Week of September 13th 2010 (Part I): Take the Lead Climbing Test

So for those of you who know me, you know that a little over a year ago I found a hobby I'm really passionate about. I absolutely love rock climbing and try to go as often as possible. Especially after Kevin left, climbing became therapeutic. Having something to really pour my energy into helped me get my mind off of anything else going on.

But back to the lead test - In rock climbing, there are 3 main ways to climb. The most familiar method is called top roping. This is were a rope is hanging from the top of the wall, and you have a person at the other end of the rope keeping it taught in case you fall. Another popular method is called bouldering. Typically, the wall is no higher than 10-12 feet and you climb above a padded mat. If you fall, you fall onto the mat below. The third method, which is commonly used outdoors (I climb in a gym), is called lead climbing. With lead climbing, you carry a rope up with you and clip to anchors (called a quickdraw) along the wall. If you fall, you will fall at least as far as the last clip you made, and typically several feet farther than that.


Because of the safety issues and complications with how far you can fall, gyms typically test you rigorously on your climbing technique. They want to see that you climb and clip safely as it is easy to get your legs tangled in the rope, clip incorrectly, etc. Any of these things can have pretty bad results, from having you flip upside down when you fall, to having some of your clips come undone.

However, the biggest test is the fall... like I said, if you fall lead climbing, you fall at least as far as your last clip. However, you probably have some extra rope and there is some reaction time from your belayer which means your fall is likely to be around 5-15 ft. Also, the belayer tends to be pulled up into the air a few feet. This tends to freak some people out.

So... now that you have a short history of rock climbing (sorry if you knew all of this already, I'm trying to cater to all sorts of audiences), let me tell you my story.

Shortly after I started climbing, I got my friend Eddy into it. Ever since then, the two of us have constantly pushed each other to improve our climbing. From signing onto competitions to comparing routes that we've done, we've definitely helped eachother push our limits. So, when Eddy told me we were learning how to lead climb, I knew I had to do it.

We'd been learn lead climbing tips and practicing "mock leading" (taking a rope up with you as if you are lead climbing, but being tied into the top rope the whole time) for a couple of weeks when Eddy told me we were going to take the lead climbing test that week because they set up an easy route for it and he knew someone who passed it on the first try.

So, we got to the gym, and did a little not-so-great mock leading, but decided to take the test anyways. Somehow it was decided that I would go first. I think it was possibly because I really wasn't afraid of the fall, but more skeptical about my ability to do the climb without falling as it was one that required more upper body strength. I did the climb, but my nerves got the best of me and I was shaking a lot of the way up. I got to the last overhang, made my clip and then called down to Eddy that I was going to fall. I let go and it wasn't so bad. However, in terms of the test - automatic FAIL.

Eddy climbed next and I had to belay him. The process was fairly smooth, however I had some room for improvement. Eddy made it past the overhang but then missed a clip resulting in an automatic fail as well. Now came the part I was more afraid of... rising into the air when Eddy fell. The rising itself wasn't too bad but it is hard to hold the rope and lower as you're more sensitive to the weight difference on a lead rope.

The lead test has continued to be my Achilles heel over the past few weeks. Tries 2-3 had similar results (i.e. not being able to finish the route) and try 4 was even more devastating. I finished the climb, but the tester didn't like my belaying. Ironically, he dinged me for following the advice I'd received on another test. The worst part was, I hurt my ankle and foot on both the fall and when I rose as Eddy fell. It sucks being hurt and not being able to climb for a few days, but it would have been worth it if I'd passed.

Oh well... 5th times a charm?

Week of September 6th 2010: Blue Barn Gourmet, Universal, 330 Ritch, Beta Lounge

This week was full of new restaurants and bars! I'm just going to go through and give a quick review of each since there are a number of places.

Blue Barn Gourmet:
The Monday of Labor Day weekend I had a lunch date with a former boss, Tim. He likes to check in on me every now and then and as I was hours away from sending Kevin packing, he thought it would be a good idea to check in on me for a quick lunch and a talk about life. Tim has a funny way of giving advice... he manages to simultaneously tell you what you want to hear and ask you really difficult questions. It's a great way to get you thinking about life and I always know to bring my A-game to conversation with Tim.
But back to the restaurant... it's mostly just sandwiches and salads. I got an heirloom tomato BLT with goat cheese and it was incredible. I don't normally get BLT's and I would order this sandwich again in a heartbeat. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I want to run back and get one right now...Tim got a Chinese chicken salad. I didn't taste it but the portion was huge and he seemed pretty happy with it.

Universal
Universal is a little place a couple of blocks away from the climbing gym so it just seemed natural that I would end up there after climbing one day. The food was really good here. It's pretty simple, well-cooked American food. I got a halibut with some vegetables. One friend got a good pasta, and the other got some really nice gourmet chicken. We all washed it down with a couple of glasses of wine. If you're looking for some well-cooked delicious food then definitely check it out. The atmosphere is also really cozy - the place isn't huge but we didn't need to wait for a table at all.

330 Ritch
We went to 330 Ritch for a 70's Cal Party to welcome Colorado to the Pac-10. We were only there an hour or so and most of that time was spent trying to organize a singing of the Cal Drinking Song. The bar itself is nice. It's not a huge location and the size was fine for the number of people there but I could see it getting crowded easily. It's also about 300 degrees in there so make sure to layer!

Beta Lounge
The last place of the week is Beta Lounge in Berkeley. We come here after the game to avoid the crowds and pay a little less than the usual gameday spots. The prices were definitely unbeatable and it was nice being able to easily fit our whole group into a spot. The food was also inexpensive and delicious but it would have been nice to have some more bar-type foods than just salads and hummus plates. The vibe in the place is very cool - very simple with vibrant paintings on the wall. The art definitely was a talking point as many of the painting were rather colorful depictions of the female form (that's all I'll say about that). We ended the night playing a game of quarters which technically was also a first for me until it was time to head home.

Week of August 30th 2010: Walk Across the Golden Gate Bridge

So this was actually the activity that gave me the idea to try something new each week. I had heard about walking across the Golden Gate Bridge my freshman year of college and had wanted to do it since then. However, I always had an excuse - too tired, not enough time, too cold, no one to go with. Suddenly, I found myself alone on a Sunday of a long weekend with perfect weather, nothing to do, and plenty of energy. It was time.

I figured if I was going to walk it, I could run it (if you know anything about my workout habits, you know I would rather do anything than run...) and as I was mere days away from saying goodbye to Kevin, I had a lot of aggression to pump out.

After dealing with a bit of traffic, I finally was able to park my car up by the bridge. I didn't think about dealing with metered parking so I was only able to get an hour's worth of parking - had to be quick!

I realized if I was going to actually run this thing, my music choice was going to be critical. I decided to go with Pink's Funhouse cd. It may sound cheesy but as I was on the verge of losing someone that I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye to - most of the songs about her divorce really hit home. Although I didn't run the whole thing (did I mention I hate running?), I did burst into a full blown sprint when "Please Don't Leave Me" came on. It's amazing what a difference some music can make when you're working out, and I'm also sure listening to that song again would bring all of those emotions of that day rushing back.

I made it to the end, snapped some pictures and headed back. If this is something you haven't done - I would highly recommend it. It was nice to get outside, and get some fresh air. It's rare to get a warm, sunny day is SF (especially around the bridge) so really capitalize on the next one that comes by and get out there.

The last take away I got from this was that I don't always need to be with someone to do something. I had asked around if anyone wanted to walk the bridge with me but everyone was busy. At first that was a deterrent but then I realized that I could go at my own pace and do my own thing if I went on my own anyway. I've been slowly get more used to doing things on my own (I had dinner by myself last night) and I think I really like it. Don't get me wrong - I love having people around, but I'm starting to appreciate the beauty of being able to really do something with or without anyone else.

Week of August 23rd 2010: Night Life at the Academy of Sciences & La Trappe

Here's my first two in one post! I haven't decided if in general, I want to go chronologically or by order of magnitude (more exciting activity first) but it doesn't make a difference this week.

Thursday nights at the Academy of Sciences, they have this little event called Night Life where they open up the museum to over 21-ers only, serve alcohol and let you drink in the whole museum. And by the whole museum, I mean everywhere except the exhibits. Of course, we found that out after we had already gotten our first round. This was pretty frustrating because most of the exhibits didn't have a line at that time but by the time that we finished our drinks, they did. Since we had to wait in line, we only got to see a couple of things. So.. check where you can bring your drinks before you buy if you actually care about seeing museum exhibits and things.

Anyways... since we needed to occupy a bit of time until we finished our drinks, we went up to the living roof. I had really wanted to check this out since I could see it from my Arguello apartment and it took me a while to realize what it was. The roof was cool - it's definitely an awesome concept but there really isn't too much to see once you're up there and it was pretty chilly.

We finally finished our drinks and went to check out the Extreme Mammals exhibit. Don't let the name fool you, it was a little boring. I love animals and was hoping to, you know, see some. However it was just a lot of facts about different features different animals have. Anyway I describe it, it sounds more interesting than it was... the museum managed to take a great concept and arrange it as boring as possible...

I wanted to check out the rain-forest next but it had closed already (stupid drink rule) so we went to the aquarium. Nightlife and the Academy of Sciences is worth the visit even if this is the only thing you see. Like I said, I love animals and it was great seeing all the fish and snakes. They have some really amazing species there and it was amazing. Also, you can take drinks into the aquarium. Of course by this point we had decided to cut our losses and the chances of not being able to see an exhibit.

Overall it was really fun, just figure out where you can drink and where you can't. Roof and aquarium are ok, Rainforest and Extreme Mammals (now closed) are not... and everyone knows science is way cooler with a drink.


Next up is La Trappe. This one will be short - mostly because I was only there for a drink. Basicallly, if you love Trappist monk beers, this is a great place to get them in the city (I'm looking at you Eddy!). They have a wide variety of selections both from bottles and on tap, including the all famous Chimay.
Told you it would be short...

Until next time!

Week of August 16th 2010: Exploratorium

Like I said, the first few posts will be a backlog of what I've already done. This also means they might be shorter because it's hard to remember exactly everything that went on over a month ago...

My first foray into exploring San Francisco was one of those things Kevin and I had talked about doing, but never got around to. I remember the first time we drove past the Palace of Fine Arts and Exploratorium and he told me how much fun he had when he went there as a kid. Since I will never have the experience of being a kid in San Francisco (and that's never really stopped me from doing kid things anyways) I told him that he would have to take me someday. Jump two years into the future and we finally found the time to make it out.

Mostly the Exploratorium is exactly what you would imagine - a fun filled science center with a lot of "Did you know.." type of activities for kids. I had a fun time playing with all of the gadgets and things upstairs but if you're short on time, I think the downstairs has more interesting exhibits. However, make sure to see how sneaky of a hunter you would be in the sound section. You basically have to walk on gravel and see how much sounds registers from your footsteps. It's pretty tough, especially if you're heavy. The kids all did really well, I did ok (the hardest part was not talking for 10 seconds...), and Kevin did pretty bad. Sorry Kevin, you're just too heavy.

Like I said, downstairs was really cool. We first entered the food court area which has all of these geometric play structures for kids. As someone who likes to climb and used to seriously own jungle gyms as a kid, I was really wish I was half my height and age so I could play as well.

The next room was filled with mind games - my favorite! No, seriously, that stuff is my favorite. The first was a game where you had to put a stack of cards in two piles one was female names & family oriented words, the other was male names & work related words (one person had that set up, the other had female/work and male/family) and you had to see who could separate the stack quickest. I won both times. I'd like to think it's because I'm an a modern American woman who believes in career and family... or I'm just quicker.

There was also a table where you each held a board with eye slits in front of your face and had to "speak with your eyes" to the other person. This was pretty hilarious and I definitely got a few of the "Oh, I've seen that face before!" remarks. I'd also recommend the bluffing table... one person sees a set of cards and has to say the same statement 4 times, but one of the times it's actually true and the other has to guess which. We both failed.

We continued on our way and I saw this board that had pairs of adjectives (e.g. brave/timid, outgoing/introvert etc.) and you could slide panels to say how much of each quality your friend had. We had fun with it but I still stand by the fact that I can see the big picture and am not just detail oriented KEVIN!!! Just kidding, but seriously... have a sense of humor with it...

We kind of blew through the rest of the Exploratorium because we forgot to eat breakfast and were starving. A lot of it was optical illusions and stuff (cool stuff but nothing else that really popped out). There were a bunch of fun water fountains and things too that I started having fun playing with. At that point though Kevin's stomach was practically dragging me out of the place...

So much for a short post!

(oh and in case you're wondering, the actual Palace of Fine Arts structure was under construction so technically I haven't been there either)

Challenge: Try One New Thing a Week

Hello Readers and welcome to my brand new blog!

A few weeks ago I decided, for a multitude of reasons, that I needed to get out more. I had a long list of things I wanted to do or see but I rarely made the effort. I soon realized that I'd spent 6 years living in the Bay Area and hadn't seen many landmarks or been to amazing restaurants. I don't live in a cave or anything but I found that I'd grown into a habit of going to the same convenient places. With my boyfriend on the verge of leaving the country (and our pending breakup), we realized that for two years we had constantly talked of doing things around the city but had never found time them. We spent weeks making up that time, and I realized soon I would be on my own and the few days a week we spent together would soon be time that I would have to occupy some other way.

So I realized... why not get myself out of the house, keep myself busy, and see new things at the same time? Why not encourage myself to do one new thing a week.

It didn't have to be crazy - a new bar or restaurant would suffice (preferably it would be a new experience), and "new" would be taken very broadly - I've been to the beach, but a new beach? Well, that would count.

A week would be Monday-Sunday. I could do more than one new thing.

Although I have a list of things that I've thought of, please feel free to comment with your own suggestions. My first few posts will be a bit of a backlog and then I'll proceed forward as time moves on. I'll try to add pictues (which would encourage me to take them). If there is more than one thing a week, I reserve the right to mostly write about one and keep shorter descriptions of the others.

Last but not least, this isn't just about me - if there is something you'd love to do, see, eat or explore, please take me with you (or ask if you can join me on one of my adventures). I'd love the company.