guest post: getting off the couch

I think inspiration is circular.  Scratch that, I know it is.  I have certain friends who habitually respond to my posts in ways that completely floor me.  For example, today I got this message on Facebook: "I just read your blog in ITALY!"  Awesome.  I want to highlight every person I know, because you all are incredible.  That particular person has a several-month-long gig playing cello on a Mediterranean cruise!  I also have friends in France, New York City, Portland, San Francisco, India, D.C., and pretty much anywhere else, who wrestle with the same exact issues I wrestle with here in the State-That-Was-Never-Really-Supposed-To-Be-A-State.

One person I have a really involved, ongoing, and absolutely invaluable dialogue with is my friend Andy, who is conquering the world from Seattle, Washington.  He contacted me out of the blue back in October with a pretty freaked-out text message asking for advice about moving to a new, unfamiliar place, a place that offered him his dream job, a place located several thousand miles from home.

Ever since then I have found myself wondering, regularly, why he asked me for advice.  Because everything I can think of to say, he seems to have already taken to the next level.  I admire his gumption and apparent fearlessness.  Every day there is a new adventure.

I have been meaning to share this exhilarating email he sent me, and subsequently blogged on his own site, for weeks now, but I only just remembered after a fantastically adventurous weekend here in the mid-Atlantic.  Granted, my adventure (a hike at White Clay Park on Saturday, and Sunday spent cheering J and his twin brother in Philly's Broad Street 10-miler) doesn't quite measure up to Andy's thrillers, but the point here is that we inspire each other.

Here's the moment of truth: What is your Reaction?

Reaction: a study in touch

This post is my reaction to "a study in touch" by Clara on secondsetofbabysteps.  Check it out, take the message, run with it, maybe naked.  Anyway, this is part of an email I sent to my friend Clara after her post reminded me that there's stuff going on right outside the door, maybe in your own back yard, maybe just a 2 hour drive away.

Clara,

Love the post about touch, it really played into what is going on in my life lately and I dig it.

I've been trying to soak up life like it's water and I'm a sponge, but the sponge needs to get off the couch to find the water (funny thing is, it's as easy as getting off the couch!).  After I went snowboarding in Canada, I realized how easy it was to check things off my bucket list ... My life got 5 times more interesting the other day when I bought an avalanche shovel.......

So the story goes:

After an inebriated weekend at the TELUS Ski and Snowboard festival in Whistler, British Columbia, it was an intensely unproductive week at work.  This week was interrupted by meeting during (and after) work with my peers to work on a proposal that was due Friday ... we were all stressed out wearing suits and everyone was wishing us luck when we left to make the presentation.  Our boss showed up in the audience for support and the judges really liked our entry proposal.  Not being able to concentrate after that, we went to check out happy hour at a new pizza place that two of my friends from work found.  Dollar beers and $5 pizzas, clutch.  While relaxing, I brought up an idea that I had tossed to them the week before. 

     Me: "We really should grab our boards and hike up Rainier, find the snow and make a little kicker."

     Mike: "What are we doing tomorrow?"

And then that not-awkward-but-epic silence when we look at each other and realize that this shit is going down tomorrow.

We broke and headed to REI to get an avalanche shovel.  Walking out with that thing is like putting on a parachute at an airport, anyone who sees you is going to know that you plan to do something intense.

The next morning when we needed to decide who would drive, it happened that Garri was taking the windows and roof off his jeep wrangler.  If he didn't want to drive, that was the kiss of death because honestly, top down for a 2 hour drive to the highest peak in the (contiguous) United States?  I think so.  

You had mentioned that you try to remove the barriers between your senses and the world.  This is a great thing indeed, so I tried to take off my sunglasses as often as I could.  We eventually were down to t-shirts and no gloves.  The result is an incredible sunburn.  I never though I would see 75 degrees with snow under my feet, but there I was, exhausted and working my way about a mile or so up the mountain with my board and all my gear.  We stopped a few times and scoped out a place to build our jump off a natural ridge.  We took less than a dozen runs.  They mean so much more when there is no chairlift, plus, it's exhausting.  I thought about you and what you said when I was up there, you'd be a good guide, maybe not for hiking Mt. Rainier specifically, but a guide through life for sure.  Not because you're old and wise, way better; you're the best of us at groping in the dark (she is, read her blog).

After a hot and sweaty ride down one of the longest runs I've done, we jumped in the Jeep and enjoyed the sunshine and the wind beating against our ears with our arms outstretched.  High-fives were had by all.

Cheers,

Andy

Video games might not desensitize us because of high-fidelity murder and explosions, but it might be because we are inside on the couch when we play.  Take our advice and go for a hike.  Send pictures.

Cheers,
Andy