Oh my Spleen!
My life has taken a somewhat less-than-adventurous turn of late, mainly because I’m short one functional ankle. You’d be amazed if you’ve never experienced it, how significant one ankle can be when you don’t have it anymore! Actually it’s still there, packed into a large black boot and healing as quickly as it can (I hope) from surgery. It’s been broken for almost two years I found out! Not a huge surprise because it FELT like it was broken for two years, ever since I bailed off a climb and thoroughly smashed it. I’d probably be a fantastic climber if it weren’t for gravity! So to finally have the surgery and the glimmer of hope that the surgery would do some good, was a huge blessing! I was also relieved to hear that I didn’t emerge from the operating room the miserable mess I was after knee surgery. After that I didn’t wake up for hours and all I could do when I did was cry- I just laid there in my fuzzy headed cocoon and bawled like a baby. This time at least I was entertaining. You could hear me all the way down the hall, singing songs from I Love Lucy, and laughing at just about everything. Every time the oxygen machine next to my bed beeped at me I beeped back and burst into the giggles. The good news is, I’m off crutches now (hooray!) and my ankle has shrunk down to near normal proportions. That’s progress! The hardest part has been not climbing for over a month!
In honor of my broken ankle I thought I'd include my good friend Emma's guide to lead climbing in three easy steps:
1. assemble all your gear and pick a route that is 4-6 grades below your top-roping abilities
2. place your hands on the first holds and try to move to the first bolt
3. then you cry and you cry until the valley fills with your tears so that you can swim to the first bolt
repeat the second and third step until you reach the chains
HAHAHhahahahaha! Sigh. I laugh every time I read that. :D
Big Eyed Women
The good news is I’ve had lots to keep me busy in the meantime, so I don’t turn into a complete downer. Por exemplo I had a couple paintings in an art show in Salt Lake this month, and it was so much fun! The title of the show was Big Eyed Women, and included work from about a dozen women artists from Utah. The opening was a huge success, we had loads of people there, and I think the show came together really well. The gallery, Art Access, is a pretty groovy little space, and I’m excited to be in their upcoming fundraising show.
Here's some pics of the opening. I had the chance to talk to alot of people about my art, which was super fun. Although my sister-in-law doesn't look to excited about this picture :)
And I got to hang out with some of my artist friends who I haven't seen since we graduated!
You can see my two paintings in the background here- the pinkish one and the tall one in the middle. I have no idea who that couple in the foreground is. I can't tell if they're just really happy to be looking at the amazing art, or snickering because they ate all the treats...
And here's me and Hayley. A better friend than Hayley, you'll never find. And I love that we got to exhibit together. Our paintings even ended up right next to each other which was fun. I find her art quite amusing and inventive.
TALE OF TWO CITIES
And as a final aside I have to add my review of A Tale of Two Cities, put on by the Hale Center Theatre. I was a bit wary of attending a musical version of what I consider to be one of the greatest novels in all of classic literature! I do love musicals, and I love the story. But a bad musical can completely ruin a good story sometimes. I'm happy to report they did a fantastic job! It was so fun and so interesting to see what parts of the story they decided to focus on, and how they interpreted the characters. I left the theater drying my eyes, wishing I could be as kind as Lucie Manette, and as heroic as Sydney Carton. If you've never read the book, READ it! and if you haven't seen the production, SEE IT!
