Mewwy Chwistmas Y'all!!

We are now narrowing down to the last 6 days before Christmas.. Christmas is my fav holiday. I love giving people things that I know they'll love and appreciate, I like Santa, I like eating cookies, I like receiving gifts from people.. It's just plain nice and makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I mean that's what Christmas is right??

I unfortunately but fortunately opted not to travel during the holidays this years. One of my fondest memories of traveling during the holidays was in 2008 while I was on the road climbing for a few months and flew out of El Paso, TX. I had a layover in Dallas/Fort Worth and hopped in line to get my usual cheeseburger, small fry and Coca-Cola classic from good ol' McDonald's. There was a bit of confusion in line and two registers opened at the same time relieving the stress of many waiting customers. So I of course pop over to the first available register since I was the next in line and the woman in front of me went to a different register. The woman in front of me, lets call her bitch face, and I met at the counter at different registers. I ordered my stuff and she ordered whatever she did. Than she looked over to me and we met eye contact, and with a cat glare in her eye she told me, "Next time you should wait your turn in line."
Ummmm.... really?? I mean really?? I thought I was totally in the right and it's Christmas!!! So I fired back, "I'm sorry you couldn't wait two minutes to order your Big Mac Bitch!"

And since than I have decided unless it is absolutely pertinent that I return back to the frigid cold New England motherland, I'm not going, because people are so miserable while they are traveling over the holidays!

On another happier, Chirtmasi-er note.. I just wanted to put it out there that I LOVE Lee Foss.. He is an amazing DJ that I am basically borderline obsessed with and you should be too. Here's some of his jams that are absolutely above fabulash on the Richter Scale!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKthMW4DcfI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8djUTvpMGs

LUB IT!!

I also finished up with school and ACED that shiz!! Woot Woot! I'm really happy about how well I did even though I felt like Tina Turner the whole semester and I wish that I wasn't facing another 15 years of school and $5 million in potential loans.. 

 

so I decided to take next semester off, do some soul searching and hopefully find my calling. Wish me luck my little chickens!

I was also privileged enough to be highlighted on this new social nightlife blog out of Austin. 

Check 'em:   http://dirty6th.tumblr.com/post/14124659277/boulder

And like 'em on the FB: http://www.facebook.com/dirty6th

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Finally, on a more serious note, I would like to end with a farewell to one of the most amazing men I ever be blessed enough to meet in my life. George William LaFleur, My Poppy. He was the most spiritual being I have ever met walking this planet besides the real deal monks in Thailand, and I truly believe he was a monk himself. He started both of my parents climbing, raised five amazing women including my beautiful mother, he was a visionary in the AA community also known as his "brotherhood" and "fraternity", served in WWII, loved Hawaii and India, loved the White Mountains, was knowledgeable about absolutely everything due to the massive amounts of books that he read, taught me about Indonesia and the astronomy and mandalas, and had the most amazing loving aura of anyone I have ever been around. He is someone that I admire and will continue to strive to attain his sense of calm, peace, and lovingness in my daily life for the rest of my days. 

I love you Poppy!! Stay/hang loose always! xo

Dec 19, 1926 - Dec 11, 2011

http://www.obitsforlife.com/obituary/439907/LeFleur-George.php

Life & Stuff..

Once again life has gotten the best of me and I have pushed aside this beautiful blank canvas once again.

But

I'm back.

Not much has changed besides the fact that I am moving into an apartment with a random chick that I met on Craiglist and I sent my first V8 (which I don't think is a real v8 but whatever.. I'll take it.)

This is obviously not me but this is the problem.. It's certainly not a gem or anything but def took some time to polish and send so I'm happy about it.

The apartment is nice. And it should be a real adventure since I haven't lived with a roommate since I was in college and even than it was a challenge. I think it's interesting to live with someone and see their real boundaries and work around them, I feel like I'm 19 all over again.

(I wish they really sold these things)

Also, over the past three years I have been dealing with chronic neck and shoulder pain which is a result from a climbing injury that I suffered from 7 years ago. When my neck and shoulder are in full flair it is absolutely unbearable, literally I have spent many pesos on trying to fix this issue when it comes into play. I have tried massage, sport muscle rubs, homeopathic meds, painkillers, heating pads, basically anything you can think of to try to make it stop.
What I have finallllllllly come to realize is that chiropractic adjustments are the only thing out there!
I went to see Dr. Duggan of Duggan Chiropractic in September and when I left his office I was on cloud 3,000. I didn't even know what real life was until I saw him. He is amazing and has since become my guru. He's super smart, compassionate, and has been in the biz for many moons. 

http://dugganchiropractic.com/

It was funny because a few weeks ago I re-injured my neck/shoulder and went to a rinkydink place that takes walk-ins and when I met the guy that was about to do the adjustment I got super nervous. He was probably younger than me smacking on a piece of gum and didn't ask me a thing about my injury or my past etc. So I made the decision to never cheat on Dr. Duggan again.

Halloween also just slipped by unexpectedly.
Now, let me tell you a little bit about Halloween in Boulder, Co.
It is insanity! Seriously, it is insane. People dress up in costumes here on Wednesdays just for fun so I'm sure you get the idea. There is a flash mob on Pearl Street and they do the whole Thriller dance flawlessly:  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG8zWTZ6Hvg

People will spend hundreds on the best looking most ridiculous costume you could imagine for example a squirrel with a tail the size of my body and mittens with acorns attached to them, and that is just the beginning.
As a bartender it is part of your job to entertain, make people feel special even when they suck, and dress up big time for Halloween.. Even if that means 4 days in a row!
Halloween was on a Monday this year which means Thursday-Monday you better have a slew of costumes and be prepared for all the weirdos that are comin in dressed up as well.


I decided to be Nicki Minaj and Black Swan. They were budget costumes but.. I tried.

Now it's Thanksgiving.. my least favorite holiday besides Flag Day. I mean who the heck really wants to sit down, gorge on turkey, feel miserable and fat and exhausted and watch fucking football??? I mean really?

Gross

Either way Happy Turkey Day! Cheers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foA0MGUbYH0

Tattoos...

Tattoos.. Body art or body damage???

So..... I like tattoos, not on me but I like certain art on certain people.  I have never really been one that could ever make a firm, concrete decision about what I would want on my body forever if I were to get a tattoo. I mean I have a hard time deciding what I want for lunch never mind thinking about a tattoo.  The only thing that I thought that I could muster up was getting a heart similar to heart from a  graffiti artist known as Banksy. Simple, little, cute, easy and maybe painless???

So my friends and I had a little going away party for our dear friend Diego. I met Diego in 2007 while working at Bacaro. We instantly became great friends and I have shared some of the funniest and most insane moments of my life with him. He is short, half Spaniard and half Swiss which adds up to just plain amazing. He is hands down one of my most favorite people walking around this planet. We both moved away from Boulder in 2008 but were fortunate enough to be reunited after 3 years last month and spend some time together here again catching up and reliving the good ol' days.

He has unfortunately left us again to move to Panama to be with my other bff Lindsey.

For this little going away party we had a huge paella, wine, whiskey, and of course tattoos.

Just A little history: Diego bought a tattoo gun while living in London and has been mastering his skills by practicing on himself and others that are interested in having a little ink. Here's one thing to keep in mind, Diego doesn't really know how to spell but only tattoos letters/words on people....

So after a few hours of hanging out and getting sentimental about our past and how we are so lucky to have met each other and have such an amazing friendship and drinking wine and whiskey we got to business and got inked yo!

Noelle's finished product: "I'm a gypsy flying"

My New Heart Tattoo that is now completely and totally infected and looks like a huge scab but I still love it.  <3

Noelle getting her ribs tattooed 

So now we are all officially marked for life WORD!!!

Not the smartest decision I have ever made but it was still fun! Good luck Diegs Love you little brudda! xo

Wedding Season

Wedding season has finally come to an end....

I love going to weddings. I love getting dressed up and witnessing the love exchanged between two people, seeing the brides dress, listening to sappy speeches, drinking wine and eating good food and watching people do amazing dance moves on the dance floor and possibly even being propositioned into having a three some.

I had three big weddings this year that I was super excited to attend. One of the weddings was held in Key West that I unfortunately couldn't attend due to low funds after returning from South Africa, Congrats Kenny & Noelle! I'm super pissed that I missed this wedding because not only are these two fabulous people an amazing duo, but their wedding was a week long party that will go down in the books forever.






The next wedding that I was attending was in CT. I took the excruciating flight back to Hartford after a night a drinking and getting to the airport three hours early via Super Shuttle. Natalie has been my best friend since the third grade so it was an honor being a part of her special day.
It was a lovely wedding with perfect weather and lovely people  at Mystic Seaport, and Natalie's gay Uncles really made the night when they  tore up the dance floor like I have never seen.  Congrats Nat & Corey!!

The last wedding that I attended this year was for Olivia and Cory. They are magical together and have something really special. This was a beautiful wedding as well. It was held in their back yard here in Boulder and was decorated with asian flair  and rock climbing things from Nepal. It was really great. But the real kicker at this wedding was that I was asked to join another married couple in a three some.
I quickly ran off to be close to my friends and swig back a few glasses of wine and tried to avoid the couple for the rest of the evening. As flattered as I was I was also completely freaked out.


Now you may be wondering when I am getting married. The answer is probably when I'm 62. At least than everyone will be rich and will most likely be retired so they can definitely attend my wedding and it will great when we are all dancing in our electronic wheel chairs and roller cane things. Cheers big ears!

The trip

South Africa is maybe one of the most amazing places that I have ever experienced, not visited, not seen, but experienced. I went in thinking, this is going to be a hard trip, I'm a little scared but I know it will be fun. I came out feeling as though I have never met so many amazing people in one place at one time and had such an amazing experience climbing, drinking tea, drinking wine, sight seeing, everything was magic!

When we first arrive to the climbing area also known as Clanwilliam or Depaukys Pass we were a bit taken back not only by the view, the vast amount of boulders, but we also thought that we were supposed to be staying in our own private guest house. When we arrived we soon found out that we would be sharing this house with several others and to day the least we weren't exactly psyked.



When our roommates arrived we immediately fell in love with them. We had been starved for attention for days, we felt like we were living on the moon because we were the only climbers in the entire area. Once Bernd, Manu, and Belinda arrived we were so happy to meet them and climb with them and soon became close friends after many delicious dinners and several bottles of wine.

I feel like the relationships that were made on this trip really made it what it was. We later had a close friend from the states come without plans of staying in the house that we were living in but we kidnapped him and made him stay with us which later formed Team Honey Badger.



We celebrated my birthday to fullest extent with full brai, Champagne, Michael Jackson, Baker Man, and many other classic jams in a small hut/house/coffee shop which was later reincarnated into a sweat shack/dance hall. It was a real hit to say the least.

The worst part of the trip was seeing Team Honeybadger dissipate as we all had homes to go to and families to be with and jobs to actually work.

Team Honey Badger minus Bernd, Anelia, Becky, and Belinda

 And worst of all my Nana had passed within a week of my return home. My Nana, Gaye Paul Keeney, was possibly the most amazing woman on this planet. I don't say this just because she is my Nana but because she really was a presence that everyone learned to love unless of course you didn't love her within the first second of meeting her. She was smart, witty, fresh, read about 5 novels a week (yes the ones with Fabio on the cover,) loved the beach, loved to cook, loved to use to word "dope" as much as possible, she made me goulash every Tuesday night as a kid, she always had instant powder Nesquik in her cupboards at all times just in case, and she had the most amazing blue eyes.


This was a true, utter, complete devastation for me. I always worry about being out of the country for fear that something like this would happen. From that date the trip was over for me. I still certainly enjoyed myself and was still incredibly grateful to be there but my heart was broken and all I wanted to do was be with my family. So mentally my climbing trip was over. I forfeited my projects and stuck with a light hearted attempt at certain things to avoid getting frustrated and just tried to have as much fun as possible with the people around me.

In Loving Memory of Gaye Paul Keeney 1.29.28 - 6.26.11

This is Africa!

What a hell of a ride that was. Flying to Cape Town was less than simple.  After nearly missing our flight to Dakar from Dulles and than waiting on the plane for about 2.5 hours on the runway waiting for the weather to clear over the ocean it was for sure the start of a long slightly relaxing ride through the clouds.  When we landed in Dakar we sat in our seats for another 2.5 hours while someone was having a bed built in back of the plane for some reason. Followed by missing our connection in Johannesburg and FINALLY landing in Cape Town 4 hours later than expected. But as they say; “This is Africa.”

Once in Cape Town we got our Peugot and drove to the Fritz Hotel. It was so beautiful and quaint and quiet and perfect, and they serve the best Swiss breakfast! We hit the town did some dancing at The Dubliner Pub and met some cool people (can’t remember their names due to the Jagermeister and tequila shots, which I swore off when I was 16, Yuck!)

The following morning, beyond hung over and jet lagged, we drove around Cape Town for a bit and admired the amazing views of Table Mountain. Cape Town is stunning! It’s a city with a European feel but you can sense the work and history of it while looking over the port and seeing the huge ancient boats.  We than made the long but absolutely beautiful drive to Clanwilliam. There are wineries everywhere and rolling hills and mountains and untouched gorgeous country everywhere you turn.  I felt relaxed immediately besides freaking out from driving on the other side of the road and having the wheel also on the opposite side of the car while dodging swerving traffic.

We finally made it to Alpha Farms Excelsior outside of Clanwilliam where we were snuggled up on an amazing little farm all by ourselves for a moment. We were in a little cottage with a great little patio in the back with grape vines covering the roof and three adorable little dogs; Pinotage, Olive, and Shiraz. Pinotage is my fav! A sweet little black lab that we fed our scraps to from our first brai experience.

I’ve been waking up so early, around 5:30 a.m. or earlier and having breakfast, drinking Rooibos Tea and smoking Golden Virginia rolled tobacco outside and listening to all the birds sing to each other and drink out of the flowers, it really is one of the best experiences ever. I never thought that my night owl tendencies would pay off but I think that my clock has been on since we arrived because of it. Phil is actually the one sleeping in and not wanting to wake up.. haha.

The climbing has been a challenge, getting used to a new area, trying to find everything, and getting used to the elements here. The guidebook hasn’t been very helpful but I also think that we may be having a problem due to the fact that we are the only climbers here and there is absolutely no chalk on anything! We have spent most of our time here hiking around for like 7 hours at a leg. The hiking hasn’t been easy either. There are super steep hills to climb up, unmarked paths that haven’t been walked on since last season so they are over grown and the cairn markers aren’t as visible as the guidebook suggests. We also have a really small car that can’t make it to certain areas which leaves us with more hiking so at the end of the day I am so exhausted that I can barely keep my eyes open past 7:30 p.m.

 

I’m so happy and grateful to be here, I feel like all the long hours and hard work that I put into making this happen is paying off.. Now I just want to climb something!!

Family, Upcoming Travel plans, Life..

My mom was just out here for a quick little one week visit. It was amazing having her out here! She has more energy than a five year old and whipped me into shape super quick. We went hiking, did yoga, went to the gym, and ate super duper healthy. So now I feel awesome and ready to run a marathon.. just kidding. But I am trying to get into shape for an upcoming trip to South Africa!!!!
Wooot Wooot!!

This is what this little climbing area looks like.. endless amounts of rocks!

Leaving May 17th until July 6th and let me tell you folks, I can not wait! Phillip and I have been trying to book this trip for many moons and than on our 7 year anniversary after a few glasses of wine we did just that! We are staying on a tea farm in Clanwilliam, South Africa which is about three hours north of Cape Town in the Cedarburg Mountains.



We went to Hueco back in February for 10 days which was great to see friends and catch up with the climbing lifestyle since I end up putting it on hold most of the time when I am here. I didn't climb anything really or do anything special but I did enjoy myself and worked on some problems that I have done in the past which was still fun :)


I'm still working two jobs which has been handy as of late due to lack on finances for the trip. So as usual I am working like a nut and loving it making dolla dolla bills ya'll!

That is all for now.. I will be in touch more since I have things to talk about and my life is getting a bit more exciting~!
Adios

New Year Resolutions

Now that all the champagne has been popped and everyone is cured of the worst hangover of the year they are all at the gym working hard.

Yes, I jumped on the "new year resolution I'm joining a super nice gym bandwagon" and got a membership to http://www.coloradoathleticclubs.com/Home_Page.aspx. Now I have had many gym memberships in my days but this gym is really something. They are equipped with a saline pool (indoor and out), hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms, millions of treadmils and cardio machines, yoga classes (hot ones too), water with cucumber essence, clean towels, and many dumbbells literally (and the other kind too :))    

I am obsessed with this place and I think that everyone should at least go and check it out. It really is that special and hopefully we can all look like Jane Fonda one day!

My friend came up with a great idea: Open a gym for the first two months of the year and than turn it into a bar for the remaining 10 months, I mean if that isn't a million dollar idea than I don't know what is! You can be frequenting a place known as "Work out World" to get buff and curl some weights and than also curl some cocktails when you are sick of working out.. haha.

                 

Cheers all and I hope everyone can follow through with their new year resolutions for at least 2 months ;)

Closing thoughts; Lionel Richie is still amazing in my eyes!