February 2017
Month 2 of my break from climbing outdoors, and Month 3 of my break from climbing indoors.
This is my longest break from climbing since I started exactly 5 years ago. By the end of my break, it'll have been 3 months without any climbing outdoors, and 4 without climbing even in the gym. Prior to this, the longest break I'd ever taken had been about 6 or 7 weeks.
One motivation behind this break has been to take time for recovery-- after talking to a sports medicine doctor in December, it seemed like a good idea to stop completely for a while and just do some physical therapy to help with some long-term overuse injuries.
The second motivation is to discover what I am without climbing.
I've been climbing for about 20% of my life now, and during that time, it's been the driving factor behind everything I've done.
Vacations have been completely replaced by climbing trips-- in the past 4 years, every single trip I've taken has been purely for the sake of climbing, with any tourism done being on the side or as a rest day activity.
My job has flexible hours and lots of time off in exchange for a lower salary to ensure I get the maximum amount of time possible outdoors on the rock.
I've given up other hobbies such as drawing, baking and running to make more time for it.
I'm constantly budgeting and saving and investing money so that I can retire earlier and spend fewer years working and more time climbing.
At this point, do I climb because I love it or do I climb because I don't know what else to do with myself?
Do I exist without climbing? Am I still a worthwhile person when you take climbing out of the mix?
With Julia's passing a few months ago, I started to question a lot of things.
After all, if I'm going to keep doing something that may one day kill me, I ought do it with intention.
It turns out there is endless free time when you're not spending it all climbing, biking to the climbing gym, driving to the crag to climb, camping so you can climb outside, and cooking at the campsite for another day of climbing.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I spent a lot more time cooking and learning to make meals. I got pretty good at making pureed soups, i.e. boiling the shit out of veggies and throwing them into a blender with spices and broth.
I also spent some time baking, which I've always loved enough to set aside time for, even when I was climbing. This time though, I tried to master the art of baking in a cast iron over a fire. I haven't though-- mastered that. The bottoms of my brownies/cookies/cakes still burn when I use the cast iron directly on the stove, though it turns out fine when I put the cast iron in the oven. More experimentation is required.
One thing I actually forget sometimes is that before climbing, I really loved the arts of all kind. I enjoyed going to museums and following artist websites and blogs, I went to concerts regularly, and also saw theatrical productions (though I've never been much into movies-- either back then or now). I'd also draw or make various crafts.
So during this time, I did some sketching and met up with old theater friends.
A secret: If money weren't an issue, my dream job would be event planning.
I love throwing parties.
I love sending out invitations, making themes, crafting decorations, creating menus, mixing drinks, baking desserts, and cooking platters and platters of food.
I love welcoming people to parties and making small talk and dressing up for the occasion.
I love seeing people have a good time, act silly and make happy memories.
So I threw a party.
A Hawaiian themed party.
Which means spam musubi, butter mochi, haupia pie and mai tais.
And leis for everyone.
The lighting in my house isn't great, so none of my pictures turned out good enough to post but just use your imagination.
Also if you've never tried spam musubi before, you're for real missing out.
A lot of people think spam is super gross and disgusting, but people from the Pacific know it's the bee's knee's. The cat's meow. The greatest thing on earth.
Give it a whirl the next time you get the chance.
