June, part deux

Spent the last three days sleeping, so no time to blog. Can't believe how unconscious I wanted to be all the time. Hard to type when your eyes are closed. Started Sunday night, after my family went out to celebrate my sister's college graduation. Clearly, they slipped some serious knock out drugs into my food because I went to slept at 930pm and over the next 36 hours, I slept 30.
Up until that point, my weekend had been okay. Spent most of it with S, my friend of 25 years or so (and last weekend's bday girl).
Saturday morning, S and I climbed the Grouse Grind. My very first time. It's hell I tell you, sheer hell, and yet I'm already planning to do it again. It's a 2.9 km (1.8 mile) hike, straight up. 853 meters (2800 ft) gain in elevation. The closest thing to flat you experience is maybe 2 or 3 steps in a row, and I think that only happened once. The trail is marked into quarter sections. The first quarter is evil incarnate. I kept thinking I was going to die. I started wheezing 30 seconds into it and never stopped. How and WHY do people do this? S was waiting for me at the quarter mark and told me it was the worst of the four, that if I could do that section, I could finish it. Thankfully she was right, because if any of the following sections had been like the first, I might have considered trying to roll back down the mountain. The second section was probably the easiest, the third the prettiest (although hard to tell as it was pouring rain), and the fourth required me to activate Monkey Mode and use all four limbs to get up stairs/rocks. Some sections are log steps, some sections are rock fall, some are (muddy) dirt path, but they all involve serious incline. More than a few times I wasn't sure my stumpy legs would stretch far enough. My time - 1 hr 30 min. Apparently the average time. I'd love to get that down to 1 hr 15. The gondola ride back down the mountain was great, I see why it's a tourist thing (even in the rain).
That night we went to a friend's 30th birthday party in Burnaby. After the party ended, we went to a bar in North Van, one that I had never been to before. As S put it - always make sure you are drunk before going there. Eep. To those you know me well, I can best describe the situation by telling you I started drinking beer. Vile stuff, but required.
The following pic was taken at my sister's grad dinner on Sunday. So either I was definitely getting sick or I've recently died and no one has notified me. I like the pic itself, but I had no idea how pale I am. Ok, yes, I knew I was pale, but Anne Rice material? Admittedly, my dad has a tan from working outside, but still.....