Good Quote

I wrote this to a new friend of mine in an email, and I think it is well-worded:

I like to think that I have options within God's plan. Not very presbyterian of me I have to admit. But I think God uses our unwise decisions for good. It isn't always clear which direction you're supposed to take, and you won't know 'til you try one. --RR

Communicating with Gen-Next

This morning at church, two of the girls from high-school youth group were there early. I said "hi" then sat down to listen to the band practice before I headed over to our kids' area. One of them texted me and told me she "officially" now has a boyfriend. I texted her back and asked, "Does your mom know?" Then she texted me and told me that her mom thinks that she doesn't know boys even exist. Then I told her she should try to bring him along tomorrow night to group.

The whole time we were texting, we were sitting across the aisle from each other, and could have talked about it. So funny. What a different communication style these kids have.

I sometimes feel like for all that I'm 11 years older than these high schoolers, I'm still just really my 14 year old self trapped in a 30 year old body. I really don't feel like I know all that much more. Maybe more about myself.

Rain

I decided to take a walk this morning. The sun was peeking out from behind the clouds. It felt like the first true day of fall to me... cold, and a bit cloudy with a definite chill in the air. About halfway to my destination (breakfast) it started to rain a little. It was enough that I thought about turning around, but then decided that since I was almost there anyway, I kept going. Once I reached my destination, it started to pour. I got absolutely soaked. Then I had to walk back home. And wouldn't you know it but it stopped raining once I was halfway home.

Dead Rat

So I went to the archives a few days ago and decided to clean out the office. That's when I noticed a dead rat, right by the desk. I had been stepping around it for at least an hour before I noticed it. It had been dead for awhile.

My long lost friend: Part 2

I got to spend some time with my long lost friend yesterday. It was like we were never apart. I love friends like that. I went to her place after checking out the chapel at the Marine Corp Recruit Depot. What a great place! I'm playing cello there for some friends of mine in about a month. They were both there yesterday morning. It was fun hangin' with them. Since Dave is a marine, they are doing the traditional sword arch at the end of the ceremony and so the friend in charge of it was there too. He was such a cool guy. He's the kind of guy that gives me hope that there are still nice guys out there. Anyway. After that, I called up my friend Rachel (the formerly lost friend) and we spent the afternoon catching up. We took a nice long walk to get ice-cream, and talked the whole time. It was great. We have so much in common. When we got back to her place, she got out her guitar, and I got out my cello and we played together for a bit. I'm so glad she's in town and that we're back in touch.

Rachel has been all over the place and lives out of two duffel bags. She works mostly as a server for a cruise line and when she's off the ship, she decides to go to different places and live there for short periods of time. She also worked at a summer camp as a ceramics instructor. It was great to see her again. I'm glad she's in town.

My long lost soul sister

I cannot even remember my trail of thought that led me to find a friend that I have not talked to in ten years! We went to Africa with the same group and of all the people in that group, I think she and I were the most similar. I love the free spirit in her, the strength of her faith and her mad guitar playing skills. One night, we sat around and did beat poetry with these bongos that some of us had purchased at the marketplace. So funny. Apparently, I have the gift of rhyme, and she and I had everyone laughing over our "poetry." I think she is my long lost soul sister.

Well, I found her through a social networking site, which is amazing considering she is not "friends" with any of the other friends of mine that went on that trip. I was just thinking about her and remembered that I had an old email address for her in my old email account which I retain as a "junk" mail account. So I looked her up by name and found her.

And in her profile, it says that she just moved to San Diego. My response: Are you kidding me?

I really hope she messages me back or gives me a call. I'm wondering how recently she moved to San Diego and whether she has any friends here yet. If she does not, then this is totally a God thing because it can be so lonely to move to a place where you do not know anyone.

Camping

Pre-Day 1: I planned this event for my church on the night before I went camping. I was talking to my camping friends about it and the conversation went something like this...

Me: So, I have to go to this thing on Friday night. I'll probably be back late so it should be fine as long as we're not leaving at 5am.
Tara: We are.
Me: Dang it!

In addition to preparing to wake up ridiculously early in the morning on Saturday and my event, I had to prepare to leave by providing my boss with directions for how to do my job. I also had school work to complete. So after my event on Friday night, I came back to my office to finish up my work and to complete my homework for school. It was a late night, and I did not go to bed until 1am.

Day 1, Saturday: Got up at 4:30am after telling myself that it was a nice 3 hour nap. Grabbed all my stuff and drove over to Tara's. I admitted to all my friends that I would be grumpy that morning and I mostly slept in the car until we hit LA, where we stopped for breakfast. Then I took yet another nap. I was sort of awake for some of the central valley drive, and then I woke up again once we were in Clovis. I was awake for the rest of the trip. We got up to Sequoia and set up camp at around 1:30pm. The goal was to find a rock to climb that afternoon because we wanted to climb everyday if possible. So we drove around and the boys stopped to ask at this resort whether they knew anywhere to climb. This led to a fantastic find: Chimney Rock. As Trippe tells it now, we could have stayed in Sequoia for a month and gone to this spot every day to do a different route. We ended up climbing Crystal Rock, which is huge. The other cool thing about this spot was that after about 1pm, the sun dipped behind the rock and we were able to climb in the shade. Awesome. I did not climb the first day which meant that I got to climb first(ish) the next day. I introduced the group to Mexico camp burritos for dinner, which were received very well. I got Kudos for using the pre-cooked chicken. This recipe consists of pre-cooked mesquite chicken from Costco, pinto beans, and cheese in an extra large tortilla. Then I brought out my guitar and sang for everyone around the campfire.

Day 2, Sunday: We woke up and had a leisurely breakfast, got checked in by the campground host, and then I asked about hiking in the area. The host gave us a great suggestion for a short 3 mile hike to Boole Tree. I do not remember the exact history of this tree, except that in this particular area, it was the only one that was not chopped down. As a result, it is the largest tree in the area. We almost missed it because we went the wrong direction on the trail. We started down the trail that would have taken us back to the car without realizing that's what we were doing. We got to see the tree (and hug it) and then we started hiking back to the car. Out of this group of people, I was the slowest hiker. This was okay with me, but it meant that sometimes I could not keep up. My friends were nice about it though, and would wait for me. What this meant was that we eventually caught up to the two fast hikers who were stopped on the trail. There was this sound like running water; there could have been a stream nearby, but we quickly realized that it was a rattle snake...one that was feeling threatened, and it was right in the middle of the trail. We could have gone around it, but we had passed a family that was doing this same hike with some young children. We wanted to get the snake to move off of the trail. So after trying to scare it off (without effect) one of the guys grabbed a REALLY long tree branch that had fallen and used it to move the snake off the trail. No harm to us or the snake. After that bit of drama, we found this nice picnic area and had lunch. Then it was off to climb again. Larry did this day's lead climb (Tara had done the previous day's lead climb) and it was somewhat scary. Then we found out when he got to the bottom that he hadn't secured the rope quite right. It was secure, but not as secure as it needed to be. So then Trippe had to climb up there and redo the securing. When he got back down without any problems, we heaved a collective sigh of relief. Then it was my turn. The beginning of this climb was the hardest, so Trippe gave me a small boost and that was enough for me to make it all the way up. It was really fun, and gave me a feeling of accomplishment. It was a challenge, but not impossible. After Tara cleaned it all up, we took a sunset break and took some great pictures from our view of the valley. We barely made it back to the car in the light. Everyone was tired, so we cooked dinner and Tara and Trippe went to bed. I stayed up a bit and played more guitar, but it wasn't very long.

Day 3, Monday: We got up early on this day so that we could do a hike that we had heard about called, "Mist Falls." We ate breakfast and packed lunch. Then we drove for about 90minutes to the trail head. The sign at the trail head said that it was about 4.6 miles to the Falls. I was worried about this hike because I'm really out of shape in terms of my athletic ability. My fears (at the beginning) were put to rest by the wide and mostly even (not uphill) path. The pace, however, was somewhat faster than what I would have done on my own. I managed to keep up until we started climbing uphill. This happened probably about 3 miles into the hike. With about a mile left to go, I could feel that I needed to stop and rest more frequently than everyone else in my group because I was starting to breathe rapidly. When I was in high school running for soccer, I used to have the same thing happen after we would do wind sprints. In those soccer practices, sometimes I used to start wheezing. I think I have exercise induced asthma. It isn't bad, but I recognize the signs, and on this particular hike, I knew I was getting close to the wheezing stage. So I stopped and took a breathing break, and as I did, one of the guys actually came back for me. I was glad. We took a rest and I got my breathing more under control, and Larry told me that we only had about 10 or 15 minutes to go (Thank God!). So we finished the hike together at my more leisurely pace, and I got to rest. The river was very cold and I dunked my head cause I hadn't had a shower in 3 days. That felt really good. After hangin' out up by the Falls, we hiked back. Downhill is SO much easier than uphill and I made it back with only one blister. We ate lunch in the car, and then went back to our favorite climbing spot. We didn't take a sunset break that night and made it back to camp in time for me and Tara to bucket wash our hair. After dinner, we had smores and talked around the campfire. I got out my guitar and sang everyone to sleep. I gotta say, my callouses on my fingers are now amazing.

Day 4, Tuesday: Today was the day we drove from Sequoia to Big Sur. What a drive!! I cannot figure out what route we took, but it was a really fun drive across the central valley and then North to Carmel. Then we drove along the Northern coastline. I know I've done this drive with my parents once before, but I do not remember it. It was beautiful. We got to our campsite in the afternoon, and just rested. We put up our tents and took showers. We went out to eat that night at this small (and expensive) local restaurant.

Day 5, Wednesday: This was another early morning as our destination was Pinnacles state park, about a two hour drive away from where we were staying. So we packed up our climbing and hiking gear and hit the road. I was sitting in the backseat for this trip, and Larry was practicing his knots (a climber's best friend). So I had him show me a knot (can't remember what it is called) that you use to eliminate weak points in a climbing rope. In other words, you use this knot when a rope is weak, partially ripped, or cut. I got it down, and now I need to see if the lesson stuck! Pinnacles was a different kind of park. We got to hike through some caves, saw a HUGE boulder aptly named the "Monolithe" and through the use of Tara's guidebook, made our way to a rock that was recommended to us by an outdoor adventure guy we met in Sequoia. He told us that there was only one shady spot for climbing in the entire park. Thankfully, no one was at this particular spot. The four other members of my group went up to check out the top of the rock while I journaled and watched the rest of our gear. Turned out this was a good thing because they needed their harnesses to set up the climb. So they threw a rope down and I had to do some boulder scrambling to get the harnesses to them. I tied them to the rope using a very beautiful figure-8 knot and had them pull them up. They laughed when they got the harnesses and commented on the lovely knot I had tied. Then I had a rather dangerous scramble back down to the gear. About 20 minutes later, the climbs were set. However. I noticed that one of the ropes was ridiculously close to a small patch of poison oak. Based on the position of the rope, it was possible it had brushed up against it. As the native Californian of the group, I pointed it out.

Me: Ummm, did you guys happen to notice that there's a bit of poison oak right there? Is it possible that it touched the rope?
Trippe: Are you sure that's poison oak?
Me: Well, it has three leaves and looks like oak. I'm pretty sure it is.

So then I had the group pray for protection against it, because that would have been a complete disaster to have it on the rope, and therefore on everyone's hands, and from there, pretty much everywhere, all over our gear, etc. We climbed all afternoon. One of the climbs was really hard. I did not get very far on it at all, but the other one was easier, and I made it all the way up. Then we hiked out, and once we were in town, decided to stop for pizza. I paid cause it was my idea and everyone was complaining about the cost. I don't mind. I just wanted everyone to be able to rest without worrying about the price of things. We got back to camp, showered, and went to bed.

Day 6, Thursday: Our last full day of fun. First we asked around about potential places to boulder, and after hiking a ways along this river we decided not to continue due to the large amounts of poison oak blocking our path. We had to cross the river twice, and on the first time across, I slipped a bit and dunked my shoe. My sock was wet the entire day, and I had to bleach the inside of my shoe when I got back to get rid of the mildew that had started to grow in there. So we ended up bouldering underneath this bridge. This was fun and Trippe fell twice into the water. Not good when you are wearing climbing shoes. Later that morning, we hiked to Pfeiffer Falls, a smallish waterfall in Big Sur. We also hiked up to a panoramic scenic view. This was a relatively easier hiking day and the views were spectacular. Then we "hiked" about 10 minutes to see Julia Pfeiffer falls, which is another waterfall that falls into the ocean. This was not very big either, but the view was amazingly pretty. The water was a true aqua. Not blue or brown like it is in the South. We drove along the coast to see if we could find a grocery store because Tara had the brilliant idea to have a steak dinner. We did not find one where we were looking, but Trippe decided he would drop the rest of us off at the campsite and then go get food for dinner in town. The rest of us agreed to this. So three of us were dropped off, and I got put in charge of the potatoes. So after my shower, I washed and cut up the potatoes, wrapped them in foil and put them on the grill. I also grilled the steaks and the veggies. Yum. This was a great idea. For our last night, I took requests on guitar and sang everyone to bed. The last song I played is called "I've been redeemed" by this guy named Tim Yee. I really like it, and felt it was appropriate for the final song. Then everyone went to bed.

Day 7, Friday: We drove all day back down to San Diego. I stayed awake to make sure that Tara was going to be okay all the way back. I think we started driving at about 7:30am, and we got back at about 5:30pm. Tara and her friend were planning on going to a church thing that night, so I offered to drive them, knowing that they would both be really tired.

It was a great trip.

One last thing. At some point during this trip, Trippe gave me a nickname. He started calling me "boo." I have no idea. This is funny to me. But it warms my heart at the same time. I feel like it is his way of showing me that he cares and it makes me feel included. Tara and Trippe are dating, and I really hope it works out for them. I'm going to be really sad if it doesn't.

Milestone

I'm very close to a significant weightloss goal: 20 pounds. I am not quite there yet, but I wanted to celebrate a different but similar milestone in my life: I am under 200 pounds for the first time in years. I think that is quite the accomplishment. I still have a ways to go as far as my overall goal, which I haven't shared with very many people at all. I just do not like talking about this with most people. There are four people total in my life that I've told about my goals, but that's it. But my goal is to lose 30 more pounds. I am losing weight at a rate of one pound per week. So this is going to take me awhile, and I have a feeling that after I lose about 15 more pounds, it will start getting harder for me to lose the weight without a significant increase in the amount of exercise I'm doing. I'm really excited because I think after 10 more pounds, people are going to start noticing. I noticed that my "nice" pants that I wore yesterday to jury duty looked "fat" on me, meaning they were loose and baggy, and did not fit me well at all.

This brings me to another goal that I have to set: No buying expensive nice pants until I've lost at least two pants sizes. I do not have enough money to buy clothes that I'll be in and out of in six months...that's how serious I am about the plan this time. I just spent $10 on a pair of pants that will be tight on me until I lose an extra 10 pounds, but I'm anticipating that I'm going to need them soon. I may also have to find all the pants (that I still have) that used to fit me. Some of them are still pretty nice.