Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Louis
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2006 - 09:53pm PT
|
Nice eye Wootles. There is only one crimpergirl, and I am her. The other one "Crimper Girl" is some dude pretending to be me. Sort of creepy, eh?
Had a nice weekend of limestone therapy. Feeling better, but this city has got to go! Look forward to reading through some of your suggestions above.
Oh, and Crimper Girl, thanks for the cleaning suggestion. I did do that for a while after I finished my Ph.D. Not really where I want to spend my time now, but thanks for your concern.
|
|
Crimper Girl
Sport climber
St. Louis
|
|
|
Dec 31, 2006 - 10:22pm PT
|
Wootles - Hey! Not so lame. I am sitting @ my keyboard. where r u?
Standard Supertaco Imposterization SSI-tm.
21st centry PT Barnum.
Crimpie - sent you a message re cleaning supplies!!!
LOL - HNY
|
|
dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
|
|
This is just too fvcking weird.
Reminds me of that old show, To Tell the Truth.
Will the real Callie please stand up?
Uh-oh, I'm in a thread with crappiegrrl, ugh!!!!
Oh the incredible Ick, the horror of it all!
This is going to be a good year anyway, I can feel it.
|
|
Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Louis
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 1, 2007 - 09:43pm PT
|
It's easy to follow.
crimpergirl=Callie
Crimper Girl=Imposter
|
|
Aya
Uncategorizable climber
New York
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2007 - 12:47am PT
|
Reviving an old thread because more and more I've been thinking about picking up and moving to the mountains.
To be brief - after college, I spent a year working as a tech in an immunology lab out in Stanford and decided all that lab work wasn't for me. I happened to pick up a bad habit there, too (climbing).
Moved back to the east coast with the intention of applying to grad school. ended up putting that off for a year while I worked in climbing gyms and retail, but I did go, eventually. Mostly because I was bored with not being in school (great reason).
4.5 years into a PhD, after having a years worth of research ruined by some stupid people (that's the problem with field work off a semi-public pier in Manhattan) I was so fed up with academia that I quit to do what I always wanted to do - go to vet school.
I worked for a year as an environmental consultant, and while I had intentions of taking classes (I needed a few prerequisite courses I missed as an undergrad) while I did so, it didn't happen. The consulting gig wasn't really working too well either (trying to startup a company of which you're the sole employee, and the owner of which has just gotten married and had a baby and is in the process of building a new house... well it was frustrating, to say the least). I quit about a year and a half ago and moved back to NYC and in with my mother. I worked as a recruiter at an investment bank for 6 months to make a little money, and then volunteered for 3 months at an animal hospital (where I am still employeed oncall, i.e. I just sign up for shifts when I have free time). I then spent last summer and this past fall taking classes at a local college and finished all the final pre-reqs in December. I put off applying to vet school because I wanted to really be sure that I would get in, and decided more vet experience would help me greatly.
So, the idea is since December, I should have been working fulltime at a vet. I could stay here in the city, continue to live with my mother (who I love dearly, but let's face it, at 30 you should not be living with your mother) and apply in the fall as planned, with a good chance of getting into Cornell as a NYS resident. I could also try to get a job with a vet up in Boston, live at my father's (who is much easier to live with than mom since he is essentially never home) and have a good chance of getting into Tufts as a MA resident.
Of course, what I HAVE been doing is working about 20 hours a week for barely more than minimum wage at Eastern Mountain Sports and spending all my free time climbing with my boyfriend, who lives about 4.5 hours north in the Adirondacks.
Would I be totally insane to move up there?
Would I be considering the move so strongly if there weren't a man involved?
I could move in with him (he's asked me many times), and I could most likely get a job as a management type at the local Eastern Mountain Sports (ie despite it being merely retail, I would likely make enough to support myself) . I CAN'T get a job at the local vet. They're not hiring, but she would be more than happy to have me around volunteering, and indicated that perhaps might be able to hire me in the summer when it is busier. I wouldn't be putting off vet school. Heck, it would probably be beneficial in that regard, since ideally after graduating, I would probably want to move to, if not the Adirondacks, then a similarly rural sort of area, and work in a mixed practice - and I'm certainly not getting alpaca experience in NYC or Boston. But am I just rationalizing this, so as to have an excuse to go be with my boyfriend?
And is this selfish of me? My parents have essentially supported me for the past year and a half since I've been back in the city- my mom paid my tuition, and even paid off the credit card debt I'd accrued as a graduate student, figuring that I could pay her back without the interest the card companies were charging me. My mother hates me climbing. Would she ever entirely stop talking to me if I up and moved to the mountains so I could do it more? I doubt it. But I think it would hurt her a great deal - similarly, it worries my grandmother to no end. I'm very close to my grandmother, and she's dying. Would it be selfish of me to make her unhappy? To move somewhere where I wouldn't see her as often?
But isn't my own happiness important? Staying in the city is slowly driving me insane. It's not as if I wasn't taking nearly every opportunity to get out and go climbing in the Adirondacks or the gunks or whatever BEFORE I started dating my boyfriend a year ago, so it's not as if this is some new hobby or something that I'm doing solely for him.
Also - I'm almost a little frightened that if I do move up there, somehow I'll love it so much that I won't leave to go to vet school, and all of the misery (not to mention the financial consequences of living on part-time minimum wage in NYC even IF you're not paying rent) of the past couple of years will have been for naught. This will sound really horrible, but I almost wish I was "dumber" - although that's not quite the right word. I wish that I really thought I could be happy for the rest of my life working in retail and climbing in all my free time. I'm just pretty certain that after a year or two I'd get bored with the lack of intellectual stimulation and need a change. I'm only 30, but feel I'm getting too old for those sorts of changes. I want kids. At some point I'm going to have to suck it up and settle down.
I guess this has been anything BUT brief, it has been entirely self-indulgent, and I don't even know if I'm looking for any sort of responses, but there you go.
It's a big decision, and I guess I just wanted to throw it out there at some climbers who might understand the whole dilemma. Of course, all my climber friends here are like good grief, I can't believe you're even debating it - just move! and my non-climber friends are like, huh? you're a smart city-girl. Why the heck would you move to the mountains to live with all those rednecks?
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2007 - 01:49am PT
|
Pretty deep reflection there Aya, looks like the answer is in there.
|
|
Darnell
Big Wall climber
Chicago
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2007 - 05:53am PT
|
Hmmm, I am from the LOU, living in Chicago right now, but I am retiring from my job of 21 years soon, buying a Dodge Sprinter van, gonna pimp it out for the road and head west! All I want to do is climb big walls and base jump.
STL. is cool, but not cool enough for me to move back and retire.
But there are a lot of cool ppl there, and some cool things to do. If you like live music I could recommend some outstanding local artist's in town, I used to play music and hang around that type of crowd, shoot me an e-mail if you want info. Your friend Kelle hangs around a cool crowd, got to meet a lot of them.
Plus STL is cheap and you are close to So. Ill.
Have you been to the STL Basilica on Lindell? IT contains 41.5 million glass tesserae pieces applying over 7,000 colors. Covering 83,000 square feet it is the largest mosaic collection in the world created by 20 different artists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Basilica_of_Saint_Louis
How about the Botanical gardens? pretty sweet!
How about the upper Jacks fork river? ever been? 5 star for sure!
Spring fed river 56 degrees year round with cliffs on both sides of the river for miles, spring time is the best. We put up (Jim Thurmond and I) some cool routes down there 5.10, 11's again e- mail me if you want beta.
And then there is always Mardi Gras, but I bet you know bout that already.
And of course the dog museum and the bowling hall of fame, but you might need mushrooms for those.
|
|
k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2007 - 10:53am PT
|
Too bad ValleyGirl hasn't chimed in here yet...She chucked it all and went for her heart's desire. Balanced climbing with cycling, and has spent the past few years visiting places I've dreamed about for decades.
From Beamer to pick-up. We're all proud of ya, VG.
|
|
Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2007 - 11:36am PT
|
One thing that's cool about Vlygrl's scheme is that she didn't really chuck all of it.
She's does the sort of thing that pays pretty well on a contract basis, so she can earn some money and use her hard-earned professional skills too when she's not adventuring. I only point it out b/c she did dues paying within her career to get a nicer situation than many who hit the road, and she hasn't exactly terminated her career by taking time off, although her career path might look different.
Her situation was exactly the sort thing I was hoping to develop as I've discovered that I'm actually a bit attached to the feild that I've speant the last 15+ years learning.
Best of luck, Aya.
|
|
Hawkeye
climber
State of Mine
|
|
|
Feb 13, 2007 - 12:05pm PT
|
aya,
not sure if you want advice. but here goes anyway...
move in with your boyfriend because you love him, not because he is going to facilitate your desire to live in the mountains. and not because he will help you cut the cord with mom.
and if you cut the parental cord (ie: move out), then try not to go back to the womb. you are right, 30 is kind of old.
|
|
thebravecowboy
Social climber
Colorado Plateau
|
|
|
Nov 21, 2013 - 02:00am PT
|
I done walked away.
and away.
and away.
it is not easy. but then, it takes a weird one to do what i do.
walking away need not mean a damn thing agin' ya.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!