Hello friends!
My blog has relocated to a more permanent and all-inclusive location at katemuehe.com/blog.
Update your feeds and bookmarks!
I will start posting from the new location, but I will try to link from here through the end of the year.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Adventures in Unemployment: Day 9-- The Day of the Closets and a Meltdown
"No storage space? Too many sweaters? No idea where to put all your stuff?
That's okay! Throw yourself a big ol' tantrum!"
Yes, I really did. I threw a giant, lie on the floor and cry like a child tantrum. Over sweaters. And towels. And storage shelves.
It was ridiculous, and I even knew that at the time, but it felt so good to just flip shit for 30 minutes. It was like a big sigh.
Now, obviously, a tantrum over storage is a symptom, not the sickness. The sickness is likely a tidge of loneliness all trapped up in my house, a bit of fear about unemployment, and some seriousness nervousness about this upcoming job interview. One of the less-lovely things about unemployment, for me, is the utter lack of structure. There is no schedule, there are only a limited number of to-dos, there is a lot of time spent doing the same darn things. Harumph.
Luckily, I survived my meltdown and managed to not try and force anyone into the Crazy Car with me. I bought some under-the-bed storage. Now there are sweaters in them. Easy fix.
While I was perusing blogs last night, I read this gem from Nicole is Better, in a post about running her first half-marathon:
Time moves just as quickly whether you’re doing what you want to do or not. The days, weeks, months, and maybe even years that are separating you from your goal are going to come and go no matter what, so who cares if you’re going to be 25 or 35 or 45 or whatever by the time you graduate from school or switch careers or complete yoga teacher training? You’re going to hit that age anyway, regardless of whether you pursue your dreams, so you might as well just fucking go for it.
Well, that is precisely what I needed to hear. This morning is better. Much better.
Onward!
That's okay! Throw yourself a big ol' tantrum!"
Yes, I really did. I threw a giant, lie on the floor and cry like a child tantrum. Over sweaters. And towels. And storage shelves.
It was ridiculous, and I even knew that at the time, but it felt so good to just flip shit for 30 minutes. It was like a big sigh.
Now, obviously, a tantrum over storage is a symptom, not the sickness. The sickness is likely a tidge of loneliness all trapped up in my house, a bit of fear about unemployment, and some seriousness nervousness about this upcoming job interview. One of the less-lovely things about unemployment, for me, is the utter lack of structure. There is no schedule, there are only a limited number of to-dos, there is a lot of time spent doing the same darn things. Harumph.
Luckily, I survived my meltdown and managed to not try and force anyone into the Crazy Car with me. I bought some under-the-bed storage. Now there are sweaters in them. Easy fix.
While I was perusing blogs last night, I read this gem from Nicole is Better, in a post about running her first half-marathon:
Time moves just as quickly whether you’re doing what you want to do or not. The days, weeks, months, and maybe even years that are separating you from your goal are going to come and go no matter what, so who cares if you’re going to be 25 or 35 or 45 or whatever by the time you graduate from school or switch careers or complete yoga teacher training? You’re going to hit that age anyway, regardless of whether you pursue your dreams, so you might as well just fucking go for it.
Well, that is precisely what I needed to hear. This morning is better. Much better.
Onward!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Adventures in Unemployment: Day 8-- Seeing the Personal Trainer OR Death by a Tiny Latina in Gym Shorts
So, I belong to Lifetime Fitness and even though I really didn't want to like Lifetime because they are fancy schmancy, the truth is I really like my gym. Like, really really.
One of the great things about Lifetime is that you earn these reward bucks (LTBucks) for being a member for so long, referring a new member, etc. And you can redeem these for various products or services at the gym. I had recently earned 100 LTBucks and since I have been nearly sedentary since running the marathon, I decided to whip myself back into shape by using my reward to see a personal trainer.
And so today I met a 5'2", 98 pound Latina and she kicked my ass all over the gym. We lifted, and pushed up, and lunged, and lifted again, and then twisted and stepped and on and on and on... ugh. 50 minutes later I hardly had the strength to turn the car key. Her favorite phrases were "Oh yeah, you're gonna be sore," "It's okay if you hate me, but you're gonna look good doin' it," and "Okay, do that whole circuit again."
My favorite part is that we didn't do very many things that were a lot of additional weights. Some ladies, like myself, are built with shoulders and rib cages that were obviously designed for men. The last thing I want to do is add a bunch of bulky muscle to my linebacker shoulders. And in case you haven't seen a marathoners thighs before, I can attest that those need no additional bulk either.
So, of course, I am signed up to see her again next week. And I am sure it will be 50 more minutes of torture. I am just hoping next week, if I sneeze in the shower, my abs don't seize up in a fit of pain. One can hope.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Adventures in Unemployment: Days 3 & 4-- Also Known as "How I Am (Kinda) Failing at Being Unemployed"
To be fair, I am not failing at being unemployed, in as much as I am still not going to a job in which I exchange hard work, talent, and the occasional joke for monetary compensation and health insurance.
Let's start with the things I have done right in unemployment:
I do make my bed every day. I do the dishes every day. I have contributed to the cleanliness of my apartment every day. These are mostly symptoms of the fact that I am spending a lot of time in my apartment every day. Spend 14 waking hours in your home and it is easy to spare 40 minutes to make the bed, do the dishes, and sweep the bathroom.
I have also managed to go outside every day, between errands and appointments that have beckoned me to leave the house. These are little blessings in disguise and really break up my day.
Dance parties every day? That's a given. That's what I do in my normal life, who are we kidding.
Things I have done less right:
I think it is physically impossible to actually sleep for 8 hours a night unless I have the flu. The only way this is likely to happen is if I drug myself, and I think that taking drugs while I hang at home by myself with my cat with no job is not a very good idea. Plus, I can't afford gratuitous drugs.
I have made some progress on looking for work, but 90 minutes is a pretty long time. The goal for the weekend/next week? Research the department of the U that has offered to interview me. Read everything they ever wrote. Brand myself as the perfect poster child for their work.
I haven't gotten a library card, volunteered, taken a class, or gone to the museum. Perhaps my unemployment list was ambitious? I argue (with) myself, that I still have time. My only hope on the horizon is an interview that happens next Friday. That gives me all week next week. There's time.
Where I really feel like a failure is in the kitchen. I promised to make homemade yogurt, but I don't have a kitchen thermometer or milk. I promised to make bread, but I am daunted/am missing half the dry ingredients necessary.
So, I thought I would start a little simpler. Get 'back on the bike' with some familiar recipes. I was thinking chocolate chip cookies, but I also bought a cake mix and ready-to-spread frosting.
So, when I went to make chocolate chip cookies, I discovered I had no brown sugar and no baking powder. Pantry fail. But, I wasn't too discouraged because I had that cake mix and I bought some super cute sprinkles. Everyone loves cupcakes with sprinkles.
And guess what? Cupcakes require vegetable oil. Guess what I don't have?
Total kitchen fail.
I managed to make grilled cheese and tomato soup. The cheese was pre-sliced and the soup came from a can. I still burnt the bread when I ignored the sandwich in the pan for too long.
Well, here's hoping I don't starve on Day 5.
Let's start with the things I have done right in unemployment:
I do make my bed every day. I do the dishes every day. I have contributed to the cleanliness of my apartment every day. These are mostly symptoms of the fact that I am spending a lot of time in my apartment every day. Spend 14 waking hours in your home and it is easy to spare 40 minutes to make the bed, do the dishes, and sweep the bathroom.
I have also managed to go outside every day, between errands and appointments that have beckoned me to leave the house. These are little blessings in disguise and really break up my day.
Dance parties every day? That's a given. That's what I do in my normal life, who are we kidding.
Things I have done less right:
I think it is physically impossible to actually sleep for 8 hours a night unless I have the flu. The only way this is likely to happen is if I drug myself, and I think that taking drugs while I hang at home by myself with my cat with no job is not a very good idea. Plus, I can't afford gratuitous drugs.
I have made some progress on looking for work, but 90 minutes is a pretty long time. The goal for the weekend/next week? Research the department of the U that has offered to interview me. Read everything they ever wrote. Brand myself as the perfect poster child for their work.
I haven't gotten a library card, volunteered, taken a class, or gone to the museum. Perhaps my unemployment list was ambitious? I argue (with) myself, that I still have time. My only hope on the horizon is an interview that happens next Friday. That gives me all week next week. There's time.
Where I really feel like a failure is in the kitchen. I promised to make homemade yogurt, but I don't have a kitchen thermometer or milk. I promised to make bread, but I am daunted/am missing half the dry ingredients necessary.
So, I thought I would start a little simpler. Get 'back on the bike' with some familiar recipes. I was thinking chocolate chip cookies, but I also bought a cake mix and ready-to-spread frosting.
So, when I went to make chocolate chip cookies, I discovered I had no brown sugar and no baking powder. Pantry fail. But, I wasn't too discouraged because I had that cake mix and I bought some super cute sprinkles. Everyone loves cupcakes with sprinkles.
And guess what? Cupcakes require vegetable oil. Guess what I don't have?
Total kitchen fail.
I managed to make grilled cheese and tomato soup. The cheese was pre-sliced and the soup came from a can. I still burnt the bread when I ignored the sandwich in the pan for too long.
Well, here's hoping I don't starve on Day 5.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Adventures in Unemployment: Day 2- A Day of Freedom!
On Day 2 I had an 8 AM doctor's appointment re: the broken leg in Bloomington. Obviously scheduled when I thought I would need to go to work right after the appointment. Oh well, this was the perfect thrust into the "showered and functioning" rule.
The Broken Leg Update: The current x-ray showed some "apparent feathering of the bone" which looks like the edge of a feather, but instead of being on the outside of the bone like you might expect, it is feathering into the middle of the bone.* Really odd looking. Anyhow, the doctor said we are "so lucky" we caught it early. It could have actually fractured much more severely, I guess. To be fair, I didn't really feel all that lucky when I was sobbing in my boyfriend's car on the way to the ER where they punctured my leg with a needle the size of a shower rod. But that's just me.
The good news? No more crutches! Sweet freedom! Now just 4-6 weeks of PT, maybe an MRI since there could be some soft tissue damage (kids, running a marathon is bad for your health. But you should do it anyway). They are going to do a running evaluation in 4 weeks to see if I am ready to run miles mile on the open road treadmill. In the meantime, I can swim and bike in the controlled environment of the gym. Thank goodness, because going from marathon training to not working out at all is brutal.
Other notable activities from Day 2 include: visiting Grandma for a few hours while she house-sits for my parents, a grocery shopping trip, learning to saute carnival squash, and some red wine.
Another good day.
*Ha! I Googled 'feathering bone' and found it is common in the legs and hooves of horses. Awesome.
Adventures in Unemployment: Day 1- The "Gimme" Day
Day 1 of unemployment was supposed to be a "gimme" day-- the one day I allowed myself to wallow and feel sorry for myself, watch TV, hang out in my sweats.
Turns out, that didn't really happen.
I ended up deep cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, filing for unemployment insurance (Reason #2673 paying taxes rocks), researching some jobs to apply for, and some other odds'n'ends around the house. I was busy.
To be fair, I did watch the entire Today Show, and even attempted to dabble through daytime TV but there is only so much Judge Judy and Maury Povich one person can take. And for me, that limit is zero.
The funniest thing probably, is that Monday was the only day that the "Rules of Unemployment" were lifted. One of my rules is: Awake, functioning and showered by 8AM. Every day. No matter what. Well, Monday I finally hit the shower at around 4:45 and during that time someone from the U of M called to offer me a job interview! Can't believe I missed that call... We did end up getting connected and-- brace yourself-- I have a job interview on November 4. Excellent.
Overall, I loved Day 1 of unemployment more than any broke, jobless, 20-something has a right to. It doesn't negate that I am really excited to go back to work soon and contribute to good projects, but my mental health may be improving after a break.
Or maybe it was because I had an entire pot of coffee in the morning...
Turns out, that didn't really happen.
I ended up deep cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, filing for unemployment insurance (Reason #2673 paying taxes rocks), researching some jobs to apply for, and some other odds'n'ends around the house. I was busy.
To be fair, I did watch the entire Today Show, and even attempted to dabble through daytime TV but there is only so much Judge Judy and Maury Povich one person can take. And for me, that limit is zero.
The funniest thing probably, is that Monday was the only day that the "Rules of Unemployment" were lifted. One of my rules is: Awake, functioning and showered by 8AM. Every day. No matter what. Well, Monday I finally hit the shower at around 4:45 and during that time someone from the U of M called to offer me a job interview! Can't believe I missed that call... We did end up getting connected and-- brace yourself-- I have a job interview on November 4. Excellent.
Overall, I loved Day 1 of unemployment more than any broke, jobless, 20-something has a right to. It doesn't negate that I am really excited to go back to work soon and contribute to good projects, but my mental health may be improving after a break.
Or maybe it was because I had an entire pot of coffee in the morning...
Adventures in Unemployment
Ha! I said I would blog everyday of unemployment... and here it is, Day 3 and not a peep out of me... ooops.
This post is a pre-unemployment list of the things I want to do while I am unemployed. The best advice I got about unemployment was to enjoy the time off, because sometimes we forget to see the blessings in the hardships we face, and to stay busy! Stay busy for your own sanity and stay busy because when I (inevitably, right?) go back to work, I will be remorseful if I wasted the opportunity to do some fun things and get some things accomplished.
So, first I made a list of things I want to do, in general:
1. Make homemade yogurt.
Thanks to our Iowegian friends for giving me the skinny on how to successfully make my own yogurt. I am pretty excited to try this out!
2. Homemade bread.
So many people I know make their own bread, and yet every time I look online for a recipe I get totally daunted. Also, how do you keep a giant lump of dough away from a very curious cat while it rises? I can just imagine all the floury cat prints... My parents have a breadmaker in their basement. Maybe that will be the route to homemade bread I take.
3. Crochet slippers.
I crocheted one. Not sure how I feel about it. So I made a scarf instead. Now I have a blister from crocheting. I am not sure how much leverage this little goal is going to get.
4. Open Courseware.
There are a bunch of schools (Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins, etc.) that offer open courseware. There is no credit, no classroom, no assignments, no grades. But you do get to see the lectures and sometimes read the course material online, sort of as if you were taking the class. I totally love to learn and this is right up my alley.
5. Design and order Christmas cards.
Done! And they are darling, I think.
6. Paintings.
I have several requests for paintings-- thanks, friends, for liking my stuff!
7. Free museums.
I love a good museum. I even sometimes love a mediocre museum. In the Cities, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is free every day (yay! art as a public good! love love love), the Walker Art Center is free on Thursday nights, and there are a handful of museums that are free or only like $2 admission. Love.
Unfortunately, lots of places are only open during business hours and then the weekends are filled with sticky-fingered children and women (poorly) driving strollers into my shins or the backs of my knees. It might be very nice and relaxing to take in a museum on a Tuesday afternoon, you know?
8. Actually sleep 7-10 hours per night.
Who can remember the last time they got that much sleep for, say, 3 days in a row? Other than times I have been sick (in which I slept around 19 hours a day), I don't know that I have gotten a good 8 hour night's sleep in a long time. I look forward to meeting with you, deep sleep and REM cycle. I hear you guys are wonderful.
9. Volunteer.
Having just moved to my community, I have been actually wanting to find a volunteer opportunity for a while. Now is the perfect time to put some more effort into finding a place that can use me.
10. Get a library card.
Can you believe I don't have a library card in my county? And I drive by TWO public libraries all the time. Ridiculous.
In addition to some of the bigger things I want to do, I am also trying to take this opportunity to start some good habits. So there is a list of things to do every day.
1. Make the bed.
My dad's cousin always had the best excuse for not making the bed: "It was so comfortable when I got out of bed, why would I want to mess that all up by making it?!"
2. Do all the dishes.
One of my favorite household tasks to neglect. Well, I am sick of running out of forks.
3. Spend no less than 90 minutes doing something that contributes to securing employment.
This isn't vacation, after all.
4. One-woman dance party.
What's better than grooving any way you want, to any music you want? Nothing.
5. Spend no less than 20 minutes contributing to the organization and cleanliness of the house. Sweep, dust, rearrange, whatever.
I love to make a mess and then just leave it. My house is a petri dish of unfinished projects. Even cleaning projects get halted before they are done. Just ask my why my vacuum has been in the dining room for 2 days.
6. Go outside.
I love my apartment, I really do, but if I don't go outside I will go crazy. Even if I just hobble down the street and back in, I am going outside every day.
Okay everyone, wish me luck. Luck that this is not a very long stretch of unemployment and luck that I survive it with all my mental faculties in tact.
This post is a pre-unemployment list of the things I want to do while I am unemployed. The best advice I got about unemployment was to enjoy the time off, because sometimes we forget to see the blessings in the hardships we face, and to stay busy! Stay busy for your own sanity and stay busy because when I (inevitably, right?) go back to work, I will be remorseful if I wasted the opportunity to do some fun things and get some things accomplished.
So, first I made a list of things I want to do, in general:
1. Make homemade yogurt.
Thanks to our Iowegian friends for giving me the skinny on how to successfully make my own yogurt. I am pretty excited to try this out!
2. Homemade bread.
So many people I know make their own bread, and yet every time I look online for a recipe I get totally daunted. Also, how do you keep a giant lump of dough away from a very curious cat while it rises? I can just imagine all the floury cat prints... My parents have a breadmaker in their basement. Maybe that will be the route to homemade bread I take.
3. Crochet slippers.
I crocheted one. Not sure how I feel about it. So I made a scarf instead. Now I have a blister from crocheting. I am not sure how much leverage this little goal is going to get.
4. Open Courseware.
There are a bunch of schools (Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins, etc.) that offer open courseware. There is no credit, no classroom, no assignments, no grades. But you do get to see the lectures and sometimes read the course material online, sort of as if you were taking the class. I totally love to learn and this is right up my alley.
5. Design and order Christmas cards.
Done! And they are darling, I think.
6. Paintings.
I have several requests for paintings-- thanks, friends, for liking my stuff!
7. Free museums.
I love a good museum. I even sometimes love a mediocre museum. In the Cities, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is free every day (yay! art as a public good! love love love), the Walker Art Center is free on Thursday nights, and there are a handful of museums that are free or only like $2 admission. Love.
Unfortunately, lots of places are only open during business hours and then the weekends are filled with sticky-fingered children and women (poorly) driving strollers into my shins or the backs of my knees. It might be very nice and relaxing to take in a museum on a Tuesday afternoon, you know?
8. Actually sleep 7-10 hours per night.
Who can remember the last time they got that much sleep for, say, 3 days in a row? Other than times I have been sick (in which I slept around 19 hours a day), I don't know that I have gotten a good 8 hour night's sleep in a long time. I look forward to meeting with you, deep sleep and REM cycle. I hear you guys are wonderful.
9. Volunteer.
Having just moved to my community, I have been actually wanting to find a volunteer opportunity for a while. Now is the perfect time to put some more effort into finding a place that can use me.
10. Get a library card.
Can you believe I don't have a library card in my county? And I drive by TWO public libraries all the time. Ridiculous.
In addition to some of the bigger things I want to do, I am also trying to take this opportunity to start some good habits. So there is a list of things to do every day.
1. Make the bed.
My dad's cousin always had the best excuse for not making the bed: "It was so comfortable when I got out of bed, why would I want to mess that all up by making it?!"
2. Do all the dishes.
One of my favorite household tasks to neglect. Well, I am sick of running out of forks.
3. Spend no less than 90 minutes doing something that contributes to securing employment.
This isn't vacation, after all.
4. One-woman dance party.
What's better than grooving any way you want, to any music you want? Nothing.
5. Spend no less than 20 minutes contributing to the organization and cleanliness of the house. Sweep, dust, rearrange, whatever.
I love to make a mess and then just leave it. My house is a petri dish of unfinished projects. Even cleaning projects get halted before they are done. Just ask my why my vacuum has been in the dining room for 2 days.
6. Go outside.
I love my apartment, I really do, but if I don't go outside I will go crazy. Even if I just hobble down the street and back in, I am going outside every day.
Okay everyone, wish me luck. Luck that this is not a very long stretch of unemployment and luck that I survive it with all my mental faculties in tact.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Heated Seats: A Primer
Pack up your swimsuits. Roll up the beach towels. Lose the sunscreen behind the seat of the car. It's about to be winter. Or, at the very least, we are well-seated in a chilled, blustery fall.*
The one feature of the new car that I can find is the heated seat dial. Heated seats?! Heated seats, friends. The dial seems pretty self-explanatory. It has numbers from 0 to 5, 0 presumably (and correctly) being no heat. And then each number is a little warmer than the one before, until you get to 5, which in my world seems that it would be bliss. The warmer, the better.
It is not so.
The dial is quite misleading. Today I tested it out, and I have assessed what each number really stands for:
0: No heat. Great for the summer.**
1: Still not really any heat. Wouldn't thaw a rump roast.
2: Things are getting good. Lightly toasted buns. Perfect.
3: Oooh, that's hot. Hot hot, actually. Uh, I don't really like this. Too hot.
4: Oh dear god, BURNING! Too hot! Turn it off! Turn it off!!
5: [Right, you think after my experience at level 4 I turned it up to level 5?! Who do you think I am?]
If you love your butt, you will oscillate between a 2 and 3. Never higher.
* I have loved the word blustery forever. From the Winnie the Pooh film Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. One of the best children's movies ever.
** Ask me about the time I accidentally turned on heated seats in the summer and thought I was dying of meningitis.
The one feature of the new car that I can find is the heated seat dial. Heated seats?! Heated seats, friends. The dial seems pretty self-explanatory. It has numbers from 0 to 5, 0 presumably (and correctly) being no heat. And then each number is a little warmer than the one before, until you get to 5, which in my world seems that it would be bliss. The warmer, the better.
It is not so.
The dial is quite misleading. Today I tested it out, and I have assessed what each number really stands for:
0: No heat. Great for the summer.**
1: Still not really any heat. Wouldn't thaw a rump roast.
2: Things are getting good. Lightly toasted buns. Perfect.
3: Oooh, that's hot. Hot hot, actually. Uh, I don't really like this. Too hot.
4: Oh dear god, BURNING! Too hot! Turn it off! Turn it off!!
5: [Right, you think after my experience at level 4 I turned it up to level 5?! Who do you think I am?]
If you love your butt, you will oscillate between a 2 and 3. Never higher.
* I have loved the word blustery forever. From the Winnie the Pooh film Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. One of the best children's movies ever.
** Ask me about the time I accidentally turned on heated seats in the summer and thought I was dying of meningitis.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Stuck in the Slow Lane
Last week, I upgraded automobiles. Gone is the 1999 Saturn, affectionately known as the Plastik Vunderkar (let me someday tell you about selling cars on Craigslist. Holy cow). In is a 2004 Jetta, the Green Machine.
Having a car that runsa bit better like an actual car and not like a Barbie corvette Matchbox car made me think I would soon be experiencing the wide open spaces of the crowded city avenues like this:
After all, this car was built for the autobahn!
Having a car that runs
After all, this car was built for the autobahn!
However, this new-to-me car has a lot more bells and whistles. More accurately: things most modern drivers think everyone has, but in fact, everyone did not. For example: a sun roof, power locks with the little hand held remote so I can "meep meep" my car from 20 feet away, power windows, an automatic transmission. In addition to the new things, I am still working on finding all the standard things. It took me 3 minutes to figure out how to turn the lights on. We had a light drizzle here the other day and I had my windshield wipers on "Hyperspeed Go-Go-Gadget NO RAINDROPS EVER" mode because I could not get them to slow down. A check engine light came on for an issue not even remotely related to the engine. Yesterday I accidently hit the panic button in my pocket while walking crutching loudly away from the car, scaring the dickens right out of a handful of delightful senior ladies out for a walk.
Today, the whole drive in to work, the "door ajar" light was illuminated, and I figured this was just like the check engine light. So it says the door is ajar, I thought, but I can see that no doors are, in fact, ajar. What else could it be? Is it because there is condensation on the back window? I'll turn on the defroster. Wait. How do I do that? Oh, here. Good. Nope, some non-door is still not ajar. Hmmm.
After a string of button mashing operations that included opening and closing the windows and sunroof, unlocking and relocking all the doors, turning on the hazards and then turning them off, it dawned on me. Yesterday, when I hit the panic button, I probably also hit the trunk release button!
When I got to the parking lot, that truth was confirmed. Luckily, the trunk requires some strength to actually open even once the latch has been released, so I wasn't that idiot who drove all the way to work with their trunk all gaping.
Still, I have downgraded my expectations of the new-car-driving experience. Not because the car isn't great, but because it is likely smarter than me. This is a more accurate visual representation of my life on the autobahn:
Friday, October 7, 2011
It Tolls for Thee
Sorry that every post is about the marathon... that's probably getting old for you, right? But I just keep processing things and I forgot to tell you about probably my favorite part of the race:
The marathon starts near the Metrodome in Downtown Minneapolis and cuts through the heart of a skyscraper district before turning down Hennepin towards the Chain of Lakes and South Minneapolis. At the very edge of Downtown is a big, beautiful basilica. The Basilica of Saint Mary, to be precise.
As we head through downtown, the air is cold, the pack of runners nearly silent as the anticipation and silliness of the start wears off and we begin to truly consider the monumental task ahead of us. The only sound is the gentle tap tap tap tap tap of running shoes on pavement and the muffled sound of motivational playlists in runners' ears.
Approaching the basilica, between Miles 1 and 2, the air fills with a beautiful noise-- the church bells! The bells are ringing for the runners! The congregation-- what must have been hundreds of people-- are standing on the beautiful stone steps praying and waving out to the crowd of marathoners.
I am not religious in the "capital R" sense, but that moment filled me with a certain faith, and a faith in what I think religion should be about-- supporting our community, supporting all mankind in every earnest endeavor. Being hopeful for one another, friend and stranger alike. It was emotional then; it's emotional now.
It also reminded me of a poem I once heard at an event to raise awareness about bullying and teen suicide last year. The poem, For Whom The Bell Tolls (No Man is an Island) by John Donne, beautifully reminds me how connected we all are.
The marathon starts near the Metrodome in Downtown Minneapolis and cuts through the heart of a skyscraper district before turning down Hennepin towards the Chain of Lakes and South Minneapolis. At the very edge of Downtown is a big, beautiful basilica. The Basilica of Saint Mary, to be precise.
As we head through downtown, the air is cold, the pack of runners nearly silent as the anticipation and silliness of the start wears off and we begin to truly consider the monumental task ahead of us. The only sound is the gentle tap tap tap tap tap of running shoes on pavement and the muffled sound of motivational playlists in runners' ears.
Approaching the basilica, between Miles 1 and 2, the air fills with a beautiful noise-- the church bells! The bells are ringing for the runners! The congregation-- what must have been hundreds of people-- are standing on the beautiful stone steps praying and waving out to the crowd of marathoners.
I am not religious in the "capital R" sense, but that moment filled me with a certain faith, and a faith in what I think religion should be about-- supporting our community, supporting all mankind in every earnest endeavor. Being hopeful for one another, friend and stranger alike. It was emotional then; it's emotional now.
It also reminded me of a poem I once heard at an event to raise awareness about bullying and teen suicide last year. The poem, For Whom The Bell Tolls (No Man is an Island) by John Donne, beautifully reminds me how connected we all are.
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
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