The Adventures of Kinky Reggae: A Vagabond for Beauty

"Once more I am roaring drunk with the lust of life and adventure and unbearable beauty." -Everett Ruess Tomorrow I leave for FreezeFeet, a gathering of canyoneers in North Wash, Utah. When Jason and I were saying goodbye this summer, he was like, "It's just four months. It will go by quickly." That was definitely not the case! I am seriously questioning my sanity at this point, because it is going to be COLD. Like, in the single digits at night. I am thankful for my friend Ray, who lent me his military sleeping gear. I am also worried about my Phoenician friends! Anyway, I am SO ready to get back in the canyons. I'm going to rock Middle Leprechaun on this trip, the canyon that has 1.5 miles of sustained stemming. And you know what else is cool? I'm always down on myself, thinking that I'm not a real canyoneer, that I'm not a real runner. But some of the people joining us at Freezefest are people who have never done Utah canyons before. An

I went to a presentation on Saturday morning to hear about some vacation club. The deal was that, if I sat through their 90 min presentation, I'd get two free plane tickets to anywhere in the continental U.S. They had us all in a group for most of it, then assigned us to individual sales people to close the deal. Here's how the conversation with my guy went: "So, Erin, where was the last place you vacationed?" "Utah." "Oh, you're a skier?" "No, I'm a canyoneer." Blank look, but recovers quickly. "Sounds great! So, let's go through a scenario to show you just how much money we can save you. If you were going to take your dream vacation, where would you go?" "Iceland." (I promise you I was not trying to be a smart ass. This was an honest answer.) "Okay... Well, I don't think we have any properties there right now... Anywhere else you have in mind?" "Um... New Zealand, I gu

Sometimes it feels like life is totally kicking your ass.  That's about where I'm at right now. It's December.  I hate December.  I got off easy last year, and this year's making up for it.   There is one thing that is consistently good right now, and that is work.  So I am going to write about that. I am on the School Leadership Team.  We had a meeting the other day, and the teachers started teasing my about my obsession with data and my stalkerish tendencies.  It is true that, once I arrive at work, I have trouble remembering social conventions and have to remind myself to say "good morning" before jumping into a conversation about data.  The ladies started teasing me about following them to the parking lot, waiting for them outside the bathroom, etc.   So I decided to live up to their expectations.  I recruited my friend Donna to help with a prank at lunchtime.  I copied tons of progress monitoring graphs, and we went out to the parking lot and stuc

I totally have a thing for mason jars... Gotta have at least a few mason jar gifts every year.   For Christmas this year, I made Rachel and Mico "Date Night in a Jar."  I decorated a mason jar with leftover valentine stuff and filled it with popsicle sticks with date night ideas.  White ones are free or almost free, pink ones cost money.   Here's a list of the dates I included.  I wanted to keep this list so I could reuse it for wedding gifts.  (Although this list is somewhat personalized for Rachel and Mico... They are brilliant in the kitchen and very artsy.) Free/almost free dates: Choose a nearby town to explore.  Bring your camera! 1,000 piece puzzle Spend an evening playing (harmless!) pranks on your friends.  End the night with your favorite funny movie/stand-up comedian. Write and/or discuss your bucket list.  Make plans to accomplish some of the items. Play a board game. (Strip?) Watch a sunrise or a sunset Bake treats and ding dong ditch your friends Mak

Kristin and Jason have a friend named Adam.  He does lots of canyons with them; he and Kristin have become really close friends.  I have been hearing and hearing about Adam, but somehow, I have never met him. Well, Adam is going to be at FreezeFest.  And we are going to be friends.  I hope he's okay with that, because he doesn't really have a choice.  It's happening.   I made gifts for Kristin and Jason, and I thought, "Gosh, I don't want Adam to feel left out!"  So I started brainstorming inexpensive gifts I could make for a guy I've never met.   Thank goodness for Pinterest.  What did we do without it?  I found an idea for DIY Fire Starter Wafers.  All you have to do is get those round cotton pads at the dollar store and dip them in melted wax.  Easy, cheap, and perfect since the one thing I know about Adam is that he loves canyoneering (which means he does a lot of camping).   I went to the dollar store tonight and was confused by the lab

... till I'm back in my happy place. I love that grin on Kristin's face.  How could we be anything but happy?  We're in a canyon.

I started half marathon training yesterday.  I am thinking of doing the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Nashville in April.  I still have moments where I'm like, "What the heck am I thinking?  I can NOT run a half marathon!"  But then I'm like, I might as well start training and just see what happens.  I'm also kind of surprised that I'm out running in the cold, and that I actually don't mind it that much!  30's are okay, but we'll see what happens when it gets in the 20's...   I had a panic attack last night, and I was SO mad.  Because I'm not even that stressed about anything right now!  At least, I didn't think I was.  Kristin and I were texting about this guy we know who is such a tool, and then I tried to go to bed, and I noticed my heart was racing, and I thought, "Are you f-ing kidding me?"  and within a couple minutes, it felt like someone was squeezing my lungs and I was hyperventilating.  So it was actually kind of

(Just realized I never blogged about my last two canyons of the summer.) This was a canyon of firsts for me- first canyon without Kristin and first time rappelling waterfalls! (Dropping into the canyon) It was weird to do a canyon without Kristin.  I missed her.  I especially missed her willingness to be chatty with me.  And, when she gets far ahead, she stops to glance back at me and make sure I'm all right.  I missed those little glances! I did Christopher Creek with Jason and Dan.  This was the second canyon I'd done with Dan; I met him and Jason in Waterslides last spring break.  He's such a great guy!  When we met Dan and Jason, I told Kristin, "You need to do more canyons with these guys.  They are good people!"  I'm so glad they became close friends! The day started with Dan and Jason freaking out that I hadn't changed my oil since I'd left Chicago.  They insisted that I add some oil.  They patiently showed me how to check my oil, ho

Thanksgiving 2012 did not get off to a good start.   On Wednesday, my brother posted some stuff on Facebook complaining about our family.  From what I could ascertain, his main complaints were that we don't eat Mexican food for Thanksgiving dinner and we don't drink enough.   He listed specific complaints about each member of our family, seemingly not considering the fact that HE IS FRIENDS WITH OUR FAMILY MEMBERS ON FACEBOOK.  When my cousin texted me about it, I just about died of embarrassment.   Not to mention that I was insulted by his comment about me being in "awkward family mode."  I'm not exactly sure what this was in reference to, but it made me remember all those Thanksgivings when I was younger where I wanted everyone to say what they were thankful for, or make cute place cards or decorations, and everyone would make fun of me except my grandma, who always had my back.  My grandma and I were BFF's.  This was the first year she couldn't co

I hung out with a friend of mine last night whom I haven't seen in a couple months.  She had the most amazing story to tell, and I just have to share it here because I am a sucker for romance.   My friend met a guy on a dating website who lived a few hours away from Washington D.C.  They had an online romance, and he asked her to come visit him.   So she did.   And he blew her off. And she found out he was seeing another girl. My friend was devastated.  But then she gave herself a pep talk.  "You are a strong, confident woman," she told herself, and set off to explore the city of D.C. on her own.   While visiting one of the monuments, she started chatting with a park ranger.  They had a really long, wonderful conversation.  As she walked away, she thought, "Why didn't I give him my number???"  She came up with some silly question to go back and ask him, and gave him her name and number. He called.   They went out.   He took her on a "b

At any given moment, if you ask me what I am thinking about, it's most likely one of four things: 1. Boys 2. Running 3. Canyons 4. Teaching I'm especially obsessed with running since it's new and I have such a love/hate relationship with it.  So I started another blog so I'd have a place to obsess over running: www.superslowrunner.blogspot.com .  It's nothing fancy, and I'm still not trying to be a writer or anything.  Just thought I'd share it since I know some of my friends have started running, too.  

Friday night was completely ridiculous and so much fun. It started with Hannah's birthday party at Lincoln Karaoke.  This place was way up on the northwest side (not sure what neighborhood).  It looks like kind of a shady little nondescript place, and you walk in and it's like a tiny hotel with a bunch of private rooms.  Our karaoke room reminded me of the inside of a limo- long and narrow, with couches along the walls, big screen tvs on the walls, and disco balls.  The binder of song selections contained many different languages.  You could choose what kind of background you wanted on the tvs, so someone put on the naked women channel.  Whitney was puzzled as to why these women kept pouring milk all over themselves... It was an interesting background as Hannah screamed along with Rage Against the Machine.  Oh, and they had light-up tambourines.  Sweet.   The best part was the people.  You have to have just the right crowd for karaoke to work, and Hannah and her friends wer

One of the things I love most about my job is that there is always the potential for awesomeness to happen at any given moment. Today I was about to do a fairly mundane task with my 2nd graders, a routine way for them to practice digraphs. They aren't totally bored with it yet, but I am.   And all of a sudden, I was inspired by Mary Poppins.   "You know what, friends?  We're going to do this a little differently today.  Because... in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.  You find the fun, and SNAP! The job's a game!"   And I sure did burst into song as I gathered materials for a game I made up on the spot.   Sadly, none of the kids got the reference or understood what the song meant.  Metaphors are beyond them, and I realized some of the vocabulary in that song is a little advanced.  But they were captivated from the moment I went into Mary Poppins mode.  They loved that their teacher was singing and that they got to play a game.  

I think it's going to turn into family photo week since I found so many gems while working on our Christmas gift... Andy is one of the funniest people I know.  He always has been.  A typical family dinner would involve Andy doing a stand-up comedy routine, me laughing hysterically, and my parents asking us to leave the table.   I've gotten a few comments about the Easter picture in the last post, and I didn't even realize how funny that picture was.  Because Andy was ALWAYS doing something ridiculous; my parents despaired of ever getting a picture with both of us smiling nicely.   First day of school: Easter: Christmas: I LOVE this picture (well, except for my too-short bangs).  The look on Andy's face is priceless!  He used to be painfully shy, which you'd never believe if you met him now.  He looks ready to bolt at any moment in this picture.  And notice, I'm not holding his hand; I've got him by the wrist.  I have no memory of t

Today I spent several hours going through family photos for a Christmas gift I'm working on.  The more I looked, the more I felt overcome with gratitude for the childhood I had.  It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was full of things every kid should experience. We had fun, simple birthday parties (Remember when birthday parties meant wearing a fancy party dress?  And check out that She-ra tablecloth!) with amazing cakes. I loved Easter Sunday because I got to wear an Easter bonnet. We played in the leaves and on the monkey bars (on the swingset my dad built). We had some pretty cool stuff, like this bed tent I would put up every Easter to protect myself from the Easter bunny, who creeped me out.   And this record player that read me Disney books, my Muppet sheets, and the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls my grandma made me. We wore overalls, and our moms took pictures of us on the first day of school.  (This is kinder

Before the race last week, I said I was never ever ever ever doing this again.  Ever.  Two days later, I signed up for this 10k.  Why?  I have a few reasons: 1. Jason once told me that I freak out in the canyons more than anyone he's ever seen.  But he said what makes me a badass is that I'll still do whatever he throws at me.  (And those assholes like to downclimb things that should be rappelled, so I end up doing some pretty crazy stuff.)  I just thought it would be kind of badass to do a 5k one weekend and a 10k the next.  Especially when it's something that scares me and I'm new at. 2. I felt guilty celebrating a 5k when I knew I could do more.  3. I thought it would be fun to surprise some of my friends.  I didn't tell anyone except for Nina and Whitney.  Oh, and my first graders.  Who said, "You're running a race?  I hope you win!"  Love it.   4. The 5k was actually kind of fun; I liked the feeling of crossing the finish li