This weekend I went to Illinois to go rock climbing and camping with my sister's venture crew. We went to Mississippi Palisades Park just across the Mississippi river. We were able to hire a couple guys who owned a rock climbing excursions business in Chicago to come help us out. They supplied the ropes, carabiners, shoes, and harnesses. They were also familiar with the good spots to climb in the park. The insurance disclaimer they made us sign was the first time that I didn't need a parent's signature on a form like that. I had a great time climbing all day. I climbed three rock faces without falling once. I know that my ability to climb without falling was driven more by fear that I would have to restart from a lower position than I was. On the second-to-last wall I climbed I got about halfway up and my leg was shaking so bad, I thought I was going to throw myself off the wall. I climbed one more wall after that and was so fatigued that I barely made it up the wall. We spent the night at the campground at 20 degrees. It was the most fun I've had in a while.

Last Wednesday, instead of attending class, we attended sessions to learn about different directions in our future. The two sessions I went to were about the leadership minor and grad schools. The leadership session was presented by three students in the program. They talked about their experiences in the program and the classes involved in earning the leadership minor certificate. I don't feel like the session helped me make up my mind one way or the other on whether or not I want to take up the minor. I still have to think about it. The first grad school session ran ten minutes late and the second session started late. The professor talked about the requirements needed to get into grad school, different doctorates and told us we could talk to him with any questions. Our session was shortened and we didn't cover everything he had planned. I don't feel like I learned everything offered.

My sister has been a participant in a program called Barbizon for about six months. The program is a modeling agency with programs to help develop modeling and acting skills as well as confidence in those participating. Today she graduated from the program. Last week she asked if I was coming home on over the weekend to watch her graduate. I didn't know this was happening this weekend until my sister texted me. I wasn't planning on going back because fall break is approaching and her graduation was late today. Lucky for her, I had a friend who had to work this weekend and was able to bring me back tonight. I didn't tell anybody in my family that I was coming home and surprised them one by one. My dad responded by shaking my hand instead of giving me a hug. My mom hung up on her friend to say hello to me. My sister came home from the high school football game late, and when she walked in the door I yelled to her from the basement. She dropped everything and ran down to see me. She was the most excited to see me since my outlook on coming home was bleak when she asked if I was coming home. I enjoyed my time home this weekend. I was unable to cram everything I wanted to do into the weekend so I'm looking forward to seeing friends when I go back for fall break.

Outfly finally happened. Last Wednesday morning, a few softball girls decided it would be a good idea to fake dorm storm for Outfly. My trust was broken. Finally, the next morning I was greeted by the promised text that was the true beginning of Outfly. We stood around the bell for a long time before Outfly was officially declared. Michael Brown, one of the captains of the Ultimate Frisbee team, one the costume contest by wearing a Gumby costume. After breakfast, I went back to bed for a couple hours until the Ultimate Frisbee scrimmage began at 10:30. That was the most fun I had all day. After lunch, I spent time on the inflatables until the challenges began. I participated in two challenges before I left for work. Outfly was an unique experience that I wouldn't have had anywhere else. I knew Outfly wasn't a myth to encourage prospective students to attend and pull one over on first year students because my visit to campus was on Outfly last year. I had a lot of fun.

I really like the show How I Met Your Mother. I believe I might have blogged about my love of the show already, but season 8 was recently released on Netflix. I spent about three days watching fake relationships crumble in the Fall of Break ups. I watched the most drawn out and intense proposal ever thought of that was designed as a play to pick up girls and called "the last play I'll ever need". A relationship blossoms between Robin and Barney. Today, October 13th, is National Suit Up Day based on the show. I was unable to participate in the suiting up as I don't have a suit on campus. I was disappointed. I'm all caught up on the show now and I don't know what I'll do after the show is over

On Saturday, I went to my first home football game since coming to Wartburg. I should have been to more since my roommate is a manager and has the schedule hanging on our wall. This was my first free home game Saturday since school started. The game was exciting to watch and kept the fans on the edge of their seats, even though the fans were disappointing. There was no enthusiasm in the crowd and it was silent in the stands. The Knights scored in the first minute of the game, having jumped on a muffed kick off return. As the game progressed, the comfortable lead we had at the beginning reversed itself long enough to worry about whether or not we would win our homecoming game. It was nice to win this homecoming game since my high school got annihilated this year. As the game continued and we took the lead again, my mind began to wander, I chatted with friends, and lost track of what was happening in the game. I remembered why I don't go to many games. I'm not athletically gifted and most sporting events tend to bore me.

How I Met Your Mother season 8 has finally been uploaded to Netflix. I have a new reason to procrastinate as How I Met Your Mother is my favorite television show and I have been deprived of the show since finishing watching season 7 almost eight months ago. I feel an emotional connection to the characters and I feel like they are really my friends. The show is life-consuming and addicting. I don't what I'll do after season 9 when I need a How I Met Your Mother fix. I will probably go into withdrawals. An unhealthy portion of what I know about relationships and how people work comes from knowledge I learned from the show. There are a lot of life lessons taught in the show.

Last Thursday night on my way home from work, I was riding on the bike trail. As I was approaching the bridge, my co-worker and I saw three large mammals standing in the middle of the bridge. We assumed they were big dogs, but as we came up on the animals we saw that they were deer. When we came within a bike-length of the deer, one of them jumped over the bridge railing and into the river. The other two deer took off in a reasonable direction down the bridge away from us, but the brave little deer thought the only option to avoid us riding our bikes past it was to jump in the river. My co-worker and I were in shock at the site of the deer potential giving up on life to stay away from us.  We stopped to see what happened, and that's when I found out that deer can swim.