Climbing

So, you may or may not have noticed that in the last few months I have taken an interest in some local kid-sized climbing walls. We are talking about small-scale climbing walls at a local playground and the Oregon state fair. They are fun and a great workout. But, today at the REI, J INSISTED on signing me up for a Women's Climbing Class on Monday night. So, 48 hours from now, I will be scaling THIS wall...which is a lot bigger and death-inducing than the two varieties I have tried so far. But seriously though, I am looking forward to giving it a try in a women-only environment (it doesn't matter how not-vain you are...it's human nature to wonder about how bad your butt looks strapped into a harness and 50 feet up in the air with a giant wedgie).

And a note about this post on J's blog. J wasn't nearly forceful enough in his condemnation of this parental D-bag. First off, as you can see above, we saw two little kids scaling this 60 foot wall like freaking pros (or monkeys, or pro monkeys). Kids weigh less, are used to climbing for play, and have fewer hang-ups about things than we do. Second of all, who tells their kids they CAN'T accomplish something?!? Isn't that parenting 101? "You can do anything you want to, blah blah blah..." This guy's daughter very excitedly asked "Could I do it Dad?" and he says without hesitation "No. Definitely Not." 1) She would probably have shown her old man up like no nobody's business and 2) At the very least you could say "Well, if you're interested we can find you a class so you can learn to do it. It's hard but it would be a good challenge for you and you can practice and do it!" I don't normally criticize people's bad parenting because I know I know nothing and whatnot but this was just blatant.