Else what's a heaven for?

Fri night, I missed the happy hour my new cubemate organized, so I came home in the mood for a drink. Last time I was looking around in my cellar, I broke the seal on a bottle of Pedro Ximenez I brought back from Spain, so I opened it. wow. It really is raisiny and thick, so when Julian reminded me that people eat it over ice cream, I tried it and it was delicious. It also inspired some creative writing, for which I decided to look something up, which made me realize there must be another box of books somewhere in the apt, bc I couldn't find any books on what is sometimes referred to euphemistically in this household as macrame. In the hobbies closet, I found an entire shelf of pr0n - and a box of books which is now waiting to be sorted. It's a pity it's too late to donate to LPN, bc surely I can get rid of some of those books.

My biggest accomplishment on Sat was sleeping until 10:30. I was mentally ready to tidy, but instead I made some lunch, played on my computer, and went running. Got shin splints again, although this time it was 5 mins later than usual - I made it home with only two walkies. A few weeks ago, I ran into the PT god, who says it's hip weakness. It's frustrating that to be fit enough to run or do my other hobbies, I have to spend eleventy billion hours lifting. But yeah, it's time to stop whining and get serious about lifting again. I wonder if my shins were happier bc for two years, I did the Samson stretch for an extended time once a week at aerial, and then last year I was Crossfitting frequently. anyhoo.

My father and his bff's third annual birthday extravaganza was ok. For some reason, we did dinner at the Boathouse rather than brunch and the meal just dragged. My counterpart's husband and kids were in Paris, visiting her in-laws, where she would join them in two days. Her parents are very nice, caring people - who are interested in helping my parents get grandkids to the point of rudeness. I'm still not altogether certain why my counterpart got pissy at her father for telling us to go to Paris to find spouses (which is what happened with her).

To diffuse the tension, my sister started talking about how she and Bbro have been discussing my father's new pet theory - that none of us are getting married bc we like our siblings too much (thus getting our social needs met) and we can get casual sex when we want. (Call me a prude, but I'd be okay with my father never using the phrase casual sex ever again.) As I write this, it sounds more plausible: our closest models for family interaction is my mother's siblings, who are all very close and spend a great deal of time together, to the virtual exclusion of non-family. Friends of one sibling tend to be folded into the family. This actually tends to irritate people who marry into the family, who don't want to spend that much time with their in-laws. (Actually, it sometimes pisses off Kates too, but that's another matter.) For my part, somehow something about Bluebeard made me think he'd fit in with my family, which is why I was so heart-broken when he turned out to be a pigfucker, but I'm not sure if it was ability to fit in with my siblings or my mum's.

Anyhow, apparently Bbro and my sister decided that at some point, we should ALL leave NYC and move to the far corners of the globe for a minimum of five years or until we found a spouse, whichever came first. They decided I should go to Sydney, bc I like Australia. Lbro should go to England, bc he's too lazy to learn another language. Bbro should go to Sweden, bc he has a thing for tall chicks. (He has a lot in common with Miles Vorkosigan.) Don't remember where my sister was assigned, except that it was in Europe, which made me whine about being exiled from the family.

Leading lessons with JBeau weren't as much fun as with SR: I think the problem is JBeau seems to be discouraging, rather than enabling. I also found him to be far less systematic in the way he teaches things. Unfortunately, switching instructors (by geographic necessity) also feels like we spent half a day going over stuff I already knew, bc JBeau doesn't seem to get that I'm the anti-hotdog. *sighs*

In the morning, we stood under the same dang overhang: however, JBeau had me set up anchors on gear he'd placed. This was actually good practice. Then we set up a top rop anchor on a climb. He showed me a walk up to the top of the cliff, so in theory, I could buy rope, maybe some webbing, and set up my own top ropes, say with Natalia. (In practice, he later suggested we need another day of instruction, but I'll get to that.) The climb itself sucked ass: facey 5.7 is double-plus unfun when you're short and the rocks are too wet to smear and you're 1" from the hold, no exaggeration.

He had me aid-lead Ken's Crack, aka the climb I did with SR. Which was pretty awesome in that I weighted and tested every single piece of gear I placed, and it was an even dozen before it got too late. JBeau and I rappelled on a single belay device - seriously the most awkward rappel I've ever done and if he wasn't happily married, there's no way I'd've done it - and he gave me feedback on each piece. Bottom-line, while I had little confidence in them, I did very well with the nuts, and while I felt good about my cams, I did very poorly with them. Mitigating that is that the climb is called Ken's Crack for a reason - it's really made for slotting nuts. Also, next time I go for a lead climbing lesson with JBeau, I'm asking him to bring a set of tri-cams or bringing my own, bc I wonder if I'll like those better than those stupid Friends.

As we walked out, JBeau commented that he hadn't had a chance to evaluate my skills, with which I agree: it was the difference between demo problems in class vs. a problem set. Unfortunately, when I asked, "So how many days of seconding should I do before I come back to see you?" he wouldn't/couldn't answer: I'm pretty sure he just didn't see it the same way as I. Whenever I ask him for advice on next steps, he always seems to say to get more experience as a second. WHICH IS THE WRONG ANSWER. I won't learn to lead by following for umpteen zillion more years. yeargh. As an instructor though, I'm sticking with him anyhow: he tries hard, he doesn't nickle-and-dime the end of the day, he occasionally has great ideas, and I think a consistent instructor saves time.

Edit: while looking for the links for this post, it dawned on me I should've done the "like having a baby hard" workout this morning behind my house, instead of thinking about going to the gym near work for a Russ workout, which never happens in the morning, which is why I'm weak and doomed to remain foreverso. *whine*

Edit2: Continued here bc italics are allegedly hard to read.