So. I was up rendering Saturday night until 4:30 Sunday morning. I knew that I needed to be in Pasadena by 7:00AM. We were meeting Vic Liptak, a Studio Instructor, to hike and look at some hotel ruins atop Mount Echo in the San Gabriel Mountains. Our final studio site is similar to the location. Anyway. I, along with six studiomates, arrived 15 minutes late. Vic and other studiomates were already en route up the mountain. [keep in mind that I am a 31 year old smoker. my usual hikes are at runyan canyon, which is less of a hike and more of a runway show] As the seven of us are 1/2 mile up the mountain, we hear voices screaming at us telling us that we are on the “wrong side of the mountain”. Oops. We retreat and start up the “right” mountain. We are walking quickly to try to catch up with the group. Danny, Collin and Juliette pull out into the lead. Brice and I are together in the middle. Greg and Biayana are trailing behind. The site is 2-and-one-fucking-half-mile up this bloody mountain. At about two miles, Brice and I take a “shortcut” up the vertical face of the mountain. When we get to the next trail, neither of us looks to the right to see the sign that reads “Hotel: Right Fucking Here.” We go left. Two miles later the trail is less a trail and more a 7″ wide platform to a death drop. We reach the very top of the “wrong” mountain. Brice tries to make a call and of course his battery went dead. We were lost. I began to think that this is how Candide found Eldorado, but I think it was just the exhaustion+altitude. We looked off into the distance and saw a trail of student ants several hundred yards below us. The end to this long story is that my body hurts, my feet are bleeding, a supposedly 5 mile hike doubled, and Mother Nature and I now have a lukewarm relationship, at best.

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There should be a reality show to pick the new Pope. I am pitching it to CBS, Lifetime, and the UPN. Details to follow…