God it feels great to be wearing a Hawaiian shirt again! Sitting in a fugly old beat up living room chair wearing that same awesome flower print shirt typing on a Mac laptop. Floating around in my system are pancakes and syrup, three cups of coffee with sugar and creamer, a mug of water with Christian Brothers brandy and Alka Seltzer cold medicine, and a little yellow pill. On the TV the credits for The Big Lebowski are just starting to roll and some good guitar music is playing. There are hikers all around on the couches, in the chairs, belching in the kitchen, and arguing about the words in one line of the film. Someone just asked the group what day it was. Brilliant. I think it's a Wednesday. Not that it matters.

Got sick. Again. Had BAD food poisoning out of Wrightwood. Then contracted a wicked sore throat staying at the Saufley's Hiker Heaven in Agua Dulce. Hiked 25 miles yesterday to make it here and my body is feeling tired and terrible. Head cold. Swollen throat, hard to swallow. Congested sinuses. At least a runny nose has taken over the runny butt... Had two huge piles of taco salad last night, which tasted fantastic. I'm carrying probably 20 lbs of food and know that it's ridiculous over-preparation, but after having to take two extra days on the trail to get to Agua Dulce, I'm glad that I tend to take lots of extra grub. Then again, with supposedly waterless stretches that go more than 30 miles coming up, I'll want to really examine the weight I'm carrying so I have enough capacity to bring sufficient water, which is pretty much the heaviest thing in a thru-hiker's backpack.

Spent this past Saturday night in Los Angeles visiting with two great college friends and had a wonderful time meeting their peeps and hitting up the Pacific Ocean beach at night. Got some Ben n' Jerry's fix taken care of and made an incredible trip to Trader Joe's. Food is absolutely pornographic material for many of us hikers now. There was a story I heard about people who brought a Denny's menu out onto the trail just to taunt hikers!