St Patty's Day

I love St Patrick's Day. It's a great Holiday. You get to wear green (which is one of my favorite colors). And it's a day dedicated to fun. What's a better holiday then that?
Last night we celebrated St. Patrick's Day a little differently then normal. Usually we go out, get in the mix of the festivities, throw back a few and just enjoy the madness that is the day. This year we went climbing. We were supposed to go on Friday so we could still go out last night, but it snowed. So then we had to make a decision. What to do, climb or go out? After much discussion we finally decided on climbing. I was still torn all the way there. Once we got there though everything else faded away.
Climbing takes me to a place that cycling and playing doesn't. It's hard to explain. I can talk about riding forever. How I rode, how I felt, what it was like, etc... Playing is the same thing. Whether I played something clean, or am all thumbs, or learned a new piece. But climbing I have trouble with. It's all so new. It's hard to tell a bad day from a good day. Some days I finish a lot of routes I try (this happened once), other days I don't (which are most), but I can pick something else good out of it, like I learned how to hug a wall (which really hurts by the way) or I got part of the way through a problem that I wouldn't even have considered a few weeks ago. But it's more than my performance that's enjoying. There's something in the way it makes me feel. It gives me such a sense of peace. While I'm climbing of think of nothing else. It's like I've entered into another world and everything else is briefly washed away. The social aspect is great too. Everyone is so nice and friendly. We kinda kick back and talk a little and climb a little and discuss how we can attack it differently. Meanwhile Marc is flinging his body across the mats as he can't help but jump around on the floors.
So anyway, that's what we decided to do this year for St. Patrick's Day. A little quieter, a lot more sober, but still relaxing, just more peaceful. I would say less painful too, but really just a different type of pain. Instead of a hangover, I can't move my fingers and my muscles ache.