wild

I'm 77% into Wild; I'm reading it (on my Kindle) for book club. This is not the kind of book I would chose on my own.  It's a memoir about a young woman's journey through a long, punishing, self-exploratory 1100 mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail.  I'm not particularly liking it, but do appreciate the author's bravery.  

I am nothing like Cheryl Strayed.

• She grows up fatherless and poor.
• Her mother dies young.
• She prefers the rural outdoors to big cities.
• She is (at age 26) promiscuous, thinking nothing of hooking-up before that was even an expression.
• She uses hard drugs, including many experiences with heroin.
• She is not close to her siblings.
• She changes her last name just because.
• She packs only two T-shirts for a multi-month hike.
• She leaves college a few credits short of graduating.
• She is comfortable having no human contact for days and days.
• She knows how to use an ice axe.
• She hikes alone over treacherous territory knowing there will be bears, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes in her path.
• She wears ill-fitting boots for miles and miles, days and days, resulting in blisters, bleeding feet, and unbearable pain.
• She loses two toe nails.

Ah, there it is — a similarity.  

Last September 26, when I was debating what shoes to wear for the Gone Girl premiere and party, I accidentally slammed a metal door on my left big toe. It made the shoe decision easy.

Today, after turning an array of colors, the nail finally falls off.  Not that that makes me anything like Cheryl.  It just gives us something in common.