some recent awesomeness

it was a pretty rough week for reasons i don't really feel like talkin' about, but the last two days have been f'n sweet.

last night was my first game of winter league ultimate. for those who don't know, i'm a nut for ultimate frisbee. i've always wanted to play in a league but have never had the time. well, finally my prayer was answered because there's a winter league here that plays at 9pm on friday nights at an indoor sports complex. nothin but parties on friday nights, so i can pretty much go to every game. and ya know what else? there's only one other guy in the music dept that plays and he's not on my team. i love music people, but an hour a week surrounded by nons does a body good. anyways, our first game was last night and i had a blast. the play was pretty competitive, something i'm not used to, but it's sooooooooo much fun. i suffered a minor injury when a guy i was marking pivoted and stomped on my left foot. it seemed fine during the game, but afterwards my big toe was hurtin' pretty bad. we wear cleats cause the field is this turf type surface and mine are really old and probably not protective enough. as long as i'm all good for the next game, i don't really care.

in addition to playing ultimate last night, i got to go rock climbing today. i hadn't been in quite a while, and today i realized again how awesome it is and how i need to go more often. my friend matt, who is an undergrad trombone music ed major who's starting his student teaching next semester, and i went to this indoor place called 'hoosier heights.' it was in this old steel wharehouse type building in the middle of nowhere. they don't heat the place, so it was a bit cold in there, but once you got climbing, it wasn't so bad. i started on a 5.6 (fairly easy) and then climbed a 5.7, 5.8, and a 5.9, all without falling. i basically decided i was gonna keep going up in difficulty until i got to where i couldn't get to the top without falling off the wall. i met my match on a 5.10. i think i fell off about 5 times before getting half way up. it was pretty challenging. my forearms are wicked sore right now too.

i hope you are all enjoying the snow you're receiving as i type this. i'm pretty jealous, i'm not gonna lie. those with digital cameras should probably send me pictures of it, or at least post them on facebook. i miss snow and just northern winters in general. and since i'm not gonna make it home for christmas, i could use some photographic reminders of what it looks like :-)

ok, as always, i hope you all are well.

love,
james