Swim Meet Bonus - Mike Golic pool side!

Mike Golic at the swim meet! I went over after work to see one of my co-worker’s kids’ swim meet and who was sitting by the pool? Mike Golic of “Mike and Mike in the morning” on ESPN radio. He does look a lot leaner and meaner and it was fun. Of course my non-sports interested co-worker did not have a clue of who or what I was talking about with Golic or ESPN radio…oh well – she has the settings and I have the knowledge and that made my day. He is a VERY good poster person for whatever he used to trim down!!!

Other than that, my walking co-worker and I woke up some of our other co-workers who live in campus yesterday morning on our walk…we get a bit loud when we are out in the open air and “air” all our thoughts, complaints, “issues” about our life and times. I wonder if our morning schedule will be one of our co-workers’ “issue”. Oh well. Can’t get mad about health!

From Bird by Bird: The author was talking about being with her best friend as she was dying, when a doctor told her, “”Watch her carefully right now,” she said, “because she’s teaching you how to live.””…”I remind myself of this when I cannot get any work done: to live as if I am dying, because the truth is we are all terminal on this bus. To live as if we are dying gives us a chance to experience some real presence. Time is so full for people who are dying in a conscious way, full in the way that life is for children. They spend big round hours. So instead of staring miserably at the computer screen trying to will my way into having a breakthrough, I say to myself, “Okay, hmmm, let’s see. Dying tomorrow. What should I do today?” Then I can decide to read Wallace Stevens for the rest of the morning or go to the beach or just really participate in ordinary life. Any of these will begin the process of filling me back up with observations, flavors, ideas, visions, memories. I might want to write on my last day on earth, but I’d also be aware of other options that would feel at least as pressing. I would want to keep whatever I did simple, I think. And I would want to be present.”

Those are good words for me to always keep in mind.

Felt sad about Al Gore’s son. I may be living in a bubble when it comes to my son, but I feel that he has done for me what I could not do for him. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I have learned a lot more life lessons from him than I feel I have shared with him. But I also know that addiction is such an issue in our world today. People are trying “to fill the holes” they feel in their bodies and souls – in my mind. Another story today about an ex-UCONN basketball player and sexual assault on one of his female basketball HIGH SCHOOL players – he is 49, she is in high school…

I don’t mean to go from errant behavior to family talk, but…Sister #1 should be headed to DC from NYC today. Hope she is having a good trip home and time with her daughter. I have to get myself geared up to help my parents with a family get together next weekend. I will head to the beach this weekend to “fill up” on inspiration.

People moving today at work. People moving up, down, to the side in the organizational chart and moving offices is part of that move. Some are doing it with style and glee, others with trepidation. I am going nowhere fast so I can sit back in my office and watch the drama. But along that line, I am going to make an inquiry about that job I was told about at another school by a co-worker who went there, to see if it would be worth making another move…I don’t know if I am ready to write another “I’m done. Thank you for the opportunity” resignation letters – but I never know what the trigger is going to be. Any new situation would have to include housing – my current “food thing” is great but free housing would definitely get my attention. Then I will have really simplified my “basic needs” column of my “life chart”.

I had a pretty calm “life chart” after the swim meet last night. I actually “violated” my no second trip out rule and got back in my car after I was already home to go out grocery shopping. It was raining so I decided my evening walk would be doing my shopping. I needed cereal, orange juice and bananas and went to two stores to see where they had the cheapest version of what I needed. Big Y won – WITH my silver coin for orange juice. And speaking of those goods…I better get to my breakfast so I can get to work in time for our walk.

Have a good weekend. Another Friday night tonight!!!

Pre-holiday Day

The pre-holiday work day. I am looking forward to tomorrow off and almost hoping it rains so I can curl up with my latest book. My father did let me know yesterday that he wanted to know if I would go by Shaw’s Supermarket and buy some cherries on sale. Guess I will do that tonight on the way home and bring them by their house. Sent sister #3 a newspaper piece about a hotel in Quito for her stepson. I envy his trip that starts Thursday to Ecuador and parts south. I hope he gets a chance to go by “my” Peace Corps town – Machachi – 1 hour south of Quito on the Pan American Highway, close to Cotopaxi, the world’s highest active volcano which made life interesting when we had an earthquake when I was there...I shared an apartment with other volunteers in Old Town - so we would have a place to go when we needed to get out of our towns and come into the PC Office to see the Medical Officer… and be around other volunteers and I drank gallons of café con leche.

QUITO, Ecuador - Accommodations abound in Quito for the backpacker budget, but paying a little more brought me considerable relaxation and peace of mind at Hotel Los Alpes, a small hotel ideal for women traveling solo and anyone who values comfort and charm over luxury. It's an easy choice for people who, like me, are spending a little time in the Ecuadorean capital before and after a cruise in the Galapagos Islands.In the New Town area, the hotel is within easy walking distance of restaurants, museums, a daily crafts market, galleries and travel outfitters. Old Town, with its beautiful churches and colonial architecture, is a short 25-cent bus ride away or a few dollars by taxi. The hotel is in a quiet location next to the U.S. embassy, though I couldn't decide if that made me feel more or less safe.Visitors pass under a stand of small trees into a cozy lobby filled with art and woodwork. There is no garden or grounds, but a back sun porch offers a spectacular view of the Andes on a sunny day.

Bottom line: Rates for Hotel Los Alpes, 233 Tamayo at George Washington, Quito, Ecuador, are $49 for one person, $59 for two, $69 for three and $79 for four, plus taxes and service charges totaling 22 percent. Included is a breakfast of fresh juice, toast, delicious cafe con leche, and eggs or cereal. Website: http://www.hotellosalpes.com/

From “Bird by Bird” – the author and her love of the San Francisco Giants and writing about it for her son to read some day. “I started telling him my memories of the strangely reddish dirt of the base paths, the gunfire of batting practice, the feel of being part of a healthy mob, part of a pulse, part of a collective heartbeat. …Little by little, in telling Sam all these details, I got to see the bigger point of baseball, that it can give us back ourselves. We’re a crowd animal, a highly gregarious, communicative species, but the culture and the age and all the fear that ills our days have put almost everyone into little boxes, each of us all alone. But baseball, if we love it, gives us back our place in the crowd. It restores us.” I love that talk! I could say that about any sporting event.

I did not find the information on the Library on Congress site about the oral history project with veterans, but I will keep looking. I might just need to make up some questions and ask my dad myself.

Talked to my old college roommate yesterday. She is back from her Puerto Rico vacation and now we need to synchronize our beach going days. I have my State Park Beach pass and she has the New London town beach covered.

Morning walk with co-worker worked fine. We will do it again today. I walked again after work and helped for a few minutes as a co-worker packed up for her trip to Dobbs Ferry and her new school. I thought it was a “coincidence” that she shared the job prospect with me AND yesterday in the mail that school’s magazine arrived. I am going to take a long look at that and my thoughts about what would make it worth it for me to move again over the holiday tomorrow. I stayed on campus to walk last night because I was off to that Independent Film program at a local library. “Be With Me” from Singapore – didn’t have to worry about subtitles since there was very little dialogue …that is one thing about many foreign films – the scenery and the character/expressions of the actors do the talking. My favorite that I can think of – I hope I am getting the title right – Cinema Paradiso? I had friends in North Carolina who tried to keep my thinking broader than my setting.

But North Carolina mention reminds me that – once again – I forgot to go to New Hampshire for the NASCAR event this weekend. I keep thinking that I need to go there. One to see that part of New England again, and two to see a “local” NASCAR event. Maybe their next time through. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had a calendar year when I saw Tony Stewart AND Rick Majerus in person in the same year!!!!

Speaking of calendars - I kept my little calendar yesterday. I think that will be an interesting chronicle. My boss had her ally back from vacation yesterday so throw the nice guy act out. Oh well. Consistency is always better than nice in the workplace.

Have a good pre-holiday day.

Quiet Sunday

After Saturday, Sunday was destined to be tame. I took it easy in the a.m. – obviously writing for a good chunk of the morning. It was a beautiful weather day, not hot enough to drive me to our town pool as I thought about in the a.m. Didn't really pay attention to the talking head shows except Chris Matthews.

Went into my parents’ to do wash, pick up the bagels my brother had left for me, and read newspapers, magazines and some of my latest book – The Book of Secrets by Deepak Chopra – I am loving it. Grocery shopping was a small event on the way home since the dining hall is back open for the summer campers. Then a good walk – the weather is hard to believe for July…I know we will be back to HHH soon, but I am enjoying this to the max.

As I promised – another quote from Bird by Bird – the author was having a conversation with her best friend who was in her final days of fighting a battle with cancer. This was the author’s admonition to her readers. Have I told you I love Anne Lamott books?! I need to get some of her non-fiction.

“And I don’t think you have that kind of time either. I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won’t be good enough at it, and I don’t think you have time to waste on someone who does not respond to you with kindness and respect. You don’t want to spend your time around people who make you hold your breath. You can’t fill up when you’re holding your breath. And writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like water – just as writing is also about dealing with the emptiness. The emptiness destroys enough writers without the help of some friend or spouse.”

The balance of the day I watched my Sunday Q&A show – interview of the Librarian (20 year tenure) of the Library of Congress. I will have to add that to my next DC trip. Yesterday’s other news “news” focused on “our” Supreme Court and the 2008 Campaign. I am a bit put off – once again – about the money aspect of the campaigning…just does not make sense for me. Also watched some of an interview with Tommy Thompson, the story about his daughter’s miracle baby still moves me. The other news that got my attention is the weather – flooding and fires. I am flashing back to The Inconvenient Truth…

I have my academic year calendar ready to go. Today is the first day of the 2007-08 year at work. I will be curious myself to see what I do everyday and the range of my activity. It is also the first day of my schedule change – switching to a morning walk with my co-worker rather than during the work day…she wants to go longer – 3 miles at least - and we are planning ahead for hotter weather. So I am moving up my writing time a bit to make sure I get all my morning activities in before I leave for work. It has been awhile since I have done morning exercise, so I will see how that feels. But, with that said, I better get going. I am glad this is a 4 day work week for me!

Have a good, celebratory 4th of July week.