Ear plugs, coffee, and hikes

Today, I was on campus, on line to pay for an overpriced wrap, when I saw a man who kind of stood out. With a red zip up sweater over an NYU tee-shirt, I thought he looked like fall. His curly hair sealed the deal (in my world, you should have long hair in the cooler months to insulate). Because I was entering the exhausted phase of my day, I was probably staring at him as I thought about all of this fall stuff. In my prolonged gaze, I realized he was wearing earplugs. I had gone on an earplug hunt when my Dad played at the clam bar and had not expected to be revisited by them again. But, there they were, sticking out of some guy's ears, on line in the food court. These were not normal earplugs. They were multicolored earplugs. He was wearing fashion earplugs. Who knew they existed? I was tempted to ask him why he wore earplugs in public. But, then realized he probably would not hear me and let it go.

The other things that I have realized today are my current status and my current location make it much too hard for me to do two things I love. I need to buy a coffee maker and reestablish myself as an overly zealous coffee drinker. I love coffee, think about coffee, and feel good when I drink it. I have denied myself for too long. My coffee-maker-less status must come to an end. My location problem arises from the fact that I cannot hike easily. As the only person in my school (and most other parts of my life here) that talks about the outdoors, I have been voted the resident expert on hiking. But, I can't really do any of that here; typically, I leave the state to find the wilderness. Now, I am responsible for organizing a trip to somewhere for several colleagues and have no idea of where to bring them. It's much too hard to go outside here and feel like I may be wilting. I need to move to a beautiful place that lets me take good walks in the woods. Any suggestions?