Days of Future Past

So it always seems around this time in the semester I start to anticipate upcoming travels more intensely, as the daily grind of school, studying, biking around town, and wasting money on overpriced coffee is starting to wear a little thin on my patience. Not having job this semester outside school is a little weird for me, but it's probably for the best, giving more time to focus on school and graduating, as well as climb/ski. [more importantly!!]. This past weekend was great; after the recent early-season blizzard and getting a little cabin fever from being restricted to flailing on plastic with the gym rats, it was great to get outside again. Friday I went down to Clear Creek Canyon with my friend Alex whom I hadn't climbed with in a while which was fantastic; we climbed at a new sport crag called 'The Canal Zone' which has a dozen or so well-bolted and interesting sport routes in the 5.7 to 5.11 range, with a great gear route as well; a beautiful Eldo-esque hand crack in a corner. I flashed a supposed 5.11c [with my height advantage felt more like 10d; one more wonder.], anyways, despite it being an over-graded 1-move wonder, I was pretty psyched. Saturday I slept in until noon after being out in Denver pretty late Friday night, which was AWESOME, seems it's so rare I get the chance to sleep in at all on weekends. Saturday afternoon I went soling in the Flatirons; climbed the first Flatiron east face direct twice, and then did "freeway" an enjoyable 5.4 on the 2nd Flatiron. Yesterday [Sunday] I made it out to Eldo for what felt like the first time in ages, to spend the day cragging at the West Ridge, doing some classics I'd never climbed before. Sunday night was HW catch-up time over endless coffee refills at my favorite late-night [ok, late for ME, hah.] study spot, The Trident Bookstore Cafe on Pearl St. downtown. Great coffee and study atmosphere, and the scenery is usually quite nice as well.

In a little less than 2 weeks I'll be headed out to L.A to see family for Thanksgiving which is always fun; I really love L.A, and their neighborhood, above Laurel Canyon, is a real urban oasis in the middle of the city, with the classic L.A eccentricity and uniqueness. I'll fly to Burbank on the 24th from Denver, and head back to Colorado the 28th I believe. We have the whole week off at CU as a combined Fall Break/Thanksgiving Break, which is kind of nice; will give me a few days before/after the trip to ski hopefully, and catch up on school stuff.

After the semester ends in the second week of December or so, money/sanity/time pending, I am planning on making a 4 or 5 day trip down to Tucson to climb at Cochise Stronghold and Mt. Lemmon and visit friends; I really miss the sense of community in Tucson, both among my climbing friends and roommates/bar acquaintances, I met some really interesting, awesome people and going to Hotel Congress Thursday nights to dance to some great indie music and drink $2 G&T's, then go climbing that weekend with my usual crew was an amazing routine and one I'd like to recreate in Boulder.

Now I'm in the throes of studying for a Calculus Exam [don't want to talk about it.], and editing a paper I wrote a few years ago for a mineralogical journal; the original manuscript is ~ 20 pages total, and i've been informed I need to cut that down ~50% AND add 10-15 new references for it to be considered a submission contender; hence I have some work to do! honestly; seeing someone tear my paper apart really doesn't bother me[ you should see the review though!! ouch!], if anything its useful constructive criticism to save me future embarrassment if significant errors were to be published. The subject matter of the paper is still of interest to me, thus I kind of enjoy the editing process, though I do wish I had my study material out here in Colorado, as some major geochemical and mineralogical characterization work needs to be done on the stuff for it to be a relevant/significant work.

Going to see Neon Indian and Tigercity play tomorrow night in Denver(!!), I am pretty excited for this, $10 show at the Larimer Lounge which is always a fun venue. This will be my reward for studying the next 2 days, I'm thinking. I haven't listened that much to Neon Indian, but i saw them at Monolith and was pretty impressed. I love Tigercity though, they were one of the highlights of Monolith for me, and I'm excited to see them again.