Hmmm. What could I climb, that wasn't meant to be climbed, that I have not climbed before?
And then the answer came-- the school roof.

I've always had a yearning to search for secret/forbidden places, that's why I took theater tech to get backstage and find those secret passageways in the theater.
People have been on the roof before, but usually it's frisbee players who lose thier frisbee up there.

We've had these plans for a few weeks now, but today finally decided to get on with it and CLIMB.

We took the 29 from 19th avenue down to Lake Merced and walked through the campus. It's under construction to be more compliable with the Americans With Disabilities Act, so they're putting in ramps and stuff. There was dirt everywhere. We circled around to the side entrance, where people usually climbed up. But the bench was too far away from any good holding point so we walked around to the front, looking for a makeshift stepladder. What we came upon was the tin roof they had recently installed over a drain. It smelled terrible, but we persisted. Allison offered Casey and I a leg up and we hoisted ourselves over to the top. There was some swearing involved, as I was simultaneously afraid that the feeble tin would break underneath me and that a construction worker would find us and call the police, but we made it up. The tin was already bent where some previous people had climbed up.

And now there was a problem: how was Allison going to get up now that she had no one to hoist her up? This was made even more difficult by a woman who had appeared with her dog and was now sitting on the grass in front of the school. We hung low for about ten minutes, and when she left we managed to pull Allison up onto the roof.

Everytime we heard some small noise or saw a person, pandemonium and much ducking ensued. It wasn't like there was any particular place to duck, the roof was level with the sidewalk next to the road. Luckily, no one seemed to mind the three girls walking around on the roof. It was pretty bleak, not much to see except the nice view of Villas Parkmerced and that road that winds along the lake. We found an empty bottle of champagne, an orange ball, and a bouncy purple ball that we kept.

The climb down was not any easier. We managed not to fall, though, and with a little pain we got there. No one found us while we were up on the roof, though we made some noise shuffling around the gravel that was up there. Afterwards we walked around the school and kicked around the purple ball. Casey and Allison have it in their car now.

Next time, when there aren't any construction workers, we're going to scale the art wing walls.