Movie Recommendation

E and I just went to see Juno at the theatre last night. Ellen Page is such a badass. It's a quality flick. You should definitely check it out. There are so many GREAT one liners that girl comes up with that I want to see it again!!!



And besides, the guy has REALLY nice legs:

The Crocodile That Drowned

Just over a week ago I went to see a friend's show at the Crocodile Cafe. Little did I know that it was to be the last time I'd go to the Croc. The Seattle P-I reports:

Crocodile Cafe, R.I.P.

Saturday night, the Belltown club was packed once again for sets by Robin Pecknold, Tillman and David Bazan, with the usual "Croc" good times under way and the bar doing brisk business. Nothing suggested that those in the crowd were witnesses to the venerable music venue's last waltz.

Owner Stephanie Dorgan, who could not be reached Monday, left voice mail messages with club employees Sunday telling them they should not report for work any longer -- the Crocodile Cafe has been closed because of financial difficulties.

Read the full story on the Seattle P-I website.

Another P-I article goes on to say:

The announcement sent pangs of panic and nostalgia through the local music scene. Many of Seattle's most famous bands - from Nirvana and Mudhoney to Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie - played there, and musicians lauded its sound quality, its intimacy and even its food."

It was the living room of the Seattle music scene," music writer Charles Cross said. "You would see Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love hanging out there. It was the place that people in the music scene went."

I was just reviewing some upcoming shows last night and noting a few coming up in early 2008 at the Croc that I wanted to attend. It's sad to have to add the Croc to the 'late and greats' that I was able to go to once or twice when I first moved here years ago, that shut down shortly after. The list includes such notables as the RCKNDY and the Velvet Elvis.

What is happening around here, Seattle? Where the heck is our music scene going?

Justifications

Okay I'm going to indulge myself in a very stereotypical girl moment and blog about SHOES! Rain boots to be exact!

With this massive flooding we've had today, I was thinking that some rain boots were almost in order. If you haven't heard by the way, check the news sites, it's bad! I hope everyone is well out there! They've had to rescue people from flooding homes, etc. and it's really tragic and I'm not trying to take away from that. Man this almost can't step back and not sound selfish right now. That's not how I mean it. This is just a passing humorous thought I've decided to blog about as I watch the news on all this. Here goes anyway.

Surprised I live in Seattle and don't have any rain boots yet? Well usually it doesn't rain enough here to warrant them, or even an umbrella. But today? My gosh. What if I had to go help someone sandbag? Seriously!? I almost needed rain boots to get to and from the dentist. My socks and pants didn't dry out until about 3pm. My shoes still have not. People in my building were leaving early to check on their homes if they lived in outlying areas.

Nothing says I can't fantasize about going sandbagging in STYLE right? This torrential rain could ALMOST justify buying these adorable yet badass $69 rain boots I've been jonesin over for a year now. I realistically wouldn't wear them enough and it's why I haven't and won't buy them, but man-oh-man these past couple of 'flood seasons' could almost make it a worthy expense. If only my money didn't have 20 other places to go.....*sigh*



HEL-LO!?!? How GREAT are THESE!??!



Okay, I'm done now. I just had to get that off my chest. ;-)

All seriousness, everyone be SAFE out there!

Strongbad Email

If you don't know who Strongbad is.... prepare yourself!

Note: Since I haven't found a way for Blogger to allow me upload videos that aren't saved to my computer, here are some links.

Guitar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0swQQNgk-U

...and the most glorious Trogdor the Burninator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkrvfC4aYEs

For more of this goodness go to http://www.homestarrunner.com/

Q&A time: Expecations

It seems I've had a lot of conversations with people lately about expectations in life. About desires and goals and not settling for less than those. It seems that most people I know are prepared to try and fail repeatedly in order to find that job that fulfills them, that person that is their absolute puzzle piece soul mate. People that KNOW down in their souls those exist for them and they're willing to wait for that. To keep trying until they find that.

I also know a person or two who argues that we've just been trained these days to want instant gratification. To want perfection without trying very hard. That people didn't used to need to be fulfilled by their work, or find everything they need in one single other person, that their spouse was merely one of many people in their life to fulfill them and that we've grown to have bigger expectations than we can expect to fulfill.

I think it's a bit of a combination. That we are evolving into a generation that looks deeper into our consciousnesses. That lives more raw and on the surface, ask the hard questions, begin to be okay with being vulnerable. Begin to realize that allowing yourself to be vulnerable actually MAKES YOU STRONGER. That those of us who choose to live that way seek each other out. But I also believe that there are those who have those expectations and do want that instant gratification. They want the soul mate and the perfect job without trials, without pain, without hard work. THAT is unrealistic in my opinion. But it doesn't change my belief that we are becoming a generation of people who are more aware of parts of ourselves that didn't exist in prior generations. As with every generation, we're waking up parts of ourselves that maybe remained dormant in most of the population of generations past. That collectively we're all realizing this and "vibrating at higher levels" being drawn in and out of each others lives' to enable each other, to bring about change and growth. But that's just my opinion.

What do you think? Do you think that people these days as compared to say... the 50's... are beginning to have a shift in/awakening of our consciousnesses and we're evolving into a generation that requires that type of connection/fulfillment from those things? That knows we can achieve it and it's worth the wait, worth the repeated attempts and failures at finding & achieving it? Or are we just developing too high of expectations for love, career, etc. and are just setting ourselves up to become a generation of perpetually single, perpetually divorced, spoiled, needy, unfulfilled people?

Silly me

So when I first set up this blog, I distinctly recall noticing the instant I got my first comment. I think I had been 'watching the pot' waiting for it to boil until that point though, so somewhere in my mind down the road (after the long empty post-less stretch where I lost what few readers I had, read: family, ha!), I had established in my head that I would be notified when I got comments.

No emails. No happy little "you've got feedback!" awaiting me upon login. "Wow, apparently that barren stretch did more damage than I thought!"

I was going back through reading some old entries, and noticed several comments I'd not seen before. To Steve & Mr. Wizzlepig - I'm back! Sorry for the blackout. To Stephanie, thanks for the kind words. To Mumoverals... I'll be in touch. Thanks for bringing some more life to this thing and making me feel like these ARE actually getting read. My settings are NOW changed to notify me as I'd assumed it had always been, and I'll continue to post here as well as the other location I'd been using.

Thanks! I hope everyone's Thanksgiving and long weekend has been wonderful. Mine has been filled with family, friends, pleasant conversation thanks to technology, love, MUCH humor, and too much amazing food to even safely reminisce about at the moment. January will definitely be filled with cleansing. Ha.

Well I've got a good number of thoughts tumbling around in this head o' mine, but they're not quite ready for you yet. I'm going to hit the sack and re-energize for another couple days of family and friends. You'll hear from me soon.

Home Sweet Crag

My soul is SO happy. For the first time in... honestly 2 years... I was out rock climbing with my crew again.

I had been climbing at my absolute best ever back in the summer of 2005. I had just conquered this HUGE plataeu in my climbing career and was climbing harder than ever. I was projecting a climb or two at each crag, getting ready for some wicked cool leads and had just found out I was "a natural" at finger & hand & fist cracks so my friends said. I was loving the hard painful cranking powerhouse moves. It was a nice change from the sport face climbs I'd been doing every weekend 9 months a year for a few years prior to trying trad. I was at my BEST ever and looking forward to progressing rapidly. Everything was feeling more natural than it ever had.

One morning in Oct. 2005 - running for the bus - my toe caught an uneven sidewalk edge and I did a 6-foot baseball slide and sprained my left ankle so badly that it took multiple doctor visits to confirm that it was indeed not broken as it looked like, and I merely tore all the soft tissue in the ankle. I was in a boot until Feb. Then in March I went climbing one weekend (shouldn't have quite yet, but it had been my LIFE and I couldn't hold out any more after 6 months away) and was leading (dumb, I know) and fell and hit the ground from almost the 2nd bolt - worst place - and landed on my RIGHT foot. You could hear it 20 feet away I was told. I only thought bruised my heel. I got back up on the climb a couple more times, finshed out the day, hiked out over the mesa, etc. I finally went to the doc in July (after spraining 2 toes when I guy dropped me dancing) and he thought it was plantar fasciitis and told me to stay off it. Between my left and right foot injuries, at that point I'd been slowly hobbling/limping - not even walking fast - for a full year. I started seeing a chiropractor (I have slight scoliosis and many old "rowdy kid" injuries anyway) and found out it wasn't my right heel, but my sciatic nerve in my lower back which I'd crunched accordian style in the fall. One year of consistant chiropractor visits (1-3x a week) later, I'm normal again. VERY out of shape, but normal.

It was SO amazing being out again. I really couldn't climb for shite. The technical knowledge is there but my body seemed to have absolutely no clue what I was asking it to do. I couldn't remember a single move off of old climbs I was projecting and getting ready to lead. I was struggling and falling on these on top rope. I was almost in tears I was so frustrated at one point, at having forgotten so much of something that mean so much to me. But my loving supportive amazing crew - my family - was right there to remind me to look at it in perspective. I had been away from the sport for 2 years. It will take time.

All the same, nothing could ruin it, not even forgetting how to be a climber. Being out there in the Coulee again was so amazing. I took our new crew inductee, Neil, down through the 'dog filter' (check out Rusty in it in this old picture):



...a pathway between columns on the outside of the mesa and the inner rest of the mesa/earth, that drops you down to sunshine and other walls and 300+ climbs. Home.



As we dropped down out of the pillar tunnel and onto the path, a soft breeze was blowing with the scent of sagebrush and coulee dust. The silence of the desert was beautiful and immediately peaceful. Then as if all of that wasn't enough to make my heart soar, it almost stopped in my chest as we passed under Ride 'em Cowboy. There were a couple of climbers just starting out on the route around the left of the arete and as we passed beneath them I heard the soft click of the caribiner gate as it was clipped into a blot and released. My breath caught. I hadn't realized how much I missed that sound until that moment. A simple snap of a caribiner gate high on a wall fed my soul so full, so instantaneously. As I gazed up and around at the beauty of my long lost 'home' and heard the voices of climbers carried on the breeze, felt the warm bubble of heat that is always shining down on Sunshine Wall, and looked out across the sea of climbs and climbers doing what we all love, I felt like I'd returned home after years at sea. I knew that by the end of the night I'd have run into many, many more old friends and we'd all have hopped from campsite to campsite - everyone new becoming old friends by the end of the night under a sea of stars so thick you could almost reach out and touch the Milky Way. The memory of that moment was forever burned into my mind. I've never felt so at peace. Between that and being on the road with my dog and best friend/climbing partner I've not road tripped with since I last climbed, it was more than I could ask for. I'll never forget such a perfect beautiful return to the place, the sport, and the people I love so dearly.

I was able to get some great shots of the weekend with a friend's camera. As soon as they pass them along, I'll post them.

Use your BRAIN... but which side?

This is something I found on Steve's blog. SERIOUSLY, click on this link and comment and tell me which direction you see this woman spinning. Read the article in the link below. I ONLY saw her spinning clockwise, try as I might. Haha... go fig. Then after I got home and was showing my roommates, she switched for me. This stuff fascinates me!!! Tell me what you see! Humor me!

My co-worker and I literally saw it going completely opposite directions. We couldn't see it go the other direction no matter how hard we each tried. Haha, right on the money too. I love it!

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html