Petition for Cats in the Workplace

After a weekend away and a last minute climbing class tonight, I’m a tad short on time to write a full-length post.

Fortunately for me, I can rely on the fuzzy monstahs to pick up the slack…and prove that nothing beats a cardboard box for playtime.

Wylie on a box

Sami in a box

Look Who’s Certified!

I haven’t taken a test since I graduated college ten years ago...so yes, I was a little nervous for my belay test on Friday.

But in less than ten minutes, I proved my prowess in climbing knots and belay technique and was given my very own laminated, hot pink belay certificate!

After all that talking, I finally did it – yes!!

Proof!!

Belay On!

After rock climbing sporadically over the past year, my boyfriend and I finally signed up for the introductory class in order to get certified to belay. The first class was Monday night and it felt so gratifying to get one step closer to accomplishing a goal I had set for myself so many months ago!

While we picked up the knots and harness ties pretty quickly, we struggled with the commands for communicating between climber and belayer (duhr – me hold, you climb).

Fortunately, we were given a cheat sheet to take home in order to practice for our upcoming belay test and I couldn’t resist sharing them with you because the gym added a cheeky translation to each that made me giggle!

Climber says: “On belay” – I’m ready, are you?
Belayer says: “Belay on” – Yeah I’m ready, what’s up?
Climber: “Climbing” – So here I go (yikes…)
Belayer: “Climb on” – I’ll catch ya…
Climber: “Falling!” – Catch me!
Climber: “Take!” – Please hold me before I fall!
Climber: “On you?” – Can you hold me?
Belayer: “On me” – I gotcha!
Climber: “Lowering!” – Get me off this rock!
Belayer: “Lowering” – Ground floor here we come!

Detail of the “Figure 8 Follow-Through” knot

Climbing Beats Cleaning

I love to clean, but when it comes down to it there are a lot of things that I’d rather be doing.

Which is why going climbing with my sister and a friend this past Saturday beat out cleaning the office.

That sort of procrastination used to make me feel guilty, but now I’ve come to realize that it’s more important to me to take advantage of the opportunities at hand. I mean, I’ll be cleaning and organizing for the rest of my life but I doubt I’ll be rock climbing as long.

So off we went to Sport Rock to ‘monkey’ around for a few hours and try out some of their new routes:

Harder than it sounds!

See below

I loved the “Bull Dog” hold!

Going retro – nice!

Digging the alliteration

Do You Believe in Horoscopes?

I believe in horoscopes…the good parts at least.

And I want to believe in the one I found in my latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar:

“Your career is on a roll in June, despite unfounded fears that you are not up to the task…”1

Wow, how did they know that I have unfounded fears that I may not be able to handle my new business career? It’s like they’re psychic…

That means it’s got to be right. Right?

I sure hope so!

P.S. I went rock climbing for the third time yesterday!

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1 Harper’s Bazaar magazine, page 68. June/July 2010.

Plan B: Hanging Tough

Remember that cute poster of the kitten hanging from the tree branch with the motivational header “Hang In There!” underneath? Well that came to mind today when I crossed off the third item on my goals list – learn to rock climb.

Initially the plan for today was to play hooky from work and go snow tubing. Unfortunately, the recent bout of unseasonably warm weather made that impossible (global warming strikes again!).

Luckily, we had a Plan B. Which is why this afternoon I found myself taking that kitten’s advice to heart and hanging on for dear life to the side of a faux rock wall.

Initially I had felt confidence while watching the guys in our group easily make it to the top of the wall on their first attempts. This quickly turned to panic when it became my turn. It wasn’t a fear of heights that was getting to me though; it was a fear of failure. I had waited so long to rock climb that I was worried I wouldn’t be able to live up to my own expectations.

But instead of letting the worry of failure paralyze me, I let my sense of pride take over. Since there was no way I was going to let a couple of guys show me up, I quickly hauled my scrawny butt up that wall and slapped the top in victory!

The lesson learned today was that even though I ‘failed’ to make it to the top of the wall on every line we attempted, I didn’t feel one ounce of failure in myself. Instead I was proud of myself for making the attempt and taking action to do something that I’d always wanted to try.

Three down – seven to go!