happysloth

Travels:

I’m going all over the place this year. Toronto for work, HongKong for family, NYC/NJ for wedding and probably to DC for friend-family time. As well as roadtrips, camping and climbing adventures I hope to make happen.

Life:

It’s too short. That’s all I can say. We’ve lost our dog George last month. It was very hard and many tears but cancer won. We’ve recently adopted a new doggie. Kobe. He’s cute and loving. Big dog but he’s kind of growing on me. Todd couldn’t be happier, so that’s a big deal.

Babys:

I’ve had the recent baby craze. FOUR, count it FOUR of my good friends are pregnant and about to pop out kids. It’s a weird time for me. Do we have kids or don’t we? Who knows. I have a few years to procrastinate still.

Hobbies:

I’ve added yoga back into my life. I’ve felt so unbalanced lately and I remember yoga in college getting me through some rough times. It’s a good feeling after a session. Hopefully it will remain even if I have to cut back on other interests, yoga must stay I think.

Oh and we bought a new camera. YAY!!!! so there should be more photos between the two sites. I’ve been posting a bit for 2008 so check it out.

I’m daydreaming again.  I’ve been thinking about my vacations and lack of ‘adventure’ in them.  I always consider Europe or back home whenever I have free time or money, but secretly I day dream about hiking the Inka Trail or roaming through Asia in a less touristy sense.  So far I’ve decided to hike the Inca Trail, climb Mt. Rainier, and take a safari to Tanzania. ..not that I ever see any of this really happening.
If you ever have these ambitions, check out the following sites for ‘ecotourism’.

• Sierra Club Outings
• GAP Adventures
• Clean Air Adventures

I admit it.  It’s my girlie vice.  I love product.  If you don’t know what product is, it’s any sort of hair, face or body cosmetics that you can get your hands on.  I’m a sucker for it all.  For Example: new ‘fresh’ toothpastes, organics/natural body washes, aluminum free deodorants, shiny OPI nail polish, sweet smelling light weight leave-in conditioners.

I don’t really buy them expecting to look younger or instantly see 5 yrs just wash away from my appearance.  I just like testing out products.  My current obsession is LUSH.  It’s a company based out of England that makes simple, natural cosmetics.  Body/Face/Hair types of cleaners, moisturizers, massage bars, etc.  Their ingredients are all natural encorporating herbs/oils that are food based and tend to even resemble food.  Maybe that’s why I’m so intrigued.
I’ve known about them for years, but only recently started purchasing the ‘hardcore’ product lines.  Before that, it was a bath bomb here or there.  I warn you, they are expensive but it is true, you get what you pay for.  I cannot attest to the fact the products are long lasting since I’ve only been using them for about 2 wks now, but I can say the products are high quality.

I’ve purchased:

• Deodorants
• Body butter bars
• Soap bars
• Shampoos
• Conditions
• Body Wash

All fantastic and they make me feel clean and green.  I highly recommend checking out this company and what they have to offer.

We are all guilty of this but… anything that is interesting to you, you spam along to those you love.

Let me just explain that all of this usually ends up in /dev/null when it’s sent to me.

If you send me a link. Explain what it is, not just the damn link.

If you want me to read an article, make sure that I’d actually care.

If it’s a video or animation, expect that I’ll never watch it.

Please don’t forward me these chain mails or mass questions that are all about getting to know you.

And what is up with a text message? How many notes do we need to send back and forth before we realize it would have been easier to just pick up the phone? To all you text messaging fools. I hate you. Do you not like me enough to just call, hear my voice, laugh with me?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m do this too.  I do my damn best not to be this person and I never EVER really expect anyone to pay attention to my emails either. It’s just for my entertainment. If it’s really important, I’ll just call.  I think this will be my new years resolution.
xoxo,Trish

Went to Joshua Tree. Climbing some slab and played at GunSmoke. It’s starting to make sense.

Looks like all I blog about now is climbing.  I guess it’s taken over my life.  I’ve been kind of quiet lately.  It’s an introspective time.  I don’t really know how to describe what I’m going through.  It’s not bad or good, it’s just for me.
Work:
The team is going through a reorg at work.  Where do I fit in with the reorg picture?  I am still waiting to find out my fate.  I’m not worried that I’ll be obsolete.  I’m just hoping that I enjoy the position that they design for me.  Also, I’m going to Toronto for 2wks.  I may also be going to Minnesota to meet development for another product.  Just kind of in a holding pattern.

Married Life:
It’s good.  We are happy.  Todd is in busy season so we are not getting a lot of time together, but we are not really stressed about it.  It is what it is.

Me:
Current obsession, training for a 5k in Sept.  My goal is to jog the entire thing.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’m feeling pretty positive that it’s an attainable goal.
Travels:
As mentioned earlier, I’m going to Toronto for a few weeks and maybe Minnesota.  I’m also planning to fly back to Miami and Jamaica for 1.5 wk in July-August.  I’m waiting on my sister to figure out her schedule.  I’m looking forward to seeing my dad.  It’s been too long.  Rick might be flying me out to Seattle in August for a weekend.  This way I get to spend time with them traveling.

Most recent climbing: Joshua Tree on June 9th.  It was a short trip for us but it was fun. (Tony, Dave and me)  We met some crazy guy Bob who followed us around the place.  For a while we thought Bob was going to try and kill us for the car & climbing gear, but it turns out he was just an unemployed strange man.
Additional Randomness:  parenting is in the future.  No, I’m not pregnant but we have been talking about it.  We are not getting any younger and we are relatively stable.  It seems like the time is near.  There are definitely a few things we need to work out before a child is introduced to our lives.  i.e. After we settle on this house..and figure out if we going to open a restaurant.

Right, we have been talking about starting a walkin/takeout quick and simple food type of place.  It’s kind of the first step to figuring out if we can go into business for ourselves.   That’s more about the US than me, so I won’t go into details.  It’s just another thing on my mind.
There is always my health and fitness, hence signing up for a 5k and trying to get into a regular training regiment for building my climbing strength.  I may break down and purchase a scale.  (GASP)

I’ve been thinking about working on my mind too.  I haven’t been reading, I haven’t really been learning.  I’m getting dusty.  I just don’t know if I want to go back to school or if I’m motivated enough to self teach.  My artwork has been at a standstill.  I want to work with people, but at the same time, I want to work alone 

..so that’s really it.

It’s been an down week.  Personal issues, my friend was in a climbing accident (thankfully she’s alive and recovering), works not as positive as it normally is, and I’m getting over some annoying cold.

Life could be worse, I’m just not feeling 100%.  Today I decided to try to manage my chemical imbalance with some lovely caffeine.  I purchased a product called ‘Howling Monkey’.  Mostly because the can was really cool, and it had such promise with 25% more caffeine, minerals and vitamins.  WHOO.

This is the new rocket fuel.  With every high, there is a low.  Sad sad caffeine low.  Let’s focus on the good stuff.  I get to go see my friend and keep her company at the hospital tomorrow.  I’m spending most of my weekend hanging out with a girlfriend of mine.  I have a three day weekend.  Monday is Todd’s birthday and we are going to go surfing with friends.  Sounds pretty good to me.

Happy weekend all.  Yes, I know I need to do something about my hair….

Jeff’s in town for the week.  We have started off with a weekend in New Jack City with the online groups.  It was crazy packed this weekend.  I’d guess about close to 40 people were there from two different groups.  (Maybe more)

It was a lot of fun and I got to try some sport routes harder than 5.7 for a change.  Too bad it’s end of season for NJC because I just want to climb there all of the time.  I spent the days between Raven Wall and Boyscout again.  I would like to go back and do a route on Sunnyside.  Hopefully if I can get out there early next month I’ll get another day in.

Anyways, Gianni was kind enough to take some pictures of me climbing a 5.8 on Ravens wall.

Just got back from Red Rock Rendevoux 07. It was my first climbing event. Very different from what I expected, but it was a lot of fun. My friend Cindy flew in from Cincy for the weekend to go with me. There was lots of climbing, scrambles, scenery, food, booze, pro climbers, vendors and freebies.

We didn’t really climb in the loop, but did all of our climbing at Calico Basin, Moddest Mecca area. Mostly because we couldn’t find where to climb and when we did, there were too many clinics and it was crowded. Where we climbed was beautiful and fun.

The crew:  Anne, Cindy, Donna, Fatima, Jason, Mackenzie, Mike,Tiffany and Tricia (myself)

Click on the picture to get to the album. Below is my guess at what we climbed.

Anne did this the first day: Side Effects

Cindy did this the first day: Valentines Day

What everyone tried: Pulling Teeth (3 bolt), Is It Soup Yet (overhung start), Chicken Gumbo For You, Soupy Sales, From Soup to Nuts

• University of Oregon has an outdoor program with a section on Rock climbing.

http://www.uoregon.edu/~opp/climbing/climb.html

There is tons of info. What was really great for me to read was the section on crack climbing and how to make a tape glove.

• RockClimbing.com, They are a wealth of knowledge

http://www.rockclimbing.com/

• Tradgirl.com blog

• Random Site: http://home.mindspring.com/~enordberg/NonFiction/socal.html
  

• Places to Shop.

• rei.com
• adventure16.com
• mountaingear.com
• sierratradingpost.com
• campmor.com
• backcountry.com
• usoutdoorstore.com