Day 44 - Portland, OR - Lead Climb Card

Today, with the help of my new climbing amiga, I got my Lead Belay climbing card!  I posted a while back about lead climbing, but to recap, it's basically climbing without a rope being already attached to the wall.  I had taken the class a while back and was looking for someone to test out with and found a really great partner.  We had been practicing the last couple of days, and it was going well but I honestly was still expecting to fail; but I passed!  So now I can climb on lead at the gym.  I've already been up a number of routes; I climbed for over 6 hours today!

Next up is the lead-and-follow card, and then, I conquer the world!!!  :)

Day 43 - Bend, OR - Deschutes River Trail

Nestled in Bend, along the Deschutes River, is one of the finest jogging trails I've ever seen in my life.  It follows the river, which is itself breathtaking, and takes you over a beautiful pedestrian bridge.  It's a natural surface trail, which is what I prefer.  Depending on what route you take, you can expand it from just a couple of miles to many more, because it connects with other trails such as the Haul Road Trail that could take you all the way to the Mt. Bachelor ski resort if you really wanted to.  The Deschutes River is exactly what you would picture on a postcard about Oregon; rocky, clear, cold, and beautiful - just look at the pictures below.  Say what you will about Bend, it's hard to deny that it's one of the most scenic places I've ever seen.

Day 42 - Bend, OR - What I Do For A Living

A lot of times, people ask me what I do for a living.  And, when some people answer this question, say a lawyer or an accountant, just saying "I'm a lawyer" seems to satisfy most people, even though - arguably - most people (including myself) don't *really* know what a lawyer does, day in and day out.  But those answers are so common that people usually just kind of nod and move on.  When I try and answer this question, I never know quite what to say.  Of course the answer is that I'm a computer graphics engineer, but that doesn't mean very much to most people, and understandably so.  Usually I follow up by saying that I've worked on video games and film (which is sort of true; I never really worked on a mainstream movie but it seems easier to explain).  That makes most people think I'm a big gamer or that I build video games, which is kind of true but not entirely.  It's like a civil engineer that happens to work on building bridges; she could probably build buildings and tunnels and train tracks too, she just happens to be using her skill on bridges.  The skill that I have and employ is that of making computers draw, or render, graphics out of data, such as art, provided by others.  I don't draw and model myself (well, I do a little bit sometimes).  I take those drawings and art and I make them sing and dance on the computer.  Most computers that have to interact with people these days - computers with a screen, let's say - have a little chip inside them which is a specialist at drawing images.  I program those chips to do what app designers or game designers want.  Sometimes I work on games, yes, but I've also worked on apps for meditation, on mapping software, and a lot of other things. 

So perhaps the best way to understand what I do is that I'm an engineer that specializes in art, specifically the kind of art that computers make.  I think that's the explanation I like best.  :)

Day 41 - Portland, OR - Full Lotus Yoga

Look!  A post about yoga!  Today, I had the opportunity to volunteer to teach my first yoga class in a while, at Full Lotus Yoga, which is a really nice combination yoga/cafe space in the Alberta district.  Sadly, nobody showed up, but that's totally fine, it was nice to put on the "teacher" mantle and think about how I would have taught, and I got to use their really nice space to do my own practice.  As I was sitting there meditating, though, some thoughts about yoga came to mind.  I have a theory about where yoga is going.  It may not be a popular theory, but it's mine, and supported by my experiences.  I see yoga becoming more of a supplemental and integrative practice for a lot of people.  That is to say, I am seeing the rise of places that teach yoga in addition to doing something else.  This place, for example, does yoga, but the yoga is by donation and is really a bit of a loss leader/spiritual addition to the cafe, which of course is also very healthy and spiritually complete.  But I also see that many people are attending classes at places like 24 Hour Fitness.  The yoga classes at my climbing gym, for example, are consistently full when I go.  They're good yoga classes, and they often teach them with an eye towards being a climber.  I see a lot of classes listed which are "yoga for X", such as yoga with ayurveda, or yoga with running, or yoga with climbing.  I, personally, have no problem with this.  I think it's perfectly fine and reasonable for people to want their yoga to be integrated into their lives.  It has some negative ramifications, though, for people who want to run a "yoga studio".  I've seen several yoga studios that I've been associated with close lately. 

Now, of course, there are also some yoga studios that are doing really well.  I suspect there will always be a few "flagship" yoga studios.  In particular, I notice that yoga studios which are doing well are doing a lot of yoga teacher training; they are places to learn to teach yoga.  My suspicion, though, is that merely being a "yoga studio" will soon not be enough.  People want to move, and exercise, or they want to eat, or they want to chant.  This is one reason I think Bikram has done so well, because it provides a workout experience in addition to the yoga.  I have my concerns about Bikram, but I admit that, if you stay aware of your own needs and pay attention to your body and find a good teacher, a Bikram class can be a sort of combination aerobic workout and stretch at the same time.  I know people who say that when they go do yoga they feel like they still need to hit the gym afterwards.

I hope there will always be places to learn the spiritual side of yoga because I think it's important.  But for those who want to run yoga classes - especially commercially - I think it's become important to provide a more full-service experience.

Day 40 - Portland, OR - Morning Smoothie

I'm not really a big smoothie guy.  But I've recently discovered the power of little daily activities you can do to improve your life.  And one of the ones I've been trying to stick to is a morning smoothie.  Now, some people make really elaborate smoothies, which is great.  If you have time to get to the grocery store and buy kale and peaches are god-knows-what-else, then more power to you.  I don't.  So my smoothies are dead simple.  I take one scoop of some kind of protein powder, a handful of ice, about 6 ounces of water, and one banana (preferably a bit overripe), and blend in my Vitamix on the "frozen dessert" setting.  Voila.  Tasty, nutritious, and a great way to start the day.  For protein powder, I've gone back and forth.  The good stuff costs significantly more, but it's worth it.  I got started on a German product that a friend of mine gave me free samples of, called Almased.  I love it, and they sell it at most GNC stores.  (I can't get free samples anymore because she doesn't work there!).  But honestly there's probably nothing wrong per se with the cheap whey powders at Trader Joe's, if that's more your speed.  It beats stopping by McDonalds!  

Day 39 - Hillsboro, OR - 27 Miles

Today I got back out on my bike.  It felt amazing.  I rode with a group of older folks, and they were at just the right speed for me - a bit of a challenge without dropping me.  Cycling is everything life should be.  It was a gorgeous, sunny day, just the right temperature (probably low 60s).  The bike responded beautifully; I hadn't taken this one out on too many long trips yet.  The feeling of legs pumping on the gears, smoothly rolling over country roads is, in my highly biased opinion, one of the finest things that you can do on this earth.  And when you're done, the food tastes so so good!

Day 38 - Government Camp, OR - Club Sandwich

A lot of amazing things happened this weekend.  It was the Adventurous Young Mazamas Winter Weekend, and I ended up rock climbing at Smith Rock, snowshoeing at Bennet Pass, cross country skiing at Trillium Lake.  But forget all that - I had an *amazing club sandwich* at this place called Charlie’s in Government Camp.  One of the guys there was from Germany, so we had to explain the “club sandwich” concept to him.  This one was exactly the way it should be.  The bread, white bread, was toasted to perfection, with some caramelization from light butter. Then there was fresh crispy bacon, turkey, ham, lettuce and tomato, Tillamook cheddar and mayo, cut into quarters, put together into triple deckers, then stuck together with long toothpicks.  It was perfection.  As I rode around this great country of ours, I learned that when you’re in a town you don’t know, the key is to order the club sandwich.  Every diner makes one, and it’s kind of the way I judge a place, now.  Forget hamburgers; that’s boring and greasy.  It’s all about the club sandwich.

I will leave you with the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_sandwich.  That’s a pretty good looking club sandwich, right there.

Day 36 - Terrebonne, OR - Smith Rock Part 3

Today I went outdoor rock climbing at Smith Rock.  I've been twice before to go climbing, and also been hiking a few times.  I can't say much that others haven't said; it's breathtaking, and an absolute exemplar for what the desert part of the Pacific Northwest looks like at its best.  Wide open spaces, as they say.  From a climbing standpoint, we've progressed to being able to handle the very beginner routes.  I got all the way up a complete pitch for the first time in my life.  Granted, it was a 5.4, an extremely easy route, but hey, I made it!  Yay me!  I also made it about halfway up a 5.8 before I chickened out.  One of the things that I like about rock climbing outdoors is that, for me, it's a very humbling experience.  I kind of stink at it, which is honestly fun.  I'm used to sticking to things I'm good at, so to try something that I'm just not very good at it and persistently keep at it is a fun challenge.  It builds character, as my Dad would say.  Enjoy the pictures!

Day 35 - Bend, OR - Seafood Sensation

OK, I love Subway, OK?  I mean, I've talked about that before.  One of the things that you realize, when you love Subway, is the weird way that they stock products.  Oh, they all have ham, and tomatoes, and white bread.  But when you get off into the weeds, Subway gets a little odd.  They've taken to calling it "local favorites".  I've seen things like jalapeno cheese bread or breakfast sausage or bread backed with sunflower seeds.  But one of my favorites is the Seafood Sensation.  It's kind of a weird mix of fake crab and mayonnaise and I'm sure 90% of people find it disgusting but I love the crap out of it.  I found one a long time ago in SF that had it back when I wasn't eating red meat and I used to get one almost every day.  It was the one at the top of the hill inside UCSF and I would ride over there, up the hill, take the elevator just to get to that delicious seafood sub.  I'm sitting in the Subway on Columbia in Bend, where they have this odd little thing.  It's the only one I've ever found in Oregon.  And it's a nice Subway, with some open space and some nice picnic tables in the sun.  You'd like it.

It's the small victories in life, people.

Day 34 - Redding, CA - Wishy-Washy

Forgive me, please, for all this organizational and psychological talk.  I've been in the car for 15+ hours over the last 24, with another 5 to go, and I've been listening to *shudder* a lot of talk radio, because there's just not much else to do.  And I've noticed something that bothers me.  Today I was listening to some Senator on the subject of some candidate's position on immigration.  It was pointed out to this person that the two of them used to disagree on some policy issue related to immigration and the guy basically said "Yeah, that's true, we used to disagree, but the other guy thought about, and after a while he changed his mind.  After all, immigration is a really complicated issue."  And you know what, that seemed perfectly reasonable to me.

There's been a lot of talk lately about "character" in politics.  And that's well and good; I would guess we all want somebody with character, whatever that is.  But character doesn't mean sticking to your guns no matter what.  We don't elect platforms, we elect people.  And that goes for business, school and nonprofits too.  I *want* somebody who, if confronted with evidence to the contrary, is big enough to change their mind.  That seems like a really good thing to have in someone in power.  Yeah, I guess there is a balance here.  I mean, I want to trust that somebody has a spine and can stick up for what they believe in (which hopefully is something close to what I believe in).  At the same time, I'm OK giving up some control to that person.  When I get a plumber to come out to the house I don't tell him how to fix a leak; I assume he knows more about that than I do.  I watch him, though, and make sure that what he's doing seems reasonable and is fixing the problem.  If he starts drilling holes in the wall I ask questions.  But, in general, he's the plumber and I'm not and there's a reason I hired the guy.  If he said he was going to fix it with a U-pipe and then realizes he needs a T-pipe I might ask questions (especially if it costs more) but I'm not going to insist he use that U-pipe even though it's now obviously not the right solution to the problem.

So yeah, go ahead, flip flop.  It's called changing your mind and it's a very adult thing to do.

Day 33 - San Francisco, CA - Our Old Apartment

As I write this, I'm sitting - well, laying because there's nothing to sit on - in my old apartment in San Francisco.  My old roommate, Jade, who now holds the lease on the apartment was kind enough to let me stay here tonight so I could pick up the last of my belongings.  Time is a really weird thing.  I'm reminded suddenly of that old Barenaked Ladies song that goes "This is where we used to live".  There are a lot of memories here.  This is where I originally moved in with my old girlfriend Kimberly, who I hear is now married and has a kid.  I lived here for a while with random roommates and had some weird experiences.  Then my brother moved in for a while.  We used to sit and watch Mystery Science Theater on my TV in the room I'm now in.  The TV is still hanging on the wall because everybody forgot how to remove it.  I guess it's just going to stay here now.  I had a lot of negative experiences here, and it's easy to get sad, but what remains are the positive ones, like the time I had a party while the front room was temporarily vacant and I turned it into a dance floor and played music all night.  Even some of the bad memories feel good with the passage of time, like the time I had my ex-girlfriend over to a party and we broke up just a few days later after I had spent the night sitting on her doorstep (don't ask).  I remember so many trips jogging from this apartment, all around the city but often just through Golden Gate Park.  These are the steps that I walked up and down three or four times right before I had some old Chinese lady take my picture, the day I left to go on my epic bike ride.  I always knew, of course, that I would leave this place someday.  But now that day is here and it feels weird.  It's a life well lived, in a sense, but in another sense things feel so empty because of my lack of relationships with those people.  I'd like to reach out to all those people that shared those experiences with me and share a laugh about them, but almost all of them are completely out of my life.  That's what I'm left with about San Francisco - the impression of a pile of experiences, but nothing that really adds up to much.  Just a set of disjointed stories.  But they still have incredible emotional impact.  Sitting with my cat in my lap.  The Estonian woman who shared my bed for only one night.  Lying alone at night, staring up at the wall wondering what I should do.  The place up the street that sold 3 bottles of wine for $10, or the other place that sold hummus and some odd but incredibly tasty dish of carmelized onions.  Walking home from my MBA classes carrying my giant stuffed dog, and having my picture taken with it in the middle of the street by my classmates.  Speaking of classmates, playing flip cup with them in the halls.

But, again, all those people are gone.  They're not dead, I guess, but they may as well be.  All those memories are now only in my own mind.  And, if I'm lucky, in photographs.  I can't be too sad.  There are too many good things.  But still, I think tonight I may cry a bit.

Bye, SF.  I'll be back, but it's you who will have changed.

Day 32 - Portland, OR - I'm voting for Clanders

I won't make a habit of writing about politics in this space; usually it's kind of boring and besides, I'd rather unite people behind things like the outdoors.  Please know that no matter what your political inclination, I'm happy that you're here, reading what I write, and you're always welcome.  But today was the Iowa primary, and something interesting happened, at least on the democratic side - almost a dead tie.  A lot of people have interpreted that in various ways; as a victory for Sanders, as a victory for Clinton, as a victory for Republicans, etc.  But when I read those results, the first thing I thought of, honestly, was this: people don't really care who wins the democratic primary.  And I mean that in the best possible way.  They're voting for Clanders.  They're voting for the democrats.  At least, that's how I, personally, feel.  I have some opinions and ideas about who can/should/might win between the two of them.  If you held a gun to my head, I'd probably vote for Sanders.  But I really wouldn't mind at all if Clinton won (sorry, Bernie).  There's a lot of pluses to both.  And, mostly, I just really - really, really - really, really, really - can't stomach any of the leading Republicans.  Honestly, they don't even seem like Republicans, to me.  They seem like bullies.  And I really - really, really - really, really, really - don't like bullies.

So, yeah, we got a lot of this crap to come, and there's more interesting stuff to talk about, but I just wanted to put it out there that to me, who really won today is civil discourse.  My favorite part was Clinton's remarks that she "welcomes the debate".  

That's the best campaign line I've heard yet.

Day 31 - Portland, OR - Leap of Faith

Today I got to take the back half of the two-day lead climbing class at Planet Granite, with the talented Viviane (thanks for being flexible about the scheduling, PG!).  It was incredibly fun.  In particular, one of the prominent training aspects of lead climbing* we covered today was taking falls.  Obviously, when climbing, you're occasionally going to fall, and it's important to learn to fall in a controlled setting so that when it happens for real, you're ready for it.  I've done a few things like this, such as bungee jumping, so I was feeling good about my chances here.  I've also done fairly extensive climbing on auto-belays, which are a device which takes the place of a human belayer; and when you get to the top on an auto-belay, you basically just have to take a leap of faith.  The same was true today; she would bark out that we needed to square ourselves to the wall, take a breath in, then - jump.  Or at least slide off the holds.  We fell about 10-15 feet, which may not seem like much, but it definitely takes the breath away, which is why you exhale on the way down.p

What I learned: falling, and taking leaps of faith, is incredibly good for the soul.

On a related note, if anyone in the Portland area is available to help me take my lead climbing test, let me know!  I'll need help with that over the coming week or so!

*PS If you're curious about lead climbing, see my post about 2 weeks ago about the first part of the class.

Day 30 - Government Camp, OR - My Mom's Everything Cookies

Today, a package finally arrived from my Mom in Florida with her signature everything cookies.  To understand what that means to me, living 5000 miles away from my parents, you'd have to be living in my shoes - but I think we all can relate to food from home.  And these cookies are the best cookies you will ever - ever - put in your mouth.  My mom claims they're good for you too, which is good because when I go home I eat about 100 of them.  That number may sound like an exaggeration.  My Mom has actually started having to make fewer of them because I simply eat all of them no matter how many she makes.

The recipe is provided below.  You can thank me later.  Oh, and PS: I think they actually taste best frozen.  Yes, that's right, make them, then freeze them, on purpose, in a freezer that doesn't smell stale or like some weird leftover food, and then eat them straight from the freezer.  The chocolate is so delicious that way, and it blends with the raisins and the flax seed and the oats.

Everything Cookies

Oven @ 350

1/4 c butter
1/4 c flax seed
1/2 c coconut oil
2 tbsp oil (optional)
1/2 c brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 c peanut or almond butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp orange juice
3/4 c flour
3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c Splenda (or sugar)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c old fashioned oats
1 1/2 c quick oats
1/2 c chopped raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1 c dark chocolate chunks

mix together flour through salt.  Add to wet.  Mix & blend well.  Add oats, raisins, nuts and chocolate

Scoop onto parchment lined sheets, 1 1/2 tbsp per cookie.  Press to flatten.  Bake 9-10 minutes at 350 degrees.  Do not overbake.

Day 29 - Portland, OR - BCEP

Today, I'm signing up for BCEP.  What is BCEP, you ask?  I've written before about Mazamas, the mountaineering/climbing/hiking society that I belong to, and which is a good part of the reason that I moved to Portland.  Well, one of the things Mazamas does is teach classes on all of the above, and the class that they are best known for - the granddaddy of them all - is BCEP, or the Basic Climbing Education Program.  It's a 6-8 week experience that combines classroom education, in-the-field hiking and climbing experience, and an overnight backpacking trip.  It's not necessarily cheap - I believe it's $379 for members - but from what I've heard it's worth every penny.  You're separated out into 12-person teams, each with their own instructor and one or two assistant instructors.  Everyone is a volunteer, which is how they're able to keep the price down.  (Believe it or not, a program like this from a private source - assuming you could even find one - would be over a thousand dollars, easy).  If you're interested in more details and you're in the Portland area, there's an information night on Monday.  If you're just curious, check out this link for more information.  We're going to learn the basics of hiking and climbing a mountain, and more importantly, we're each going to emerge with a team of 12 or so people that we trust and can go climbing with on weekends.

I can't wait!

Day 27 - Portland, OR - CPR/First Aid/AED

Tonight, I'm going to attend a class on CPR/First Aid with AED, to renew my certification.  The immediate goal here is that I need that certification to participate in training for Search and Rescue, but I thought I'd blog about it, because CPR/First Aid is a relatively simple thing that anyone can do to make the world a better place.  Of course, EMTs and professionals are the best at what they do, but you have an enormous advantage - you're on the scene.  And as you may know, with incidents involving breathing and blood flow, seconds count.  If everybody had this kind of training, the world would be like a giant hospital everywhere.  

And the training is relatively simple.  There are online-only variants, but I can't recommend them.  Many organization - such as my Search and Rescue organization - don't allow online-only training.  Having been to class, I can say that at least 50% of the value is the hands-on experience with the equipment.  You just can't learn how to operate an AED or do chest compressions from a video; you have to get your hands on a dummy and a test AED device.  (An AED is a portable defibrillator that can be used to restart a heart).

Generally, classes are about 4 hours and cost somewhere between $50 and $100.  I've seen REI teach free or reduced-cost variations, and sometimes organizations such as school districts offer them.  There are two big umbrella organizations that offer training - one is the American Heart Association, the other, which I use, is AHSI, the American Health & Safety Institute, which has a class finder web page at http://www.hsi.com/findaclass.

So if you're looking for something concrete you can do, give CPR/First Aid training a shot!

Day 26 - Portland, OR - Seasonal Affective Disorder

OK, folks!  Welcome to another grey and rainy down in Portland, Oregon.  Now, very few of us really like wet, grey weather.  It's not much fun to bike around in, and it kind of makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning.  But for some of us, this kind of weather is actually more of a clinical condition, sometimes called (pretty hilariously) SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder.  SAD represents, to me, the new frontier of medicine: the kind of daily ailment that has real impact on daily life but can be really hard for the medical establishment to wrap their fingers around and deal with.  Which is not to say they don't take it seriously.  The Mayo Clinic estimates 3 million people in the US have some form of diagnosable SAD.  It's a tough thing to diagnose because it just basically presents as depression, but seasonal depression. 

It's always dangerous to self-diagnose, but I'm pretty sure I have it.  Apparently it's less common in men, but men have more severe symptoms.  Yesterday, the sun was out and shining bright, and I definitely felt an incredible surge of energy and positivity.  This morning the clouds closed back in, and it was honestly tough to get out of bed.  The key thing to realize about SAD is that it's not just a mental disorder; it has physical causes.  They think that the disruption to the circadian rhythms cause us to decrease our serotonin and maybe increase our melatonin levels.  It makes some evolutionary sense: when it's cold and grey outside, it's probably a good time to hunker down and stay warm and safe.  But that doesn't help it today's modern society, where you still have to go to work and, you know, get things done. 

I've bought one of these portable SAD lamps.  It does seem to help, although at the end of the day, I think the only cure is: find some sunshine! 

Day 25 - Portland, OR - Women in Computer Science

A few weeks back, I started teaching a new class at OSU-Cascades in Computer Graphics, a topic I know well, professionally.  There was an interesting thing about this class, which was that out of the 7 students, one of them was a woman.  I noticed this, in passing, and thought it was cool, although I didn't really have time to check in with her personally and find out what her deal was.  I've always bemoaned the fact that there weren't more women in computer science.  It sucks, for multiple reasons: we don't get the benefit of a different point of view, it makes the social environment a good bit more stilted, and it makes it harder to write games for women, not to mention that it just kind of feels wrong.  While my primary goal is to educate everybody, given the chance, I'd love to have a positive effect on that gender imbalance. 

This week, that woman dropped my class.  I haven't had a chance to talk to her about why.  I don't know what her situation was.  In addition to just being really busy teaching the class, I was dealing with an issue involving one of the other students who has a learning disability and I guess I just wasn't focused on what was happening with her.  Looking back on the first couple of weeks, I can tell that there was a tendency for her to kind of "fade into the background".  I definitely don't feel that I did anything wrong, certainly, as an educator - but I'm also left with the lingering sense that I could have done better.  To be fair, every student comes to the class with unique challenges, and there's only so much I can do.  It's always been the case that students who are proactive about their own education get better service from professors, and she wasn't proactive.  At the same time, I think that I could have done better.  There were a few classroom discussions where I suddenly noticed that she wasn't really participating.  Maybe she felt uncomfortable.  Or maybe the class was just really hard (it is).  The point is I have no idea, and that makes me feel like there was a lost opportunity here.  I can't see it as a coincidence that, of the 7 students, the only one to drop (so far anyway) was the only woman.

I'll be reaching out to my boss at OSU-Cascades, and other people I know and trust, but if any of you have any ideas/thoughts/suggestions - especially from any women computer scientists in the audience - I'm all ears. 

Day 24 - Government Camp, OR - Cross Country Skiing

Today, I went cross country skiing.  Well, let me take that back a bit - today, I went cross country skiing the way Chris Farley might have gone cross country skiing in a comedy starring him and David Spade.  I spent a lot of time in snowbanks, and I had a few choice words for my skis.  I'm not, though, going to talk so much about the skiing itself as much as what it reminded me of, which is my fascination with being a beginner at something.  Over time, I've become really interested in beginners.  How to teach beginners, how to be a beginner, the "beginner mind".  As a yoga teacher, a college professor, and just as somebody who enjoys new things, being a beginner is something I enjoy doing and think everybody should experience regularly.  Yes, it's fun to do things that you're already good at, but it's also really mind expanding to try something new.  One facet of being a beginner is being surrounded by experts.  Today I had the luxury of being all on my lonesome, but often, as an expert at something, we interact with beginners.  So, today, my

Ten Tips for Dealing With Beginners When You Are An Expert

1.  They're "Just Doing It".  Remember that it's always better to try something than not try.  Even if you watch somebody suck hard at something, remind yourself that they got off the couch to do this thing you already know and love, and that's a total victory in and of itself.

2.  They're Much Better Than You At Something Else.  Everybody's good at something, and they probably look really awesome and graceful when doing the thing they're good at.  So maybe just mentally imagine them doing that.

3.  Some (Most) Things Have To Be Learned The Hard Way.  It just takes time to learn a skill.  Yes, maybe they are unaware of the proper technique.  But maybe they know perfectly well what they're supposed to be doing and it's just going to take a lot of practice before they get there.

4.  Know Thyself, and Whether Thou Art A Good Teacher.  Some people are good teachers, and some just aren't.  It's important to know which you are.  If you're genuinely a good and patient teacher, by all means, help.  But if you know that you're really just not the kind of person that likes to teach, then just smile and do your own thing.  There's no shame in that.

5.  Remember the Things That Helped You.  Yes, everyone can learn in a different way.  But generally speaking, if something helped you, it probably will help someone new.  We all have a few "aha" moments when learning something.  I find it incredibly useful, when I'm learning a new skill, to write down the things that really make a difference, so that later, when I'm not a beginner, I can revisit that and remember what it was like.

6.  There's No Shame In Not Wanting To Be Around Beginners.  Some people like it.  Others really don't.  And it may change from day to day and from sport to sport.  If you don't feel like being around the bunny slope, that's fine!  Nobody is obligated to help, even with close friends.  If your girlfriend wants to learn to snowshoe and you're just not feeling it, buy her a lesson!  Better that, than to get all grumpy and impatient.

7.  No BS.  Beginners know they suck.  Encouragement is welcome.  But keep it reasonable.  I'm always reminded of the people that used to sit at mile 22 of a marathon and jump up and down and yell about how I was "almost there".  I'm not almost there.  It's 4.2 miles away.  I know just how far it is, believe me.  

8.  Being a Beginner Is Fun.  If I could just swallow and pill and be good at cross country skiing, I wouldn't.  You'll only be a beginner once.  Beginners get extra attention, no pressure, and they get to look silly.  Sometimes I wish I was a beginner at skiing; now that I'm good, my ski lifts are a lot higher and a lot colder!

9.  Find Something Else To Be A Beginner At.  I think it's really important for mental health to keep choosing things to be a beginner at.  And there are plenty of things.  My yoga instructor used to say, "two-thirds of the time do what you know.  One-third of the time, push your envelope."

10.  Beginners Are People Too.  Perhaps this doesn't need to be said, but of course, the key to being around beginners is the same as the key to being around anyone: be nice, be polite, and be compassionate.  

Day 22 - Bend, OR - Pilot Butte

Today I wanted to get out and find some sun.  Things have been a bit dark and rainy in Portland, and since I woke up in Bend, I decided to take advantage of it by going out and doing a hike I had never done before, despite living here for 3 months last year; I headed up to Pilot Butte.  Pilot Butte is a great little park in the Northeast part of Bend.  A Butte is, roughly, somewhere between a hill and a mountain.  This one has great views of all the surrounding mountains and a great trail that you can hike or run or bike up.  There was a pretty good crowd despite the fact that portions of the trail were still iced over and pretty darn slippery.  I got some good pictures on the way up and at the top.  I could see myself coming here and doing hill repeats - in fact, I may do that next week!