Monthly Archives: April 2006

I turned in my thesis! Woo hoo!

Last night I climbed one of the cracks in the gym for the first time. It was sheer agony. If you aren’t familiar with crack climbing, imagine a smooth crack varying between two and four inches wide, then imagine jamming your hands and feet in there and walking up it. Pure masochism. My feet were in pain, my hands were in pain, and the swelling still hasn’t gone down on my wrists (I was wearing Hand Jammies, but they only protect the backs of your hands.) Jenn tells me if I can climb that crack, I can climb any crack outside, so I’m going to keep at it until I can do it as quickly and painlessly as she can.

Colm Tóibín’s The Master, a novel about the life of Henry James, is excellent. Now I want to go back and reread some of Henry James’ novels and his most famous short story, The Turn of the Screw. The author, Colm Tóibín, will be visiting my workshop tomorrow.

Our class was in tears laughing yesterday when our Book Binding professor, Julie Chen, told us that she often dreams about music, sometimes heavy metal music, that is so loud it wakes her up. She recalled one dream in which her cat was walking down the hallway singing very loudly. We asked what her cat was singing, so she imitated him for us: “I like to eeeat- and eat and eat and eat- and playyyyyy!” Maybe you had to be there. But we were crying.

I hate Flickr! Although I’ve heard that most photo uploading sites are similar, unless you pay a monthly fee. I spent an hour the other day downloading the Flickr uploader so I could post my Red Rocks photos for friends, but it asked me to resize each photo because they were too big. Resizing 95 photos would have taken me forever, so I gave up after three and told it to upload them as is. It only uploaded about 15 before it said I was out of bandwidth – for the MONTH. So I went onto Flickr and deleted all the photos with plans to resize them before re-uploading them, but it said, “Sorry, you’ve used your bandwidth for the month.” So even though I only have ONE photo posted on Flickr, I have to wait until May to upload more. Screw Flickr! I’m uploading my photos on Snapfish (this month).

Witness the performance of Peep separation surgery, sent to me by Jon. And while you’re at it, play the Where’s Elliott game. Happy Easter!

Housewife Kari

Rebellious daughter

Bad-ass son

Cute baby

Dad with his Barbies

Sometimes we pretend to be things we aren’t, like on Halloween when I pretend to be a rock star or Howard Stern. Last night, I pretended to be a photographer. I dusted off my old Nikon; bought some Tri-X 400 film, purchased a nine-foot backdrop and rented a hot light kit. Hot lights, you’re wondering. What are those? I was wondering, too. What do I do with this umbrella and this screen and why are there no bulbs? Well, I found the bulbs, attached the umbrella and shot away. And I learned something valuable in the process. Hot lights are yellow. Natural light is blue. So if you shoot with hot lights without a blue filter, everything looks a little yellow. (I can’t attach filters to my lens because the plastic is cracked at the end, so my lighting turned out pretty awful. But I had fabulous models and I’m hoping the print photos (here I’ve posted the digital backups) will turn out great.) This shoot, by the way, was for my final project for my Book Binding class. Preparing for it felt like preparing to lead a .10c – a frightening uknown. Friday I led a really overhanging .10c in the gym and hung about four times, so I figured the worst thing that could happen is that the print photos look terrible and I have to use the digital backups. Not the end of the world. They’re going to be tiny anyway.

By the way, Barbies are a total pain to unwrap. They’re tied into their boxes with a gazillion strings and wires, and their hair is actually sewn to the cardboard insert. I’m assuming that’s so there’s no way to return them once they’ve been taken out of the box.

Jenn and Aditi taping hands

Meghan in cold and windy Calico Basin

Aditi at the top of a .10a in Calico Basin

Martin climbing a .10a on Panty Wall

Our star rope gun, Sylvain

The gang without me

The gang with me

Well it’s been two weeks and I still haven’t blogged about my trip to Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas. Because I had class Thursday until 4, we didn’t get on the road until almost 5 and arrived at the group campsite at 3 a.m. An hour and a half outside of Vegas, I couldn’t stay awake any longer and asked Aditi to take the wheel. She said she’d never driven on the freeway for more than 10 minutes, but I was desperate. There were no motels in sight and I’ve fallen asleep at the wheel (ran red light, got hit broadside) before. So while Grandma Aditi poked along in the slow lane at 60 miles an hour, I tried hard to refrain from saying, “We’re going to arrive at 5 a.m. at this rate.” The one time I convinced her to speed up and pass the car in front of us, she moved into the fast lane then hit the brakes. Another time she went onto the shoulder. So after I had a string of minor cardiac arrests, we switched back 20 minutes outside of Las Vegas. Aditi slept through our drive down the Strip except when I woke her to see a semi whose cab was in a ditch, whose contents were spilled all over the road and whose trailer was charred. Scary accident. The next morning we slept until 9, then trekked to Calico Basin with Jenn and Matt. Calico Basin sucked. We top roped a 5.8 and 5.10a, which were a lot of fun, but then set up ropes on two other climbs that proved to be unclimbable – one because the rope kept getting caught in the crack and the other because the first move was V4 bouldering move that none of us could do. So after an extremely cold and windy and whiny day, we bailed around 4 and went back to camp. That night we had planned to eat at the brewery in a strip mall between Red Rocks and Vegas, but the line was too long so we went to Islands next door. I hate Islands! The strawberry margaritas were good, but that’s about it. Then we went to New York New York and after MUCH cajoling on the part of Jenn and I, we convinced Aditi to ride her first roller coaster. She kept her eyes closed the entire way, but she did do two upsidedown loops, including a corkscrew. I LOVE LOVE LOVE roller coasters, by the way, and was inspired to make a trip to Michigan this summer so I can take Martin down to Cedar Point in Ohio. If you’ve never been to Cedar Point, it has the biggest, best roller coasters in the country. Every year they build a bigger/better one and I haven’t been since they installed the Millennium Force in 2000, so I have lots to catch up on. By the way, since I am getting a little old and do get motion sickness now and then, I have to throw my arms up in the air and scream all the way down every drop.

After we picked up Martin from the airport (which is conveniently located right near the Strip), Martin and I dragged Aditi (who was half asleep and wanted to go back to her tent to bed) to see the Mandalay Bay, The Hotel (I loved The Hotel, but didn’t think the Mandalay Bay was anything special) and Luxor. We tried to make it to the pirate show at Treasure Island, but missed it by a few minutes. That’s the second year in a row I missed the pirate show and I really want to see it. Around midnight we went back to the campsite to sleep.

Saturday we climbed at Panty Wall. I don’t remember which climbs we did, but I do remember what some of them were called: Butt floss, Panty Line, Panty Liner, Victoria Secret, etc. We led three 5.8s and toproped a 5.10a, then hiked around the corner to lead a 5.6 and toprope a 5.10a slab from hell. That night Jenny and Sylvain arrived and we made a huge pasta dinner with beer and red wine and vegan chocolate chip cookies, then everyone crashed out early.

Sunday we climbed at Black Corridor. Martin, Aditi and I had to hit the road, so we toproped a 5.9, a 5.9+ and a 5.10c, then ate lunch and hiked back to the car. I really want to be able to lead more 5.9 sport climbs (and eventually 5.10a’s) outside, so I since have been toproping .11s and leading .10s in the gym. I just wish all the outdoor climbs had 10 feet of foam beneath them like the gym does. I’m terrified to fall before the first clip, so I won’t lead anything unless I’m absolutely sure I won’t fall. Then again, isn’t that how everyone climbs? (before the first two clips.)

We left at 3:15, got stuck in horrible traffic on the 15 and didn’t make it home until 2:30 a.m. Martin drove most of the way while I tried unsuccessfully to do homework and Aditi and Martin shared a diet Cherry Vanilla (or is it Vanilla Cherry?) Coke so they wouldn’t fall asleep.

Red Rocks is a wonderful place to climb, especially if you want to go out and gamble at night. Oh, I forgot to mention that Aditi and I played $2 in the $.05 slots and lost $.35. It was a rough night.

I am looking forward to climbing in Owen’s River Gorge end of May but NOT to that death hike into the gorge. At least this year I’ll know not to wear sandals, and I’ve got baking soda in my first aid kit to combat the stinging nettles along the river.

This weekend I will be doing a photo shoot of a family (mom, dad, son, daughter and baby) and their secrets. The family isn’t a real family, although they do happen to be related, and their secrets aren’t real either. This is for my final book binding project. The assigment is to depict public and private space by combining two (or more) books in one. I am building a box in the shape of a house with five windows. In each window will be the smiling face of one of the family members. Behind that smiling face (when you open the window) will be a small structural book – each one different – illustrating that person’s secret or secrets. The books will vary in structure. One will be a tunnel book, another a carousel concertina and so on. Each one will be illustrated with black and white photos, so I need secrets that can be photographed. For example, the boy (who will look tough in the window) will be a cross-dressing ballerina (wearing a tutu.) the problem is that I don’t want the secrets to be too cliché. My first thoughts were abuse, gambling, cutting, etc. but I’d rather think of some that are less depressing. I’ve skimmed PostSecret, but still need some more ideas for the mom, the dad and the teenage daughter. Got any?

I wish I had a photo of this, but I’ve only recently begun carrying my camera with me. The day after the Day Spa from Hell, Martin and I decided to drop by Tilden to see if Lake Anza was open yet. I’ve been dying to go swimming and never have time to go to the pool while I’m at school. We arrived to find the path occluded by a giant puddle, so Martin suggested we cut across the grassy field straight to the stairs that lead down to the lake. I was wearing flip-flops becasue we were on our way home from a yoga class. Halfway across the field I realized my flip flops were flinging mud not only onto my calves but all the way up my pants to my butt. I took them off and ran the rest of the way through the muddy grass barefoot. Once at the lake, I dipped my feet and shoes in the water to wash them off. I was cold, wet and muddy and ready to get back in the car. On the way back to the parking lot we took a different paved path to avoid the field and the puddle and just as I was about to step over a ridge into the parking lot, my flip flop hydroplaned on the wet ashphalt and down I went, flat on my back. I hit the ground so hard and fast that I just lay there in the water crying. Martin helped me up and I limped back to the car wet and muddy from head to toe. “I hate Tilden,” I told him and went home to take a hot bath.