Tingling in my Toes

Whenever an exciting thought or exhilarating moment comes into my head, my toes start to tingle.  It’s always been this way.  Before I do a difficult or meaningful climb, my toes tingle.  When I’m immediately drawn to an attractive person, think about a big goal, hear a great song, remember a good memory – they always start going.  It’s my physical indicator that I’m doing something right, and tingling toes are an important part of my criteria for a “good day.”

My toes tingled a lot yesterday.  I was out at Reimers Ranch, climbing on limestone all day with Rami, and our new friends Patrick and Andrew.  Lots and lots of 5.10d/5.11 climbing.  We were really pushing the limits of our capabilities, and I totally love seeing my improvement from where I was a few months ago.  I gracefully pulled through moves that I could barely even attempt before.  We climbed a lot on Prototype wall, doing Prototype (10d), Sugar (10d, but felt harder than Prototype), and most of Bolt Talk (11a).  I feel like if I can continue my trend of improvement without injury, I’ll be leading 5.11 in no time.

I was talking to my mom a few days ago.  She said her and my dad have been talking about a move back to Alaska, probably two years down the road from now.  I won’t be waiting two years, but I do like the idea of my family following me up there.  I feel like things are starting to make sense.  Just a little bit.

This morning my housemate and I did a little cleaning around the house.  A few days ago the washing machine had a little draining malfunction while we were both out of the house, filling the living space with two inches of water.  It’s been hard to dry things out with the rain and humid weather, but I think we finally managed to get most things back in their place this morning.  I like having order and cleanliness at home.