Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Injuries - persistent, expected, avoided, emotional, spiritual

My hike on Sunday was great. I made it to the top of Mount Atalaya - 9,000+ feet... I'm already at 7,000+ feet so it wasn't THAT crazy, but it was a good bit of walking. It started at an arroyo where water flows just below the ground and there are lots of trees and grasses and flowers, lovely! As I hiked up there were lots of pine trees, then fewer trees at the top. I took my time stopping in the shade to drink water, taking pictures, enjoying the scenery. At the top I stopped to check out the view of Santa Fe and to meditate a smidgeon. When I walked down I was totally shocked at how much I had hiked. I kept getting to places that I had seen and being like, "Oh yeah... I remember this!" And then I'd go further, expecting the trail to end soon and find that there was a whole nother landscape I had forgotten about that I still had to walk through. It was all very beautiful though.

While on the trails, I got to help two groups find their way, which was really cool. I like it first of all when people think I look like someone who knows something, and second of all when I actually do know that thing and can help them.

Sunday night was a good one, I was able to sleep the whole night through without elbow pain or having to get up and take ibuprofen or sit up on the couch. I was so grateful. I also had bought a new soft brace for my elbow Sunday evening so Monday, when I felt so good at Wise Fool and had my new protective brace, I may not have used enough caution with my climbing. I was pretty much back in it. I learned two new drops from Amy C and had a great time. I did stop before I had worked too much, trying to preserve my elbow.

In the afternoon I drove down to South Santa Fe to check out a vintage showroom/warehouse thing. It was pretty cool and the guy was very nice, but it was far too expensive. I saw a couple things that I really liked but wasn't about to drop $45 on a gold and black super cool embroidered leotard thing. It was a nice little trip that took up some time and got me acquainted with more of Santa Fe's layout.

In the evening we had acrobatics class for 3-1/2 hours. We started with a pretty fun warm up called Jackfruit and Pomegranate. We got in pairs, one as the jackfruit, one as the pomegranate and they would say, "Jackfruit chasing Pomegranate while skipping, doing 5 burpees before you can chase" or something like that. So, we skipped and burpeed, hopped and jumping jacked, and bear crawled and mountain climbed. I kicked so much as at the bear crawling that my partner never caught me... my shoulders are really sore today from that though.

We worked on our group routine for a bit and it was really good to have Amy C there to just say, "ok, we're doing this", instead of us just throwing out a bajillion ideas all night. We actually made progress. It's not the thing I'm most excited about in the world, but it'll be cool and fulfill it's function in the show. Afterwards, I got to work with my duet partner, Indi, who is A-mazing. We had a lot of fun joking around and working on our routine, which is pretty much done. It's going to be so cool! We're now working on doing our moves in a slow, creepy, bug-like way. One of those moves is a "2 high" in which one person (me) stands on another person's (Indi's) shoulders. We're really good at that part, so Indi said it would be cool if instead of me just jumping off in front of him, that I did a forward flip off of his shoulders. I was like, "I'm game. I think I'll have plenty of time to get my feet under me from being on your shoulders, so yeah, let's do it." Indi brought over a mat, thank goodness - foreshadowing - and we popped up to 2 high. We readied ourselves and I bent over and grabbed his hands and went for it. It was strange because we had some control over how fast I came down because we were holding hands, so at the beginning I was like, "oh, I'm falling, but not that fast, it's ok." And then all of a sudden the rest of my body was on top of my head on the mat. I rolled to sitting and started laughing as the rest of the room looked at us in shocked silence. "I'm ok!" I said through laughter. They were unsure if that was really the case. Indi was a little worried too. But it was all alright. I got up and we decided to maybe not try that again.

That night, tragically, my elbow did not behave. At almost 2am it "woke" me (I say "woke" because I hadn't fallen soundly asleep yet even though I had been in bed for over an hour). So, I got up and went to the couch with my pillows and blankets and propped myself and tried to relax till my elbow stopped hurting. I decided that since it wasn't even 1am in California I ought to call a lover and catch up. Thankfully he was awake and we got to chat for a while. The conversation helped take my mind off my elbow, which I think helped it stop hurting faster. When the conversation ended I leaned back on my pillow prop and tried to sleep, but failed. A little while later my elbow started giving me crap again which kind of freaked me out because I was already in my propped up position that was supposed to make it not hurt. So, I sat completely upright for a while and waited again for it to stop hurting. Finally I was able to get to sleep sometime after 3:30am.

My friend Cecil texted me at 9:30 because I'd told her I could take her to the gym in the morning since her bike had a flat tire. So, groggily I got up and ate breakfast and headed to her place in my jammies. We went to the gym and I figured it wouldn't be a good idea for me to climb, so I sat and knitted and we talked for a while. Eventually I decided to change into my workout clothes and do some crunches and backbends and stretches. Afterward I took her to the bike shop so she could fix her tires and then headed to Trader Joe's to get some butter, wine, orange juice, and apples... so me.

When I got home I made lunch and check e-mails and, with the newly purchased butter, made my first ever batch of carrot cake. It turned out pretty well for high altitude and not having vegetable oil. The frosting is pretty bomb as well - cream cheese based of course! I brought a small pan of it to open training where many people enjoyed it, particularly Indi, which made me very happy. I love to bake for people!

I did climb at open training since it was the first time I got to work with my fabric partners since Friday. I tried to take it easy though. I learned a new climb - which I'm not terribly fond of - a new creepy spider like descent, a new way to get into bird, a new drop from bird, and a new dive/drop. It's good to learn, but none of them really excites me as of yet, but a least they are more options. Indi and I worked on our routine a tiny bit, but the gym was so full we had a hard time finding a place to do it, but we still had fun joking around and trying to look creepy to each other. I skipped out a bit early so that I could catch a film showing at The Screen at College of Santa Fe's theater. It was called Two Spirit and was about Fred Martinez, a Navajo highschooler who was brutally murdered for being gay and dressing like a woman. It was an interesting look at both Navajo (and Native American) culture particularly around gender identity as well as a really tragic story of a young man/two-spirit and his family. I cried. Big surprise.

At home I made a quick dinner and chatted for a bit about the state of the world with one of my hosts... quite a bummer. We started talking about the news and the oil spill and got into politics and basically how there's nothing we can do. She said when she was in her early twenties she was all bright eyed and bushy tailed and optimistic and now she can't imagine that my generation gets to feel that. Yeah, a little bit. Even if we aren't slowly killing the world, other animals and ourselves, we sure are depriving my generation of the optimism and idealism that we are entitled to as young adults. But, tragically, I honestly don't think that is all we are doing. Every generation has people saying, "The end is nigh!" And some generation's gotta be right. Based on our impressive efforts, I'd say we're well on our way to being the generation that finally witnesses the downfall of nature and humanity as we know it.*

*And just so all y'all adults out there know - particularly those involved in the outright rape of the world and destruction of forests, rivers, lakes, oceans, and once fertile soil - if I have to tell my children that there really were such things as polar bears and that once upon a time a trip to the beach meant swimming in the ocean, the Universe will not forget what you have done and your consciousness will go on to see what you have destroyed and your grandchildren will be ashamed to have your last name.

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