glorious holds

Ahoy,

This past weekend we went to Horse Flats for the first time. Of course we went to go climbing. It's just an hour outside the city. I had been in this direction before. E and I went to Switzer Falls, which we passed on the way up to Horse Flats. We parked right at a camp site and after a short hike, we had reached all the climbs we could get our hands on. Really short hike, super luxurious climbing trip if there ever was one. There were even bathrooms at the camp site. It looked like everybody had cleared out from camping, which was a little eerie because the weather was really nice and crisp, it was still Sunday morning, and super close to the city. Where did everyone go? There's always suspicions in my mind if a place is deserted that by all logic and reasoning shouldn't be. What does everyone else know that I don't?

Climbing was great that day and everybody got to do stuff or hang around. We didn't spend a ton of time wandering around looking for climbs like at Black Mountain, which is always appreciated.

We zipped down to the San Gabriel Valley for Chinese food and boba. Everybody ate really fast. I always get concerned about A's rate of consumption in these settings because he eats really slow. I wasn't  really certain how one acquired that "skill" from being in a family of 6 (if you don't eat fast, you don't eat, right?). But then I had dinner with them, and it became clear.

Whenever he has dinner with my family - my mom is always telling him to stop talking and to focus on eating his food. Meanwhile, he's trying to talk to my family and asking silly questions out of formality/politeness, which (if we're being honest here) my family couldn't care less about. And, my dad doesn't speak English and my mom has a really thick accent, so it's not like they can even communicate. Also, my family is unfamiliar with the typical American niceties and mores I have found in his house (read: to any outsider, my family members are unabashedly rude Chinese people and his pestering them will not merit their thinking any higher of him). However, the amount of food he eats will correlate positively with how impressed they are and worthy of their daughter he is.

linguistically aloof,
jt