the princess and the peas. and the kidney punch.

last night I went rock climbing again. matt came too. he is much better that I am, though being taller and stronger certainly mean he should be better, so c'est la vie. I will admit it was frustrating watching him scale a wall that I've now tried all three times I've gone while I still can't get above the blue "you-must-be-tied-in" line, but on other ones I've been doing better every time, so I really can't complain.

also, I must be a good teacher (and I had a good teacher) 'cause I taught matt how to belay, and he got certified and was told he was the "best test all night." so yay.

I climbed a few last night...five or maybe six I think? and then I had to stop because...I was trying to climb this kind of weird/windy/angled green (that's like a step above the white walls, and make me think of how it is in skiing--white is easy peasy, but greens go from very simple to man-I-thought-this-would-be-rated-harder. in rock climbing the next level after green is orange, and it was definitely more of a green-orange than a green-white. but anyway) and matt was belaying for me, and I lost my grip and fell. which, y'know, is why you have a belay in the first place.

so, I fall a little, like you do, and I also swung away from the wall. I also fell a bit farther than normal because I was in the process of going up and matt hadn't pulled it taut yet. when I swung back towards the wall I was trying to regain control and put my feet toward the wall but instead headed with my back to the wall--and this particularly nasty looking yellow-green hold gave me a nice solid kidney punch.

I cried immediately. I told Matt to lower me and he did, and I got untied and sat down. It HURT. And it was an ugly pokey hold. Richard, one of the other climbers, insisted that I go ask them for ice, and I am so glad I did. They took me to a little room/closet where they had a freezer full of these little guys...bags of frozen peas.

I sat out the rest of the night--I had to! If I'd put any pressure on that spot or stretched it or anything I would've let go in pain. The bruise has JUST started showing up in the past two hours and sitting in my desk chair isn't very pleasant. The bruise is showing up lower than I felt it was last night (closer to my waistband) but I am sore up and down my right side of my back.

I think I will have a lovely bruise just in time to go to the beach. Thank goodness for my coverup. :)

Also, I have officially decided to take the class. I looked at what my schedule would be and I'll have to make up three hours a week, basically, which should easily be do-able. (knock on wood) I filled out my life long student app today, and once I'm accepted and enrolled I'll apply to officially be a part of the civil engineering masters program. yowza.