back to the real world...

Something I learned today: playing on waterslides is so much more fun than reading/responding to nearly 100 e-mails.

I just returned from a 10-day road trip with my sister and her family to Texas. Her husband is in the Ohio National Guard and spent the past 3 months training there. With only 4 days of leave over Easter before heading to the Middle East, it was much easier to visit him in Texas than to fly him home. Travel alone would eat up most of 2 days. I went along with my sister and their 4 children to be a 2nd driver and babysitter as needed.

It was a good trip. My sister and I get along pretty well and if I annoyed her at all, she didn't say anything. The kids did pretty well too. I seem to recall that my sibs and I were much more obnoxious on long road trips than my nieces and nephew were, though my mom says we weren't too bad either.

Besides seeing my brother-in-law, there were 3 really cool things that we did on the trip. One was to go to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, TX. I had not been on a waterslide since I was probably 10 years old. I forgot just how fast you can fly down those things! It was a lot of fun, though.

On the drive home, we stopped at 2 interesting spots. One was the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home in Mansfield, MO. The Little House books were favorites of both my sister and I, and now of her oldest daughter. The other place was the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois, near St. Louis. It is a Native American cultural site.

Here is a self-portrait of me at the Great Wolf Lodge, with the waterslides and such in the background, taken with my cell phone. I'll post some other photos from the trip later.

the meaning of names

I found this on Melissa's blog. I dunno. There are a few things in here that describe me (at least, describe how I understand myself) but I think overall that most of it is not a good fit with who I am. Anyone who knows me IRL can feel free to comment on what they think is right or wrong. :-)

Interestingly, I went back and redid it using just "Kris". And I got the same 1st 4 paragraphs, but the last 3 were not there. So each paragraph is associated with a particular letter, as I confirmed by cross-checking on Melissa's (some of ours are exactly the same, corresponding to the shared letters of I, E, and S). Of course, the people who create these things know that people are going to pay more attention to the things that fit and ignore the things that don't.

What Kristen Means

You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life. You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip. People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

it pays to read the mail

I had a really long, busy day at work. I had barely any break, and in fact had to work on one project right through my lunch hour. I managed to find 10 minutes later in the afternoon to scarf down the salad I bought this morning on my way in. I didn't leave until well after 5:30, when I can normally get out of the office by 5 on a Friday.

On my way home, I did a little retail therapy. Chief on my list of purchases was a cute orange purse at Target, and a birthday present for my niece who turns 4 tomorrow. I arrived home and puttered about the apartment for a bit. In an effort to clear my coffee table, I picked up a few pieces of mail that have been sitting there for several days and finally read them.

One of the items was the volunteer newsletter for the children's hospital where I spend my Tuesday evenings. I have been volunteering there for nearly 3 years now. I opened up the newsletter and saw my face staring back at me on page 3.

I am the April 2008 Volunteer of the Month.

I had no idea! I thought maybe the volunteers got a letter or something. I remember Annie, the music therapist who is my "boss", taking the photo a few weeks ago when she was getting photos of the activity we were doing that night. It's funny, because I'm sure she must have thought the other night that I knew already.

Well, seeing that totally made my day. As I talked about in an earlier post, I sometimes feel a very strong need for some sort of recognition of what I do. I am never quite sure of my place in the world, I guess, and whether I am making any sort of valued contribution. The children's hospital is one place where I have almost always felt appreciated even without a formal award, but I won't lie... it feels pretty good to have earned the honor. :-)

Really, the best recognition of all comes from the children. When they smile and laugh and forget their pain a little, and I know that I helped them do that, it's the best feeling in the world.

Monday, monday

so good to me!

Well, at least it was a better Monday than I anticipated. I thought I was booked solid with students, which can be tiring to say the least. Instead, I had forgotten that I had a meeting that took up 1/2 my morning, and it was a good meeting at that. I was wearing jeans, which normally I would not do on a day with a big meeting like this, but I wasn't the only one at least.

The weather was nice again today, and I got in a 6 mile run after work. If it weren't for Daylight Savings Time, I couldn't have done that this early in the year and still finish in the daylight. So I was very happy about that, it helped make up a little for the missed long run from this weekend.

Best of all, I was able to run outside. The sidewalks were relatively clear on campus, and I varied my run from my usual 6 miler. It was nice, though I may not go out by the basketball arena again. I had to wait at too many intersections.

more snow photos

We ended up with an official snowfall of 20.4" for my city, which is the highest ever recorded from a single storm. Even the Blizzard of '78 only dumped about 12", although it did have 69 mph winds. We had gusts up to 40-45 mph, but the sustained winds were less.

Here is my car yesterday afternoon with the snow drifted around it. I have no snow shovel, so I took my bucket out today to dig around it this morning. They plow the driving lanes in the parking lot, but not the spaces, so I think I'm going to stay put today. I may go out for a walk, but I don't want to give up my clear spot. Those are like gold right now!

This photo is of some other cars across the way that look more buried than mine. The prevailing wind would have been hitting these cars head on, versus to the side of mine.

This is my car this morning, when the sun was out and the air was warmer and the snow had already started to compact. That drift still reached all the way up to my knee when I went into it to dig it out.

This is just a pretty picture, looking across my complex. Most of our snowfall this winter has been in 1-2" amounts, and so this is the first time we really have looked like a winter wonderland.

photos of the snow storm

These are from outside my apartment, about 90 min ago. Things are back to being snow covered again. The sidewalks that were cleared are all filled in again, due to new snow and drifting.

Yeah, I didn't go running in this. Or more accurately, I did not want to drive in this. I could have run a couple miles, I think.






A little bit of drifting in front of my door:



My car is the one on the right in this photo:

OK, so it isn't really spring

and I knew it when I posted about it last weekend. As I predicted without having paid any attention to the weather forecasts, after reaching 67* on Monday, we had snow on Wednesday and then today a real storm moved in. Depending on how it all shakes out, this could be the biggest storm in terms of total snowfall in inches that my city has seen in a decade.

But the days are getting longer, and in fact this weekend marks the time change from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time. So it is still spring to me. Or rather, it isn't February anymore and that's good enough for me.

random thought: if Daylight Savings Time is in effect for a great portion of the year than Standard Time is... why isn't it the new standard? I mean really, it's getting a bit ridiculous to have "standard" time only 4 months out of the year.

The thing that really stinks about this storm (complete with blizzard warning overnight into midafternoon tomorrow) is that it is messing up my running. I am supposed to run 11 miles this weekend, and I'd prefer to do it with my group that runs on Sat a.m. because I'm kidding myself if I think I'll run 11 miles solo. I don't actually mind running in snow, but 40 mph wind blowing that snow around is a whole 'nuther story. Plus, it's 5 miles or so to my running store where we meet. If the forecasters are actually right this time, I have no business being on the road at 8 a.m. tomorrow. We'll see...

books, books, books

I found this meme on Melissa's blog. I've read a total of 38 on this list, plus there are a few others that I started and stopped (did not bold them). I read all the time, but apparently not the titles on this specific list. *shrug* I was suprised to see Guy Gavriel Kay's The Summer Tree on the list. He is my favorite author, but I think he kind of flies under the radar so I never expect to see him on this sort of list.

How it works: Look at the list of 100 books below. Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you want to read. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. (Movies don’t count.)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Rowling)
17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25 . Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

If you play along on your blog, leave a message so I can check out your list.

kickball

Remember kickball?

I loved that game. My elementary school did not have playground equipment, so we played a lot of games during recess. Tag, jump rope, dodgeball, HORSE, Red Light/Green Light, Mother May I, and many others. In 5th grade, marbles was the rage. But mostly, kickball was king.

Everyone had their preferred method of having the ball pitched to them. Some liked bouncy and slow, others liked it smooth and fast. I preferred smooth, and a medium speed. If I didn't kick it right to someone, I could usually make it to 1st base. I don't think I ever kicked a homerun in my life, though.

I stopped playing kickball in 7th grade. (NOTE: I went to a K-8 Catholic school, and had recess through 8th grade.) I had already become the social misfit and outcast in my class, but I kept up with the kickball because I liked it. It mattered that I was picked last for teams, but not so much that I wanted to stop. And then one day, I fell while playing the outfield. Everyone laughed at me. I kept playing. A few weeks later, I slipped in the mud while chasing a ball, and was literally covered in mud. Again, everyone laughed and said cruel things, crushing what little self-esteem I had left at that point.

That was the last day I ever played kickball. After that, I spent recesses talking with the one friend I had, a girl named Rita who was a grade below me.

So, what brought this memory to mind today? Today, while running on campus, I passed a group of students who had set up a kickball game on the South Oval (an open, grassy area of campus, close to some of the dorms). They were using a makeshift diamond, with footballs and sweatshirts acting as bases, and a soccer ball as the kickball. They were having a lot of fun, and I couldn't help but smile as I watched them play while I ran by.

Oh man, did I want to join in!

I did a little site maintenance, and decided that I would post a link to a list of many of my friends blogs, rather than recreating the list here. So if any of you who read my blog are wondering where yours is, please don't be offended! I do still like you and your blog, its just that my list seemed a bit overwhelming.

it's spring!

OK, it's not officially spring for another 3 weeks, I know. But for me, every year, the beginning of March signals the start of spring.

Yesterday, I ran for 10 miles. The temps were in the low 30's, it was windy, parts of the route were icy. I even wiped out on the ice, fortunately without injuring myself even though I came down a little hard on my wrist. But the sun kept peeking out of the clouds, and the fresh air and moments of sunshine were good for the spirit.

Today, I went for a walk in the neighboring subdivision. The temps were warmer, probably close to the 50's today. It was sunny earlier in the afternoon, but by the time I went outside, it was getting cloudy again. Didn't matter, it still felt like spring. I saw kids playing outside, and I smelled someone grilling their dinner outside.

Ohio being what it is, I expect that we'll get at least one more major snowstorm yet this month before it warms up for good. But the snow will melt quickly, and the flowers will start peeking up all the same. Spring is here. Hallelujah!!!