Copy Cat

In an effort to find ways to work out that are actually FUN, I have started rock climbing.

Actually, wall climbing. I used to do it sort of frequently years ago, but before two weeks ago I think it has been 4 years since the last time I had been climbing.

My sister Swizzlestickmama and I go to the local climbing wall and kick our own asses. We have decided to at least go every Wednesday because Wednesday is ladies night so we can climb for $5 and free rentals. Which is a steal. Swizzle started climbing long before I did and I KNOW I started climbing because I felt like I had to keep up with her. This has been a trend in my life.

As soon as Swizzle did it, I JUST HAD to do it myself.

I know people say that imitating someone is the sincerest form of flattery, but I am sure there were times that Swizzle wanted to tie me up to keep me from copying her yet again. Lucky for me she never did that. Instead, she would just laugh at how determined I was to follow in her footsteps. Or complain to my mother.

Here are just a few examples of things I have done because of my big sister:

1. Blogging. I had heard of people blogging and knew that she blogged, but for the longest time I just wasn’t interested. And then she gave me the URL to her blog and allowed me to read it. I think it was a week later that I called her and asked her to help me set up my own blog.

2. Reading. Yes, I loved to read all on my own, but I actually got a degree in English Literature because of Swizzle. Sort of. In high school she would read stuff by Allen Ginsberg and Williams Burroughs and I had no idea who they were. It killed me that she knew about them and I didn’t. So I started reading more. I started pulling books off of her bookshelf so I would know what she was talking about. At first I thought the books were stupid, but as I got older I started to like them a lot more, and then after going through 17 majors in college, I picked English. It was what I liked and is what I am good at. But if I wasn’t always trying to keep up with Swizzle I may have done something else.

3. Music. Though I do have my own taste in music, and I am sure there have been a few times I have taught her a thing or two about music, I have a collection of music that came straight from Swizzle. I would not listen to Kirsty MacColl, Kasey Chambers or Shannon Curfman if she didn’t listen to them first. I always love when I listen to these ladies with someone else in the car and they think I have the most awesome taste in music. Sometimes I will tell them I got it from my sister. Other times I take full credit for finding them myself.

4. Eating healthier. Swizzle is the queen of veggie burgers. At first I thought they were gross (this was well before I had ever actually tried one) but then I decided to give it a try. Now I prefer veggie burgers. Or turkey burgers. Swizzle was also my inspiration to try being a vegetarian. She is the queen at being an on-again, off-again vegetarian, and one of the times she was on-again, I did it along with her. Leland and I go through phases of what we want to eat and what we don’t want to eat, and we do that for different reasons. But the first time I gave it a try was all about my sister.

5. Rollerblading. Swizzle loves to rollerblade. Though I am sure it is tough to do now that she has two little monsters, when we were younger she was ALWAYS on her rollerblades. So what did I start doing? I started keeping them in my car so I could rollerblade whenever I wanted to. Sometimes we would rollerblade together, and sometimes I just call her to tell her I went rollerblading to rub it in.

I am sure this list isn’t even close to being complete, but making this list is starting to make me feel very unoriginal. Now that I am older, I definitely do things my own way and for my own reasons, but Swizzle influenced me a lot when we were kids. But I love climbing. It is an awesome cardio and muscle building workout. And I just feel very cool doing it…although the harness isn’t flattering at all. And often crawls up places it shouldn’t be.

Please check out Swizzle's link at the top of the page for her side of the story.

In other news, Mrsblogsalot has given me her own Must Read Award!



I was so excited to see that she thinks I am a must read. I knew I would lose some readers when I started posting about our 700 escapade, but I never thought that someone would think I was a must read because of it. THANK YOU SO MUCH Mrsblogsalot. You rock my world!