Just another day at the office

Happy Thanksgiving

Cartoon by Christopher DiPiazza

Key steps toward coming to peace with my cube

It's been almost 2 months since my first day at my new job.  Like any change, it's easy to focus on the steps you still have to learn, climb, and practice to feel settled rather than remembering where you've been and how far you've come.

So as an exercise in perspective and remembering, here are a few key milestones from the past 2 months beginning Day 1 of work -- Sept 30th.  Days are counted by working days, not calendar days.

Day 1: Got a temporary badge to enter the building by myself

Day 2: Officially covered by my own health insurance plan

Day 5: Found the liquid Coffeemate creamer and finally upgraded from the nasty powdered creamer I'd settled for all week

Day 7: Moved into my cubicle and decorated it with some artsy postcards so it felt a little more spirited

Day 11: Made my first health coaching call with a real participant

Day 15: First day on my real (non-training) schedule

Day 21: Personal best time on reading someone from West Virginia a health survey -- 18 minutes 20 seconds

Day 27: First day back on the job after passing the ACSM Physical Activity in Public Health Specialist certification exam, which was required within the first 3 months to keep my job.

Day 27: First Spanish call/coaching session

Day 30: First day working overtime for 1.5x pay  (some days I'm glad I'm not on salary anymore...)

Day 33: First 5/5 quality score on a randomly pulled call

Tomorrow: First paid holiday at this job

Ranch Reunion

After a while being back in Indianapolis, I decided to organize a camping trip/reunion with a few people from the ranch where I lived and worked for the past 2 years.  After two days and two nights in the Hoosier National Forest with some genuine, kind people from my most recent home, I'm dirty, exhausted, and so very content.

 Southern Indiana in the fall and the variety of deciduous trees are two of the things I've missed the most about the Midwest in the past 4 years living in Spain and Colorado.  We missed the best few weeks of colors, but mid-November has its own more spartan beauty.

When living in the middle of nowhere, sometimes I craved a city to help me feel more grounded.  Now that I'm in a city, I seek the outdoors and the middle of nowhere for balance.

I am thankful to always live near beauty and to know so many truly good people.

"There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot.  These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot."  -Aldo Leopold

13.1

Finished my second half marathon with my mom and sister
#bemonumental

Hip Happenings of Indy

From http://www.spiritandplace.org/Festival.aspx?access=Current.  Here's hoping I can make it to a few of the events!  Even if not, this is a nice reminder of why I decided to return to a more urban existence.

Where can you Risk Pursuing Your Passion, wade into Risky Waters, explore Scientific Heroism, and at the end of the day Get Rubbed the Right Way? At the 2013 Spirit & Place Festival, of course! 30+ events examine RISK through the eyes of women and teens, researchers and rabbis, artists and veterans, LGBTQs and Native Americans, small businesses and congregations, and more.
Hoosiers are not generally considered risk-takers. A recent essay on Indiana's history noted, "We are followers, not leaders; the state of vice-presidents, not presidents. Our motto is ... 'Good enough is good enough'." At the same time, our history is dotted with impressive contrary evidence, from the revitalization of downtown Indy and construction of a football stadium (without a team!) to hosting the 1987 Pan Am Games and the 2012 Super Bowl. What issues need strategic risk-taking? How can we surf the space between safety and danger in ways that stimulate community vitality? What risks can we take during Spirit & Place to galvanize change for pressing social concerns? Come find out!  

Happy Halloween!

Because of great supervisor, my team's 80s costume choices, and a decorated "huddle room," I not only got to dress up and wear a lot of hairspray to work but also have 3 paid hours to watch The Heat and eat pizza at work with the rest of team 3 for winning the Halloween contest.

There are definitely perks to working for an incentive-driven company with primarily people in their 20s.

Work connection

On a health coaching call at work today the following phrase came out of my mouth.

"I'm always a fan of cardiovascular cleaning."

Just when I was starting to think my career path was less linear than other people's...
Thankfully my cubemate called me out on the phrase or I wouldn't have even noticed I'd said it.  As it turns out, health coaching is just the next logical step from a year and a half stint as a housekeeper.  

A linguistic moment and a weekend trip

On a weekend trip out of town, I finally met one of my college roommates' best friends after hearing about her for 7 years.  She taught me a word that has me tickled about linguistics and words that take a paragraph to explain in another language all over again.

"That French word is "frisson", and it can be used to describe more than just chemistry between two people (it's the thrill jolted one feels at moments of great excitement or fear; the goosebumps; the hair standing up on your skin; the tingle in your toe- and fingertips)...but that's my favorite circumstance in which frisson happens. " -DG

I left work early Thursday and came back late Sunday afternoon.  Caught up with some old ranch friends, saw my friend's brother's band's show, had breakfast crepes at a favorite coffee shop near Purdue that I hadn't been to in years.  It was refreshing to be with people whose perspectives I appreciate and who understand the place and people that have been my ranch home for the past two years.

 I listened to country music while driving through corn fields for a few hours over to Fort Wayne, grabbed DQ in the middle of nowhere, and then spent two days with my college roommate and her boyfriend.  We fed their pet rats parsley, caught the end of a show at a local gallery and stopped into their favorite neighborhood bar just in time for cocktails and karaoke night.

Saturday morning, we went for a run in Foster Park and then a walk through a nature preserve area, which was perfectly lit by an overcast afternoon sky before going to watch her dad read several sonnets at the Acoustic Spoken Word Cafe and then heading home to get on costumes and get ready for a Halloween party.

Overall, it was a nice weekend of art, music, and Fall with good friends, good linguistic moments, good beer, and good conversation throughout.

Happy early Halloween!

A weekend of art, nature, and good conversation in Ft Waye

Wunderkammer Company event with Julia in Ft Wayne, Indiana

A week in corporate America

I'm about to leave for my first "Friday" of my first full, non-training week in corporate America.   Working four 10s as well as evenings will definitely be an adjustment!

I've been a bit of a zombie all week but am hoping that my sleep schedule will settle in to a more sustainable pattern sooner rather than later.   Little details of coaching are getting to be more second nature by the day, and my cube is feeling more like mine with each artsy magnet, plant, or funky postcard I hang up.

I've learned more acronyms than I think are necessary, have coached people on everything from diabetes management to exercise during pregnancy to weight loss to how to do strength training exercises in a hotel room when traveling for work without adding too much extra weight to your suitcase.  I've talked with salespeople, truck drivers, teachers, stay-at-home parents, engineers, college students, and police officers from 21 years old to 73.

After manually dialing 90 people to only have 3 "reaches", or real health conversations, on Monday, I think I have forever driven away my long-standing fear of leaving voicemails.

Sometimes in the newness or monotony or quickness of it all, you can lose track of how much you have learned.   I'm glad it's my Friday, even more glad that there's free coffee and tea at work, and very much looking forward to trip to visit some friends, see a concert, dance, bike, hang out outside, and celebrate at a Halloween party out of town this weekend.

But I think, after 3 months unemployed, that employment might turn out to be a fulfilling experience (at least some days) after all!

TGITh.

Happy Belated Birthday, Nissan

Just rolled over the big 200,000!  Anyone in for some cake?

The job: Talking to a real person

After 2 weeks of training and mock calls, I had my first contact with a "real" person today.  At 8.5 minutes, it was short but acceptable for a health coaching session.

Without the help of "the dialer" or my own scheduled calls, it took about 10 attempts including 7 voicemails to get one real "reach."

As soon as I completed my call, someone from quality assurance came to find me to listen and give me immediate feedback.  She was gentle on me, which I'm sure was by design given how worked up everyone from my training class is about having our first real contact with the outside world.

It will be nice when it takes less than 5 minutes of prep time and psyching myself up to make a phone call.  And when I am comfortable enough to start taking calls through internal systems that will increase my chances of talking to a real human instead of a disconnected number or a voicemail message.

For now though, I'll be celebrating my first real human contact with some brownies and a bottle of Blue Moon Caramel Apple Spiced Ale before an early bedtime.

Here's looking at you, kid.

My brain, looking.   Just got this and a couple of series of slides showing my brain slice by slice (axial, coronal, and sagittal) by e-mail.

I participated in a paid study downtown September 25-26 which included performing an attention task while in an MRI.  One of the technicians mentioned that they used to send participants CDs of their brains, which, naturally, piqued my interest.

What a perfect treat in my inbox on a Friday after a long week of training for a new job!

Clip from my evening reading

First chapter of Adler and Van Doren's book titled How to Read a Book

This is a book for readers and for those who wish to become readers. Particularly, it is for readers of books. Even more particularly, it is for those whose
main purpose in reading books is to gain increased understanding.

By “readers” we mean people who are still accustomed, as almost every literate and intelligent person used to be, to gain a large share of their information
about and their understanding of the world from the written word. Not all of
it, of course; even in the days before radio and television, a certain amount of
information and understanding was acquired through spoken words and through
observation. But for intelligent and curious people that was never enough. They
knew that they had to read too, and they did read.

There is some feeling nowadays that reading is not as necessary as it once
was. Radio and especially television have taken over many of the functions
once served by print, just as photography has taken over functions once served
by painting and other graphic arts. Admittedly, television serves some of these
functions extremely well; the visual communication of news events, for example,
has enormous impact. The ability of radio to give us information while we are
engaged in doing other things—for instance, driving a car—is remarkable, and
a great saving of time. But it may be seriously questioned whether the advent
of modern communications media has much enhanced our understanding of the
world in which we live.

Perhaps we know more about the world than we used to, and insofar as
knowledge is prerequisite to understanding, that is all to the good. But knowledge is not as much a prerequisite to understanding as is commonly supposed.
We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it;
too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few.
There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment
of understanding.

One of the reasons for this situation is that the very media we have mentioned
are so designed as to make thinking seem unnecessary (though this is only an
appearance). The packaging of intellectual positions and views is one of the
most active enterprises of some of the best minds of our day. The viewer of
television, the listener to radio, the reader of magazines, is presented with a
whole complex of elements—all the way from ingenious rhetoric to carefully
selected data and statistics—to make it easy for him to “make up his own mind”
with the minimum of difficulty and effort. But the packaging is often done so
effectively that the viewer, listener, or reader does not make up his own mind
at all. Instead, he inserts a packaged opinion into his mind, somewhat like
inserting a cassette into a cassette player. He then pushes a button and “plays
back” the opinion whenever it seems appropriate to do so. He has performed
acceptably without having had to think.

Today I feel...

Right place, right time: A Saturday of solo adventuring and urban novelties downtown

Seconds until stamper time
September 2013

After a last minute change of plans, I spent the weekend in Indy instead of Chicago.  I was planning to dress as a tango dancer to represent the country of Argentina at an internationally themed party.

So after plans changed, I decided to volunteer at Indianapolis' FIESTA Latino festival.  Where I was placed in the Argentina tent with a bunch of tango dancers from around Indy.  I was the "stamper," dutifully stamping little kids' "Passport to the Americas" once they'd tried dancing.   I even tried teaching someone to dance tango when all of the actual dancers were busy (I've never danced tango, but he didn't know any better.)

Strangely, this was my second time being a volunteer "stamper" in the past 6 months.  Last time was at a dance event in Steamboat Springs.  I'm thinking of going into it professionally.

Backside of a Food Tent
September 2013

 I learned about a new Flash Mob group in town that's just starting up (I've been wanting to get involved in a Flash Mob for at least 4 years now), got some coupons for a free group lesson and open dance at a dance studio downtown that I've been wanting to see for years, and met some people who are involved in some really interesting programs related to refugee and recent immigrant resources, community arts initiatives, mentoring and pre-college programs, language resources and training programs, etc. etc. etc.

I learned about a new Flash Mob group in town that's just starting up (I've been wanting to get involved in a Flash Mob for at least 4 years now), got some coupons for a free group lesson and open dance at a dance studio downtown that I've been wanting to see for years, and met some people who are involved in some really interesting programs related to refugee and recent immigrant resources, community arts initiatives, mentoring and pre-college programs, language resources and training programs, etc. etc. etc.  

I talked with people from all over the place (including Madrid and Sevilla-the first two Spaniards I've met since returning to the US), officially have my first celebrity crush, grilled someone working the McDonalds "Free Samples" booth about what's in it for McDonalds and where my contact information would go if I chose to give it to him, got a free pair of McDonalds "me encanta" shades, saw a remarkably catchy bilingual phonics rapper on stage during kiddie hour, got some excellent semi-legal free downtown parking tips from a security guard at a cathedral, wandered over to the Chinese festival where I tried a Filipino desert called turon made of jackfruit and plantains, talked witha

Late night concert before an even later night salsa event
Hombres sin Nombes - Septemeber 2013

woman from Bloomington about Flagship language programs in Chinese and Turkish and nearly changed my life's linguistic plan again, saw several men writing names in the most beautiful calligraphy I'd ever seen, and listened to a man play the erhu better than I'd ever heard it played before as I ate underneath a tree.


Happened to wander past the door to the dance studio where all the tango dancers take classes, so I popped in to see what the space was like.  Walked in right as the current world salsa champions were rehearsing for their performance that night.  Literally breathtaking.  Talked with the founders of Latin Expressions Dance Company.  Turned out they were hosting a social that evening, including a few different performances including Uriel and Vera's.  I walked to my car and tried to catch a quick nap before heading back to FIESTA for their final concert of the night, Hombres sin Nombres.  Then headed over to the dance studio for a night of salsa.  Ran into several different salseros I've met in town both at the festival and at the social.

After over 14 hours straight downtown, it's been a good day of seeing and exploring and learning some of the different ways it could look like to be a longer-term Indianapolis resident.

              

Removing Dance Barriers -- A night of salsa

After a few years considering taking formal salsa lessons, I'm finally in an urban setting permanently enough to get involved.

Yesterday was my first of four intermediate salsa lessons in Indianapolis.   While I've latin danced dozens of times before in clubs both here and abroad, I am not a technical dancer, so this class was definitely outside of my comfort zone.

In addition to the dancing itself, there are always a few major questions about a night out dancing that sometimes keep me from "just going for it."  Tonight worked itself out in a way that I have a lot of questions answered, new tricks, and less barriers to feeling comfortable salsa-ing the night away.

Here are a few of the major road blocks I've come across in the past, and the corresponding solutions that presented themselves yesterday

Road Block #1:  Shoes 

A lot of experienced dancers wear heels.  Since I have flat feet, heels hurt.  Some flats work, but a lot have a too much traction to spin well.  In the past, a lot of times I've resorted to wearing boots, but especially for summer dancing, they're so hot.  Sandals would be okay if people didn't step on my feet so much....

Solution:  I met a sweet woman named Linda yesterday.  I introduced myself because I noticed she was wearing ballet flats.  I had slipped a pair of ballet flats that I bought for Irish Step Dance in college into my purse on the way out the door because I wasn't convinced that the heels I had on wouldn't ruin my evening.  She convinced me completely, I switched into the dance shoes out of uncomfortable shoes, and am now on my way to becoming a zero-drop salsa shoe enthusiast.

Road Block #2:  Purse or no purse, that is the question.

Salsa people, generally speaking, are very good people.  I would feel more comfortable leaving my purse unattended at a salsa club than almost any other club.  That said, I don't feel comfortable leaving it sitting out.

On the positive side of the situation, trying to go purse-less in dance clothes leads to some creative alternatives for storing car keys, ID, and a credit card.  On the less positive side, this leads to some awkward interactions involving pulling a sweaty credit card out of a boot to pay for a beer, tucking a car key back inside of your leggings after a quick turn, etc. etc.  So I finally decided to talk with the bartender, a nice hipster boy, about my situation.  He said it was no problem to keep my purse and extra shoes in a cupboard behind the bar.

Brilliant.

Road Block #3: Urban parking

Normal people don't worry about this one as much as I do, but being a person who, because of various life choices, hasn't driven a car consistently for 8 years, parking tends to turn itself into a major source of anxiety in my head.

Especially in Broad Ripple, the part of town where I'm now taking dance classes.

I could just learn to parallel park or go through some deep breathing exercises, but in the meantime, the problem remains of finding a parkable spot that definitely doesn't tow, without meters, and close enough to the salsa bar that it's not completely crazy to walk back after dark.

After going around in circles for 10 minutes, I ended up parked further away than I preferred, but I decided to deal with it rather than waste half a tank of gas looking for the "perfect" spot.

3 blocks into the walk, I passed a funny vintage store that I know in town just as two employees (or maybe owners) were closing up shop.  I noticed a perfectly empty lot right behind the store and asked if it would be okay to park there.

They said absolutely, but that I should think about parking in front of the store instead because they don't tow, are never open at night, and there is a parking slot right under a street light.  Furthermore, I should park there any time.

And it's about 3 blocks from dance class.  No parallel parking or annoying loops around Broadripple looking for a place to park during the dinner rush in the foreseeable future.

Road Block #4: What to wear that's both cute and non-risky while spinning

I've been wearing jeans and dresses with unseasonably warm leggings to dance for ages.  Unlike other times in life, in a salsa club you never know when you might be dipped, spun, picked up, or flipped over in some capacity.  Especially if you're a 5'3", 115 lb girl.

Hello, bike shorts.

It's so nice to have found a way to safely wear dresses, especially with muggy Indiana summer weather.

Road Block #5:  How to not seem creepy, pathetic, or both when showing up to a dance venue alone

My general approaches to this one have been pretending like I know exactly what's going on, making sure to dance as many songs as possible to cut down on standing-along-down-time while maximizing cardio, reading the label on my beer bottle as thoroughly as possible up to 5 times, talking with the bartender, or befriending nice old women.

Turns out going to a dance class ahead of time is a natural time to meet other people, gain some familiarity, and have at least 2 or 3 guaranteed dance partner options later in the evening.

Yesterday turned out to be even more of a windfall.  My friend Katie came with me to the lesson!  Real friends are less creepy than random bar friends any day.

And, to make things even more sustainable, I ended up meeting some really great people who are quickly becoming my dance friends.  Going out with two of them again tonight.

I figure if I can get "in" with a few salseros in Indianapolis during my funemployed month, I'll be able to show up on a more hit-or-miss basis and be almost guaranteed to know someone once my job does start and I can't dedicate all my evenings to dancing, self-education, and "personal development" projects.

Road Block #6:  How to get back to your car without thinking about getting jumped the whole time

Best technique I've found for this so far is making new friends and asking them to walk me to my car.

Doesn't matter what part of town I'm in, if it's dark, I've been socially conditioned to assume that being in a city walking by myself means that getting mugged, jumped, or otherwise pestered is not a risk but a certainty (or at least to have corisol levels reflecting it, for as much as I can try to talk myself out of it.)

As previously mentioned, salsa people are generally very good people, and in the past 2 years of going out salsa dancing about a dozen times, I've only had to walk myself to my car twice.

Having dance friends at the club already only makes this process easier.  Plus it's nice to only make a judgment of character once or twice and have your go-to car walkers rather than looking for a new one every week.

And with that, I'm off to the Jazz Kitchen.

A BAILAR!

Developing a job description

Employment News

As much as I would like to believe that people grow, develop, change, and learn, there's also a heavy element of sameness within a person's experience (whether you attribute that to disposition, genetics, history repeating itself, or any number of other factors.)

I accepted a job offer a week ago after about 2 months spent being "funemployed."  I will begin training for a position as a Bilingual Health Educator in Indianapolis at the end of this month.

So in light of that news, I'd like to share two pieces of writing from my past -- one from a job application this May responding to the prompt to describe my ideal job in under 200 words, and the other a list I made for myself my senior year of college (five years ago) about things I would look for in a job. The ideas I had about what I might like and dislike in a job have largely been the exact things I've liked and disliked about the jobs I've had since then.

I just came across the list yesterday, and I'm struck by how similar they are and how, despite having changed countries, career plans, hobbies, and homes at least half a dozen times, I seem to be very much the same person I've always been.

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

Values, Interests, Skills, Etc. - A series of lists I made in December 2008

Things I think I might like in a job:

            -Travel

            -Continued education

            -Working with intelligent people

            -Variety of tasks and people to work with

            -Moving around

            -Combination of individual and group work (ex: math study group)

            -Intermittent (and fairly regular) reinforcement

            -Fun work environment

            -Using data and technical work to come up with reasonable ideas, plans, strategies for the          future

            -Being a part of a “think tank” as part of my job

            -Opportunity to work with people from a variety of different fields and skill sets

What I wouldn’t like:

            -Sitting behind a computer all day by myself

            -A highly critical boss and/or not feeling like my skills and work are appreciated

            -No chance to learn new thing

            -Never seeing any tangible results of my work

            -Annoying, lazy, unmotivated, or arrogant coworkers

            -Being evaluated and paid only for how “good” my creativity is or my ability to communicate

            -Trying to change other people’s behavior and ideas all the time                                                         -Feeling overly emotionally tied up in my job

            -Rigidity, very competitive feel to workplace

Values

           -Efficiency

           -Peacemaking

           -Community

           -Logic

           -Diligence

           -Kindness

           -Education

           -Openness to new ideas

           -Flexibility

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

Ideal Job Prompt - May 2013

In imagining my ideal job, the most important aspect is the ability to continually learn and grown while helping others to do the same.   To have this continual growth, individuals must have the trust and autonomy to share their ideas freely and work in their strengths.   At the same time, there must be a shared commitment to an end goal, high levels of personal accountability, a striving for excellence, and the desire to work as a team and set one another up for success. 

The exact title of my ideal job is less important to me than the ability to work with a diverse group of creative and intelligent colleagues, to continue developing new skills while refining the ones I already have, and to participate in a healthy work community.  Throughout my life, I have always preferred jobs that involve a balance technical knowledge and interpersonal skills.  Seeing great ideas become reality makes me come alive.  I have always loved to be a part of creating a truly excellent experience or product, and I would like that product to play a role in making the world a more positive place to live.  

Isle Royale Photos

Isle Royale: A moment and a reflection

Video taken from the trail between Daisy Farm and Three Mile on Isle Royale - August 2013

8.23.13  Morning Reflection

For a first time backpacking trip, I couldn't have planned a better experience.  The place, pace, and weather have all been perfect.  Eight miles/day feels productive but still enjoyable.  I'm not crazy about having 40 lbs on my back, but I do have an appreciation for the places and feelings you can only get to by removing yourself from "real life" and the "modern world" by food for more than a day...which is to say, even though I'm covered in bug bites, sore everywhere, and a stinky dirtball, I'd be open, given the right company and destination, to backpacking again.

I love that I'm never very far from a lake here and that pumping water with hiking pals, a moose presentation, or watching dragonflies is the main social event of the evening.  I like the familiar feeling of the "trail community" and that no one has anything better to do than look at the land and be friendly.  It's interesting that in less than a week away, flush toilets, electricity, and showers seem like luxuries - novel and a little excessive - and that handpicked thimbleberries throughout the day and planning a day around a sunrise have become normal.  It's beautiful when everyone, together, moves slow enough to notice what's around them.  I wonder what it would be like if the whole world could see and move and be this way.

Off to backpack Isle Royale in "The Lady" Lake Superior

Until I return,
K

Ultralight Living -- A life to prepare for backpacking

I am currently preparing and packing for a week long backpacking trip to Isle Royale with  my mom and 4 other members of the Central Indiana Wilderness Club.  (Image below from http://www.seeyosemite.com/isle-royale-michigan.html)

I have been backpacking once before on a two day snowshoeing class in college, but this will be my first summer trip and my first trip of this length.

A nice thing about being "in transition"
(aka looking for a job but unemployed) is that every event or trip can turn into a lengthy self-education experience and is rarely without adequate preparation and reflection time.

Today I spent the morning packing up my final details, getting my first official "pack weight" of the process, researching Leave No Trace ethics about biodegradable soap and sanitation, fashioning a rain skirt, and googling tips for packing light.

So far, without food, water, or my share of the group gear, I'm at 23.5 pounds total.  Not too shabby given that I didn't go out of my way to buy any overpriced, titanium, "ultralight" gear and managed to pack a sketchbook, swimsuit and towel, and inflatable seat.   If my pack is still that light, I've decided a few comfort items are absolutely allowed.

My mom and I on our final prep hike around Ritchie Woods

Fishers, IN -- August 2013

In reading about ultralight trends, I've realized that my entire life up to this point, especially my tendency to up and move homes every 3-9 months for the past 5 years, has given me a lot of ultralight values and skills.  Even if I don't yet have the commitment to documenting how many ounces each Clif bar weighs.....

1.  Simplicity 

How much do I really need?  One pair of pants or two for a week?  That might be a little excessive....  Why am I bringing along a second book when a photocopy of a drawing of "Common Wildflowers of Isle Royale" and good company could keep me entertained and more "present" for hours?  What can I share with my mom or other people in the group and what do I really need to have ready for myself?  

What's a need vs a want?  What is a real risk that's worth the extra weight for "emergency supplies" vs over-packing?   How much comfort can I be comfortable with, and how much weight is worth and increase or decrease in certain realms of quality of life?  Leave No Trace ethics in backpacking also lend themselves to a questioning of simplicity and how to tread lightly upon the earth, both in considering camping choices and the impact of daily lifestyle choices on the environment and global community.

  

2.  Small accessories 

The best two examples of this value in my life are my clothes and musical instruments. 

 Since I've relocated by plane so many times, whether across the country or across the Atlantic, I have a lot of simple, solid-colored, lightweight clothes and tend to have louder/quirkier options for accessories since they're smaller and more practical than packing a lot of interesting clothes that all clash.   

 Also, I've gone from playing the piano when I was young, to playing the clarinet and saxophone in high school, to playing steel drums, a little guitar,  and the mbira early in college, to, over the past 4 years, playing/traveling between homes with a ukulele, harmonica, jaw harp, and castanets.  All of which fit into my ukulele bag.

Backpacking and outdoorsy gear comes with all sorts of little, functional accessories, which fits my style very well:  emergency blankets, towels that fold up to the size of a small notebook, spoon/fork/knives, bowls that can be used as mugs or plates depending on the meal, emergency whistle/compass/mirror/waterproof match holder all in one, travel sized soaps, mini rolls of toilet paper, and baby versions of sunscreen, bug spray, biodegradable soap, and anything else you can imagine needing......  Check your local sporting good store for more examples.

 3. Bring what you can carry

Again here, being a traveler and being a backpacker overlap.  If I can carry it by myself up stairs in the metro, while getting lost somewhere 4 miles walking on the wrong part of Paris, wandering to a bus stop in a rural town that I don't know, passing through large crowds of strangers while still being very sure that I know exactly where my passport and money are and how close the nearest 30 people are to them, and completely by myself, I am allowed to bring it.  One large checked suitcase and a carry-on for a year in Spain?  Absolutely.  

At 23.5 lbs without water, I'm certainly not setting any ultralight records, but it's a lot less than I thought I would need for a week.

4. General thrift and resourcefulness (including crafting and DIY tricks) 

If you read the link below, DIY mentality would be more relevant if I was going for a true, anally-ultra-light style, but even with my current packing, some amounts of craftiness have come into play.  During the past month of unemployment, I've found comfort in the sense of purpose and completion in crafting, learning maintenance tasks, and generally seeking to be a more handy person (building tables, repairing jewelry, mending clothes, fixing windows, cleaning screens, touching up baseboards, rearranging and decorating my room, creating organizational systems, deep cleaning ovens....) 

In regard to backpacking,  I've learned a lot of these from my mom and the internet over the past month.  A lot of real, functional needs and comforts can be created from inexpensive supplies. 

How many ways can I use my 15 ft of nylon cord?  Why buy and carry uncomfortable rain pants if you can fashion your own out of a trash bag?  Is it worth buying an inflatable seat if you can use an empty, washed-out potato chip bag?  (I decided to get the seat because I was feeling luxurious.)  The questions, and possibilities, are endless for a craftsman/DIYer.

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

We'll see how the trip goes!  Wilderness will always be a part of my life.  I don't know exactly what that will look like or how I will like backpacking as opposed to the day hikes, urban parks, and occasional car camping that have been a more consistent part of my life so far.

But whatever happens, I've thoroughly enjoyed this exploration of the ultralight movement and mentality.

If you're interested, here's the best "ultralight" backpacking website I've found to date.   I especially like #5.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/mike_clelland_weekly_tip.html#.UguRopKyBsk

I made new magnets.

See?

Weekend trip to New Castle

Indiana Summer

New Castle, IN - August 9

I spent this weekend in New Castle, IN with my friend from college Katie and her family.  After learning to love rural places while living in Europe, I was so glad to see that I now also love (visiting) rural places in the US.

A few highlights

• Filling up growlers at RAM on the way there
• Katie's brother's huge white dog, Sugar, who he swears is part wolf
• Trying 148 proof apple cinnamon moonshine that her dad got from some guy in Tennessee
• Awesome Mexican take-out with Katie and fam
• Jack's donuts and coffee for breakfast while reading Love in the Time of Cholera in the living room.  Repeating the same events on the porch the next morning
• Sleeping in
• Biking around country roads with Katie and stopping to take pictures of corn, play fetch with a random dog, and take pictures with a tractor and a plane
• Getting pulled over by a town sheriff because we weren't biking in a single file line.  On a country road.  With no traffic.  For my first time ever being pulled over, it's a pretty good story.
• Watching almost the entire first season of New Girl (impressive for a person who almost never watches TV...)
• Building a table in the garage with her brother and learning how to use new tool 
• Finally trying Pizza King, after hearing Patrick talk about working there all the time during college
• Trip to the lumber yard for table leg material, and finding out that a 2x2 only costs $2
• Salted caramel ice cream at Weenie World
• The awesome old trees in everyone's yards
• Using an electric sander

Katie and Blake helping finish up the final corner of the table top

New Castle, August 2013

And another great thing about this weekend's adventure, is that it has set me up with a week worth of skills to learn and projects to work on.  In tableland, I'm now on to the wood filler, sanding, staining, custom glass cutting..........

I begin to see why employed people don't make tables very often.  And I'm so very pleased with mine.

Tips on Playing (the Harmonica) with Records and Other People

I am currently rekindling a relationship with my harmonica, which has been living in the front pouch of my ukulele case for two and a half years after an inspired purchase during a road trip through Valencia.

Just learned that one of the holes is not broken, as I suspected was the case since I bought it.  This video has dissolved my harmonica worries, so now I'm on to bigger and better things.  Like playing Kumbaya for people over the phone and checking out  How To Play Country & Western Harmonica by David Harp from the library.

If you're interested in some excellent advice on playing with other people, see the clip from his book below.  

Excerpt by David Harp -- Appendix C: Playing with Records and Other People; p 58-59

"I could easily devote an entire book to hints and tips on playing with other people.  But I'll just mention a few of the most important issues here.

• Be honest about how experienced you are, before you start with people you don't know. 

•  Don't play too much.  Let the other musicians ask you to play more, rather than to play less. 

• Always know what key a song is going to be played in, before it starts.  When in doubt, ask the guitar player, or bass player.

•  Let the other musicians know that you mostly play "three chord songs" (more professionally known as "1-4-5" songs).   If a song has complex chords, you may want to wait for an easier one. 

•  Once you know the song key, make sure you have the right key harmonica to play in either first or second position.  Never try to "wing it" on the wrong key harp in public -- you'll be sorry!"

Things that everyone knows

Tomatoes are bustin' out all over!

Cherry tomatoes preparing themselves for my breakfast tomorrow

My mom's porch, July 2013

Endymion by Keats

“ But this is human life: the war, the deeds,

The disappointment, the anxiety,

Imagination’s struggles, far and nigh,

All human; bearing in themselves this good,

That they are still the air, the subtle food,

To make us feel existence."

Today's Daily Challenge - A Gratitude Walk

Every morning I receive a Daily Challenge in my inbox.  For more information, visit  https://challenge.meyouhealth.com.

My follow-through is inconsistent at best, but I stay signed up for gems like this one, which I took straight from the e-mail this morning.

Take a 5-minute gratitude walk: Stroll outside or in your home and note what you're thankful for.

How to do itSet aside a minimum of five minutes for taking a walk outdoors or in your home or workplace. As you walk, spend the time focusing on the things you see that you feel grateful for. Perhaps you're grateful for the beautiful flowers growing in a nearby park, a refrigerator full of food in your home, or a kind neighbor on your street. Maybe you feel grateful for a clean, safe place to work or a helpful colleague. Try to stay in the moment and concentrate on your feelings of gratitude until the walk is over.
 
Why it matters
We tend to see the same things day after day, taking people and objects in our lives for granted. But when we stop and really study everything around us, we often recognize that there is a lot to be grateful for. Taking a gratitude walk in your everyday environment can give you a lasting emotional health boost.

Care of the Soul: Rethinking exercise

In light of my recent "explorative running" phase and a very physically active morning of yard work, this passage from Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life seems relevant.

Enjoy!

"When we relate to our bodies as having soul, we attend to their beauty, their poetry and their expressiveness. Our very habit of treating the body as a machine, whose muscles are like pulleys and its organs engines, forces its poetry underground, so that we experience the body as an instrument and see its poetics only in illness.  Fortunately, we still have a few institutions that foster an imaginal body.  Fashion, for instance, brings a considerable amount of fantasy to the body, although modern dress for men falls quite short in color and variety of styles popular in former times.  Cosmetics and perfumery are available to women, and can be an important aspect of cultivating the body's soul.

Exercise could be more soulfully performed by emphasizing fantasy and imagination.  Usually we are told how much time to spend at certain exercise, what heart rate to aim for, and which muscle to focus on for toning.   Five hundred years ago Ficino gave somewhat different advice for daily exercise.  'You should walk as often as possible among plants that have a wonderful aroma, spending a considerable amount of time every day among such things.'  His emphasis is on the world and the senses.  In a former time, exercise was inseparable from experiencing the world, walking through it, smelling it and feeling it sensually, even as the heart got its massage from the exertion of the walk.  Emerson, a great New England walker, wrote in his essay 'Nature': 'The greatest delight which the fields and woods minister is the suggestions of an occult relation between man and the vegetable.  I am not along and unacknowledged.  They nod to me, and I to them.'  In this Emersonian exercise program, the soul is involved in the perception of an intimacy between human personality and the world's communing body.

If we could loosen the grip we have on the mechanical view of our own bodies and the body of the world, many other possibilities might come to light.  We could exercise the nose, the ear, and the skin, not only the muscles.  We might listen to the music of wind in the trees, church bells, distant locomotives, crickets and nature's teeming musical silence. We could train our eyes to look with compassion and appreciation.  Soul is never far from attachment to particulars; a soulful body exercise would always lead us toward an affectionate relationship to the world.  Henry Thoreau, who exercised his body in the context of making a retreat at Walden Pond, writes: 'I rejoice that there are owls.  Let them do the idiotic and maniacal hooting for men.  It is a sound admirably suited to swamps and twilight woods which no day illustrates, suggesting a vast and undeveloped nature which men have not recognized.'  Body exercise is incomplete if it focuses exclusively on muscle and is motivated by the ideal of a physique unspoiled by fat.  What good is a lean body that can't hear Thoreau's owls or return a wave to Emerson's wheat?  The ensouled body is in communion with the body of the world and finds its health in that intimacy."  p 172-173

Running without a purpose

I don't know how fast I've been running and have only a vague idea of how far.  Here's what I do know:  I'm working on becoming a better noticer one run at a time.  Here are some highlights from this morning.

1.  A mother duck and three ducklings getting ready to cross the road
2.  Half a dozen perfect spiderwebs covered with dew
3.  The sun coming out and lighting up the fog that had settled onto a baseball field
4.  Three garage doors opening at the same time as people got ready to go to work
5.  Jumping and hitting low hanging leaves on trees near the end of a run, especially wet leaves, feels just like the universe is giving you a high five.
6.  A little patch of grass growing in the soil on top of a sprinkler head that had popped up to water someone's lawn.

Well worth watching

Exploring the 'burbs sans auto

I've been thinking about transportation today, as I've been relying on bikes and sharing rides for the past four years. I can do a lot more things by bike and foot in Hamilton County than I have given myself permission to do. I have the idea of wanting to buy a car, but I may wait to hear back from a job I'm applying to in Madison before deciding, as a no-car life seems totally feasible there.

In the meantime, I'm seeing how much I've let myself limited when I've been home by not having a car. I went running this morning and went exploring the nooks, crannies, and cul-de-sacs of my subdivision that I never go down. It's really a pretty place to live, and I don't know if I've ever truly noticed before.

Here's someone else taking full advantage of a bike for transport and hauling

Photo from Sevilla in Fall 2009

Mini Culture Shock

As compared to rural Colorado, in suburban Indianapolis.....

1.  There is humidity.  Everything sticks to me including myself.  I miss mountain air, but my skin feels healthier. 

2.  Everything is so alive and green.  No risk of forest fires here! 

3.  IT'S SO FLAT! 

4. There are overweight people. 

5. In casual conversation, being outdoors is often referred to as an inconvenience rather than the purpose of living. 

6.  Likely as a result of #5, people wear much less "gear" and generally have less dirt on their clothes and possessions.   Yet they still all wear New Balance shoes.  

8.  People don't wave at each other from inside of cars as they drive by. 

7.  There are no cows crossing the road and no horses or hay bales anywhere. 

9.  Everyone drives a freshly washed, shiny car.  And next to no one drives a Subaru.

Airport poetry

Y cuando llegue el día del último viaje,
y esté al partir la nave que nunca ha de tornar,
me encontraréis a bordo ligero de equipaje,
casi desnudo, como los hijos de la mar.

And when I reach the day of the last voyage, come that moment
The ship of no return is set to cast the anchor free,  
You'll find me boarded with the crew, with barely any luggage
My body bare beneath the sun like children of the sea. 


From Retrato by Antonio Mechado
Translation by A.Z. Foreman
Found on a window at the Denver Airport

Freight Train

This song has been stuck in my head for the past week, since I heard it for the first time played on the banjo by my friend Stella at the Telluride bluegrass festival.  Of all the songs I've had stuck in the past few years, this brings me the most joy.

Suggestion

1.  Listen to it ten times through.
2.  Sing the chorus to yourself over and over for a week.
3.  Have a better life.

Cow Clinic

For one of the first times in my life, I felt confident in my technical riding today.  While I can't help wishing  I had experienced it earlier in my time here, I am glad to have spent this morning riding a wonderful horse named Babe out on the early morning Breakfast Ride and then in a cow clinic until lunch.

After only a few scattered times on trail rides and sitting in on riding clinics during my time here, I understand the concepts of turning, backing up, and moving forward, but when in a clinic setting, I have always felt self-conscious about how little I know.

Today I learned how to drive cows through a gate on horseback, practicing in the outdoor arena with 20 cows.  My horse was more responsive than other horses I've ridden, so I didn't have to cue anything very hard.  I don't like kicking a horse hard for it to move forward.  I don't like yanking on reins.  I prefer horses where I can use shifts in posture, gentler pressure, and purposeful reining for direction.

Babe was a dream come true.

I love driving cattle.  Who knew?

Dirt Bikes

This afternoon I tried dirt biking for the first time with Nate, one of my coworkers.  I had no idea what to expect and ended up loving it more than I would have ever imagined.

Racing at 20-30 mph up and down dirt roads, around rocks, through puddles, into meadows all across Routt National Forest helped me piece together my mental map of the area more than anything else I've tried, largely because of how quickly you can cross the land compared to hiking or driving on main roads only.

The rush of wind whistling through your helmet, the splash of water on the back of your calves as you go through a puddle, holding your breath on a descent that seems just a little too steep and exhaling when you make it out fine, looking down at the yellow wildflowers growing out of the road then up to the perfect clouds floating in the endless sky then across to some of the most impressive peaks in the region and realizing that everything around you is truly beautiful....

Now to find my map and figure out where I have been!

Paddle boarding

I spent this afternoon on Pearl Lake trying out paddle boarding for the first time.  Are you looking for a combination of the best parts of a kayak, surfboard, and air mattress combined?  Paddle boards might be just the right thing for you!

The process of leaving -- fully present while phasing out

As I am coming up on the end of my time here at the ranch, I have had the chance to try out some new things in my free time and spend most of my work time doing what I have enjoyed most about my job -- training, management, delegating, and giving people as much information as possible to set them up for success.

It's bittersweet, like any transition, and it's surreal to leave a place that has become my home over the past 2 years.  The people I work and live with have become my family.  I am so grateful that they chose to have me stay and work through the off season and into the beginning of this summer season. Ending my time working here in the beginning of the summer, in a training role, with everyone's excitement high and energy seemingly unlimited is the best way I can imagine to go out.

Along with that, I want to keep track of a few of the new adventures I have over my last two weeks, sum up some of the things that have become normal parts of my life that I may want to remember down the road, and maybe even share a picture or two.

Hope you enjoy the posts of the next few weeks.