Live for Today: My dear Jessie and my first "14er"

I'll start this out on a sad note, and end it on a good note. That's always the direction you should go, right?

I received terrible news last Friday afternoon that one of my dear friends from high school had passed away unexpectedly. I can't really describe the feeling that one gets when they hear that sentence on the other end of the phone, nor can I recount much of the conversation. But I am so eternally grateful for the 5 hometown friends who left messages and texts while I was busy at school, pleading me to call them before perusing Facebook that afternoon...and to Molly who took my call with her strength that somehow, seriously, never waivers.

So I am on my way to the Outer Banks tomorrow to celebrate a beautiful life that was cut way, way, entirely too short.

But I have SUCH fond memories with this girl - my own pillowcase at her house, endless beach trips, falling down sand dunes, driving through Chantilly in her jeep listening to Nsync, Matchbox 20, or Tim McGraw, sleepovers in her basement, gymnastics meets, eating Blondies at Ruby Tuesdays, my mom paying for her gas when I was STILL not 16 and she had to drive me everywhere...and so much more.

And I know she is making heaven a very happy place right now. I love you, Jessie.

I wasn't going to go on the 14er trip that I had planned. But in the end, I couldn't sit in my Shoebox any longer and look at old pictures and messages pop up on Facebook.

So I figured hiking is cheaper than therapy, and I headed out to Mt. Yale with my new sweet friend John.

I was one of those tourists (like Kara) who started taking pictures from the car, even though they were nothing compared to what we were about to see.

The leaves changing at the trail head...

I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking here. But let me just say THIS WAS SO HARD. I think it goes in the category with my marathon and 100 mile bike ride. Except I didn't train for it. It took us almost 4 hours to get up. There were points where I took about 20 steps and had to stop again to catch my breath and let my legs stop burning. It was straight uphill (I guess, duh) absolutely the entire time.