Finally Blogging

Envision this- me sitting, at a high school computer, one hand on the keyboard, the other raised in the air as if swearing it's allegiance to the Boy Scouts. A calming white noise floats in and out of the collective conciousness consisting of butchered French and web page security infractions- surprisingly, none of this comes from me.

The one handed typing is getting aggravating, but it's miles better than left handed writing, script that looks like it's written by a nervous first grader. or worse than that, a nervous, drunk, first grader.

Life would be hard if not for the pain killers...

More to the point- on Monday I had surgery on my middle finger (for the four of you that read this...) and this the first day back to school.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattycipov/3333437825/in/photostream/

^that's how I feel.

I'm greatly looking forward to the day when I can put my hand below my heart, lift a weight, rock climb, and finally- climb with Mercedes. Far too many people are getting hurt, and badly. My tally comes to something like 10, give or take a few. Like Merc said, no more room on the gimp wagon, as fun as it looks, so keep a safe distance and you'll thank us for it later.

Expect more injury updates soon.

Holy Normal!

I have had way too much excitement the last few days. I truly don't need any more...It starts off at the Vail, CO ABS comp. The crowd was smaller than last year, and we had appearances from the twins and Chauncey, no not my dog, the climber...The advanced and open routes were set really well with each having their own unique fun to them. I almost did A-10 first go, but my non-enduranced muscles fatigued on the last move. After attempting it one more go (and failed) I moved onto A-5. This route looked sweet with a huge move right in the middle. I flashed it, but when I jumped down, so did my whole world. My right knee buckled underneath me, taking ligaments and cartilage along with it. It popped back into place and swelled immediately. I was in sooo much pain! Luckily, being the prepared climber that I am, I had Vicodin in my bag. I took one of those babies and all way better, at least the pain...It turns out that I did not break any bones! But I have a Grade II strain of the MCL, a likely torn anterior meniscus, and torn ACL. As most of you know, I just recovered from having ACL surgery last year in my left knee. In research, women have about 70% chance of tearing the other ACL within the next two years. That's me. What can I say except that I totally bummed and that I always seem to get injured when I'm climbing my best.

All aboard the Gimp Wagon! There's no more space though, so no one else can get injured!

Now I'm in Normal, Illinois for a training. It's an intense program and totally frying my brain. There really isn't actually anything interesting here, except for that I'm somewhat of a local celebrity now. I became famous yesterday by rescuing my friend from choking on her lunch. We were eating some turkey lunch at a round table and a room filled with about 50 people. My friend turns to me with wide eyes and the universal sign for chocking. She stood up, I jumped up, and asked her "Heimlich?" She nodded and turned around. After two full thrusts, the turkey was dislodged and life was good again. Now, people want to sit by me while they eat just in case they start choking...

Well, that's it from me. Signing out from Normal.

Happy Birthday Fi!

Hope you are feeling ok this morning, Fi! The party's highlight was Fi's "Edward Beer Hands" which was a struggle to get them on in the beginning, but surprisingly easy once she realized we weren't gonna give up. (We need a photo of this...Diggs?). I have come away with a new acronym from this party. It came to me after standing in close proximity to Rylan and Flann, together....It's C.U.B.A: Check ur body after....weird when you read it like that, but I feel I can never trust these two. After about a 10 minute converstion, which I thought was a good one, I found "climber clips" on the back of my shirt. HAHAHAHAHA! everyone laugh! Anyway, CUBA, that is my advice for all those wanting to come away from a decent conversation with those two, because they may actually be plotting their next scheme...

Off to Vail for the ABS comp!

CUBA

Rylan

Flannery didn't tell until after I had posted it. If that is you?

Who are you??

There have been 3 votes... It is very mysterious, I thought I had told people to not look at this blogsite. Show yourself civilian. Sorry.

-MAIN POINT-

1.) Flannery must post. She says she has nothing to say, but 33% of us say things anyway. The second third contributor has things to say.
2.) Dear Reader,
I have a challenge.

(at least watch from 0:51 to 2:12ish)

The first blog post may say Asher SN but it wasn't entirely written by myself, Flannery added one sentence. If you are able to guess which sentence it was and comment within the next 4 days starting midnight tonight, I will let the winner suggest a prize that they may or may not receive.

Waimea Bay

Yes, that's right...Volcanic Rock. Pretty sick, especially the rock that is smoothed out by the ocean water during the nightly tides. There are some good routes but most cannot not be topped out because of the lack of holds, but the landing is dream, silky soft sand ahhhhh. Location: Waimea Bay, Oahu, HI. Grade: ???? It felt like V4...

Climbing? Horsehooth? Nah...

It was a nice sunny afternoon at Horsetooth reservoir. Playing in the sand and mud. Then randomly stabbing Asher in the eyeball with a branch, making him partially blind for the rest of the day. We found the best warm-up route ever with a nice mantle at the top (FA by Asher using left hand only while attempting to hold a redbull in the right). We went from this to trying some of the most ridiculous climbs ever. SuperGlide (V8) is one of the better routes there, but Moon Arete (V9) is pretty much the only reason to visit Horsetooth. My lacklustre performance, however, was the highlight of Asher's day. Thanks for going climbing with me Ash, I wish my outcomes were more successful! Next time...or maybe not. It would take a really bad weather day as well as the disappearance of Morrison to get me out there again.