Title is lame but obviously cracks me up!

I reside in my favorite cave-like corner of the library desperate for focus while I attempt at re-editing/submitting a paper on chemoreception in crayfish that took nearly three weeks of continuous work. I battle against my own perfectionist self, thinking: “do I really want to take away time from packing and getting ready for 5 extra points?!” The obvious answer is, “ergh, sort of.” Which is more than enough.

We are headed to Charlotte tonight to eat, rest and be that much closer to our airport in order to fly out tomorrow to Boston. I have never been to a national climbing event so I don’t really have any big hopes or expectations. I know that I will be around some of my favorite people and that the experience will be new, uncomfortable at times, scary, entertaining, and wonderful. I wouldn’t be staying true to myself without loving both the torment and joy that come along with doing something completely different and taking chances. I’ve never been to Boston either so after arriving, we will have plenty of time to explore, eat a ton and get ready for operation GAPWDW (tehe.)

I had hoped to take Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as resting days to get things done school-wise, and instead in a last minute burst of energy decided to run six miles while doing twenty pushups after each mile. One hundred-twenty push ups later and I can barely push open doors. I panicked when I woke up this sore but honestly, I like to be able to control e v e r y t h i n g sometimes which is a poor approach; even if I am a little sore in a few days, I know that if my attitude and mind are in the right place I will have an awesome time with a great group of people and will be able to find the motivation to try my absolute hardest regardless. Although enjoyable, competition climbing is not my favorite thing in the world but I can definitely say I have learned some pretty great things from all of the events so far. The lessons learned and the high energy which results in everyone pushing themselves definitely has me craving “just one more event.”

I also know how hard my closest friends going have worked both in their school and in their climbing and I couldn’t express in words how proud I am of them. Sure, college may be a breeze for some, but when I see my friends working multiple jobs, doing research, teaching, tutoring, maintaining honors-worthy GPAs, pulling all-nighters, and still putting in the time to train–I am both inspired and glow with admiration for them. My girls Chrissy and Audrey especially have shown what it takes to excel in anything they put their minds to and I couldn’t be happier for them and to be with them in just a few days.

Damn. I thought this paper would have written itself by now.

Sometimes it seems there is not enough coffee in the world to be productive.

One last mention is a huge congrats to my friend Kelley for putting up an FA at Grandmother! Will put a link to the video soon. Kelley and Brennen have been laying down the crush throughout the spring even with the rising temps and as soon as Drexel’s shoulder gets better I know these guys will show no signs of slowing down.

Have a great weekend and I hope that everyone takes a deep breath and feels proud of whatever work they have done both in climbing, school, work, relationships….l i f e (haha.) Good luck to all the competitors and thanks to all my friends who have had to endure me mentioning the competition probably one too many times. I will definitely be relieved when this is over so I can stop being narrow minded about this event and focus on other things, like climbing outside haha. Adios!