Month: April 2012

Essay: On Gradual Changes

Around this time of year, I begin to catalog the many tiny
changes that mean we are finally on the road to my favorite time of year:
summer.  Just recently I noticed that
rather than putting on my warm wool socks immediately upon crawling into bed, I
had been going to sleep with my feet bare. 
Instead of wearing both my warm flannel top and bottom pajamas I have
switched out the flannel top for a long-sleeved cotton shirt.  Not only do I not immediately grope for my
robe upon waking, I haven’t worn it in weeks. 
And most importantly, I’ve stopped constantly checking the thermometer
next to the thermostat to see just how cold it is in the house.  I haven’t turned on the heat for weeks.
So we’re on the upswing to warm weather, hallelujah!  And I’ve been thinking about how trying to
make big changes in my habits and patterns follows a similar process. Just as
the weather can’t change immediately from lows of 20 degrees to lows of 70
degrees, but instead must move slowly from one day to the next, so do my attempts
at change make a transition at a pace that seems almost glacial.
Recently, I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of an
early morning walk.  For most of last
year I successfully rose early enough to wander around my neighborhood for a
half hour.  I liked my walks because they
ensured I had a minimum amount of fitness every day, I got to see the small
changes in the neighborhood and they were good for my mental state.  The exercise was not difficult, and though it
was hard to get out the door on those freezing cold days that just kept on
coming last spring, I persevered and was rewarded on many levels.
At some point, I fell off the horse.  For some reason, remounting proved to be
incredibly difficult.  For months I tried
various strategies to wake myself, get up and out of bed and out the door.  I tried gradually moving back my waking
time.  I tried going out for only fifteen
minutes.  I tried plunging in and setting
my alarm earlier.  I bought a dawn
simulator. I made deals with myself that were continually broken.  It seemed I would never rise at 5:00am ever
again.
Many years during Lent I assign myself a Lint Project.*  They generally have to do with
self-improvement and some years are more successful than others.  This year part of my Lint Project was a 30-minute walk every day.  At first nothing
changed.  I set the alarm, the alarm went
off, I reset the alarm and no walk occurred. 
Even three weeks into the project I wasn’t having very much
success.  But something clicked near the
end of the project and I’m headed back on track.  I haven’t made it out for a walk every
morning, but there are more mornings that find me wandering than find me in
bed.  It might have a lot to do with the
return of the light.  Though sunrise
still happens after I have returned home from my walk, there is at least the
beginning of light when the alarm goes off. 
But I also think it had a lot to do with my perseverance.  I wanted to get back outside and so I kept at
it. 
A few days ago I came across this quote by Marian Wright
Edelman in my quote pile:
We must not, in trying
to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily
differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we
often cannot foresee.
I was reminded of the many daily differences that deliver
summer to me each year and the many daily differences that resulted in my
change in early morning walk habits.
*So named because one of my first official Lint Projects was
revitalizing my wardrobe during the season of Lent.  Because I don’t think improving the clothing
in my closet is what the Christian season of Lent is all about, I renamed it
the Lint Project.

Yes! I boiled them!

Thanks to my new cookbook Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese I made bagels.  When I told people I was going to/had made bagels every single person asked me, “Are you going to/Did you boil them?” And yes I did.  Here’s proof.
 
I have to say that making the bagels was incredibly fun.  It was a bit labor intensive, but well worth the time.
 
I love my new cookbook!

Essay: On being engaged

“I had no idea that was happening!”  “I never heard that!”  “I wish I would have known about that.”
Do you find yourself saying those phrases a lot?  Perhaps you are disengaged.  Would you like to be more engaged in your
school, a club, your church, your child’s school?  Here’s why you should and how you can.
If you are involved in something on a surface level, you
don’t really feel a part of things.  In
my work as an office manager of a school, I often hear that parents feel disengaged
from what’s going on at school.  Becoming
more connected to what’s going on in an organization gives you satisfaction
because you know what is happening, but also because you feel more connected to
the organization and thus you feel better about not only yourself, but also the
organization.
How can you become engaged? 
I guarantee you that the organization is probably trying desperately to
communicate with you.  At my school we
have a web site with new content updated frequently, a weekly email drawing
attention to content on the website, weekly newsletters posted electronically
and on paper, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed as well as individual
emails.  You don’t need to follow all of
those things, just pick the one that will give you the broadest coverage and
keep up with it. 
Set aside time to keep up with things.  Yes, that means that you have to take the
initiative.  If an email comes to your
inbox about the organization’s activities and you have decided that reading the
emails is the way you are going to keep up with the information then you need
to actually open and read that email. 
Remember, you want to be a part of this organization which means you
need to put in some effort to learn about what’s going on.
If you still feel out of the information loop, ask someone
how they know what’s going on.  They may
tell you about how they get their news and their story may inspire you to
follow their lead.  Or, if you can’t
possibly follow what’s going on, ask an informed friend if they will keep you
abreast of developments.  In doing this,
you are depending on someone else to prompt you, but if they happen to be a
person who enjoys disseminating information and you actually listen, then
everyone is happy.
Once you get in the flow of information, make some
friends.  If your only contact with the
organization is reading the emails you might lose interest fast.  See if you can volunteer for a one-time
event, serve on a committee or host a social of some sort.  When you meet others who are also interested
in the organization introduce yourself and do your best to get to know
them.  Having friends in the organization
will make you feel like an insider.
If you are not going to do your part to be involved with the
organization, don’t ask the staff to go out of their way to accommodate
you.  Accept that you won’t ever know
what is going on and it is not their fault that you didn’t hear of something in which you were interested.  There are many
organizations in this world and you don’t have to be a member of any of them.  The organizations do welcome your interest
and enthusiasm, but if you don’t bring those things, this organization might
not be the right fit for you.
Both in my paid work and at my church I constantly hear
people express surprise about information that has been made available to them
in a variety of ways.  Being engaged is a
part of being human.  Get yourself in
sync with the flow of an organization you care about and feel more alive.

Structure.

This has been an empty lot for all five years I’ve lived in North Portland.  For awhile there was a “gorgeous Town Homes coming in 2009” (or something) sign posted on the site, but the picture eventually fell off and the sign disappeared.  However, something is coming now.  I feel a bit sorry for the house next door who is suddenly living very close to a massive structure, but that’s life in the big city.
 

The most wonderful time of the year.

There’s a Christmas song that purports that Christmas time is the most wonderful time of the year.  I enjoy Christmas, but that holiday is a lot of work.  MY favorite time of the year is when my tax return comes.

I ignore all the financial advice in books and have the government withhold more than they should to ensure I get a good refund.  I know that I could do a savings program of my own, but quite frankly, interest rates are pretty much non-existent so it’s not like I’m losing much interest.  And it’s just more fun to get a huge chunk of cash at once.  I use it to put aside money for Christmas and the meat purchase and I buy big-ticket things I’ve been needing which usually means a pair of shoes.  And then I buy big-ticket things I’ve been wanting.  This year: Knife sharpening kit.
 

Also:  potato ricer.  In this case I riced the last of the potatoes I grew into mashed potatoes for Easter dinner.  The cookies were the Easter Bunny treats for everyone.
 

Watching a block returns.

When we last left our block, the liquor store was still standing.  That was in September of 2009. After they took down the liquor store, nothing happened.  Weeds grew, it was very unsightly, there was a newspaper article published about how the people who now own the block lost their financing, but were going to turn the block into a park while they waited for things to improve.  This was a nice story, but the park did not come to pass as we spent two years looking at the weeds grow behind a flimsy fence.  
But it’s a new day.  Things are happening.  There is a construction trailer on the block and heavy machinery is beginning to move in. We will keep a watch on what develops.

 

Wheel! Of! Fortune!

Mom, Aunt Carol and I got to see a taping of Wheel of Fortune at the Convention Center.  It was great fun.
 

Things you should know about going to a remote taping of Wheel of Fortune:

  • The information emphatically requires no cell phones and no cameras.  If you follow their instructions and do not bring your cell phones and cameras you will be annoyed because the vast majority of people DO bring their cell phones and cameras with no consequences.
  • There is a lot of waiting around.  First there is the waiting around to get in when you are herded, cattle-like, through a switchback of a line.  However, Wheel of Fortune knows their audience and there are chairs in which to sit all along the line, for those who aren’t able to stand the whole time.  
  • For those who can’t really stand long at all, they just get to go to a holding area to wait for the rest of their party.  This brings up unfortunate images of “culling the weak ones” in my mind, but rest assured that your loved one will still be waiting when you get to the front of the line.
  • When you are herded into a seat, you may not really like your seats.  That is okay, as they will be taping multiple shows and there are a lot of people who leave after the first show is done.  Then you can get much better seats.
  • They will want you to clap a lot.  So if you try and keep up with Vanna’s clapping as the Wheel is spinning, your hands will be quite tired by the end of the session.
  • It takes a very long time to tape three 20-minute shows. The taping itself lasted about 2.5 hours and that doesn’t include waiting in line.  So get ready to settle in.

Observations gleaned from my session:

  • Pat Sajak spends very little time on stage.  When they have finished the round he immediately leaves the stage, returning just as the next round is going to begin.  There is very little schmoozing
  • Vanna is the only one on stage who knows the answer to the puzzle.
  • When Vanna walks around answering questions, 30% will be interesting questions to which I want to know the answers, 65% will be the eye-roll inducing and grammatically incorrect “Can I have a hug?” and 5% will be people wanting to take their pictures with her.
  • Vanna does not get to keep the clothing she wears.  Given that she wore three different one-piece outfits that I found a bit ugly, I see this as a blessing.  She does, however, wear her own shoes with her outfits.  She reports that she has a lot of shoes.
  • It takes eight people to move the mini-Wheel used for the final puzzle on and off the stage:  four to push/hold up cables, and four more to place a rotation of press board on the floor for the mini wheel to roll over.
  • I find the TV industry to be incredibly inefficient in the realm of labor.
  • WOF has a “remote crew” out of Florida who do all the remote tapings.  The regular crew stays back in California.
  • There is only one Wheel and it is very heavy.  Watching the crew change the wheel between segments was my favorite part.
  • The reason the contestants tend to yell out their letters in a rather obnoxious fashion is that there are two people employed to make sure the candidates can spin the wheel and they hype them up as much as possible.
  • When Pat Sajak mishears a contestant’s letter choice the stage goes dark, the contestants are ordered to turn around, there is a general murmur of discussion on the stage and then they restart the round with a brand-new puzzle.  Also, Pat Sajak will tell you that it’s the first time it has happened in the history of the show.  Don’t believe him.
  • Because contestants are not allowed to name their actual employers, when a contestant identifies hers as a “local athletic apparel manufacturer” half the audience will lean to the other half of the audience and whisper “Nike.”
  • The “kissing cam” was a hilarious part of the experience, even if I felt dumb the whole time for laughing.  This was where they would show two members of the audience framed in a heart and the couple would laugh in recognition and kiss, to the audience’s approval.  Or, they would lean over a row and down three chairs to kiss their spouse who was not the person in the frame originally, or attempt to hide their eight-year old selves as their older sister attempted to kiss them, or sit uncomfortably as their wife moves in for the kiss.  Good clean fun.
  • When the productions likes us, they give us super cool Wheel of Fortune blinky pins that are very fun to wear at school the next day.