Medusa style

Okay, so, you're casually working away, knowing you're practicing your talk tonight and have some work that needs completing today, and the project manager of one of your projects comments that hey, three of these projects need to be done today.

Three.

Today.

So, what do you do?

Yeah, I spent the first twenty minutes spinning my wheels thinking, "omg. omg. omg," too. Because, really now, *that* is completely productive.

And then I realized that, you know what, this is going to be a long, long, long day, and I had best make the most of it. Especially when Katy commented how great the day is, and completely took me up on the suggestion, "Hike?" What I liked the best was that she immediately followed the suggestion with a definitive hike time, all the better to ensure I can't skip out on the plans. While I want to say, "It's like she knows me or something," I've been working hard at setting expectations, so when I suggested the hike, I knew that I'd go on it even if it meant for a crazier day than I really wanted.

Because exercise is incredibly important.

As are friendships.

Brian and Katy were willing to meet up at my house, for which I was incredibly grateful, and off we went, Brian bringing along probably over three gallons of water for our hike.

Our 60 minute hike.

Our 60 minute hike in partial shade.

They explained to me how they had gone on a hike recently without sufficient water, and had a really hard time of it. They've swung in the other direction, bringing too much water, but, well, the hike is unknown, so maybe too much water isn't such a bad thing.

After my requisite bathroom break we were on our way. Right up to the top of Hunter's Point, with the views of the Bay, we walked, talking about webapps and phone apps and game metrics and the other ideas that make me excited when talking with people who share the same interest and enthusiasm for my chosen profession.

Yes. Way excited.

The view was pretty clear this afternoon. We were able to see from past San Jose and Fremont all the way to Redwood City, naming landmarks (the Stanford Quad Tower, Moffett Field hangers) and downtown clusters.

While at the top, Katy commented that she had forgotten her hair tie in the car, and dangit, her hair was annoyingly hot. I suggested she tie it in a knot, which caused a bit of confusion.

Confusion dispersed by a quick demonstration of the hair twisting technique of shoving long hair into a twist, and keep twisting into a bun, then wrapping the ends through the bun, and around the edges of the bun, to keep it tied in a knot.

Because, yes, it's true, I have long hair. I can do this.

After I demonstrated, Katy looked at me for a moment, bent over, twisted her hair into a knot, wrapped it into a tie, straightened back up, and commented something to the effect of "score another girl point for me."

Yes, indeed.

After lingering at the lookout for a short bit, we hiked down, and continued along our hike. For quick hikes, I like the Seven Springs Trail, so we went along that route.

Ten maybe fifteen minutes into the hike, I noticed something fall off Katy's pants, and stopped to look at it. It was a bright orange, so I thought it might be from Katy's shirt. Even after staring at it for a short bit, I was confused as to what it was. Katy, however, was not. "It's a snake."

Brian came over to look at it, and commented, yeah, it's a snake, but probably dead, let's move on.

A snake.

Up close and personal?

Yeah. I need a macro of that.

I snapped a picture standing over the snake, but couldn't really see what was going on with it. I stuck my face probably way too close, had I actually thought about what I was doing as I was fascinated by it.

No, it didn't look dead to me, but there was something odd about the dark spot on the tip of the snake. I couldn't quite figure it out.

I turned the macro on the camera, and looked at it, then adjusted myself to lean in closer.

"Uh, Kitt," I heard Katy say, "you probably don't want to do that."

Yeah. Probably didn't.

Just as I pressed the button to take a closer picture of the snake, it jumped at me.

I jumped away, too.

Turns out, the orange was the bottom of the snake, and the dark tip of the snake was its head turned right side up. It jumped at me, then slithered off to the bushes, as I squealed and laughed and took more pictures.

Then realized, wow, I had goosebumps all over me.

I really thought the snake had fallen off of Katy, but only after talking about what had happened, did I realize that it had probably slipped off the hill along the side of the trail, just as Katy was walking by. Because, you know, she said, she just doesn't have that Medusa style hair this week.

The rest of the hike was considerably less exciting, but no less fun! Brian and Katy took the lead, requiring only slight prompting to turn around for a picture (otherwise, I'd have all ass pictures).

We were done with our hike, with lots of water remaining, in just under the hour I promised them. It was a good hike. I'm glad we went.

As a side note, Katy wears the Vibram Five Fingers shoes. While Brian and I were leaving shoe prints in the dirt on the train, Katy was leaving adorable footprints: