This past Sunday I was still nursing a problem with my hip. Rather than do my normal four or five miles – it was beautiful outside, though brisk – I took my new DSLR out for a walk on my normal running route. Below are the pictures that came from that walk, including one of the moon out in the clear blue sky.
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Snowicane
The area of Upstate New York where I live is finally getting the winter we have been waiting for all season. Until today, the storms have maybe hit five inches but only once or twice. My son’s school district has had two snow days, before today – both of which were not bad enough to stop me from traveling.
Here are pictures from today early and about dusk.
Science Geek
As I marvel over the adventures going on in BigLittleWolf’s home, I am looking out my window and cringing. I am the regional coordinator for NYS Science Olympiad’s middle school division in the Southern Tier. My regional competition is scheduled for Saturday and, though I love snow, I am concerned. First concern is that schools will allow teams to travel on Saturday if there is a snow day on Thursday and Friday. Second concern, slightly put at bay by a call with the assistant principal at the building I am holding the competition in, is that sports - sectional basketball playoffs – will bump me from rooms I need, such as the gym. Third concern is that I will not have enough adult volunteers due to the weather.
These things either will or will not work through to a successful end. I am going to not stress over it as I can’t get outside to run – which would help alleviate the stress. I am going to talk about what a geek I am.
I have always loved science, and math. Not a normal admission for a female. I am the girl who took two science classes her senior year in high school, along with calculus. I am the college freshmen who was tutoring older students in calculus. I am the college student that loved dendrology because I wanted to know what that tree was and the scientific name. I am the college student who got the B.S. in business admin as opposed to the B.A. because I took so many science courses.
Several of the apples did not fall far from the tree. My children tend to be very good in math and science, whether they like these subjects or not. This tendency to get high grades in these areas introduced at least two of my boys to Science Olympiad. In turn, they introduced this wonderful extra-curricular activity to me. I have been “just a parent,” a coach and now a regional coordinator. I have been an event supervisor at the state level. I have gone to the national competition.
Science Olympiad is a team competition. I try to equate it to a type of athletics so people understand. There are individual events and a team score at the end. Individuals receive medals for the top three places in individual events. Teams receive trophies for the top three places. In the case of the regional competition, at least two teams and sometimes more – depending on the total number of teams at the regional – advance to the state competition. From the state competition, two teams in the middle school division and two teams in the high school division advance to the national competition. I liken this to wrestling or swimming in some ways – individual events with a team score in the end.
Anyway, I am back off to finish printing the knowledge events and the score sheets for the technical events. If you are in the Endicott/Binghamton/Ithaca area and are interested in helping, let me know.
Are You Comfortable With Your Body?
Are you comfortable with your body? This question is one that we should all ask ourselves. We need to be comfortable with our bodies. Don’t ask what brought on this little revelation. It is not as if I did not understand that we need to be comfortable with our bodies. I have not always loved mine but I don’t hate it either. I am growing to love it more as I age.
Okay, so truthfully, someone I follow on Twitter was tweeting about posing for some naked sketches. I am pretty sure I didn’t dream this up but maybe I did. Then, I met a new friend a few weeks ago. He is an artist. I am an online freak so I decided I would check out a few of his older blog posts as I could see more of his art. Having seen his art in person, I knew I enjoyed what I had seen so far so had no qualms about looking further. After all, he is an artist. Don’t artists want people to look at their art?
The post that caught my eye, most likely because I do feel the female and the male bodies are works of art, was one of sketches of nudes. These woman were beautiful. I looked at these just before going out on my run yesterday. So what is running through my mind as I am running – especially once my mp3 player died as I forgot to charge it? Could I do that? No, I have not been asked to pose nude. That is a good thing because I do not know that I am comfortable enough with my body for that yet.
So I wrote this on a Monday night, after getting ready for bed, and scheduled it to show up on Wednesday morning. I travel on Wednesdays for work so this is a day I don’t always have time to write. Here it is Tuesday morning and I am adding to the entry as I was back at Ben’s blog this morning. Call me pleasantly surprised to find more sketches.
Anyway, the discussion in my brain – did you know I have people up there that talk to themselves? – went something like this.
Person 1: You could do that. Look you are out here running in quite a bit of tight clothing. How is that different from naked?
Person 2: I can’t be naked in front of an art class. There are people there I don’t know or worse, people I do know.
Person 3: You had no trouble getting naked in front of …. oops! For the sake of the innocent, or at least those who are not me, I better edit person 3.
Person 1: You are almost naked in your running clothing. And I have seen what you wear in the summer.
Person 3: Ask what’s his name what he thinks.
Person 2: I can’t do this why are you all thinking I could. I get very self-conscious naked.
You get the idea. I didn’t just have a good conscience and a bad one on this issue. I had several little Jiminy Crickets in my mind yesterday and they were distracting me from my running. No, I didn’t stop running and didn’t even have a bad time. I just couldn’t run fast enough to get away from them.
Okay, so maybe I am a closet exhibitionist or even a closet nudist. The conversation, in the long run, just made me think about accepting one’s body for what it is.
Temptations in the Desert and Our Lives
I have been following, and jumping in with both feet, as Ronna Detrick stays in the desert this Lenten season. You can imagine my surprise when the homily at Mass yesterday dealt with the temptations that were put to Christ while he was in the desert. I don’t want temptations. I want to be in the desert to get to know me better with the temptations. Unfortunately, as Father Clarence pointed out, these temptations are ones we face all the time. What amazed me, and pardon my analogy but this is the way my brain works, was that Christ could easily bring the temptations right back around to the point He wanted to make. It reminded me of a political candidate that never gets off message. Regardless of the question asked, the candidate brings things back to his message.
So back to temptations. As I was hoping to remember them until I managed to get to paper and pen to write some notes, I came up with the three D’s. The first temptation was doubt. Who doesn’t have doubt in their lives? We doubt we are doing things the right way – parenting, relationships, work, life. Doubt is always there, seeping into our minds to cause us to question our very souls. We need to realize that God is there for us regardless of what we are doing. We make a mistake parenting. God will help us through the mistake. We have a relationship that is not good for either person involved. God will show us how to do what is best for both people.
The second D is distractions. Distractions are temptations to which most can relate. How many people do not have distractions in their lives? These distractions could be as simple as the television and as complex as children. Anyway you look at it, you need to have some time without distractions, to be able to achieve what is desired of you. In the case of Christ in the desert, Satan tried to show Him the wonderful things off to the left or off to the right, ways to get out of the desert.
The third D is demands. These temptations tend to be bigger for us. We demand things, wants. We demand that things appear instantaneously. We demand different ways to do things. We demand what we want, even if it is not in our best interest. We feel we deserve so we demand. We need to let go of the demands. Look around! I don’t know about you but I have what I need. You notice the change in slant here – want versus need. I may not live the life some do but I am happy with what I have – food, a roof over my head, happy and healthy children, some materialistic items. I don’t need other things, though I may want them. I should be content with what I have. By being content and not demanding other things, I have found – yes, I have been at this position before in life – that other things come. Sometimes, the wants come. Sometimes, things that I did not even consider come. God provides!
Thoughts from a Time Past
In looking for a password to a work account, I came across a writing I had done in the past. It speaks to connectedness. It speaks to need. It speaks to me so I thought I would share it with you.
I remember now why I try hard to live my life not needing others. with need comes an opening up of your heart to the chance someone else will et you down. Being needed… Carrying a burden of trying not to let someone else down…
I know you said you would never hurt me. Or at least that you didn’t want to hurt me. I got offline that night because I hurt. I felt blindsided. You sat talking with me just two days ago, telling me I needed you. Now you say you are leaving everyone behind.
While I understand standing on your own, I have come to believe, thanks in part to you, that even if we stand on our our own we need people to support us.
It is almost ironic, if it didn’t hurt so much, that it seems we have traded places.
I look like I am strong and together. Yet, I am sitting in bed crying. I am the one wondering what your decisions mean for me. I know I am not a player in your decisions. I shouldn’t be. That is not our relationship and probably never will be. You know I want you to be happy. If this is the way to your happiness, that is wonderful. I will also be there for you – not to stand you up but to clap for you as you stand yourself up.
Memories!
It’s time for a stroll down memory lane. I took this stroll last night. I was watching some Olympic coverage on NBC. I have to admit I try hard to not watch NBC coverage. I find Canadian coverage much better for actually covering the sports. NBC is lacking, missing events, doing a lot of human interest stories. I am a person who studies the human condition but occasionally I just want to watch an event.
So, after all that, I am left to talk about the stroll down memory lane that Al Michaels of NBC took me on. You see, in 1980, on February 22, the US Hockey team beat Russia in Lake Placid, NY. Where was I? In Lake Placid! I was at the game and in the streets afterwards. The victory was amazing and seeing Michaels talking with Eruzione, Craig and Johnson in the arena that the event occurred in took me back there. Also, the shots of Michaels walking down the streets of Lake Placid, those streets fairly empty at the time they filmed, made me remember those two weeks in 1980 when there was no traffic on those streets. Okay, so there were shuttles but regular traffic did not come through town.
I remember thinking that Lake Placid was what I thought a small Alps village should be like – a lot of people milling around and not a lot of traffic. The big events were outside of town, although the furthest away was probably downhill skiing at Whiteface which is about 15 miles from the village. The speed skating was outdoors. I don’t remember it ever being held on an outdoor oval since Lake Placid. The bobsled and luge runs at Mt Van Hoevenburg were just outside of the village as you head towards Ray Brook and the Olympic Village.
I was a college student at Paul Smith’s College during the Winter Games in Lake Placid in 1980. I did a stint working food service at Olympic Village. I don’t recall any McDonald’s being served. I also did a stint working housekeeping on campus where we had new dorms built that housed telecommunications professionals during the Olympics.
I have been sold on the Winter Games ever since 1980. I always liked ice skating before that but it was not until I saw events in real life that I became a true fan. I wished fervently that I had had the money to go to Salt Lake City in 2002. I also toyed with trying to go to Vancouver this year. It is just not in the cards yet but some day I will get back to things that I truly love and will go to another Winter Olympic Games.
Carriage House Cafe, Ithaca – Review
I still have to arrive at the Carriage House Cafe during regular business hours. I attended a party in the upstairs hall last Friday evening. If the food and atmosphere that were present upstairs carrying into the daily operations – and from the menu, I believe they do, this location could become my new favorite place to eat in Ithaca.
A few high points in the location are that it is close to Cornell University. While not directly in CollegeTown, it is on Stewart Avenue and easy to get to from downtown Ithaca. The Carriage House Cafe is also a LightLink HotSpot. I do not live in Ithaca and do, when I am there for the day, sign up for a one day LightLink account. Some places are not HotSpots and that leaves them out of my agenda when planning. Not so with The Carriage House Cafe.
The upstairs events hall is known as The Hayloft and provided a wonderful environment for our gathering last Friday of about 50 people. I believe the limit is 75 so it is not for a huge gathering but is perfect for intimate groups. You can see photos from #Twithaca here and the room is The Hayloft.
The food we had at Twithaca was amazing. There were beautiful sandwiches – wish I had gotten a photo of the food but I failed in this aspect, including a vegetarian option. I had the veggie sandwich as it was a Friday in Lent. The white bean hummus that served as a spread on the sandwich was perfect. The roasted veggies – words are hard to find to describe how good this was. On top of that – actually next to it on my plate, they served a wonderful slaw. I think there were apples and carrots in it but it didn’t matter to me if it was just cabbage. The dressing on the slaw was amazing
I strongly recommend you all stop by The Carriage House Cafe for breakfast or lunch on any Tuesday through Sunday. I am hoping to get there for lunch this week as I am meeting a friend for lunch on Wednesday. If you happen to be on Four Square, be sure to log your visit.
Social Media
You would think I know a lot about social media. I use Facebook, Delicious, Twitter, LinkedIn and a few other web sites on a regular basis. My children think that I should probably use these less. I don’t really worry about it as I am as likely to not use these as I am to use them. I can live without them but prefer to know what is going on in my friends’ lives.
I use social media for work also. Social media is defined as media “disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques.” These forms of media are up and coming ways to communicate and have a conversation with consumers if you are a business.
I tend to feel that you can always learn so I try to find courses and seminars on areas that interest me. I went to a free seminar Time Warner Business Class offered in Binghamton back in October. Matt Hames spoke on social media. The seminar was well attended and I learned a lot, including a lot about Delicious which I had not been using much at that time.
I have spent the last two Friday afternoons in Ithaca at Alternatives FCU. The six hours were two afternoons on social media. One day concentrated on Facebook, the other on Twitter. I learned a lot even though I use both on a daily basis.
In case you are interested in taking a class at Alternatives, you can check out Business Cents on their web site. Below are some pictures from my experience there.
