Note: this photo exists only because my back was turned. But I’ve cropped it to a satisfactory size. It’s from about 6 or 8 weeks ago - at least my hair is the same color. That’s me, about to ascend a wall.

My hands are all dry and raspy and torn up from tonight’s climbing; it’s great (really). Nothing that some Neutrogena Intensive “Swedish Norwegian Fisherman Love This Stuff” Hand Cream won’t help. I was never going to be a hand model - especially after the wrist surgery - so I feel good that there’s something I can do with these hands (Gimpy and Not-Gimpy). I thought they were going to be pretty useless.

I expressed a desire to go climbing more frequently to the friend with whom I climb; I climbed thrice last week, and it looks like I’m on my way to climbing thrice this week, too. Which is exciting. I still have to learn to revel in my little successes (because I don’t, but people who are ten times the climber I am do it for me - maybe because they see the progress in a big picture way, while I’m just dismayed that I wasn’t able to finish a problem - despite having done some good technical work that would’ve been beyond me even a couple of months ago… or so they tell me).

Anyway. It is a good feeling. I am beginning to feel the addictive pull of it quite a bit more. I’m still running on my non-climbing days, but I don’t derive as much pleasure from that - though I have also made strides (pun intended) there. Where a 3/4 mile rapid walk used to get me all winded and sweaty, I can now do 2 or 3 miles (depending on a variety of factors - how hungry and tired I am, if I wore heels to work that day) in the same time it used to take to do .75 miles. And I don’t get nearly as tired or winded.

Yay, progress.

I think I need to hit the stores tomorrow and buy a few new shirts for the impending milder weather. All my t-shirts have silly illustrations or sayings on them (notable shirts include: “Cocaine Blows”, “If There Was a Problem / Yo I’ll Solve It” with a picture of a calculator, “Reading is Sexy”, “Haikus Are Easy / But Sometimes They Don’t Make Sense. / Refrigerator) so I need to step it up and get some more work appropriate springtime gear.

Oh, here’s a picture of the shirts: