the world of a gumby that plays rugby

2011-12-31T18:37:00.000-08:00

spam trapper?

gearing up for montana, week 8

2011-04-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

got my new cleats last week. hope to start breaking them in this week! they are not as big as i hoped they would be; i have to fit ankle wrap inside along with socks, but...we'll see. i had hoped they would be the last cleats i'll ever have to buy.

monday 4/18
lunchtime: zumba! 45 minutes
dinner time: 2.7 mile run with 20 sprint intervals 27 minutes

tuesday 4/19
way too long field day. 17 hours of work. ugh.

wednesday 4/20
didn't go out. worked late again. ugh!

thursday 4/21
3x10
arm circles
hip circles
lateral walk with leg band
lunge walk
leg swings
jump rope 1 min.
lateral shuffle - racquetball court, long way

fly 5lb each hand 3x10
bicep 15lb each hand 3x10
bench 25lb bar 3x15
box jumps - med height box 3x10
tricep pulldown 37.5lb 3x10
row eagle 70lb 3x10
narrow pulldown 50lb 3x15
shrugs 30lb each hand 3x12
dead lift 30lb bar 3x10
calf raises 3x20

abs 3x25
crunch
flutter
bridge
bicycle
planks 3x30seconds

friday 4/22

gearing up for montana, week 6

2011-04-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

it's still spring. it's still raining. luckily it just sort of sprinkled for my run monday.

mon 4/4
run 2 miles
sprint intervals
jumping jacks / star jumps
(example: run, sprint, star jumps, run, sprint, jumping jacks, run...)

probably ran a little less than 2 miles because i got some awful cramping and had to walk it out. annoyed!

tues 4/5
total body conditioning class
10 min cardio on step

3x16 each: 8 slow, 8 quicker
squats (toes out, w/weights on legs)
bicep curl 10lb w/leg lift for inner thigh (alternating sides)
tricep dips
goal post arms, raise up above head palms in
goal post arms, rotate arms down, palms forward
shoulder press 10lb each hand on bench
table one arm one leg out hold, pulse

bicycles
double leg lower sides
hold v legs up
bent knee to chest, other leg out

thurs 4/7
lifted

getting ready for montana, week 5

2011-03-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

today was not my best day at the gym. simply because once i realized women's basketball NCAA tournament was on, i was hooked. especially to see tennessee play notre dame. i wished with all my might that tennessee would lose...and they did! it was a great game! so, i was a bit distracted. i hope to be better the rest of the week.

mon 3/28
20 minutes cardio (while watching the game)
[the gym was packed and many free weights were off being used by people]

3x10
bicep curls 7.5lb each hand
upright row 7.5lb each hand
standing fly 5 lb each hand
wide grip lat pulldown 62.5lb
lunge walk w/5lb each hand
trunk twists
shrugs 25lb each hand
calf raises 3x20

[people were queued up at all the squatting stations and all the benches, and it was impossible to find enough space to do dead lifts or good mornings. my workout partner was going to show up, but bailed, leaving me there at 5:15 which is the worst]

abs:
regular situp
reverse crunch
regular crunch
double leg lowering
double leg raise to ceiling
bridge
bicycle

tomorrow i hope to get in some good cardio to make up for this somewhat pitiful day...

getting ready for montana, week 4

2011-03-27T20:38:00.000-07:00

mon 3/21
since my ipod deleted my workouts from previous days, i had to try to remember what the base workout was. unfortunately i didn't remember exactly right, and i think i overdid it a bit. ah well.

cardio 10 min
squats 85lb
low seated row 50lb
lunge walk w/medicine ball twist (1st time 8lb, 2nd time 16lb)
dumbell bench press 12.5lb each hand
skull crusher 15lb w/both hands
pullover 15lb w/both hands
box jumps 30
wide grip lat pulldown 60
upright row 20lb bar
deadlift 30lb bar
military press 25lb bar
shrugs 25lb each hand
flys 5lb each hand

abs 3x10
crunch
full situp
double leg lowering 1x10
legs up cross hand to toe
legs up heels to ceiling 1x10 (hip wasn't feeling right)
yoga ball hyperextensions
front penguins
back penguins

tues 3/22
run 1.75 miles to athletic fields

10 40-yard sprints from laying on the ground
sprint/sidestep the numbers

run .25 miles back to work with sprint bursts

wed 3/23
resting day

thur 3/24
cardio 10 min
10 each:
arm circles
trunk rotations
hip circles
jump rope (1 minute)
box drill (10 each direction)
lateral jumps
leg swings

pushups on yoga ball
lunge walk
seated row 50lb
squats 85lb
bicep curls 12.5lb each hand
step ups 3x10 per leg, 10lb each hand
flies 5lb each hand
low lateral walk 30 each direction
narrow lat pulldown 50
tricep overhead 30lb both hands

abs:
crunches
plank (3x20 sec)
flutter kick
reverse crunch
back penguins
bicycles
bridge 1min x 3

fri 3/25

run 1.75 miles to athletic fields

sprint 4 40-yd sprints
sprint 40-yd-sidestep 20yd-sprint 40yd-side step 20yd x 2
sprint 40-yd-10 star jumps-sprint 40 yd x 2

run .25 miles back to work with sprint bursts

TGIF!

sat 3/26
3 hour contra dance

getting ready for montana, week 3

2011-03-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

today was tough. i didn't get to sleep until midnight last night, and then had to get up at 630 to get to work by 9. it was a sleepy drive south. work all day was standard fare, thankfully, but interesting enough to keep my attention.

monday 3/14
strength without boundaries class
(i didn't bring my ipod to class this time, but i remember a lot of what we did)
jc bands = big rubber bands with handles
mini bands = small rubber bands you put around ankles/knees

cardio (walking jumping jacks butt kicks etc)
squats (variations with jc bands overhead or in front)
good mornings 15lb bar
resistance band dead 'lifts'
lunges (variations with jc bands overhead)
triceps (variations with jc bands)
biceps (variations with jc bands)
assorted hip exercises (sidestep, duck walk with arms overhead; hands and knees clamshell w/no band)
crazy situps w/arms and legs hovering at the same time (super hard)
bridges w/mini band (variations; i thought i was going to cry, my hamstrings were cramping)
superman series (variations, with mini band)
planks (variations)
other "suck in your belly button tight" exercises
something with hamstrings at the end

stretch

tuesday 3/15
rest

i wasn't feeling my best today, and it was pouring rain; not ideal for a run outside when one is not feeling their best. so, i just took it easy.

wednesday 3/16
strength without boundaries class
again, didn't have anything to write with - actually i started to but my ipod erased my file on me so i was pretty pissed and didn't attempt to write the rest out. here's what i remember:

warmup 5 minutes
lots of squats. lots. and squat jumps.
lots of lunges. lots. some people did jumping lunges, but i did not.
side to side single leg jumps
burpees
pushups
mountain climbers
hands and knees position - one arm one leg
plank holds 30 seconds x 4
up up down down pushups 30 seconds x 4
lots of bridges (with variations). lots. i was in serious burning pain. ow.
j-band sitting rows (with band around our feet)
j-band bicep curls (on our backs, band around our feet)
j-band somethings (on our backs, elbows out, pulling towards our shoulders)
core series - legs up, alternating hands / legs up, both hands at a time / legs up, holding in crunch position, single/double leg lowering / legs down and bent, crunches / crunch position with legs bent and raised off floor, etc.
superman series - upper only, lower only, one arm one leg, penguins

box jumps (medium box) 30
shrugs 25lb 3x10

thursday 3/17
happy st patricks day

2.6 miles
first 1.3 miles jog / stretch
second 1.25 miles spring-jog various distances
last 0.05 mile cool down

saturday 3/19
3 hour contra dance

getting ready for montana, week 2

2011-03-07T19:11:00.001-08:00

much to my surprise, i wasn't as sore over the weekend as i thought i was going to be. surprised me because i thought i worked pretty hard last week. maybe i'm stronger than i thought. either way, next time i get to do weights, i'll see if i can do more than i expect.

saturday 3/5
contra dance 2.5 hours

sunday is the lords day/day of rest.

monday 3/7
pre-class: 10 minutes on rowing machine

strength without boundaries class
5 minutes cardio (stepping, dynamic stretching in place)

bicep curl 8x8 10lb bar
upright row 8x8 10lb bar
tricep kickbacks 8x8 5lb each hand

lunges (w/10lb bar on shoulders) 8x8 with variations (slow down, slow up, pulses, etc)
squats (w/10lb bar on shoulders) 8x8 with variations (feet turned out, feet forward, slow, etc)
sidestep with band 8x8 with variations (singles, doubles, 4 each side, balance on one)

bridges 12x8 with variations (hold, pulse, legs out, etc)
bicycle 2x16 with variations (hold, slow, faster)
double leg lowering 2x12
reverse crunch 2x8
crunch 20
cross crunch 18 each side (36)
upright single leg lowering, foot turned out (for inner thigh) 16x3 for each leg (variations)

extra wide arms pushup 25
plank 30 seconds
up up down down elbow pushups 25
tricep pushup 8
plank 15 seconds
up up down down elbow pushups 20
regular pushups 12
plank 15 seconds
up up down down elbow pushups 10

upper body extensions 16
lower body extensions 16
opposite arm / opposite leg extensions 16
penguins 16

tricep lowering (behind head) 10lb 16x3
full extension fly 16
overhead shoulder press 5lb each hand 16
ski jumps 1 minute

stretch

tuesday 3/8
spinning class with laurie

wednesday 3/9
joe's weights workout + sprints

warmup - 1 minute each
arm circles
trunk rotations
hip circles
hip 8s
jump rope (no rope)
box jump x30 (smallest box because some other kids were hogging the medium one)
leg swings 20 each leg

weights: 3x10
dumbell bench 12.5lb each hand
inverted row (used squat stand and lowered to 10)
dumbell deadlift with overhead press 10lb each hand
flies 5lb each hand
narrow pulldown 50lb
reverse lunges w/lift
upright row 20lb bar
dumbell curls 12.5lb each hand
rope tricep pulldown 30lb
rope tricep pull over head 30lb
shrugs 20lb each hand

abs
3x10
full situp
full body crunch
hyperextensions (on ball)
supermans
knee up situps

cardio:
4 laps warmup
10 40-yard sprints, starting from ground
2 laps cooldown

stretch

thursday 3/10
cardio:
seattle 3 hour dance marathon
good thing i did this marathon, cause my legs were sore from yesterday's lifting/running

friday 3/11
cardio:
contra in the couve with sue baker and the retrospectacles

saturday 3/12
strength:
portland megaband
foot tapping
arm swinging

sunday 3/13
cardio:
9 hour dance; i didn't dance all of it. maybe 1/2 hour-40 minutes each hour.

getting ready for montana, week 1

2011-03-03T14:44:00.000-08:00

although i haven't booked my ticket yet, i am planning to attend the Montana Maggotfest Rugby Tournament with my old rugby team, the Minneapolis Menagerie. i haven't played rugby in about 3 years or so, and though i still feel like i understand the concepts of the game, my body is not ready for the abuse. so i decided to see if i could use the next 2 months to get strong enough to handle this tournament/weekend. if i can, i'll update this every day.

monday 2/28
strength class
6 laps of sprint straightaway / jog corners

tuesday 3/1
spinning class
11 laps (1 mile) - alternating laps of sprint / jog, and jog with stations at the corners.
stations = star jump, frankenstein walks, pushups, situps.

wednesday 3/2
strength class

thursday 3/3
spinning class
weight training
3x10 unless otherwise noted

Pulley wide grip row 60lb (found close grip machine later)
Squats 4 sets of 10 65lb
dumbbell incline bench press 10lb each hand
Lat pull downs with wide grip 50lb
dumbbell overhead shoulder press 10lb each hand
step-ups (short box)
dumbbell shrugs 15lb each hand

abs 20 reps each

1. full sit-up with feet supported if needed
2. full body crunches
3. side bends
4. hyperextension
5. superman
6. knee up sit-ups

friday 3/4
2 miles on the track (20 laps) sprint/jog intervals

- 2 warmup laps
- 1 lap sprint
- 2 laps sprint straight/jog curve
- 1 lap sprint straight + curve, jog straight + curve
- 2 laps sprint straight/jog curve
- 1 lap sprint
- 1 lap jog
- rest 1 minute
- repeat
- add 1 lap cooldown walk to close.

50 crunches
stretch

happy friday!

music revival, day 14

2010-09-21T20:54:00.001-07:00

the replacements - all for nothing and nothing for all

all for nothing

"Left of the Dial"
"Kiss Me on the Bus"
"Bastards of Young"
"Here Comes a Regular"
"Skyway"
"Alex Chilton"
"The Ledge"
"Can't Hardly Wait"
"I'll Be You"
"Achin' to Be"
"Talent Show"
"Anywhere's Better Than Here"
"Merry Go Round"
"Sadly Beautiful"
"Nobody"
"Someone Take the Wheel"

favorite tracks: left of the dial, bastards of young, alex chilton, achin to be, anywhere's better than here
comments: this dual album was given to me by a fellow dj at WRHO, dr. mike woost. he was the only professor i had for anthropology, and i took 2 of his classes and loved both of them. i digress. at some point he got involved in radio and either i had a show before or after him and i was playing the goo goo dolls and he said something to the effect that it reminded him of the replacements. i replied with, "who are the replacements?" next time we saw each other he had this 2 disc set in hand. i now wonder if i was supposed to give it back to him. i never asked. and i haven't seen him for years.

this album took a bit of getting used to. it has a definite indie feel, not polished, not finished, not popular with anyone, including radio stations. the first 2 times through the disc i was not sure about it. by the third time i started to like it, and was taken back to all those people that didn't like 'popular' music, but liked other stuff i just couldn't get into. maybe i can, after all.

'kiss me on the bus' reminded me of a high school band trip where it was late and we were all coming home on a school bus and some people were playing truth or dare. i tried to stay out of it but someone was dared to kiss me. i can't remember if we did or didn't, but i remember feeling weird about it. we got along OK though he was younger than me. *shrug* 'skyway' definitely had to be written about minneapolis, because there was just so much ringing true to it. then i looked and these guys are from there, so it makes perfect sense.

music revival, days 12-13

2010-09-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

neil finn and friends - 7 worlds collide

anytime
take a walk
the climber
loose tongue
down on the corner
there is a light that never goes out
paper doll
turn and run
angels heap
edible flowers
stuff and nonsense
i see red
she will have her way
weather with you
paradise (wherever you are)
don't dream it's over

favorite tracks: anytime, the climber, down on the corner, turn and run, stuff and nonsense, she will have her way, weather with you, don't dream it's over
comments: 'take a walk' had a familiar voice singing, wasn't quite sure, but when i heard 'stuff and nonsense' i was certain - eddie vedder! had no idea he participated in this project. 'there is a light...' was certainly familiar, but upon listening closer it was a little bit morbid. and yet it's still kind of stuck in my head. 'turn and run' reminded me of hanging out with kevin f. in CA. 'i see red' was a HUGE change in pace on this album; a rock and roll song stuck in with a bunch of more melodic tunes...good but seemed a little out of place. 'don't dream it's over' - i had no idea this was by crowded house/neil finn. a little musical education for me!

switchfoot - the beautiful letdown

favorite tracks: meant to live, this is your life, dare you to move, the beautiful letdown, gone, adding to the noise
comments: i have been hesitant to listen to this one for awhile, because after reviewing the liner notes i realized a lot of the songs on this album are about God, jesus, etc. and i thought, "oh no, a christian rock band! how could i have picked this?" of course, the concept of christian rock bands had been lost on me until someone in CA pointed out that a song i liked talked about God or something, and i started thinking. but i am not sure these guys are a purely christian rock band. i am certain i heard meant to live on an alternative rock station, and for some reason i'm envisioning hearing it in iowa, but that might not be right, since it was released in 2003. must have heard it on the radio driving somewhere. anyway, after all my hesitations to listen to this album, turns out, it's really great. not too heavy, not too light. it was perfect for long day thursday / short day monday listening.

music revival, days 10-11

2010-09-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

driving up and back to portland and a little time spent at work...

collective soul - collective soul

favorite tracks: almost the whole album
comments: i got this in the wake of their hints, allegations, and things left unsaid album; actually, i never got that one, i had just heard a few songs off it and liked them so figured i'd give this one a shot. a great driving cd, i listened to it often while driving back and forth to iowa in the summer of 2000. and for many other long distance driving adventures.

dave matthews band - crash

favorite tracks: so much to say, too much, say goodbye, lie in our graves, tripping billies, proudest monkey
comments: this album has more sexual allusions than many albums i know or like. this is not my favorite of dmb's albums, but it does have some fun tracks on it. i love the concept of being the 'proudest monkey'.

coldplay - a rush of blood to the head

favorite tracks: whole album
comments: i bought this album either before or at the same time as parachutes because several people in the rizzo lab were into it. once i got it, i was hooked. i often can't guess the names of the tracks from the lyrics, but i love these guys.

man vs. shed, roommates and the internet

2010-09-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

a few things from last week:

a few weeks ago, my roommates and i spoke about getting firewood for the winter (since we don't turn on the heat to save money, we just use the wood stove while we're home).

scratch that.

*I* brought up that we should start looking for firewood. maybe look on craigslist. maybe look around for something cheap. maybe look for something free, though not crappy wood. everyone agreed and cheered, "yay! free firewood!"

a few weeks went by. i looked on craigslist and found a few places giving away free firewood. some even very close to home. i emailed the guys, since i knew i'd be working late and they're great about checking their email, and said, "hey, can someone go check this out?" no one did.

after a couple weeks, i realized i was going to have to spearhead this effort if we were going to get wood. so i got on craigslist and started really looking for free firewood. emailed several people. got in touch with one. we arranged a pickup. this was on a tuesday. my roommates were conveniently not home that night when i left. i went over there with my station wagon and filled the backseat and trunk, about 1.5 layers thick - some doug fir and maybe hemlock. not much, but hey, it was free.

on the drive home, i HAPPENED to see a sign that said "free firewood!" just down the street from our house. i couldn't believe it! so close! i pulled over and picked though it. this time it was a rotten birch that someone had cut down, probably last year and just had sitting there. it was quite dry and in the proper size logs. some were very light; i left those. the trouble with this location was that the wood was located on the side of the house where the street is a steep hill with a stop sign. no place to pull over. so i had to walk each armful of logs back to my car, around the yard. by now it was dark so it might have looked a little weird with a woman walking around carrying logs from someone's house and putting them into her car. i probably took 5 armloads of semi-rotten wood and then drove home.

jason was home when i got back, and he happily helped me unload it into the backyard.

the next day i heard back from a guy who was selling around a cord of firewood for $90. cherry. been cut and seasoning all summer. probably the best we were going to get, and most of it was split. after talking with the man, i realized it was going to be a do-it-yourself operation, as he wasn't going to be able to help me. this night, again, no one was home when i went to go get the wood.

i drove over, assessed the pile, and started loading. i filled my car, to the brim, backseat all the way to the trunk, floor to ceiling, full of wood. i got home. the roommates were now home, and were glad to help out with the unloading of wood, though dinnertime was approaching and they were getting ready to eat dinner (where was my dinner?). this time, 3 of the 4 of them helped, with one not wanting to get dirty or something, i guess.

i asked if anyone wanted to come help me load up with a second load. "we're about to eat dinner," they replied, so i dutifully went back and loaded my car, again, filled to the brim. i got back, and again 3 people came out and helped me unload. we even used a wheelbarrow and zach led us in a rousing round of "the wonders of mechanical invention" or something like that. by then i'd spent 3 hours loading and unloading and driving back and forth, and working all day. i was pretty tired. but as a group, we did share the first/only pepper the garden produced this year, after all the wood was unloaded.

the next day was thursday, and i decided i better go and get the rest of the wood. thankfully, my boss brought in his pickup so i could use that instead of my car. what i didn't know was that the pickup had a topper on it, so i couldn't just go load crazy, but i was bound by the constraints of the topper. went home to see if anyone wanted to help. people were surfing the internet / playing on their computers / watching youtube / making dinner / hanging out with each other, and that apparently made them *too* busy to help me out (are we detecting a pattern?)

i went back, and loaded the truck filled as full as i could. some of the pieces are extremely heavy, it turned out, so i had to have some strategy as to how to get them into the truck. the thing of it was, this wood was in a big pile, but it wasn't a place i could put the truck easily. so i had to sort the wood into smaller pieces, toss those over to the tailgate, then toss them into the truck, then crawl into the truck to stack them all neatly and as tightly as possible. this was a big procedure. i knew i couldn't just casually toss the bigger pieces, so i rolled them end over end, over to the truck, and ended up putting them in last in order to save my back.

i took the first load, got the 2 guys to help me unload, then of course, dinner was ready, so i left and reloaded and was able to perfectly fit all the rest of the wood into the second load (insuring i wouldn't have to go back again)(i was VERY proud of my packing/conceptualizing skills in this moment). for though this wood was in town, it was almost as far away as it could be, since i live in the northwest and it was in the southeast, and there is NO good or direct way to get there. i don't drive around town on a regular basis, so by now i was pretty tired of driving. this set took me 3.5 hours, and still i had not eaten dinner. the guys helped me unload the second load, and we called it a day. i had kind of hoped to cover up the wood in case it rained, but it was all sprawled out and unruly so i kind of covered it with the tarps from the loading. luckily it did keep the wood covered and it did rain. sigh.

one thing that bothers me about my current living situation is the fact that i live with 2 guys, who both have their girlfriends living in the house with us right now. it's not permanent; one girl just got a place this week after having moved into town from colorado a couple weeks ago, the other girl has been around all summer after returning from the peace corps in africa and will be leaving to go to grad school in a couple of weeks. the issue is, with all the other girls around to draw their attention, my roommates are useless. it's like i don't exist in the house at all. like a ghost just around to be spooky and translucent.

before the internet, jason or girls arrived, zach and i would actually talk after work. he'd shoot hoops in the living room and we'd debrief each other about our day's work and experiences. it was like having a real friend in the house. i enjoyed getting to know zach and learn a little about what his experience was like as a first year teacher.

jason moved in sometime in may, and he made it known that "because he was going to be a student, he was going to need internet at the house." this didn't make a ton of sense to me, since he could do internet stuff at school, but zach decided he didn't want to go to the library for internet anymore, so they got it installed. i stayed out of it. i like my home time to be my own, where i can do home things and not be distracted by the vacuum that is the computer / internet world. i don't think they get that quite yet.

right after that, serena moved back from africa, and now she and zach were hanging out all the time. which, i probably would too if my boyfriend had been in africa for 2 years. i started working really wacky crazy hours at work, and/or was away because of dance camps and visiting my parents, so this didn't bother me too much. others vacationed or went off to do field work, and it was like a real summer vacation.

then, about 3-4 weeks ago, claire moved here from colorado. she is perhaps one of the sweetest people i've ever met in my life. she's just so nice. i'm pretty sure at the same time, zach and serena had some people come over as well. it was a VERY full house for a little while there, and people actually had to use the shower with the curtain that attacks you. of course, they didn't put down a bathmat, nor did they take my towel off the curtain rod while showering, so i woke to find that my towel was soaked and there was water all over the floor of my bathroom. thanks, visitors!

anyway, since all these people were around, i thought for sure at some point i'd have some people to talk to after long days at work by myself. but no. they are busy either talking with each other or, get this, surfing the internet individually on their own laptops, while sitting in the same room. there are 4 people and 4 laptops going sometimes in the living room/dining room area. it's nuts. you don't even need to converse with people anymore. as long as you have the internet.

back to my original point about firewood. one thing the guys said to me very clearly and with a lot of excitement was that they LOVED splitting firewood and were very eager to do so for the exercise effect.

on tuesday of last week, about 5 days after the firewood unloading bonanza, not one piece of firewood had been split.

scratch that.

jason had split the rotten birch logs into pieces. none of the NEW CHERRY firewood had been split. i wanted it split so it could fit in the stove and also so it could dry out. i also wanted to stack it in the shed so that it could stay dry. winter is coming and i'm not blind to that fact. i think they are.

i realized i had to take matters into my own hands. on wednesday, i took the day off work and after i finished at the soup kitchen, i went home, did several loads of laundry, got my firewooding clothes on, and went outside to attempt to make some sense of the wood pile.

first thing was to get the dry wood that was in there, out, so that it could be burned first while the other stuff dried out more thoroughly. (jon made a good point later that maybe i should mix it up, have some old and some new mixed in so that if we needed it, we'd have some later. what a smart man.) i tossed all of last year's stuff out. started sorting through the pile of new stuff, seeing what was manageable and what was too big. tossed the reasonably sized stuff to the woodshed, bigger stuff was set up around the yard for ease of splitting. i figured if it was sitting there looking at them, they'd be more likely to split it, vs in a big pile which looks way too daunting. then i started stacking.

after about an hour, jason got home / came outside and said, "what's going on out here?" i said, "well, i'm setting up logs that are too big so they can get split. or else, we can have a big pow wow." because it kind of looked like camp with a bunch of logs all around in a horseshoe shape. he seemed genuinely interested in helping out, so he got the wedge and sledgehammer and started splitting. it was fun to have 2 of us out there doing the work, vs just me. he lasted about an hour or less at this task, then went back inside to hang out with the girlfriend. maybe i would have done the same thing. but maybe my boyfriend would have come out to help with the firewood.

i continued tossing and sorting and stacking until it got dark. i went through the pile in the front yard and got it all piled up into pieces that need splitting and covered it with a tarp. i even put on my headlamp. i even smashed my face into the side of the roof of the shed, at which point i decided it was time to quit for the day. i had about 2 rows of wood under the shed, and i'd put some plastic along the back to keep rain water from getting in there since it's open. i was very proud of my efforts. i definitely feel a huge sense of accomplishment after moving wood around and getting it arranged like i want it. there's still more to do, but i had done what i could in the free time that i had. the internet can wait for winter in my opinion, when there's nothing left to do and we can sit around inside. in a way, it feels a little like that story about the grasshopper who just frolicked about and was having a grand old time in the summer, while the ants were busily storing food for the winter. my grasshoppers won't even realize what a service i've done them when it's cold and rainy and we have dry wood to keep us warm.

i went in to ice my face.

music revival, day 9

2010-09-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

familiar felt right today. i wasn't visiting albums for the first time, but rather, i had a small collection of cds i'd put together for jon to listen to at some point. some were best for driving, some were picked because i knew he'd like them, some were oldies, some were new, some were just favorites for nostalgic reasons. here's what i ended up listening to today:

carbon leaf - indian summer

favorite tracks: what about everything?, life less ordinary, grey sky eyes, one prairie outpost, let your troubles roll by
comments: this album was recommended to me by frank, from my days back in california. it's just a great album for leisurely driving, with both ballady type stuff and more pop/indie rock sounds. i just love it.

counting crows - this desert life

favorite tracks: hanging around, mrs potters lullaby, st robinson and his cadillac dream
comments: this is an album from the end of college. i remember justin from the radio station was way into counting crows, and i remembered enjoying 'mr jones', and hearing 'a long december', but knew not much else about them. it was this album that caught my attention - most likely we got a promo at the station and i was a converted counting crows fan, right then and there.

dave matthews band - under the table and dreaming

favorite tracks: best of what's around, what would you say, satellite, typical situation, dancing nancies, ants marching, jimi thing, warehouse
comments: this album is a classic. it was one of the first 3 cds i ever bought in my life, and i'm SO glad that i did (others were blues traveler four and sheryl crow tuesday night music club). it's upbeat, it's catchy, he doesn't do too much of that angry/scary voice that turns me off of some of the band's other tracks...overall, one i could listen to any day and it would make the day better, instantly.

collective soul - dosage

favorite tracks: tremble for my beloved, no more no less, dandy life, generate
comments: almost all of the tracks on here are favorites of one sort or another. i went to see collective soul the year after my senior year of college, while i was still living in oneonta. kevin and i roadtripped to rochester with james h., and i'm pretty sure i must have slept the whole way home because i have no recollection of staying there overnight. anyway, the band was promoting this album at the time, and i can still see ed roland, front and center stage, moving his head back and forth in a rhythmic way to 'generate'. awesome.

creedence clearwater revival - chronicle

favorite tracks: proud mary, bad moon rising, down on the corner, fortunate son, traveling band, looking out my back door, who'll stop the rain?, heard it through the grapevine
comments: oldies / classic rock. i love it.

coldplay - parachutes

favorite tracks: the whole album
comments: i didn't know this album actually existed until their second album a rush of blood to the head came out and became wildly successful. i had heard the song 'yellow' before, but didn't know that it came from them, or from what album. once i went shopping for the second one, which happened to be while in was in california (among people who were listening to it often at work), i just bought this one at the same time. a wise decision! :)

first in, last out

2010-09-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

last weekend was labor day. a long weekend. just what i needed.

jon and i attended northwest passage dance camp, held near mt hood. the weather was just about perfect for camping, and the music and dancing were very high level and quite fun. and at the same time, it was a very different crowd than what i'm used to at contra camp. of course, this one had a very distinct mix of contra and english country dance, which was definitely part of the reason for the difference. i enjoyed spending time with the people, but it was by no means thrilling or really life changing unlike other camps where i've gone and felt like i never wanted to leave because i was having so much fun. though, i was given a dress to wear by someone who makes/alters dresses and, well, the dress was a hit. people were impressed and said things like, "wow" and "you look adorable" and "you really do look fantastic". so, a little confidence boost for me, despite the fact that i was unsure if i actually breathed the whole night, as the seams on the dress were rigid and somewhat tight. at one point i said, "how did people ever wear corsets?!"

on my way home tuesday morning - well, i say home, but i really mean on my way back to work - i was listening to the radio (since both my books on cd were a little too heavy for light, leisurely morning listening) and one of the first songs that came on was dave matthews band "satellite". i knew then that i was going to have a good music day, if nothing else. and i did (you can read about it in this post.)

but what this post is really about is being the first in and last out of work.

(for reference, the terms "first in, last out" and "last in, first out" come from labels my dad puts on the boxes christmas decorations. we keep them in the attic, which is long and narrow, and you can't get to all the boxes at once. they go into storage in a straight line. some boxes of decorations are for the house, which can go up before ones for the tree, and the last box out is the stockings since we only use them for christmas day. that's the one for which this post is named.)

at least 2 days a week, i get to work around 8am. since it's summer, there are very few people that are at work at that hour, and forget about students. the bike parking rack is nearly empty, and the same 7 bikes that are there every night when i leave are still there in the morning. i suspect 6 of them are abandoned due to the spiderwebs accumulating on them. i digress. i get to work and there's no one here, not even cars in the parking lot.

i go about my business of setting up my experiment for the day. some days it's getting the samples out of the oven to cool, getting ice for the coolers, cutting parafilm strips, cleaning out the hood, getting the nitration solution and samples from the downstairs lab and bringing them upstairs. sometimes it's getting the samples out of the dessicator and adding acetone. then the procedure begins. and then i have to wait for 4 hours while the reaction happens. or else i have to vortex the samples in 45 minute intervals until it's time to centrifuge them.

in this time i go about other tasks, like washing dishes and getting filters and things ready for the afternoon. i fill flasks with rinse water, separate filter papers, other lab type chores. sometimes i see some people, and sometimes i walk in the stairwell where i can see that there are a lot more cars in the parking lot by 10am. i then eat lunch, usually between 12-1. then, after 1pm, make a run to chem stores to pick up ~20lb of dry ice and bring it back to the lab. or, once the samples are done centrifuging, i bring them to the hood and allow them to evaporate, which takes about an hour. and then i get to do the most fun part of my job which is precipitate the samples, which sometimes works better than others.

by 130 i'm filtering samples. some are very, very slow. the hours creep by. i've done one filtration on 16 samples and it's taken between 3-4 hours.

on precipitation days, some samples do not need filtering. these are great samples and i praise them highly. thank you chemistry gods that made the reaction work so well. the ones that do need filtering usually take anywhere from 1-2 hours EACH to filter. this process is HIGHLY boring, and in the end, not very satisfying.

by now it's 5pm and i take a little walk around the building. it's so quiet. i look out into the parking lot. not many cars out there, but it's not empty. many people have already gone home for dinner. second filtration sometimes goes a little faster, and then it's 730-8pm.

i stop at some point and have some dinner. i think about things like how i wish i could make time to go to the gym on these days. or how some people are home right now. as i walk back to the lab, i look outside again and realize that everyone has gone home, leave a few straggling grad students who are on the computers in the lab or someone who stayed home with the kids and came in late to work on a few things.

my last filtration usually goes the fastest, and sometimes i'm done by 930 or 10. of course, it's usually later because i have to take breaks between each filtration set because my back is usually very sore. i have to stretch, sit down, or just get off my feet. so the first set goes from 130-430, take a break till 530, next set goes till 830, take a break till 9, next set goes till 1030 or 11, then i scrape the samples into tubes and put the tubes into the dessicator with the dry ice.

usually during my down time, if i'm not stretching or doing dishes, i do some email, catch up with people, do my alumni emails or other dance p.r. things, and usually have a snack. i knew things were getting dire when i went to my emergency food bag yesterday and found that it was down to 1 handful of roasted salted almonds, 2 handfuls of dried cranberries, 3 packets of instant oatmeal, and 1 can of amy's low sodium chunky tomato bisque soup. i mean, it's not the end of the world, but it certainly isn't anything i find to be 'thrilling'.

many nights i don't leave until 12am. sometimes later. and when i go back out to the bike rack, i see that the parking lot is empty, except for the state vehicles that are there all the time. and i realize all the bikes from this morning are still there. no one has come to claim them. i tell them, "good night" and head for home.

music revival, day 8

2010-09-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

as the week winds down, i've got another long day of lab work ahead of me, so i figured i'd listen to some tunes to get back into my music revival.

queen - classic queen

favorite known tracks: bohemian rhapsody, under pressure
surprise favorite unknown tracks: a kind of magic, hammer to fall, stone cold crazy, radio ga ga, slightly mad, i want it all, tie your mother down, the miracle, one vision
comments: i found this one while putting some other cds away, and realized i'd never listened to the cd; just put it away without a second thought. i knew i liked bohemian rhapsody, and even though EVERYONE always says, "under pressure! that's by david bowie!" they would be surprised to find out that the MUSIC is by queen and it was queen's first joint venture in music with alternate artists. i was quite surprised by how much i disliked this album the first 2 times i listened to it, but by the third/fourth/fifth time, i found myself quite enjoying it. the first 2 times i thought it was too hard rock, too ballady, and too wimpy and thin sounding. however, today i had quite a different outlook on the album (the first 2 times through were on tuesday afternoon after already being kind of tired from a long day that just kept getting longer). 'hammer to fall' i'm sure relates to the cold war and the soviet union, 'stone cold crazy' is apparently done by other heavy metal artists and is, in my opinion, better during the times when there are lyrics. 'radio ga ga' reminds me a bit of dire straits, 'money for nothing' though i don't know why. 'slightly mad' brought up memories of dr. demento 'they're coming to take me away'. certainly the most poignant song for me of the album is 'i want it all' - it hits home so much for me the current generation - 'i want it all, and i want it NOW!' i'm pretty sure that's what they were getting at, though maybe it has been like that for all time. and 'tie your mother down' reminds me of billy joel's 'only the good die young' - come on out and hang out with us already! it'll be fun! and, at the end, the track 'who wants to live forever?' has a sequence in it that reminds me of led zeppelin's 'live and let die' if that's even the name of that tune, which it probably isn't. i heard the phrase, and kept waiting for the finish, but, well, this was queen's song...

i was very impressed with this album, even with it's greatest hits type status, and in the shadow of it's predecessor killer queen hogging the spotlight with the big hits, it still delivered. thursday was delightful with this album in my lab coat. :)

musical interlude / musical respite

2010-09-02T09:20:00.001-07:00

this week i took a little vacation from listening to music at work. probably because i had such a rotten day of music with steve's 2008 pop vol. 2 and kelly clarkson's my december. i'd reserved several books on cd at the library and had the opportunity to listen to one while driving to portland last weekend. i was so entertained and excited about this book; if it had been in hard copy, it would have been one of those books you stay up all night reading because it's so good.

the sex lives of cannibals by j. maarten troost is a story about a guy who feels sort of lost in the world, until his girlfriend gets a job on a small island in the south pacific and they move there. their lives are turned upside down, though, they did not move there with such grandiose notions of modern living. and they were open to the experience and adventure. and got just that. the book wasn't really about sex lives, or about cannibals - i suspect the author just used that to get your attention; the book was recommended to me, i didn't even pick it out myself - but about their experiences on this tiny, tiny remote island. what they ate, who they met, the music (la macarena was the main song being played over and over and over, and loudly), the heat, the sweltering heat, the drought and lack of fresh water, the bugs, the people, the culture, the ocean, and most of all, poop. i suppose if he'd named the book something about poop, no one would have wanted to read it.

his style of writing is the kind that i like to read. i would gladly read another. i hope to!

music revival, day 7

2010-08-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

not a super great music day. luckily i'm feeling really good otherwise, so it doesn't really matter! my experiment has been working miraculously, so music is definitely second to my happiness today...

steve's 2008 pop! volume 2

florence and the machine - dog days are over
fleet foxes - ragged wood
the moondoggies - changing
be your own pet - zombie graveyard party
bon iver - skinny love
audrey - big ships
ida maria - i like you so much better when you're naked
m83 - kim and jessie
los campesinos! - you! me! dancing!
catfish haven - set in stone
fleet foxes - blue ridge mountains
blitzen trapper - black river killer
white hinterland - dreaming of the plum trees
benji hughes - why do these parties always end the same way?
icy demons - crittin down to babas
black exotics - theme of blackbyrds
the dodos - jodi
health//disco - triceratops (acid girls remix A)

favorite tracks: possibly none.
comments: this was another of my boss steve's favorite mixes from 2008. it might just be that i listened to this one third in the sequence of 3 new albums of totally new music and was starting to get a little burnt out. i didn't have the patience to get through it more than once. this one just didn't do it for me. see reviews of the previous 2 albums.

kelly clarkson - my december

favorite tracks: possibly none
comments: what happened to the american idol with the amazing voice? her thankful album made us all thankful she had won. with tracks like, 'the trouble with love is', 'miss independent', 'low', 'beautiful disaster', 'a moment like this', as well as her other soulful songs, she proved herself worth, in my eyes, as the american idol we'd all been waiting for (the rest, since, have been much of a letdown in my opinion - save, daughtry, who didn't even win). even the breakaway album had some merit to it, with 'breakaway', 'since u been gone', 'behind these hazel eyes', and 'because of you'. the my december album lets us know, she's pissed for losing love, but still longing for it in such a strong way, she loses her artistic talent and just falls...falls...falls...so far that there's nothing left really except a whiny, boring album. bring back the old kelly.
further comments: i've read a little bit about why kelly wrote such a dark album. i'm sure her life was difficult and everything was tearing her down. i can respect that. perhaps i'm not in a place right now where i feel so torn down. perhaps i'm just not in the right mood to listen and really "get" what she's doing/saying with this album. i, however, didn't feel like it was her best work, especially voice wise. and i'm allowed to have my opinion.

the excitement of everyday life

2010-08-26T09:43:00.003-07:00

yesterday i took a well deserved day off. i'd been working myself too much lately, and thought it would be refreshing to take a day and just do whatever i wanted.

slept in and woke up late. yes!

invited claire to come to the soup kitchen with me. she said yes!

had a great time at the soup kitchen. was told i looked gorgeous! and smelled good! only had to break up one small fight. sometimes men are so obnoxious. i wish they would learn to hold their tongue! that's what my mom and dad taught me. it's not worth it to get in the last word. they wouldn't stop even when a cute girl asked them to just drop it. sigh.

i spent some time with my cd collection. it'd been a year or so since i updated my music list, and i thought i was finding cds that weren't where they belonged, and others seemed to be missing from the list.

while doing that project, i found *3* cds that had been put into other cases for travel purposes, i'm sure...but those 3 cds had been lost for 9 months and i was SUPER EXCITED to have them back! i had actually started to worry that i'd lost/left them somewhere. hooray!

later in the evening, i got a call from someone who had some firewood to sell. cherry, split, and big pieces, about a cord. did i want it? absolutely! made 2 runs in my car, well into the night, and the roommates helped me unload it into the yard. warmth in the winter, i can't wait! well, yes, i can wait. i want to wait. i'm not ready to build fires yet, but i look forward to being ready with dry wood! during the unloading, zach sang us a rousing rendition of "the wonders of mechanical invention" since we were using a wheelbarrow.

[this was my second night of firewooding - the previous night i made a run to someone's house where i got some rounds of fir and some bigger pieces, and then i happened upon a house that had a sign out front that said 'free firewood' so i got some. it was kind of rotten birch, but some of the pieces were solid. score! i feel like a midnight firewood raider, however...]

after all the unloading was complete, we went inside, at which point zach realized we were all in the house together at one time, and he decided it was time for us to share the ONE lone pepper that had been growing in the garden. it was pretty feeble; small and leathery. but it was red and we were determined to share it since we all helped with it's growth and development. for a little red pepper, i found it to be quite tasty, even though we each only got a sliver.

to top off my wonderful day, i decided to sleep outside under the stars. a few things i learned from this:

lights on in the house can really light up the deck
chocolate before bed is a bad idea
every noise makes you think something big is coming for you
not using a tent makes a person feel very vulnerable!
the stars at night are amazing, along with the cool breeze, lack of biting bugs, and crickets chirping. thank you oregon!
the full moon is very bright!

i didn't sleep very soundly, but i did dream, and the last few hours of my sleep were very restful. i'd probably do it again, while i still can.

happy thursday!

music revival, day 6

2010-08-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

steve's day of mixes
my boss steve gave me some mixes of some of his favorite tunes from 2008. he gave them to me in 2009, january. it's taken awhile, but i was finally ready to dig in and see what he had in store for me.

2008 dance! mix
sam sparro - black and gold
estelle (feat k west) vs the ting tings - shut up american boy
cut copy - lights and music
chromeo - fancy footwork
snowden - black eyes
cut copy - hearts on fire
crystal castles - courtship dating
dizzee rascal (feat calvin harris) - dance wiv me
lil mama - lip gloss
treasure fingers - cross the dancefloor
flo rida vs hot chip - hold on to that low
chromeo - tenderoni
thunderheist - jerk it
crime mob vs the dodos - stilletos in the park
le castle vania - tigertron
chromeo - bonafied lovin
dizzee rascal - flex

favorite tracks: black and gold, *shut up american boy, lights and music, hearts on fire, *dance wiv me, lip gloss, jerk it, flex
comments: this album had me grooving and shaking through tuesday! yeah! and, i learned about a couple of tunes that i'd heard before but knew nothing about. until now!

2008 pop! volume 1
hacienda - she's got a hold on me
vetiver - see you tonight
dept of eagles - no one does it like you
chad van gaalen - willow tree
tv on the radio - golden age
port o'brien - i woke up today
tapes n' tapes - hang them all
vivian girls - where do you run to
florence and the machine - kiss with a fist
peasant - the wind
delta spirit - trashcan song
benji hughes - i went with some friends to see the flaming lips
the felice brothers - frankie's gun
the walkmen - in the new year
of montreal - for our elegant caste
jim noir - ships and clouds
hercules and love affair - blind
jensen sportag - power sergio
ida maria - oh my god

favorite tracks: she's got a hold on me, see you tonight, i woke up today, blind
comments: my listening to this album was a big fragmented, but there were many tracks that made the listening very pleasurable. great to get through tues/thurs.

music revival, day 5

2010-08-23T14:20:00.000-07:00

[ok so i listened to aaron's mix again 2x this morning, because it was just so fitting. and i counted it as friday, because i started it friday. anyway.]

dave matthews band - stand up

favorite tracks: dreamgirl, stand up, american baby,
comments: dave matthews first full length album came out in 1994. i went to college shortly thereafter, and realized just how big and great this band was. would they last or be a one hit wonder? under the table and dreaming was a masterpiece for those of us in college in the mid 90's. a moving, wonderful album that made us groove and chill out all at the same time. next came crash which had it's own set of hits. after that was before these crowded streets and we all thought, "wow, these guys have got the stuff to keep on going!" and then, everyday came out and knocked us all backwards. how long could dmb keep producing amazing albums? even busted stuff had some worth. but this, their 6th studio album, shows that the band is running out of new stuff. i was not impressed.

new radicals - maybe you've been brainwashed too

favorite tracks: mother we just can't get enough, you get what you give, someday we'll know
comments: got this album from my radio station giveaway box. the hit "you get what you give" is catchy, and was popular at the time and i thought, why not? turns out, the album isn't worth much. probably i got what i gave for this one. which was nothing.

music revival, day 4

2010-08-23T11:52:00.001-07:00

new music friday!

a dancing friend of mine from the east coast made me a mix of music. i got it sometime around christmas, and have yet to spend any time listening to it. it was just a cd, blank, no writing, and no glitz or glitter to draw me in. i decided the way to get motivated about listening to it would be to figure out what tracks are on it, and maybe to give it a name. though it is still yet unnamed, here are the tracks:

music from aaron
1. josh ritter – monster ballads
2. sun kil moon – ocean breathes salty
3. beck – lost cause
4. contra dance tune
5. neko case – star witness
6. belle and sebastian – dog on wheels
7. the books – it never changes to stop
8. interpol – leif erikson
9. the dresden dolls – the jeep song
10. cliff edwards – that’s my weakness now
11. interesting dreamy techno tune
12. david sedaris – lesson 4: with a pal like this, you don’t need an enemy
13. modest mouse – people as places as people
14. throwing muses – backroad

a few of them are completely instrumental and i haven't figure out a way to search for tunes online other than by lyrics.

various artists - music from aaron, christmas 2009

favorite tracks: monster ballads, contra tune, star witness, that's my weakness now, dreamy techno tune, people as places as people
comments: this is the first completely indie album i've listened to [another friend gave me an album with guster, sarah harmer, and jonatha brooke, but i'd heard of all the artists]. in this case, i'd heard music by beck and modest mouse before, and heard david sedaris read before. i'd heard OF interpol and throwing muses, but never heard their music. so this was a real, TRULY new music friday.
more comments: this is a PERFECT album for a monday morning. none of the songs are loud, thrashy, squealing, or annoying in any way. thanks aaron!

music revival, day 3

2010-08-19T16:49:00.001-07:00

second round of cd listening. a shorter day, due to less familiarity with the albums. and a marginally successful day at work. aside from one sample taking 4 hours to filter through. sigh.

kenny wayne shepherd band - trouble is

favorite tracks: blue on black, everything is broken, nothing to do with love, chase the rainbow
comments: i got this album solely for blue on black, not knowing much about the artist or any of his work. he's a great guitar rocker, and sometimes i can get into it, and sometimes the crazy high-pitched reeling/screeching guitar work really bothers my ears.

david digiuseppe - welcome to heaven...

favorite tracks: flying home to shelley, shenandoah falls
comments: this is a contra dance type disc, with other styles of music tossed in for good measure. excellent listening for when you don't have time to worry about the words. feel good music, played by a professional accordionist, who i had the pleasure of meeting and showing around oregon last february before our dance camp weekend.

rigorous vs vigorous

2010-08-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

i've often wondered what the difference is between these 2 words. now it is time to know the answer, once and for all.

rigorous

Pronunciation: \ˈri-g(ə-)rəs\

Function: adjective

Date: 15th century

1 : manifesting, exercising, or favoring rigor : very strict
2 a : marked by extremes of temperature or climate b : harsh, severe
3 : scrupulously accurate : precise

synonyms see rigid

— rig·or·ous·ly adverb
— rig·or·ous·ness noun

vigorous

Pronunciation: \ˈvi-g(ə-)rəs\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English vigorous, vigrous, from Anglo-French, from vigour

Date: 14th century

1 : possessing vigor : full of physical or mental strength or active force : strong
2 : done with vigor : carried out forcefully and energetically

— vig·or·ous·ly adverb
— vig·or·ous·ness noun

synonyms vigorous, energetic, strenuous, lusty, nervous mean having or showing great vitality and force. vigorous further implies showing no signs of depletion or diminishing of freshness or robustness vigorous as a youth half his age. energetic suggests a capacity for intense activity energetic campaigner. strenuous suggests a preference for coping with the arduous or the challenging strenuous life on an oil rig. lusty implies exuberant energy and capacity for enjoyment lusty appetite for life. nervous suggests especially the forcibleness and sustained effectiveness resulting from mental vigor nervous energy.

music revival, day 1-2

2010-08-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

since i spend hours and hours and hours at work lately, and the radio is just about as good as used toilet paper, i decided it's time to dig out the cds that either:

a. i bought awhile back at garage sales
b. my dad bought for me when he was a member of columbia house
or
c. i borrowed from my dad within the past several years.

i haven't listened to these and picked them out, ostensibly, because i thought i would like them for one reason or another, i decided to do my usual tactic of listening to each one 2-3 times through (depending on my attention level, what else i'm doing, and my tolerance/like/dislike for the album) and then assimilating it into my (borg) collective.

so, here's where i may start my daily/weekly cd reports.

suzanne vega - retrospective

favorite tracks: pretty much the whole album, in retrospect.
comments: i never knew much about suzanne vega, but i'm glad i got this album. she's pleasing to the ear.

stone temple pilots - purple

favorite tracks: vasoline, interstate love song, still remains, pretty penny, big empty, unglued
comments: i remember when this album came out, i was in washington dc, summer of 1994 with a group of young republicans (hey, what did i know?). anyway we were staying in a dorm (trinity college, maybe) and some of the people i befriended had this and we listened to it. i couldn't remember all the tracks, but vasoline was the big hit at the time. since i didn't have any bad memories of it, i figured i should get it since it was now part of my musical formation and heritage. grunge rock. yeaaaaah.

prince - the hits 2

favorite tracks: most of the tunes are either enjoyable memories from my past, or newfound grooves to bop along to
comments: prince is a lot more sexual than i'm interested in listening to most of the time, but when i look past that, the music/beat is quite good. pretty sure that the hits 1 was a more complete album of his hits, though. and some of the tunes on this one, i had never heard of before. songs like 'raspberry beret', 'little red corvette', 'i would die 4 u', 'kiss', and 'purple rain' made the album memorably worth it. new tunes to me that were gems included 'controversy', 'delirious', 'dirty mind', and 'if i was your girlfriend'.

the who - tommy

favorite tracks: overture, 1921, pinball wizard
comments: didn't know much about this album going into it, other than it was the rock opera about tommy, the pinball wizard. i spent a good amount of time pouring over the liner notes for this one, trying to learn more about tommy and the who and the opera itself. after listening and reading and following along, i appreciate the album for what it is, though, there aren't a lot of stand out tracks. the whole thing comes together to tell the story of tommy, which has only a fraction to do with pinball.

jason mraz - mr. a-z

favorite tracks: wordplay, geek in the pink
comments: let's face it, it was his sophomore slump. i hoped to be wowed like i was with his first album. that did not happen. there are few tracks that reflect his previous work.

old post...

2010-08-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

i found this in my drafts. i love it. not sure why i never posted it.

paul ingrassia: "the japanese just missed that trend entirely. they just couldn't figure out that people would actually buy burly 4 wheel drive vehicles and never take them off road. it just wasn't logical."

jon stewart: "it's what we do. we have things we don't use. to have them."

life can be so...routine - part 1

2010-01-07T23:55:00.000-08:00

routine is something i have a very hard time with.

it's something i aspire to.

and yet, i don't actually want to have one.

i've thought maybe having a routine would be good. it could keep me on track with going to exercise, going to dances, eating meals, getting up on time, remembering to do things.

at the same time, there are so many factors that play into each day, that it's hard to keep the schedule going without having to adjust it all the time.

maybe my routine IS just very random. one day it's steady, the next day it's chaos.

when i lived in MN, i had a good routine. wake up, put clothes on heater, eat breakfast, put warm clothes on, go out into the below zero temperature and wait for the bus. same time, every day (except when i moved, but it was similar, just a different bus and location).

maybe routine suggests that a person who has a routine job, where one must be there at a given time and leave at a certain time. maybe because i have a wacky flexible schedule, i am not subject to the confines of routine. yeah, maybe that's it.

i don't like rules, anyway.

night biking deserves a quiet night

2010-01-07T23:33:00.000-08:00

i've done a fair amount of cycling in the past few years. living in a town where biking is welcoming and friendly and they give you your own lane, it's hard to justify not biking. of course, it is not always the fastest way to get around town, depending on your fitness, but you can get almost anywhere in a reasonable time (i.e. less than an hour). unless you're going up some steep hill, like on the way to one of the nature areas. or to visit friends who live near aforementioned nature areas.

where i used to live, it was a straight shot to downtown. probably a mile, maybe 10-15 minutes. fun to do during the day. but at night, coming home from a friend's house, say...well it was just darned lovely. there were many nights, summer or winter, where the still of the night air was so right, it didn't matter that i had to go a few miles to get home.

and now, i live in a new place, which requires a more uphill battle. i love going downhill to work. in fact, if work were uphill, i might never go. i sometimes don't go home because i dread the hill. it is a workout, both physical and cardio.

but this week, i did it 3 days in a row, which is a record for me. and each night it was raining. and each night i thought, "ugh, it's raining." but i put on my rain gear and went about my business.

now my bike has some issues with changing to the lowest gear. or any gear, really. but especially the low gears. i've tried coasting and changing gears, and it just doesn't seem to engage. which makes me think something is wrong with the derailleur. or something. i know very little about bikes (and don't want to be lectured).

but i do know that i need to be in the lowest gear before i make the climb. and i know that if i just take my time, i can make it up at least half way before i have to stop and shake out my legs. i'm getting less and less shortness of breath from the workout, but my legs are still working harder than the pain i can bear.

anyway, i try to think about anything besides biking while i'm biking up that hill. slow and steady (my turtle instinct), i try to put things like breathing and pain out of my mind, and just wonder about this and that, christmas lights on houses, branches hanging over the street, traffic in either direction, sticks in the road, people driving by too fast, why i wiggle around so much when i'm climbing (as evidenced by my wiggling bike light)...

but the ride is nice. the time out from the day. taking in the weather and the neighborhood and the road itself. thinking about what i've done today and what i'll do tomorrow. (wishing i had a way to record my thoughts while biking since i can't use my hands.)

when i get to the top of the hill, i always do an arm raise and pump, celebrating that YES, i survived it again. and when i get home, and have a sweet little downhill before i park, i think WOO HOO! i'm so glad to be home.

and i guess i sort of forget about the pain (but not really), because i go back out again the next day. the bike riding is driven by the not wanting to deal with the hassle of parking for free, not wanting to pay for parking, and trying to 'save the environment' as much as i can. it's not much, but it's more than some people do.

and i'm proud of that.

that's the brakes

2010-01-07T23:10:00.000-08:00

yesterday was wednesday. i had lots to do and i thought, "you know what, i deserve to drive today after dilligently biking for the past 2 days in the rain." i had errands to run and places to be and wanted to get to work early and thought that driving would be the best option.

that is, until, i started to go downhill and realized that my brakes didn't work. holy crap, that was a scary situation! i'd never experienced pressing the brake pedal all the way to the floor, and with no response. i guess the brakes worked barely enough to slow me down, since i hadn't really accelerated and was just coasting. but still, going downhill, around a corner, and toward a busy street...thankfully the car stopped appropriately before i got to the even bigger hill i needed to go down to get to work.

i sat at the stop sign thinking, "what do i do? i can't make it down this hill to get to work, i won't stop and i'll crash and that will be awful." i decided to wait until traffic was clear, pull a u-turn into the busy street (that wasn't busy at 7am) and then go back home (uphill) and sit and figure out what to do next.

i needed at least 30 minutes of thinking, sitting, calming down, and a few phone calls to decide to call AAA and get towed somewhere. but where? i don't know any place to get my car fixed in town. i haven't had to do that. and i hadn't ever asked anyone where they got their's fixed. and now it was WAY too early to be calling people to ask that. so i put my trust in AAA and let them figure out where i should go. they went with the company that was going to tow my car anyway, and i figured that was the best bet i had.

i sat in the car for 45 minutes. now, i hadn't gotten much sleep the previous 2 nights (average of 4 hours). so i'm waaaaaaaaaaay tired and sitting in my car and trying not to fall asleep before the tow truck arrives. hardest 45 minutes of my life, of recent. i now know that i can survive one night of complete sleep deprivation, but the second night makes the third day really, really bad. nothing like adrenaline though, to wake me up, at least momentarily.

got towed, got a ride to work, and on both of those truck rides i got asked eerie questions from the drivers. now it may have been just random chit chat. but it seemed directed. both of them asked questions or made comments about women being alone or working at a job like a tow truck drivers...i don't know it's hard to explain. but one of them we started off talking about my job, which led to global warming debate (he doesn't believe it), which led to my job again, which led to me being tired and working late hours, which led to him saying something about me being unattached, which led to me saying i didn't have kids, which made him ask the question if i was married, which made me answer that i had a boyfriend, and then he got on the topic of protecting women and women being careful and did i carry protection when i went home at night by myself...

reflecting back on it, i couldn't tell if he was just chatting because he cared about my safety, generally, as a woman who could be attacked, or if he was feeling for details because he could be an attacker. i couldn't work it out in my mind. i was just not sure. so then i was all worried about going home at night.

the rest of the day went well enough. got to work, got things started, went to the soup kitchen where i got called "little lady", and was told i looked like a qp doll, or better yet, one of the characters from south park. wasn't sure how to take that. we had breakfast for lunch and i made sure to get a few slices of bacon. soooooooo good. also there were sugar cookies to take home. i ate a few with some milk. soooooo good. my bad day was shaping up alright.

the rest of the day went fine. the mechanics at the place were out that day, so they wouldn't be looking at my car until the next day anyway. i survived the afternoon of work. i didn't fall asleep. the experiment must go on.

i did not go to the gym, however. my calf muscles are KILLING me. they are extremely sore and tight. those triple calf raises are the worst! i thought after the first round a week ago that i would have healed up from the pain. but oh no! it's back. tomorrow i will get out the rolling pin and roll the knots out of my legs. this morning when i got out of bed i almost fell over from the tightness. ouch. more stretching to come.

things to do in 2010

2010-01-06T23:53:00.000-08:00

this is a pretty extensive list, sent to me by my mother. i'm not sure how one person can aspire to do all these things every day, but maybe it's nice just to have something to try to do each day, instead of trying to do all of it, every day.

Health:

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy
5. Make time to pray.
6. Play more games
7. Read more books than you did in 2009.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:
11. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don't have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need..
18. Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:
25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time w/ people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:
32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come..
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

winter training, day 8

2010-01-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

gym report:
20 min cardio / elliptical
3x10 @ 150lb leg press
3x10 @ 70lb leg curl
3x10 @ 90lb leg extension
3x10x3 - body weight: straight toe raise / toes in / toes out
3x10 @ 45lb squats
3x10 upright abs
10 min abs and stretching

weight: 164.8
stomper: she's baaaaaaaaaaaack!

notes: lots of people working out today. is it their new year's resolution? hard to find a cardio machine available. might have to start bringing music if sara isn't going to come with me. today i watched an episode of friends (which is neat because i never watched it when it was on but i understand the gist of the story) and some espn football weekend in review show. some amazing plays! i think the nfl has forgotten to teach the defensive players how to tackle properly. and these guys get paid the big bucks to do just that!

new year's resolve

2010-01-05T14:25:00.001-08:00

today i was reading an opinion article about how people make new year's resolutions, and how they break them almost as fast as they make them. the writer went into some history of why this is done in the first place, and furthermore to say, hey, if you break your resolution, just revisit it quarterly and see if you're still interested in continuing on with it. but his conclusion was that most people would make and break them and make new ones next year.

well, i'll have him know i was devoted to my last year's resolution, which was to skip dessert after dinner. it's a fact that i did eat ice cream once or twice, and ate a few cookies and a few pieces of chocolate. but for the most part, i kicked butt and took names! and lost 10 lbs to boot, but not sure if that came from the dessert, the working out, the break up, stress at work...who knows.

this year i'm going to try something new. since i don't care much about dessert anyway, i'll probably at least try a piece of pie if someone offers it to me. but i don't need a whole slice, or a whole bowl of ice cream, or any of the other lavish desserts people sometimes have. though i wouldn't mind if someone made apple crisp next fall...

my new year's resolution this year is to drink 2 liters of water a day, and to go for a 20 minute walk every day. a health related note is that i'm going to try to avoid eating / drinking sodium benzoate this year. unfortunately, my favorite szechuan spicy sauce has this ingredient, as does dr. pepper. i had already bought some dr pepper before i decided to do this, so i'm thinking i'll bring it to parties and leave it there...though i don't go to many parties...or else i'll just drink it. worse than having a resolution is wasting food. wasting food is wasting money and i'm just not into that.

so far so good. i knew i wouldn't be able to start drinking 2L of water every day from day 1. i allowed myself to gradually work into it.

day 1 - 1/2 L
day 2 - 1/2 L
day 3 - 3/4 L
day 4 - 1 L

and here we are on day 5.

as for the walking, day 1 and 2 i spent 3 hours dancing each night. and day 3, i admit, i was lazy and didn't do anything. day 4 i took a 20 minute walk to and from my mailbox, and plan to do the same today. i'm also hoping to get to the gym today. but i don't want the gym to substitute for getting out into the fresh air. i'm hoping to get to know my neighborhood better, and maybe learn something more about campus too. however at this time, work is so nutty that i don't see myself going on any early morning walks just for the fun of it. since i'm trying to get to work between 6-7am every day...yeah...not getting up earlier than that. and when i don't get home till midnight-1am...yeah...not happening. but it will. i'm confident. and i'm devoted.

it's all so...political

2010-01-05T13:34:00.000-08:00

sitting at lunch today, surrounded by college students and faculty alike, i realize that i no longer discuss politics with my friends. the thought was triggered by a christmas letter i got, talking about how obama had gotten elected president. for all i knew, most or all of my friends and family were FOR obama getting elected. but this person seemed to indicate that it was not the way they'd hoped it would all work out. not sure who they thought would have done a better job, but that's besides the point.

i learned, while in minnesota, that one particular friend and i could just NOT talk politics. it got him really heated and stirred up, and there was no calming him down afterwards. so, just avoid the topic and everyone stays happy for happy hour.

most things i politics i don't understand. it's better that way. i don't like to debate and i don't like to think about how people in power can make decisions over my head. in fact, i try to keep politics out of my daily life altogether. except, sometimes they just happen in there.

of late, i've been reading the political cartoons with jon. sometimes i have no idea what they mean and i have to ask for an explanation. sometimes we can figure it out. sometimes, we're left with numerous possibilities about what the cartoonist really meant. i like this form of reading and learning about politics. no one is going to war over a cartoon.

i also don't like that politics, on the whole, end up being influenced by others with power and money. i will give you a lot of money so that you support the causes that will make me more money. you get elected, i get rich, you get rich, aren't we all happy? i'm cynical enough, now, at this point, to know that everyone out there has an agenda, and it's usually to make themselves more money or give themselves more power. and lobbyists? forget it.

more locally, however, there are also politics involved in almost everything that we do. committees, for example, are a great example of where you can't just say what you want. you have to think about how to get what you want, and say it in the kindest and possibly most manipulative way you can. i don't like this. unfortunately, everyone is different and not everyone responds to, "do this now, for me, ok?" it all has to be tiptoed around, and treated gingerly.

i'm both the villain and the victim in these situations. sometimes i would really like some help, or sometimes i'm trying to collect news from classmates. the only way, it seems, is to reach out to these people personally. or else i simply don't get what i want. on the flip side, when i have a good idea, and i try to get what i want, the situation can be reversed, because i'm not in a position of power. i think my idea is great, and why don't others like it? who knows. maybe they don't want to put effort into it, or maybe they don't want things to change too much. or maybe they're exerting THEIR power over me.

my mom gave me good advice. first year on a committee - don't rock the boat too much. just do whatever needs to be done. in coming years, you can try to change things up. but don't force it down their throats. it doesn't do any good and it makes everyone mad at you.

here here, mom.

long day ahead

2010-01-05T08:38:00.000-08:00

other titles for this post could have included:

devotion
is routine so bad?
night biking
new year's resolve
3 x 3 = what a way to end 2009!

---
i'm tired. it's only 840am and i can feel myself unable to overcome the day's sleep deprivation already. this week i'm back to my crazy experiment that needs near-constant supervision, as to not catch fire or stop working. so, yesterday i got a late start after chasing around some equipment that is now considered "stolen" (i didn't get my hands on it). the experiment got running around 3pm. i ran it until 12am. 9 hours is not bad for one day. except i needed to run it for about 12 hours yesterday. so now, in my quest to run the experiment for 30 hours over 2 days...well let's just say it's not happening.

i got the thing going this morning at 7am. if i stay till midnight again, that's 17 hours today, plus 9 yesterday = 26 hours. which means wedesday i run it for 4 hours, before cooling things and switching to the second phase of the experiment which again, needs to run for 30 hours over the next 2 days. if i get in by 9 on wednesday, run the thing until 1pm, cool for an hour, switch the solutions, get it going again by 230, and run it until 1230am, that still leaves me with 20 hours to run it over thur and fri. plus, after that's all done, there's something like a 4 hour hot water boiling period to wash out the remaining solution residues.

needless to say, work is my life for the next few weeks (i get to do it all over again next week!) this would all be a lot easier if i had help. as in, someone to watch the solutions after i put in 10-12 hours in a given day. if someone else could come in late and stick around until late, well that would be OK with me. *yawn*

i already had my oatmeal and tea this morning. and yet i'm not feeling peppy and revived. went to bed around 130am and first woke up at 530 this morning and decided, you know what, it's just too freakin' early. actually got up at 620 and got to work by 7, which for me is quite a feat. i prefer, and function more highly, on more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night.

i can't complain too much, because over the weekend i did manage to get plenty of sleep. it's unfortunate that sleep isn't more like a bank account, where you can save it up and use it when you're more tired.

so now i'm thinking about power napping. but there's no place to do so in the building where i work. and it's a 20 minute uphill ride home which has no appeal to me, since i'd have to come back down after such a short nap at home. and it's raining outside. which isn't exactly bad, but it's not ideal for biking home and back, just for a short nap.

speaking of rain. when i woke up this morning i thought it sounded like it might be raining out. but it was dark and my window is protected by an overhang, so there wasn't any droplets on the window pane. however, once in the living room i could hear the rain running down the gutter, and thought, "oh geez. it's really raining out there!" so i geared up in my full raingear attire, packed my gym shoes and some other essentials into backpack #2 (left my regular backpack at work last night, too tired to pack it up and for what?), and headed outside to brave the elements. it was still pitch black, same as when i got home from work last night. i thought to myself, "this really bites. going to work in the pitch black, coming home in the pitch black." but it's a job and i guess i have that going for me.

anyway, once geared up with helmet and lights and such, i walked my bike to the top of my driveway (enough of a hill that i never want to deal with it), and realized that, it wasn't really raining that hard. it was sprinkling at best. a little harder than misting. so maybe this biking in the rain wasn't so bad. i wasn't going to get soaked before i got to work; all my stuff was in plastic bags in my backpack so it was safe. i was basically weatherproofed, and all i had to do was pedal a short distance and coast down the big hill to work.

maybe winter isn't so bad after all. but i'm still very tired.

more later...perhaps i'll use up those other prospective blog titles!

what a way to end the year!

2010-01-03T00:02:00.000-08:00

i did 3 contra dances, 3 nights in a row, for the last 3 weekends of 2009.

weekend 1:
concord scout house - crowfoot
guiding star grange - wild asparagus
guiding star grange - green street (sort of)

weekend 2:
guiding star grange - open band (christmas night)
guiding star grange - greenfield dance band, with matthew kenney on drums!
powder mill barn - white squall

weekend 3:
multnomah arts center - the mckassons (new years eve)
burlingame water tower - open band
fulton community center - UnLeashed!

that's the spirit!

winter training, day 7

2009-12-30T23:50:00.000-08:00

as my last day at the conditioning center, i was ready to cash in on my "how do i take care of my ailing calf muscles?" question. they were hurting big time, and no ibuprofen or ice was taking the pain / tightness away. i did a lot of calf stretching on the wooden block shaped like a wedge, and then kate gave me the rolling pin to mash out my knots. that really did the trick!

workout of the day for december 30

10 min cardio

3 rounds, in order:

squats x 20 (no weight)
swings x 20 (smallest weight)
single leg bridges (in place of calf raises for me) x 20 each side
double leg lowering x 20
hammer curls x 20 (10lb)
tricep extensions x 20 (10lb)
pushups x 20
slams x 20 (4lb)

those slams are great for getting out frustration. even if you don't really have any! my mom said i made a mean face while i did them. i personally enjoyed the grunting.

stretching regimen included:
using a strap and 3x30 seconds of hamstring stretching on each leg
standing up, 3x30 seconds of quad stretching on each leg
extensive calf stretching with the wooden wedge and the rolling pin

i look forward to going back there next time i'm home. who knew resistance training could be so much work?

winter training, day 6

2009-12-29T23:58:00.000-08:00

today i could REALLY feel the workout from yesterday in my calves. luckily, it was mostly an arm day so i didn't complain too much about my legs, figuring they'd feel better in a day or so.

workout of the day for december 29

10 min cardio

prone chest press 4x12 (10lb)
shoulder press 4x12 (10lb, switched to 8 after 2 rounds)
bent over row 4x12 (25lb)
bicep curl 4x12 (10lb)
tricep kickback 4x12 (10lb) (lean on bench, keep upper arm close to body, pivot at elbow)

planks 4x30 seconds
back extensions (supermans with no legs) x 30
penguin heel taps x 20 each side (lay on back with knees bent. use obliques to reach your heels. adjust distance as necessary)

10 min cardio

stretching regimen included:
using a strap and 3x30 seconds of hamstring stretching on each leg
standing up, 3x30 seconds of quad stretching on each leg

winter training, day 5

2009-12-28T23:52:00.000-08:00

we had a nice little break, with christmas falling on friday. we didn't work out for 3 full days, and it felt great to have such relief! of course we were ready to get back to it when monday came.

workout of the day for december 28

10 min cardio

kettle bell squats 4x12 - don't remember which weight i used.
yoga ball hamstring curls 4x12 (bridged up on ball, then rolled feet toward body and back)(for some reason this really hurt my calves more than working my hamstrings...)
weighted step ups 4x8 (10lb each hand)(couldn't do them as fast with weights. plus they added an extra step for me[total of 3 step blocks], just to keep things challenging)
reverse lunges 4x12
3 position calf raises 4x12 (straight legs, feet turned out, feet turned in)

superman hold 20 sec x 3
side plank 10 sec x 3
rollups x 25

10 min cardio

stretching regimen included:
using a strap and 3x30 seconds of hamstring stretching on each leg
standing up, 3x30 seconds of quad stretching on each leg

winter training, day 4

2009-12-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

workout of the day for december 24 (christmas eve)

10 min cardio

the 12 days of christmas: volume 2. pyramid style!

the way to do this...
first do the first exercise
then do the second exercise, then the first exercise
then do the third, second, first
then do fourth, third, second, first

...get the idea? sing the 12 days of christmas and you'll see just how many partridges are in your pear tree.

1 squat with high pull (smallest weight)
2 kettle bell deadlifts - 18kg
3 reverse lunges
4 bent over row - 20lb
5 pushups
6 double leg lowering
7 supermans
8 skiers (pull down with the jc band with arms, bend knees)
9 squats (no weights)
10 jc chest fly (pull band from wide open arms together in front)
11 slams - 4lb
12 rollups

10 min cardio

stretching regimen included:
using a strap and 3x30 seconds of hamstring stretching on each leg
standing up, 3x30 seconds of quad stretching on each leg

merry christmas everyone! my mom and i were very good and didn't eat any cookies that the ladies all brought in for us to eat.

winter training, day 3

2009-12-23T23:39:00.000-08:00

workout of the day for december 23

10 min cardio

TABATA
20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest, 7 rounds each

alternating shoulder press (started with 10lb, reduced to 8 for last 3 rounds)
squats (no weights)
bicep curls (10lb)
jacknives (lift one leg up, roll upper body up with arms)
planks (forward only)
jc punches (using one of those jumprope type elastic bands. one leg out front stance.)

10 min cardio

stretching regimen included:
using a strap and 3x30 seconds of hamstring stretching on each leg
standing up, 3x30 seconds of quad stretching on each leg

note: this was by far the most challenging workout yet, but it did bring together the entire lifting community within the center at the time, since we were all working out to the sound of the same beeping, telling us when to start and stop. we cheered each other on and said, "just two more!"

mama if that's movin' up, then i'm working out...

2009-12-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

well it's christmas eve eve and i haven't got a single thing wrapped. but i'm with my family and that's the main thing. i see a long night of wrapping ahead of me. that's ok though because that's how we do it here :)

finished my christmas shopping (with my brother) last night. am trying to get my christmas letter done but it's dragging me down. 3 years to catch everyone up on...and wording it so it sounds like me...seems like it would be so easy but i'm just not motivated to do it.

i've already been to 3 contra dances in the first week i've been here. concord massachusetts one night (to crowfoot!) and 2 nights in greenfield massachusetts (wild asparagus, and green street!) i've seen a bunch of people i haven't seen in a long time, and got to dance with some of my favorite dancers. plus, i got to go the people's pint to have their home brewed ginger ale. delicious. yum.

have been watching the office season 5 on dvd. enjoy that show so much, thanks to my brother for introducing it to me and letting me watch his dvds. have also been watching this season of house that my mom dvr'd. is that even a verb? i guess recorded is right. it's not taped, like it used to be :)

have had a hard time sleeping the past week. not sure if it's just holidays, or insomnia, or the bed, or caffeine, or the tv, or time zone differences, or sleeping in, or what. i get up at 8am and am not sleepy until 130am. and, if i don't give into my first whim to just fall asleep, it takes me another hour to get rested enough to just drift off. i hate this because i've always been a good sleeper.

so, i've been going to the gym to try to help myself get tired. i've been working out with my mom for the past several days. went to her gym, which focuses more on resistance training and some small weight stuff, but mostly coordination, agility, strength, and flexibility...there are trainers there and they make up a workout of the day. my leg muscles are sore, despite not having done very much weight lifting with my legs. i guess my body weight is enough!

i haven't been good about writing these work outs each day, but here's what i remember from today.

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gym report:

10 min gliding runner

each exercise we did 7 reps, for 20 seconds each, and 10 seconds of rest

kettle bell swing throughs (straight arms, swing kettle bell through legs, up to head height, using legs, squat position)
alternating shoulder press
squats
bicep curl
planks
resistance band punching
jacknifes (with weighted ball)

10 min gliding runner
10 min stretching

weight: didn't weigh today, but yesterday was 159.7
of course, i'm on a different scale so who really knows!

winter training, day 2

2009-12-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

workout of the day for december 22

10 min cardio (depending on the day, i'd either use the elliptical, the treadmill, or the easy glide runner. never got on the bikes.)

as many rounds as you can do in 20 minutes

step ups x 10 (each leg) (i did these fast because i liked the rhythmic sound it made)
push ups x 10
single leg bridges x 10 (each leg) (like a regular bridge but with one leg out, or crossed)
double leg lowering x 10
supermans x 10
hammer curls x 10 (10lb)
slams x 10 (4lb) (hold weighted sand ball above head, and slam it to the ground, using arms, shoulders, hips, legs...full body. grunting gladly accepted. makes you look tough.)

[i was able to do 4 rounds.]

10 min cardio

stretching regimen included:
using a strap and 3x30 seconds of hamstring stretching on each leg
standing up, 3x30 seconds of quad stretching on each leg

winter training, day 1

2009-12-21T23:26:00.000-08:00

upon my return to CT for the holidays, i decided i would like to try to spend more time with my mother. i also thought it would be nice to keep up the exercise regimen i had begun in the fall term. thankfully, the conditioning center (sort of like a gym with physical therapists on hand) would accept me into their loving arms, and i could pay for a given number of visits and then use a punch card to check off each time i'd been there.

i had to go in for an evaluation, first, to see if there were any real problems with my body, my lifting style, etc. aside from putting too much weight on my toes during my initial screening of squats, i'd say i passed the rest of the test with flying colors. doing forward planks for a minute? no problem! sit ups, roll ups, supermans, dead lifts, bicep curls, bent over rows...i'm all over that stuff.

so, here's the workout of the day for december 21

10 min cardio (i used the elliptical that day)

20, 15, 10 reps
1 minute of cardio between 20-15
1.5 minutes of cardio between 15-10

kettle bell deadlifts - 18kg
squats (no weights)
bent over row - 25lb
shoulder press - 10lb
skull crushers - 10lb
rollups (situps with flat legs)

10 min cardio

stretching regimen included:
using a strap and 3x30 seconds of hamstring stretching on each leg
standing up, 3x30 seconds of quad stretching on each leg

i peel the bark

2009-12-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

at work today:

lady: "you peel the bark off those sticks? that's hard work!"

at least someone appreciates my hours of intense work ethic and steady hands!

work smells like christmas! peeling the bark off western white pine today, the air is filled with the aroma of the holidays. ahh. life is good!

thoughts from previous days:

uphill climb home
if work was uphill i might never go

cold air hitting my face...brr...gets under the glasses, makes my eyes water! it's been in the teens out there the past few days. it is not comfortable in any way to bike downhill in such conditions. of course, it's not much fun biking at all in those conditions. uphill is not much better, but i am warm by the time i get home...

which is good because our house is essentially unheated. we've been having some wet wood issues and as such, haven't been able to get a good fire started, and, as such, have a freaking cold house because we want to be cheap and not turn on the heat when we're not there. one day this week it was 43 degrees, INSIDE the house. some people have gasped when i told them we kept the house in the 50's, but this was almost unbelieveable, even to me!

working for the weekend...i go to work, but i think constantly about the weekend when i'm not working!

overdrafting - first time in 15 years or so...ugh! have to pay closer attention. fees are killer! this was the biggest slap in the face i've had since i don't know when. i almost cried. now i'm afraid to spend money. maybe it's a good thing. but not for the economy.

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gym report:

20 min precor
3x10 @ 30lb military press
3x10 @ 50lb upright row
3x10 @ 30lb overhead press
3x10 @ 50lb lat pull down
3x8 @ 45lb bench press
3x10 @ 30lb bicep curl (machine)
3x10 @ 10lb tricep raise
3x10 upright abs
3x10 incline situps
10 min abs and stretching

weight: 162.4

stomper: went WAY too late to even think to look for her

notes: the pool and gym are nearly empty late at night.

a day in the pearl

2009-12-03T21:39:00.000-08:00

had to take my car in to get the brake fluid / system checked today. after dropping off the car i had a bit of free time on my hands (and no car). since i was in portland and a stones throw away from the pearl district, i decided to walk around and do some exploring.

it was a cold, cold day. i had a thermal shirt, sweater, fleece jacket, and down vest on, along with flannel lined pants, wool hat and socks, and walking around i was pleasantly comfortable. each time i went into a store, i had to remove the hat and unzip the vest and sometimes the fleece, but for the most part i was cozy all day long.

i stopped for a cupcake (ok, 2 mini cupcakes) at cup cake jones. admittedly a little more expensive than necessary, the cakes were DELICIOUS and really hit the mid-morning snack spot. they were moist enough that i didn't even crave milk after i ate them.

for lunch i went to a taco shop that specializes in local ingredients. i had the chicken tacos, which were simply marinated grilled chicken chunks with fresh pico de gallo, but man-oh-man were they good. i usually don't care for tacos, because they usually give them to you on corn tortillas that immediately disintegrate upon anything moist touching them, and therefore tacos can become a very messy meal that would have been easier to eat with a fork. however, these were on small flour tortillas, and didn't fall apart or disintegrate upon eating.

i did a lot of window shopping, and actually went into several stores. places i remember going into include rei, powell's books, patagonia, hunt and gather, the north face, cargo, eddie bauer, a sheepskin footwear/bedding store, and a few small furniture shops that i can't remember the names of.

i noticed, while walking, that each street sort of has a personality of it's own. by street, i mean avenue, as i walked the numbered streets north and south and north again. anyway, one thing that stuck out immediately to me, is that 13th ave is not a very pedestrian friendly street. there are no continuous sidewalks, and each of the buildings has stairs to get up to the level of the front door, and most of the road is either road or parking. another thing i realized, is that things get marginally less ritzy the closer you get to 405. so these were good things to know, for whatever they're worth.

in the end, i wound up at the urban grind, a coffee shop near where my car was being worked on. they had dragonfly chai which was delicious, but the music in there was weird, bordering on manic. it made me feel crazy and like a headache was coming on just being in there. and i don't think it was the tea. thankfully, the car place called after about 1/2 hour of being there, and i walked briskly back under the freeway to pay up for my vehicular repairs.

what a great day, though! the weather was fantastic. i even got to wear my sunglasses. while walking about, i got to thinking how it would be neat to live in a little apartment down there. lots of activity, bustling around...ahh. sometimes i miss being near the center of action in a town, but then i remember how it can be noisy.

another great thing about the day was the growing level of holiday spirit in the air. i actually like walking around, during december, and hearing christmas music, seeing christmas lights decorating buildings and trees, and the general feeling of how wonderful it is to be alive during this chilly time of year. if only i'd been able to find a candy shop...

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gym report:

went with jon to his gym today!

2 minutes stairs / 18 minutes treadmill
3x10 @ 45lb bench press
3x10 @ 50lb lat pull down
3x10 @ 25lb bicep curl
3x10 @ 8lb flys
3x10 @ 90lb leg extention
3x10 @ 70lb leg curl (prone)
3x10 @ upright abs
3x10 @ 30lb overhead press
3x10 @ 50lb overhead pullover

weight: 162.8 (different scale, so who knows)

stomper: in fact, *i* was the stomper today!

notes: i was actually surprised at how easy it was to run on the treadmill. i set the speed for about a 10 minute mile, and had the incline up to "1.0" whatever that means. it was a very comfortable pace and i probably could have run like that for an hour, at which point the machine informs me i would have burned 814 calories. then i could have the extra donut!

it only tuesday

2009-12-01T23:52:00.000-08:00

yesterday couldn't go by fast enough. i was grateful when it was finally tuesday last night. then someone sent me this link:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/it_only_tuesday

hilarious. even though it's a few years old, i still felt the relevance today. although, today didn't feel nearly as bad as yesterday. yesterday i was ill and slept all day. then last night i hardly slept. i was glad to be done with all that yesterday business and get on to today! and by the time i post this, it will be wednesday. so i will backpost because it's important that this be posted on tuesday.

today was a good productive day. i made myself get out of bed and bike to work. i made myself go to the gym. i made myself work a bunch. now i've got enough hours to fill up the week, so i can take my vacation!

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gym report:
no sara, she had sick roommates to attend to last night...no sleep = no gym...

20 min cardio / step / elliptical (precor! hopefully i'll remember to call it this from now on)
- got to look out the window today, since there were none available looking at the tvs...it's for the best. i got to see parking services put the boot on someone's car tire because they'd been parked illegally for too long. i would hate to be the person to have that job.

3x10 @ 70lb leg curl
3x10 @ 70lb leg extension
3x10 @ 65lb squats
3x10 @ 150lb leg press
3x10 @ 190lb toe raise

10 min abs and stretching

weight: 161.8
i may have been this weight, but i felt good and thought i looked pretty good in the mirror while i was doing squats. so nyah, scale! eat it!

stomper: i went too early, didn't see her

notes: 11am is a great time to be at the gym. hardly anyone in there. few people in the pool. few people on the machines.

saving ourselves

2009-11-25T16:19:00.001-08:00

i never thought too much about it before the past few years, but considering it now, i want to be able to hear when i get "old". so when i hear people listening to headphones so loudly that i can hear what they are listening to across the room, i have to wonder. have they already damaged their hearing so they have to listen to it that loudly to even hear it at all? have they been to too many rock concerts? or do they just really like their music LOUD? now, when i help with firewood chopping or mowing the lawn or watching a movie or going to a concert / show or working with loud equipment, i always wear ear protection.

i have always been a big proponent of eye protection as well, but this just seems logical. helmets also seem logical, as far as headgear is concerned on a bicycle, but it has taken me some time to come around to them (never wore one until about 3 years ago). though i have always, always worn my seatbelt in the car (unless there wasn't one, and then i just wrapped anything i could find around myself to hold me in).

but cell phones and ipods and all this stuff that has us using our ears so much...it scares me that the next generation (my generation) won't be suffering from arthritis or cancer until late in their lives, but they will be deaf before they even have their mid life crises...

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gym report:

i went to get new goggles, swim cap, wax earplugs, etc today at the store. there are so many choices of goggles i just didn't know what to get. i got ones with neoprene gaskets, thinking they'd be softer on my face. the truth of the matter is that they didn't keep the water out. now it could be that they'd been packaging for so long that they had divets, that might work themselves out in a day or 2. but if they don't look like they're going back to a shape where i can get water proof protection out of them, i'm going to return them and get ones with rubber gaskets. so i didn't do any face-in-the-water strokes today (sigh) but did have a good 1/2 hour swim.`

16 laps (32 lengths)

4 breast stroke
4 backstroke
4 sidestroke
4 elementary backstroke

need to get:
better goggles
flip flops / crocs?

weight: 167.1 (weighed wet and with clothes on)

stomper: saw her in the locker room.

tones of tenuosness

2009-11-24T19:50:00.000-08:00

i'm amazed sometimes at how sometimes, something so good can go so bad so quickly.

i've been feeling strangely emotional this past week. not sure exactly what is going on with me, but one moment i'm happy and bubbly, the next minute i'm feeling rejected and sad.

tonight i got invited to a pre-birthday dinner. sushi! one of my favorites. i don't eat it as much as i like to, and not nearly as much as in davis. this one friend of mine really likes to go, and it was her birthday (well, pre-birthday), so we did. there was much talking, smiling, and good feelings. we spoke of men and relationships, of friends, of work, of the goings on of life, of music, and of our generally delightful lives.

we were saying our goodbyes and i casually mentioned we should try to get together next week or something, saying that she would probably have to eat or drink coffee sometime during the week. (as a note, we probably haven't seen each other since august or so. she's ALWAYS busy doing something or other, making plans with other people, rehearsing, running, doing schoolwork, whatever it is that she does.) she all of a sudden got very serious and stern with me, saying she had a lot to do, she couldn't commit to doing anything, she had a group project, she was serious, she had a lot going on and a lot to do...and all i was saying was we should get together for coffee or food, since i know she is going to do that anyway(ya gotta eat!). and again, she started berating me, telling me that, seriously, she had a lot going on, and that she wasn't going to argue about this because she wasn't going to commit and then not show up and let people down. i said, i have a very flexible schedule, you can call me whenever, and she said, i can call you at the minute i'm able to do something? and i said yes, and she said, i don't even know why i'm agreeing to this because i can't commit, i'm serious, i have so much to do, i'm not committing.

so i said, ok, i get it. call me or don't call me. whatever. and she looked at me with something between frustration and disgust...and said, "well, have a good night." and i said, "you too." but at that point i was on the verge of tears.

i could not, for the life of me, figure out what had just happened. we were having such a good time. the only thing i can think of is that i was seeming threatening to her, in some way, and that her life feels somewhat out of control and that she needed to control something so i was the target. i don't think i was forcing her to say "yes i will eat lunch with you tuesday" but i was giving out options of things i was doing and if she was available, she could keep them in mind.

anyway it was all very weird. but what is sticking with me is the tone of voice she used with me. it was like a mom speaking to a child that just did something bad. it didn't make me feel good at all. it's strange how a tone of voice can do that, and i'm wondering how many times i've done it to other people. i know how it can change things, from good to bad or bad to good. in fact, this weekend there were several times when things went from bad to good when someone was kind with me when i was feeling down.

oh, emotions! what a hassle.

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gym report:

20 min stair / elliptical machine
3x10 @ 30 military press
3x10 @ 70lb upright row
3x10 @ 30lb overhead press

(sara wasn't feeling well here, so we stopped lifting; i was hoping to get lat pull downs and/or bicep/triceps done, but oh well)

10 min abs / stretching

weight: 160.6

stomper: she was there, stomping away!

best compliment in recent memory

2009-11-19T16:36:00.000-08:00

first of all, i completely forgot to mention that i danced to wild asparagus both monday and tuesday nights. first in corvallis, where some eugene people and even some portland people came to the dance. it was a great night, and i got to dance with a LOT of my favorite people. some even twice. and a great hambo and fantastic waltz. afterward, i joined the group that went to mcmenimans, even though it was a 'school' night. ate some tots and wings and generally chatted it up with whomever was there. got home late, but full and happy.

tuesday night it was back to portland, and while there, i saw some people that were at the dance camp over the weekend. note, i wasn't at the camp weekend, but they were from far away places and the only reason they would still be in portland by tuesday was because they had been in oregon over the weekend. anyway, one of them in particular, who i hadn't seen since, maybe, april, saw me and said, "you've lost weight!" and i replied, "yes, but not of my own accord" and he said, "i'm sorry to hear that." later he said to me, "i'm sorry you were unwell." and i said, no, that wasn't it. but rather, that breakups do that to a person. and he said, "well i love you anyway!" and gave me a big bear hug. it was very sweet.

he was not the first person to have noticed my weight loss. but i hadn't even really noticed it, aside from the fact that my pants are now starting to fit again. apparently it was noticeable as soon as a week after the breakup.

breakups are tough, and when paired with having to move all your stuff out of a house and having a long, stressful week at work, it's a wonder i was able to eat anything at all. people, the next weekend, said to me, "girl, are you eating?" and i wondered how they could notice this change in me so quickly. i said, "yes, but i'm stressed at work and stuff." and truthfully, i wasn't eating much or very well. they said, "well you've lost a lot of weight." now, i'm not sure, but i don't think a person can lose a lot of weight in just one week. sure you might lose a pound or two, probably from not eating, not drinking water, not sleeping, or possibly a tapeworm, but when i hear "a lot" in this case, i'm thinking 40-50lbs. and there's no way i lost that much that fast, and still fit into the same clothing.

it's hard to see it in yourself when you see yourself every day. i noticed, as recently as a year ago, that my pants were starting to get snug. i decided this year, i was going to do something about it. and so i'd given up eating dessert after dinner. i've probably gone back on my resolution about a dozen times over the year, but still, i've been really dilligent. and i think it's helped a lot, as i'm back into my pants, comfortably, again. but i have not lost a lot of weight.

at a dance camp at the end of summer, i wore a tank top (which is almost unheard of in the dance community, they know me as 'tie dye') which was slightly more form fitting than the usual t-shirts i generally wear. people were saying, "oh my god, i didn't even recognize you!" and "wow, you look great!" and "you lost a lot of weight! like 30-40lbs, right?" and i said, sorry folks, no, i didn't lose THAT much weight. maybe 10lbs or something, tops.

but perhaps it all came off my face. or maybe i looked younger after getting out of a relationship that i felt was destroying my inner soul and not letting me be me. i'm sure some of it came off other places, but i assure you, it's not that much.

the best compliment, however, getting back to the point of the story, was not about that. the last contra dance of the evening tuesday night, i danced with someone a lot shorter than me, and someone i thought of as a person who would do 'tricks' while dancing. like twirling me in an unconventional way, or trying out other moves, as in couples dancing or whatever. some of his movements were subtle, and some were more obvious. but either way, i had to try to remind myself over and over to let myself be lead. it is not easy for me, when most men won't lead me, or i try to fight them when they do something i'm not ready for, or i misread their lead and do something weird instead of what they were trying to get me to do.

at the end of our dance, he looked at me and beamed, saying, "you are SUCH a good follow! you did every little thing i thought of, you caught every nuance!" i was feeling pretty proud of myself at this point and i said, "thank you very much, i had a lot of fun dancing with you." and he said, "this was the highlight of my evening. the best dance of the night!" and i thought he might be laying it on a bit thick, but he did ask me to waltz. i declined as i already had a waltz partner, but i left him thinking, "wow, have i really come that far? am i really a good follow, finally?" i'm not as good as some of the other dancers in our community. there are certainly far better (and better looking!) ladies in the group that are just amazing dancers. i tip my hat to them, i envy them, i strive to be more like them. maybe these baby steps are leading somewhere...

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gym report:

after yesterday's severe regiment of strength conditioning class, i'm almost unable to walk today. lots of stiffness and soreness. too many squats and lunges. certain ways i step make me fear my knee might go backwards. going upstairs is difficult. going downstairs is almost impossible. sara wasn't feeling well again, so i decided that i'd go easy on myself and go swimming instead.

16 laps (32 lengths)

4 kicking with kickboard
4 breast stroke
4 backstroke
4 sidestroke

after all this, i was very warm. slightly less stiff, but still sore. i'm sure it helped. maybe i'll feel better tomorrow.

need to get:
swim cap
wax earplugs
goggles
flip flops

weight: 168.2 (weighed wet and with clothes on)

stomper: i didn't even go upstairs to look for her.

feeling full of loss

2009-11-18T16:43:00.000-08:00

death, loss, and general sadness

today i found out that our dish scraper guy, thomas, died last week. he had come in the previous week to see us, to visit...he'd been gone for awhile, some surgery on his eyes, and then had broken part of his back and had been in a bed for weeks. he was well enough (and driving!) to come see us, though he didn't work that day. he was in great spirits.

today when i got to the kitchen, it was fairly empty. pat, the tall dishwasher, was also there early. i said, "you're here early" (i was too) and he said, "marilyn and i came early to pay our respects for tom." i said, "tom? the dish scraper?" he said, "yes, he passed away on veteran's day." i said, "really?! i had no idea! of course, i don't get the paper so i didn't see the obituary." pat said that apparently the night before he died, thomas was doing fine, had gone to bed at his usual time, and was snoring away at 9pm. when his wife checked on him in the morning, he had apparently died in his sleep and was not breathing. there is suspicion that he had an old aneurysm that began to leak again, but no autopsy was done. and now may he rest in peace.

knowing what that is like, to wake up next to someone you care about and realizing they are gone...i was devastated (my grandfather passed away in his recliner chair in the night, while i slept on the bed next to the chair, holding his hand). i did cry, a little, for what kind of person is not moved when a person they are close with passes on? but there was much work to be done. i feel a sense of loss but i know he is comfortable and happy (and eating all kinds of sweets, as he was diabetic) wherever he and his spirit have gone off to.

it is a very sad day for me. but, in his defense, thomas was nearly 90 years old and from what i could tell, had lived a very good life. he was happy every time we saw him, he was a huge oregon state fan, and every time i had dishes that needed to go to the dishwasher, i would bring them to his window. he would joke around with me. i shook his hand or gave him a high five every time i saw him and would exclaim, "thomas!" it always made him smile. he had a good sense of humor.

--------------------------
in other news, last week i finished dress your family in corduroy and denim by david sedaris, and have moved onto when you are engulfed in flames by the same author. i have been listening to them in the car, but recently i began bringing cds to work and listening to them while i work.

another book i finished listening to this afternoon was the translator by daoud hari. this was another sad, sad tale, about a man and his family surrounded by war in darfur, which is in western sudan, near chad. it was good, historically, for me to learn about this region of the world. but horrible, and i mean in the worst way, horrible to learn about all the suffering and death the native people had to endure. running for their lives with their children as their villages were burned to the ground. there were other tales of sheer horror, which the author recounts. several times the story made me cry, overwhelming tears of sadness and loss, even though i have never been to africa, nor do i know anyone who lived there through that war / genocide. but who can not feel moved when they hear about children being murdered in front of their families, people being beaten to a bloody pulp and told they are liars when they are, in fact, telling the truth, or people who lose their entire families either to death or separation or murder. it was mortifying to listen to the words, and still i'm not quite sure about why everyone was fighting one another, other than the government seemed to put them up to it. rebel groups and resistance groups and actual evil people. there is so much evil. i cannot understand how any of the murderers can live with themselves on a day to day basis. it's just so wrong.

this of course, added to my sense of overall loss and sadness on the day. and then i think, what could i do about it? and then i think, i wouldn't even know the first thing about knowing what to do about it. and then i think, the united states does what they can to help out when they know something bad is happening. and then i think, why do so many people hate us?

time to think about something brighter.

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gym report:

decided to hit the strength conditioning class today. 1 hour of all sorts of lifting, step aerobics, jumping jacks, walking / running in place, squats, lunges, using the resistance band and walking, abs (mostly plank and pilates (ball) style), bicep curls, tricep extensions, overhead press, dead lifts, push ups, , and to finish it off, we did quick feet, high knees, jumping lunges, quick jump roping with out a rope, more high knees...

let me tell you something. you can lift and lift to your hearts content. but once you add aerobic exercise in with the lifting, all of a sudden 5lbs in each hand seems like it could pull you to the ground. i could not do the planks properly after the series of squats, lunges, and dead lifts. my legs were too shaky to stay up, nevermind my arms (which we did at the end). even now, an hour and a half later, my arms are still shaking.

i have often noticed that i feel more in shape when i'm multitasking my exercise. running is a fine activity, and for those who have the patience, endurance, and mentality to keep on going, i praise them. but add circuit training into your running, and it's likely you'll run out of steam way before your appointed goal for the day. rugby was a good sport for me because it's not just strength, but endurance, and mental capacity, and seeing the field and running into people, and then getting up and running, and then getting the ball and falling on the ground or passing in a controlled manner, and then jumping in the air and catching the ball, or coming together for a scrum where it takes every last bit of strength you have to hold tight and work as a unit.

i can run a 5k in about 1/2 hour. today i didn't go anywhere and feel like i'm about to drop.

weight: 162.6

stomper: didn't even go in the cardio room today. plus i went around 515pm.

a mix of meet ups

2009-11-16T17:09:00.000-08:00

what a great weekend. i'm feeling spirited and alive! and very happy. and somewhat relaxed and not stressed about things.

saturday we met up with cindy, a fellow dancer from washington. we had a great brunch at a local bakery. drank tea and ate croissants, crumb cake, flatbread...delicious!

sunday we met up with heather, who i used to work with in CA. last year she moved to portland, so it was cool to reconnect with her. next time i will try the veggie burger!

today the weather was just perfect. it has been cool, but with my natural new england layers on, it feels just perfect. like fall is supposed to feel. the getting dark early leaves something to be desired. but that too will pass...if only the people with leaf blowers would leave me some leaves to kick around!

danced on thursday night in eugene, friday and saturday nights in portland. sunday was a true day of rest, and more dancing tonight in corvallis and tomorrow night in portland again. i love twirling, eye contact, and especially large doses of smiling. and the hugs! don't forget the hugs.

--------------------
gym report:

got to the gym a little later today than in past days.

10 min elliptical (my knee was bugging me)
3x10 @ 30 military press
3x10 @ 70lb upright row
3x10 @ 30lb overhead press
3x10 @ 50lb lat pull down
3x10 @ 25lb bicep curl
3x10 @ 10lb tricep raise
10 min abs / stretching

weight: 160.6

stomper: not in attendance today! (like i said, we were a little late)

sleeping, but not on a rock

2009-11-12T16:30:00.000-08:00

i don't have to joke around about this. anyone who knows me, knows i absolutely LOVE to sleep. i could go on and on about how much fun i have sleeping, all the fun dreams i have (or not so fun dreams sometimes), and the overall general idea of laying down. it all thrills me. i love it.

today was a good morning for sleeping. gray and sort of drizzly weather makes me want to stay in bed for days. i know i'll write more about this but i'm about to head out to go eat pizza and go dancing with some of my dearest dancing friends. i cannot wait!

wild asparagus, here we come!

-------------------------

gym report:

20 min cardio / step / elliptical
8 min cycling @ 70rpm
3x10 @ 70lb leg curl
3x10 @ 70lb leg extension
3x10 @ 50lb individual leg kickback
3x10 @ 150lb leg press
3x10 @ 170lb toe raise
10 min abs and stretching

weight: 161.5

stomper: 4th day, the girl never rests

why do we crucify ourselves?

2009-11-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

yesterday, i seem to have forgotten to bring in cds to listen to at work, so i was stuck with whatever i happened to have. in this case, it was tori amos' little earthquakes. i listened to it 3 times while shaving the bark off wood samples in the lab. and the song that stuck with me is called "crucify":

why do we, crucify ourselves
everyday, i crucify myself
nothing i do is good enough for you
(crucify myself)
my heart is sick of being, i said my heart is sick of being in chains....

i know i do it to myself. and i don't need to. getting out of the habit is the hard part. she's got some other good tunes on there too, highly worth a listen. however, if you don't like or 'get' her style, you might not like it as much. i started off listening to the under the pink album, which was even a little weirder, but it's my favorite even after all these years. thanks k.e. for introducing her to me!

today i forgot cds again, so i'll probably listen to whatever i've got on my ipod. this may include: jack johnson, john mayer, keane, the killers, madonna, aimee mann, and maroon 5.

[i ended up listening to a collection of aimee mann songs (thanks j.b.) and madonna's american life album]

-----------------

gym report (this time, with sara!):

20 min cardio/stair/glider
10 min spin cycle
3x10 @ 30lb military press
3x10 @ 30lb overhead shoulder press
3x10 @ 50lb lat pull down
3x10 @ 30lb bicep curl
3x10 @ 10lb tricep curl
15 min abs and stretching

weight: 162

stomper: 3 days running

greetings royal pedestrian!

2009-11-10T16:15:00.001-08:00

so today i went to the MU to check my mailbox, deposit a check, go to the post office, etc. those things you do when you do that sort of thing. as i emerged from the bookstore exit (where i parked my bike) i hear someone say:

"excuse me sir, but i see that you're wearing a purple shirt today. did you know that purple is the color of royalty?"

i can't hear the man's response
and there is another exchange i've now forgotten, and then,

"would you like to use your royalty to save the world with me today?"

and then i realize, he's one of those people that try to chase you down to join something, or sign up for something, or give money to something. i dislike these people very much. set up your table, put up a sign, and let me decide if i want to sign up for it on my own accord. don't badger me, chase me, try to persuade me; this only serves to make me angry and try to get away from you faster. i figure this is why they hire young people to do this job, because the rest of us know that if we see someone coming in our general direction, to quickly change course and avoid as necessary.

turns out, the guy was for greenpeace, which is a fine organization. but i don't want to sign up for anything. good thing he didn't come for me. i would have had to smile and say no thank you and walk away very quickly.

as i was riding my bike away, i noticed another greenpeace guy where i was going to be biking in moments. luckily, he turned to someone coming down the stairs of the MU before he had a chance to try to tackle me in the grass and convince me his cause was a good one. ok maybe that last part was just a fantasy. i don't even know if he was cute or not. maybe he wouldn't even know how to tackle.

as i left the MU area, i turned onto 26th street and headed toward jefferson. i passed a guy on a bike, biking with no hands and no helmet, and TEXTING while he was cycling along. this means he wasn't even looking at the road. at all. seriously?

as i was approaching the intersection, a girl pedestrian stepped off the curb, without stopping, without even looking up to check for traffic, cars or bikes or otherwise. she just blindly walked out into the intersection. i'm sure she felt like she had all the right to do so, as she was in a crosswalk. but really, didn't her mother teach her to look both ways first? have people here become SO complacent, SO righteous that they think they are each the center of the universe? that someone else will always be looking out for them? that someone else will always see them and avoid them? my goodness.

and then, there's me. as i was walking home from the gym, i became mesmerized by some people playing flag football. not that any of them were anything to look at, nor do i really care about the sport that much. the refs had REALLY loud whistles and people were running around which i think caught my eyes and ears. anyway i was walking home along the street because there is no sidewalk that connects where i work to the gym, and i guess i got lost in the moment and began to veer into the middle of the road, right as the quarterback was being chased down and was about to make some amazing pass or have his flags ripped off. just then i realized there was a car coming down the road, and that maybe i should get back on my side. self righteous, indeed.

--------------------------

on a side note, i have wicked leg envy. the gym has made this feeling in me resurface. i mean, i just envy people with nice looking, smooth, shapely legs. i may be tainted by popular culture and media and whatever, but there are some people (namely women) whose legs really attract my attention. i'm sure the people who have them know they look that good. i'm sure they shave every day and use lotion and go to the gym every day and never eat junk food (or maybe they do and their metabolism is so high that it just melts right off). anyway, i have extreme leg envy. i could say i have body envy too but i'll save that for another day.

on another gym related topic, each day i've gone to the gym (2 days in a row now) i've seen the same girl there. she's always on the treadmill, running. when she runs, it sounds like she's stomping. and she runs at a good clip. and she's always on before i start and always still on after i leave. i have a sneaking suspicion she ignores the "please only work out for 30 minutes" rule. she seems to be looking around to see if anyone else is interested in her machine while she's on it, but has never gotten off while i've been there. in fact i would venture to guess she's there every day and runs for an hour. we'll see. i'll keep tabs on her in my gym report.

i didn't bring any cds from home today, so looks like it's either tori amos or the ipod.

-----------------------
gym report:

20 minutes spin cycle (sounds like laundry to me)
3x10 @ 70lb leg curl
3x10 @ 70lb leg extensions
3x10 @ 150lb leg press
3x10 @ 65?lb squats (i used the big bar plus 2 10lb weights on the ends)
10 minutes abs /stretching

weight: 160.6

stomper: 2 days in a row

one point five

2009-11-09T16:46:00.000-08:00

this weekend was a blast. jon and i drove to california and danced in sacramento friday night, to the great bear trio and erik weberg. and then saturday we danced for 12 hours (approximately) to hot cider, southwest passage, and the great bear trio, and callers joyce miller, joe michaels, and erik weberg. this was all fine and good, and i probably drank about a gallon of water / gatorade thoroughout the day. and did a fine amount of sweating, as is evidenced by my large bag of sweaty clothing now in the laundry pile.

but what really gets me is that i weighed myself before we left for CA, and then weighed myself on the same scale today. i weigh 1.5 pounds less than when i left. 1.5 lbs. that's it?! i danced, aerobically, for nearly 15 hours over the past several days. and 1.5 is all i lost? now some would say, well, you were burning fat which is light and building muscle which is heavy. that may be true. but still! 1.5 lbs is the amount of water you could drink in a sitting. i was very disappointed.

i went to the gym today, and weighed myself on their scale. theirs says i weigh 4 lbs more than i did this morning (different scale). granted, at the gym i was wearing clothing and had eaten at least 1 meal for the day and had some water and some tea to drink. i plan to use the gym scale in the future, for local reasons only.

i'm not actually obsessed with my weight. someone in college once told me, "it's not what you weigh, but how you look." and for me, it's more about fitting into my clothes. ideally, i'd love to get back to 145-155. have a little ways to go before that happens. but not much. and i could get more muscular. it's a dream, but perhaps a possibility now that i've rejoined the gym.

speaking of the gym, i thought maybe i'd start keeping track of workouts on here. if i remember. if i log on. if i think of it.

11/9
military press, 30lbs, 3x8
20 minutes spinning cycle, no monitor
10 minutes abs, stretching

weight: 162

-----------------------

on an unrelated topic, i haven't yet begun to tackle the music project. but i'll get to it. tomorrow is a new day. plus i might remember to bring some cds to listen to at work! trying to decide what to listen to first is the toughest thing. i could begin at the beginning, the end, the soundtracks and mixes, the contra dance music, the other dance music...but it's all very exciting!

this and that, hopes and fears, rough and tumble

2009-11-05T13:03:00.000-08:00

well, trying to post every month was a good idea. in my mind, i'm writing this blog all the time. it's the thing of actually getting onto a computer and blathering all the stuff rattling around in my brain onto the screen, that's the actual problem.

music related:

the other day while biking or driving perhaps, i revisited the idea of listening to all my cds in alphabetical order again. last time i did it, or at least, started it, i was living in minnesota. i had gotten the idea from a guy i worked with during the summer of 2000 in iowa. so maybe i started my quest in 2001 or possibly 2002. and this project is not just listen to the album once and call it good. it's listening to each cd at least 2-3 times on repeat, until i feel comfortable that i've heard the all songs in their entirety.

and i got from ABBA - michael jackson while in MN. this worked out great because i had my own office where people only occasionally came in to use equipment. so i was never bothering anyone but myself with listening to my fabulous music.

when i moved to CA in 2003, i thought i'd continue my quest, though i wasn't working alone in an office anymore, and most people in CA didn't seem to "like" my music. so at home, i think i got from jack johnson through toad the wet sprocket. not to mention, throughout this time, getting new CDs for the collection, and attempting to assimilate them into the bigger picture.

so this means, i must have stopped off around U, which at the time may have had keith urban (quite good), and usher (i know, i know! i recycled it. i think.) and then led into V, W, X, Y, and Z. for V i'm sure i've got vertical horizon, w includes water street blues band, i don't think i have any X cds, Y is trisha yearwood, yo yo ma, and pete yorn, and Z has zela (minneapolis!). i know i'm not remembering a bunch that i have...but i might have had 10-20 cds to go (not to mention soundtracks, dance mixes, other personal mixes, etc) when i moved to nevada, which squashed all hopes of completing the project.

so now i'm in a place where i think i can start up the project again. but it's been like, 8 years or something since i started it. i think my new quest will be to begin at the end and work backwards. i still have about 30 cds in my "need to assimilate" pile, as well as contra dance cds which have entered the picture...maybe i'll shoot for a stack (of some given number) a week and see where that takes me.

because the work i'm doing now, for the most part, i can listen to music on my headphones and not bother anyone. except myself, sometimes.

---------------

on becoming a musician, maybe:

this past weekend (halloween) jon asked me to join his band ('stainless') as part time percussionist and to play guitar on the hambo. having been associated with the dance community for so long, i knew that i would not feel uncomfortable, or get stage fright, while doing so, and i thought it might be a good opportunity for me to try things out. and wow, what fun! the band was receptive to my playing, and people seemed to like the percussion because it helps keep the steady beat that's so nice to have while dancing. we got lots of compliments about the band, how it was better than some other contra dance bands, and had a good solid sound.

afterwards, rich told me that i should apply for megaband. i hadn't really thought much of it before, but a couple of my friends might be partaking in the activities this year, so i figured, why not. i emailed the coordinator and she put me on the waiting list for guitar and percussion. who knows, maybe i'll get in. i don't have dreams of being some kind of front row player, but it might be really cool to be up there hearing the complete sound. though, i think you get the best sound being out on the dance floor! well, i'll give it a shot.

in the meanwhile, jon and i have been working on our music together. a few nights ago, he practiced fiddle and i worked on some chord changes on guitar. i thought it went surprisingly well, and i felt like i might really be getting it after just a short time. then again, my fingers have been numb for the subsequent few days. actually, i think it's just my index finger at this time, which means i'm more likely to try again knowing i can endure the pain.

---------------

girl stuff:

sometimes i really, really hate being a woman. there's all this crazy crap you have to deal with, being emotional and sensitive. in the past, i've mostly let it slide or dealt with it on my own time. or not. perhaps i just stored it away. and every so often, i'd start crying for no apparent reason and then be over it.

as i've gotten older, i've tried to pay attention to what processes my body goes through before cramps are imminent. i never thought of myself as much of a PMSer, biting peoples heads off or throwing tantrums or anything. my mom said that she used to have lower back pain or something. i've tried to pay attention to that, but i don't think i get it. one thing that happened this time, though, was that i got strangely overwhelmed by negative thoughts the day before it happened. i just felt like everything i was doing was wrong, and that i was messing everything up, and who would want to hang around with me anyway?

and then ensues the crying. when i feel bad about myself, what else is there to do but cry? i think a few other women are with me on this one. but being overwhelmed by crazy hormonal levels is really just not fun.

i've always had troubles with cramps. maybe as early as i started having them. and have tried numerous ways to fight them off.

a few things i've learned:

-multi vitamins on a regular basis help a lot. now if i could only remember to take them.

-naproxen sodium works OK if i take it for a day before i think i'm going to get the cramps. this works fine if you have a predictable schedule (i'm not so lucky).

-ibuprofen works great if i can take enough of it, and rest for about 1/2 hour after i've taken it (with food, of course).

-tylenol does diddly squat. don't bother.

-breathing and relaxing are key. my brother once said something wise, he may have stolen from someone else, but he said "it's not pain if you don't let it hurt you." this reminds me of everclear's song lyric "they can't hurt you unless you let them." anyway, i think the cramping can be a very positive feedback system (and i don't mean in a good way). if i react to the pain, it increases, which increases my reaction, and soon enough i'm writhing on the floor in pain (reminds me of college, bleck). knowing that it's happening, it's best if there's a place to lay down, breathe, relax, and remind myself that it won't last for long, it will fade soon, it's just a wave of pain, i can handle it, etc. it also helps if i've taken some ibuprofen at this point. what's best is if i'm at home or mostly just NOT at work, where i can lay down and fall asleep for awhile.

-sleeping is the BEST way to kill cramping!

-birth control pills might be an option, but for the same reasons as the multi-vitamins don't always work, i would have to get on some kind of regular rhythm of actually taking them. i tried in college and it just didn't work out for me. plus, i guess i didn't like the idea of keeping all my eggs bundled up inside. overcrowding doesn't work so well in nature, why would it work so well inside me? if i ever did decide to have a kid (not likely), i sure would want them to come out normal and not all deformed because the egg had been crowded inside for too long.

so i suffer with the pain. sometimes it's not so bad. sometimes, it's knockout bad. people start to notice when i don't feel well, and i'm reminded of high school, where this one girl on my volleyball team would get them so bad, you could just look at her and know something was wrong. sometimes i feel like i'm super pale. other times, my body is overheating but my hands are freezing. and sometimes the pain is so strong it makes me hunch over while i'm walking, and limp a little bit. i know that part of this is me reacting to it, and if i would just calm down and relax it would be so much easier to deal with. this doesn't work so well when i've already taken the max dose of medication and am still in pain, and can't just go lay down because i'm at work or at the soup kitchen where people are relying on me to do my job.

---------------

other stuff:

life is good! aside from crampiness, i'm generally happy with my life at this time. and i'm about to go to california to do a 12 hour dance! we've got several books on CD, and several music cds to listen to, and endless topics to discuss...i'm hopeful this trip will be a good and memorable one. plus, i'll bring the ice packs in case my feet decide they just can't go another step...because i will not stop dancing until the midnight bell has rung!

grass valley, here we come!

complain excuse whimper whine reason

2009-09-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

this has got to stop.

aside from the fact that i deal with complaining, excuses, whimpering, whining, and reasons all week while in the field, i have started to do it to my friends. anytime i talk with friends, i talk about work and how annoyed / angry / frustrated i am with my co-workers. this must stop. my friends probably can't take much more of it. though they do seem to find it amusing. i can see how it would be amusing to someone that didn't have to live it. in fact, when i tell it, sometimes i'm even amused and think, wow, how can someone put up with so much silly stuff every week, and still feel like they're accomplishing work?

anyway, new resolution. no more talking about work to friends. instead, i'll ask them how their day went. it's got to be better than mine. i'll keep my complaining for my journal. it doesn't seem to mind how much i whimper and whine about things.

happy weekend! i look forward to dancing, corvallis fall festival, visiting with friends, and some serious relaxing. and hopefully, showing off my outstanding arm bruise :)

peace, love and turtles...

cyclist gets hit by a car...door.

2009-09-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

today was not the greatest of days, but there are plenty of reasons to be thankful.

i tried to leave for work around noon, and when i got to the top of my driveway realized i had a flat front tire. back down to the house to pump it up.

had a smooth ride downtown to the library where i made a copy of my license for some bank documents, and returned a book on tape i had borrowed and paid my $0.65 fine for returning it late.

biked to chipotle to get a burrito bowl for lunch. they're so tasty and it's 1.5 meals for me. got a drink. decided to go toward work to eat under a tree. opened my wallet to put my credit card away and realized i'd left my license at the library in the copy machine. went out to my bike and realized my cup was going to fall out of the bike water bottle holder. used a bungee cord to strap it in. the top popped off as i biked across the street and beverage started spilling. biked down the hill holding the beverage cup safely, with no more spillage. at this point i also realize how hot it is outside. and i'm worried about my license.

got to the library, just as a man was going to use the copy machine. he opened the top, found my license, looked at it as i came careening across the room saying, "hi, that's mine!" and he gave it to me and smiled and i went back outside. at this point i was sweating profusely and starving, so i went across the street to central park to eat my lunch in the shade. at this point i realized that my burrito bowl had leaked onto my, of course, white long sleeve shirt, and had left some salsa stains on the arm. guess i'd clean it when i got to work.

a strange speaking man with dark skin came and i think asked me how i was doing. i said "fine, thank you." and continued eating my lunch. then i think he asked me if he could sit here, and i thought, well, i didn't want him sitting with me, i was trying to cool off and get to work and didn't really feel in the mood for small talk with a stranger. but it is a free country and there are no limits about where people can sit, so i said, "sure, you can sit anywhere you like." thankfully he sat one tree away from me, and set up a blanket since i guess he was going to take a nap.

when i was done eating, i packed up the rest of my lunch, put it into a plastic bag i found in my backpack, and headed back up monroe st. toward campus. i'm feeling calmer about the fact that i got my license back, i paid my fine, i made my copy, i ate my lunch in the shade (it's hot out there!), and managed to repackage my lunch in a way that would not spill anymore in my backpack.

i'm cruising up monroe, past clodfelters, mcmenamin's, jamba juice, and shortly thereafter, WHAM! a woman opens her car door at the exact moment i'm biking past. i ram into the door, yell "ugh!", fall off my bike into the street. realize, holy crap i'm in the street, jump up, and pick up my bike, get out of the middle of the street. no cars coming. the girl gets out of her car and says, "oh my god, are you ok? i'm so sorry! i'm not used to bikes on the road!" i look at myself and realize no blood seems to be gushing out of anywhere and i'm in no particular amount of pain. i'm shaken, and shaky, but i'm not bleeding. the seat on my bike is tweeked sideways, and the chain is off, but otherwise, things seem fine. i say, "i'm fine. did i mess up your car door?" she says, "oh my god, no, you didn't, don't worry about that, are YOU ok?" and i think, and then say, "yeah, i'm fine, thanks." i don't know what happened to the girl after that, i kind of stopped paying attention to her.

the whole thing was a blur. i was biking, i saw the door opening at the split second it was too late for me to turn or stop or do anything. i just hit it because there was nowhere else to go. i was keenly aware of the sounds around me, and somewhere in my senses knew there wasn't a car next to me, but wasn't sure if there was one coming up behind me. i'm so glad there wasn't. but it happened so incredibly lightning fast. i guess that is how most accidents happen.

i move my bike off to the side of the road between the road and sidewalk. i put the chain back on, readjust the seat, and then think, "wow, i'm so, SO lucky no cars were coming!" i then check my mouth and don't feel any teeth missing or taste any blood. i look at my hands and there's no blood or scrapes. my left elbow feels weird and i look and there's a bit of a scrape there. a little one, nothing big or gushing. my right bicep, however, has a larger bruise/scrape (but no blood) and that is the sorest thing on me. i am thankful i was wearing a helmet. and i am thankful i played rugby and learned how to fall. my legs are nearly free of any damage from the incident. in fact, i think i landed completely on my left side: ankles, knees, hips, shoulders. the only thing that was uncovered was my elbow, which got the scrape.

anyway, biked over to the MU and went to the bathroom to wash my elbow, and began thinking about the magnitude of luck i had just encountered.

i was hit only by a stationary vehicle
i was not RUN over by a moving vehicle
i didn't get a concussion
i hardly got injured
no ambulance was necessary, nor name exchange
my bike hardly got injured
the girl's car was uninjured
my pride only got injured a little bit

when i got to work, i borrowed an ice pack from the ladies in the office, where one of them told me about her incident with a parked car door opening into the bike lane. she maimed the door pretty bad, and ambulances were called and there was hospitals and doctors involved.

my arms are tender, and there's a sore spot on my left knee, but i feel very fortunate, despite this crazy, crazy incident.

thanks be to god, or whomever is looking over me!

in the nick of time

2009-07-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

in trying to get at least one post per month, here's july.

it's been hot. really, really, REALLY hot here in oregon. the last week corvallis hit 100 at least 3 or 4 days in a row. and the house just didn't cool down a few nights, even with fan in window. when the heat finally broke and it was 85-90 degrees, it felt like heaven.

i have been working out. it feels good to do so. cardio kick is an OK class, strength training is enjoyable, cycle fit is easy on my knees but a sweaty workout, but step strength REALLY makes me sweat. when the kneecaps start sweating, you know you're working hard. all of the classes except the cycle class really work the core muscles too. so tuesdays and thursdays i've been getting 2x core workout. it's too bad the classes only go for 2 more weeks and i'll only be around one more week. i was just getting into it. now i guess i'll have to try to motivate myself. not as easy. maybe i can get someone to come to the gym with me? then again, maybe not.

am reading a few books lately:

on cd - snow falling on cedars by david guterson
there's a lot of detail and the author goes on and on and is outlining everyone who ever lived in the town's lives. i'm only on disc 3 and there's 10 i think. not sure if i will continue. but it's ok listening in the car on road trips.

in hardcover - robert fulghum's maybe, maybe not. i like the style because it's short stories. i like the fact that nothing is for certain. that we have struggles and have to deal with them and that we never know if we're doing it right or not. we just have to keep trying and working it out. and sometimes the right thing happens, and sometimes it doesn't.

in paperback - the relationship cure by john gottman
learning a little more about communicative styles and my own emotional heritage. turns out the issue i struggle with the most is love, both showing it and receiving it. who knew?

also in paperback - a walk in the woods by bill bryson
haven't started reading this one yet but it's on the horizon in my 'free' time to read out loud.

so, so tired

2009-06-29T15:46:00.000-07:00

and miles to go before i rest.

i'm just plain tired.

i did get some sleep this weekend. but it was not enough.

today i've got a serious case of the mondays. and it is hard to focus on something detail intensive like my own scientific research when all i can think of is how comfortable my bed would be right now.

*drowsy eyes*

only 8 hours until i rest. they can't pass quickly enough.

zzzz...

officially official

2009-06-25T00:01:00.001-07:00

i'm sore now.

two more classes today sealed the deal.

cycling on some really cool fitness cycles for an hour straight - 26 miles in 66 minutes

new hip hop dance moves for an hour

now i can barely walk.

calgon, take me away! at least i have some naturopathic sports gel to help ease some of my agony. it's not really agony. more general, whole body stiffness. walking is all of a sudden a really good stretching ritual.

tomorrow and friday: field work! i think i can, i think i can...

what i really hope is that we don't have to do super steep hiking over hill and dale tomorrow...

good night.

it's about...time!

2009-06-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

i am ready to start a new beginning, and i finally have time for it. it has already begun.

i started writing in my blog again. this in and of itself is a step forward for me. i'm happy to be back and to be thinking and cataloging and wondering about things.

michael and i have parted ways. this was agony and a blessing. i'm living in a new place. the room is extremely small but overall i love having a place to call my own.

i have begun unpacking / reorganizing my things. in the past few years i've lost track of some things that i thought were important, like keeping things simple, not accumulating too much, and staying organized. so i'm about to write the books on how to keep my stuff together in an orderly fashion. this is a quest of self discovery and finding out what i think i can really live with or without.

each category of stuff has some kind of optimal limit of "amount". how many flannel shirts do i really need? this goes on for socks, t-shirts, and other assorted "dress" clothes that i just don't think i'll wear again. i started the process of sorting clothes before i left michael's house - a sort of spring cleaning. i didn't finish, however, because i moved out. so now i'm unpacking all the sorted piles and dealing with them. again, trying to set an optimal limit on how many of each thing i need. how many long sleeve shirts do i need? how many work shirts? how many pairs of pants? shorts?

so far the limit has been loosely based on what fits right now and what doesn't. i find myself in one of those in between sizes that is not really one size (the size i've been for 13 years) and not quite the next size up (though, those clothes are looser and more comfy sometimes). my issue with that is purely pride. i don't WANT to wear the next size up, and i don't WANT to have to go out and buy new clothes.

the solution may be to lose some weight. i would not say i consider myself overweight. but i have just enough little bit extra to make some pants tight in the legs / waist. i am certain this is a quandry all women face. however, most other women are fine with going shopping and getting new clothes. in this way i'm stubborn. no new clothes! i already have enough old ones that are still in good shape! people have suggested goodwill. this way i don't have to spend much money on new clothes. it's the principle, however, of going and buying bigger clothes, that is the real issue for me.

in order to accomplish this "lose a few pounds to get my pants to fit" idea, i decided to buckle down and join the gym. seeing as i hate running outside by myself, and i don't really care for trail running (i always seem to twist my ankle...and i dislike hills though i like the view from the top), i thought i would try going to the gym and seeing what happens.

in general i dislike the gym because the sweat feels fake. it feels slimy. maybe the air circulation in all previous gyms was just bad and didn't allow for proper drying of sweat like being outside in the sun does. (maybe i will start bringing a towel.) in any event, i joined for the whole summer. till october 2nd, actually, which is EXACTLY the weekend of homecoming at hartwick, which i plan to attend. if i can find someone to play tennis with me on a regular basis over the summer, i can really see this going somewhere.

back to the gym. i have been testing out "fit" classes this week, since it is free week and you can go to as many as you want for free (pass for the rest of the summer is $29. why this isn't included in the gym cost, i have no idea.)

here's what i've done so far:

monday - cardio kick
tuesday - step sculpting, strength without boundaries, dance scene

the cardio kick was intense, and i envisioned severe butt pain on tuesday. but i didn't have hardly any pain. did i not do it hard enough? maybe i need to punch harder and push myself harder. i'm sure the teacher will do that for us. she seems good like that. she's very enthusiastic!

the step sculpting was maybe my favorite, but it was only 45 minutes. still good. it takes some coordination of practicing which foot to step with at any given time, but i liked it. this teacher has the least personality of all the teachers so far.

the strength class was all about how many implements you can use to work out without having a home gym. we used a yoga ball, a step, a mat, a leg band, a longer leg band with handles, dumbells, and a bench-press type pole with weights on either side. i get her methodology, and for sure she's working on weight and resistance training, which is something new for me. she is also very perky and always saying, "here we go! you can do it! nice work!"

the dance class was somewhat of a let down. i had taken funky street style dancing at ucdavis, and the teacher there was very into a warm up and isolations and really getting us ready before we started any kind of routine - that is where i perfected my running man, my terminator, my michael jackson thriller move, and my c-walk. the girl yesterday was very nice and seemed to be a good dancer, but we did like, a few warm up stretches and immediately started into the routine she wants to work on. and for one day, we were at my maximum amount of new moves learned that i was sure i wouldn't remember them all (but i did). one new thing we learned was happy feet, which i guess i've done before but it didn't come back as easily as i'd hoped. still, not sure i'll go back to that one.

tonight i will try cycle fit class, and pop hop fusion dance class.

i have yet to try the yoga class or the core conditioning class, but there just wasn't time and a lot of them overlap. i think i will buy the unlimited all summer pass, and just go as often as i can.

what surprises me the most is how NOT sore i am. i figured, with all the movement and the weights and dips and kicking, i would be in severe pain. tuesday i was feeling a little tightness in my back and shoulders, but nothing unmanageable. after the 3 classes yesterday, i have a little soreness in my shoulders and a little stiffness in my legs. but really? i worked out for 3 solid hours yesterday and this is all i have to show for it? my arms aren't even sore and i was sure they would be after doing all these arm exercises with weights. maybe i need to use heavier weights! lord! i'm going to be so buff!

wait, i don't get buff. this i learned in college. well at least i'll have muscles, even if no one can see them but me.

ok i just did an arms over the head and lean back in the computer chair stretch. i can feel some soreness in my abs. which i expected.

another thing i want to start working on is having a routine. of course this is all shot to heck this week (and probably for the next 3 weeks...and then past that cause i'll be on vacation), because work is eating, eating, eating up my days. running an experiment where i need to have solutions running for 30 hours over 2 days. i don't have to be with them all the time, but i don't like to leave them for too long either in case something happens and there's a fire or explosion or whatever. so the last few days i've been getting up at 530am and going to bed around 130am.

for anyone who knows me, this is definitely not enough sleep for me. i need more like 7-8 or more hours on a daily basis. right now i feel a little bit like a zombie, and i'm certainly not being productive. but being here counts as work so i'm getting a bunch of hours. and in the middle of all that, i take breaks to go to work out. however i haven't been eating regularly.

back to routines. perhaps once these next 2-3 crazy weeks are over, i can start normalizing myself again. get up at given time. do some regular morning type activities, like eat, shower, get dressed, pack lunch, take vitamins (i did take a vitamin today!) then bike to work - which is amazing because it is downhill and SO FAST! work for some normal amount of hours. like 8-10/day. go to the gym sometime during the day or play tennis if that works out. go home at a regular hour by bike, which is a workout in and of itself. make dinner. have my evenings to do home type things which i have been neglecting this past week, like sorting things, organizing things, work on photo albums or scrap books.

one thing i've been able to keep up with even through splitting up and moving is dancing. and then i wonder partially if the reason i've been not very sore from the working out is because my core is strong from dancing. could this be the reason for all my strength? who would have thought? anyway i'm doing that and having fun with it. and now i get to dance with lots of partners in a given night, which is even more fun!

well, i think i'll go get back to work. i've got more to write, but probably should get something productive done before the day is completely over.

peace and turtles!

happy holidays

2008-12-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

there's much to catch up on.

a nearly waste free thanksgiving - we had 14 people for thanksgiving dinner, and requested that people bring their own plastic containers to take home leftovers. we had a few leftovers ourselves, but the best part was that we filled *maybe* 1/4 of a brown shopping bag with garbage. i was SO pleased! stay green, oregon!

new job - i started my new job in wood science and engineering. i spent the first several days finding obscure glassware and other lab supplies in a huge lab with mislabeled drawers, and the next several days grinding up wood samples with a dremel tool. first lesson learned: it's a good idea to wear dust colored clothing when you're going to be doing a dusty job.

first snow - it snowed for real here over this past weekend. and it's snowing again at this very moment. snow is so pretty. i love it. but the city i live in has no clue how to handle it. so they did nothing. result: very icy roads the past few days!

holidays - well i have my holiday letter written, but not edited for grammar or space for a photo. and now it will have to wait till i get back to CT to see my family, though they have a super speedy printer and maybe i can even do a color photo! we'll see. in the meanwhile i'm working on labels and such.

party party party! - i've learned you just can't party enough, especially around the holidays when all your friends are heading out to be with their families. last week i think i went to parties 6 nights in a row! saw miracle on 34th street which a very sweet play, and have been hanging with friends and taking it easy...

another first - where i'm usually known for being the drink lady at the soup kitchen, this week they needed help on the front line. so i became a salad server! it was crazy! actually it was not that difficult. i was able to still help out the kid working the drink table, and serve up salad fast enough that no one went without. we ended up with tons of leftover hot dogs and spanish rice. most people couldn't make it because of the weather.

that's about it for now, a very brief update. happy holidays! stay warm people!

another first

2008-11-17T11:07:00.000-08:00

another weekend is behind me. i actually had a pretty good one.

went salsa dancing on friday night which, with a little music and a little help, i was able to get right back into. i haven't danced salsa regularly since the summer of 2000. i think i might actually go again this friday night. why not?

saturday was a challenging day, for personal reasons. but by saturday night i was dancing my feet off, and felt a whole lot better.

and then sunday, why, kirsten was having a pre-birthday taffy pull! i had never made taffy before, so it was an interesting process. learning about the boiling sugar getting past the "hard ball" stage but not quite to the "soft crack" stage...buttering plates, grating chocolate and cardamom, dripping in some vanilla...and after some stirring and cooling and buttering of hands, we all grabbed our taffy and started pulling. it's almost the opposite of kneading bread. but we pulled it, let it fall in a pile, picked it up, pulled it apart, let it fall back on the plate...repeat repeat until it gets cool enough to sort of stick together...then we rolled it out and cut it into pieces and let it cool further. meanwhile i had to taste some to make sure it came out OK.

i made chocolate-vanilla-cardamom first, and vanilla-peppermint later, which i colored purple. why not? other batches included:

peppermint
chocolate-cardamom-hazelnut
chocolate-hazelnut
chocolate-coconut

and much wax paper ripping and wrapping and twisting later, we had a pile of delicious taffy to split up and enjoy!

yet another first for me is rereading the harry potter series. what? reread? i barely have time to read. but, this series did grab me, and as such, i started rereading. book one, which i think took me several weeks to read last time? this time, 2 days. emilie was right, it does go faster the second time. maybe because i skip words or know what's going on or recall the movie while i'm reading. we'll see what happens as i progress through the books.

it's a sunny day. i am feeling my spirits lift already. though i'm still tired.

cheers.

the one that didn't get away

2008-11-06T14:02:00.000-08:00

this weekend, michael came home with the hind leg of an elk his hunting buddy got last week. so this past monday, we spent the afternoon / evening, cutting up the leg into steaks and such. we ended up with a bowl of not-quite usable pieces, and so last night we made elk burger. this is the first time i've ever dealt with an animal quite in this way, and while i thought i might be grossed out by it, i wasn't. so now i know where my food comes from. at least, this food, and all the food we got out of the garden this year. while we were making the burger last night at gathering together farm, i thought i might like to work there next year. maybe it's in the cards. could i work there part time?

i have been somewhat busy with working and not working for the past several months, and have just not taken the time to blog about any of it. but maybe i can change that. still have the slow connection that doesn't really make for uploading photos, but i could write more and keep the 2 people who may or may not read this up to date on my life.

this blog thing is hard, too, because i want to be honest and yet, i don't want to be too open about my life. certain things just need to stay off the universal internet. why? so feelings don't get hurt. but then i'm only presenting one side of myself and then people don't know the true me. but then maybe they don't need to.

*shrug* just another day, i guess...

hope to post more soon!

where does the time go?

2008-06-17T12:46:00.001-07:00

it has been ENTIRELY too long since i last wrote on here. this must end. but not right now.

since march a lot of things have happened.

i went to the dentist.
i got a new job
i went to CT and my grandma died
i went back to the job
i took a cross country road trip with kirsten! (map coming soon hopefully!)
i resumed the job again.
i interviewed for another job...and got it! starting end of july.

till then i am working like crazy.

our kitchen is finished, now we need to put stuff back in it. a long process.

the garden is in! things are looking good. we have 23 pepper plants! and 2 tomatillos! and 5 tomatoes! and a bunch of other stuff!

i got a new gas grill! i am SO pumped about it. i could grill every night. it's SO GREAT. really great. awesome even. YAY!!!

that's all i can think of for right now. hope to put up some pictures and more detailed entries about things soon...maybe...if i get to it... :)

BACKPOSTING

2008-03-10T23:27:00.000-07:00

HEY ALL YOU BLOG READERS OUT THERE.

I GOT A LITTLE BEHIND, BUT I POSTED SOME BLOGS THIS EVENING.

THEY ARE DATED FROM THE BEGINNING OF FEBRUARY.

PLEASE GO BACK AND READ THEM IF YOU'RE AT ALL INTERESTED IN WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING THESE PAST FEW MONTHS!!

AND FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT!

peace, love, and turtles...

the kitchen where soup is made and served

2008-03-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

it’s a funny place sometimes.

i go there on wednesdays.

my main job there is to prepare the drinks and then serve them. it sounds easy but it can get tense when i run out of things like milk or coffee or a certain kind of juice. people can be a little cranky sometimes, and you’d be surprised how many people have certain things they can’t / won’t drink.

i have been going for almost a year now. i see many of the same people every week. and some only come once and are gone.

there are regulars. i know them by what they like to drink.

the "coffee in a cup" lady
the guy who only drinks water
the guy who takes multiple trips through the line and only drinks water
the guy who drinks milk with his meal, and coffee afterwards
the guy who thinks i look like ellen degeneres, who drinks milk
there used to be this one lady who always wanted 4 milks
the couple who always get apple juice for the lady, milk for the guy
the guy who always says "i'll take milk if you have it" (we always have it)
the guy who can't drink anything made with city water except coffee
the guy who always asks if we have orange juice
the guy i refer to as "the milk man" because he always says "leche"
there are 2 guys who look very different who always drink coffee with 1 cream, 2 sugars
the guy who wears the carhartt coveralls who either drinks coffee exclusively (and lots of it) or occasionally tea

some people only drink coffee and lots of it. some people only drink juice. some people can't have citrus. it's very amusing sometimes.

of late, there's been some controversy about how old i am. i have white hair, in streaks on top of my head. and there's one guy who asked me 2 weeks ago if i was 60. then last week, he wasn't sure if i was over 40 or under 40. but he started calling me old timer.

the guy in the carhartts always makes some comment about my tie dye shirts. i wear them to cheer up the place, it could use a little color. anyway one time he asked me if i was a hippy and i didn't know how to answer. i said no, but then i thought maybe yes, and he said we needed more hippies around. then last week he asked me if i drove a volkswagon micro bus. i said no. he said i should get one and paint peace signs on the side of it.

anyway, wednesday is a day i always look forward to. the kitchen always smells so good when we get there, and i get a ride from margrete, my diagonally across the street neighbor. the dynamic in the kitchen is interesting because everyone is older than me. that is not what makes it interesting, but everyone has such dynamic personalities. there's margrete, who is german. then there's pat, who is always making jokes about me dancing or playing rugby or running out of milk. pat is the dishwasher and is quick witted. marilyn is just very nice and is generally smiling and in a good mood. tom scrapes the dishes, and always smiles when i bring him something to wash. and there's vicki and marge who work very hard, and bob and his wife who do most of the cooking along with dorothy.

together we're a great team!

the kitchen remodel project

2008-03-10T22:40:00.000-07:00

well we decided it was time to do something different with the kitchen. it started off as just a plan - to reface the cabinets and get new doors and drawers made.

on friday we decided to re-do the whole entire thing. there was unscrewing and sawing and drilling and all sorts of things, and the next thing you know, the berlin wall came down (literally) and we had an open kitchen leading to the living room. on saturday we rebuilt the wall. on sunday we screwed down the drywall. today there was mudding and taping, and tomorrow will be sanding.

in order to prepare for this kitchen project, many things had to be accomplished. before anything could actually happen, we had to clean the kitchen out. but before that, we had to take the cabinet doors off. which turned out to be harder than just unscrewing the hinges because the hinges were so painted over that we couldn’t get to the screws. so michael cut new slots in every screw in the entire kitchen, and i unscrewed the hinges and removed the doors.

the following week included a lot of emptying cabinets and shelves, sorting things into categories, and boxing up all the things we keep in the kitchen. you wouldn’t believe it, but almost all the boxes i used to move my stuff from CA to here were used in boxing up this kitchen. i guess that means there was a lot of stuff. we were able to come to an agreement on a few things that we just don’t need anymore. so now everything is in one of 2 rooms, in one of many, many boxes. and the drawers are laid out on a spare bed so we can still get to them when we need to.

what i didn’t like, was on the day of the removal of everything, the 2 guys (dan and michael) that were doing the work were making comments about me not helping out. um, excuse me, but where were you both the whole previous week when the cabinets needed to be emptied and packed up? where were you when the strategizing about where things needed to go to be accessible was happening? where were you when the actual boxing of things was happening? not only was i annoyed at their ignorance, i was plain angry that they considered me to be a non-helper. because anyone who knows me, knows i'm everyone's #1 helper. i just didn't want to be in the way of all the ripping and shredding and downright testosterone that was happening in such a small space.

an unusual assortment

2008-03-09T22:58:00.000-07:00

friends

one thing i really really enjoy about living here and not being involved with the university, but rather with the dance community, is the friends i've made in just the past year.

they're great. i love spending time with them on a very regular basis. at least 1-2 times a week, sometimes more, we get together and have dinner. sometimes we have dinner and a movie. sometimes we just eat and talk. sometimes there's only 2 of us, sometimes there's 10. sometimes we go running. sometimes we set out to run and just walk and talk. and on the weekends, we generally contra dance together. and if we are dancing out of town, we carpool together. it's a special thing i've never really had anywhere else. i cherish them very, very much.

---

physical me

i am thinking about getting active again but am not sure what i should do. i know the best way for me to do so is to get involved with a team. but what? on the weekends i dance. during the week i have been keeping track of my steps per day. even going for a walk helps me feel better sometimes.

---

mental challenges

i have been getting back into doing sudokus, jumbles, and crossword puzzles again. i like the patterns and i like the way it feels to have my mind working. maybe that means i’m ready for a job.

---

visual/audio entertainment

on movie nights with friends, we've recently watched:
- hillary and tenzing - climbing to the roof of the world
- lord of the rings - the two towers (this dvd kept skipping around, it was very challenging to get through, not knowing if we'd see the next scene in order or from 1/2 hour ago)
- a mighty wind (turns out, i LOVE this soundtrack. i must have it. the songs have been stuck in my head for days.)

i have been doing some reading:
- reading – three cups of tea by mortensen and relin
- listening – on the road by jack kerouac

turns out, listening to a book on cd is hard for me to do while trying to do housework. i keep moving from room to room and feel like i’m missing something every time i leave and so i have to rewind. it’s much more ideal for me to listen while on a long distance drive.

spring is coming

2008-03-05T22:48:00.000-08:00

spring weather in the willamette valley of oregon means warm days and cool, usually clear nights.

it’s just march and the crocus and daffodils are blooming, and the daphnes are just about to be on. i'm imagining in california the buckeye's have already leafed out.

we’ve been doing a bit of yard work, including mowing the lawn, hoeing the massive amounts of weeds in the garden, reclaiming the garden from the lawn that keeps trying to take over, and pruning the plum, pear, and apple trees, and kiwi and grape vines.

the lunar eclipse happened on a wednesday a couple weeks ago, which is the exact day my friends and i usually go running. instead, we went on a walk and enjoyed the early evening light, and by the time the sun went down we could see the moon eclipsing, and the sky was clear. we drove to a better viewing spot together, and managed to see the earth move in between the sun and moon. it was a pretty neat thing to see, and it was nice that it was at an hour that wasn’t unreasonable like the last one, which happened between 130-5am. plus, it's much more fun to share those sorts of experiences with other people, vs sleeping in a cot on the porch, alone aside from the cat sleeping on my feet. which, was good in its own way. (to see pictures from last summer's eclipse, reference back to my august 2007 blog archives. i didn't take any photos this time.)

to do-s galore

2008-03-03T21:49:00.000-08:00

i’m always making to do lists.

they aren’t always in one place.

so then i have these to do notes to myself all over the house.

sometimes they're lost. sometimes they're found.

and sometimes things get checked off, and sometimes they don’t.

what happens to things that never get done? were they that un-urgent?

do other people have this problem?

a celebratory weekend

2008-03-02T22:33:00.000-08:00

leap day was my radio birthday, and march 1st was michael’s birthday.

we started the weekend off right by having lunch with one of michaels friends at osu. and then we invited all our friends to go get pizza with us at our favorite pizza place. and then people came over for ice cream, and they stayed till midnight so we could sing happy birthday.

and then saturday we had a contra dance, and then had a big group sleepover with our friends. our friend em has a house with a bunch of beds, so we dragged all the mattresses down to the living room, and lined them up so we could all sleep together in one big line of beds. we ate popcorn and talked, had a fire in the fireplace and roasted marshmallows for s’mores. and we all fell asleep approximately 10 seconds after we all laid down.

and then sunday we woke up and had special breakfast, then we came home and did garden work all day, then michael, his daughter and i went to the depot for a delicious fish dinner.

what a weekend!
(no wonder we had post-party let down the next day!)

happy radio birthday to me

2008-02-29T22:12:00.000-08:00

this only happens once every 4 years, but i’m happy to say that this is the third (or 12th) anniversary of me getting my dj license at wrho 89.7fm, “the voice of hartwick college” in oneonta ny.

it was the birth of bert, sister kristen, the nameless one, the captain...

it was the beginning of bert and the brown shoes, brother joe and sister kristen, the nonexistent truth...as well as football, soccer, field hockey, and even a lacrosse game...

and so many hours on air, for regular 3 hour weekly shows, subbing in for other people, 18 hour shows - alone and with others, the 48 hour show, the daylight savings marathon, the "welcome freshmen" shows, the spring weekend nights on frisbee field...

it was the freshman takeover, with my fellow djs - joe, dawn, brian, missy...

it was meeting new people, and making friends i wouldn't have made elsewhere - martin, brad, mathew, jorge, eric f, jj, shaun, jim, eric d, amy, kevin

it was making sure everyone in the organization felt welcome, including the non-students - wolfman, charlie the k, jerry k, irwin, mike w, mike s, uncle bill, the other guy who was on fridays before uncle bill took his place...

it was countless hours of hanging around in the station during other people's shows, or even when no one else was on the air.

it was listening to music that had just been released, and only to the college audience...and some of it was amazing and some of it was so, so awful...

i have so many fond memories! i loved WRHO. and will forever.

face vs. house

2008-02-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

in this situation, the house always wins.

i was putting firewood into the woodbox by the backdoor. we have 2 steps from the landing where the door is to the ground level, where the wheelbarrow is. so i have one foot on the 1st step and one foot on the ground. lean to the wheelbarrow, grab some logs, pivot and put them in the box, pivot back. repeat. until i get sloppy and forget my spatial reality, and WHAM-O, i smash my face into the corner of the house. i yell. i spit. i rub my head. i go inside. my tooth feels rough.

i chipped my tooth putting wood in the wood box. and spit out the piece.

luckily it wasn’t visible, and i went to the dentist a few days later and everything looks fine.

but just in case anyone was wondering, i wouldn't recommend going head to head with the corner of the house. it just doesn't feel that good.

dance dance dance the night away

2008-02-17T22:28:00.000-08:00

this weekend was the corvallis contra dance camp. michael and i were able to pull ourselves together, though it was looking a little questionable for m at the beginning because he’d been sick for the past 2 weeks after dancing fool.

we danced friday night, saturday morning, saturday afternoon, saturday evening, sunday morning, sunday afternoon, and sunday evening.

michael says we danced 23 hours overall, including not just contra dance, but waltzing, and learning salsa rueda. and it ended up that there weren't enough men during the rueda lessons, so i ended up having to dance lead for most of it. hopefully i will remember how to follow one day when i actually dance it at a club.

there were many fun dancers at this camp as well. several new faces, some young people - children, who were having a GREAT time, and who really knew what they were doing - as well as many familiar fun faces.

the bands - THE GREAT BEAR TRIO and THE KITCHEN BAND were just amazing. they knew just when to really make things move and we were all rocking away for hours on end, sweating through the gatorade like we were on one of their commercials.

this camp reiterated the fact that i really need new dance shoes.

being that it was an in-town camp, we also hosted to guests at our house. it would seem they had an enjoyable stay.

recipe reader

2008-02-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

i don’t like reading much.
well i guess it isn’t that i don’t like to do it, i just don’t make time to do it.

i’m not that creative of a chef either. i mean, i can make the basic stuff really well, but i don’t have a real creative streak when it comes to cooking.

but, in the last few months, i’ve realized that i like looking up recipes and printing them off, or looking in cookbooks and finding recipes that sound interesting. and i really enjoy reading the recipes.

making the dishes, well that’s a different story.

the things i’ve made seem to have turned out well, and people usually say “yum!” or at least they don’t say “yuck!” and spit it out. or else my friends are just super polite and would eat it even if it tasted like sawdust.

however, when it comes to the motivation to make something new, going shopping is not high on my priority list of “fun” things to do. plus, i’m always very worried that things aren’t going to end up tasting good anyway. this is probably an unrealistic worry, as i mentioned in the previous paragraph – no one has not eaten what i’ve made.

i might also have a tendency towards making things that i am fairly confident will be delicious. especially if they’re dips or sauces. these are my favorite things to make:

- basil pesto
- tomatillo salsa
- any dip that uses cream cheese or sour cream, most recently spicy crab dip

i'm not intending this to be a recipe sharing forum or anything, but if anyone has any meal or sauce / dip ideas they've tried successfully, i'd be open to hearing about it.

in the meanwhile, i think i'll go open betty crocker and see what i can find for dinner tomorrow. or maybe we'll just order pizza. :)

a dancing fool

2008-02-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

life state = washington!

well i can check another state of the list of states i’ve never been to. on feb 1 we went up to seattle washington for a contra dance camp called “dancing fool”. apparently a frank zappa song.

anyway, we hit tons of traffic going up there, which was almost unbearable. and there was no side road to get onto, so we just had to sit in it: one sort of minor accident and one pretty major, multiple car accident that smashed the barrier into our side of the highway.

the dance itself was brilliant. we danced for 18 hours over the course of a friday night, saturday day, and sunday morning. needless to say, i trashed my dance shoes and my feet, my energy and my smile, but it was worth it on so many levels. there were hundreds of good, fun, daring, risky, high energy, playful dancers to meet and dance with, and i would definitely go again in a heartbeat. as long as i get new shoes.

and then we returned to corvallis where we both promptly got sick. michael got the flu, i got some variant. oh goodie.

and so it goes...

2008-01-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

well it's a gray, cold january here in oregon and for me, it's been a series of highs and lows, both physical and emotional. after a great new years contra dancing party in west hartford, which is maybe the best way to start off the year, michael and i hit a couple more contra dances in greenfield mass before returning to our cold, western state.

the weather, for me, has never played much of a role in my mood, aside from the fact that i don't think of going outside to play if it's pouring rain, or even just raining a bit. this year, however, has proved to be slightly different. perhaps it's that i'm paying more attention to my mood, and someone i know who lives in portland oregon has kept mood journals over the years and notices a definite down-trend during the cold, dreary, wet, winter months. i've never done that, thinking that i would be bias towards myself, making myself think i was feeling gray even if i wasn't. but this year, i have had a series of days where i've asked myself if i'm feeling depressed. am i sad? am i feeling low because of events that have happened or just because there's no sunlight? hard to say, but sitting around thinking about it sometimes makes it worse. attitude is everything, they say, and i'm not going to let myself get down just because it's easy.

in sadder news, rachel's cat midnight died on monday. it was an extremely hard day for all of us, emotionally, because she showed up sunday night and the cat was having a hard time walking and not eating and hardly drinking anything. we knew the end was near, we just didn't know how long she had. and then rachel went to class on monday and on her drive back from portland, the cat coughed and seized a little bit, and then just stopped breathing. it was sad in that the cat had been with rachel since childhood, and was her home companion and friend. i felt sad not just because of the loss of life and a loved one, but because i realized what she represented to rachel - a piece of her life, gone forever. there was a lot of crying, periods of calm, followed by more sad thoughts and more crying. i had a headache after that for hours. we buried midnight under the light of the nearly-full moon, at almost midnight...and may she rest in peace in our hearts and minds as well.

in happier news, then, my friend shelley from san francisco came to visit on tuesday! she was en route to hawaii via seattle, but was in portland on a stopover and stayed for the night. we had a great time chatting, snacking, laughing, and generally talking a lot. during the day she was here, there was napping, sitting by the fire, drinking tea, going for a walk downtown, shopping at the co-op, and dinner with my friend emilie. the next day i drove shelley back to the airport, and we spent some time reading the comics and looking at the security line before she decided to head through. she got security scanned for making last minute arrangements, and apparently her sandal set off one of the security detectors. as far as i know right now she is in hawaii and in a happy place. she was just what i needed after monday's events.

however all that driving put me in a weird place, physically and mentally. i enjoyed it because i was able to listen to some of my old radio shows on tape, and laughed about how silly i was then, and how much fun it was to be on the radio. memories came flowing back and i was in a good frame of mind. when i got home, i realized the house was empty with michael gone to las vegas, so i called kirsten and paul who came over for dinner, guitar playing, looking at pictures, and snuggling with the kitties. when they left around 9, i thought it seemed early to be tired, but then i proceeded to fall fast asleep on the couch. vivid dreams of college homecomings and contra dancing and later on i was in possession of some special magical device that could protect my friends and i from hail the size of golfballs that also had razor blades on it. i just had to focus real hard on what i wanted to happen and it would. meanwhile there were bad guys abounding trying to hurt me for one reason or another, and there was just a lot going on so i was glad when the phone rang and i woke up.

a contra dance friend, dan, called today. he wanted to come and check our kitchen, which he is going to redo for us, to check on the location of the window and some cabinet and drawer specs. he had been to portland last night, at which time he had visited a museum with an exhibit about contra dancing. he picked up one of the promo cards and brought it back, and he showed it to me...and it was ME on the card! taken last january in new hampshire, i knew that there was someone taking pictures, and i knew that he was somewhat of an artist, this photographer. he had exhibits around the walls of the hall where we danced. anyway, i was shocked to see myself on the front of this card, promoting his gallery. while it is a cool photo - i'm in the ray of sunlight shooting through the one open window - i'm not making a very attractive face, and it appears i have a serious double chin going on. i shouldn't complain, i'm practically a star!

http://www.dougplummer.com/dance/index.html

it's cold in the house. think i'll go sit by the fire. then it's on to big project, getting "my room" cleaned out a little and set up in a way that would make me feel like spending more time in there.

hope all is well for you all in blog world.

'tis the season to...crave dairy?

2007-12-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

i don't know what it is about this time of year, this year, but for some reason i have been craving dairy products like it's nobody's business. milk, egg nog, cheese, cottage cheese, ice cream...luckily i'm ok with lowfat on some of those things, but i'm wondering why. why dairy. is my body not getting something it needs that dairy can provide?

in other news, the running and situps have been going extremely well. although i weighed myself on the scale at the mall the other day and it said i weigh almost 180 which i know cannot be true. i do not weigh 20 pounds more than i usually weigh. that is not possible without going up a pant size. i did have on shoes, pants, a sweater, and a jacket. perhaps that stuff weighed more than i figured. in actuality i think i've been between 155-165 for the past 12 years. i may have gotten down below 150 when i was playing rugby and running all the time for 6 months or something.

what else is new. i'm in CT for the holidays which is pretty great. i'm especially happy about this high speed internet connection! it's so different than what i have back in OR (but i am grateful to have anything at all, m!) my family is doing well and i'm looking forward to seeing the extended family on christmas and beyond. and i really am hoping we'll have a white christmas. really, really hoping for that.

i also am planning to go contra dancing, 3 times this weekend! that should be great, seeing the old gang again and actually getting to dance in my hometown once! a rare yet wonderful event!

so for now i should sign off, work on my christmas letter for an hour or so, and then go for my run, do my situps, wrap some presents, and whatever else strikes my fancy! my brother and i are doing our shopping trip tonight. should include some fabulous gifts, like beano, gas-x, nighttime breathe right strips, and other things that just get the gang to laugh on christmas morning!

getting through some things

2007-12-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

i have yet to blog about my trips to arizona, new york, connecticut, or hawaii, nor have i written anything about thanksgiving, not going back to work, my new running/exercise regimen (see sidebar), or about the massive cleaning project i'm beginning...but all in due time. just don't want people to think i've dropped off the planet. oh, and i'm also getting christmas card / letter stuff together, and collecting addresses, and...you get the idea.

dog alarm clocks

2007-12-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

you know how some people have those clocks that have sounds on them to wake them up in the morning? you know how some people have those cds with dogs barking to the tune of "jingle bells" or some such thing? you know how some people really love their dogs so much, they leave them at home for hours at a time, and they get lonely, and then they start barking? and then the neighbors dogs start barking? and then other neighbors dogs start barking? and then the whole neighborhood which probably has like 10 dogs are all barking or howling?

yeah, that's what got me up this morning. let's say i was NOT pleased. that's why we have cats.

i love carmel.

2007-11-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

i just do. i love it. i wish i'd gone trick or treating, and i would have said "i don't want your candy unless it has carmel in it." delicious.

and then...poof!

2007-10-11T18:04:00.000-07:00

(not much time to write right now, nor will there be any time soon, so here's the update.)
time has been slip, slip, slipping away, in the best of possible ways of course, but it seemed that i had all the free time in the world, which all of a sudden was reduced to hardly any free time at all. i went from biking everywhere to living out of my car. and from a leisurely lifestyle with my only commitment being soup kitchen on wednesdays at lunchtime and hanging out with the cats in the garden, to on the go, busy busy busy all the time. alternate titles for this post included "where does the time go" or "and then there was none", and so forth.

i started playing rugby for the oregon state university womens rugby club, collectively known as the black plague, although when i asked what they say when they cheer at games, they said "go beavs" which is the oregon state university mascot (the osu beavers)(at least it isn't the oregon ducks. what's so tough about a duck?) we practice 3 nights a week. back to back practices, not all that fun, i have to say.

i got a new job! i have been working at the oregon state university vegetable research farm for the past 2 weeks, on hazelnut breeding research. this namely means i have been crawling around on my hands and knees, collecting hazelnuts that have fallen to the ground and putting them in a bucket. however, my inquisitive nature makes me ask a lot of questions, and so i've learned a lot more about hazelnuts than probably the rest of my co-workers.

yesterday was my birthday! it was a beautiful, gorgeous, just about perfect day (we ate lunch during the torrential downpour) and the sunset was really peaceful. some people even remembered my birthday with cards and/or emails and/or phone calls. so far, 30 isn't so bad.

the next few weeks include some exciting adventures, which i'm sure everyone is looking forward to hearing about. all in good time, all in good time...

this muggle's DONE reading the harry potter series

2007-09-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

...to be updated as i progress...

i began reading the harry potter books and watching the harry potter movies. being someone not really into reading, i thought it gave me a good reason to read something when it was just too hot out to do anything else. so my friend emilie and i have been renting the movies on tuesday nights, and then she gives me the book of the movie we just watched.

what? you're thinking...why do you read the book after the movie?

i learned this the hard way. if i read the book and then watch the movie, 9 times out of 10, i'm disappointed by the movie. this way, i let the movie stand on its own, and then fill in the details and further my understanding of the movie by reading the book. it makes sense to me.

anyway here's my impressions so far:

1. harry potter and the sorcerer's stone
movie - 2 thumbs up

book - 309 pages, 10 days = ~31 pages a day

2. harry potter and the chamber of secrets

movie - 1 thumb up, 1 thumb down

book - 341 pages, 8 days = ~43 pages a day

3. harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban

movie - 2 thumbs up

book - 435 pages, 9 days, = ~48 pages a day

4. harry potter and the goblet of fire

movie - 2 thumbs up for action, only 1 thumb for sticking to the book

book - 734 pages, 14 days = ~52 pages a day

5. harry potter and the order of the phoenix

movie - not out on video yet

book - 870 pages, 9 days = ~97 pages a day

6. harry potter and the half blood prince

movie - not out yet

book - 652 pages, 21 days (been busy!) = ~31 pages a day

7. harry potter and the deathly hallows

movie - not out yet

book - 759 pages, 16 days = ~47 pages a day

that's it for the books, now i just have to wait patiently for the movies to come out!

*note - i copied the images from
http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/books/covers/*

lunar eclipse

2007-08-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

while i wasn't able to stay up all night - or rather, wasn't able to fully wake up every 1/2 hour from 2am-530am (even though i set an alarm clock), i did manage to get up a few times to snap some photos of the lunar eclipse, which occured on august 28th.

i believe it's the first lunar eclipse i've ever bothered to a. pay attention to, or b. take photos. i did use the opportunity to sleep outside in a mummy sleeping bag, which i've decided is just not a good fit for me unless it's freezing cold out. plus the cat was sleeping on my feet, which was fine except i didn't want to disturb his sleep as well as mine. :)

so although the set is a little incomplete, since my desire to stay in bed is greater than the desire to get up, here's what i have.

130am ------------------- 200am

215am ------------------- 230am

400am #1 ------------------ 400am #2

i had a little more trouble with the 400am ones, simply because there was so little light, i had to keep the shutter open significantly longer than the others, and my hand, even though the camera was on the tripod, just wasn't super still.

back

2007-06-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

i'm in connecticut again, but not exactly what i had planned. i'd originally figured i'd come home for my usual 4th of july trip, and to stay for 2 weeks and visit with my parents, grandma, and grandpa.

however on father's day i called home to find out how things were going, and my mom said, sadly, that my grandfather had just been diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to his liver. that pretty much sent me into complete sadness and despair, and i flew home nearly immediately.

i am now spending many days and some nights over at his house with him, since he lives alone (his wife, my other grandma, died in 1995).

grandpa and i have been close since i got out of college in 1999, and maybe even before that. we enjoy a good lunch together, generally a noodle side dish, or some grilled cheese and tomato soup. we talk about things, stories of the past, about life and lessons we've learned, people we've met, things we've seen, and i fix his computer and show him how to work his dvd player. he is still incredibly sharp and can learn things even at 94 years old. and still has a great memory.

it has been very difficult to hear this news and know that he will now not get better. hospice has become involved and they will help keep him comfortable. he has always said he doesn't want to burden anyone, nor does he want to *be* a burden to anyone, so i'm not sure how long this will go on. he has a strong will to live and has survived many many things in his lifetime. he has had a wonderful life with so many blessings, and he knows that and appreciates it.

i love him so much.

a sensitive flower

2007-05-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

well this is my 99th post. 99 holds a special place in my heart so i wanted to make this a good post. let's see.

1. i haven't finished writing up about my alaska trip, nor have i sent out any alaska postcards.

2. i haven't finished writing up about my peru trip either, nor have i sent out any peru postcards. which reminds me, the postcards we sent *from* peru still don't seem to have made it to the US. hmm we sent them at the end of march. hmm.

3. i have been involved in numerous yard and garden activities since i returned home from alaska and peru. they include, but are not limited to:

mowing the grass with both riding and push mowers
weed whacking
trimming weeds around gardens, apple trees, and grape vines (by hand)
edging the patio/driveway/sidewalk (with a spade edger thing)(michael helped)
hauling brush to the sidewalk
loading brush into the truck in the rain
bringing the brush to the burn piles
burning the burn piles (pretty dang fun, and kinda hot)
stacking new brush into a new burn pile for next year
throwing sequoia cones
cleaning off the tree house
setting up the hammock
digging a trench along the back fence for a new fence to go in - which required moving a ton of "valuable" items out of the way, including old studded tires, wheels for a VW bug, plates of glass, shards of broken glass, a basketball hoop, old toys and dolls buried under years of sequoia needles, small rocks, large rocks, old chunks of bricks and/or cement, various metal poles, as well as a bunch of old fence that i cut off the old fence posts
helping michael put in the new fence
preparing the soil in the garden
planting the garden
watering the garden
watching the garden grow
cutting blackberries back
removing ivy from trees
playing with the cats
sitting on the bench...

4. about a month or so ago i found a running partner. she's great. we run at about the same speed. the initial reason for my contacting her was because i was trying to get in shape for the rugby game...basically i just didn't want to be COMPLETELY out of shape for the game, which it turned out i wasn't. we have been going to different parks every week and i'm getting to see a little more of the town which i think is a good thing.

5. 2.5 weeks ago michael and i spent 2 days cutting and chopping firewood for next winter. some people say that when you go firewooding, it warms you twice - once when you cut it, and once when you burn it. i agree, but i think it actually warms you 5 times. once to move it / set it up to get it ready to cut/chop, once to actually cut/chop it, once to throw it in the back of the truck, once to unload it off the truck, and once to stack it once it's in the woodshed.

6. 2 weeks ago i broke out with this weird rash. we thought at first it was food allergy, but it lasted for 3-4 days and kept moving around. then we thought it was laundry detergent allergy, but we use free and clear and no fabric softener or other additives and i kept getting the rash in new places even with clothes i hadn't washed with this detergent. so, with consensus from my mother, we decided it was a virus. a weird creepy virus. which just proves how sensitive i really am.

7. 3 days after the weird skin virus, i got a stomach/intestinal virus. isn't life just special?

8. the lewisias are still flowering in the rock garden, and i took some photos, since they are flowers and maybe less sensitive than i.

9. i just got back from davis california where i had the most amazing visit. here's what happened, in a not-so-nutshell:

thursday -

mike dropped me off at the airport in portland
laurel picked me up at the airport in sacramento (although she was at terminal A waiting for me, while i was looking for her in terminal B where i landed).
went to laurel's house, drank tea, met quiz the cat.

friday -

got up early and walked to the light rail station, took it to downtown sacramento, then caught the bus to davis. all went smoothly.
upon arrival in davis, i walked around, reminescing about old times.
walked past my old house.
heard the fire engines.
had a burrito bowl at chipotle (rice, chicken, salsa, cheese, sour cream, guac). sooooo good.
visited with wes from myspace, who works at bizarro world. caught up on life.
went to central park. went to campus. sat under trees and just stared at the sky.
met up with my rookie mendivil, went to nims' house and played with the guinea pigs (bridgette o'malley and tiffany amber williams o'malley)
met up with laurel for dinner at fuji (fuji chefs sushi and roll, california roll, philadelphia roll, deep fried sweet potato roll, smoke salmon). sooooo good. probably ate too much wasabi.
walked around davis. went to the coop. saw matt smith. checked out soap, burts bees, facial products, alcohol, chocolate and tea.
went back to laurels house.

saturday -

laurel and i drove to davis.
had crepes at crepeville (cheddar, onion, avocado, cream cheese). sooooo good.
walked around the farmers market and almost told some little ballerinas that they would never be princesses in real life, they would be drones just like us. bought some pistachios.
went to the alumni rugby game. we were the first ones there, even after getting lost going to the field. got to see happy which totally rocked. well seeing everyone pretty much rocked.
the alumni kicked a** at the game, though some of the new players are pretty dang good.

i'm the one with tape on my head and green socks.

the social afterwards was OK but many people had already left by then. *shrug* ate a hamburger with ketchup. lots of ketchup.
got a ride to bomie's house, then got a ride from laurel.
we went to jamba juice (berry lime sublime). sooooo good. (she had caribbean passion -super - which turned out to be just slightly too much)
walked around safeway, petco, big 5 sports
met laurels friend at dos coyotes for pre-dinner (chips and guacamole). sooooo good.
on our way to woodstocks for my real dinner with rugby people, happy texted me that she wasn't coming back to davis for any late night partying. i was super bummed, but detoured my trip to woodstocks to a trip to the train station, where i promptly bought a ticket and headed to san francisco!
amtrak to richmond, bart to 24th and mission, shelley found me there and we went to her home in SF.
stayed up late talking about everything.

sunday -

woke up leisurely. had walnut bread toast from liberty cafe.
walked to downtown bernal, saw signs for a moving sale.
went to the moving sale and scavenged their cd collection. some kinda good stuff in there.
shelley wanted to preview the cds so she had the people bring out their boombox and i dj'ed.
i walked away with 12 cds, including: tori amos (boys for pele), arrested development (3 years, 5 months, 2 days in the life of...), michelle branch (the spirit room), eels (beautiful freak), jesus jones (doubt), midnight oil (diesel on dust), moody blues (legend of a band), new radicals (maybe you've been brainwashed too), smashing pumpkins (siamese dream), u2 (pop), a few mixes (gap's favorite songs album fall 2005, the 70's original nbc motion picture soundtrack)...
she got some kids books for her nephew in alaska, and 5 cds, including some french reggae, french house, right said fred "i'm too sexy" single, something else i can't remember, and our favorite, shaun cassidy (greatest hits).
returned our new purchases to shelley's house, then walked to the mission.
on our way we found a secret stairwell, as well as a mini park. how can you beat that?
went to taqueria can-cun (black bean vegetarian burrito w/1/2 avocado). sooooo good.
spent one of my "where's george" dollar bills there (valencia and mission).
walked valencia, stopped at a few random stores just to look at random things, some weird stuff, some pricy weird stuff, books, etc.
walked to mission dolores park, otherwise known as "playa dolores", got a good view of the city from there.
walked to safeway, bought milk. horizon organic whole milk. sooooo good.
walked back to shelley's, drank some milk and ate chocolate.
walked up to bernal hill and checked out the city view from there. about 20 fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, other emergency vehicles were all converging on this one building that didn't even look like anything was happening. i figured it might have been a drill just to see response time.
walked back to shelleys. watered her garden. took out trash, recyclables, compost.
went to sleep.

monday -

woke up early, attempting to leave the house at 645.
left actually at 700.
no traffic leaving the city, listening to some of her fine cd purchases on the way, we arrived in davis around 830.
after driving around for awhile looking for parking we decided to just pay and park in the pay lot.
went to the growth chamber and started bagging up plants for autoclaving.
put some plants in the autoclave.
fast-walked over to wellman where the seminar was, shelley went in, i did not.
went to the MU (bagel and odwalla). sooooo good. and called ingo.
met up with ingo and went to mishkas.
ate and chatted. checked my email and checked in for my flight.
called my friend jane (from ely NV) who was in rancho cordova (en route to san jose, and then ely) who was coming to davis...and we could meet for lunch after my dentist appt.
went to the dentist.
met up with ingo again, went to the arboretum / arboretorium / arboridium
saw the turtles sunning themselves. sooooo good.
went back to borders cause i had to go to the bathroom. picked up a copy of sports illustrated where MY rookie is in a rugby picture on page 22 of the may 14th issue. no article, just the picture. but still.
began walking again when jane called and said she was in davis.
met up at redrum burger, had a turkey burger and fries, and a milkshake, met her gecko named boo, and caught up on the past 7 months. it was great.
jane left and ingo and i had to move his car.
went back to mishkas (thai iced tea). sooooo good.
got a phone call, not sure who it was at first, but it was LEKA.
walked to campus, met her at the library, went over and sat by the arboretum and talked and talked. about rugby, life, and everything else we could think of.
she went to class, we went over to plant path to see if i could find shelley, to get her keys, to get my stuff out of her car.
went to the growth chamber room, she wasn't there.
went by the outside of the lab, shannon l. came out into the hallway, we chatted.
i went into to lab on the other side, didn't see shelley, did see andrea, and we talked awhile.
she walked down to the growth chamber room to open the door to see if shelley was in there. no luck.
walked back up to the third floor, where we found shelley in the computer lab.
got her keys, got my stuff, called laurel who was heading to starbucks. i could meet her there.
returned to the computer lab where she was still printing things.
hung out awhile.
went to meet laurel and her friend molly. had a drink. talked more. shelley came over.
said bye to laurel, then gave shelley a ride over toward campus, then said bye to shelley.
got emotional.
went to ingo's to get the dogs. they were cute and didn't try to bite my leg or hand off. dakota even drooled on me. thanks!
went to the airport. said bye to ingo.
got on the plane, flew back, mike picked me up, we drove to salem, then got my car and drove back to corvallis.

me and ingo..............................me and jane

the end.

in retrospect it might have been cool to have a gps with me and running the whole time, just so i could put a map up here of all the places i went. but you get the idea. i was pretty much on the move for 4 straight days. it was awesome!!

here's my garden. in future posts i plan to show it's progress with time. i might also post some other things having to do with the yard. viva el 99!

enough is enough

2007-04-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

since when did it become ok for people to take guns to school to shoot people just because they were mad? when did it become ok to shoot people at all? it seems like every other article i read in the paper these days is detailing how someone was angry about something and therefore thought that gave them the right and full permission to go to a school and start shooting. where are people learning this behavior? and what can we as a society do to stop it? because too many innocent people are being hurt and killed and there has to be some reason this is happening.

more later, i just read there was a shooting at virginia tech...

happy half birthday to me

2007-04-10T12:27:00.000-07:00

yep, it's my half birthday, the last half birthday of my 20's. no wonder i'm feeling a little weird today.

in the next week or so i'll be posting some more things about my alaska trip (although it seems like a distant memory at this point) and also - what everyone has been waiting for - posts from my peru trip! they'll all be back dated anywhere from mid march through april, and i'll let you know when i actually do post them. so you don't waste your time looking at my blog for no reason.

i'm in oregon and today for the first time in a long time, it's not raining. i probably just jinxed it. :)

holla back people!

snowy snowy alaska

2007-03-08T20:20:00.000-08:00

it is amazing being here.

yakutat alaska.

i'm staying, scratch that, working at a bed and breakfast. on yakutat bay. looking at the mainland, which is mountains completely covered with snow. on a clear day i can see them perfectly. on a snowy day, i look for other things to photograph. and currently i think my camera's memory card has a bug, so here's some photos from today from a different card.

also, something strange happened today. well first i'll say that bald eagles are fairly common here, and i hear them calling and see them flying over the house and in the trees surrounding the house every day. but there was one today that sat out on the island for a good part of the afternoon low tide.

and after awhile i thought, hmm, that's strange, i don't usually see them just hanging out on the ground. later on i went outside to go to the post office and check for air freight at the airport, and across the street, i saw this...

oh my god, how cool and close up i thought. and then i came back from my trips, and lo and behold...the eagle was sitting on the snowbank right outside my house. so i got a good photo of him / her. for all you bird lovers out there. or even non-bird lovers. these animals are SO COOL.

more soon...

welcome back kotter

2007-02-22T15:02:00.000-08:00

i'm sitting at the computer, wearing a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, jacket, winter hat, sweat pants, socks, and wool slippers, and my hands are a bit chilly. there is a fire going in the wood stove and when i'm done here i'll go warm myself. i can look out the window and it's another cloudy day in oregon, with varying amounts of sunlight mixed with rain showers. the yard is peaceful and the cats keep me company. the days are relaxing.

have been basically hibernating from blogging the past month or so. just haven't had too much to say. i returned to oregon on feb 1st and have already attended 2 weekly contra dances and one contra dance camp weekend. i've had burritos, which i had been craving the whole time i was in CT. i've been to the grocery store, gone for short bike rides, and spend a good amount of time napping, doing puzzles of various sorts, hanging with the cats, checking the mail, and surfing the web. the next month will be a bit chaotic, but fun.

in a week i will travel to yakutat alaska to run a friend's aunt's bed and breakfast. i have never run a bed and breakfast, nor have i prepared breakfast for more than say, one or two people at a time. i wonder if i have to learn how to cook eggs over easy? there will be new challenges every day. and, from the sound of it, lots of snow. i'm so eager to have some snow. winter hit the northeast about a day after i left, and oregon has just been rainy since i got back. although i hear it's snowing on the pass and maybe we'll go cross country skiing this weekend.

by mid march, i will have returned from alaska and will be on a plane to peru to celebrate my friend kurt's wedding to his fiancee maria. i have never been to peru, and thus have to get a bunch of travel information as well as immunizations.

all this travel you're probably thinking - don't you have to work to have money to do these things? i have saved up a little and have been fortunate in other ways, and when i get back i suppose i'll have to start doing something related to work. which means my free time could be coming to an end which means i should hop to and get my stuff set up in my office and unpack! i haven't yet unpacked from moving my stuff from ely/reno to here. just unpacked whatever i needed which was some clothes.

so much to do.

dancing has been a priority in this year of the pig. i spent many many hours dancing while on the east coast, at my favorite dance halls, the guiding star grange in greenfield massachusetts and the west hartford town hall in west hartford connecticut. i think about those dances and i miss the people there very much. they were basically my adopted family while i was home with grandma, since my real family doesn't seem to be much for doing activities together. although that's not exactly true, my dad and i did go hiking a few times. grandma and i talked and did exercises and played cards and watched movies. on the whole though, i feel my family doesn't take any joy in anything having to do with me. especially going out of their way for me. *shrug*

hey guess what. it just started hailing. i mean, there's a lot of hail. it's a hail storm. small hail. but hail nonetheless! it's bouncing all over the place...ok it stopped.

movies

2007-01-17T16:11:00.000-08:00

since my home in oregon has no TV, i've been catching up on watching some movies on DVD while here in CT. here's the most recent batch:

the da vinci code - never read the book, and probably won't. the movie was good and an interesting concept, but didn't really make me feel like i needed to run out and read the book right away.

the life of david gale - the story was an interesting one and it reflected how much he knew about what he was doing and how he didn't want to stop it. a seemingly hard decision.

x-men 3 - the last stand - definitely a disappointment after having seen x-men 1 and 2.

step up - the dancing in this movie was awesome. i *wish* i could dance like that. i should probably watch it again sometime and try to pick up some sweet dance moves. or else i could just watch napoleon dynamite again :)

the constant gardener - i am not sure i completely understood the story, probably should have watched it again just to clarify a few things.

friends with money - everyone has problems whether they have money or not. duh.

little miss sunshine - many people told me this movie was funny, and some said it was horrible. had to see it for myself. laughed out loud many many times. what do you think? life isn't as serious as we think it is.

cinderella man - the director made me feel like i was a part of the cast. i felt everything they wanted me to feel. and i didn't know until the end what james braddock would decide to do.

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do you ever just sit around making weird noises with your mouth because you can? i just caught myself doing that.

finally, the lyrics to the birthday song that everyone sings at contra dances on the east coast.

we wish you a happy birthday
a joyous and celebrated birthday
to our dear *enter name here*
may he/she have a long long life.

the second time you sing it in a round and my newest goal is to sing a harmony part.

this weekend mike is coming to visit me from oregon for the second time in 2 weeks. i guess he likes me. anyway we're going dancing in greenfield on friday and peterborough on saturday. i can't wait, it's going to be so much fun!! better start sleeping now so i won't be tired!

ok time to get grandma to do her exercises. hope all is well with everyone out there in blog world!

peace love and turtles

and the walking man walks

2007-01-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

the new year has begun, and with that my father and i have already taken 3 nature walks together.

the sand pit
nearby our home there are actually 2 sandpits; one for actual sand "mining" and the other for more recreational uses like dirtbikes. it's about 2 miles from my house to the recreational one, so we headed over to see if there was anything going on. on the way we pass by the transfer station, the place where the town puts all the leaves from streetside leaf collection, some corn and tobacoo fields, a little bit of woods, and a stream. and it appears some people had a nice bonfire to ring in the new year! also shown are my first sunset photos of 2007.

soapstone mountain
dad, mike, and i went to soapstone just to have a look around on a gorgeous 60 degree day. i didn't take many photos but the sky looked particularly interesting (no surprise there!)

east hartford / hartford river walk
i'd never been walking along the CT river in hartford, and my dad had to drop off some papers for a new job in east hartford, so we did that and then found a park where we began our hike on the east side of the river. we then proceeded over the founders bridge, checked out constitution plaza, walked south to the charter oak bridge, and back north to the car. the blue onion building is colt firearms, where my dad had his second job out of college. the next historic looking building is the travelers tower.

happy new year!

2007-01-01T01:28:00.000-08:00

i spent new years eve dancing. what were YOU doing?

too much text

2006-12-19T12:34:00.000-08:00

people are turned off by text in blogs. but i have no photos to post at this time. *shrug*

oh yeah but i did watch mission impossible 3 and must love dogs last night. next up: the da vinci code!

least flattering photo of the year

2006-12-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

my dad claims to have gotten rid of all the crappy coats in the house, so i was given this old lab coat to use for the annual cutting of the christmas tree. it's not that good of a photo, however.

in other news - contra dancing!

i went to greenfield MA last night for my second consecutive week of dancing there, and i learned that the third saturday dance in greenfield is the least well attended. and people there knew that. but i didn't know that since it was only my second dance. i had been asked the previous week to go to a dance in lenox, but i was a slacker and didn't look up where it was or how to get there and didn't take any steps towards figuring that stuff out. plus i figured, greenfield was a great dance last week, it would be great every week! i was only wrong in the sense that there weren't as many people. the dance was still pretty great. just a lot smaller.

last night people told me that dancers usually go to other dances on third saturdays, including walpole. no one mentioned walpole to me before! hmmph!

well anyway the dance turned out to be great aside from one dancer who for the life of him could just not get it together. usually, as mentioned in my contra dance post, people can get it within a few minutes. it is generally not complicated and involves repeating the same moves over and over with the same partner, and neighbors that change with every full cycle of the dance. but this man could just not get it. i ended up next to him several times and even took him as my partner one time, and i felt bad that i just couldn't help him get it right.

i danced with many fine dancers throughout the night, though, and had a ton of fun swirling around, getting dizzy, and smiling/laughing like crazy. the thing about dancing is that if i have a really good dance with someone, i end up feeling a lot closer to that person once the dance is over. in greenfield, this feeling has generally been mutual and a hug at the end of a dance is a super nice way to say "thank you for a nice dance." and lord knows i can use as many hugs as possible these days!

next week i'm probably heading back to greenfield to give it another shot. there are other dances around but, after one real dud in granby CT, i'm hesitant to try a new dance where i don't know what the crowd will be like. and the granby dance wasn't a total dud, it was just not contra which was what i had gone for. we had a good english country dance nonetheless.

well dad just said "dinner" so it's off to taco night for me. toodles for now, fellow bloggers!

what the heck is contra dancing?

2006-12-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

it was never really described to me, either. the first time i tried it was college. a bunch of people who lived at pine lake told me there was going to be a contra dance some weekend, and i hitched a ride to see what it was all about. i think i also knew the keyboard player in the band that would be playing that weekend - he was my supervisor at work. anyway i got there and people were milling about. the caller said find a partner and make long lines up and down the hall. the rest is history.

a few things i remember from that dance include gypsying for the first time with this guy named dan, learning where to put my foot to swing properly and in the most fun manner, and the caller saying that some part of contra, or just dancing in general, was to do in a vertical position what you wanted to do in a horizontal position. whoa!

i think most people hear the word "dance" and think "i can't do it" or "i'll look stupid doing it" or "i don't know how and probably couldn't learn". the truth of the matter is that contra dancing is the kind of thing where if you can walk, you can do it. of course it helps if you have *some* rhythm, or some sense of being able to count to 8, but other than that, it is very simple.

moves include holding hands in a circle of 4, walking forward or backward, turning around either alone or with one other person, walking past people, and balancing (which is actually just stepping toward the person and stepping back). skills like knowing your left from your right are handy. higher level skills include twirling, weaving, do-si-dos, and swinging. however these higher level skills can be learned the night of the dance.

the nice thing about contra is that they tell you everything you need to know, and they tell it to you multiple times throughout the dance. and everybody at the dance is, for the most part, doing the exact same moves during the dance, so you're surrounded by people who are all doing virtually the same thing as you, who can guide if you if you start to get lost or confused. even dancers who have been dancing for awhile get confused sometimes - especially after a good swing!

another fine part of this dance is that you can switch partners every dance. this means that if you encounter someone you would like to dance with sometime during one dance, you can ask them to dance the next - and it's perfectly fine for men to ask women and women to ask men, or women to ask women and men to ask men...you get the idea. of course you don't have to switch partners if you don't think you can, but part of the fun of it is learning new moves from other people so you can try them out with your favorite partner...

for me contra dancing has just re-entered my life. i learned how to do it back in college, and then sort of lost track of it until now. i go just about every weekend, and it definitely is good for me all around, including therapudically and emotionally. it is a time when i can forget about things that are bothering me and just smile. the dancing is so fun for me that i spend most of the time smiling so large i can't even contain it. i wonder if people think - "why is that girl smiling so big?" but usually, my smile can crack even the most stoic, focused dancers. and once i get someone smiling, they loosen up and become a lot more fun to dance with. even the women, with whom i have to gypsy or chain or turn by the right or left, usually end their dance with me smiling. it is a great feeling.

not only that but once you get the hang of it, contra dancing is an all out athletic event. sure, you can walk through the moves and get from a to b and back again, but for some of us, it's about getting a workout in. generally a dance lasts for 3 hours, and people i dance with go through anywhere from 2-5 shirts in a given evening. including me!

one of the other facets that makes the dances so fun and interesting is the outfits that people wear to the dance. ususally people try to wear some wild shirt, including hawaiian style shirts or tie dyes, and many people, including men, wear twirly skirts, ranging in length from floor length to mid-thigh. when you're wearing the skirt, you don't realize the effect it's having on the other dancers in the room, but from my own personal experience, people really take notice of the dancers with the showiest outfits.

so stop wimping out and saying "i'm too tired" or "i don't know how." get off your couches and get out there! you don't even need to bring a partner! the people at contra dances are very helpful and very kind to the newest or the most experienced dancers. it's a community that most people don't even know about, but i've found they're some of the nicest and most fun people i've ever met!

here's a listing of dances in your area: www.thedancegypsy.com