I”m here this weekend!
will also be @tiffanymroyal on occasion during the day …
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Randy and I traveled to New England to celebrate friends getting married Labor Day weekend, but also took a few extra days to get to know the famous Shawangunks area in New York State (just an hour north of NYC) and do a whirlwind rock trip of New England. In a previous post, I explained my climbing anxiety about this trip, but as I subconsciously knew, I had nothing to worry about.
Day 1: Tuesday Sept 1
We’d just taken a red eye in from Seattle, so we gave ourselves a day to head from our airport in Massachusetts to New Paltz, NY, while giving our bodies a day to recover from jetlag. Upon entering town, we headed straight for Rock & Snow, the local climb shop. Nothing like end-of-season sales – found some fantastic Outdoor Research capris that move everywhichway you want, plus a nice little top to match. I’m not a girly girl, but I’m no tom boy either. I like it when stuff looks like it should on the appropriate body type.
After perusing the books, stuff-I-haven’t-seen-on-the-west-coast (waxy stuff to help fingers recover from a hard day of climbing!) and Randy’s involved conversation about Aliens pro with the locals, we decided to explore the bouldering areas to get an idea of what we’d be dealing with the next day.
The journal-like-entry/report of what mom and i did for two straight weeks – no wonder i nearly got sick (no one will find this entry interesting other than me and mom):
Wednesday – mom flies in. we go toaster shopping and head home. Got a little work done while mom settled in. Went to boathouse for dinner and had their fish tacos and halibut fish and chips (the only two good things on the menu).
I was ready to write 15 minutes ago but got distracted. Don’t really feel like writing anymore, but I’m going to do it anyway. And for 15 minutes. I apparently miss having strict newspaper deadlines.
Post-writing, I will start researching “The Gunks” – where I’ll be in three weeks, with Randy and a guide, climbing some rock in upstate New York. I was told last night that 5.4s have roofs and overhangs. I don’t do roofs and overhangs.
I woke at 4 a.m. with anxiety about it (plus other things). I kept telling myself that, based on previous experience, I know that if I research and educate myself about the area and do some technique training, plus tunnel-vision at the gym, I’ll be fine. My method of accomplishing something big goes like this: seed idea, freak out about it, calm down, read about it, then kick it’s butt and do it better than I ever thought I could do. While the length of time for each phase varies, I still go through it. Mountain climbing, skiing, triathlons, running, writing. Same method applies to all.
Right now, I’m at Calm Down/Read About It.
So – I’m going to pull a Randy and eat, drink, breath and live rock climbing through Labor Day weekend. Heh, it’ll be like a test to see if I’d really like to hard-core it as a rock climber or if I still prefer my variety of climbing, hiking, yoga and biking. I have to admit, I’m getting a little tired of being stuck at my current climbing level. Granted, I haven’t climbed (or much of anything other than just pure fun chill recreation) in the past month, but last night’s gym session taught me a few things:
I’m giving myself 15 minutes – that’ll be until 1:30, when I should probably go do real life stuff, like laundry and cleaning and get ready to head to Seattle.
It’s been crazy busy since July 7. That is when my uncle, Tim, and Beth, his wife (to me, they are “TimAndBeth”, as everyone calls them) came to the PNW for the first time ever. They requested no city stuff, or minimal anyway – they, esp. Tim, wanted to hit the woods. And the woods, we hit. Except for Seattle on Friday – the usual suspects of Pike Place Market and SurLaTable. For some reason, I thought going to Seattle Center would be cool. I don’t know why. EMP wasn’t worth it at 4 p.m. and well, there’s not much else there. The monorail was a nice place to sit though.
Bremerton used to have a town baker.
Who can say that anymore about their community? Who can drive to a small storefront, tucked away in the community, where you know bread and other yummy products were baked that morning? And if you got there early enough, the loaves were still warm when you broke open the crust? If he was there, you could talk to the baker about what he did, share recipes, or just marvel at the deliciousness of his goods?
Can you say that about your community? Can you do that there? Can you stop to think about where to pick up what is an essentially homemade gargonzola and olive wheat loaf?
Or must you run into your chain grocery store to grab a loaf in wrapped in cellophane and plastic? Read the rest of this entry »
Finally posted pictures from Memorial Day hiking and Leavenworth Bouldering trips on here – look to the right for the links!
I’m sitting in the dark of my living room. A brand new pedal-less road bike stands upright next to me, waiting for me to teach myself how to install the clipless pedals and then cleats on the special bike shoes. A plate of partially finished spaghetti and sauce and canned green beans sits next to me, a meal from my tenants who decided to share their extra dinner. It’s raining outside (surprise, surprise) but it’s a nice rain. A nice spring rain. The green leaves on the two maple trees in my front “yard” have finally sprung forth from their buds, nicely framing my blue-gray house and the white-trimmed deck. It’s 8:24 p.m. and it’s still light out.
You’d think after spending the past three days outside, the rain would be a bummer, but it’s almost a nice reprieve. It’s forcing me to be inside and feel cozy, rather than feel guilty for not being outside and weeding weeding weeding like I should be. Not that there aren’t small voices of the house nagging at me (clean the bathroom! Reorganize the garage! read over your re-fi documents! make that doctor’s appointment! turn off the damn computer! Put away the gear mess that is on your living room floor! Research summer vacation! Budget out that bathroom remodel you want to do! Research more Scuba gear!)
oh so many things. Yet, I’ll probably ignore it all (again) and settle down with a Girl Scout cookie and a glass of nicely aged Qupe for the season finale of How I Met Your Mother. But I will turn off the damn computer.
Just got back from annual trip to Walla Walla, WA for Spring Release with Randy, Mike, Erin, Jay and Margaret and a nice surprise, Kevin and Maria! Hit up about 15 wineries between Saturday and Sunday – including the lovely usual stops of Northstar, Va Piano, Longshadow, Ensemble, Patit Creek, Read the rest of this entry »
While most have put away the skis by now, snow season for me is just starting. I pretty much said “screw it” to the ski season this year and didn’t touch snow until today. The OC class held its snow travel technique class at Hurricane Ridge. In the interest of doing a little refresher practice as well as helping out where I could, I tagged along.
Tiffany Royal 