Living Small

Office Fire

As I walked to work yesterday morning, three fire trucks went screaming by. My immediate thought was that I hoped they weren't going to my office. I'm not even sure why I had that thought, but it turned out to be rather prescient because, when I arrived, there they were and everyone who would otherwise have been in the building was standing outside. After the firemen went in and came out, we were told that there had been a small electrical fire, and that we couldn't go back inside until an electrician had come to disconnect the offending circuit. Loathe to stand out in the cold when I had reading in my backpack that needed to be done, I went off to the Union to wait it out. What I couldn't believe, though, was how close I had been to just spending an hour doing that reading in a coffee shop before even going to work. In retrospect, that would have been a pretty good idea, but then I would have missed all the drama!

Unprepared

Today I went to my first history class in four years. It was fantastic to be back in that environment, but almost surreal. I think I had some kind of unconscious resistance to going back, because I left my office with less than ten minutes to spare and forgot to bring any note-taking supplies. Not only was I late, but I was the last one to arrive and got there in the middle of the professor's introduction. But I had done the reading, and the discussion went quite well. My unpreparedness became apparent again, however, when I showed up to spinning class without either a water bottle or my athletic socks. But it is Wesnesday, which means that my favorite teacher was there, and she just happened to be doing the obstacle course, which is one of my favorite rides, so spinning in the red knee socks David gave me for Chanukah wasn't so bad.

Blisters

I'll spare the photo today, as today's topic is somewhat unsavory.  After my long series of injuries in 2008, I stopped running for about a year. I did manage to get a few runs in there, notably along the waterfront in Seattle, but they were all pretty short and surprisingly difficult. This fall, with the help of a new exercise class that has built a lot of strength in my legs and core, I was able to start running again, and managed to get up to six miles before the cold weather forced me to the indoor track at the CCRB. In addition to being deadly boring, the track also seems to be giving me blisters on my arches. I took two weeks off over the break and tried again yesterday with different shoes, the run felt pretty good, but after five miles, the blisters were back. So I guess it's another week off (I have SO learned my lesson about running while injured!) and then I'll try moleskin. Any other suggestions?

Back at Work, with a New Lunch Box

It's not easy going back to work after ten days off, but having a new lunch box (in addition to the new haircut) to show off definitely helps.  I don't know which one shattered my image amongst my coworkers more, the fact that I'm no longer the one with the long hair or that I'm no longer the one with the Hello Kitty lunch box.  Hello Kitty had served me well over the last three years, helping me forge instant friendships with little girls on the street and preventing my coworkers from inadvertently eating my lunch, but she had also started getting a bit grungy.  I saw this lunch box while waiting in line at the Post Office with David, and before the week was over he had found it and purchased it for me.  What a guy!  And the lunch box fits in perfectly amidst the clutter in my cubicle.

Big Bird

For several summers now, David and I have belonged to a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We buy a share in the farm at the beginning of the season and get our portion of the harvest every week at the Farmers' Market. We first learned about CSAs from our friends Wendi and Carola, who let us pick up their share a few times during a summer they traveled a lot. Back then, I didn't know much about vegetables, so it was fun to figure out what to do with things like kohlrabi. Now David and I split a large share with our friends Shawn and Dave, and we don't have to buy much else by way of vegetables during the summer. This winter, our farmer started a meat CSA, so we signed up for ten chickens and forty pounds of pork. Forty pounds is a pretty serious commitment to pork eating, especially for a Jew, but we have a giant freezer in the basement, so we don't have to eat it all at once. The pork should start sometime soon, and we have already received two chickens. The first one was the largest chicken either of us had ever seen. It took David about half an hour to carve up and fed us (lunch and dinner) for three days. Sadly, I didn't think to weigh it to get a sense of just how large it was, but this week's chicken was definitely smaller and weighed in at five pounds.

Cozy

I could just tell that this yarn was dying to be a hot water bottle cozy. I didn't know it when I bought it, but after a while it just started speaking to me, and I could think of no better use for it than to tuen it into a hot-water-bottle-sized turtleneck. So I found a gorgeous pattern online (I promise to past in a link when I'm next in front of a real computer) and cast on. It was a pretty quick and easy knit, and it fits just perfectly, but now I need to figure out what one uses a hot water bottle for! 

In Defiance

Six years ago last night, David propsed to me. In Defiance. Defiance, Ohio, that is. We were at the Power Dam Express (which everyone in David's family inexplicably refers to as the Powder Dam Inn, or PDI for short), participating in his dad and uncle's annual New Year's Eve bar crawl. As the clock struck midnight, David and I were drinking Rolling Rock out of cans, and he leaned over, kissed me, and asked me to marry him. It was pretty loud in there, so I made him repeat himself before saying yes. Even though we were sitting at a table with David's brother, dad, and uncle, they had no idea what was going on because of all the usual midnight on New Year's Eve commotion. So David shouted it into his brother's ear, he shouted it into his dad's ear, and he shouted it into Uncle Bob's ear. After that game of telephone, we went on to the next bar to celebrate until closing. This year, David and I were back in Ohio to ring in the new year. We skipped the PDI, but had a wonderful time with his family and watched Ohio State win the Rose Bowl.

Self Portrait

By popular demand, here is the new haircut (I hope it shows up right -- I still haven't quite mastered the art of iPhone self-photography). I love how hairdressers use so much hairspray that it looks exactly the same the next day. It has been a long time since my hair has been this short -- too short to pull back -- and I'm not quite sure what to do with it when I go to spinning class. Any suggestions?

Haircut

My hair is one of those things that I just don't pay much attention to, other than washing it often enough to keep my coworkers from complaining. And the thing about hair is that, unless you do something to stop it, it just keeps growing. So today I finally took it in to get it cut. I made the appointment about two weeks ago and since then have been trying to think about how much to take off. It had been growing for long enough that I had gotten somewhat attached to having long hair, but was also getting in the way often enough that I was keeping it pulled back quite a bit. I got an inkling that it was time for a nontrivial haircut when I asked David how short to go. He tends to like my hair longer, but said to go as short as I wanted, as long as gravity could still act on it. What sealed the deal was seeing photos of myself at my cousin's wedding in October and noticing just how limp and tired my hair looked. So it all came off today, and my hairdresser bundled it up so that I can donate it. I feel a lot better without it; maybe it will look better on someone else!

Getting Closer

David and I have come to agreement about the dishwashing situation -- better not to use the kitchen sink until we get the tile in place. So, to in an effort to get closer to that glorious day, we went to the tile store yesterday, determined not to leave until we had made a purchase. We thought it would be pretty easy, as we already knew exactly what we wanted. But then we saw something else and fell in love with it and had to debate whether to stick with the original tile or pay an extra $4 per square foot for the one we liked better. In the end, we decided to go with the new one, but compromised by buying less of it. We were all set to take it home and stick it to the wall, but sadly things never quite work out that way - the tile needs to be ordered, and won't be in for another week. So until then, I'm still doing the dishes in the basement. I will admit that it is kind of convenient to be able to wash dishes and laundry at the same time. It would be even more convenient, though, if I could put the dishes IN the washing mashine.