Must. Touch. Rock.

Rain, rain please come back or my plants will die from the sun's attack! I am so sick of the meteorologists calling for rain (which keeps me from climbing outside) and then it's sunny without a cloud in the sky. Oh wait, the rain will come out of nowhere and pour for a few minutes. This isn't the kind of rain that takes away the humidity; it adds to it. LAME! But want to know something super cool? Aaron will be in Raleigh in just a few hours!! I never, ever want to go this long without seeing him again. it sucks.

Sooo... can y'all tell I'm a little cranky? I just want to get my hands on real rock again. THAT IS ALL I WANT MOTHER NATURE! STOP RAINING ON ME AND ROCKS SO I CAN GO CLIMBING AGAIN!!! Phew. That feels good to get that out! Since the weather has been a slight pain in the rump, I have been amping up my workouts in the gym. I have the sore muscles to prove it if you would like to verify.

Be like a tree even if it means standing alone.

Y'all want to know what really sucks? Hitting a climbing plateau and not seeing improvement. Ugh, I was walking on a plateau for awhile but not anymore! I can consistently on-site 5.10s (a few of them still trip me up). Improvement is amazing. I also learned that 5.11s aren't as scary as I thought - they are actually mighty fun. And I decided that I will skip the V2s. I will go to the V3 & V4s. I have been able to on-site a few threes and am projecting a few fours :)  So that makes me really happy. I can see my bouldering paying off when I'm sport climbing as well. Gosh climbing is the shit!

So besides wanting to get outside to climb, my life has been pretty boring. So...I'm going to list off a bunch of cool facts about trees and plants in general. Please do not excuse my brilliant knowledge of plants. We need plants just as much as they need us. Geek Mode: ON.

*27,000 trees are required to produce the amount of toilet paper the world consumes in a day. A DAY!! You don't need have a roll to wipe your hineys!!

*One tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces while driving 26,000 miles.

*The average life span of a tree in an urban/city area is only 8 years (HEARTBROKEN)

*Common English Oak (Quercus robur) can support 324 taxa of lichens living directly on the tree :)

*There are more than 80,000 species of edible plants.

* 90% of the foods that humans consume come from just 30 plants.

Put lots of colors of food on your plate! It's delicious!

*70,000 plant species are used for medicinal purposes.

*80% of Earth's natural forests have been cleared or destroyed (DEVASTATED).

I DON'T LIKE THIS ONE BIT!!

*68% of plants are in danger of going extinct (SUPER SAD TIMES).

I Moved.

My arms and shoulders hurt. But it's not from climbing. Sad times. If I have to lift one more heavy box full of my belongings, I'm going to drop it on my toe. Four car loads, a bike ride, locking myself out, pushing on a pull door, pinching a few fingers, and not fitting through the doorway, I have finally moved my stuff into my new apartment! But that does not mean anything is put away. I took the last two days off from research so I could unpack. Hah, yeah right. Mother Nature was conspiring against me I swear! Before you choose sides, listen to my side of the story.

Giant hueco at The New!! Lots of spider guys in there :(

"Big colorful hueco" If y'all haven't figured it out - I was at the New for the Fourth of July weekend with my friend David.

So I was at the New for climbing but I thought the basidiomycota were pretty sweet.

Whenever you're overwhelmed or things aren't going your way, look up into the sky. Know that beyond the walls of your house, the limits of your city, the state line, country borders, continents, atmosphere, or galaxy, there is another living being suffering too. The sky may look big an empty but try to see it as a window into another living being's soul/spirit/consciousness. After all, we are all made of the same stuff as trees, snails, humans, and other life forms; we just look different. So why should we think our suffering is worse than another's suffering? 

Did you know that smiling makes you happier? I want y'all to try something - I tried it this morning and it totally worked. Take a few moments and turn your awareness from the outside world and into your body. Feel which emotion is the strongest. Are you holding tension in your shoulders? Are your uncomfortable or have an knuckle you want to crack. Now that your awareness is inside yourself, smile. A genuine smile, not a fake or half smile. Like really smile. If you're with someone, smile at them. If you're by yourself, you can look in a mirror and smile. Did you notice a slight change in your happiness? Do you feel happier seeing someone else smile and did you smile bigger as a result?  Spread some happiness - all you have to do is smile! :D

The first day I was moving my stuff was 99 with a heat index of 111. I'm pretty sure the relative humidity was the same because I was breathing in water outside. I think I drank like 20 gallons of water and sweated 19. I blasted the air conditioning for the whole 2 mile drive between apartments. The second day was a torrential downpour. WHY? I'm already cranky from hauling my stuff around; what makes you think I want to take a shower with my clothes on and feel the heat from the blacktop like a sauna? I just wanted to move my stuff in peace! Hey Mom, does this ring a bell? Remember moving into the A-frame and Mother Nature thought we would have tons of fun moving our stuff during a thunderstorm? Apparently she remembered how much of a blast that was and didn't want me to forget.

So here's the shortened version of moving. Packed stuff into boxes. Placed in living room. Stubbed my toe on the bedframe. Took nails out of the wall. Tossed more stuff in boxes. Shoved boxes into car. Locked keys in car. Got back into car. Drove to new apartment. Heaved boxes from my car the front entry. Set it down. Open door. Pick it up and drop it in front of apartment door. Open door. Drag box inside. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. You get it. Anyways, I didn't realize the entry door could be unlocked from the floor and stay open. For being a scientist, my investigation skills are poor. I had that ground breaking discovery on my VERY LAST trip from my car. Are you serious? Oh, and a bunch of strong, healthy human beings watched me lug boxes while they had a beer. Geez thanks for grabbing the door. Lesson learned - don't show off climbing muscles by wearing a tank top when you're moving. You will receive no help. Only the sweet, darling, Emma helped me carry a few loads from my car. 

I think they meant climbing gear!

As of now, I am waiting for my bed to be shipped to me. My camping gear is doing the trick. Thank goodness for the REI garage sale where I got a thermarest air sleeping pad thing for $5. I can actually roll out of bed, so that's pretty cool. I assembled a dresser, decided I liked something else better, dissembled it, brought it back, and assembled a new shelving unit. I had a few left over parts. As Dad always says, "You're not doing it right unless you have some extra parts at the end." Well, it seems to be standing and hasn't fallen apart yet so I ought to be good! I still need to get a desk or something along that nature. I also realized I don't have that much stuff (excluding my climbing and camping gear). I have a much smaller closet and I still don't fill it up!! Maybe that means I should go buy more climbing gear. Like a ball nut.

Anyways, I'm going to go for a run around the lake, bike around the lake, have some coffee and finish fixing my room up! Then, go climbing. Speaking of - TRC is opening their expansion tomorrow!! We had members only night last night so of course I went! 55 ft lead & top rope walls, a lead cave, a bouldering cave, mezzanine, slab wall, program wall, cardio and yoga - I'm in love. I on-sighted my first John Provetero 10 lead! I specify this route setter because our climbing styles differ greatly so I find his routes more challenging. I had a pure panic clip half way up. The hold to the left of the draw was good but the one on the right was not so good. Unfortunately my left wrist is still healing so I have to baby it a bit. So I had to have my right hand on the left hold and clip the rope with my left. I pulled up slack, bit the rope, hauled up more slack. During this time, my right hand is starting to slide off the hold so I drop the slack to save myself from falling. **I DIDNT HAVE CHALK EITHER. Super sad face.** So I got resituated and went for the clip again. My right hand is still sliding off the hold (sweaty palms are no good) as I pull up slack again. Here comes the extra panicy part: I fumble with the draw and can't get the rope in. I try again and bump my right arm which causes it to slide further off the hold. Just as my hand is about to slip off, I clip the rope and get my left hand on a hold. Thankfully I had solid feet so I was okay. I made this sound like it lasted minutes but it was only like 10 seconds.

EXPANSION MANSION

I just want to shout out a huge thank you to all the route setters at TRC who set some of the best routes yet at the expansion!! Rami, Scott Gilliam, Patrick, Tyler, Taylor, Andrew Schmidt, and John Provetero - you guys are awesome and I love climbing your routes. And of course, huge shout out to Skinny for being an all-around get-shit-done man. Everyone should go check the expansion out tomorrow! Oh, and Aaron, bring your harness when you come visit me :) 

Going Red

What is crack-a-lackin folks? My deepest, most sincere apologies for not keeping y'all up in my climbing adventures. My research project slammed me in the face recently and therefore more pressing matters had to be taken care of. In case you were wondering - which I know y'all were - climbing is was more fun than research. Shocking, I know.

Here's the short story of my research project. I had 150 pounds of corn. I autoclaved aforementioned corn twice. I inoculated this autoclaved corn with Aspergillus flavus. Then this corn was put in an incubator. I tested kernels for fungal growth & aflatoxin production. Infected corn was massed out and placed in bags. Bags of corn kernels made a journey to Rocky Mount, NC and were then poured on the plots. I also had to grow Fusarium strains. After some funky looking cultures, I managed to get beautiful spore producing cultures. Then I removed the spores from cultures. Transported to Rocky Mount and sprayed on plots. Field research is wicked cool. You can call me "Miss Farmer In Training / Wanna-be Dr. Heiniger Someday."

Phew! Glad we got that boring stuff out of the way. Now onto the joys of life: climbing and nature. Two weeks ago I met David, Lohan, and Joyce at The Red. I had never met Joyce or Lohan before but they were both really chill and fun to climb with. Unfortunately I could only stay two full days due to research but I still got two full days of climbing nonetheless!

The first day we went to the Chocolate Factory. I got on Glass Elevator (10d), Oompa (10a), Augustus Gloop (5), Squirrel Worker (maybe that's the name: 11??) and Chocolate River (9). Joyce took some photos that make me look pretty darn awesome. We were on slab routes right next to each other and it looks like I was just dancing up the wall. Which it kind of felt like - trusting this tiny little miniature toe placement and stretch your arms to the max and praise the gods and goddesses when that crimp is exactly what you need. Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Oh no! How could I forget to mention this? David, Joyce and Lohan got on Pure Imagination   MOM, DAD, KIDDO, AND OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS: PLEASE VIEW THE PHOTO BELOW AND UNDERSTAND THAT A 14.C IS JUST A WALK IN THE PARK. Oh, and since you don't know what the heck a 5.14c is, I will give a brief description. Imagine looking at a very beautiful cliff that looks very smooth (aka - blank/no holds). Now imagine climbing that and jamming your finger (yes, one finger) into a painful little crack, your other hand on a small side-pull crimp-ish like hold, and your toes aren't really on anything of substance. Oh, and the next hold you're going for is a "jug" in comparison. Hah - like that helped anything.   So, back to my story. Those three played around on the bottom section of Pure Imagination for awhile. I took photos that make them look like the professionals they really are :)  Just enjoy the pictures.

Lohan. I love how they both did a killer drop knee in the same spot

David.

The second day we went to Johnny's Wall, Tectonic Wall, and Bruise Brothers Wall. I managed to get on 10 climbs :)  It started off with warming up on Tall Cool One (5.9) which I would say is a 5.26 when there are terrifying deadly looking spiders on that climb. I have never overgripped or removed my hand so quickly from a hold before. Either way, I made it up to the top without any spider friends hitching a ride. Then I on-sighted Plate Tectonics (10a). Next was Thanks Holly (8) followed by 59" Drill Bitch (10a), Bethel (10a), and Spinner (10a). Those three were pretty sweet! I would climb those again for sure. After we finished up there we head to Bruise Brothers. I found two new projects as well. Critters on the Wall (10d - PROJECT), Rat Stew (10a), Workin' for the Weekend (10c - PROJECT), and last but not least: Return of the Manimal (10d).

This is just to show how overhung Pure Imagination really is.

Golden Ticket

Sad story. Return of the Manimal beat me up :(  I was doing just fine cleaning the route. I easily could have clipped the first 5 bolts (next time). I made some really cool big moves and was feeling good about life. Then I grabbed a side-pull undercling. Searing pain shot through my arm, I felt a weird vibration going on in the forearm and my left hand when completely numb. It was the most terrifying thing that has happened to me during climbing. I much rather take whipper after whipper than go through that again. I pulled the roof, made it to the anchors, and rappelled down to clean the draws. The numbness slowly went away during the night and I could feel again by morning. I've been babying it for a few days so it should be all good if I'm gentle on myself.

Everyone, this is Timmy. He hung out with us at the Chocolate Factory.

So yup. That's the story of my trip to the Red. I think I want to go back...or just live there. Rent would be a heck of a lot cheaper, wouldn't have roommates to deal with, could climb anytime I want to, explore the gorge on my rest days, be surrounded by nature, convince Aaron to come climb with me, and did I mention the cheaper rent? I need to stop, I'm convincing myself this is a great idea. Don't think I haven't toyed with the idea already because I have. Oh bugger, it's my bedtime. I got a nice early day of work and then finish moving into my new place. Why does it have to be 100 degrees when I move? This is stupid.

If only...