Holiday musings

Some thoughts as the holiday season draws perilously near. Contrary to my griping, I really do like the winter holidays. What I don't like is the commercialization of them, and the obligations that force people into situations that take away from the enjoyment of the time.

To me, the holidays aren't about presents, or how many houses you feel obligated to visit because of complex family situations (including houses of god).

It's about spending time with cold cheeks and frozen fingers, laughing in the snow with friends and dogs. I have yet to meet a dog that doesn't love chasing snowballs. Making snow ice cream with the first good snow, always brushing off that top layer like it's really all that cleaner underneath. My dad and I always made snow ice cream in mom's classic orange and avocado tupperware bowls. I'd pile the snow in and the milk, but he would always be the one to measure out the vanilla. Every year when I bring in a bowl of snow to make some, I think about him. Maybe we'll get fresh snow for Xmas and we can do it together again.




I get such an odd melancholy feeling in most stores around this time. Even though I don't have the pressure to buy presents for everyone, I see so many people who do. Tired and frustrated moms with antsy kids, quietly desperate searching for presents for in-laws and siblings, trying to keep the kids still in the massive lines. I smile at them if our eyes meet, or take notice of the thing the kids are hopping crazy about, which seems to give the moms a moment's rest. But for some reason I do have a sad feeling, thinking of people feeling obligated to spend money they don't have, trying to match the gifts they know others are giving. There is one store that's different, though - Fresh Market. Perhaps it's the softer lighting, and all the wood and baskets full of things. Or maybe the combined fragrance of numerous spices, cooked food, bakery items, and flowers. But there is always such a good vibe there, everyone smiles at each other and I often just stop and breathe in, enjoying the moment.

For me, I think food is such an important part of the holidays. That extra bit of care people take, the special items that only come out then. This year will be our first time hosting a holiday family dinner. My parents are coming down, and D's family is coming over. I honestly don't know if they've been together since we got married. I'm sure there will be odd tensions, and uncomfortable moments. I know that secretly people will be judging our lack of decorations, or some of the non-traditional foods I'm serving. But you know what? I'm going to have a wonderful time, sharing food and warmth with my whole family. And if they don't like it they can go to hell.

Status updates year end summary

Yes, I have a Facebook account. Now that I work from home it's the easiest way to keep up with my friends and old coworkers. But I'm not into the Farmville Mafia Wars or anything that wants more control/access over my information. But sometimes an app comes along that you really want to do (like the What kind of dinosaur would you ride into the apocalypse? quiz - I ended up on a triceratops with a flamethrower!) So the new hotness on FB is something that mines your status updates for 2010 and posts the most frequently used words.

 

Here are top words from my Facebook status messages!

1:Weekend - used 8 times

2:Dog - used 7 times

3:Great - used 7 times

4:Again - used 7 times

5:Love - used 6 times

6:Laundry - used 6 times

7:Friends - used 6 times

8:Done - used 6 times

9:Dinner - used 6 times

10:Trying - used 5 times

 

I"m pretty happy with this list - lots of good things and activity. Apparently too much laundry. I feel like I could almost combine these words into one sentence that would accurately describe most weekends. Except the word Done wouldn't go before Laundry, unless it was "trying to get the laundry done".

Upcoming holidays = mania

Let me start out by saying that I don't *have* to knit presents for the holidays. It would be nice to have some finished, but it's not like I'm depending on them. But for some reason as soon as the air turns chill (finally happened like last week), and the holiday decorations go up around the neighborhood (don't look at my house, we still haven't cleaned up the leaves from the yard), I get attacked by the knitting bug. No, this isn't just a bug, it's more like a swarm of africanized killer knitting bugs. I NEED to knit, I have tons of things I want to knit, I have new yarn I bought on recent trips I can knit with. I am almost done with my second Koolhaas hat, the first one being way too small for some reason. I'm almost to the heel on the second sock of a pair (actually the third, but we won't go there), and will hopefully get it done next week on my next flight. These are intended as presents. All well and good, with more than enough time to finish them.

But that's not where the mania starts. I want to knit myself a tam. Now that I work from my slightly-too-chilly home I can indulge in oddities like wearing tams during the day. I know which tam I want to knit, and even have the yarn ready.  But I have something I want to knit for D, and I never make him stuff so I'd really like to do it. But Knitpicks is conspiring against me and their website was so bogged down by cyber monday I couldn't order more yarn, and now won't have it in time to get it finished. And I feel the need to knit another pair of socks for our grandad, except I have to knit them in extra-honkin' huge size, so it's more like knitting sweater sleeves. And lets not forget the Clapotis shawl I have almost halfway done. But I also want to knit a warm shawl out of handspun to wear. And and and... So I'm definitely going to finish the hat and socks. And try to make D's item. And not worry about the rest. But I'm in that manic mood right now where I'd be happy sitting with a pile of DVDs knitting all day long. Alas! Hmm...maybe I can squeeze in a few more rows before bedtime.

My feets is nekkid

Barefooting is really working for me. I'm not going to make any wild pronouncements since so many people view the barefoot runners as nutters, but I will just say that my lower legs, ankles, and feet are much stronger than they ever have been and I'm enjoying running and hiking in a way I never did before. I'm following the guidance of the book Barefoot Running to make sure I learn the proper way to strengthen my feet and ankles, and build up my footpads. It's a slooooow process but I know that it's the safest route. Ack, already sounding too preachy!
 

Some of the most fun I've had is trekking in the woods with the dogs while barefoot. There are so many uneven areas and different textures it helps strengthen your feet, and it loads of fun. Well, it wasn't fun walking under the oak trees with their acorn-littered ground. But boy the leaf litter felt like a spongy mattress afterwards! And moss has to be the most awesome groundcover for barefeet ever. It's so densely spongy, cool and damp yet warm in the sun. I also loved standing on patches of smooth dirt to cool my feet while the dogs rustle in the underbrush. After coming out of the woods with all of its twigs and rocks and bits, walking on the asphalt street feels like a treat.

And for you worrying, yes I do bring shoes with me just in case I need them. And not just any shoes! Daven will be proud I bought some Vibram Five Fingers. I had a choice between white trimmed with green, or ghastly orange trimmed with hot pink (not much color choice in a women's 41 - hell, I'm lucky to have found any in person). You don't even get to guess which pair I ended up with. I figured the white ones would get really funky dirty fast. They conveniently clip onto a carabiner for easy carrying.

And I noticed something cool when I was stretching one day - a Baddha Konasana Dragonfly! Check it out!

Busier than I expected

Wow, life has been ZOOMING by the last few months. My new job has kept me very busy. I'm trying to stay in better contact with my friends now that I don't get to fall back on seeing them at work everyday. D and I have been doing a lot more together in the evenings. I'm trying to squeeze in the last bit of outdoor adventures before winter sets in. I've been dying to write some new blog entries, but for a while lately I'm happy if I can even update my facebook status regularly. But I just downloaded a bunch of photos from my phone and figure it's the impetus I need to actually write some posts.

The travel hasn't been as bad as they said, right now I'm going once every 3 weeks. It would be great if that's how it stayed, but I'm worried it might have to pick up sometime next year. I was all over NC last week, and my next trip is up to NJ. So far getting into the field has been great. I'm learning a lot from the reps and everyone seems really happy with how I'm doing. The odd thing about the travel I do is that I never get to stay anywhere longer than about 30 hours. My record was 1:20 in Raleigh. I drove 3.5 hours there, ate lunch, had a 20 min. meeting, then drove 4 hours west to the next stop. I'm learning how to unpack in the hotel and immediately repack everything I can to speed up the next morning. Did you watch Up in the Air, that George Clooney movie? Whenever it's on I always stop what I'm doing to watch him pack each time. I usually have time to workout in the evening, and sometimes a few hours free to check out some quirky shop I found online and marked to visit. Mealtimes also tend to be really skewed - too-early breakfast, late lunch, ridiculously late dinner. I've found that I pretty much lose track of not only what day it is, but even what time of day. It's all driven by where I have to be next. Wow, that sounds kind of weird and sad, but really it's not. So far I've adapted really well. And D has been wonderfully supportive. I know he hates it when I'm gone, but he doesn't gripe about it at all. He keeps threatening to kill the dogs if they don't calm down, but honestly I'm with them all day long so I know where he's coming from. I'm sure there's some Freudian reason I'm worried you all might be concerned with the tone of this post, but I don't think I need to start exploring that right now.

Googlemaps has a great feature I highly recommend. You can search for shops, restaurants, yoga studios, etc on googlemaps and it'll pinpoint all of them in an area. You can then save the ones you want to a map for reference later. Anytime someone suggests a spot I save it to a map for that city.

And, since all the blogs I follow use lots of photos, here's one of the hostess stand at the Tupelo Honey Cafe in Asheville. Brilliant!

Something new I learned about myself

I'm indecisive. No, really! But I've learned tricks to overcome it, like noting the first thing on the menu that catches my attention and ordering that if the waitress comes back before I make a real decision. It's all part of a method to not annoy everyone around me. Of course when I'm by myself it's a bit harder. I'm also impulsive. When I was in CA decided to get sushi and was walking to the restaurant, then saw a Sprouts store and decided to pop in. Lots of tasty whole food things, bought a few snacks (dark chocolate covered berries & nuts - OMG!). Ok, back to finding the sushi restaurant.

So what I learned is that my indecisiveness is WAY WAY worse when I'm tired. I was trying to figure out if I really wanted sushi (and when do I say no to good sushi?) or did I want to go back to Sprouts and get a random assortment of stuff - like the Icelandic skyr yogurt I saw - for dinner instead. I'm not kidding it took me about 20 minutes to decide. Like even pretending someone was waiting for me I still was paralyzed with indecision. I kept going back and forth (physically!) trying to figure out what I wanted. I finally gave up and went back to Sprouts. It was really tired after an early flight and busy day and 3 hour time change, and figured that maybe yogurt and strawberries and some spanakopita was all I could really handle.

It turned out to be a good dinner, and now I know that my friend makes better yogurt than even the pricey Icelandic kind, and I brew better Kombucha than the pro stuff that's finally back on the shelves. I wonder if the returned Kombucha is different than before - maybe the FDA made them get new scobys. It's not much more flavorful than water and is uncomfortably fizzy. Speaking of scobys, mine grew exponentially while I was gone. Seriously, it's almost an inch thick right now. I'm kind of afraid to taste the brew.

Running in bare feet

Do you ever notice a small thing and pass over it, only to notice it again in a different setting, then again and again. Finally you decide to explore the idea, figuring that if you keep getting bombarded with suggestions from different places, maybe it's something you're cosmically meant to notice. Barefoot running was like that for me. I won't go into the details, suffice to say that I can count at least 4 unrelated instances in the last couple weeks that brought it to my attention.  I decided on Sat. to head to the gym and try it out on the indoor track.

As I sat on a bench to take off my running shoes and socks, I was curious how my ankles would feel - would they be strong enough without running shoes to avoid injury? What about my weird hip rotation that causes my legs to swing in and knock my knees together - how would it respond without the stabilizing effect of my shoes?  How do I learn to run on the balls of my feet? I walked a lap to warm up, ridiculously aware of my bare feet with their blue-painted toenails, ready to respond if an employee told me to put my shoes on. But once I started to run all thoughts left my head. It was so...easy. My gait was springy, landing on the balls of my feet, heels barely touching, then bouncing off the track. My ankles felt fine. My arches didn't hurt. Boing boing, I felt like Tigger running. I smiled hugely, enjoying the fun and freedom of just running. The sound of my bare feet on the track, a soft plaf-plaff, a sharp contrast to the heavier footfalls of the other runners. I stopped to walk a bit, then run again, around and around. It was so fun. I remembered the line "Don't think, just run" and for the first time I was enjoying doing just that. I looked down at my feet and noticed how straight my legs were, no conscious fight to keep my knees from turning in. Nothing hurt running this way. And I learned how many helper-muscles weren't getting used running in shoes. Muscles that complained they're not used to work - like the soleus, the muscles between your calf and ankle. And tiny unnamed muscles wrapping the ankle from foot to leg that still needed strength training.

I ran longer than I should have. I think I covered a mile in total, and was TIRED at the end. When I got home and looked online for more information, everyone warned to start slow, very slow. I had no idea just how slow you really have to start. My soleus (lower leg) muscles are so worn out I walk funny if I've been sitting a while. But I know it's muscle fatigue, like your pecs after doing a bit too much on the bench press. I'm thinking I might do a few laps before lifting weights, or after a Zumba class. But I'm definitely going to do it again.