So many ones and twos and zeros. Yay-uh. Happy New Year! I am fairly certain this year is going to be a gozillion times more rad that 2011… which kind of sucked a bit. But didn’t suck totally.

Heh? Nice isn’t exactly how I would describe the weighted one legged squat. But to each its own I suppose.

Today was a good day for Charlie and me. It was my last chemotherapy treatment, at least as far as we know now. Once I shake feeling like crud, I can go and do whatever I want until surgery. Whatever I want… like set after set of one legged squats. Wheeeeee! Happy Friday everyone.

Hello people! Just checking in and hoping you all had a great Thanksgiving. I have a lot to be thankful for this year… although I caught myself doing a lot of looking back and looking forward to different (and arguably) better times. I guess that is just how it goes sometimes. But moving forward while constantly looking back can make you trip over things. True I think.

On the really bright side for me, Seattle’s Fall has been going off, rad colors and weathery weather. I have been spending my time surrounded by rad friends: bouldering, snowboarding, seeing good music and getting my creative on. There have been lots of experiences recently that I am filing away under Good Shit That Has Happened During This Shitty Shit. Opening weekend at Mt. Baker, having my family come to Seattle to hang, chatting daily with my Doug Friends, making miniature model lands come to life, jogging through fall colors, bouldering in Yosemite… there have been lots of things to put into The Good Shit folder. I love that.

The most recent chemotherapy treatments are hitting me hard right after I get them, but then I kind of bounce back… not feeling totally normal then, but at least better. I hit the bouldering gym a couple times a week (outdoor season is a bit dampened) and have been running a couple times a week, too. Stoked about that stuff, always. Anyhow, tomorrow (Friday) is my second-to-last treatment, so that is progress.

Friends all around: you are ridiculously rad in all ways. Just one very visible example… thank you to our friend Holly for taking some bald photos of Charlie and me.  It is virtually impossible to ask me to like a picture of myself in the state I am in… but your pictures did it. What a fun (and cold) evening that was at Discovery! File that away under Good Shit That Has Happened. For sure.

Check out her site for some photo inspiration: http://hollyannephoto.com/

A couple weeks ago I got the chance to head down to California with my friend Luke and my new friend Jason. We winged on down to Yosemite to jam with the Stones… (click: Fast Times reference) Our friend Adam, future-doctor-extraordinaire, stole us away from OAK to the land of climber dirtbags and elderly sight-seers. I swear, I pretty much laughed the entire time. It was rad. We climbed 4 days on until our skin was raw… ate camp food… hung out at the fire for hours… and slept in tent city. It was heaven.

The simplicity of things when you are camping is so cathartic. There is something so occupying about being outside day and night that stops a person from running away with the other thoughts they might be dealing with. I always like to think of it as simplistic over-stimulation. There is so much… yet so little going on… that you can just revel in it. I am so thankful for that.

While we were there, a few old Tahoe friends came through to say hello. Thank you so much for making the effort! Meant the world. Also, having a bit of my Seattle world merge with a bit of my Tahoe world was so ideal… I scheme about how to get the two locations together, but unfortunately earth-moving is not my forté. Before the trip, I was stupidly worried that I was going to a place where people wouldn’t understand my situation and that I wouldn’t feel secure… that I would be a burden to those around me. But I was perfectly secure… and I felt wonderfully far away from the everyday that I have had going on since August. My ass was definitely covered. Thanks to Luke, Adam, Jason, Jesse, Emily, Jay and Katie. Funnest evahhhh. My face is still coming back into shape from all of the laughing.

For a short video of our trip courtesy of one Luke Simmons, click here.