A Trip to the Windy City

After probably one of the best weeks out with one of the best presenters that I've had so far, I finished my week in Chicago, in one of the worst hotels I've had to deal with. Luckily, I didn't have to stay the weekend in that hotel. I met KAL at O'Hare and then we took the train into the city to stay at the la-di-da Hyatt right downtown. As always, K had a good connection and got us a "Regency Club" room, for super cheap! We got to our room with my crazy load of luggage (thanks for the help toting my big bag K!!) and then went to enjoy the "hot appetizers" in the special lounge for "guests who require an even higher level of service than the Hyatt standard."

We chose convienience over finding a true conniseurs restaurant in the sub-freezing temperatures and found a deep dish pizza place nearby to grab dinner. After dinner, we went wandering around just to see a bit of what surrounded the hotel and see if we could find a bar. Both of us gasped in pure christmas travel joy at the sight of a beautiful old building which had been lit red and green at the top. Across the river we found a gigantic statue of the American Gothic figures in front of the NBC building (and Chicago Tribune sign!) but no bars. So we wandered back across and found a place to get a Sam Adams (since that's what people in other parts of the country drink when they're not drinking Bud, I'm still getting used to not being able to get Mac'n'Jacks ever).

By the time we got to the bar we were pretty much frozen solid. Turns out people have long puffy coats for a reason, and not just as a fashion statement. I decided that I needed to buy the flat, wrap-around black fleece ear muffs that I saw on all of the men about town.

We called it a night pretty early, since we were both exhausted, and proceeded back to the hotel for some absolutely fabulous sleep. This bed... oh god. It was spectacular. There was some kind of thick feather-bed top to it, and it just was so cushy i just melted into it. Although, after having had so many king beds to myself I had to remember that I couldn't turn fully horizontal on the bed during the night.

The next day we had breakfast at the Regency Club room and then went out shopping in the decidedly Seattle-esque weather (45 and chance of showers). Throughout our time on the Magnificant Mile I decided two things: 1) Ann Taylor Loft is KAL's store, but generally not mine. With the exception of a ridiculously on sale (66% off!) pencil skirt. and 2) Designer Jeans don't automatically make you look good. I tried on two dressing rooms full, and decided that I didn't like them any more than I liked my previous $50 pair, in fact I liked them a lot less. Sadly, I didn't find the perfect pair of earmuffs but we did find a Noodles and Co for lunch!

We weathered the rain and enjoyed Millenium park (Yay Bean!) and then met up with another program manager who happened to be in chicago the same weekend. She (well, her cousin who lived in Chicago) helped guide us to a little german christmas market where we proceeded to drink gluewhine (or whatever you call it) and wander around. We were icicles again at this point, since the market was outside and the rain was still falling. Back to the hotel we went to try on our new purchaces and get ready to go out to a show.

We'd gotten half-price tickets for "The Christmas Schooner," at a little theater in Belmont. I found the show a little hoaky for my taste, but it was fun regardless. The story is about a Michagan sailor who in the late 1800's filled up a boat with christmas trees and sailed across the icy lake to bring the trees to Chicago. I was sudenly sturck with amusement that sailing a lake could be so dangerous, but one look out our hotel window (and some jibes from KAL) reminded me that those lakes are BIG. In fact, they're Great. :P

In the morning we met up with one of KAL's friends who had moved to chicago and had an amazing breakfast with gigantic cinamon rolls. We then wandered over to check out Wrigley field, and then we were off again back to fabulous O'Hare. My flight got delayed multiple times (thank you Northwest!) but I ended up finally making it to Kansas City. All in all a great trip!!

Short List: Christmas Break

Aside from the obvious holiday clatter, I'm going to need a mission for my break this year, since I am going to have nothing to do! Here's a list of 12 things to try to get completed by January 5th, when I fly out:

To Complete:

97. Go through goals, re-evaluate, and add #97 by December '08.
90. Go to the Pioneer Square first Thursday art walk. (If there is one on Jan 1st)
83. Make time for a Sister-Bonding event and stop acting like a know-it-all.
70. Make bed every day for a week. (0/7)
65. Create a Lulu.com book of my LJ entries.
63. Knit a cabled scarf.
45. Subscribe to a literary journal.
38. Sell snowboard and coat on Craigslist.
28. Make homemade bread (with yeast, no beer bread!).
31. Eat no take-out or restaurant food for 2 weeks straight. ??????
15. Donate to Locks-of-Love. ?????
37. Cash in change jar only when completely full.

And some things to work on:

94. Buy 10 CD's rather than downloading. (3/10) [Barcelona, Helio Sequence, Death Cab for Cutie]
89. Attend 5 plays before I turn 25 (and have to pay more). (2/5) [The Imaginary Invalid, 3-16-08] [A Marvelous Party, 7-11-08]
88. Go to 5 new restaurants in Seattle. (2/5)
82. Send thank-you notes for all gifts from Christmas and birthdays. (C07, B08, C08, B09, C09, B10)
80. Send a "Just because..." note 1x a month for 6 months. (0/6)
59. Complete a visual journal.
67. Back-up hard drive 1x a month for a year straight. (2/12)
95. Increase my list to having seen 50 of the AFI top 100 films. (26/100)
57. Write a blog post a week for 3 months straight. (5/12)
17. Take a spa day once every 3 months (Hot House, Massage, Facial, Manicure/Pedicure, or Bubble Bath work!) (3/11) [Massage, 9-26-08]

That didn't really shorten the list much from it's 101 state, but hopefully it'll help me figure out what to do when I'm hopelessly bored (and prevent me from catching up on season 1 of Gossip Girl). ALso, since I'll be heading into year two I want to try to catch up to pace a bit more than I'm at. If I can cross off twelve things I should definitely be much closer than without them.

New Jersey Tackiness

Really...?

Fake frescoes on the ceilings, fake marbling on fake columns, gaudy Christmas decorations everywhere, fake Grecian statues, gold accents everywhere, and even a ceiling panel that has the constellations of the night sky on it. It's like a low-rent version of all things holy.

Not to mention the glorious Christmas music on a loop. Everything from operatic style carols, to children's choruses, to some kind of chintzy organ music.

I am in hell.

Although, when it comes right down to it this week I've been enjoying things more than in the last few previous weeks. In Manchester I got out and drove around town a bit, and my presenter is great fun. Yesterday after the seminar, we drove through "downtown" trying to find a place to grab something to snack on since our flight was so late. We discovered that almost nothing in Manchester is open at 3pm, especially nowhere that you could get a glass of wine. After a few instances of "driving like a Bostonian" (ie backing up and making u-turns/3-point turns in traffic) we managed to find an irish pub that served only pizza. It was good pizza at least!

She drove to town in a PT Cruiser so we had a car in Manchester, and after taking that thing for a spin (or two or three in downtown Manchester...) I ended up getting another one for us now that we're in Jersey (although it's a much better color... Cherry Red rather than Electric Shock Blue). It's much more fun to drive than the gigantic SUV's I've been having previously, even though no matter what color it is, it's still an ugly car.

Next, we get to drive the Jersey Turnpike to Newark. My wallet is drastically weighed down with coinage for this part of the treck... I'm pretty sure I went overboard. I'm guessing I've got about 10-15 dollars in coins. That's what I get for packing them the morning I was leaving. I'll definitely have to let you know how the hotel that is next to the correction center turns out... Yay Newark!

The Days Get Longer

Here’s a clearing house post, to make up for the fact that last week, while I had a great presenter I was stuck in a part of the country that made me want to beat myself over the head. No offense to the better parts of the Midwest, but I have to say that Indiana, Toledo in Ohio, and Michigan definitely qualify for “fly-over state” status. Anyways, I’ll give you a run down of things I’ve been thinking about:

Job Satisfaction

At some point in every job I’ve ever had I’ve lost interest. Maybe I have career ADD. I’m good at pushing through for defined periods of time though, something that has helped me with any class I’ve ever taken. Luckily, this job is extremely defined. Two more weeks and I’ll have the first real Christmas break I’ve had in a long time. Maybe that’ll help me wake up at 6am and actually almost care about what I’m doing.

Because in fact, waking up at 6am has become a process of dread. Every day I know I will face people who will not be satisfied… people who rudely refuse to fill out evaluation forms with only 4 questions, people who are insulted that you cannot solve all of the problems that they themselves should have checked on, participants who rudely insinuate that I’m insane to be doing this job, hotel staff that either move like molasses or go so far over the top to be nice that they cant get anything done for all their graciousness. There are plenty of folks who are nice, but it’s hard sometimes to put up with all of the crap that gets thrown my way… especially when I’m in places like Detroit or Toledo where there’s nothing to be done outside the seminar.

Luckily, this week I should be able to go traipsing through Phillidelphia and drive down to the lovely little part of Long Island that another PM and I found last time I was there. Then there’s Chicago… and man am I looking forward to that. It’s going to be great fun to wander around town with KAL, just being low-key but seeing a great city. That’s what I love about this job, and what I just can’t do in Toledo or Detroit—getting out and investigating cities. Detroit’s hotel did have a water park, but considering it had only one slide and I was the only guest in the entire park, it was just awkward.

The Future

It’s the thought of indefinite periods of time spent working a single job that grabs me by the throat and throttle the will to work out of me. That’s what happened with my last lab job… and what I fear will happen once this job is over. I don’t know much more now what I want to do than I knew before. All I know is that I don’t want to spend an exorbitant amount of money on grad school unless I know that it will be worth it. Debt has always scared me and I’d managed to avoid credit cards entirely until now (but those reimbursement checks cover all of that anyways), but to pick up debt in this economy without a clear method of paying it off scares me.

The state of the economy also scares me. What does one do when things are heading towards a depression and there’s no clear career path to head down? I think I need to start working towards a position that can become a career, because I need to be able to build into a promote-able position… but not knowing which direction to go in bogs me down.

In fact, I want to make a plea of anyone who actually reads this. Sometimes people outside of the situation have the clearest sight of the situation. If you don’t mind, I’m extremely curious what any of you see me doing as a career. Please leave a comment… Do you see me in a suit running business meetings? Do you see me back in a lab coat? Do you see me with a reporter’s notebook? Anything would be helpful.

NaNoWriMo

No, I did not finish. I got 60% done, and then realized I needed to rewrite a section of over 800 words as well as write all of the sections that I had not really thought out. Once I got bogged down in feeling sick and not wanting to eat, writing completely lost its excitement and I fell far enough behind that I couldn’t manage to continue. I’m going to try to get the story finished, and the plan is to push for Christmas. It’s horribly terrible in my opinion, and I’m at the point where I hate every word of it, but I wanted to do this, so I’m going to finish it. That’s what I do, complete assignments.

Christmas

As far as Christmas goes, I’m really not feeling it at all this year. Considering I don’t really feel a spiritual connection to the holiday, don’t really feel excited about spending it with family, and pretty much hate the present aspect, I wonder how I make it through every year. Many of my friends are going to leave town around the holidays too, which makes me sad since I finally have time to spend with them.

However, I don’t think I’m a scrooge anymore since I don’t mind that other people enjoy Christmas and I’m happy to try to make their holidays more fun. While I exempt myself from the cousin gift exchanges because I don’t want it to become my aunt buying me a present and my mom buying my cousin a present, I do like to give gifts. I just don’t like feeling forced to do it all at once along with the rest of the world and honestly I really appreciate giving little thoughtful things more than big all-out extravaganzas. Plus, I’m trying to get better at accepting gifts with excitement.

One thing I think I’ve realized is to ask for different things, no matter how much it feels odd to request things out of someone else’s generosity. I don’t want clothes (unless you’re getting me silly socks, underwear, or Christmas pj’s just for fun), but I like getting accessories, especially scarves and mittens and the like (anyone who hasn’t heard of it should check out Etsy.com for fabulous homemade things. If shipping doesn’t work out in time, I’m always a fan of getting a photo of what is headed my way). I’d love a stash of books to take on my flights, or CD’s/iTunes gift cards to entertain me. I’ve already got a decent book list in my archives on this blog, but as for CD’s, I’ll try to fill in a list at some point (although new bands I might like are always appreciated, I’m into slightly folksy music lately a la The Submarines and The Weepies). I also told Mom that I want stuff I hate buying for myself: makeup, perfume, gift cards for treatments like pedicures, haircuts, facials, or massages. Also, no matter how picky I am about coffee now, I’d still love the international coffee currency (ie a Starbucks card).
______________________________________

So that’s that for now. I’m somewhere over the Dakotas on my way to Philly right now, connecting to Manchester, NH (if only it was England!!). I’m hoping to beg the Shuttle driver into driving me to town since I’m going to be lacking a car. Hopefully more posts will happen this week as I can feel the weight of crappy Midwest hotels and grouchy participants lifting. But expect a nice ranty post about the Newark Holiday Inn… ugh.

Southern (and Midwestern) Hospitality

It may be an outdated concept, but I definitely have been enjoying my couch surfing in the last two weeks. Let me start back a bit, with my stay in Green Bay with KN and her family.

First off, going to Green Bay was surprisingly fun! There were five of us PM's in total, which probably made for much more exciting times than had it just been one of us. We stayed with KN's parents and then met her whole family... a couple aunts, her grandparents, and a brand new baby cousin. Everyone was so adorably wonderful, just like KN herself (we know now where all those fabulous quirks come from!). We ate way too much, drank quite a bit, and enjoyed wandering around Lambeau and taking in the sights. It was all terribly fun while being completely relaxing, which helped since I had a very stressful plane ride immediately following.

On my connecting flight to Pittsburg from Detroit, NWA pissed me off. They never announced that the flight was running late, until 10 minutes after the time it should have left by. Then they refused to tell us how long it would be before we had a plane, and once the plane arrived and we boarded, we sat on the tarmac for over an hour and twenty minutes with deicing and "resolving weight and balance issues" by buring off fuel. It was depressing and horrible being trapped in a plane that long, especially since I wouldn't have needed to eat if the plane had simply taken off, or been deiced... the extra hour on the ground pushed me into really hungry, cranky Ari territory.

And then I had a week with a presenter that slowly sucked the life out of me. He was overly nervous about everything, even his physical appearance was full of nerves. He constantly twitched and fidgeted, constantly prattled on and on about stupid stuff, and was obsessed with stupid things (his hair had to be properly hairsprayed into place and he changed from his black wool dress pants to his black cotton dress pants for traveling so that the wool pants would "hang nice"). A perfectionist beyond belief, he had me packing up all of his displays into very carefully labled boxes which were diagramed so that everything could be put in them perfectly. When he introduced me in the morning to make my announcement he made a bunch of awkward, semi offensive jokes about the company I work for (and he works for...) and then kinda made fun of me as well. His personality was just icing on the cake: he was such an overt attention seeker that his presentation was more about making jokes and showing off than actually explaining the things he was trying to teach. I guess that's what happens when his teaching carreer was only default to his original dream of being a famous actor. A self-absorbed LA'er to the core... the only question he ever asked about me was literally in the last taxi ride as we were pulling into the airport drive.

Luckily, I had a weekend of fun ahead of me, so I made it through working with him with only a few problems (primarily a serious lack of desire for food after too many bad hotel dinners, even when I went all out and tried to have a nice chicken dinner it was dry and gross). Hanging out with MJW & Fiancee was really enjoyable. We slept in late, went to the art museum in ATL to check out a really cool Chinese exhibit, went coat and dress shopping, and headed out dancing later in the night. I haven't had so much fun at a club in a long time... although the prices definitely were right up there at the astronomical level and I ended up getting booze spilt all over my clothes. Luckily, one plastic bag later I can keep those clothes seperate from the mildly clean stuff I need for work.

The best news of all is that I'm going home tomorrow! Laundry and family dinners await, although turkey and all the fixings does not appeal to me yet... I have a car for these two days so I'll be going out to eat at places that are actually decent. Last night I had blackened mahi mahi that was spectacular... along with butter beans and corn and followed by Key Lime pie. I intend to wander around a bit and find somewhere equally tasty for lunch, then enjoy Richmond at dinnertime!

As far as NaNo goes... I'm not going to win. I haven't gotten any further after a lot of stress last week with food and the presenter, and then I enjoyed Atlanta at the expense of my writing time. I'd have to crank out over 20,000 words in this next week, and I just don't feel that I have the energy to do that. Hopefully I can get at least within 10,000 and then polish the story off in the next week or so. I want to print myself a lulu.com copy of the book so that I can say I wrote a novel. It's been an interesting experience thus far, and I'm impressed with how my story has changed over the years (it started as a dream when I was 17) and even throughout the month of writing it. There's a big chunk left to go, mostly back in the beginning, and it's a hard chunk. I have to somehow make a character more believable as well as develop further a bunch of characters in the early stages of the novel before the plot takes over and tests them.

It's not all horrible, although it's definitely not great. I don't think I'd ever attempt to publish this... it's more of an excercise that shows me that I can write a novel, and that I can let this story go. Once it's all tucked away in completion, I'll be able to bring more characters into fullness. I've used this strategy before, writing away something and finding myself finally able to let go of it. Who knows if I could ever actually get published or write a novel worth reading, but as long as I can put this one aside I can move forward right?

Oh yes, for all who are interested: I'm right back to drinking soda, although at a far lower level than I had expected. I'm definitely more interested in iced tea or coffee than diet coke. Perhaps giving it up for that long did make a difference.

Low Fat Quest

Turns out american food is all the same and all disgusting after a few weeks. I'm dying for Thai or Indian, but the low fat, home cooked versions. When you're forced to eat in airports and hotels you really do get the shitiest stuff too. I'm sick of chains and having no car. Next two weeks I'll be driving, THANK GOD. Three all fly weeks already has me drained. That and a presenter who's a real whackadoodle.

I feel gross from all the bad food I've had this week. Hopefully I can make something good this weekend with Mo....... Please, MJW let me cook for you!! :)

Closing In

Closing in on 25,000 words--halfway. I had to take a break due to an exciting weekend in Green Bay and the threat of an impending cold. I'm feeling better and writing again, although I'm intrigued by one thing:

I do some really messed up things to my characters.

I finished beating the crap out of my main character and now I'm forcing one character to accidentally kill his brother. How do I come up with this crap? :P

So much, so little

I'm one day away from completing my no-soda goal. Tomorrow the highlight of my day might not be sightseeing in Toledo but the diet coke I will allow myself to drink if I want it. It'll be interesting if I want it or if I've cured myself of the craving now. I've been craving soda all the time, but somehow I think I will be less excite to drink it than I thought. Just goes to show...

I'm aiming to knock myself to 20,000 NaNo words by tomorrow night. I'm at 16,500 so maybe it's possible? I'll still be behind, but much closer to pace than I am now. I have no idea if I can get through this, but I have hope and perserverence, or at least I hope I can perservere...

And I think I just got asked on my first road date by an older Michigan man... Ewww. Good thing I'm off to Toledo!

The Seasons

So I had a week of summer two weeks ago, then a week of fall in New England last week, and this week the trees are bare and I got my first snow flurry! It's fun having things change like that as I pass through.

Some days I don't take a lot of photos because I'm simply trapped in the hotel room or on the way to the airport. It's sad not getting a good idea of a city, but at the same time, I can't do and see everything. My exhaustion this week proves it.

I think I have hit the lull point of the new-job process, where I'm not quite 100% at the job, but it's familiar enough that I relax into it... and make a lot of mistakes. At least it's generally okay to make mistakes in life. I still feel bad when things go funky though.

I had an amazing conversation with my Kelly temp today, a man who grew up in Nigeria and moved to the US and then Canada. It's fun meeting people along the way and suddenly finding myself in deep philosophical conversations.

This weekend I need to do nothing on a grand scale.

An Off Day in Edmonton

Turns out having a perpetually sunny attitude wears me down after a while. I've definitely surprised myself with how consistently optimistic I've been lately even in the face of canceled flights and crappy speaker systems, but today for some reason I'm just off. The day started out fine, especially with the election results buzzing around in my head, but I just don't really have the energy to be particularly proactive. You think the room is cold? Well, you should generally have a sweater with you if it's only 40 degrees outside, so maybe you could put that on... The speakers stink? Let's adjust the volume as far as I can and then just give up to the worthless little speakers in the gigantic room. You want me to have a cab waiting? Okay, I'll make a call but who knows if it will show up on time...

My presenter isn't bad at all this week. In fact we had a ton of fun last night waiting for results to start coming in. I just think that Wednesdays are hard days for me. I'm fully exhausted and just want to not deal with another person who feels like they want their certificate at the afternoon break rather than waiting til the end like everyone else. If I wanted to hand out all the certificates at the afternoon break, I would be doing that. I made the mistake of giving a few out to some women who had a 3 hour drive post-seminar, and then suddenly EVERYONE had at least a 3 hour drive and I ended up passing out half the certificates by hand.

See, I just have this icky attitude creeping in. Maybe it has a little to do with the fact that I'm over 1500 words behind on NaNo... I think tonight I'll try to lock myself in my Calgary hotel room and write. Hopefully there will be no wi-fi there.

Election Day

Just to let all those in the USA know... I've heard two Canadian channels call the election already, and about 12 winter tire commercials.

I'm still holding my breath, considering the last two elections were definitely not something that I could believe and they still are the only elections I had any real investment in. I am really hoping that the voter turnout and eventual results actually make me proud to be American again.

[Edit 10:53pm MST]
There's really nothing I can say. I'm just deeply proud.

Yes we can.

Now I just hope we will.

Notes from Canada...

1. Winnepeg smells like cow.

2. I brilliantly went to get cash this weekend, and forgot that I am in Canada this entire week, thus necessitating CANADIAN dollars. Luckily, I didn't need to tip last night before I could get to an ATM and then find change at the front desk.

3. When will the wonky accent start to take hold of my vocabulary? Aboot now, eh...

NaNo NaNo...

The question I pose to you today is this: what would you do with 3+ hours a day of sitting at a desk with minimal work to do? If you said, "Write a novel in the course of a month," you should definitely join me in the quest of NaNoWriMo.

National Novel Writing Month has been on my list of things to do for a long time, but this is my first chance to have hours of unused time to spend writting 50,000 words in 30 days (that's 1,667 words a day for the non-math inclined). I'm going for it with a story I've ha in my head for a long time. Nothing earth shattering in my opinion, but it's there and fleshed out mentally enough to make for a good first NaNo attempt.

If you're planning on joining me in this quest (yay EGW!!) let me know and help keep me to my word. I plan on cheating a bit, and starting on the plane ride this evening. What else to do for however long my computer battery wil last?

This may mean less frequent posts on the blog, or more frequent writer's block posts... We shall see!

You Are My Lucky Star…

My mother constantly says I live under a lucky star, and I have to say I agree. When my cab driver picked me up in Long Island to drive us to LGA airport, I left a solid 2 hours to allow for traffic. We made it the 60 miles in about 65 minutes. Before you think anything, just know that we also left our hotel at 5pm. The driver was in as much shock as I was, probably even more!

Sometimes I am stunned at how lucky I am, but maybe I just recognize it more often. There’s plenty of unlucky things that have happened already: my flight was canceled yesterday, my tortillia soup in San Antonio was disgusting, there have been multiple issues with my faxes for work, my projector bulb died, and let’s face it… I haven’t gotten a presenter who liked to go out of the hotel. But for all those things that are bad (the flight and the bulb being by far the worst), it’s always worked out. I got put on a better flight than I was booked for yesterday. My projector problem was fixed in less than five minutes. And actually, for all the bad food and exhausted presenters, I’ve still gotten out and gone into more cities in the last few weeks than I’ve ever managed before in a similar string of time. I even maximized time in Seattle by running off to Leavenworth with some friends to eat brats and take fall photos.

Rochester was a fun city to be in actually. There was beautiful old architecture and lots of newspaper buildings and statues around town. I wandered during lunch and then picked up a sandwich at a shop on my way back to the hotel. Then today in Ronkonkama (Long Island) I met up with another PM and we found lunch in a little part of town called Sayville, which was adorable looking and had AMAZING pizza. This is the kind of life I lead now. Sometimes I just want to explode with happiness and amazement. This is an almost daily experience. How did I get here again?

I really am a lucky girl. I can hardly believe it sometimes. But the more I believe it the luckier I get. I really think it’s half grace, half attitude—half blessing, half my own openness and efforts—never all my own credit, but partly my fault. Or maybe I just like to think so.

Travel Drama in Rochester

I think I'm developing a true ambivalence towards US Airways... with strong feelings in both extremes.

The initial dislike came from the facts that they charge for drinks on the plane ($2 for an orange juice or soda!) and don't really have the most cushioned of seats. That's really nothing, since their flight was more or less on time the last time I flew them. But then I flew them yesterday...

I checked my flight status at 2:30pm, like our schedule allows, and the flight was delayed by 10 minutes-- really inconsequential, and easily made up time. Then as we waited for the shuttle an hour later (our flight was scheduled for 5:30pm), I checked once again on my phone. Suddenly the word "Canceled" became a part of my travel experience vocabulary. Evidently mechanical problems had grounded our plane. I found the phone number for US Airways and called the airline to see what the options were. A 4pm flight was going out and a 7pm flight... I got her to guarantee us on the 7pm flight since I thought there'd be no way in hell we'd make it for the 4pm.

We pulled up at the ticket counter at about 3:58 and started to check ourselves in when the ticket agent asked us if we were on the canceled flight. We said yes, and she called into the gate agent to see if we could make the 4pm flight. Luckily for us, Rochester airport is tiny and the 4pm flight hadn't even started boarding yet! The wonderful woman tagged all four of our big bags to check, and my presenter was such a trouper as we rushed through security and ran for the gate. We made the flight with time to spare and ended up getting into the hotel a full hour before we'd have made it if we'd taken our canceled flight.

So, damn you US Air for canceling my flight, charging me for even a soda, and packing us in like sardines. But thank you US Air (or at least your ticket agents at Rochester and that one oh-so-luckily late flight) for helping us catch a flight we thought we'd never make.

Rolling Through

Making the most of the short time I have in a city is sometimes really difficult. When I get into town it's already dark and then I have to combat hunger and fatigue to get myself to move. This week is both easy and hard because I'm flying everywhere... Hard because I have no mode of transportation other than cabs but easy because I've got some great cities.

In Houston I took the hotel shuttle to get some BBQ at Goode Co. The next night in San Antonio, I made the effort to go out and see the alamo and riverwalk on the local shuttle, but I ended up spending money on a cab ride home (although, for <$10 total, it was worth it!). Dallas was a stay at the hotel night, since we were in the middle of nowhere. Phoenix was fun because another PM was in town and so we went out to get some dinner. Then last night my presenter and I went to the hotel bar to chat, drink, and look at some of her amazing photos from her african safari. Today my flight doesn't leave until late so I'm going to be able to check my bags at the hotel and borrow their shuttle to Old Town to wander around the fun parts of Albuquerque.

So all in all, I guess I'm making the most of this job. I'll see how much I can keep this up, especially in colder climates. Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough, or doing my job well because there is no one around to compare myself to. Perhaps that's the best thing of all... to be in a position to not really compare myself to other people. I definitely get feedback messages from my manager to reconfirm that I am not screwing up and in fact am doing quite well. God I appreciate those after not having much in the way of real feedback in my previous jobs... or maybe I just appreciate feeling managed rather than feeling like someone who is supervised by someone who makes awkward the general feeling surrounding them.

Oh, and by the way...

where the hell did all these social skills come from?

...and why have I been relegating myself to being the "nerd" when the only nerdy thing I really have going is the fact that every once in a while I throw out a rather large (but utterly appropriate) word?

Warm Fuzzies

We had some extra guests at today's seminar in Dallas: two ten-day-old cottontail bunnies being nursed by two participants who regularly do animal rescue work. These little guys had just opened their eyes, and were residing in a cozy basket lined with a sweater for most of the seminar. They were so absurdly adorable! It made me miss Zoe terribly though... King sized beds are definitely big enough to accommodate her nighttime sprawl and I think I could use the snuggles.

Disconnect is a part of this job. I've walked away from everyone I know and have to forge what I can out of transitory encounters. Luckily, my friends are amazing. The number of people who I'm in touch with on a regular basis surprises me honestly, but I guess I'm making more of an effort myself as well. I feel like I can see into the future where I'll be sitting at this registration table and feeling so incredibly alone and lost in the world... unable to even remember my room number after so many room numbers have passed through my head... but what I know I can count on is that there are a lot of people back home and other places that are still there, waiting for me to call and talk about each and every crazy thing that's happened.

There's program managers that I can share the nitty-gritty complaints about hotel staff that won't bring the banquet bill unless chased up and down three long hallways; girlfriends to squeal about the cute waiter that brought my dinner and stayed around to chat since I was alone and it was long past the rush; and then there's the guy friends who insist on worrying about my safety and are there to talk to when I'm walking somewhere a little sketchy or in a strange taxi (even if the solace I get is from what I see as their unneccessary anxiety). Mom and Dad are a constant... and my lil' sis, who's getting her own place, has me all excited for her!

Really, I've got all the warm fuzzies I need and I'm discovering that I'm resourceful enough to find whatever I'm lacking while being on the road. Well, at least for the first week and a half...

When life is like TV, you just hope it's a comedy

I've had my many sit-com moments in my life, the greatest of which may have been the twins/junior prom episode, but I won't go into that one right now. Right now I'm getting snippets of a certain cartoon...

First things first, I'm in Houston having a lovely seminar. Next door there is a seminar for Terminex workers. One guy in particular has been coming over and chatting me up, in a friendly, only slightly skeezy way. Thing is, the guy has a complete "King of the Hill" accent... and at one point commented on my lunch (a goat cheese salad from Trader Joes) by saying "We had steak!"

He's totally Dale.

Flights

As per the great KAL's suggestion, I've inputted my flights into flightmemory.com. Now you can all see my ridiculous hours spent on planes and look at a criscrossed map to see how insane I actually am. The link to my flights is at:

http://my.flightmemory.com/arirose

I've also included it in the links at the right column. Have fun tracking me around the country!

Week 1 Recap

The lack of posts last week might be rectified this week... I brought my computer. Even better, I'm sitting at my gate waiting for my Continental flight to Houston and discovered that I'm close enough to the outside of the "Elite Access" club room that I can pick up the free wifi signal. :)

Last week was a whirlwind... Packing was stressful, flying was typical, renting a car and driving in a new state was completely new and different, and being with my training group was fun and helped me get a handle on how all of these various little components of the job come together to make sense on a daily basis. Yet, it was nice to get rid of all the extra people and just do the job. Learning anything new takes more mental energy than once you've got a handle on it, and that was definitely the case all week. I came home exhausted, but thrilled with everything.

As for the highlights: seeing Maureen in Atlanta, making a lunch run over the river to take pictures in Kansas, getting room service and watching the debate in St. Louis, and splurging on a taxi ride to the Five Points South district of Birmingham and getting Indian at Taj, as recommended by a friend who grew up in B-ham. Some of the crazy moments: driving into construction and detour "road spaghetti" on the way to the St. Louis airport, working with the slowest staff ever in B-ham and having to ask for every little detail that was already outlined on their confirmation sheet, and realizing that coming into a city in the dark every night means I might be sketched out in even a nice part of town. My presenter this week was nice enough, although she had very little interest in going out or leaving the hotel. In fact, she liked to get to where she needed to go right away and stay there. No dinners out with her, but at least I had my training group to ease the boredom.

So some statistics (as per the suggestion of my dear friend KN :)):

• flights: 4
• airlines: Delta (x2), Southwest, American
• cars rented: Blue Chevy Trailblazer
• states visited: Georgia, Missouri, Kansas, Alabama
• new states: 4
• dinners alone: 2

This week is a southwest adventure, from Houston to San Antonio, to Dallas, to Phoenix, to Alburquerque and then home. I'll be flying every day this week and racking up the miles! We'll see how much internet I can manage, but hopefully I'll be able to at least stake out claims near the elite clubs. :)

The Proof is in the Packing

Does there ever come a time when doubt won't leak in around the tightly sealed edges of your thoughts? Sometimes I feel like I'm sitting beside an open window in a rainstorm--the window screen catches the drops and splinters them into a fine mist when they are small, but as they grow in size and force the screen does nothing to hold them back from splattering all over my face. I can sit in a room and know that in three weeks time, everything I'm being presented with will be simple, and that in three months time it will be second nature. I can know that I am amazing myself with my ability to be someone I can hardly recognize while still be able to be someone who is more myself than I have been in ages. I can know that there is no reason to be nervous or scared, since everything will work itself out... and the doubt can still creep in.

I know better than to worry or to feel like I can't handle this, because I so completely can. My resume proves it, my friends and family know it, and the company would not have hired me if I hadn't shown it very convincingly. Even with all the support the company is providing to me and all my fellow travelers, our managers have said more than once that if we are not feeling overwhelmed by the end of the week, we are kidding ourselves. They were exactly right. Day one was much easier to get through without feeling nervous, but after going through more of the nitty-gritty details today, I'm starting to feel it creeping in.

Really though, when you first start any job you're bound to feel overwhelmed. Aside from that, this job is potentially much more overwhelming than any other I've had because once you are on the road by yourself, you're in charge of almost everything and have all the freedom in the world to make decisions, and make mistakes. Basically, we've got 4 days in town preparing, 2 days on the road with managers and groups, and 1 day with a buddy to help keep us in line, then 2 days on our own with our presenters and away we go. It's hard to keep in mind that we've had 2 days here, and there are still 2 to go... and that in that amount of time we'll be able to learn so much. It's just interesting to me how easy it is to get completely down on myself yet have that positive voice still screaming out to be believed. I feel likes I just need some kind of proof that I can do this job, or to actually be able to take myself on faith.

But I'll either have to wait till Monday to see how I actually handle a seminar or suddenly find faith in myself. Maybe I can find the faith and the proof together. After all, that is the real goal of this whole adventure.

a movement

Turns out organization is a never-ending process. Somehow there is always something new to find a place for, make a system around, or just stuff in a box to get it out of the way. A part of me wants to take all the shells in my room and send them out to sea... set them free so that I don't have to find another place for them.

Moving home is hard in so many ways. My room has been empty space for so long that it's accumulated lots of old mementos as well as some newer ones. The time has come to move some stuff out of the way, but how do you get rid of beautiful or meaningful objects? I can't. Instead I put them into a trunk and try to figure out where to put the trunk. The trunk feels like a giant weight of what I used to be... in some ways an embarrassment in its proof that I've been so far from where I want to be. I'm in a mood of wanting to drop everything and cling to everything at the same time. I miss my old room so much it hurts, and all it was was a tiny box I could hardly fit my stuff into.

I've got my bookshelf set up, and that makes it feel more like home. Only one problem: the text books lurking on the bottom shelf, reminding me that I haven't started studying yet. I'm so wrapped up in procrastination I'm starting to wonder if I'll actually take the subject GRE. The plan seems so clear: Go to UCSC next fall if they'll have me. The practice is one of getting past all the emotional roadblocks I have. I hate grad school in principle: you have to be prepared to go almost a full year before you actually start classes. I have one month to cram if I decide to do it. I can do it, reasonably well, but I have to decide.

I have to get moving, get my errands run, get things in order. Soon, I'll be moving non-stop and there will be no time for nerves.

the tingle of fear

I find it interesting that lately I don't really go out of my way to investigate what I'm afraid of, or to really write about it often.  I don't try getting to the heart of why watching political events unfold sometimes makes me burst into tears or why my hands sometimes start shaking while I try to do things to prepare for my new job.  I don't really look into why I'm reaching out to so many people in a superficial way, trying to re-establish connections that in the past I just let slide.  

I don't write about how scared I am that no one has the answers for the country and that really, no one knows who would be able to deal better with the circumstances that have yet to fall into place over the next four years.  However, I do know some things that I cannot stand for and watching those exact principles supported so strongly by both friends and complete strangers makes me ache inside.  

I don't write that I'm actually scared that my little "crash course in social skills" is going to prove over my head.  I'd rather not give any purchase to the idea that I am innately socially inept.  

Even more so, I don't want to admit that I'm scared that I will lose all tenuous connections to the people in my life over the next year.  I don't want to say that sometimes I worry that I will lose people to significant others, to other friends who are more relatable and exciting, or to a eventual boredom with me and lack of connection due to my absence.  I don't want to admit that I am still scared that I cannot live up to expectations.

So I just try not to look into it.  I might put on fancy pants and heels and look in the mirror and see the eight-year-old girl with scraggly hair that never figured out how to grow up, but I blink over and over until I see the twenty-four year old version standing there, less awkwardly.  I pull out my grown-up phone and try to find a way to assure myself that I do know what I'm doing.  I write lists of books I will try to read, and make pizzas to "better myself" and don't post about being scared.  Because really, all fear takes its power from my admission of it and my acquiescence to it.  If I stand up and laugh at it I can move forward.  If I wallow in it, I am consumed by it.

But it is such a comforting blanket... or at least it disguises itself that way.

From My iPhone

I'm testing out my new toy... And sadly deciding that photo uploading to blogger is beyond me. Anyone have advice?

Piece of Cake Pizza

Yeast scares me. I don't know what to do with it outside of a bread machine. So I took a page from the Joy of Cooking (and from my roommate who's amazing with all things baking) and made some pizza (#27 complete!). Turns out, it only takes about 2.5 hours total... not too bad for two large pizzas!

Pizza a la Adrian

Dough:
1 packet Active Dry Yeast
1 1/3c Warm Water
3 1/2c Flour
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Salt
1 tbsp Sugar (optional)

• Mix yeast with water and let disolve for 5 minutes.
• Add remaining ingredients and mix until the dough combines and is smooth.
• Form it into a ball and drizzle with olive oil. Place dough ball into a bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise until it doubles in size (about 1-1.5 hours) in a warm place (75-80ºF).
• Punch down dough and divide in half, wrap each half in plastic and let rest for 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, grease and dust 2 baking sheets with olive oil and corn meal and preheat oven to 425ºF.
• Stretch dough carefully (I did this both in the air and then on the cookie sheet) to fill baking sheet. Fold and pinch edge to form crust. Brush with olive oil to prevent it from getting soggy and dimple it with your fingers to prevent it from bubbling.

Sauce (make while crust is rising):
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 small Onion, diced
3 cloves Garlic, crushed
1, 28oz can of Crushed Tomatoes
2-3 tbsp Italian Seasoning (dried)
1 tbsp Parsley (dried)
3 stems of Basil

• Saute onion and garlic. Add tomatoes and seasonings.
• Simmer for 10-15 minutes minimum to thicken.
• Allow to cool. Spread over prepared crust.

Toppings:
1lb Mozzarella Cheese
chopped basil
sliced garlic
sliced tomatoes
chopped onion
chopped red pepper
sliced kalamata olives
...really, anything goes here

• Sprinkle toppings over pizza, cheese goes last.
• Place Pizza in oven and bake for 12-15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and melted and crust is slightly browned.
• Devour... but don't burn the roof of your mouth!

A Book List to End All Book Lists...

I don't know that this is comprehensive or even a good list, but it's a compilation of multiple lists I found online along with suggestions and books I've wanted to read for a while. I went by the criteria of "Have I heard of it before?" to slice off some of the chaff, then tried to get a swath of women writers and some international writers (sadly few of each really...) and I tried to cut down on repeat authors. Faulkner, Joyce, Fitzgerald, and Lawrence could probably fill a list all on their own if some of the "100 best" editors online had their way. I personally banned Joyce and Fitzgerald (Except for The Great Gatsby, out of guilt) due to taste reasons, and my personal opinion that Ulysses and Fitzgerald's books are greatly overblown. So here it is, a list to start pulling from, in no partiular order:

1. The Catcher in the Rye (JD Salinger)
2. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. The Color Purple (Alice Walker)
5. The Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
6. 1984 (George Orwell)
7. The Sound and the Fury (William Faulkner)
8. Lolita (Vladmir Nabokov)
9. Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
10. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
11. A Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
12. Animal Farm (George Orwell)
13. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemmingway)
14. Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
15. One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey)
16. The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald – begrudgingly)
17. Slauterhouse-Five (Kurt Vonnegut)
18. On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
19. The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemmingway)
20. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)
21. Portrait of a Lady (Henry James)
22. The World According to Garp (John Irving)
23. A Room with a View (EM Forster)
24. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
25. The Jungle (Upton Sinclair)
26. Lady Chatterley’s Lover (D.H. Lawrence)
27. A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess)
28. My Antonia (Willa Cather)
29. In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)
30. The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie)
31. Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton)
32. Bonfire of the Vanities (Tom Wolfe)
33. Cat’s Cradle (Kurt Vonnegut)
34. Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
35. Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier)
36. Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh)
37. The Autobiography of Alice B. Tokias (Gertrude Stein)
38. The Maltese Falcon (Dashiell Hammett)
39. The Naked and the Dead (Norman Mailer)
40. Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller)
41. The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells)
42. Kim (Rudyard Kipling)
43. Rabbit, Run (John Updike)
44. Of Human Bondage (W. Somerset Maugham)
45. Death Comes for the Archbishop (Willa Cather)
46. Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
47. The Prince (Niccolo Machiavelli)
48. The Inferno (Dante Alighieri)
49. The Richest Man in Babylon (George Samuel Clason)
50. Dracula (Bram Stoker)
51. The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)
52. Moby Dick (Herman Mellville)
53. Peter Pan (J.M. Barie)
54. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
55. All the King’s Men (Robert Penn Warren)
56. A Town like Alice (Neil Shute)
57. The Call of the Wild (Jack London)
58. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
59. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
60. Circle of Friends (Maeve Binchy)
61. Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)
62. The Agony and the Ecstasy (Irving Stone)
63. Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
64. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
65. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
66. The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan)
67. The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri)
68. The House of Mirth (Edith Wharton)
69. Beloved (Toni Morrison)
70. Madam Bovary (Gustave Flaubert)
71. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
72. The Shipping News (E. Annie Proulx)
73. Little Women (Lousia May Alcott)
74. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
75. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
76. The Diary of Anne Frank (Anne Frank)
77. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)
78. The Illiad & The Odessey (Homer)
79. Middlemarch (George Elliot)
80. Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes)
81. An American Tragedy (Theodore Dreiser)
82. Tess of the D’ubervillies (Thomas Hardy)
83. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
84. In Search of Lost Time (Marcel Proust)
85. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
86. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
87. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Attwood)
88. Walden (Henry David Thoreau)
89. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbra Kingsolver)
90. The Bridge of San Luis Rey (Thornton Wilder)
91. The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
92. Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)
93. Hamlet (William Shakespeare)
94. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
95. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carrol)
96. The tale of Genji (Murasaki Shikibu)
97. Bleak House (Charles Dickens)
98. The Red and the Black (Stendhal)
99. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing)
100. The Trial (Franz Kafka)

Please, Let me know in the comments if I've duplicated a book, left out a priceless gem, or listed a book that is completely not worth my time. For most of these, I am going by hearsay since I've only read a select few. But, that's another one off the list at least!

Short List: September 21, 2008

I need to get some shit done! I'm oh so very close to getting a new leaser for the apartment, and I did some really fun spreads in my journal today (see below to get a glimpse of my mental landscape), but there's more to be done. Packing and moving doesn't take as much time as it sometimes seems like it will. I'm going to pack up a lot of stuff and take a load down on Tuesday, then I've got a shared U-Haul with BL on Saturday, so I think I'll be containing moving to those two days. So then, what else to do?

Short List for the week of 9/21/08:
(yes, I want to get these things done this week, by 9/28/08)

• Take a yoga class and sign up for yoga podcasts. (#2 in progress)
• Get a massage. (#17, in progress)
  
• Drink no soda. (#32, last soda was 9/12/08, and I'm going for it this time...)
• Buy produce at farmer's market. (#25, to complete at the end of September!)
• Make pizza from scratch (and maybe some quick bread too...). (#27, to complete)
• Make/find list of 100 classic books. (#49, to complete)
• Back up hard drive and make note to back up in late October. (#67, in progress)
• Buy another CD (or two). (#94, in progress)
• BONUS: Develop a filing system. (#69, to complete)

If I succeed, I'll have 3 (or 4 if I challenge myself...) things crossed off and many of my in progress items better underway. I think this is reasonable, considering how much time I have to kill. Yay for to-do lists!

Packing

Part of me agonizes about moving home. It feels like I'm just giving up on being independent. I realize how much money I can save, how much more Zoe snuggles I'll be able to get, and how much commuting I will cut out... but it's so sad to end the Wedgwood Era. Writing the Craigslist add for the apartment made me realize how great this place was, and how much I'm going to miss it and it's "Easy walking distance to grocery store, bank, post office, library, restaurants, and yoga studio!"

BL's decision to leave made everything so much more real. It suddenly didn't make sense to have an apartment empty all but maybe 6-10 nights a month, at even the cheapest rent in town. Plus, who would pick up the mail? Would we turn off the heat only to have to come home to a freezing apartment and inefficiently warm up the apartment for a day? I didn't want to not be KN's roommate, but coming home to a completely empty apartment week after week suddenly seemed hard to fathom.

Moving back in with the Parents is not really ideal in my "growing up" theory, but ideal in practice. The kitchen will be stocked (by me and my parents, I'm not getting nor expecting a free lunch) with things that I can cook--in particular, fresh items (milk, cheese, vegetables) that I could not eat in the day that I would be home for. The laundry machines are in the house, and while I don't expect Mommy to do my laundry, I can throw in a load and leave... coming back a few hours later to change it--something impossible when you're using a shared laundry facility in an apartment complex. I'll be 15 minutes from the airport, and not so far from friends that I won't be able to see them when I come home. Plus, I'll have ideal storage space for my raspberry wine as it rests.

So I've packed up my books and my blue glass into liquor store boxes and have agreed to share a u-haul with BL for the big stuff (Daddy and his SUV just won't tote the full sized bed like the pickup could). So now I just get to wait for a few days before Load #1 heads south. Piece by piece, I'll dismantle the room I've grown to love, and probably have to paint it back to the icky white it started out. I'll move to the room I'd left behind, and probably have to reshuffle quite a bit to make it function like I need it to: As a big welcome home hug.

Boredom Hits Critical Mass

Well, doing nothing is fabulous until you hit a point where it ceases to be so any more. Then it becomes stifling, confining, depressing, immobilizing and just plain annoying. You spend a whole entire day sitting at your computer, commenting on your photos, fiddling with facebook, youtube, and any blog you can find. Then you look around, realize it's dark out and you haven't A: gotten out of your pajamas or B: left your apartment.

YES.

How long have I been dying to hit this point? I want to see what happens now, once I'm good and bored and needing to figure out what part of my life I want to focus on. Here's what I can come up with with an extremely bored brain--

• Option 1: go finish reading the book I'm working on.
  
• Option 2: pull out the art journal and make a huge arty mess.
  
• Option 3: go clean my room and the kitchen for the people who are coming to look at the apartment tomorrow morning.

Obligations schmobligations... I'm going to put on some loud music, put on some dancing shorts and dance-clean my room and do my dishes. I'm going to get a semblance of organization to gear up for the big move and clean out some of the cobwebs floating around in my head. Then I'll probably collapse on my bed and read for a few more hours before waking up tomorrow and finding a solid purpose.

I've done nothing for a week, with a few minor acheivements... the greatest of which was buying a pair of grown-up pants (technically: a designer pair of grown-up pants that weren't eggregiously expensive but were definitely more than I had initially counted on spending. of course, I think I thought I was going to get nice tailored tweed pants for $30. wrong.) Doing nothing to the point of absolute boredom was what I wanted to do, but now tis time to enjoy being unemployed. Really enjoy it.

Re-evaluating, and #96

So, I guess I was counting on life getting in the way of getting things done when I put in the last few goals on my 101 list. Either that or I was copping out of thinking of four more goals. I've been really bad about getting around to re-evaluating the list, which I was supposed to do in June, but here's my changes:

• 4. Bike to work every day for a month. No longer an option, so it's going to become "Go on a 30+ mile bike ride."
• 6. Take a tap class once a week for three months. I don't see myself doing that, but taking a single tap class will be feasible, and will likely make me want to take more.
• 7. Do a stretch routine every night for a month. and 9. Do an ab workout every night for a month. and 13. Floss 1x a day for a month straight. These are simply not working because i seem to not like to do things on a daily basis (surprise). I'm going to aim for 3x a week, and make the flossing for two months straight because that's a habit that I need to really get into.
• 46. Read Popular Science to see if I'd ever want to write for them. I need to scope out more magazines than just the one, so I'm changing it to "Read three science magazines to understand what science writing is all about, especially medical science."
• 48. Read Bonnie's New Yorker's fiction piece at least 6 times. Well, I never did that and now Bonnie doesn't get the New Yorker, and I'm not going to be living with her anymore... so now it's going to be "Read non-fiction or travel writing in a magazine I could submit to and write an article in the same style." since I need the writing practice anyways.
• 60. Complete a Project 365. Well, the camera met the ocean and I was so far behind already at that point that 2008 is no going to work out, so I'm adding in a little extra goal to this, to entice me to start before Jan 1, 2009: "OR a photo-a-city for BER."

I'm also going to relax a bit on the goals themselves as they reach completion... There have been many that I really haven't kept track of as I was actually doing them. That and I went to Mexico and never really learned any spanish, but didn't need to know any. So completed goals are now up to 15/101. I'm behind by 9 for being at 8 months in (at a 3/month completion average rate required). Luckily, I've got a lot of free time to work on some of the easier-to-complete goals, being unemployed and all.

Lastly,there is number 96... What to put in for that one? I think the new goal, much facilitated by my new job and ever-increasing competition with some friends (who know who they are... ;)) will be to "Increase my states visited to 40/50." Should be fun, relatively manageable, while getting some stories along the way.

A Grand Mis-Adventure, Part III

And cue the start of day four… Bail Out Day. The sun was barely up when Vinh and I opened our tent flap to the waves washing ashore. A little oatmeal and hot cocoa warmed us up and off we went, finally figuring it out that starting BEFORE low tide meant that we had double the amount of time to get around headlands. Walking down the beach was an interesting experience after the day before: no elevation changes, but the ground under our feet was constantly changing. Soft sand, hard packed sand, small pebbles, medium pebbles, large round stones, small boulders, large boulders, logs… anything you could think of was included in this 2 mile stretch of beach. It still took longer than we’d have planned to hike, although it was much easier than the day before.

Luckily for us, as we approached Ozette River Vinh’s phone picked up a miraculous signal at the estuary… as sunlight filtered through some sparsely planed trees and the river bubbled along in a wide, shallow ford. I called my Dad and arranged for a drastic change to our rendez-vous plans. Originally, they were to have met us on Saturday at Rialto beach (about 25 miles south of where we were at the time). Now, Vinh and I were going to hike out to the Lake Ozette campground on Friday and snag a site so that Mom & Dad could meet us there. It was a moment where you could almost hear the harps playing and bells ringing.

As we forded the river we’d be afraid would be running far too high after all the rain and came around some extremely beautiful headlands, we finally had some time to look around without worry. The tide pools were chock full of interesting critters and Vinh spent way too much time ogling the mussels and daydreaming about a steaming pot of them as we walked on them (there was no where else to put your foot!). Around one bend, we came to a very large, very shiny rock… or so I thought until the smell caught up to us. Nope, it was in fact some sort of whale or porpoise washed up on the beach. Amazing to see… from a relative distance. Finally we arrived at the biggest let down so far—Cape Alava, the intended campsite for day 2. The tide stretched out before us, across a long stretch of shallow kelp beds. The tide pools must have been wonderful, but the stench drove us inland as fast as we could go. We’d seen so much that was drastically more beautiful that we didn’t need to stay much longer than the time it took to appreciate the barking sea lions and a brief snack break.

Three miles up the boardwalk trail to Lake Ozette and we were back to civilization and FLUSH TOILETS. Campsite snagged, we waited for good old Mom and Dad and cold beer. An evening of stories ensued, followed the next day by a day hike back out the boardwalk to the coast, and then south along the coast to Sand Point, where the beach became sandy and nice once again. The amount of people went from the maybe 25 people we’d seen in passing the other 3½ days to hundreds enjoying the day hike and picnicking opportunities of this stretch. It was a nice little jaunt, and enough of a hike (9miles) to make me allow myself to indeed count this as a 5 day backpacking trip (plus, I didn’t shampoo my hair until I hit home, and that is in fact the definition of “roughing it” for me). Another night dinner with the parents (mmm chili!) and off to bed.

Sunday was not so wonderful as the previous two days. Waking up to rain pouring down, our previously dry tents were hastily stuffed into the car along with everything else, and we drove back up to Neah Bay. Parting ways, the long drive back loomed ahead. Vinh quickly came down with motion sickness and after letting him fall asleep in the front seat I was able to drive the windy roads in the absolute downpour. Thank god for my CD collection. He woke up right before the second round of windy roads at Lake Crescent, and seemed to be getting better as we pulled into Port Angeles. Five minutes after going into a café though, he was back in the car trying not to puke. After I’d eaten something, we sped off to the drugstore for something to help him. Back on the road, I was sure we’d be home in no time until we hit Squim. An accident had closed 101, and we sat there, engine off, for almost 3 hours. Then of course, the ferry traffic was backed up, and all in all, we got back to Seattle 10 hours after leaving the campground.

All in all though, the saddest, craziest, most wonderful part of all of it is… I’d do it again.

A Grand Mis-Adventure, Part II

Day three, Thursday, started with one last burst of rainshowers on the tent fly. Vinh and I waited out the rain before climbing out of the tent and packing up our things. Once we said goodbye to Nathanael we were off to further adventures. Our plan was to try to pick up some ground, making it most of the way down the coast in that one day, at least 10 miles. The beaches were amazing that morning, and only a light sprinkling of dewy mist fell.

Once we rounded the small headland that had socked us in the night before, we were faced with the first of a few "rope assists" to get over some unroundable headlands. I started to get a touch of vertigo as we walked along narrow trails and clung to ropes to help pull ourselves up over the still-soaked cliffs. Some of the outlooks were ridiculously spectacular, but I could neither take a picture nor linger for very long since we needed to go a fairly good distance before we could stop worrying about the tide that would start coming back in about an hour. Up and down we went, twice. Then around another very rocky headland where my hands really started to ache from clinging to scratchy ropes and sharp rocks. The boulders were very large and somewhat slippery, adding to how tired my legs were starting to get.

Then came the third and final rope assist. Up wasn't too bad, although I was getting more exhausted and experiencing more vertigo. I slipped a couple times while going up and on the first rope going down. Then came the second rope to the beach... The trail that you used the rope to descend had basically been washed out and stripped bare by the people who had gone down the trail ahead of us. It was nothing more than a muddy chute, slick as can be, with a fat, scratchy yellow rope to cling to. Vinh went down first. I heard a sound come from him which I understood to mean I could start. Turns out, he'd fallen down the second half of the trail, scratching his leg and rope burning his entire arm as he caught himself.

I started down the trail slowly, digging my boots in and allowing myself to slide down slowly. At a few points I became physically and emotionally stuck. I was so scared that I froze, unable to move a hand or a foot for fear of falling the 30 or so feet to the rocky beach below. Eventually, right around where Vinh had slipped himself, he convinced me to take off my pack and slide it down to him. It could have had to do with the fact that I was having a panic attack while clinging to the rope... Taking the pack off was incredibly difficult as my weight shifted back and forth and I could feel my feet sliding out from under me at times. Finally, I made it down the last stretch and just let all of it out--the vertigo, the fear, the shaky mud-coated legs, the scratched, beaten and mud-caked hands, all of it came pouring down my cheeks. But we weren't done yet.

Next, we had to go around yet another headland, bouldering for over 0.7 miles. Doesn't sound like a lot, but we did it over the course of maybe, a half an hour, moving as fast as I could at that point. Vinh could have done it much faster, as he's a wiz on the rocks, but I was still so shaky and the rocks so large and slippery that it took me a long time. Plus, we'd run out of fresh water (our overnight campsite had not had access to a stream) and I was getting dehydrated. When we'd gotten around that headland and one more smaller trek, we were on a long sandy beach... and I just demanded a break.

We came across a stream, maybe 3 miles from where we'd started, 3 hours after we'd started, with almost no breaks in between as we raced the tide. Vinh pumped water and we mixed some gatoraide in my water bladder to rehydrate me. Laying on this wonderful, sandy beach, looking back towards the headlands we'd just crossed (Point of Arches still in view in the distance), I suggested just staying. We'd have problems if we tried to rush to the other headlands since I couldn't go fast enough without a break. There was no way to make it the distance we needed to to be able to get past the reserved-only campsites, and I didn't want to end up pushing our luck on some not-quite low tides.

We ended up camped on the beach, our tent facing north west with a spectacular view of the creek flowing into the ocean and the sea stacks in the distance. Vinh built another fire without a firestarter this time, then relocated it to a better spot (how he did this still baffles me), and then watched as the beach flies died in massacre quantities as they flew too close to the roaring flames. We made pesto pasta with fried salami and flatbread cooked in the salami grease (trust me, I needed the nutrients at that point) and slept extremely well until waking up at the crack of dawn the next day... determined to get cell phone signal, call my dad and bail out at Cape Alava.

A Grand Mis-Adventure, Part I

Upon the wonderful suggestion of my father, Backpacker Man, I convinced one of my friends to join me on a 5 day adventure into the wilds of the Washington coastline. Turns out taking advice from someone who has hiked all 2600 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail in the course of 6 months is not necessarily the best idea…

Our adventure was to take us over the 25 or so miles from Shi Shi beach up north to Rialto beach near La Push. Monday night I began to have reservations about the wisdom of our excursion considering the forecast: rain and gale force winds for the next two days. My compatriots convinced me to go through as planned; Vinh and Nathanael, I’m not sure whether to thank you or knock you out.

Tuesday, Vinh and I headed out for Neah Bay. After stopping in Port Angeles for some tasty drive through at a chrome and neon diner called Frugals and getting laughed at by the ranger as we picked up our permit, we drove the long, winding road along the northern coast of the peninsula. Stopping in Neah Bay to pick up our Makah recreation pass, we walked out along a long, sketchy dock and purchased a 6 pound salmon straight from the fishermen. Wrapped in a simple trash bag, Sammy was to be the first course in a gourmet backpacking extravaganza of food!

The rain started to plip plop on the windshield as we headed out to the trailhead, and it picked up as we walked along the mud-filled trail. Vinh struggled to keep his sneakers clean and semi-dry while I trudged straight on through the puddles and muck (hooray for gore-tex lined boots!). We hit the beach after two miles, and continued down for about another mile, looking for anything that could function as a semi-protected campsite. We found a little ramp with a rope assist leading up off the beach, and ignored the “no camping” sign we found there. Vinh tried in vain to really get a fire going so we could cook Sammy and kept an eye out for Nathanael until we were both so cold and wet we couldn’t stand it anymore. He handily tied our extra food up high enough to act as a decent bear wire, including what we were sure was to be a very sadly spoiled fish the next morning. A dry tent kept our tummies happy enough for the night.

Wednesday morning, we woke to dry skies, walked down and met Nathanael on Shi Shi beach, and decided to cook the salmon, damn the tides. Let me tell you, those moments of dryness and the taste of that fish (which had not been eaten by raccoons nor spoiled overnight!) were spectacular. As soon as we started eating though, the rain came pouring down. As we walked along Shi Shi, we created a couple of “Olympic Beach Events” including a hammer throw with a rope tied to a rock that we found, buoy soccer, buoy chucking, and seagull chasing.

Then we came to the Point of Arches, which was amazingly gorgeous in the rain. Nathanael went around the corner a bit and assured Vinh and I that it was passable, even though the tide was definitely higher than we’d expected or wanted it to be. Well, it was passable, if you didn’t mind getting up to your waist in water. I was terrified to be honest, after being warned constantly not to end up getting caught by the tide. At one point I lost my footing and slipped. Vinh grabbed the back of my pack to help keep me above water, but my waist belt and the bottom of my pack definitely went under, along with my butt. My camera was sadly tucked into one of the waist-belt pockets at the time and was the absolute last thing on my mind. About 100 more yards after the fall and we were out of the water and on the beach, wet up to our waists in salt water, and wet down from our heads by the torrential rain.

Eventually we determined that there was no way to round the next headland and that we would have to wait out the tide if we wanted to leave the cove we found ourselves in. After getting up above the tide line and determining that there was no overland trail for the headland blocking us, we set up the footprint of our tent as a lean-to shelter. Water was coming off of it in sheets as we all three huddled underneath not sure how we were going to withstand 6-7 hours of waiting. As the rain appeared to taper off, Nathanael made a fateful bet with Vinh that Vinh could not start a fire in the sodden conditions. Somehow, out of sheer dumb luck or fantastic skill, Vinh got a fire going with nothing but toilet paper, a wet fire starter, matches and some soggy twigs. I managed to keep the fire stoked and with two boys collecting the driest stuff they could find, we had a roaring blaze going.

We decided to spend the night on our secluded cove. No one else could reach us due to the tide and we rightly decided that trying to make it to Cape Alava, four or five miles away, at 8-9pm was not a good idea. Our clothes dried out by the fire and we had the tents up in time to keep us and our stuff relatively dry when the squalls started up again. phad thai (with baked tofu, green beans, and sautéed spinach) was our dinner along with my Nalgene full of Charles Shaw chardonnay. The only thing we were lacking at this point was marshmallows! Then to wake up on our little cove, with the sea stacks on either side, was spectacular. Since I was dry, warm, and excited by our lovely beach, I decided not to bail out on the trip altogether. Our little fire saved the trip.