I have a love/hate relationship with Stoney Point. Under the tutelage of a master climber I’m becoming better each time at freestyle “bouldering” (climbing without a harness – not necessarily straight vertical). However, I still manage to hurt myself every time as well. Last night I was attempting one of the practice boulders at the base of the mountain. I got about five feet up and my teacher asked me if I knew how to jump off. Without waiting to hear his explanation I jumped down and landed on my heels. Ouch! I woke up this morning with a limp because of a bruised left heel. I had to cancel my racquetball match for tonight and I hope I don’t have to turn down a tennis match with Beverly tomorrow night.

When we did the actual climbing though I was able to scale more difficult obstacles than before. I’m getting the hang of using the rock to propel myself upwards. The feeling is somewhat exhilarating – but as Beverly noted – I’m bound to hurt myself seriously if I keep this up (we don’t use any mats, cables, or gear of any kind for safety). Sometimes when I’m halfway up a boulder I think to myself “what are you doing?” and I have to force myself to relax and not look down. Not looking down is probably the most important part. However, the act of climbing produces chemicals in my blood that I haven’t felt flowing since I was a child (or perhaps since Kent and I tried to scale the walls outside the batcave).

More than that though my rock climbing instructor is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a workplace mentor – so most of our conversation centers around the office and how to handle situations. I don’t think I noted it on the blog – but I’ve been “officially’ (been working in the capacity for a while but now I have my new title in the company directory and new business cards) promoted to Marketing Manager at work. I also didn’t note that some time ago I hired a graphic designer to work under me. Thus I’m facing challenges of managing another person that I’ve never had before. I’ve managed another employee here for a while – but he is more of an outside contractor that visits the office twice a week, so the situation is very different.