It's Motif Monday! And the topic is (shhhhh!) secrets. (While we're on the topic of secrets, if you haven't been to PostSecret yet, you need to. Go there now. I'll still be here waiting when you get back.)

I don't think of myself as someone who carries around a lot of secrets, but when I stopped to actually think about it, I realize I do. Some are other people's secrets, some are my own. This blog is definitely the biggest secret I keep from most people in my life. And the reason for this is that I want to protect other secrets, things about me that I am open about here but am not comfortable with them knowing. (I come from a very conservative family. I love them very much, but I'm not yet ready for them to know that I say fuck. Or that I no longer share their beliefs when it comes to religion and most everything else.)

So then I started thinking about what secrets I keep from the blog. From you. There aren't many, other than a few things I don't reveal to sorta protect my identity a wee little bit, maybe. But then I thought of something. A secret, of sorts, that y'all don't know about me. But it's something you definitely should. So here goes...

I'm a geocacher.

A what? A GEOCACHER. And since you've likely never heard of geocaching (because it's a bit of a secret itself), consider today the day you, as we say here in Redneck Valley, git yerself edgykated.

Geocaching is treasure hunting for geeks. To play you need a GPS unit and a sense of adventure.

Basically, fellow geocachers all over the world hide caches (a "cache" is a container that holds a log book and maybe some fun toys for geocaching kids, if there's room), mark the GPS coordinates for the hide location, post said coordinates and a brief description on the geocaching website, and then other geocachers use their GPS units to try to find the caches. Standard-size caches are Tupperware containers, but many are much smaller, like film canisters or magnetic key boxes. (The smallest we've seen was the size of a pencil eraser.) Large-ish caches are usually in wooded areas or parks, while small ones are typically hidden all over the place in cities. I guaran-damn-tee you there are caches near where you live. Search the site to find out.

Rob's parents got us hooked on this sport. (What? It's a sport. Shut up.) They like to hike and found that geocaching was a good excuse to get out in the woods. At first we made fun of them. But they invited us along a few times and, let me tell you, it is ADDICTING. And FUN. And it is decidedly the best way to tour a new city. Geocaching has taken us to so many neat spots we never would have discovered on our own.

And there is strategy involved, oh yes. Especially with the urban ones, which are cleverly hidden in very public places. You must locate the cache, remove it, sign the log, and replace it without non-geocachers ("muggles") noticing. You think swag-snagging requires stealth? Puh-lease.

Rob, my brother, and I are a geocaching team and have hidden 10 caches and found nearly 150. Most people our age go clubbing on the weekends - yeah, we go caching.