Why, good morning officer!

Amusing story to tell of my urban camping experience last night.

So I decided to sleep in my car in a parking lot on campus, near my lab (see previous post). I had my crashpad laid out in the back, and went to sleep at around midnight.

An hour later, I wake up to the sound of someone knocking on the glass and a flashlight being shined into the car. First rousing thought: "oh crap, the rangers have found me bandit camping!". Then as the adrenaline hit and I was becoming more mentally alert, I realized "wait a sec... I paid to be in this campsite tonight!". Then the wakeful thoughts really hit and I realized that the person knocking on my window was saying "... police. open the door slowly".

so I opened the door and it was like being in L.A. all over again. Flashlight in my face to keep me blinded, hands always out in the open, slowly move to get things, let the cop take my bag and not me to reach in and grab my stuff. I knew the routine pretty well. I acted pretty non-chalant (wise or not wise?) as I tried to mumble out a coherent explanation as to why there was a 28 year old asian sleepin in his car in a dark corner of the parking lot on a university campus.

Eventually two more cops showed up (I guess they need backup to handle a lone shoeless asian climber in loose fitting clothes. News flash: not all Asians know kung-fu!). They took my id, ran a background check on me and my car, searched me as my hands were held behind me (I was hoping I'd get handcuffed just to make this story more exciting!), and sat on the curb of the lot as they searched my car. I made the mistake of telling them there was a camping knife in the car when they asked if I had a weapon... oh well. They found the little 2 cm multi-tool knife and looked almost like I was playing a joke with them ("dude - that is not a weapon!!!").

I gave them my story too - I was a moron and lost my keys. Everyone was asleep at midnight so I decided to come to campus and sleep where I had access to my lab for bathroom, heat and water. I live a few blocks away. Yes, I work on campus. No, I don't know kung-fu.

I started chattnig with the "backup" cops - I was telling them I was a climber and decided to use the gera that I still hadn't cleaned out from my car to sleep with tonight. I think it helped that my climbing guide books were still out and my car keys were attached to a 31 kN locking carabiner. I was asking if this would be reported in the school newspaper - I'd love to see mention of this nigth in the paper!!! The cops were a little confused and hopefully amused at my attitude.

All in all, they "allowed" me to sleep in my car as long as I moved it to a less supsicous, brightly lit area for the night. Polite, but whatever. Thanks for the excitement... next time, show up when I need to go to work and not in the middle of the night.

Speaking of, it got too cold at night so I decidded to go to work early for the warmth. Early = 4 am. yeah. It got *that* cold at night.

Home is where the car is

Ooops - I did it again: I lost my keys and have been locked out of my house. Send help. I am found sleeping in my car on campus. Have a carton of gatorade and a vending machine nearby. Will become fat and useless if help doesn't arrive soon.

I actually love these moments b/c they test my ability to just deal with situations that I can't escape from. I'm locked out of my home so instead of whining about it and getting upset, I decided to do something about it. First thing was first: my bladder was full. Time to go either find a bush (that was my outdoor side's suggestion) or find a restroom (that was my civilized side's suggsetion). I opted for restroom tonight. I'll liten to the outdoor side if things get desperate.

So I decided to drive to my lab where there was some work that should be done. I gained access to the building, fed the urinal, started some processes, updated my blog and I'm about to walk back to my car and take a nice long "nap" on my comfy crashpad - which I might add, is *exacty* the length and width of the trunk space of my subaru station wagon when the back seats are down. Gotta love serdipidity.

So tomorrow, I'm going to have to get up early, but *another* parking pass for the day and go into work early before someone calls security for a creepy asian guy sleeping in his car on a giant "mattress" (that's what non-climbers seem to call my crashpad...). Oh well, the way I see it: I'm doing some urban camping!!!

young lusty climbing

Past weekend climbing report: one day trip to jtree with Johnnie, and only Johnnie. Fun little outing out that way - it was the first time she and I as a couple would take a trip together for camping / climbing with just the two of us. We tried inviting others to come along, but people either couldn't make it... or wouldn't make it. Oh well - romantic weekend!!!! (read: two people getting dirty, sweaty, cursing, cut up, pained, scared, concerned and otherwise tormented outdoors in the sun)

We both leisurely started our day with "Dappled Mare" - a 5.8 3 pitch climb on Lost Horse Wall. Johnnie had never done multipitch before and it was about time she got to see why all the communication, and climbing anchors were so important on something so committing as a 400' climb.

For the most part, the climbing went well. I took a lead fall on the first 5' of climbing (a humbling experience!). I forgot how committing that first move can be. The next 200' was pretty cake - some fumbling on my part about where to place the belay stations, but whatever. The last 200 ' was the funniest part of the route.

About 100' above where Johnnie was belaying me from a stony little perch, I pulled a little bulge and stepped out onto a more positive angled slope. I allowed my gaze to follow the crack in the stone before me higher and higher - 5', 10' 20'... 20' and my gaze stopped. Where's the crack?? "Shit - I didn't sign up to do any slab climbing! Damnit - I hate it when this happens!". Little did I realize that 100' below me, Johnnie heard my cursed mutterings and started to laugh. At least I was entertaining someone with my anxiety...

So I placed gear as well as I could, climbed past the 10 or 15' of slab, climbed through another crack to another slabby section. I looked down at my gear - 2 more runners that I could use to clip the rope into whatever protection I could place into the rock. I gazed up and noticed that there was probably about 30' of climbing or so - 15' of easy climbing to a vertical crack with possibly some last minute harder climbing. I decided to save my gear, climb past the easy section, protect the bottom of the crack and then protect the top of the crack before topping out and building my anchor. 15' of climbing later, I found myself at the bottom of the veritcal crack where I hastily placed a stopper and attached it to my climbing rope. "Just like I thought - a few moves of harder climbing and I'm done. Should be homefree" I thought. The tense moment came when just as I in the midst of a particularly tricky movement in this vertical crack, the protection I just placed popped out and slide down about 20' to my previous piece. "Shit!" I muttered (once again, Johnnie heard me from nearly 200' down and braced herself. Later she would tell me that she thought a) either I'm not actually falling or b) I was falling so far she hadn't felt the force of my fall after several seconds... not a particularly pleasant thought...). I knew I couldn't think too hard aobut my predicament, so I pulled the moves, found a solid stance, and set my last piece of protection into the rock wall in with a hard tug. Looking down, I realized that if I blew the moves, I was looking at a 40+ ft fall, hitting some slopey ledges on the way down... good thing I didn't mess up!

After building the anchor, I call for johnnie to follow up the route. I made sure, for humor purposes, to point out the 20' of runout and the potential 40' fall where I cursed. All she could do was look up at me, look at the potential fall, look back and slightly glare at me as she sternly told me "tell me these things AFTER I'm done with the climb". I thought it was funny. :) then again, I'm pretty dark that way.

After lunch, she and I made our way to Rock Garden Valley where I lead a multi starred 5.9 climb and then decided to top rope a 5.10c with a few stars that shared the same bolted anchor. We both loved the climbs out there and decided that since our light was failing, we'd have to come back out that way again. The funniest part of the day came when Johnnie looked up the names of the climbs as we drove home - she giggled and quickly slammed the guidebook shut. "What is it?" I asked. "Do you KNOW the names of those routes we just climbed?". "No - what are they?" I asked. "5.9: Young Lust. 5.10c: Lewd and Lascivious Conduct". I found the situation highly amusing - Johnnie and I on our first couple's weekend to joshua tree and we end the day getting on some Young Lust and following it up by doing Lewd and Lascivious Conduct. Hee hee...

Utensil math

if: fork + spoon = spork
then does: spork - spoon = fork? or just three really really skinny sticks of metal coming to a handle???

if chopsticks = two sticks
then does: 2 knives = chopsticks - a tongue - lips?

forgot to mention...

If I'm reduced to a pile of smoldering ashes by north korean nuclear weapons, Eitetsu gets my xbox.

That is all.

The Dark Side of the Force clouds our vision, it does...

I'm leaving for Japan in a few weeks to meet up with my sister and travel around Japan. It's pretty cool, I'd say 'cept for the fact that NOTHING is planned and my sister has already left for Japan. Hmm... looks like I need to sit my butt down and figure out what I'm seeing and where I'm going.

What concerns me more are the recent developments in North Korea. Them attacking the US = possible but unlikely. Especially with the potential range of their missiles. But what's more likely (if they get hostile) is a first strike on Japan. Yup. That's where I'll be. Japan.

Makes sense as a military target - two U.S. military bases that can be used as a staging area for any incursions into North Korea. Close ally to the U.S. Not to mention they're kinda peeved about Japan trying to take over the world with the chinpokemon scheme (see South Park episode). So umm... if all out war starts while I'm out there: 1) Johnnie gets my gear 2) hope that I come back with mutant climbing powers 3) Don't be surprised if I come back as a ghostly apparation of the Force to tell you of a long lost sister ("damn it, it's obi again - somebody call the ghostbusters. I don't need another sister!!!")

funny ha ha man

http://myspace.com/markday

and he has a funny accent to boot. If that's not comedy, I don't know what is.

relaxing = boring

I'm in san diego this weekend to catch up on chores and such and general relax.

However: I'm bored. How do most people do this? I'm half tempted in going into work this afternoon 'cause that's fun.

Oh dear - I'm turning into my dad!!!!

Over the ocean and through the air, to grandmother's house we go...

Looks like I'm headed out to Japan for a week and a half in mid November. Should be exciting to fly over the pacific ocean, head into one of the most bizarre / wacky countries known to man and screw with the minds of the Japanese (that guy over there with the big forearms... is he japanese? or American? he speaks Japanese but his vocabulary is that of a retarded gaijin! I don't get it...).

To be honest, I'm not thoroughly excited yet. I'm going over there after a microscopy conference for work and meeting up with my sister to travel a bit. Should be fun, but I'm so busy lately that I don't want to plan the logistics. And that's no good. I'd rather not sleep on train platforms and eat ramen b/c I didn't figure the logistics out. that'd be bad. Like cold wet socks. Yeah.

I'm sure it'll hit me and I'll find the trip really fun. But till then, I'm going to run around San Diego like a chicken with his head cut off. And once someone glues that head back on, then I'll plan the logistics.

Anyone got any suggestions? Kinda sick of seeing Tokyo... want to see some place else like Nara or Hiroshima.

it's like rain. In the sierras. without a rain jacket.

I don't know why but my shower refuses to put out hot water. It's like the hot water has been cut off from the boiler. It's 12 am and I refuse to go check it out - instead, like the lazy person that I am, I've decided to practice not minding cold, pelting droplets of water on my frame and jumped into the shower regardless.

Did I mention it's COLD? Yeah. This is why I check the weather before going outdoors. My nipples were perky. They don't like being that way. My shower was quick.

I suspect my landlady has shut off the hot water in order to do some more rennovations or "cleaning". I think she forgets that unlike Florida, California water is not naturally heated through the god awful heat and humidity even in the middle of the night. grrr...

Jtree season comes early

Back from yet another weekend at Jtree. Yes - that's three weekends in a row. Yes, the climbing was good. Yes I love it that much. Yes - the season has come early.

**Warning: long blog ahead **

So after frantically scrambing for a partner this week, I headed out for jtree friday night with Tina. Who is she? That's exactly what I wanted to know for this weekend - all I knew was that she's an undergrad with yosemite trad climbing experience. Chatted with her for a few minutes waiting for some free hot dogs one day outside the climbing gym (a sign she's a climber - or a student... or both - free food!!!!) and she seemed cool enough. Since Johnnie was going to LA for ballet with Dan, Dan was going to ballet with Johnnie, Robb was in Davis, Larry was busy with "work" (seems work always entails riding his motorcycle... but whatever...), Tina was next logical person to climb with :)

So anyways, we drive out to Jtree in the middle of friday night and arrive to the entire park being PACKED. Crapstix. It's a 3 day weekend for people who think that Columbus was awesome for getting lost ("look guys! India!" "no sir, this is not India" "well... I discovered america then!" "dude - you took us to the carribean islands - you didn't even hit the friggin continent!"). Anyways, I pulled the ol' "hello, take pity on a pair of sad sad climbers. Can we sleep at the edge of your campsite friendly sirs-and-ladies?". The people we found were really nice - they were setting up their tent at 11 pm and said they didn't mind having a coupld people sleeping by the cars. Good thing too - I don't think Tina would have enjoyed me using plan B: "hello, take pity on a pair of sad climbers. Would you like to have an attractive young lady and her climbing partner sleep in your campsite with you guys?".

So anyways, since my thermarest is out for repairs, I brought my MONDO crashpad. yes - it's as big as a mattress. He he he - perfect for car camping! pulled out my sleeping bag and went straight to sleep.

I woke up in the mornng feeling a bit chilly. "Odd" I thought... I'm in a 0 degree bag. I opened up my bag, sat up, sleepily looked all around me and realized that I had a layer of FROST on me. I looked carefully at my crashpad next and realized that there, before me, lay a perfect outline of my sleeping bag IN FROST. Hmm... guess it got below freezing. Tina was a "little" cold <---- extreme understatement.

So we both got up, ate a quick meal by the car and noticed that the neighboring campsite was being packed up. Delighted by the sight, I talked to the people in the sight and confirmed they were leaving. After getting their permission, I left behind a 7 gallon water jug on the firepit to mark the site as "taken" and headed out for Hemmingway Buttress.

I had assumed the day would quickly warm up - afterall, last weekend it was so hot I was climbing shirtless IN THE SHADE. Hemmingway is mostly shady during the day. Man, I was soooo wrong.

Climbing that day, we had an extra incentive to get to the top quickly - a reward from God if you will. the entire wall was in the shade after 10 am - Tina and I were typically cold if we stopped climbing. But at the top, we could bask in the warm glow of the sun. And that was how the day went: freeze, climb, bask and re-warm our extremities, loathingly do a rappel and repeat. At least the climbs were fun enough to motivate us.

So for my climbing friends - what did we climb? We did White Lightning, Feltonean Physics, Overseer, Prepackaged, and the Importance of Being Ernest. With the exception of the Importance of Being Ernest, I lead all routes. I was able to onsight I.B.E. - jtree 10c/d! woo hoo! I also had an epiphany - the moves on this route roughly did feel like a V1 black mtn problem. The thought gave me a warm and encouraging feeling that this season I'll be able to lead harder and harder routes than ever before (either that or it was the sun hitting my back as I sat on the top of the wall...).

When we returned back to camp to rest and recoop, we discovered that the site we marked was snaked out from under us. A large tent, bundles of firewood and "stuff" littered the area. With my water jug as the central piece to their "stuff". Crapstixxxxxxxx!!! I was half expecting this to happen - locals and regulars know that things like firewood, water jugs, etc that is left behind marks a site as "taken", but with the influx of non-regulars in the Park this was bound to happen. Forutnately, I talked to the people whose site we stayed in the night prior and they were more than happy to give us one of the 3 sites they were staying in.

Now here's another milestone for me besides having climbed strong that day - I was confrontational with the people who snaked our site. When i saw them return, a small rag-tag motley crew of 20 something year olds (probably up to no good that day snaking others' sites!!!! yar!), I glared at them as they noticed the water jug was missing and moved to the table Tina and I were eating at. Then I walked up over to them, greeted them, and introduced myself as the guy who used to have the campsite they were staying in. Seriously - I just went up to them and said "good evening. So, you know that this site was already taken? That's what things like water jugs or firewood usually means around here. Yes I know you thought it was empty - fortunately, those people over there were nice enough to give us a site so no worries this time around. Just let it be known for next time. Good night". I never act so confrontational but something in me decided that I didn't want to act timid (especially after leading my first .10a of the season that day with no effort). 'Sides, it's better if people knew how etiquette worked around jtree.

So after a less-freezing night of sleep (didn't dip below freezing that night), Tina and I packed camp and went to Hidden Valley Campground. Tina was feeling intimidated by the jtree ratings / climbs despite having some Yosemite experience (I guess Jtree is rated harder than Yosemite... strange considering it's the same people putting up the first ascents...), and wanted a nice lead to challenge her for the weekend. I put her on the Bong - a standard Jtree 5.6 climb to be lead by novices to the Park / leading. She cruised it with only 3 pieces (she warned me she might free-solo it... kind of a strange comment considering she said she wanted to "lead" something...) placed.

Sated with the leading, we walked over to Hands Off in HVCG where it was significantly sunnier (and warmer!). I racked up and lead it. what was it rated again? oh yeah 5.awkwardly-fun!!! Really strange moves with technical footwork - after crusing up all the leads the previous day, it felt strange for me to doubt myself on a single 5.8 climb - but I was glad I protected it in the places that I did - I was reading some posts online about the climb and apparently a couple of people have had shattered ankles from not taking the climb seriously.

We broke for lunch and I discovered that Tina's shoulder "popped" out the previous day on White lightning and had been bothering her. After hearing this, I realized it was time to come home... which is where you find me now. Home. typing. at my comptuer. The end.

Woo hoo!

Two special deliveries in one day!

Got a call from REI - my new Mondo Crashpad has come in to be picked up. He hehehe

Johnnie's gift, which was special ordered after a quest (think epic quest along the lines of Lord of the Rings, or the Holy Grail or even - dare I say it - looking for that perfect jug 40' past your last cam standing on rattly holds) has come in. I'm stoked.

They say that joy and happiness keeps you healthy. If so, I should be perfect by tomorrow! woo hoo!

Recoop

Ugh. Sick. Throat: sore. ugh.

I guess I was asking for it, hangin out with sick people to the left of me, to the right of me, above and below me (sucks to be a climber - people are in 3 dimensional space...)

Oh well. It's a bit of sore throat and a subtle headache. I should be fine by tmoorrow if I take today easy. But kinda sucks - I was looking forward to bragging rights about being able to escape unscathed through this bout of cold season.

Do I get a 2nd place ribbon instead???