Shoes.

So, yesterday I hung out with Nate after a grueling day of sorting through my junk. (Not very much of it though, and now there's just an organized mess in my garage.) We walked his parents' dog, talked about flowers, and went looking for shoes for him. First we looked at Sports Authority. Nothin. So we went to Al's, where they just so happened to be having a huge shoe sale. Yeah, seriously. I ran into Caden and Tyson and we chatted for a bit while Nate fell in love with a pair of Vasque hiking boots. Then, probably not a good idea, I headed over to climbing gear. And, yes, their shoe sale extended to climbing shoes. $h!t. Nate was like "Pick one." I was like, "What?" And of course, being Nate, he said, "Your birthday's coming up." After about a minute of arguing back and forth of me saying "no" and him saying "yes" I finally relented and went to check them out a little more closely - even though I don't really NEED new climbing shoes, I really wanted some. I wanted some velcro shoes. Reeeeeeeally bad. So I asked for a pair of the Five Ten Coyotes, told them my size, and sat and waited. He brought a pair of 7s, because that was the smallest size they had. My Gambits are a 7, so I was a little leery, but I figured, what the heck, if it's too small, they have bigger. So I put the right one on (because my right foot is bigger) and it was seriously like Cinderella and the glass slipper. Freaky. It was tight, like a climbing shoe should be, but it wasn't excruciating, like the Gambits. So I put the other one on and at first thought, "Huh, these are almost too big. Shoot." But then I waited for my little feet to wiggle as much as they could, and after wearing them for about ten minutes, I realized I was hooked. I kept looking at Nate and saying, "But I don't NEED new climbing shoes," which he countered with, "But you want them." Which was totally true. So I took them off, put them in the box, and said, "Let's go check out before I change my mind." And so we did just that.
Of course, now I had to go try them out. We headed over to Rock Haus, where I got lucky again and got in for free again, (I have great connections) and climbed for probably three hours. Nate only climbed 2 routes because it's not really his thing (YET) and I climbed eight or nine. I did this one killer 5.10 that had two crazy roofs on it, and it was HARD. But I have never been so happy with my feet. I wore the Coyotes for almost an hour before I decided to give my feet a break. (In contrast, I have to rip the Gambits off the second I hit the ground.) And to be totally honest, I performed better in the Coyotes. I'm just... I'm so in love. Nate is my favorite person ever. And YAY AL'S!!!!!!

Crux number one of that route - getting over that roof was hard.

I love how buff my arm looks. And how long my hair looks. And how cool I think I look.

Right here, the holds like, disappeared... (on a 5.9? What?) and I was tired, so I just went off-route.

Yay Nate! Also, these shoes are way better looking than the Gambits. (Sorry Gambits.)