by Audrey -

working from home – special guest

I’m working from Home-home this week, in warm southern California.  It’s been a toasty 80-85 degrees since I’ve been here. 

Today, I had a little visitor to my bedroom-office.   Good thing I noticed him scrabbling across the carpet, or he would have been stuck and starving!  Pretty docile once I picked him up.  Then again, if you held me up at 20x my body height, I wouldn’t really want to move either.

 

I’m not sure where he came from, but it reminded me of a similar visitor, when I was little, and we lived in a Whittier.  Mom was freaking out, and screaming “SNAKE!”   I think I was playing outside, and I came back in because she seemed kind of stressed.   When I got back inside, there was this thin tail whipping around underneath the piano.  Quite exciting.

We’d move the piano by inches (heavy thing, the piano) and I would be poking at it with a ruler to get it OUT from under the piano, but the little guy was pretty smart. Wouldn’t budge. Except to sneak under the piano by the precise amount whenever we moved it.

At some point we figure out it was just a lizard, at which point…Expert Lizard Catcher (moi) jumped in with fingers, and escorted the offending visitor outside. 

Poor mom.  She seems to encounter a number of these lizard/snakes.   At least she hasn’t encountered any actual snakes IN the house (yet).

…that I’m aware of. :) 

by audrey -

I like people.

It was kinda nice seeing all of you for wedding weekend. I guess weddings actually are cause for celebration, huh? I increasingly see why Shakespeare ends his comedies with them. Seeing everyone up here, and hanging out with the PA crew afterwards made me appreciate where I am a little more.

Sort of like travel fatigue at the end of a long trip elsewhere.   Something in you hankers towards home, and you remember what was there that made you happy so many times before.

As you all know, I really like Southern California.  My main gripe about Northern California is that the drivers are too slow (really, really slow), that the drivers brake when merging on to the freeway, that everyone’s a nerd, that good chinese food is way too expensive and hard to find, that…oh, well, okay. My main gripes.  My main gripe is actually the simple fact that it’s a little cold (I mourn for the “beaches”), and that I find it disturbing to find frost on lawns after Thanksgiving. (It’s simply unnatural.)

Since coming for college, and sticking around for another four year term, you might suspect that I’ve become a convert.  To be sure – it’s usually warm enough, and close enough to home that isolation isn’t an issue.  But it’s good to be reminded of how lucky I am to be in the US, in California, and in the area that I am, at all. And of course, to see the people instrumental in me being around, at all.

I mean, really.  Check out the joy on this gal’s face – simply because she gets korean food.   Korea house IS delicious, isn’t it? 

Of course, none of this deals with my workplace.  Which is apparently somewhat of an attraction in itself.  Which I often forget, seeing how difficult it seems to  be to get myself there at a reasonably early hour each day.

Come back soon. :)

by audrey -

Indoor rock climbing

A few weekends ago, I went indoor rock climbing with some friends.

After taking a one hour basic how-to-tie-ropes-and-belay class, the instructors gave us a day pass and let us clamber amok in the gym.  One of the things that struck me was how airy the space seemed, despite being an enclosed warehouse.  The planners had left the big warehouse doors open, so a steady breeze help the plastic and chalked innards fresh and pseudo-outdoorsy.

Difficulty for the walls scales from 5.1-5.15.   My first climb was a 5.3, followed by a finger straining 5.7, then a 5.9 which left me stuck halfway up.  Our group, in general, seemed to find 5.9 to be the limit.  One guy was impressively limber, and successfully did two 5.9s, but I couldn’t do either of the two that I tried.  5.8 was fine though.

I think I liked the experience, overall. Quite different from the (relatively) small Stanford climbing wall.
It’s nice to take on something semi-difficult (and yet you know that it’s doable, somehow), and have your friends shouting out pointers and support as you go up. Also nice to be able to sit back halfway up and take a break, hanging from a rope.

As always, pictures…

My friend Jess, stuck halfway up.