black swan tiara February 13, 2012
I ended up wearing kind of a ballerina costume to coco and v7′s wedding last month. Merrick got a few amazing shots…
There isn't one of me standing, but the dress (loaner from Barbaracoa) was dark green with a rushed top, tulip sort of skirt and POCKETS! I felt quite gorgeous :>) Hey Blaine!
ok I'm sure I've already told you about this, but I got this amazing armlet custom made to fit my enormous biceps by a local Hanalei jewlery maker named Toni. She doesn't have the internet, but she's got a stand at the farmers market. I've been looking for one of these for years, but they're all too small or totally mannish. My upper arm measured almost 12 inches!
tiara
Thank Merrickales!!
ho hum hueco February 6, 2012
this means it's about 7:20
got to hang pretty things around the trailer. to give the place "atmosphere"
the frecklage is out of control
annie…. is an artist – says mom January 17, 2012
I’m not, but my mom also seems to think that global warming means something like more polar bears in bikinis so there ya go. My camera and I are at an impasse, so I made this collage out of google images, to represent my best day ever in the Hawaiian ocean, which was yesterday. Reelin’ rights on glass for hours and hours under thick purple clouds with old dudes and sea turtles and a big bunch of flowers bobbing around out there with us.
I’ve been in the water every day, getting significantly less of a facial beating than I got here last year. That’s all.
Oh, no not all! Look at this beautiful picture of coco and v7!
They’re getting hitched next week, and I’m so excited! Cody and Vanessa have been major friends to me since I first moved to Austin. Major friends, aside from this one time where I thought coco hated me for like a month (he didn’t), and this other time where I thought I hated him for ten minutes because he told me I would do fine in life without a man (I won’t, end of convo). When my darling Ned died a few years ago, I went directly to cody’s work and ate cookies. When I had to move my entire book collection out of my ex’s house, he came and lifted boxes for me. I’ve sat with coco and vanessa at countless dinners, getting perspective over enchiladas, and Cody always hooks me up with a ticket to the Texas Observer Molly Awards Dinner, which is like the best democrat hotel party in town. There have been no fewer than a dozen instances when I’ve made following phone call:
rrring
“whatup raber.”
“cody i’m crying.”
“oh no. (it’s ann she’s crying…no i don’t know why yet) vanessa says hi. what’s wrong?”
I also have this amazing illustration of a climber that cody did, but he’ll hate me for a month if I post it. Just visualize….
Is that all? Almost.
Climbing news!!
-Me and molly are all registered up for ABS nationals, which, fyi family, is not a contest where we oil our stomachs and flex, it’s an indoor bouldering match. I’m super, SUPER hoping to qualify for semi finals. No idea how that’s gonna go. Amped!
-I booked my ticket for South Africa this summer!! Here’s the ticket buying beta: Use the American Express Travel search tool. It only works if you have an American Express card, but even if you have a stupid tiny card with like a 200$ limit it still works. Freaking lower fares by HALF than I’ve seen anywhere else. It uses all your “points” or whatever to make it even cheaper, and you get “double points” for the charge. I’m super excited, and there are some amazing folks already set to be there too, like Val Ski!! And Jeremy, and hopefully Sarah Clark, and hopefully even more! Which reminds me, I want to do a post about Jeremy soon. Need to think about that.
So good things on the horizon. I hope the waves get smaller tonight because I want another day like yesterday.
the very best parts of 2011 January 1, 2012
NYE lobsters at my parent's house. pardy hardy!
Yay new year! I realized recently that even though the pervading wisdom of the world is that you are more likely to regret the things you didn’t do than the things you did that went awry, I am an exception. I do almost everything I can think of, and there are a handful of them that have turned out terribly and that I mortally regret. Yeah, life is lovely and the mistakes of the past are but part of the foundation of what is working today, but I have wasted countless hours on fruitless painful activities, been impulsive and cruel in instances where it was not necessary and I knew it, and willfully ignored the obvious. And it’s not like ‘oh if only I knew then what I know now’. Because I knew all along. It’s more like, ‘oh if only I’d had the discipline to do what I knew was the right thing to do when I knew it, which was when it mattered.’
And this was suppose to be a happy post about my goals for the new year and accomplishments of 2011, yet somehow it fell apart around word 3….
But I have made some adjustments to my approach this year that will, hopefully, prevent some future regrets. And those adjustments have been some of my favorite 2011 experiences. Here’s them:
1. Working with Lauren at the Feminine Rhythm. Her work teaching the Art of Feminine Presence has taken a HUGE weight off of me in more ways than I can describe. If you haven’t tried her class, or one like it with the Yin Project, I recommend it. Like I was saying to some dudes in her yard after my last class – “Lauren teaches you to hit the road to your dreams, have amazing boyfriends, and be better at life.” Probably all the other things I love about 2011 have come as a result of working with her.
2. The Flagstaff vision quest. I wrote about it here. Terry says a vision quest is like an full body physical for your spirit. I hope that doesn’t mean I have to do another one this year because it was misery. But I’ve been able to tap into a certain feeling I had at the end of it a number of times since, and I’ve found a lot of calm and confidence in it. I’ve never picked back up the feelings of shame, loneliness and totally freaked out horror that washed over me over those days, and that had obviously been looming inside for who knows how long. It was a game changer, for the insides.
3. My special photo session. Back in the spring I convinced Erik to come over to Rebecca’s house and take gorgeous photos of me. I’d never done anything like that before, but I’ve heard about it quite a bit, as a thing that women do sometimes. Just planning the shoot was a blast, developing my sexiness aesthetic, choosing what to wear, my inspirations, talking with him about what would be the most flattering and interesting. Doing it was incredible and challenging, letting him kind of direct and help me relax and get my face right. I wish we’d had twice as much time (and light!). Since then, looking at the photos and showing them to friends has been a third level of amazing. I showed my favorites to a few friends, but I showed all of them to Jennie. When I pointed out the one’s I didn’t like as much she was surprised. I just didn’t think they looked much like me. She said no, those look the most like you. Freaky! I’m slowly planning another session, all outside this time.
4. Comprehensive Pilates teacher training. Holy cow. This work changed the way I think about training, movement and climbing. I’ve been climbing outside full time all year without significant pain and haven’t acquired any new tweaks. My elbows and wrists feel better than they have since before I started climbing, although I still complain. I fully credit my daily 25 minute mat routine. I only wish I had more opportunities to teach formally. I suppose there is plenty of time for that. For now, come practice with me all month long in February, 9ish on the back patio of the ranch! Unless I’m on an early tour :=P.
5. I started dating. This year has brought me the most romantic experiences of my life. I’ve had lovely boyfriends and an amazing husband in the past, but guys this year have been nicer to me than anyone ever has before. And it’s not that my taste has changed or I’m encountering some different breed of dude (I am not). I think it’s because I’m learning, finally, to just take it – to accept the guyish niceness that comes to me. That sounds strange. I suppose I’m coming around to embrace how much I need and want a man in my life, and getting cool with that has helped me shut up and go with the good stuff as it comes, instead of constantly doubting and questioning myself and everyone else. It’s not always so sunny, and I’ve certainly cried a bucket this year as well, but I feel better (as in more effectively) and it seems like I’m able to make better choices faster.
And that’s what I was talking about earlier. I’ve made very regretful choices before, based on what I thought was the right way to be feeling and the right thing to be wanting, rather than what I actually was feeling and wanting. And out of fear of being too weak to make it, or becoming a bag woman, or one of those people brought to ruin by a charismatic druggie lover who sells the trailer out from under them to settle a gambling debt then they end up with a mugshot on Gawker as the loser of the week. Although a good friend of mine had a baby with that very guy a few years ago, and he cleaned up and things have turned out quite well for them, so I suppose time and love sometimes heal, which will be a comforting thought should those fears come to be. So I don’t worry about them anymore.
I’m definitely not getting any nicer, but I’ll be a bit smarter going into 2012, which is more important to me anyway.
Oh, goals! Here’s what I can think of: Climb on the road for another year. Make more/better money than I did in 2011. Go to South Africa. Do another comp circuit. Sport climb for 2 months. Take Yin Project teacher training. Trad climb for a week. Eat organic and don’t gossip. Blog regularly and take more and better pictures. Try to find a prepaid android mobile program.
rat maze December 30, 2011
An incredible end to part one of my Hueco season, 2011/12. The miracle of hannukah sending came through, after several days of rain and snow, frigid temps and icey top outs. On my last real day out, and the last day/night of the holiday, I finally finished Wheaties.
I was able to put Bush League together pretty quickly as well, and after that Melissa decided I might as well go out with a bang and send two things. So she and I broke off from our larger tour to head down to the maze and join up with the Exposure team from Dallas, who had just radioed into Wheaties. I felt intimidated by the dozen or so strong kids clustered under the problem, but Brian Anathwioeradksfjnne came up and said “back it up back it up give Ann Raber a turn to crush.” I managed to send it first go, using this amazing beta I discovered the day it bit my fingertip off and I fell on Sam Tinghy then bled all over my long johns. When I got to the last crimp on the face, which is quite good, both my feet cut because I was so freaking nervous and shakey. I heard Melissa gasp so loud, I got myself right and said “I’m good.” Then finished, trembling like a dead leaf the whole way.
Here’s my story with Wheaties: I had tried that problem a lot two years ago, and the first move was kind of low percentage, and I couldn’t stick even the first few moves after that with any consistency. Last year I stayed 100% off of it. This year I tried it again, and the first move worked every time. I decided that, whether I make progress or not, I was not going to give up on Wheaties this year. Everytime I went to the maze, which was like twice a week because that is the nature of Hueco Tanks, I focused on it, falling a dozen times and making incrimental, theoretical, psychological progress (I feel closer). Finally I overheard Walker telling Veevers that he could only do it by using this intermediate I had never bothered to try before. That gave me one more move. Huge! After that I fell a lot doing a foot move where I see a lot of folks fall, and where Andy claims to have been falling for 17 years (but I think he is being hyperbolic).
this is andy on wheaties. i stole this off facebook.
Another time out, Melissa and Lori helped me refine my opening moves, enough so that I could think clearly at that foot crux and see a more static way to get established on the face. I’m sorry for all this inside baseball beta talk, but I figure most everyone has been on this problem and knows what I’m sayin, ya know? What I’m sayin? That left foot move? I found a perfect method for myself (step to the start hold and do some riverdance!). Anyway, I’m so happy that it all came together, and that I didn’t give up, and that Melissa had it in mind to encourage me to go down there, and that BA was there to make me laugh before I pulled on. Yay!!
I could’ve left after that, but I couldn’t get motivated to leave Hueco with intact skin and fire-less elbows, so I did an unprecedented second day on with the Team ARG kids and their coaches John Myrick and Morgan, whom I adore. We went, of course, to the maze, where I sat around eating, chatting, and almost pulled off that horrible little painful piece of atrociousness, Brain on Drugs. It took hours to figure out how I could even do one hand move, and then another hour to get from what I thought would be the end of “the business” to the top. I wound up having to put on one of John’s huge Madrocks with a flexible, plastic-y toe to do it. Since I didn’t send, I now have to get myself a pair of slightly loose madrocks with soft plastic toes. I’m cool with it. They’re cheap, and probably will be useful again.
Click for more shots by sam davis of my brain on droogz drama
I’m heading to Hawaii in just a few days now, and I plan on not thinking about beta or bouldering or anything really, other than uke chords and swell reports. Luckily Sam Davis was with us and made a beta memory video for me, so I can do that pile next time I’m at the maze. Which will probably be every week of the rest of my life, if this month is a precedent.
John Myrick spotting me on the Egg. I get so scared at that part! Also, new haircut! I don't love it, but I think it's for the best.
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