++ SMITH ROCKS STATE PARK!!!! wait, what's at smith rock state park? are you serious! a state park dedicated to a bunch of rocks, you've gotta be kidding me! yeah, yeah, you guessed it. its rock climbing! and lots of it. they say that outdoor sport climbing originated at smith rocks. aparantly some 'naive' guy decided he wasn't good enough (aka sucked) at traditional climbing, so he went up to the rock with a drill and some bolts and some glue and started drilling holes and gluing little bits of metal into the rock like a jackass. and like all things american, it was a jackass idea that caught on and now sport climbing a 'norm' for climbing, mainly for those of us (me included) who are #1. beginners at climbing, #2. don't know enough about climbing to actually "climb". #3. people who are lazy. #4. people who don't ever want to know. #5. i'm eating lunch right now. #6. and i'm going to smith rocks in 4 hours! #7. those who like the accessibility and ease of sport climbing. #8, don't have the balls to do it.

so smith has tons of sport climbs and heather and i (being #1,#2, and #6) are going to go climbing this week. but...i'm getting pro (protection), meaning chocks (well i have those), tri-cams, hexentrics, and a few SLCDs so that i too will be able to "really climb" (meaning do traditional climbing). i just have to buy them and work up enough #8.

for everyone else who doesn't care about climbing, the last daily lesson. numero siete (in spanish), number 7 (in english), chi (in chinese), and thats all the languages i know.

Greenwich, CT
"Hey all - After some cajoling by Mr. Blackburn, I have now cracked and will offer my top ten musings of the first two weeks in New York:
.10. The weather here is just as wet as Seattle. Allow me to describe: in 10 working days, it has precipitated, in some fashion, 8 of those days, making the Marginal Propensity to Rain (MPR) = .8. Given that the Coefficient of a Good Subway Performer at rush hour (GSP) is 3.6 .. GSP = T - .1W .. GSP = 5 - 1.4 .. GSP = 3.6 where W = weeks worked before I finally saw a Broadway show and T = the # subway I take into work, and given that I will have two opportunities per day to witness a street performer, the answer to New York is: NYC = 2GSP + (MPR/10) .. NYC = 2(T - (W/10)) + (MPR/10) .. NYC = 2(5 - (14/10)) + (8/10) .. NYC = 7.28 This is exactly why I take the 7:28 train into the city every morning.
.9. People that remind me of people at work: I sit next to a young Wilford Brimley (Quaker Oats guy), his boss sounds like David Lee, I ride the train with a woman who might as well be the mom from Home Alone (and she could be for all I know), and a Brad French look-alike at work.
.8. Trains are great, no matter how long the commute. I'm finally getting to read the Harry Potter series, and when I run out of books I can sleep.
.7. Greenwich, CT, is absolutely beautiful. I live 1/2 mile from beaches and Long Island Sound, and it is a great escape from the insane density of the city.
.6. Greenwich, CT, is wicked rich. Mel Gibson, Ron Howard, David Letterman, and a host of other hotshots have houses here, the Honda Civic equivalent here is a BMW, and there are dealerships for Bentley, Rolls Royce, and Porsche.
.5. Connecticut has no straight roads at all. Grid is a foreign word, and roads change names more than they do around Clifton.
.4. There is a place to get bubble tea in Times Square. If you do not know what bubble tea is, that is to your detriment. It is the Asian trendy beverage answer to Starbucks.
.3. Travel in New York determines any and every activity. My commute every day is about 3 1/2 hours, which really sucks.
.2. I'm the only one on the train in the morning not reading the Wall Street Journal. It must be a dead giveaway that I don't have a million dollar portfolio.
.1. Don't ever bump into someone on the subway, they will offer no forgiveness. My FIRST DAY in the city I witnessed one of these incidents where a woman bumped into a guy reading a book, he got mad because she didn't say excuse me, then for an entire subway stop they went back in forth in their New York accents dropping f-bombs like they were fighting in Iraq. Very funny and strangely satisfying, I think because all my stereotypes and preconceived notions were being proven within an hour of my being in the city.
I hope you're all doing well, that you're getting a quasi-legitimate sense of responsibility at work/school, and that you take advantage of as many company kickbacks as possible."