summer trip to RRG, KY

It used to be that our family would travel in the fall or the spring, when temps for rock climbing were at their best— or at least their most tolerable. There would be slightly intolerable temps/weather on either side of what worked specifically for climbing. In the fall when we would travel to southwest TX, […]

long nails and a wedding ring

I bent over this morning after I got home from the coffee shop (COVID19 and I’m thankful that take-out coffee is considered a grocery item, a necessity), and my wedding ring along with a billion teeny tiny beads from the necklace that held it fell into the the carpet in my writing room, the room […]

Finding my soul’s worth on Better Eat Your Wheaties.

Energy was coiled in my belly, in the muscles of my legs and arms and gut, ready to spring as soon as I let it fly. I made the move so big this time— not wild but robust and driven. As I pressed with all my might into my feet, my right hand jettisoned past […]

Unfinished.

Rock climbers are intent on finishing routes or boulder problems successfully (read: not falling). There are specific definitions for the ways a rock climb can be “sent:” On-sight. When you successfully finish a climb having never seen it, been on it, or even talked to anyone about it. This term comes with the most prestige […]

Sometimes you have to use passive voice…

Seb is taking his test to get his actual driver’s license today. I’m not with him. Brian is a much more calming force than I am in this situation. One parent told me last night that the whole family went to their oldest son’s driving test. That is intense. The thought of us all going […]

I Wrote this for Gma McM’s Memorial Service

Grandma McMillan thought I had the most beautiful teeth. She told me all the time. In these past few years of her life when her short term memory left her, she exclaimed over my pearly whites about ten times per visit, each time with as much enthusiasm as the first as if she had just […]

strange feelings while watching Stranger Things with my kid

    Oren and I have been rewatching some of Stranger Things together, though we have seen all three seasons. We started a couple of weeks ago with the last episodes of Season 1. Then the other night we started watching Season 2 about half way through. And now we’re watching all of Season 3 again. […]

whether the weather

I find myself constantly checking the weather. The first few years of my climbing career, Brian and I climbed outside every weekend regardless of weather; nevertheless, we checked the forecast multiple times daily between weekends just to know what we were in-for. A fifty-percent chance of rain could mean that there was a fifty-fifty chance […]

Too far!

A mom and her young kids just walked past the house. The kids were on scooters and the mom was walking with them. One of the kids got a little bit too far away from her so she called him back, “That’s too far!” Yesterday Seb started driving. My young boy is now 16 and […]

Consume.

Six months before my 100 year old grandmother died, she stopped wanting to eat. She didn’t stop eating. She still ate. She grew up in an orphanage in Poland, and there was a certain duty around eating and cleaning and making beds. She stopped wanting to eat. Working from home, my whole routine revolves around […]