More about Red Rocks

Ahhhh, life has finally slowed down for a little bit. I just got back from Red Rocks (you'd think I would be bored with that place by now!) with Darrell, Greg D. and Rob. The plan was for a day of sport climbing and then long routes the next 4 days with the last evening in a hotel on the strip. I had a great trip and felt really good about my climbing. The first day I redpointed an .11c sport route at Dog Wall that I had been projecting for 2 years now. Apparently that meant that I was ready for some heavier stuff, so I followed Darrell on a mixed 4 pitch .11c on one day and then we hiked in to the base of Levitation 29 for an early start. Levitation is a 9 pitch 5.11c and the supposed "best" route at RedRocks. I had looked at it in books and pretty much dismissed ever climbing it but Darrell convinced me to go and WOW! what a climb! I led a .10 and a .8 pitch and Darrell led the rest up to pitch 5. The rock quality is just incredible on the whole route, it protects very well, and the climbing is incredibly diverse along the way. The coolest feature in my opinion is the big roof on the second pitch that has some huge jugs in it. Way gnarly! Unfortunately, it was also snowing for a good portion of the day (in April!?!) so we bailed after the crux pitch. I will have to go back and finish that at some point. It is just too good.

While we were camping up the canyon, we saw the most interesting wildlife. I spotted eyes in the shadows watching us so we lit it up and there was a little Ring Tailed Cat. It looked exactly like a ring tailed lemur which was kinda creepy but it was way cuter. There were also several herds of Bighorns up the canyon. Oh, and Perigrines too. There was a nest near the route and I got to see a few of them up close. And Greg caught a scorpion trying to enter our tent. I guess that is the one plus of winter there; no arachnids.

Ever notice that it snows on trips alot if you are an OMC member? It really is kind of a guarantee that you will see some snowy weather on OMC trips. So Rob thought up a new slogan for mountain club. "Oregon Mountain Club: Get Snowed On!" I think on a sticker it would work nicely.

I officially lose my job on June 5. Man, job hunting sucks. Among others, I got 2 apps in to a place in Corvallis in March and called the other day to see what the deal was and they said the hiring comittee made its decision early July. Sooo, now I am looking again. Maybe I will just hang out with Greg and go climbing for all of June. If you havent heard, Greg quits Target June 1. Way to go Greg!

Unfortunately, I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but here are some from the trip and a few from the past weeks.

I fucking hate Rob!

Rob Hernandez can suck my ballz!!!!!!!!!!! That fucker has bailed on so many trips it is amazing. And this is the final straw! Greg, Darrell, Me and Rob planned 3 months ago to meet in Red Rocks. Rob was going to drive the westfalia down from Utah and we were going to camp in that. Easy right? Not when the car blows a head gasket. LAST MONTH! he had a whole fucking month to fix it. I talked to him and he assured me it would be good to go by the trip. Money wasn't an issue. But now, a month later, it is not working and I just got a call from Greg saying he is a no go. I think the solution is not to count on Rob. Ever. ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!

Stat counter

I put a stat counter on the blog recently, and I am surprised by the number page loads this blog sees. Try it if you have a blog. It takes about 5 minutes. Search "statcounter" in google.

Here's another old pic I found buried in the computer. Congrats Paco and Rach on finding a job!

Chaco Day

I am so excited to be wearing Chacos again! Tis the season! This is the first day I have worn them this year and it really is a symbol of spring for me. I considered breaking them out during a heat wave last month but March was just too early. And besides, I need to make these guys last. They are going on their sixth season after all! I have been limiting their use over the last few years to river trips and perfect days so the bottoms and webbing wouldn't wear out any faster than absolutely necessary. Both are paper thin at this point. Cheers to Chacos!

Californigonian

I am so an Oregonian now. No reason for the declaration really. I just feel like one much more so than a Californian. Bunch of fuckin hippies in california anyway. End of statement.

Oh, but some people in Cali are cool. But just barely.


Oops, almost forgot the tick count.

Ticks found: 20
Ticks embedded: 0

The great and mythical, Friday!

Its friday. Well, my friday. I ran out of stuff to do at work, so my boss wished me a Happy Friday. I was stoked and took off as any person would. He wished me Happy Friday pretty much the same way you would talk about any other yearly holiday/birthday. It is like it is some incredible holiday, but no, it is just like any other day of the week. I bet prisoners in jail talk about their release dates like we talk about Friday every week.
I find we start thinking and talking about Friday pretty much starting Monday morning. If someone who didnt know what a "Friday" was, they would hear us talking about Friday and probably assume it was a great god or at least Santa Clause.
Friday can also be a goal. Friday can be the day you have to have something done, or want to Making it to Friday is another reason to really keep at that job for just one more week. Keep telling yourself that you can make it till Friday.
God, after working for 40 years I cant imagine how incredible Fridays must seem.

It is the day that keeps on giving! (once a week to be exact)

Note: I wrote this a while ago but forgot to post it, so here ya go.

God I hate Blogger.

I had this really nice post all written up about my trip to CA and forgot that this computer and blogger photo post dont play well together. So blogger decided to delete the post when I moved a picture around. So here is your abbreviated version:

California was fun. I did all the usual things you would expect one to do while visiting family and friends. Don't go to Hooters(wasnt my choice), everything about it sucks (the dumbass waitresses too). Pets are good for taking pictures of.













At work we started a huge burn pile with 30 gallons of gelled gasoline(napalm), 8 gallons of diesel and leaf blowers. Then it went out because everything was too wet. We had hotdogs and marshmallows.

Ticks found: 18
Ticks embedded: 0

The latest threat to my insanity

Ticks! They are disgusting little creatures that like to pull a vampire move on any part of your body they can burrow into. And spring is the season for ticks. I have counted 6 ticks on me at work in the last week or so and 3 today (none have burrowed yet). I can honestly say that I enjoy watching them die an agonizing death when I torture and then kill them. I find no other animal more repulsive than a tick. I even recently heard (true or not, it is gross) that a guy had a tick burrow into the inside of his colon and stay there until he got some sort of paralysis. Took the doctors a long time to diagnose that one I am sure. Be careful out there America; ticks are comin' for ya!
I also had an excellent weekend in portland at Graham and Greta's wedding. Loved seeing all the old friends and really loved seeing Graham in the gutter in downtown portland thursday with a homeless lady at his side. I really felt like a true friend standing around laughing at his comatose efforts not to puke. Apparently he doesnt remember a thing from the latter part of the night (and I wont spoil his new marriage with the details). Cheers Graham!

Snowboarding

Sometimes I find I get bored with going to the mountain. Just zooming down the hill penis* sometimes can get a little monotonous when you already know the hill like the back of your hand. Groomers can only be done so many times. Just when I was starting to question whether it is really worth it to pay the money to get hoisted to the top of a mountain repeatedly, a day like I experienced last weekend comes along. Lots of powder was laid down by the mountain gods on Mount Bachelor all week and then I got to ride in it all day Saturday (unfortunately Bryan tore his MCL and he was our ride home so we left that night). It really made me realize how much fun it is to snowboard again. A price cannot be put on first tracks. I see now that I really just need to time my snow trips better so I get the most out of my money. God I love powder days!

*Colleen inserted this while I was away from the computer. Gawd, I wonder what is on her mind.

Done with planting

Thank goodness, I am finally done with planting for the year. I really thought I woudl be jumping for joy when this moment arrived, but I am jsut too exhausted to. The best I could manage was a "Wahoo!" before getting into my truck as we left this afternoon. In 3 weeks and one day the contract crew of 8(average) planted 102,000 Doug-Fir seedlings. I dug up, scrutinized, and replanted about 3,000 of these. It rained, hailed, snowed and froze. I am so happy it is over. Well, not really; I have to start surveys on a 93 acre unit tomorrow which is going to occupy at least all of this and next week. God Dammit.

While I was out and about I thought up something interesting to blog about almost every day; and then promptly forgot it. I find myself using this as a journal too much and I think I need to start putting more profound thoughts down.

On that note, Colleen has become addicted to the show Top Model. Honestly people! I thought she wasn't like that, but apparently I was wrong. Paco, Rachel, can you fix her? I cant. Oh well, I guess she has to have her girlie shows.

Oh, and I gotta say, (caution: inflamatory comment ahead) it sucks to be a skier. Why you ask? Because in 3 weekends, 3 friends who ski have all torn their ACL and or MCL. And meanwhile, us snowboarders are just chuggin along injury free. Cheers to powder days you cant touch now Meg, Bryan, and Brad!

Worked to the bone

Holy Crap! I have been worked to the bone the last 2 weeks. I am SO over this whole forestry thing right now. I have spent the last 2 weeks up near Astoria with a coworker and a 7-12 person contract crew planting 65,000 doug fir seedlings. I don't actually have to plant the seedlings thank god, just dig up a sample of what has been planted to make sure the planters aren't doing it wrong (doug-firs are really finnicky about how they are planted) . Either way, hiking around shitty terrain while it is pouring rain for 10 hours and then having to return to an empty, Colleen-less hotel room SUCKS! Only one more week...

Greg, Me, Rob, and possibly Darrell are going to Red Rocks in April to get some real climbing in. On my tic list: Epinephrin, Tunnel Vision, Rainbow Wall.

Oh, and I am sure you saw the latest Mt. Hood incident on the news today. Well, that finally spurred my dad into getting me an Avvy beacon. ...Sweet

Grrr...

I think I just have really bad luck with cellphones. Or maybe I had really good luck for a long time and then all that bad karma that I had been putting off caught up with me all at once. Either way, I ran over my phone today at work so if you need to call me, I have the same number 541 740 9493 but lost all of your phone #s. Leave a comment to this post with your phone # so I can reenter it. Wow, that is going to be fun. Reentering a hundred or so numbers and names. Shitty ballz. OOh! at least facebook will have some phone #s for me.

More Red Rocks pics

One for Ariel

Paco, since I know you check this blog every now and again, I figured I'd post a photo of home for you. Specifically, one that made me laugh.

Love, Ian

Work Boots

Work bought me some boots called Caulks (pronounced "corks") for walking around the forest yesterday. They are badass. There are 40 metal spikes on the bottom of each for traction and they are double layer leather almost up to my knee. Dont cross me, or I'll stomp on your face!

Some pics from RR/MB

Some of us drank alot instead of skiing at Alta. We did get a visit from Jane and Desiree though!

Denise took this one in Moab.

Will and Diesel; drinking buddies till the end.

The rest of these were taken in Moab in Kane Creek Canyon under a full moon.

The campsite.

Ice sheets in the fire.

Campfire.

Big buttress.

A cottonwood.

Oh, and here is my little bro's hilight video I made (if you care). http://oregonstate.edu/~rothi/Fritz%20Football%202006.wmv

My little bro kicks ass!

I just wanted to spray about my little brother for a second. Our family has always known that Fritz was a natural at any sport he picked up. It has been really fun speculating over the years about what he will do with his abilities when he gets older. I have finally been able to watch him play football and Holy Shit, he is good. I edited football tape to make a highlites video for him and basically watched every single game he played in. He is the JV quarterback this year at his HS and yea, basically it is incredible. While watching the highlites video I was thinking that the game looked more like college games than just highschool. OK, I am done.
No I am not. I also just had to mention that the RedRocks/Moab/Alta climbing/biking/kiing trip was great. I managed to climb some hard sport in redrocks and ran into Jane and Desiree at Alta. I got a Digi Rebel during the trip and will post photos soon since that seems to be the cool thing to do these days.

Peace

I have underestimated California

Wow, I had quite the evening in SF. I figured the night before I left for Idaho(ski vacation) I'd try to get out for one last night with old friends. Unfortunately everyone was busy. Everyone but Ali. We went to meet her uncle and his lady in the city for what I thought would be a fairly benign night. I was told to bring a santa hat, but couldn't get one so I went without it. I met them at a bar after driving the steep SF hills witha stick shift in confusion for a half hour.
I should have brought a santa hat. The bar was filled with people dressed up as santa and wearing santa hats. our bunch knew some folks in the santa bunch and proceded to bar hop with 40 or so santas by way of school bus(a guy rented it and a driver for the night) until 4 am. I vaguely remember a whole bar being lit on fire with 151, taking a santa hat fom a puking chick who got tossed off the bus, walking a really long way when the bus left us at the end of the night, and the topper was getting to my car at the end of the night (i was in no condition to drive, dont worry) and finding that the parking garage was locked up. I think I got 1.5 hrs of sleep that night. Then I was on a plane right that morning to ID.
Oh, and Idaho was way cool too. Calling the snow sparse is a pretty generous satement. There was maybe 6 inches on the lower mountain where snowmaking wasnt happening. Never the less, the day we got there they opened the upper bowls which had enough snow on the north slopes and I got to ride dry desert powder all day. SO Sweet! It was really nice to hang out with my two other brothers too. It's been a while since the three of us have seen each other and the usual shenanigans were in order.
Now I am off to Nevada and Utah for another adventure!

Christmas party

My bottle of Makers Mark died a noble death last night. I think that the apartment we were having the party at in SF could only have fit more people if you had started stacking them up. Thank god for the roof though, we were able to get up there and relax away from the crowd. Though, the roof was a slightly dangerous spot to be I guess. We were warned about the "Death Holes" and truly, if you fell into one you would have a nasty 5 story fall into the inbetween-apartments-space that has no ground exit (The only purpose I could see for the death holes was to have a window to vent the air in the bathrooms of each apartment). I guess you can also talk to your neighbor across the way when you are peeing or something.
Ahah, some more of the night just came back to me as I am writing this! One of the few places we were able to find seating was in the bathtub. It was a little damp we found out later but it did make for a place to sit. Man, I wonder what I dont remember.

Oh, and check this out, so I borrowed my dad's mercedes for the night (sweet!) and I go to pick up Kevin before the party. On the way, I encounter a stop sign. Upon accelerating the trunk of the car(unbeknownst to me) opens and dumps some of my dads stuff into the road. I realize the trunk is open several miles later, stop, close it, and go back to pick up anything that might have fallen out. It opens up again(found out later the latch was busted) and really dumps everything out all over the road this time, right in a blind corner on a very busy 45 mph road. In 5 minutes I managed to not get hit by traffic, slam my thumb in the car door, lose the car keys, and have one of the headlights go out. I was seriously pissed by the time I got everything sorted out. Helluva start to a night!

In California again

Guess where I am! Oh, yea, I already told you.

Just chilling out here trying to survive the nightmare that is my family. Well, Alec and Fritz are cool at least.

Phaedra (roomie) gave me a book that I am halfway through called Youth In Revolt. It is the diaries of a 14 year old who has a seriously disfunctional family and develops a slightly destructive alter ego named Francois (say it like a frenchie). I am having a slightly hard time relating to it being as I was 14 ten years ago, but it is still funny as hell to see the similarities between his life and mine (or every 14 year old male for that matter). There are definitely some serious dissimilarities as well (what was he thinking!). I'll tell you if it gets 0,1,or 2 thumbs up shortly. I am sure I will finish it in the next few days seeing as I am stuck at home without a car and 10 miles from the nearest anything )if you dont count the ritzy country club across the street [I'd fit in there just greeeat]).

I cant wait for thursday! Then the partying in SF starts and I can just sleep on random people's couches until sunday.

The plan

Colleen and I were driving back from P-town the other day and started discussing how whatever new thing we do as a couple, one person always has the advantage because they have done that activity before. Neither of us has really started something as a couple without having one person somewhat experience in the activity.
Example:
Climbing- I had a head start on skill because I had already done that before Colleen had.
Running- Colleen was already a runner before me so I was inherently at a disadvantage by starting late (of course this implies that there is an amount of competetition, that we all know that relationships have none of HAH!)

We realized that as a couple, we couldn't think of a single thing that we could start where neither of us would have some sort of a disadvantage when compared to the other. The only thing we could finally come up with that neither of us really had a disadvantage at was weight lifting (kinda random but whatever). I think the logic was that neither of us had ever really weightlifted to build any sort of muscle. Sure we both had done it to "stay in shape" but that is more just maintaining than building up muscle.

Long story short (because I have to go shooting in a little bit with Tyler) we went out and got weights, a bench, and are going to see who can increase(percentage increase) biceps, chest, thighs, and calves between January and May.
I gotta say, this makes Col and I sound a little weird now that I am rereading this
but we will see how it goes.

We also realized that this is kinda a newyears resolution kinda thing, BUT, we aren't calling it that, because that would be weird.

And, here is a pic from Greg that I found entertaining.

I broke my wrist, kinda.

I did the drive to california and was off on my predicted arrival time by 15 minutes (over a 10 hr drive, thats a pretty good estimate). I then went up to san francisco to chill with the homies, and chill we did! Drank a bunch at a friends house and then decided to go out into the street (SF is famous for its steep hills) and longboard said hills. My first run was awesome, I carved the shit outta that street! The second run, I was doing even better, ...and then I was sliding across the pavement. My skateboard trucks found a HUGE pothole that I drunkenly didn't see and I went flying, landing on my left side and getting roadrash like none other (I gotta say though, I have a lot of respect for arcteryx stuff now. There was skin on the inside of the jacket but not a single thread was torn or scuffed on the outside of my softshell.) I landed on my wrist and it immediately swelled up to the point that I could barely move it. I went to the doctor the next day and she looked at the xrays and said that my radius was fractured near the end. So I got it all splinted up and was planning on going in to get it put in a cast on monday. Then on sunday the same lady calls and says that the head radiologist took another look atthe xrays and decided that I had just sprained my wrist really badly. Hooray! now I can go on the RedRocks trip again! And then I found out that Bryan cancelled the trip when I got back to Oregon. Grrr...

Tons of fun

I had one (possibly the most) fun day at work on saturday. As they cut trees down for timber harvesting on the school forest the limbs and whatnot get piled into huge (10-20ft) piles. Then, after they have dried out all summer, they get burned to release nitrients back into the soil and also to make room for seedling planting. Well, being a pyromaniac, I was ecstatic when the guy incharg of burning asked me and a few others to come help. Our tools for the job were simple; gallon ziploc baggies filled with gelled gasoline (napalm grenades), a backpack sprayer filled with diesel (flamethrower), and a leafblower (to really get the fire hot!). Man, I have never had so much fun. Do you have any IDEA what a leafblower on high power does to a 20 foot tall bonfire!?! It is AWESOME! And there were nearly 100 piles to burn. Man, what a day.

Now I am off to Cali for a week to visit folks for thanksgiving, and hang out with buddies. Man I hate that drive!

Reading is good for the... the... Well, it sure kills time!

Colleen, being a language arts teacher, has gotten me back to reading books lately. I finished "A Walk In The Woods" by Bill Bryson recently. If you havent heard of it, it tells of his mission to hike the AT with a friend and their adventures along the way. I, along with the New York Times best sellers list, found this to be a very funny book. Col also went to the library and grabbed me "Adrenaline" from 2001. Its basically a collection of short stories(good for sufferers of ADD) that are generally connected by the theme of adventure. There is the first hand account of Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden's being taken hostage in Pakistan, a man who was a first responder to an Ebola outbreak in Congo, and several climbing stories. I found a brilliant quote which I think can apply to many climbers (well, males at least).

"Like, say, fighter pilots, surgeons, and hit men, climbers have a prizewinning talent for disassociating from emotion, a quality that is useful in the mountains. It is considerably less useful in relationships." -Jack Turner

Oh, and another thing. I recently joined Gmail and have a new email address. It is now roth.ian(at)gmail(dot)com

Lets see here. Now where is a good photo to add to the post? From a kayak trip on the Salmon R. :

Keep on keepin' on

I do still exist, but you wouldn't guess it by checking this blog. Whatever, me and my busy, busy life (Yea right!) have very little time to update this. There will be a fall party soon to celebrate the fact that through a group effort, we produced around 8 gallons of hard cider courtesy of Cody's apple press. A real theme for the party is still necessary and you can submit suggestions in the commments section at the end of the post.
I got a new job at the forest for the next 6 months or so. I will be working full time for 2 nice guys named Brent and Rich. We are going to be doing reforestation work at the various forests owned by the school. I get to supervise planting crews :P and measure seedling growth to make sure the clearcuts are growing up properly. Basically, it is me walking around in the forest, in the rain, in the mud, avoiding wild animals all day. Oh well. It pays.
In the last two months I have gone rafting climbing, hiking, fishing, scuba diving and biking. Colleen and I raced in the Flying "M" Ranch "adventure" style duathalon. She ran and I biked. Despite a 20 min detour on my part (I was mildly lost compared to some I found out later) we placed first in our team category (out of 3 teams total). I was just stoked to make it to the finish. I carried my bike at least 1 of the 11 miles due to the clay-like mud that liked to clog up tires.
Ok, I need to do some work, seeing as I am at work.
Peace out.

The internet for dummies(and everyone else too!)

OK, so, you like to blog. Sweet! But! there are things you must know which will help you in your blogging journey. Such as: spammers and web advertisers will be much less likely to bug your blog "comments" section if you require "word verification" on your little plot of internet. To ward off these Evil Doers (as The Shrub likes to call them) in "Dashboard" you can click on settings>comments> and then near the bottom is an option for "word verification," click YES so random internet uglies won't bother you anymore.

OK, You're welcome and I am off to Bomb's to watch Stairway Denied and then sleep so I can be rested for a day of first ascents with Mooner in the mountains of Orygon. I'll tell ya how it went!

OSHA; Your father was a hamster, and your mother smelt of elderberries!

The un-OSHA approved highlites of the summers work so far:
(and I didn't commit most of them)
blackberry fights.
swimming in Cronemiller lake in our underware in front of the "no swimming" sign as recreationists pass.
flipping a small tractor.
Almost losing the F-350 off the forest road embankment. Twice.
Getting the GMC 2500 stuck with no radio or tools.
Flying, attacking "mink-alopes" in the shop.
Antagonizing of hornet nests.
Sleeping.
The "pulaski throw" event.
Dismembering large roadkill.
Wheelies on the ATVs.
Riding powercarriers.
Monica.
Mason's Whaaamp!
The toxic wasteland that is in both the burn pile and the gas house.
Trying to cut a leg off with a chainsaw.
Pissing off wedding parties.

Rules of Funhole

Funhole; a person who is wacky, zany, fun, weird, atypical. A funhole is a person who is the opposite of an asshole.
The first rule of Funhole is; Do Not Talk About Funhole.
The second rule of Funhole is; Do Not Talk About Funhole!
Be careful about throwing this word out in random conversation, or wearing it proudly displayed on your T-shirt, for some unknowing person may misunderstand the term funhole to actually be a sexual reference. The term may not be self appointed either. To be a funhole, you must be approved by the committee of four (or was it five?). These are the rules.

http://www.cutegirlsdoasia.blogspot.com/ for more info.

Coming to terms with myself

I am going to finally admit that I have fallen off the blogger boat. Colleen just joined the pirate crew as I walked the plank. (her blog is now at http://www.colleenpal.blogspot.com/) I havent updated this in what, like, 3 months or something. Absurdity. I haven't forgotten about it either. I just look at it and don't want to take the time to update it. I want to write a new post but don't want tot take the time to. Things like eating, sleeping, and climbing are getting in the way of blogging. But if I were to stop doing these things in order to make time to blog, then I wouldnt have any thing to blog about. Damn you Catch-22!
Its not like I haven't been doing anything worth blogging about. Its just that when I get to the computer, I can't remember what I tried to remember to blog about earlier in the day. So I will fall back on the usual "here's what I have been up to since the last post. (a lot in this case) In reverse chronological order:
Colleen and I sea-kayaked the Canadian side of the San Juan Islands in B.C. this weekend. We saw tons of cute ocean animals and got to even play with a harbor seal who seemed to think our boat rudder was a large herrring. He played with us for about 20 minutes until we left him (he would have played for ever if we had stayed).

Isn't the little guy cute! We spent 2 nights and 3 days paddling inbetween islands and had an incredible time. The 2nd night was a little creepy though. we were camped on an island next to a seriously haunted island and on the beack where we pulled our boat up on there was a VERY freshly dead seal pup, a slightly more rotten dead seal pup, and evidence of at least 2 more dead seals (4 cochlea bones). This shit gave me the heebie-jeebies for the rest of the night!


Here are some more pics from the trip which aren't of dead baby seals.



I also managed to make it up both Mt. Washington and Three Finger Jack with Logan and Lowell. Washington was a blast since I got to lead all the pitches for the first time, but 3 Finger was a disappointment. The summit pitch was fun, but the ball-bearing like approach made the climb rather unpleasant and sketchy. Nevertheless, here are some weekend photos of the fun.
and the dots around logan are hundreds of butterflies all over 3FJ.

And, as a parting gift, I present: Jon Stewart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdD5Qt3El-k I love the part at 3:10.

Just getting to the blog page was exciting; I'm on Ariel's computer and all the menus are in espanol. Anyway, I graduated from College! Survived! Yesssss! Gpa want incredible, but whatever, I made it. I'll still be around for one more term so I can have a second minor, but that is only one class away. No worries. So lets see, now I have to find some sort of permanent job.(con) THAT SUCKS! Wait no, thats cool. No more asking for money from the parents.(pro!) But I have to pay my own bills.(con) But I get to have my own life.(pro!) I dont know what I'll do.
hehe! I'm done!

Things that go clunk

I pulled a rock out of my elbow today that made a clunk on the bathtub floor. I crashed in Mac Forest on a really long first ride of the season and ate shit where the trail ends and the road begins. stupid! I have to look into getting some health insurance because I am sure that should have had stitches. Bryan was able to get the head of a qtip into the cut no problem when he was cleaning it. Anyone know of good health insureance for someone like me?

South Sister board descent

Dev, myself and Leo climbed South Sister in a 2 day trip and got the sweetest back country run ever. The pics are on my webspace but here are a few.
Classy Pabst summit photo.
Yea, we bushwacked and had to do a few stream crossings. COLD!
The heavenly summit ramp.

Car Parts

I was so stoked that I had some money saved up from this month (my bank acct is usually hovering near zero at this point in the month), but then I realized that my brakes on my car were paper thin, so I had to drop 70$ to get those fixed along with a new fuel filter which hadn't been changed in ages. During the disassembley of the front brakes, Bryan realized why my car makes a strange whirring noise; the barings are shot! crap! and a seal was broken on a ball joint in the steering, and my rear axle might be a bit loose ...basically the list kept getting bigger and bigger. Damn. Stupid cars that we can't live without. Maybe I'll just lock myself in a room with 100$ worth of top ramen and play videogames for the rest of my life. (and believe me, 100$ of ramen will last me the rest of my life)

Colleen kicks ass

I just got a call from Colleen and she got a job in Albany(20 min away) teaching! This is so huge because Oregon is one of the hardest states to get a job in as a teacher. She already has her sights set on Corvallis or Bend school districts next year but those can wait. HUGE!

And while Col is accomplishing huge things like that, I am just plodding away toward graduation and a summer job. I'll be in Corvallis for a while longer still working for the forest this summer.

6th graders are nuts

I just finished my week volunteer teaching at the Philomath 6th grade outdoor school and I gotta say, the little buggers have way too much energy. And a LOT were on ritalin, but many more needed to be on it. In all reality though, it was a ton of fun and I encourage everyone I can to volunteer for outdoor school. By the end of camp, all the staff are delerious practically. The jokes we make are just retarded sounding to anyone who hasn't been surrounded by kids and swearing is completely foreign.
I managed to learn a lot about patience in that week, but not from the kids. In my spare time I had a lot of interesting experiences with the wildlife around camp. I managed to pet a little wren after observing it for a long time and creeping closer. I followed a hummingbird to it's nest and got to look at its two baby hummingbirds which were just hours out of the egg. Each was about the size of a lima bean. Sadly I didn't have my camera handy. One of the other interesting things my kids found was a Pacific Giant Salamander that was about 10 inches long(the grow a lot bigger). I guesss they are pretty rare to see at that size.
For a few days before ODS I was at Smith climbing (cheers to no class on fridays!) and got on my hardest trad climb to date. .10a in the gorge is no small feat but I managed to get up Cruel Sister with one fall. Stoke!
After outdoor school was over I came home, repacked and went on a Mountain Club rafting trip on the Rogue river for the weekend. I can't believe it all worked out, but 34 people in seven boats and 3 kayaks made it safely down the river. The only flipped boat was Bryan's when he tried unsuccessfully to run Rainey Falls. 34 people, 10 craft, 25 gallons of beer, 3 cars, 2 nights, 0 vomits, a lot of green, and no BUIs! Woohoo!
My obligation to OMC is almost at an end, and I gotta say, I was wrong in my lamentations which began this blog in October. OMC is functioning perfectly as a community group. Through several donations we have a new library beginning, and some equipment, and soon a first aid kit. Oh, and membership for the year is at 36 currently and trips are heading out every weekend for this whole term. OMC will survive!

I survived another birthday

Yea, I'm 23 now. And really I think last night rivaled my 21er! I even got a call from Keith and Mel in Korea :) I think my dad called but I didn't notice and he probably heard me hooting and hollering at Bombs Away. Oh well. Shots are fun too. Its been a while since I've done shots at a bar.

I guess I might as well post about break as well. Col and I drove to Palm Springs in her parents new Toyota Highlander, and managed to not get lost even once because it had a snazzy GPS nav system on it. Pretty handy.
We went to Joshua Tree NP for a few hikes and climbs but mostly just relaxed, enjoying the 2 weeks we had down south.
I eventually headed out to camp with Logan, Brenton, Tyler, Ariel and Aleta in the park.
We got to go and do some incredible cracks in those 4 days. Aleta on The Gem 5.8**
From climbing my first day, I was a little disappointed about the length of a lot of the Jtree climbs, but after hanging out at Hemmingway wall I realized that there are some nice long pitches to be had around there.
Just playing with my camera in the desert

I even got on my first offwidth lead on a 5.8* in Belle CG.