New York Times does Chongo

This is an amazing article by the New York Times on Chongo.  For those of us in the Sacramento area, we've been seeing Chongo in our local rock gym, Sacramento Pipeworks for a while now.  However I met Chongo when I first started rock climbing and was taking bouldering trips to Yosemite and staying in Camp 4.  This is where Chongo used to live.

Enjoy!

An open letter to Acme Syringe

Dear Acme Syringe Company:

I am writing to tell you that I have used your syringes for years, and I would like to ask you for a syringe sponsorship.  I believe that I have excellent qualifications, and I will be a good representative of your company.  A far better representative than the folks who abuse your syringes and use them multiple times to inject illegal substances.  Attached is my syringe resume:

Allergies

One round of allergy shots 1x a week for 3 years

One round of 2 allergy shots 2x a week for another 3 years

4 skin tests, with about 60 needle pricks each (back and forearms)

Multiple Sclerosis (this is where it gets exciting)

Innumerable blood draws

almost 25 days of infusion with Solu-Medrol and IVIG

spinal tap (this one requires several little needles for numbing and a few BIG needles for drawing cerebro-spinal fluid

injections if interferon every other day forever and ever

B12 shot

Thyroid 

biopsy with several needles

more blood draw

Diabetes

I don't have diabetes, but I would definitely use your syringes if I were to get it.

Thank you so much for your time to consider my request.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Sincerely,

Mandi

ps:  I can definitely get you lots of photos of me wearing a sports bra in extreme locations using your syringes.

musings on courage and strength

Okay so this post is very random and bounces around a lot, and if anyone has comments, I'd be psyched.  Plus, is anyone even reading my blog anymore?

I think I've admired courage on rock and striving to be a better climber too much.

I've met some people this year who make me feel good when I'm around them.  I've also spent a lot of time with people who nearly always make me feel bad.  I have to wonder where I've gotten confused about what to admire in a person...what makes a person great to be around.

A large part of me dreams of focussing solely on one thing.  It's just so romantic isn't it?  For me it's climbing, but almost anything you can think of has its devotees.  Look around at all of the subcultures that exist, where someone who does something as esoteric as collecting bromeliads or playing ping pong well is exalted by those who want to collect more bromeliads or hit a ping pong ball harder.  And naturally, every subculture has it's celebrities, villains and legends.  

I wonder if being devoted to one single thing is sometimes a way of avoiding life.  If you can surround yourself with people who do that one thing, then you never have to deal with folks with whom you have nothing in common.  

In a lot of ways I feel like I've always straddled disparate worlds, but that's another blog post altogether.

I'm not sure what I want to get at with this post, other than that there are so many things to admire in people that have nothing to do with physical courage or prowess.  It's just hard to put a label on it, these things aren't tangible, and it's so much easier to strive for a harder grade than to strive to be more emotionally potent.  For example, sometimes it is so much harder to love someone and tell them that you love them knowing that it is unrequited than it is to whip on some run out sketchy climb.  Only there are no magazines writing articles about emotional strength and courage, and last time I checked La Sportiva wasn't giving free shoes to people whose strength cannot be measured in grades.  

Climbing is often a reductionist sport.  People want to reduce climbing to grades, numbers of pitches, speed, sport, trad, ethically this, ethically that, no kneebars, with kneebars.  Climbers just love to categorize.  And I have no problem with categories, because it makes it easier to communicate with people.  But I'm tired of getting caught up what category my day (5.6? 5.12?) or my climbing history fits into (what's the hardest grade I've climbed?).

Life has handed me a bunch of crap this year that can't be categorized.  Funny, I can't help wanting to know if I'm a 5.6 MS patient or a 5.13 MS patient.  Am I doing a good job?  What does that even mean?  What are the benchmarks?  Who fucking cares?

People ask me what happens with MS, what causes it, what do the drugs do, blah blah blah.  Well no one fucking knows.  It's way scarier to deal with things that are unpredictable and cannot be categorized.  I only wish that I could answer all of those questions.  Imagine how much anxiety I could avoid if I could answer all of these questions!  Rock climbing isn't scary at all when you compare it to your body silently self-destructing.

I just feel like I've gotten caught up in things that are really of no consequence.  Maybe I'm avoiding thinking about all the crazy shit that's happened this year (likely), or maybe I have my own personality deficiencies to overcome (definitely).  Either way I need to figure some stuff out and make sure I spend time with people who enrich my life, rather than suck it dry.  And for me, this means identifying what it is that really makes someone awesome.  

So to all of those people who think that they are hot shit and ask me if I fell on Stoner's Highway? 

Fuck you clown, and get a life.

hurricane stew

I grew up on a barrier island off the coast of Savannah, Georgia.  Naturally there were plenty of hurricanes and we would evacuate to our friends' house that was about 40 feet above sea level, hoping that this was going to be enough.  Fortunately I never lived in Savannah for a direct hit, but I remember the food drives and things like that occurring after hurricanes in other places.  Apparently they make something called "hurricane stew" to feed people, which basically means that they throw into a giant pot whatever they have, no concern about the edibility of the final product.  I'm not sure how true this is, especially since I've never spoken with anyone who's actually eaten a hurricane stew, but I like the idea.  

Right now my mind is a bit of a hurricane stew.  Okay, my mind is usually like a hurricane stew, but whatever.  It feels like there are a bunch of things thrown into the pot that just don't go together.  There just ain't no harmony, man.

On the one hand, I have climbing.  Like most of my friends, I am obsessed with climbing.  Being better, not being too hard on myself, arranging for partners and thinking about the things I'd like to do.  

Next up, graduate school.  I have scheduled my qualifying exam for December 8, and most people start studying about 6-8 weeks ahead of time.  I have my committee and have begun to organize the topics, but I haven't even begun to write a proposal.  I know what I am going to write about, but haven't hunkered down and put pen to paper.  In addition, I have a manuscript I'm trying to write that is a collaboration with a math genius, and I feel like a complete idiot when I ask him questions about what he did with my data.  I'm also making some final revisions on another manuscript that was submitted and returned with suggestions.  Graduate school has vast potential to make one feel inferior.  As does rock climbing...hmmm.  I seem to choose men who make me feel inferior as well.  Shit.

Health.  As anyone who's followed this blog knows, I have ms.  But much to my delight (sarcasm, sorry), the radiologist reported a "mass" on my thyroid on the last MRI.  I'm lucky enough to get a few MRIs a year to keep tabs on the lesions, and it was a bonus to see something weird with my thyroid.  I had an ultrasound on my thyroid yesterday, and I should get the radiological report today.  Cancer is not likely, but is a possibility.  In addition, my fingers are trembling in a weird way as I type this.  My legs tremble.  Is this MS or am I just tired?  

Relationship.  Dr. Freesolo is in the valley, and has a potential new love interest.  'nuff said.  I'm not sure whether I should be a friend and be supportive of everything, or if I should just practice some serious avoidance strategies.  

Family.  For whatever reason, my relationship with my parents has been strained lately.  I haven't even told them about the exciting thyroid discovery.  It's stressful.

I am reluctant to do the "woe is me" thing, and to wave my hands at the heavens and say "how much can one person take?!"  but seriously, how much can one person take?  The answer it a lot.  People can take a lot.  Far more than what I am dealing with at the moment.  And that is scary.  Taking all of those things separately, they are all cliche, all have been done before.  I always wrestle with the "I'm so lucky and it could be worse" and the "this fucking sucks, man." 

Hurricane stew.  I love this analogy.  On the other hand, hurricane stew may have been a lifeline for those who had lost everything, so maybe it's not entirely appropriate.

New Burning Man Theme: Evolution!

The theme of Burning Man 2009 is Evolution.  This could be enough to get me back to running around in the desert with a bunch of crazies.

MS Bike Ride

Thanks to all of those who pledged for out MS bike ride - you are awesome!  Enjoy the pics.

3 more categories

I thought of 2 more, and Shannon suggested one to me.

1.  We should be able to log gym sends.  We don't all live where climbing is 15 minutes away.  It's just not fair that we can't log some of our hardest sends if they are on plastic.

2.  I have an incurable degenerative disease. (this one's for me)

3.  I have one foot. (this one's for you Pete!)