rock walking

A few weekends ago, Isabel and I went to see my good friend Carissa in Berea, Kentucky. Berea is very close to the Red River Gorge, a place I used to frequent often for climbing, but haven’t been in a long while. Driving down brought up a lot of memories for me. It’s funny how places can do that. Smells have that effect as well. Wave a bottle of Exclamation! perfume and I will be transported right back into seventh grade.

Anyway.

Carissa took us on an excellent hike up to Pinnacle Rock where we got to do a bit of rock walking.

Rocks! Some fit for a bit of bouldering! What a treat. We also enjoyed a beautiful view through the trees at the top.

It was a beautiful fall day in Kentucky. How’s fall treating you?

things I love about Fall

• Sweaters!
• Brisk evening walks, sloshing feet through fallen leaves
• Finding out I’m inspired to run when the weather is not oppressively-hot degrees
• Hot tea in the evening
• Hot chai in the morning
• The return of my desire to bake
• The smell of campfires seems to happen more
• Living amongst landscape of colorful trees, everchanging!

road trip retrospect: Modesto, CA

I know, I know. The road trip has been over for awhile now, and perhaps talking about it more than a year later seems silly. However, there are a few things I want to document that I never got around to doing.

Like heading to Modesto, CA to meet @katiebeth:

This is her at her sister’s school’s playground. This is her doing the splits on a slackline:

I am forever impressed by her slackline skills. Katie is wonderful. She invited me to stay with her at her parent’s house and it was really a treat to meet her mom and dad, as well as her younger sister, Megan. And Tobias the Dog. Isabel and Toby enjoyed walking Megan to school:

Please note Toby’s ears folded back, in order to give him that streamlined edge for speed. Again, impressed.

I was really honored to stay with Katie’s family, and touched when they invited me to stay an extra night after Katie left (to go back to school) so that I could make the trek over to Yosemite (they live mere hours away). Overall, I loved meeting Katie and had an absolute blast with her. Other highlights I neglected catch photos of include watching the AscenDance Project in Berkeley, going to a climbing competition at a nearby gym, and somehow breaking my glasses — oh wait, I did get a photo of that:

And again, I was treated to wonderful service at Katie’s family eye doctor, who gave me a great deal on a new pair.

Now, if only Modesto was closer to Indy.

and running, running

Last weekend, I ran a half marathon. (Says the girl who never thought she’d run even a 5K.)

Granted, I ran about the first 10ish miles, then walked/ran the rest — but I crossed the finish, which was my ultimate goal. It helped to have a good friend next to me most of the way, and, oh yes, having trained for the whole deal didn’t hurt, either.

Speaking of training, you know, in retrospect it really wasn’t that difficult. Aside from the usual “I have to run HOW many miles?” on long run days, — and oh, that one day when we did 10 miles for the first time and couldn’t put sentences together, our brains so busy with the mental energy required to keep going — it really wasn’t difficult to train for. I suppose if I had been shooting for a specific time, I would have felt more pressure, but this was a nice way to go about it.

So once again, life affirms for me that nearly most of the battle is in just showing up and taking action. Some days I did not want to run, even just 3 or 4 little ol’ miles. But I told myself, well, I’ll just put on my running shorts and see how I feel. Then, I’ll just put on my running shoes and see how I feel. Then, well, I’ve got all this gear on, and Isabel is looking at me like this would just be the best thing EVER, so let’s just go. And then suddenly I am running the whole distance I need to run (though, half of my brain is all “Ugh! I just want to WALK! This is so HARD! Can’t we just stop? I think I feel a pain in my leg? Oh, there’s too much sweat on my forehead, that calls for stopping, right? Please?”) and mostly ignoring that whiny self and just DOING.

There is a lot to be said for doing. Doing is the hardest and usually the best part. Doing is living. There’s a lot in dreaming and thinking because those things can lead to doing. But not always. Going from dreaming/thinking to doing sometimes feels like a leap over a very huge chasm. I think one of the puzzles in life is to figure out how to make that chasm smaller and smaller, so that there is more doing (thoughtful doing) and less just thinking about how nice it will be to do something.

At the finish:

spring adventures

The busyness of working just about full time and being in graduate school just about full time also means that there’s not much time for big adventures. Instead, we take small ones just blocks from our house. Isabel constantly reminds me there is delight in sniffing each flower, in bounding down the trail to find what’s up ahead, in chasing ducks even if they fly away before you can reach them.

This spring has been the usual: rainy and green and full of growth. I love it. We take many wet hikes that have been so lovely and cleansing. Isabel insists on dipping herself in the creek, as if getting rained on wasn’t wet enough.