The Anti-Mom

Climbin' Stuff 2011

Haven't been out in the wild much this summer due to this doctor business.  But we had an exam last Friday and a couple of days off this week AND the kids are at g-ma's house...so LET"S DO THIS!

Put on the climbing recruiting/guide hat and invited my PT class for a hike up Gray's Peak last week.  We went Saturday and had a great time.  Six flatlanders who had never climbed a 14er before to the top!  AND I think I scored a few converts out of it.  heh.  Not that Gray's is AT ALL awesome, but it's a good starter peak and I figured people could still get up to the top even if they felt crappy - and it was true.  Then we stopped at BeauJo's in Idaho Springs for some Mountain Pie and Tommyknocker Brewery's finest.  Maple Nut Brown...mmmm.  Want some more please. Prolly get some on the way home Saturday.

Fresh Meat:

Once I saw these days off SANS KIDS I instantly started pulling gruesome climbs out of the book for Chad and I to do on our free days.  This was not met with the same level of enthusiasm from Chad, who was my victim, er, climbing partner.  He was with the kids for Thursday through Sunday back in MI/OH so he had clearly lost some red blood cells.  He was not about to sign up for a "becky special" two days after he came home.  SO..Tuesday was the "training run" and this upcoming weekend is the "becky special".  

I am quite satisfied to say that I have climbed Mount Elbert 11 times now.  Chad had 0.  I let him pick a Sawatch climb and that's what he chose.  The routine is quite rehearsed and simple:  get up at 2am, drive to Leadville, start hiking at sunrise.  Got it.  I had been averaging about 4 hours of sleep for the prior 10 days.  He had just come home from the Armpit.  The weather forecast was not good.  Whatever, let's go.  If I got a dumptruck full of newbies up there in my guiding days, I can get us up there in sad shape.

We began at 5:30am, the crack of dawn.  I know that mountain like the back of my hand, so we took the East Ridge Route.  It's so much nicer than the NE ridge where all the tourists go to suffer.  It's just under 8 miles and about 4,500 vertical climb.  It was SO good to be up there.  It's like the normal wash cycle for my soul which as always is drawn to the mountains but cannot ever get enough time there.  If I could swing it I'd never come back down. The sunrise was gorgeous. 

It had rained earlier in the morning and he forest smelled delicious.  The wildflowers were in full bloom.  We felt good.  I felt great.  I feel like my body is built for this sport.  I do enough of the fast and furious stuff with taequando and soccer.  Climbing is an enjoyable low level boil with occasional bursts of kick-ass.  It felt so great to get my body moving vertically!  (Gray's was vertical but I honestly never even broke a sweat)  This is what it's all about, yo!  We got to around 14,000 and the clouds descended on the summit and it started to drizzle.  While we were a little bummed about the fact we were not going to get the 360 summit view, we were happy that we were just in time to beat the weather by summiting soon and getting busy descending before the heat of the day kicked up the thunderheads.   We topped out in 3 hours, by 8:30.  We were pretty impressed with ourselves given our current state.  Guess doing all those masochistic becky specials is good for something.  It's nice to say that the tallest mountain in the state is just a walk in the park! 

We stayed on top about a half hour eating and chatting with people from the NE ridge who were starting to trickle in.  Got a little cold, so we did a little of our pole-running downhill and then decided to take it easy since we were out of weather danger quickly and didn't need to crank and ankle.  Back to the car at 10:40.  Not too bad at all.  Relaxing and Supa-fun!  Then we ate at the Golden Burro in Leadville.  They have some really good breakfast burro-itos for $8 which I hadn't tried before since I don't think I've ever arrived to eat in Leadville after a hike while breakfast is still being served.

Now to the Becky special:  SNOWMASS!  YES, it's FINALLY happening and the right way too!  We will be backpacking 8 miles in to Snowmass Lake tomorrow, resting up and doing a little fishing in the lake, then climbing the snowfield (my favorite) hopefully to summit on Saturday morning early.  Although it is very sad that a fellow 14er climber died shortly after summiting a few days ago due to some unlucky rockfall, we have decided to go anyway and we will say a little prayer for him and his family when we summit. RIP Sean Wylam

I am so excited.  I don't care if it rains or snows or if sasquatch visits camp in the middle of the night.  We don't get to do things without stressful logistics for the kids very often and this outdoor suffering together is our idea of some perfect quality time.  Well, if you ask Chad he may say it should involve less physical suffering and more Harry Potter movie.  But he's wrong.   I am going to smuggle a bottle of wine up in my pack with a few candles (headlamp doesn't quite give off the same ambiance) and make a well-earned date out of it.  I think some skinny dipping could conceivably happen if the wine flows since that is when I tend have my best ideas and be the most persuasive...Boy, I'm a high maintenance date.  Get it?  BWAH ha ha hA!  shit.

Will report when we get back.  Hopefully delightfully exhausted with some great pics. 

Live like rockstars while I"m gone people...make me proud!   

 

Now I know why Doctors are Doctors

One month into Medical school at UC Denver.  Holy Jeezus.  Now I know why doctors are doctors. This ain't playtime folks.  This is big kid school.

I have class from 8am to 3 or 5pm every weekday for the next three years, and what they are calling 12 credit hours of classes but should be about 25.  For example...my lovely gross anatomy class...we have 6-8 hours in lecture per week.  Then we have 4-8 assigned dissection (yes cadaver) hours per week.  Then we have 2 hours per week of palpation lab (this is where you get mostly naked and touch all the body parts of all of your classmates).  The kicker is...you just have to get this dissection crap done on schedule becasue there are quizzes on your progress and quality. Sometimes 8 hours in the lab doesn't come close.  I think one week I spent about 15 hours in there. You have three different sets of exams:  palpation, cadaver/practical, written.   Meanwhile, all of your other classes are being neglected and you sit there wondering what the hell they are talking about because you got home at 8:30pm after a 12 hour day and didn't have the energy to crack a book for another class for like 4 days in a row. 

Another example...and this one's good..."Examination and Evaluation" class.  It's listed as TWO credit hours, but there's 2-4 lecture/lab hours per week about posture and manual muscle testing and then an entire separate book of "self study" on joint range of motion measurment that we will be tested on for our final exam. Nevermind that you actually have to find some poor unsuspecting person(s) to practice this stuff on.

Don't get me wrong.  Totally thrilled up my ass and backwards to be here. And so far my classmates are top notch mighty-fine people that I really like. Just trying to wrap my brain around it. 

In other news, we had our 10 year wedding anniversary the other day.  That was nice, except I was tired and defeated over getting passing ("passing" at CU medical school is 73%) but not-so-hot grades on my first anatomy exams.  We always thought we'd have a big whoop-de-doo for our 10th but I am not allowed to leave the damn city or it must be submitted to the "student absence committee" for approval and all the work must somehow be made up.  So this will have to wait until we're celebrating Doctordom.  Chad got some new golf stuff and I am I think eventually getting granite countertops...but I did make it clear that if we move I get some sort of equivalent gift that I can take with me...like a Toyota FJ or a trip to Mt. Everest.  Love you Poo, you're the shiznit.  Save your money.

Took the wolf pack for a hike at Golden Gate today.  It was a whopper 3 mile outing for Cam and The Madi.  I am calling her The Madi because she's a complete pisser and just a plain name doesn't do her justice. There are better pics, but these are my favorites:

Maybe I have not introduced you to The Madi...she's a Jack Russell Terrier, she's 4 months old, 6lbs but thinks she's 60, uses my house as a toilet, and also thinks she runs this place...she keeps my beloved GOOD dog Joey, who does not use my house as a toilet, company since I'm away all day at school now.

bad dog

   

good dog, and happy since she got to swim today.

In other thoughts...I have been thinking lately about how people come and go in your life, because I've had a lot of them, I mean A LOT.  It's not a bad thing, necessarily, as I have previously thought.  I used to think that the people I get attached to, which I'm a tough nut to crack in the first place so they've passed some sort of massive subconscious screening process, should just be there forever.  Well hell no.  I realize most relationships are meant to be transient.  Furthermore, you didn't do anything wrong for it to happen that way.  There really are only a few people on this earth that will be with you to the bitter end, so you had better appreciate anyone who comes along and does happen to stick around.  I digress...But these transient relationships...they have a reason for being even if they leave a bitter taste.  You can call it fate, or divine intervention, or karma, whathaveyou...Sometimes you are brought into/out of a person's life for a very good reason.  Whether it's for you to help them with overcoming or learning something or vice versa - and then they are gone for whatever reason.  There are reasons to be hurt or angry, indeed, since you probably liked some of these people and it never gets all pretty tied up with a bow in the end.  But that's life, punk. It's not indifference, but acceptance.  There is no need to feel angry or walk around with this chip on your shoulder because you feel like someone has done you wrong or mistreated you.  When you somehow catch up with them down the road and see that they are doing really well...you can be happy for them, and for yourself, because it's quite obvious that the fleeting relationship you had meant something and turned out for the best...Rest assured you'll see them all in hell anyways...so why worry?  (j/k dad - I fully intend to pick up the slack and probably avoid hell.)

SO, new policy lately...I meet you, you represent as no more than a low-level sociopath, and you're my friend.  Do whatever you want to me...I know if it's meant to last it will, and if it isn't then I will get out my ninja weapons at some point and you'll learn a lesson, and I"ll get some impromtu practice.  just kidding...I'll probably just kick and punch you.  I'm not that good at the weapons in freestyle yet.  Bring it sucka! 

There's a rare "deep thoughts" by Mrs. so far shitty jr. dr. becky white...hot damn.