The Weekend

One would think I am completely prepared student if they happened to have visited my house this weekend.
Why?
Well so I wasn't there for the most part. Wednesday my teacher told us if we had our Portfolios in by Thursday, we didn't have to come to class on Friday. You'd better believe I sat up late Thursday night and finished that baby. Which automatically means I didn't get up until I absolutely had too on Friday.
Then I spent the morning cleaning and doing laundry, before taking my sister to work and running some errands with Pompei. Once we got home, I didn't make a valiant effort at studying but yeah.

Anyways my roommate got home early, as we were going to see Man of LaMancha at UTK later. Out of all the plays I saw this semester, this was the best! Loved it!!!
And the staff was super helpful with Pompei, let us sit in the assessable sitting didn't give us one iota of a problem. Granted I know all the "head honchos in the security department, so it would have been funny if they had wanted to call security.
"Oh yeah say Hi to my boss while you're on there!" :) 

Anyway we stopped by a friends house on the way home, and C played a round of volleyball while I chatted with others, and chased Pompei away from the game etc..etc..

I was beginning to wonder if I really wanted to go on a hike in the morning, and ok I have to admit I was hoping it would rain us out, but was satisfied I'd convinced C not to do the 13 mile hike, but a shorter 8 mile one. Forgive me for not wanting to get stuck on the side of a mountain, with little cell service in the rain.

But I needn't have worried as it turns out.

We finally got up and left the house around 10am and stopped to get some drinks, and Subway for lunch, once we got up there that is, I decided today would be a great day to AMP energy drink. If you don't know already I'm a caffeine addict, but can go one or two days...and pretty much drink the stuff on a daily basis. Mountain Dews is what I'll drink to get a quick pick me up, Dr. Pepper is my "staple" drink. Anyways I'd heard their commercials on the radio and was curious. So I grabbed two Dr.Pepper Cherry and a Berry Blast AMP. I was nervous, I am ridiculously picky about my food and really dislike wasting food or drink because I didn't like it.
Did I mention I live in a box?
I've tried Monster - Nastiest.Drink.Ever.
Coffee. - Worst than Monsters
And the other stuff looked weird.

Anyway we got our lunch, and headed to Gatlinburg TN.
Once arriving at the trail.
Guess what we found.
NO.DOGS.ALLOWED.

Oops.

I'm sorry but I'm not about to leave my $6,000 guide dog puppy, in the car for 5-6 hours because of a squirrel that might get chased.So fine me.
The first 1.5 was a nice, flat, gravel path, Pompei had a blast exploring, and fulfilling allt he tourists puppy fixes. I told C that you can tell those who are away from their dogs, because they are begging Pompei to come over and say hi, and its not just a pet on the head; but a full body hug.
Which Pompei totally loved.
I hate to admit but I do the same thing.
Hey its hard leaving your "babies' behind!
Oh. C says she doesn't do that. I told her nobody asked her.

Then we hit "part two" 2.5 miles of scrambling up and over boulders, across narrow one railed bridges, C's BF had bought her a nice hydration pack, while I was stuck with my camera bag.

Note to self: You really don't need two cameras + three lens.

 Pompei was leading the way, and I kept calling him to "wait" as he happily dashed up the trail. It took us about two hours to get up there, but once there it was defiantly worth it. While I ate my lunch, C hiked to the top of the falls and on her way back spotted two plaques that stated a Mom, Dad and son had died up there somewhere.

Creepy.

We sat up their for about thirty minutes before heading back down due to impending rain clouds. I'd decided to drink my AMP with my sandwhich and I'm 95.5% sure that Pompei must have licked the top or something because he was tearing off down the trail, with me hot on his hills.

Note to self 2: Two Dr.Peppers + Amp = 180+mm of Caffeine. DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN. 

Once I started moving quickly after Pompei, I literally could not stop. I tripped and twisted my ankle so.many.times its not even funny. Jittery doesn't even describe how I felt.
I was really nervous about crossing those stupid little bridges, in my current state...what I failed to mention earlier was, Pompei has this fear of heights. As does his mother.
And going over those bridges required C to straddle him, to keep him from diving over board, and me to WALK BACKWARDS, to encourage him forward.
Did I mention there was nothing but rocks six feet down?
So now we had to do this twice, with me all hyped up.
Thankfully Pompei decided it was better for him to walk all by his self, and we made our slow way across.The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful we stopped at Baskin Robbins on the way home, and then pretty much crashed.
No I didn't....I was still jazzed up on caffeine....
Oh well, our next house I'm most DEFIANTLY getting another bag.