhelmed,” I cried as I took a moment to come to my breath and recenter.
They understood and proceeded to call a bunch of places to see what they could do for me. Nothing was available and so I accepted the next available appointment in another town on a different day.
I went next door to the Comfort Inn to work on my writing and then Pringles came to save the day and pick me up. We stopped at the Subway in her town and the girl who worked there had a shirt that read, “If you voted for Biden, you owe me gas money.” We got a kick out of that.
Then, we drove to the Pearis Cemetery to find there was trail magic being done by a girl named Giggles. We saw a bunch of hikers and took a full van of them into town after they ate. Every time I was surrounded by thru-hikers, I remembered how much I loved being on trail.
Afterwards, I took Pringles out to eat at the Mexican joint. A group of hikers came in and sat beside us at the bar. I found one of the guys to be cute and so Pringles and I tried to figure out if he fancied any of the other girls in his group. We made some flirtatious eye contact and small talk.
As he was on his way out, Pringles shouted, “Hey! Have you met my friend, Freyja?!”
She asked him three times using different tones, implying that he should make his way over and talk to me. It made both of us feel super awkward, but it was really cute. We both attempted to flirt in front of Pringles, but basically said we would just see each other on trail. He went in for a fist bump and I didn’t see it the first time, so he put his hand down. Then I raised my fist for a bump and we both hit it weird and started laughing. I found those awkward moments to be so cute and humorous.
I came back home to Boo for the night. It was really nice to see him again after being out all day. We went out in his backyard to pass some time. There was a sweet, sharp scent of fresh cut grass and the nostalgic melody of oldies music playing through his speaker. He had a small bonfire going in the middle of his field, in attempt to burn out a dead tree trunk.
“I’ve been having a war with this silver maple stump,” he said, “I’ve tried everything for over a year and a half to get it out of the ground, but it just doesn’t seem to budge.”