Pitch black and sunrises

I'm blogging at 7:20 AM, against the backdrop of a glorious sunrise...which is wonderful and everything, but really, I would have preferred not to have seen it. The sunrise is one of those things that, unless you have intentions of watching it, is not terribly welcoming. It's more like having a rather irritating bluebird chirping in your ear. But, another night of coughing, another night of (4 hours of) sleeping on the couch, a colorful, bright morning sun to greet me against my will. There's irony in that somewhere.

A friend and I drove out to Great Falls last night, and we promptly learned our lesson about trying to hike through the woods at night with no moonlight or flashlight. We didn't get very far, as a terrifyingly large and four-legged silhouette bounded across the dusky lamplight of a nearby field and scared the bejesus out of both of us (deer can be surprisingly scary when you don't know what they are). We heard its footsteps scurry into the wood next to us, and wondering whatever could cause a creature to run on a calm, peaceful November evening caused both of us to jump back in the car. Then I reminded her that the Blair Witch Project had been filmed nearby. Mistake.

So our little city-slicker pansy asses hurried their way back into the city. So much for adventure. It was nice to see all those stars, though. Seven miles out of DC, and it's a completely different world.