Catching Up

Yes, I realize it's been awhile since I've blogged... been pretty busy around here, but in a great, fun way. Things are going really well in my life... lots of awesome adventures to be had and awesome results in the lab.

Ben, Josh, and I took a little camping trip the weekend of Nov. 15th up to Bell Trail in the Wet Beaver Wilderness. We backpacked in four gorgeous autumn miles to The Crack swimming hole, where there were several groups of likeminded people with tents and hammocks strung across the rocks and trees. We managed to find an awesome spot, though, and set up on a small beach next to the creek below the sandstone cliffs and caves. After setting up camp, we hung out at the swimming hole. The weather was warm and the sun was still above the canyon walls, so I decided to take one last flying leap off of the rock for the season. The cold water took the air right out of my lungs, but it was worth it. We played around the area for awhile before climbing up and exploring the canyon walls, enjoying the incredible views from the top and scrounging for some firewood. After our exploring, we spent an hour or so trying to make fire out of flint/magnesium and Ben's knife. We got some good sparks in our cedar bark nest, but not enough to explode into flame, and eventually got out the lighter. We cooked up an amazing meal of chicken, pork, and rice and then spent the rest of the night doing our best to polish off a bottle of RC Cola and a handle of Jim Beam. The light of our fire reflecting off of the canyon walls eventually died down and gave way to the light of the moon, and we finally crawled into the tent in the early morning.

We woke in the morning to the sun peaking into the canyon and the sounds of lots of birds and the gurgling creek. Very peaceful. After enjoying the ambiance for awhile, we packed up camp and hiked out, enjoying the perfect weather.

The next weekend was a fun one as well. It was a busy one for Jack, Todd, and the rest of Dragonfire Racing as they premiered Godfrey Film's new movie, Thrillbillies, and also got ready for the Baja 1000 (Jack raced Ironman on his motorcycle, Todd was paired up with another guy in a car).

Saturday was ultimate frisbee fall league finals. Since we didn't quite have the stellar season (2-8), half of our team decided not to show up for the finals, and I was the only girl on my team for our playoff games. We got crushed in our first game, but managed to pull out a win in the second one to a team that we had beaten earlier in the season. It was a tiring way to go out, but it was fun in the end. The good thing about going out earlier in the day was that we got to chow down on the post-season feast and watch the finals while the last four teams were still battling it out.

On Sunday, Ben, Josh, Haydon, Tess, and I headed out to the Sierra Estrellas to climb Quartz Peak. I had tried to do this in the spring, but felt that with a group, better directions, and a fearless dog, we could tackle anything. The drive out there wasn't as creepy as I remembered it, and I actually had a blast taking the Jeep down the sandy dirt roads. The climb up took about 3 hours with plenty of breaks to rest, enjoy the view, and pull cholla out of Tess's paws. The view from the white quartz summit was amazing, and you could see the entire Valley from a totally new perspective. And, I finally got to meet the famous Mad Hiker, Charles, who was also enjoying the summit with a few friends when we got there.

After chilling on the top for a bit, we headed back down and I had a great time taking the Jeep back through once creepy and now familiar territory sand ruts and back to Tempe. All in all, a great weekend.

The Boy in Striped Pajamas

I went to see The Boy in Striped Pajamas Sunday evening. I had been looking up other movies times, and an advertisement for the film caught my eye. Jo had talked about a book of the same title while we were out on the ocean, and though she didn't do a great job in the storytelling, the basis of the book did catch my attention and I made sure that I added the book to my reading list. For better or worse, the current list of books that I would like to read is far greater than the time I have allotted myself for reading them - as the pile sitting on my desk clearly indicates - and I haven't even gotten around to checking out The Boy in Striped Pajamas. So, I decided to find out where the movie was playing. My first guess was correct, seeing that it was a BBC film and I hadn't heard about it yet, so I took a shower to wash off the weekend's grime and made my way up to Scottsdale.

The movie was absolutely amazing. This may be biased, as I haven't read the book, but the movie did exactly what the book was trying to do: make people think. There weren't a whole lot of people in the theater, but we all sat silently as the ending credits rolled. No one got up for a few minutes; the film had been so powerful. No special effects, no crazy cinematography, no stunts, no famous actors, and the film wasn't even based in the native language where the film took place (Nazi Germany, and the actors were British, so it took a bit to get a feeling that they were indeed in Berlin). But it made you think, and that's exactly what I've done the rest of the evening.

I'm not about to spoil the movie, as I'm pretty sure that it will be coming out to additional theaters, and I am going to recommend that everyone go see it, but here is what it made me think about.

Why are we so bad to other people? I am a very fortunate kid. I grew up in a rural Midwestern town, was nurtured by an incredible, loving family, went to a great school, and had lots of freedom to run, explore, and question the world that was around me. That upbringing allowed me to travel, grow, and learn about other places and cultures, and I grew up to be to be an outgoing, adventurous, and fairly open-minded person. But not everyone is so lucky. A lot of people around the world are brought up in homes that limit their thinking, that brainwash them into thinking that one specific religion, one race, or one way of life is above all others and is the ultimate right. They are taught that from such an early age and in such an absolute manner that it is part of them, and they don't know any other way, and more so, do not want to know anything different, anything outside of their own. Their way of life is comfortable to them, and anything unknown to them is uncomfortable and foreign and possibly dangerous. They don't stop to identify with the other, because it is unknown, and learning something new takes courage and effort (and only the greatest of adventurers would be able to do that, to paraphrase the movie). All of their lives they have been taught that their way is the only way, and all others are wrong. They have taken it as truth without looking deeper, without actually looking for the truth.

The problem is not a new one, from warring tribes of the earliest peoples to the Crusades to the Civil War to the Holocaust to the current genocides that are occurring throughout the world, to right here in our neighborhoods, right now. People generally making life a living hell for those who just want to live and love.

For example, the current protests that went on this weekend against the ban on gay marriage. Where I stand on the issue doesn't matter in the context of this essay. What matters is that the two sides don't understand each other. There is a Mormon Church that sits right on the edge of campus that gives $1 lunches to students once a week. As a grad student that is currently paying off ocean rowing debts, I know that I can definitely use the cheap lunch, as can a bunch of my friends. But one of my friends won't attend the lunches because the Mormon Church gave millions of dollars to the Yes to 102 (basically banning gay marriage in AZ) fund. She doesn't know any Mormons and doesn't want to get to know any of them because of what they stand for. I've got several Mormon friends, and they're pretty good people, generally just wanting to live a wholesome life and spread good will to others. On the other side of the story, the Mormons don't know my friend. She's a great person with an incredible personality who is currently working (way) hard(er than me) towards getting her PhD and making the world a better place. But because of their differences, the two sides will never even try to see eye to eye. They will never try to become friends. They will blindly shove blankets of hate both ways, only fueling the hatred more, never learning, never growing, never trying to understand the other side, never actually solving anything. And this is just one example. How many times over the past few months did you hear that someone hated Republicans or Democrats? How many of them actually took the time to understand the other side? How many instances of racism, sexism, or religious hatred, none of which are actually based on any truth? And that's just in the United States, and we're supposed to be a developed society.

It's awful, and we do it to each other every day. How many times have we seen hatred around the world, caused by a brainwashed fear of a difference, an unknown, blind to truth. In the great scheme of things, we're all the same human race. When everything is boiled down: race, creed, color, whatever, we all want the same things: to live, to grow, to love and to be happy in our own right. And to put down a person you don't know, to judge without the truth, to judge a population of people without understanding them, is just flat out wrong. But yet, it continues on, and no part of the world is immune to the disease. Some cases more severe than others, resulting in the deaths of millions, while others kill hope and happiness with hateful words and actions. Both have real and lasting consequences. Humans have been around this planet for tens of thousands of years. Isn't time we evolved from the judgemental creatures that we are, and took more time to actually try to understand things from a different angle, to take time to uncover the truth about the other side? To maybe coming to peace with our differences, forgoing our resilient pride for once, and realizing that the resulting bond is not a compromise, but a realizing of the truth, to see that we're more alike than we are different?

Go see the movie.... and think about it.

24 Hours of Fury

In my quest for bigger and crazier adventures, Jack, Hannah, Todd (Jack's boss), and I raced in the 24 Hours of Fury over the weekend at McDowell Mtn. Park. We raced as a 4 person co-ed team in the 24 hour mountain bike race, which is the first step in my ultimate solo 24 hour stint in the 24 Hours in Old Pueblo in February.

Jack, Hannah, and I joined Todd on Saturday morning, and had no problem finding our camp amid the dozens of tents and small RVs. Todd had brought Dragonfire's MASSIVE trailer out for the occasion, and we dwarfed even the big-name sponsored teams' camps with the tricked out big rig. The front cab had a fridge, microwave, couches, flat screen TV, bathroom, and the whole bit. The back had enough room to ride around in, as well as a loft with more couches and cots. We hauled a couch outside, set up the grill, and just smiled at everyone's envious looks.

The race started at noon, and similar to last year's 24 HOP, I took our team's first lap. It was a mass start (no lemans), and although the first 20 minutes or so were crowded on the first bit of normally fun, fast singletrack, by the time I got past the Pemberton Wash, the field of 100 riders or so had thinned considerably. The back stretch after the major hill (about halfway through the 10 mile lap) on the course seemed rockier than normal, but I got through it without too many problems and finished my first lap in 1:06. Hannah took off for the second lap as I got some cold fluids into my hot, dusty lungs and hung out with the rest of my teammates and our fans for the next few hours. Todd and Jack both rode two laps during their turns, so my next lap didn't come around until 6 p.m. For my first night lap, I felt fast, but came in much slower than my first in 1:12. I was feeling a bit tired after the second lap, so got some nourishment in me and watched Cars with Rudy on the screen that the race organizer had set up. After the movie, I crashed onto the couches in the trailer for a few hours in preparation for my next night lap. Jack had had a rough second lap, so I woke up and got ready to take Todd's place after he finished one lap, but when he came through, he waved me off, saying he'd be fine for one more. I chilled in the trailer with Angel and Rudy while my teammates slept and then headed up to the start again at midnight. Todd didn't come in for another half an hour, having had a very tough lap that involved two crashes and a pretty hard bonk. I headed out into the cold darkness, my HID headlights illuminating the kangaroo rats hopping across the trail and leading me on to the next hill. The field had spread out considerably in the course of 12 hours, and it felt like I was the only one on the course, alone with the vast desert and a full sky of winter constellations spread out to all horizons. Those stars are old friends that have watched me during many of my adventures since I was a kid staring up at them from our frost covered roof, and their faithful eyes smiled down at me as I made my way through the course for the third time. Although I was pumping hard and my lungs burned with the cold air, I felt completely at peace, completely in my element. It was late and I was tired, but the joy of the challenge welled up in my heart, and I could not have been happier. Unfortunately, Fish wasn't quite feeling it, and the chain problems that I had experienced earlier in the race became more pronounced as the cold derailleur cables refused to shift. It made the bigger hills more frustrating, but even that could not quell my happiness, and I rode into the staging area feeling like I could ride forever. The lap ended up being my slowest (1:17), but I have to say that it was my favorite one.

I slept again while Hannah, Jack, and Todd each took a lap, and then strapped on my helmet just as the first bands of gray etched the eastern horizon. Sunrises out on the ocean were some of my favorite times, and sunrises in Arizona are just as spectacular. The arrival of the sun means warmth, light, and a renewed sense of energy. By the time I reached Pemberton Wash, I was able to make out the trail ahead of me without the aid of my HIDs, and my speed increased dramatically. I rolled back to the start in broad daylight and handed off our timing chip to Hannah and went straight for the pancake breakfast that the race officials were putting on. Two blueberry pancakes and a short nap later, I was feeling on top of the world. Our day laps were much faster than our night laps, but the team behind us was slowly creeping up on us, a mere 8 minutes behind as the boys took their last laps. We were in third place, so wanted to maintain the lead as much as possible, so when I took off at 10:30 a.m. for the last lap of the day, I was definitely on a mission. I had an incredible lap, powering up all the hills, bombing through all of the rocks, and kicking it up into my highest chain ring for the majority of the ride. I finished in 1:07, which left us solidly in 3rd place for our category.

I downed a liter of HEED, munched on some cookies, and found my way back to camp, where I scarfed down some more calories (eggs and sausage) and then celebrated with the rest of the team with some champagne. It had been an excellent race, and we were all happy with the finish. Although none of us won anything in the raffle, we did take home a great plaque for our efforts. Jack and I were exhausted and spent the rest of the afternoon passed out on the couches. I rode 50 miles in a little more than 5.5 hours, so it's just the first step in my long endurance races. Stay tuned for the next step, the Dawn to Dusk in December!

Halloween

All of the election discussions that had been going on in the weeks leading up to Halloween had put more than the coverage of the war and the state of the European economy on the back burner. By Thursday night, I still hadn't decided what I was going to be for Halloween, so I was saved when Jack brought home an energy drink cooler. We spent Thursday evening knocking out the top and bottom and scraping out the insulating foam before I slipped it over my head and was transformed into a... Monster!!

Halloween night was spent at Cripe's house for a party with the majority of VOTS and a few fellow grad students. We've got a pretty creative bunch, with several Michael Phelps, a group of droogs from Clockwork Orange, the cast of Kill Bill, and many others, but Josiah definitely took the cake with his speed camera costume. After a good evening hanging out at the house, we took a stroll down Mill Ave. to admire everyone else's costumes. All in all, a very fun night.

Even though it had been a late night, Jack, Hannah, and I still got up (not so early) to go biking at the McDowells. We parked at our normal spot along the road, snuck under the fence, and were almost to the trail when we looked out over the course to see that it was filled with bikers. We had figured that there might be a bit of traffic in preparation for the 24 Hours of Fury (which we were also training for), but we weren't prepared for the massive multicolored string of riders along the course. As soon as a few bikers got close to us, we noticed the race plates on the bikes and realized that we had forgotten about the Dust Devil race that was going on... on all three of the competitive loop trails. So, we got in the mix of racers and made our way to the parking lot and headed up instead to Pemberton. I was feeling great, and rode ahead of Jack and Hannah enjoying the beauty and solitude of the empty trail. Hannah was feeling a bit under the weather from the Halloween festivities and it got pretty warm through the course of the late morning, so we took plenty of breaks and had an excellent ride along the easy trail. I had never been down the back stretch of Pemberton, and though it was a bit rocky, I absolutely loved the fast downhill, and Jack snapped pictures of our awesome verticals (ok, more like 6') as we hopped over the waterbars. After a good 15 mile ride, we took a Jeep trail back to the truck, got smoothies at Jack-in-the-Box on the way home, and called it a day.

Round #2 of Halloween commenced Saturday evening at Josh's house for the SoLS grad student party. It was another great night of awesome costumes ranging from a group of cross-dressing Red Hat Society ladies, Team Zissou, and a massive eyeball.

After two late nights, I was tired on Sunday, but exhaustion has never kept me away from my true love. I headed out in the late morning to work on the Fire and spent the rest of the day making her look good, putting in the new hatches, and taking measurements for the new equipment and final repairs. No crazy adventures, but a good weekend overall.