Spontaneous Thursday Lives On

Two posts in as many days?! I know, I know, try to calm yourself.

For those of you who don't know what Spontaneous Thursday is, here is it's command:

"On that, the fifth day of the week, that which is Thursday, an individual harboring an idea of any sort, must, upon entertaining aforementioned thought, commence that activity which s/he finds her/himself pondering at some point that day." Or, if you think of something fun to do and it's a Thursday, you're obligated to do it. Anything goes. Within reason of course.

Spontaneous Thursday was born during the summer of 2010, when Clay and I discovered we often did fun, exciting things on Thursdays. More often than not, these were not planned activities: making pancakes at midnight, jumping in his car on a late night doughnut run, or going into Columbus and pulling off at a random park for lunch. These events were often accompanied by Nutty Bars, a Little Debbie snack I hadn't had before college and haven't had since graduating. Once we realized this, early on in the summer, Spontaneous Thursday became a tradition celebrated on many a Thursday during our college careers.

Anyway, I had the idea to climb a mountain today at work. It was a beautiful day, little wind, not too cold, mostly clear...fresh air sounded glorious. As soon as I took my boots off at home, I picked a trail, packed some snacks and my headlamp and lighter (in the event that I became stranded on the mountain), and drove off. Predictably I couldn't find the trail I wanted because the map I was using didn't label roads (what kind of map doesn't label roads?), so I got as close as I thought to the right trail. Two false starts and I finally found a trail, but not the one I wanted. I decided to take it anyway and proceeded across a stream with granite boulder stepping stones, and up a sheet of ice. The mountain was, for the most part, ice with some snow on top, though there were rocks poking through here and there I used. I warred between, "Anna, you're an idiot, turn around before you break your leg" and "But it's Spontaneous Thursday and I am bound to this decision. Just a little further up." I kepy going, and finally got to a flat spot that afforded a beautiful view of the bay and the islands and the beautiful sunset colors. Meanwhile the sun is sinking on the other side of the mountain I'm on and darkness is falling. Fear not, this story ends well. Going down was harder than going up, and I spent quite a bit of time sledding on my butt. My feet slipped out from under me exactly three times; my mantra was "slowly, slowly, slowly".  So I took it slow. And I made it down with daylight to spare. Spotting another trail across the road I jogged across and what do you know, it's the trail I wanted to take in the first place. It was right across the street. So here's to tomorrow's adventures (even if it's not Thursday)!