first in, last out

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

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. :)

music revival, day 7

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.
  

life can be so...routine - part 1

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.

that's the brakes

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.

long day ahead

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!

i peel the bark

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.

--------------------
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.

it only tuesday

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!

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

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

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...

--------------------
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.

complain excuse whimper whine reason

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...

it's about...time!

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

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!

the one that didn't get away

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!