The Stairs to Mordor University

Friends, family, enemies, ducks, deer, snakes, other animals, and all who may (or may not) be interested:

Ahem.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE: THE STAIRCASE SOUTH OF BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY CAMPUS HAS OFFICIALLY BECOME AVAILABLE FOR USE.

That's right!  Finally, after four months of construction, the stairs are fixed.  Why does this matter, you ask?  I will tell you why.  For a year and a half of living at my current apartment complex, I took this staircase up to campus.  The staircase was brutal, it's true: one long stretch of 147 steps, with approximately 12 landings to break up the monotony and allow a person to stop and attempt to breathe the impossibly thin air without falling down the stairs.  Why would I put my asthmatic self through such an ordeal every day?  Because I'm a masochist and I love torturing myself!  No, really, it's because it is the most direct path to the middle of campus, where all my classes are.  To the left, there is a hill that I could climb instead...if I wanted to add at least 5 minutes to my walk to campus.  To the right, there is a hill/stair combo I could take.  This is what I have been opting for over the past while, but it leaves me even more tired than the original staircase.  I think those steps are steeper.

Now, the original main staircase in all its glory was falling apart.  It's true.  Half of the stairs were crumbled and broken in the middle, so you had to be careful when walking up them.  But in spite of its flaws, and much like the stairs to Mordor, you just don't appreciate these things until you can't use them anymore.  And these stairs...[pausing for dramatic effect]...were taken away from me.  For four months.  Such is the story with construction.  At first I thought they were going to re-do the rails and they'd be back up in a week or two.  After a month or so I saw men in construction hats and vests with drills and pick-axes and all kinds of things, hacking away at the stairs.  In my depression over losing it, I stopped paying attention to the staircase.  But a month later I couldn't ignore the huge cement trucks brought in to replace the stairs.  I hoped this meant they would be finished before the snows of winter rendered construction impossible...but to no avail.  It snowed, it blizzarded, and for several weeks the stairs remained covered with tarp, untouched.

I'd finally resigned myself to the awful fate of waiting out the winter so that I could use the stairs again when a glimmer of hope!  People were working on the staircase again last week.  I didn't dare hope too much; I'd been let down for four months.  When what to my wondering eyes should appear but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer to take me to campus on a seat of wood veneer!  Actually, I began my walk to campus this morning and found that the staircase was open for access...but my joy was no less than it would have been if reindeer and sleigh had come to fly me to school!  And it seems special and new: maybe I remembered it differently, or maybe they've made some major improvements.  The stairs seem less steep than they used to be, and perhaps there are fewer?  All in all, it brought me great happiness to walk up those stairs again.  In my excitement, I may have walked up them too fast: I skipped every other stair and found myself wheezing for an hour and stuck with an asthma cough for the rest of the day.  Ah, well.  You win some, you lose some.  I still think it's worth it to have the stairs back.  =)

For those of you who are still confused by my inclusion of various animal species in my introduction to this post, let me explain.  One, (most) friends, family, and enemies are not animals.  I do not consider people to be animals, but some animals can be considered friends or enemies.  Or family, if you're Snow White, Aurora, or Cinderella.  As per the ducks, there is a lovely little duck pond at the base of the stairs, and a multitude of ducks wander around the area.  I have often found duck eggs and feathers on that staircase, and now the ducks are free to wander the staircase again.  Deer have been sighted along the staircase at more than one occasion.  Of a truth, I once saw a herd of ten or twelve dear leap in pairs across a larger landing on this staircase.  I look forward to seeing deer cross that way again.  I recognize that snakes may seem an odd inclusion in this group, but an old roommate of mine once told us how she saw a garter snake on the staircase and picked it up to play with it (the rest of us roommates were horrified by this story).  Other animals are also welcome; I don't discriminate.*  I am happy to walk up and down those stairs to campus with any of you who wants to join me.  Or if none of you care, I will walk up those stairs.  Every morning.  By myself.  And there will be much rejoicing.

*I am betting that I will be safe (knocks on wood) and not run into any grizzly bears, rattlesnakes, tigers, or other fierce animal predators on the stairs, because it is such a populated area.  But if I am wrong and they are inclined to join us, I take back my previous statement.  They are NOT welcome.  But you are!  Unless you're a fierce animal predator with literary capabilities...