I love using blogging as an excuse for a study break.
And while I may have already taken a 20 minute study break before sitting down to write this post, my brain is not ready to return to ocular anatomy. So instead, you can all hear about my latest adventures in the city. 🙂
Where to start…?
Let’s see. So, this past Friday, I had the fantastic experience of attending Night at the Races (NATR) with many of my fellow Optometry students. NATR is essentially a Lion’s Club fundraising event that supports pilot dogs (think seeing-eye dogs). With this, we each pay a small admission fee for the chance to name a fictitious horse and receive fake money that we use to “bet” on past horse races. As well as eat all the appetizers that we could ever think of, all while being dressed to go to a derby.
Life seriously doesn’t get much better than that.
Saturday was again filled with tailgating at the house to celebrate another home football game. It may have taken me three weeks, but I think I’m finally getting the hang of this whole football/tailgating thing. Which is to say that I actually enjoyed the three hours that I spent being social Saturday afternoon. Highlights? A few rousing games of stump, and an intense game of the football catching game that I described a few weeks ago. (We made this game better by adding a three strikes, you’re out kind of rule… I made it to the final 3! Additionally, profs come to our tailgates, which just makes everything better.)
The rest of the weekend and beginning of the week went by uneventfully, which then brings me to TONIGHT!
Though I probably should have been studying for my upcoming midterms, I made plans to go rock wall climbing with a family friend.
IT. WAS. A. BLAST.
Well, before I even get to the actual rock wall part… I also rode a bike in the city for the first time today. Which was an adventure in and of itself. Aside from the whole experience of never riding in the city before, I realized soon after beginning my two mile ride that only one brake worked, and that I had no idea where I was going.
Needless to say, the planned 10 minute ride across town took nearly half an hour, and I arrived at the wall drenched in sweat and about 20 minutes late.
But I was not to be deterred.
After gearing up, the group of us found an instructor who led us to the beginner rock climb. Only one person can climb at a time, so when no one else stepped up, I volunteered to go first. The instructor/spotter showed me how to tie my rope and told me which rocks I could use to “officially” complete the beginner climb. The only goal? Reach the top!
Sooo..I started climbing. It went pretty well to start out, but a little over halfway up, my arms felt like they were going to give out. (For those who don’t know me, I have approximately no upperbody strength. Why I then thought that doing pull-ups on a rocky surface would be easy, I will never know.) I’m super competitive though, so I HAD to make it to the top. And so I did 🙂
It was very rewarding.
A lot of watching and encouraging, and another beginner (ish) level wall later, it was time to head back home and study.
Except I got lost again.
Some day, I will learn to navigate this city.
But before I do, I should probably try to master this ocular material.
Catch ya next time!
-KD