2015 climbing and music

So 2015 is off to a good start, but good in the "normal" sort of way so I haven't been posting much. Shannon and I have been climbing regularly at The Spot and I'm definitely climbing at my personal best these days. I'd say I can send around 75% of the 4-minus problems I try and maybe 50% of the 4-spots. It's been really fun and I'm looking forward to maybe taking a private lesson sometime soon.

In early January I went out to San Francisco for my cousin Ed's wedding and got to spend time with family there. It was really fun, and I spent my last afternoon exploring Berkeley, in particular tracking down the "Cinnaholic" specialty cinnamon bun shop.

I've also been practicing saxophone daily to get my chops into shape for the new season with Gora Gora Orkestar. I did not play at all between mid-October and mid-January. This was partly due to not wanting to lug my sax around Thailand, partly due to thinking a long break might be good for me and help me keep things fresh, and partly due to having to get a lump called a mucocele surgically excised from my lower lip and having to wait for that incision to heal up.

But now I've been back at it for several weeks and my technique and endurance have returned. Gora will be playing more original compositions this season, so I'm anxious to start working on a new piece.

I also visited the CU music school saxophone studio class to donate a huge box of old sheet music I have been lugging around since college. It was a lot more fun to chat with the professor and students than I was anticipating and I thought they would pick through my stack, find a small portion of it useful, and then I'd recycle the rest. But they ended up taking the vast majority of everything and the few remaining scraps Professer Myer took to the CU library.

My friend Ian had been living here with me along with his ancient chocolate labrabor Toby. He was housesitting during the Thailand trip and then stayed on for December and January. Now he's moved out though and it's just me for the moment. I think I might try a few more airbnb guests as opposed to long term roommates and see how that works out.

Work is also transitioning as I concluded my engagement with the client that has provided the vast majority of my work for 2014. I'm increasing my workload with a few other clients and also putting some effort into my "wannapreneur" habit. I met with a prominent figure in the Boulder tech scene yesterday to get some mentoring on potential ideas/products/customers and I'll be following up on that today.