Carabiners, Camp & Cantaloupe

Feb 14, 2024

∙ Paid

Rock Climbing

I first scaled a vertical rock wall when I was 8 years old during a campout at a YMCA camp with Indian Princesses. I made it to the top and got to zip line down to the ground. I was hooked but there wasn’t a rock gym near my childhood home, so it wasn’t until I went to college and had access to a rock wall in the gym that I began climbing more regularly. I climbed outside on the karst mountains in Laos every weekend I could and then covid shut down every climbing gym I knew of.

I thought that my MS diagnosis would mean that my rock climbing days were behind me and that it wouldn’t be safe for me to belay another climber if I could barely stand unaided without the weight of an adult human on the other end of the rope.

Luckily I couldn’t have been more wrong. Insert adaptive climbing! I went to a few sessions sponsored with the MS society with hoists and very supportive instructors. Now I’ve been climbing with friends a few times and use a sandbag or attach myself to the wall (as in the picture above) to help keep me stable while I’m belaying. I can’t do as much technical or advanced climbing as I used to but being back on the wall feels good.

Art + Culture

Winter Art Camp

My friend

Brianne Alcala

of the fabulous Odyssey of the Body newsletter ran her first Winter Art Camp to kick off 2024. Having a virtual community to set creative goals, work together in our Zoom studio space and respond to prompts all month really inspired me to have the most creative start to any year in recent memory or possibly ever.

Here's my list of what I able to accomplish in the past 5 weeks:

- Saw 5 stage shows (Wicked, Cabaret, Life of Pi, Cirque Du Soleil, Stranger Things) and booked in 5 more. I'm now eligible for a free companion ticket through the Access Card and am taking full advantage this year!

-Led a writing workshop at a Yoga for Menopause day retreat with great feedback! (There will be more writing workshops at the Women's Yoga and Writing Retreat in Wales 25 - 28 April.)

-Had a poem published in the Risca Museum February newsletter, attended two talks and was asked to give a talk on March 8 about famous international women from Ohio.

-Added a Thursday night fiber arts class to my Tuesday night painting class schedule. It's really tough as my hands don't work how they used to and my fine motor skills deteriorate over the hours of use, but I'm persevering!

-Established a more consistent music practice routine than I've had since college! I haven't added guitar back into the mix yet but I've been regularly playing my piano and flute.

-Signed up for February's Sing a Show with the Welsh Musical Theatre Orchestra. I'll be in the chorus on Feb. 24.

Oil-Free Plant-Based Cooking

Fruit Salad

Fruit salad

It’s so much easier to get your daily servings of fruit when it’s already cut up and ready to go. When I lived in Laos there was a big mango tree in the front garden that would produce the juiciest, most delicious fruit. I learned there are many types of mangos and people would often trade what their tree produced with their neighbors. While the winter time options at the grocery store aren’t always as plentiful as at the heights of summer, a fresh fruit medley always hits the spot.

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Carabiners, Camp & Cantaloupe

Mindful Movement

Rock Climbing

Art + Culture

Winter Art Camp

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Oil-Free Plant-Based Cooking

Fruit Salad

Fruit salad

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