with beer pong occasionally come epiphanies.

I went to a party with some of the guys from the field crews at the museum. It wasn't a big deal, just a get-together, beer, some pong, and good times all around. And 8 hours later, we're mostly sober again, standing around, actually talking about archaeology, and I'm thinking to myself, holy shit. I haven't been to a party in simply ages - not a real one. I was never a real party girl, though in my early college days I drank hard, I never really did it in big groups - as I told Zack, "you're going to have to refresh me on the rules, because I think the last time I played beer pong I was 17." But last night was nice, man - the kind of night you wish you had every night. It was laidback and everyone was cool and everything was the way it should be. And today, I went hiking with my friend Bonnie.

And I could finally put words to what I had been thinking, feeling, knowing during this time with the guys, these guys who were still dirty from the field, these guys playing beer pong and half-watching The Big Lebowski, these guys that hung around and checked out the maps on the wall and talked about the Eastern Bloc and drank beer, these guys who stood in the kitchen and laughed and laughed about Uncas while the upstairs neighbor girl stared at us with a great blank expression on her face...

These guys made me realize you gotta work hard, love hard, play hard, you gotta get a job that makes you want to up in the morning and you gotta get a lover that makes you want to go to bed at night. You gotta dress to get dirty, and bring a jack-knife if you have one. Life isn't about how much stuff you have but how much you smile, because no one ever really laughs enough. Live for the nights of beer and laughter - live for the mornings you wake up hoarse from too much of both. You gotta love life because it's pretty much all you've got.