Far Out Son of Lung...

A long weekend

Thursday after work I went to Whole Earth Provisions looking for some new climbing shoes. I had my eye on the Mad Rock Hookers because I think they are interesting, though I'm sure I have no use for them in reality. Didn't matter, they were neat-o.

I walked in, found the shoes and started getting help from a rock gal that obviously knew her gear. We talked about the type of climbing I was doing, the type of climbing I was planning on doing and things like that... She helped me determine that, in fact, I didn't need new shoes so much as just a better technique and some help getting there. We talked about climbing, indoor and out, and before long I decided I'd better figure out a way to stay in touch with her. Hey, she's cute! So I gave her my business card, added my cell number and home email and waited...

Thursday night was our company Xmas party. I spent most of the evening chatting with Kim & Terri before going to Boston's for some dinner and drinks with Leighton, Leighton's g/f (who's name now escapes me), Derek and Derek's g/f Katherine (or is it Kathleen?). At any rate, they were cool and we just spent the evening BSing until it was time to clear out.

I got home and popped open email to find a message from rock gal from Whole Earth! Interesting development, and she was looking to go climbing together when the opportunity presented itself. She goes to Austin a lot for outdoor, which is awesome, but also climbs indoor at Summit.

Friday night I went to Stoneworks for more bouldering and traversing work. My ankle is loosening up nicely and I'm building strength and confidence with every visit. It didn't help that I was the only person there aside from resident employee Ryan, but it was a good time I enjoyed burning my Friday night there. I had spoken with my girl friday earlier in the evening as well and we might maybe go to the next Cirque performance in March if we can make ourselves part with the steep ticket price. Its only in town for two days so tickets are not cheap. Would be worth it though.

Saturday I was back at Stoneworks after doing laundry in the morning. Ran into a number of people I've met at the gym bt don't really know from Adam, along with Mark, Blake and the other regulars/employees. Saturday night Mark was throwing a house party for climbers and such at his house down on the M Streets. I ran down there around 9 pm and was pleasantly surprised to see rock gal there a little later with her climbing parter.

We BS'd a little and ended up doing some people watching from the couch late in the evening. She and Steve invited me to go climbing with them Sunday at Summit, and we parted the party around midnight.

Rolled out of bed early on Sunday and headed for the rock gym to meet upu with rock gal, her regular climbing partner and another friend of theirs. We spent the early afternoon scaling routes and I recieved a lot of great advice, tips and encouragement from rock gal throughout the day. It really boosted my confidence and helped me conquer a route that I normally would have had trouble finishing. I felt great mentally but my elbow was acting up again. It started aching Friday night and I ignored it, hurt a little Saturday and I figured it was a little over use... but Sunday it was just getting to be bad news. Discretion was the better part of valor and I decided to just catch rock gal and her partner for the last few climbs rather than aggrivate the injury and make it worse.

On a whim, I asked rock gal to join Mike, Katherine, Christi and I for dinner before they went to the DMA's Xmas concert. She agreed, I was surprised, and after a few phone calls and negotiating parts of town we decided to meet at Cuba Libre (of all places) for dinner. Met up around 6:15pm, had dinner and parted company with the concert goers. Rock gal and I then headed to Trinity Hall for a night cap and couple more hours of conversation about this that and the other thing. She's easy to talk to and personable, has a quirky engineer's personality and things went off great.

Monday night I met up with Lee for a cup of Chai, then met with girl friday at the Galleria for some Xmas shopping. We had a great time pal-ing around the mall, BSing and catching up since I hadn't seen her in about a month. We've been keeping up on the phone, but this was better. In the end she got some shopping done, we'd burned a few hours and forgot to talk about Cirque! I can't tell what's going on exactly, but I suppose it doesn't matter. She's a great friend, but deep down I guess I'm still attracted to her. This is the first time we'd seen each other since our date and it has been a little difficult for me to comprehend what she's told me and what she's been doing in the meantime in regard to what her angle is... She wasn't especially flirtatious last night, but I don't know... some things struck me at the time and I just wasn't sure. In the end I gave her a hug and we parted company, then gave her a call (which was probably a bad idea) and got VM.

Anyway, that's the gist of my weekend, and my current state of confusion.

posted by GreSam @ 23:05