Why Do I Hike?

We'll just jump right past the fact that I've neglected this blog for almost nine months and, instead, jump in to my latest musings.

Today's question: "Why do I hike?"

Excellent question...here are my list of answers (in no particular order...except the last one is the most important):

1. I can't afford a gym membership.
2. I hate running.
3. I hate biking.
4. I love exploring.
5. I love reading maps.  An artifact from my Girl Scout days.

6. I went to Berkeley...ergo, I'm a hippie...ergo, I'm a tree hugger.    

7. Although not always accurate, I love the feeling of being somewhere that most people haven't been.

8. I love adding up the mileage and the sense of accomplishment when I reach a new max.

9. I love the silhouettes and contrasts of the trees with the light.

10. I love being away from the noise pollution of the city.

11. Because I have to live up to my nickname "Sasquatch".

12. I love, love, love the views. 

13. And probably above all else, I hike because of the joy that this guy experiences when we do...

Basketball on the Brain

I will get to an update on my New Year's Resolution - Weekly Challenges soon, but while I have your attention, I want to be sure to give my brother's brand spanking new blog a shout out:

Basketball on the Brain

I believe he is using this as a platform to discuss anything and everything related to basketball - college, pro, court at People's Park, etc...  If you are interested in sports or my brother, I would suggest checking it out.

Now...on to my New Year's Resolution - Weekly Challenges.

While I haven't been able to blog about it weekly, I have been adhering to my challenges.  Here's the break down:

Week 1: Brush teeth left handed. Fairly easily to accomplish.  I did spend longer brushing my teeth because I was worried that I wasn't doing as thorough as a job.  None of my teeth have fallen out, so no harm done.

Week 2: Don't hit snooze.  This essentially became alarm clock roulette.  I didn't hit snooze, but I didn't necessarily wake up either.  Several times I drifted back to sleep and LUCKILY woke up a short time later.  Since then, I have continued to hit snooze almost every morning.

Week 3: Read in bed before going to sleep.  Accomplished.  I read some research papers and People Magazine.  More than once, I fell asleep while reading, but I was already in bed so I just rolled with it.

Week 4: Morning jog. The mornings that I could, I did.  Monday morning would have required waking up at  5 to get a jog, and that wasn't gonna happen.  Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I had to wake up early to commute to a convention in Burlingame, and waking up earlier wasn't really "in the cards".  I probably didn't pick the best week to take on this challenge since I had some many days that required me to wake-up extra earlier already.

Week 5: Do a Sudoku.  I'm still in the midst of this challenge, but successful so far.  One Sudoku from the newspaper during the week, and today I dug up my book of Sudoku puzzles and did a bunch of them.

So far, so good.

Remember to check out my brother's blog.

Catch ya later!

Training Room Antics

Here's another blast from the past. I wish I could remember all the details behind this photo, but I can only remember bits and pieces. It was my sophomore year at Cal during spring training. I think it as our last workout before summer break. Instead of the usual conditioning workout on the track, our strength and conditioning coach had us doing a scavenger hunt that required us to take pictures to complete each item of the "hunt". I can't remember the purpose of this photo, but we were obviously going for something goofy in the training room.

I'd like to thank my supporting cast:

Vivian Cheung - on the table, receiving CPR from yours truly;

Jillian Davis - zapping her face with electro stim;

Gabby Abernathy - falling victim to...

Camille Leffall - pouring some toxic substance in to Gabby's mouth.

I remember that we did NOT win the scavenger hunt. Bummer. But we did take a lot of dorky pictures.

Hooray for memories!

I just had to...

Cleaning up my room always uncovers long lost gems. Take this one for example:

My college teammates, roommates, friends...Jenna and Alexis; or as I know them...Brown and Lex! Everyone goes through a dorky freshman year stage. We went through it together (and I tend to think we ended up being dorks together for the whole 5 years).

We aren't teammates anymore. We aren't roommates anymore. But I still miss them and carry them close to my heart all the time. We don't stay in touch as much as we should be, but I have all kinds of memories that always manage to resurface...even if I've tried to bury them.

Lex...I'm forever sorry for puking on your shoes, and I will forever be in debt to you for the way you kept yourself together and probably resisted the urge to just dump me on the side of the road. Or how about when I laughed in your face when you came to my room crying after eating asphalt when trying to chase down the bus? You don't worry; I told that bus driver what was up...in the most passive "Powers-way" possible. And although I wasn't there for the "crutch delivering popcorn" incident, I never doubted that it happened. And..."EXIT ONLY!!"

Brown...you could never escape us; especially, since we had a motion activated web cam in the common room. I'm sure I scared the crap out of you when I rolled off the bunk bed in the middle of the night. Or when the pipe under our sink burst and we were all scooping hot water in to the tub. And I still remember playing dodge ball in one of our last spring practices our Junior or Sophomore year, and I wrecked your thumb. I'm so sorry about that.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T...that goes for the both of you!

We've all grown up in our own ways. They are both married. Lex has a beautiful baby boy, and I'm long over due for a visit to Brown in Texas.

I'm sure we all had one or two special people who were key figures during important milestones in our lives. Brown and Lex were mine...Who are yours?