RBOC: Observations on "Me Time" Edition

• It is really hot here in SouthLite.  Even when they say it's not going to be that hot, it is that hot.  "Me Time" would be a lot more fun if going outside didn't feel so bad.
• I find myself making simpler meals and eating fewer times a day.  Pupzilla is not happy with the lack of  scraps. She barks at me to get cooking.  
• Workouts always put me in a better mood and they give me a reason to leave the house. However it is really hard to convince myself of this fact when I wake up in the morning. Yoga classes help, as they have a specific schedule.
• Much of the work that I have to do this month is in the very disheartening reading, researching and thinking phase.  It is a critical phase but always feels so unproductive when I'm in it.  The only other work is dreary administrative work.  
• I'm taking the Essentials Photoshop Course over here.  It just started this week and was supposed to be  one of the more entertaining activities for the month (since I liked the SkinnyMini so much).  It is a helpful course but we are going pretty slow and the entertainment factor is low at the moment.
• I'm watching a lot of Homicide: Life on the Streets.  How I love Andre Braugher. 
• Angel is UpNorth visiting his dad; Pumpkin and BB are visiting distant countries where the sun never truly sets; and b has made it to The Last Frontier.
• b has been texting me, whenever cell service is available, throughout his journey.  He puts into the water in 2 days and there will be no more correspondence (except for daily emails from the Spot Locator letting me know he's ok) until he is done.

Sunday, Lovely Sunday

It was a beautiful day in SouthLite today.  Perhaps a little on the warm side (we hit 84 and tomorrow promises to be 87) but with plenty of sunshine.  The gym was closed because some people celebrate Easter.  Actually quite a lot of people in SouthLite celebrate Easter and they do it in church, which meant the park was empty.

b and I went for a run.  It was the maiden run for my Vibram five-fingers.

I've been using them in the gym for months now and love them.  I've actually acquired an additional two pair.  I walk around town in them quite frequently, including on campus.  I've even been known to teach in them but I have yet to run outside.  They were fabulous.  I don't think I'll ever run in sneakers again.

Later in the afternoon we went to the movies.

It was an entertaining film but it didn't blow me away.  At the end there was a rather stale message about mothers raising sons that I could have lived without but it was mostly enjoyable.

After the movie I sat outside in warm evening air and read a truly bad dissertation.  It is my second defense of the year and, while it is not as horrendous as the first, it is still pretty bad.  I don't understand how I can be correcting someone's grammar at this point in the game.  I'm was the outside member on both dissertations this year and am not sure exactly where the problem lies: with the student, the advisor, or some combination of the two.  I'm not looking forward to the actual defense.

Dinner was a bit experimental.  I made roasted potatoes in pesto and asparagus while b made pan-seared duck breast with mushrooms.

We've been wanting to try duck for a while now.  It was quite delicious but next time we'll try a recipe that leaves a crispy skin.  I also experimented with dessert: homemade cinnamon ice cream and a blackberry crisp.

RBOC: Late Night Edition

• I am home alone this evening and will actually be alone until Sunday night. b is at a recertification workshop that involves camping in the cold and snowy mountains.
• b was very depressed when he left today.
• My grant did NOT go out. It is delayed until the next deadline in June. There was a lot of drama around the delay. It was not pretty or fun but I think things are good now.
• Because of the drama I missed my tai chi class on Tuesday. Because of a migraine I didn't go to the gym on Wednesday. Because I totally messed up the time I missed my favorite yoga class today.
• I have a very exciting day coming up on Saturday: a three-hour tai chi broadsword workshop and then a blues concert with a bunch of friends from work.
• Tomorrow is our anniversary: 7 years married and 11 years together (we got married on the anniversary of our first date).
• We'll celebrate next weekend.
• I am waiting for a young woman to give birth. Her due date was this past Sunday. I'm excited for her and for another opportunity to be a doula but I'm going to be bummed if it happens on Saturday.
• I made myself a delicious dinner (salmon, rice & beans, sauteed asparagus & salad) this evening. I love cooking for myself.
• I have a ton of work, junk tv, and a pile of books to amuse myself with from now until Sunday.

****UPDATED: I wrote this post last night only to be woken up at 4:30 this morning by my mom-to-be. She delivered in 5 hours. Mom & baby are doing fine. I'm already back home and my Saturday plans are on!****

Community

Every class becomes a small community. Although community is important in all classes I find it particularly important in ongoing classes. The way the community is developed and maintained provides information to incoming students on whether this is the correct class for them.

For most of my life I belonged to a martial arts community where we taught karate, tai chi, and weapons. Most of the students took all three types of classes so the community "feel" wasn't too distinct between them. However the community changed over time. We started out a very "young" dojo. Many of us were in our teens and early twenties. We did a lot of tournaments and were competitive with one another. The community was developed as a family. We were "dojo brothers and sisters." Many of us were actually related (such as me and my sister) and others met and dated and even married through the class. As we aged, so did the new students we attracted. We became less competitive with each other and less concerned with tournaments.

Throughout there was an in-crowd and an out-crowd. I, by virtue of my status (dating and then married to the Sensei) and my rank, was always part of the in-crowd. Out-crowds tended to be transitory. I am not naturally outgoing or social and can't say I did all that much to make new students feel welcome except when teaching them one-on-one. I hope I didn't do anything to make them feel unwelcome but it is quite possible.

Since moving to SouthLite I've joined/tried several ongoing classes. I've tried two karate classes, one I stayed for almost 3 years (b is still there currently but I am not) and the other only for a few months. The dojo where I stayed also had a "family-like" feel as most of the instructors had been studying together for many years. Students come from a range of backgrounds and ages, but karate tends to attract the younger crowd. In fact we would frequently have small children in class and/or mother-daughter students. It took me a long time to feel accepted there but I realized I would never be truly "inside" because I did not come up through the ranks in that style, no less that dojo. Coming up through the ranks is very important in karate. It is a hierarchical system and who you train with matters. This insider/outsider status was not the reason I stopped attending but it didn't help.

More recently I've been taking classes through my new gym. I've tried several yoga classes and one instructor is my favorite. I try to make her class every week. She has many regulars and I've seen several of the regulars in other yoga classes as well. I'm not the type to go up and introduce myself, especially when doing anything physical. Even in my original dojo I was pretty aloof while working out and tended to socialize before and after the class. The yoga regulars are not inviting. They chit-chat before and after class but there is a definite sense of distance between class members. I wonder if it is the nature of yoga, which seems a very solitary practice, or this particular gym? I've even seen people in the class who I know from my university and yet we barely exchange pleasantries.

I've also started taking a tai chi class. I love tai chi and have truly missed it over the years. I'm very happy with the instructor, who teaches at several gyms throughout my city. At my gym we have a very regular group showing up 2-3 times a week. Most are senior citizens. There is a strong sense of community and it is actively upheld. Newbies are welcomed and introduced before the class even begins. There is not a lot of chit chat allowed during class, but when people can get away with it, they ask me detailed questions and are really interested in the answers. They greet and engage each other when in the gym for other reasons. Today two different people told me how glad they are that I've joined the class. Is it the nature of tai chi, which is generally a relaxed and non-competitive art? Does it come from the instructor? (This seems unlikely as he is a very nice man when you speak with him but, like me, gives off true introvert vibes.) Or is it that senior citizens come from a time when being cordial was the norm?

Feeling Good

This is one of my favorite songs of Nina Simone....

...and it sums up my overall mood lately.

Why have I been blessed with such a joyous mood that even a 2-hr repeat faculty meeting can't unhinge me? It all has to do with the new gym. I've been going daily. I think there may have only been one day since I've started this little affair that I've missed our rendezvous.

I've always known that exercise changes me substantially and for large periods of my life I've profited from that knowledge. However the last two years I somehow managed to ignore this fact and, it seems, have suffered greatly. I was starting to feel old.

I've worked out a gym schedule for the semester. It goes something like this:

• Mondays: 30 minutes cardio (machine)/45 minutes weights (machines)/15 minutes steam
• Tuesdays: 60 minutes Tai Chi
• Wednesdays: 30 minutes cardio (machine)/45 minutes weights (machines)/15 minutes steam (considering substituting a Pilates class every now and again)
• Thursday: 60 minutes Yoga
• Friday: 45 minutes weights (machines/20 minutes swim/15 minutes hot tub/10 minutes steam
• Saturday: 60 minutes yoga & pilates type class/60 minutes Tai Chi
• Sunday: 60 minutes Yoga/30 minutes cardio (machine)

I've been struggling with the martial arts community in SouthLite. It is small and not quite what I've wanted/needed. This tai chi class seems to have a dedicated following with varying levels of experience. More importantly the instructor knows what he is doing and I think I can learn something from him.

I've also always thought I'd dislike yoga classes. I've learned many of the postures from martial arts classes but never thought I'd enjoy taking an actual class. I'm happy to say that I was sadly mistaken and I leave every class feeling like the real me.

I'm being very very possessive of my time this semester. So far it is working and I'm still managing to get research done. Hopefully I can keep this going.

In The Interlude

Probably the most helpful lesson I've learned since coming to SouthLite is how to write in the interludes. As with many people, graduate school trained me to section off large blocks of time for writing. For me these times occurred mostly late at night when Angel was sleeping. My old job reinforced this habit. No one had any teaching responsibilities and when a grant deadline loomed we were able to stop all other activity just to write. It was also common for someone to squirrel themselves away a few days before other important deadlines--reports, resubmissions, special journals. Both experiences also lent themselves to procrastination. My ex-boss definitely believed he worked better when pressed for time and we all fell into that last minute, late-night habit.

After graduating I slowly started learning how to write on a daily basis and to start tasks way before they were due. However I still needed long blocks of time and I often had them. Here at SouthLite there is no such luxury (except in the summertime) so I've had to learn to write throughout the day and whenever I have a few moments. I found it wasn't simply a matter of scheduling but also of rethinking how I approach writing. I think the two most successful tactics I use are to (a) write myself notes and memos throughout the day so that I don't lose the ideas that arise while reading or thinking about a project; and (b) to think about projects in smaller units so that when I have 15 minutes I can use it to revise a paragraph that I know needs attention or to write out one point I know I want to make in the discussion section of a paper. Of course I still need longer periods of time to write but I find when I can arrange the time I am much more productive. For example I spent most of Sunday writing Grant #2. By the end of the day I had 3-4 missing chunks. Monday was filled with meetings and people dropping by my office. In between the meetings and conversations I searched for and read articles that I needed to fill the gaps. I wrote myself notes from the articles and from random thoughts that would pop into my head as the day progressed. Today when I sat down to finish off the draft, it came smoothly and I was done in 2 hours.

When I was young I worked out every day for several hours a day. As my life and career progressed this was no longer a viable option and I was very good at setting aside chunks of time to exercise. Now I'm finding that approach isn't working for me as well as it once did. Large chunks of time devoted to anything don't really work well in my new life--at least not on a consistent basis and, like writing, I want physical activity to be a constant in my life. So I'm wondering if I can incorporate activity into small chunks of my day and rethink how I approach being active as I have done with writing. There is some data to support short bursts of activity being more effective for increasing metabolism than longer bouts of exercise. Of course this is not the way to tone up or slim down but quite frankly that doesn't seem as important to me anymore. I want my body to work well and work for me. My days of being a competitive athlete are way behind me. I've begun to think long-term--what will make my body feel best now and in the years to come?

I already walk to work most days and home from work every other day. I also try to take walks across campus in the middle of the day. I'd like to incorporate brief workouts at home in the mornings and evenings. I like the idea of getting out of my chair periodically and doing 10-15 minutes of gentle exercises throughout the day. I realize it is not just a matter of scheduling but of rethinking how I live my life.

The Summer Of

Angel has declared this The Summer of The Stretch. He wants to get a full split. I have declared this The Summer of The Core. I want to have stomach muscles again. b, in true b fashion, has declared this The Summer of Bacon and Whisky. He wants...well that's fairly self-explanatory.

Tomorrow Angel and I start our regime.