Saturday, September 3, 2011

Of all the crags, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine. Animal World, Boulder Canyon, Colorado

       Today I had my first real Boulder, Colorado experience.  Having met up with my friend Ian Buffington, we headed to Boulder Canyon to pull on some rock.  After hiking around for a wee bit, we found our destination and began climbing at Animal World.  Upon warming up, I experienced one of the phenomenon of the climbing community.  Making her entrance into the crag was a young woman that looked slightly familiar, but because of the probabilities of her being at the same crag at the same time, should not have been there.  Jenny Sherry.
       Jenny Sherry is a strong climber that I had the opportunity to climb with a few times while I lived in Ohio.  Apparently a wedding brought her out to Colorado for the weekend, and she decided to climb at the same exact climb I was at.  To make the phenomenon even more improbable, Ian and I originally hiked up the other side of the canyon looking for the crag Avalon.  After unsuccessfully seeking Avalon (not that hard to imagine considering it is an Arthurian legend), we changed courses to Animal World.  And thus my meeting with Jenny Sherry.
       Because of the nature of the climbing community, this has now happened to me twice.  While visiting the Red River Gorge, I met Rio.  Becoming good friends through social networking, I coincidentally ran into him again the following year.  Thus is the nature of the climbing community that allows strangers to become good friends over single line of rock, and allows those good friends to meet happenstance and bond over more inanimate pieces of rock.  Strangely odd, but oddly comforting.
       To make this day even better, I stopped on my way home at Chipotle.  Ordering myself a steak burrito, I asked the kind woman behind the counter if she can mix the ingredients together.  She can and I had the best Chipotle burrito ever.  Nate Mealy, try the unmixed followed by the mixed burrito, and you will defy the law of diminishing marginal utility function.  And lastly, when Jenny discovered that I had to be home at six from the crags to babysit, she laughed.  If I could climb half as well as babysit, Chris Sharma would have posters of me in his room.

       Even before heading out to Boulder today, I changed a diaper.  Upon getting home, I babysat.  I entertained a fifteen month year old and watched three other kids under the age of six.  Administer children's Tylenol, put on pull-ups for bedtime, read to and put Trevor to sleep, brush teeth, and all four in bed by 7:30.  I may not be the best uncle in the world, but I am among the top one.

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