An Update.

So, I'm working on becoming a better climber, and being more healthy and fit in general. So, I've been climbing more at the wall lately, and I have decided to do the "Mile High Challenge" over the summer. Eh, we will see if I make it. I need to go to the top of the wall 144 times & so far I've done 19. I already feel stronger though.

In other news, I'm going on a trip to Colorado for 10 days with Outdoor Pursuits over the 4th of July. I'm so excited. I've never really been "out west" before, and I'm excited to do some 14ers. Also, some of my favorite leaders & participants are on the trip, so really, I don't think I could ask for much more. Right now, I'm food planning. I want to stay relatively cheap & eat out as little as possible. I'm trying to be pretty creative so I'm not eating the same things over and over. When my plan is more coherent I'll post more details.

In all, we should summit 5 mountains, including the highest mountain in the Rocky's, Mt. Elbert. The others are: Mt. Evans, Quandary, Grays and Torreys. If you want to learn more about 14ers, check out this awesome website: 14ers.com/

In other news, this is a picture of Rachel & I when we saw Brave. :) Did you know that there were two of them? ;)

Trippin'

Sorry that I have not updated lately. I think about working on it sometimes, but my life has been pretty crazy lately. Or maybe I just haven't felt like writing.

I'm going to start back with the two trips that I have been on lately.

First, I took an overnight camping trip to Cohutta, GA with Rachel and Chris. It was very nice. There is a great waterfall there for swimming & I feel like we had quality friend time. I didn't know Chris super well, but now I'd call him more than an acquaintance. :) Here are some pictures taken by Rachel:

 Above: the waterfall was much bigger than this... this is just one of the three tiers. The water was deep enough for good swimming, but it was VERY cold.

Left: Yes, this was taken while Chris was diving.

The next weekend I took a trip to the Smokeys with Aaron, Jacquie and Jeff, some friends of mine from Outdoor Pursuits.

It was much more "active" than a normal trip that I take... personally or with Outdoor Pursuits.We biked 11 miles through Cade's Cove in the early morning. Then, we hiked a round trip of five miles to Abram's Falls for a swim. Then, we hiked up Gregory Bald (5.5 more miles) partly in the rain.



The pictures from the weekend were taken by Jeff. Obviously, I never take my camera with me on trips and resort to using other people's pictures.

The picture above is the view from Gregory Bald looking at Cade's Cove.


The picture at the very bottom is of Jacquie & I doing the "little mermaid hair flip". ;)

Both of the trips were a lot of fun. Too bad I'm not going anywhere cool this weekend... I have to take the practice GRE. BUT, I am going to watch Brave with my own Brave, Rachel Hanle. I have high expectations. I hope it doesn't disappoint. 

I've included the trailer below: 

Moonlight on the Mountain

Reid and Stephanie won the open mic competition at Moonlight on the Mountain last night. One of the songs that they played was a cover of Water by Johnny Flynn. Check out the video.


Also, I had some awesome bonding time with Amanda. Car ride, Brie, Triscuits & Wine. :)



Good night. Little Studying. Now, it's time to work!

Bards & Brews & ATL

Bards & Brews is every first Friday of the month (except for when they reschedule it like this month) At the Birmingham Public Library (except when it is at the Avondale Public Library like next month) ;). Free beer tasting and people standing up and reading poetry. And it is always good. Jared even got up and read some poetry this time! (Sorry, no picture!).

Yesterday, Jared and I decided to take a trip to Atlanta. You know, just for fun. And it was fun. Itinerary: Run out of gas on the side of the Interstate & call Triple A (this is Jared. ;)), Ikea, Varsity Frozen Orange Drink, Picnic in Centennial Olympic Park, The Documentary The Bully, Roam around little 5 pts (cool coffee shops, crazy stores and lots of people). Check out some pictures-- yea, hipster pictures.

RR Park

Last night's show was in the Railroad Park with Great Book of John. It was cool & relaxing & anyone cool under 30 was there. ;)

 I had to leave early though to do a presentation with Rachel about Climate Change & Food Security. They showed a pretty cool video. It's on YouTube.

Tonight is Bards & Brews. If you want to come along, let me know.

On Saturday, Paint the Town Red.
Saturday, Jared and I are also planning a trip to ATL. There is a new documentary that he wants to see called Bully.

There was a controversy about whether or not it should have a PG-13 rating. The makers of the movie wanted high school students to watch it, but some thought it was to graphic. I'll let you know how it is. I also posted the trailer. It's pretty intense.

We might do something else while we are there... I'm not really sure what, yet.

Hipster

Just got back from the Workplay show with Jared. Do you like my instagram photo? Now I can be a hipster too. :) 

Anyway, the opener for the show was really good. Graham Colton. He was cool talking to the crowd and even   had a girl come up & sing with him. Anyway, I like him, and his song is my song of the day. Check it out.

Study, Study, Study

It's a busy week with a lot of assignments/papers/events, but there is only about a month left until the end of the semester. (Ah!!).

I feel like I have already run out of things to talk about. Probably because all I do is study! I've been writing quite a bit this semester, and I'm actually liking it much more than I thought.

Now, I'm studying at Church Street coffee with Jared. No trip with Outdoor Pursuits this weekend-- so Jared and I are filling the free time with music shows.

Tomorrow night: Workplay for Green River Ordinance
Thursday night: Relax by the Tracks at Railroad Park with the Great Book of John
Friday night: Bards & Brews, the poetry slam at the Birmingham Public Library

I'm excited!

So far I'm doing fine without a car, but maybe it's time to invest in a new bicycle?

Climbing & Laughing

I worked at the Climbing Wall this weekend, since I wasn't able to go home. It's fun-- much more fun than working in the office-- and it is making me much more confident about improving my own climbing. I guess we will see what happens.

One of my favorite parts of climbing is imaging I'm climbing something really epic. I think the  climbing magazines are getting to me.

I was rather unproductive earlier today. I was feeling pretty homesick for some reason. So, to fill the void, I indulged in a Diet Coke and some SNL. Gotta' love Sofia Vergara.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/348499/saturday-night-live-sofia-vergara

Cars

Yesterday, I had just left Birmingham when my car broke down. No home for me this weekend. As I was driving down the interstate, I pressed the gas to speed up and instead of going faster my speed began to go down. The RPM's would go up, but I just kept going slower & slower-- in the middle of a construction zone. Oh my. I just barely made it on to an exit ramp.

I called my friend and roommate Amanda to come pick me up. Of course, she did much more than that. We popped the hood and started looking at fluids (but, really, what do we know about cars?) So, we drove to the autoparts store. He told us to check a few more things before just leaving it on the side of the road, so we headed back to the car.

Instead of driving all the way around to go the right way on the exit ramp... we backed down it. haha. It was a little crazy, but much faster.

After one more trip to the autoparts store, we head back to the apartment. There is nothing that we could do.

So, today my brother and his friend Will came to help me with it. Someone stole the battery out of it! I was pissed, but what can you do?

He took it back to Lincoln with him, and he will take it to the mechanic on Monday.

Now, I'm studying at O'henry's with Rachel & Rebecca and there may or may not be cupcakes involved. ;) Way to make a long week a little better.

Now, to work on the endless piles of school work.

Trips

As a child, we never really took family vacations to the beach. So, I'm making up that time now. In March, I took two trips to the beach with Outdoor Pursuits. The first was to Horn Island and the second was to Gulf Shores.

 Horn Island is an uninhabited island about 9 miles off the coast of Mississippi. It is about 12 miles long and 1 mile wide. We sea-kayaked the 9 miles to the island, through mostly open water. Epic workout, and slightly demeaning as the motorboats sped past you. The paddle out to the island was hard. It was rainy and windy, and the water was cold. We made two stops at two smaller islands on the way out there. Singing River Island and Round Island.

 When we got to the island, there was no one else around and it was so beautiful. We watched the sun set and set up camp. The next day was free, and we had a great time just hanging out on the island. One of the trip participants was crazy, awesome. She was like wanna-be survivor woman. That afternoon she went to one of the lagoons on the island, and started catching crabs! Guess what we all had for dinner that night? Fresh crabs.

To paddle back, we had to leave at low tide. Around 5 am. Dark, cold, risk management nightmare. Totally worth it. The stars were above us, and we watched the sunrise as we paddled towards shore. Absolutely beautiful.

I would definitely put this in one of the top five trips I have ever taken with outdoor pursuits.



The second trip was to Gulf Shores, which could not have been more different. Still fun times on the beach. Many, many more participants, and craziness with the kayaks. Epic Sunburns.

We arrived to our camping spot late on Friday night (almost 2 am) and had to hike all 44 of our participants 2.5 miles to our camping spots. Running around while it is starting to rain helping participants set up tents. Craziness (and pretty exciting!).


One of the best parts was that I learned about an awesome beach camping spot very near Gulf Shores, though.It's in the state park right next to Perdido Keys. It's $8 to park for the week, and the camping is free. The beach is beautiful and there are not many people there. If you  do want to go to the public beach, then it's only about 10 minutes away. Next time I take a trip to the beach with my friends, I would totally stay here. It's so cheap!

I loved this trip because I had some great bonding time with some of the best trip leaders & some of my favorite participants. The beach was nice and relaxing, even though the kayaking was hard in the pretty choppy waters.



This weekend I'm off to visit my family for Easter!