Rock-climbing this weekend!

I'm going rock-climbing this weekend! This is all very exciting. Ritchie and I are going to REI tonight to pick-up our shoes and other necessary implements. We're meeting Eryn, Noah, and Brian tomorrow evening and then driving out to the campsite for a weekend of hanging off ropes and clinging desperately to rock faces. I have to say that, though I really like rock-climbing, I'm not particularly good at it. In fact, it kind of scares me. I don't know what happens when I'm suspended twenty feet off the ground with a rope, a knot, and a belay device, but my hands start sweating in a way that no chalk bag will fix and my heart starts beating like a Jamaican on a steel drum. I just KNOW that the person will drop me and I will die. This is a given. I'm looking forward to sharing this experience with Ritchie who is a nice guy and probably doesn't want me to die. If I survive the weekend, maybe we'll even be able to laugh about me crying on the rock and refusing to unclench my fingers. But in the meantime, I'm saying my prayers.

It doesn't look as high as it feels.

My legs are shaking in this picture.

I look happy here, but I'm actually near tears.

P.S. My friend just randomly told me about an acquaintance who died in a freak climbing accident. Awesome.