All of this at once, every moment....

Last week I finished Bill Bryson's book about hiking the Appalachian trail. There was one paragraph in particular that really resonated with me; he's talking about hiking in the woods, but he captures how contradictory my feelings can be about fieldwork sometimes:

"I was weary of the trail, but still strangely in its thrall; found the endless slog tedious but irresistible; grew tired of the boundless woods but admired their boundlessness; enjoyed the escape from civilization and ached for its comforts. I wanted to quit and to do this forever, sleep in a bed and in a tent, see what was over the next hill and never see a hill again. All of this at once, every moment, on the trail or off."

I love what I'm doing, and fieldwork is often exhilarating and definitely one of the best parts of archaeology. But it can also be frustrating and tedious. All of this at once, every moment.