Excuses: Pain and Stress

This week I had my camera ready with me at the rock climbing gym. I was even going to have a friend take a picture of me while climbing.

I climbed for a grand total of 15 minutes. Fifteen. one-five. I was having a kind of crappy ankle day because of the sudden storm front that moved in (at least, that's what I'm blaming) and I probably shouldn't have even tried to go climbing but I'd had a crap day at work and climbing was the lone bright spot in my day that I had to look forward to. I did a good stretch out at the beginning and chose the 40 move bouldering problem that I got down last time. I was in pain by the end of that. Not a lot of pain, but enough that I shouldn't have kept climbing. So I took off my climbing shoes and stretched out again and watched my friend J. (a Korean woman), work a problem I haven't done. Ten minutes later I tried again. Made another 5 minutes before I had to stop. Waited 15 minutes, climbed another 5. Then I finally gave in. I spent another half hour stretching and doing push ups and crunches but it was so frustrating. All I wanted to do was climb for a few hours like I used to and barring that, at least for an hour. Climbing is a great stress reliever for me and one of the only things that completely gets my mind off of frustration from the day. Oh well. I stopped at the pharmacy afterward and got some more tylenol (Dear Bottle of ibuprofen, Where are you? Love, Alex). I hate that the stupid subway station isn't handicap accessible. Stairs are evil. Obviously. Ice and tylenol helped but sheesh. It would be nice if I could actually go for a night of climbing.

The stress and frustration in my life are mainly from my job. As much as I'd love to rant about it on my blog it would be a pretty unprofessional thing to do. I haven't been writing much because of it since it's all that's on my mind.

If I can figure out the online payment, I'm going diving with sharks in Busan at the end of the month. At first, I thought this was a joke, or the name of the movie but no, apparently this is a popular thing to do at this indoor aquarium thingy. A bunch of my female friends are going to do it. The only problem is that I need to use a paypal account or a credit card to book my reservation and I pretty much don't keep any money in my American accounts. I'm going to try and figure that out tonight because obviously, I must go diving with sharks. Besides, I've been dying to get out of town and a trip down south is just the ticket. AND if I catch a bullet train, it will only take about an hour to get there. Why don't bullet trains exist in the States? Some girls don't want to go because of monetary constraints BUT it doesn't cost very much and is well within my entertainment budget for the month of March so long as I don't do anything extravagent between now and then. Budgets are fabulous things. I think diving with sharks will be my birthday present to myself since my parents are providing the gift certificate to the bookstore, the only other thing I really buy on a regular basis or want.*

*Of course I want abstract things like figuring out what I want to research in grad school, world peace, etc. It's just that books are the only things that I want that are obtainable.

Speaking of books:
I finished Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut and was utterly disappointed. It was a good book, it just wasn't brilliant like Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse 5. I read a few more short stories by Borges yesterday who is brilliant but fantastically difficult and challenging and not really ideal bus reading. AND *drum roll* I get to start reading Love in the Time of Cholera today! (Written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez). For those of you who don't remember I've been angling to steal Salsa Boy's copy for a good month and I finally got my hands on it! I am giddy but also a bit apprehensive. When good books have so much hype it's almost intimidating to start reading them.

Plans for the weekend:
Not much. Friday I have to have a quiet night because I have a doctor's appointment first thing Saturday morning. It will probably be spent eating my hammentashen and reading Marquez. Saturday I have the doctor, a Spanish lesson (possibly), and Psycho with N. at night. I'm looking forward to a girl's night out at the bar. My goal: write down silly lines people use to hit on me with. The most frequently used line these days seems to be: "You know who you remind me of? You look just like ____________," insert name of super hot movie star/famous person here. I might be pretty, but there is no way I look anything like these people. Last time someone tried that one I interrupted them and said:
"OH MY GOD. Yes, I do! I look exactly like this girl from New York who moved to Korea to teach English named Alex. Oh wait, that's me!"
Guy: ....Not who I was thinking of but good one.
Me: You should see my twin, Cassandra. Now she looks EXACTLY like me. What a coincidence.
Guy: *mouth drops open, slight drooling reaction* ...Twins are hot.
Me: *grins, rolls eyes* and turns around to chat with someone else.

Perhaps this is mean but really, it's too easy. If you want to start a conversation, what ever happened to, 'Hi, I'm __. Where are you from? (good line with expats). Read any good books lately?' I have yet to have someone ask me about what I've been reading, unless I'm reading a book at the moment. Why do I get to hear about weather, movies, TV, clubs and other asinine things but never those rectangular things with pages in them???

More soonish. I haven't been in a writing mood so much as a ranting mood but we'll see how the weekend goes.