Help

As I was leaving the office yesterday, some janitors were looking for an obscure room on our floor. I helped them find the room, not thinking much about it, and began to walk away. To my surprise, they thanked me profusely as I left. It struck me as odd that they would be so appreciative of such a simple gesture. I had walked down the hall with them and couldn't even give them access to the room.

Image from The Autism News

In Japan and Germany this last year, I was at the mercy of strangers several times. The Japanese, in particular were very helpful. There is an odd feeling to suddenly being non-verbal and illiterate, relying only on gestures. In every case, though, whichever random person we "asked" for help was extremely helpful, going as far as to lead us to the place we were going. The Germans were also immensely helpful, but I was more able to communicate verbally and I had the luxury of being able to decipher some signs. Fortunately the primary concern has been limited to directions and the odd train announcement.

手伝ってもらえませんか。

Hilfe

We (Americans as a whole) have this horrible habit of avoiding answering the call to help. We pass by the homeless, we avoid eye contact to avoid any obligation. Why should we expect any different treatment?

Perhaps this is why the janitors were so grateful.

Must. Focus.

I've managed to 1) ignore this blog for months and months, 2) realize that it's time to start down that long road to graduation, and 3) come to peace with the fact that I'm not going to be able to compete* in triathlon until #2 comes to fruition.

Having said that, I've actually managed to get to the gym for the last two days. Yesterday, I swam for the 2nd time in 2010. I managed 2000 yards which included my favorite set: 5 x 50 kick on 1 min. Normally it would be 10, but I felt that I should take it easy.

I'm hoping to get back to the blogging as part of the road to the PhD. Prepare yourselves for more non-sequiturs.

*By "compete" I mean race to win, not go and have fun at a race.

Belmont Debate

I was going to do mile repeats tonight, but with all the excitement over at Belmont, I figured that running around that area would be more interesting. I took a quick run around Vandy, then around Peabody, then over to Belmont.

I was surprised at how close I could get to the building. There were lots of security patrols. They were friendly and didn't seem overwhelmed. Everyone was being very polite and behaving like they were being monitored by the police until I tried to walk upstream through a march for McCain where people just looked forward and ignored that anything was in front of them. I'm still a little baffled about that.

There was a marked difference between the McCain and Obama supporters. First, the Obama supporters were in groups of 5 or 6 with a mix of printed and handmade signs while the McCain supporters were either walking alone or in the march with handmade signs. I didn't see a pre-printed McCain sign. Second, the Obama supporters were smiling and cheering for other supporters. The McCain supporters were mostly silent--even in the march. Those who were talking were talking at a conversational level to other McCain supporters. Finally, I walked down an alley where vendors could buy t-shirts and other election-related trinkets. The majority of these were anti-Obama rather than pro-McCain or pro-Obama. It was really interesting.

I may have picked the Republican alley to wander around, but I didn't see another place to go. I was also wandering about an hour and a half before the debate was starting. These things may have skewed my experience, but it was at least entertaining to be around all the excitement, until I remembered that I'm a recluse and avoid people and headed home.

As a side note, I evidently wasn't the only person that thought that my evening jog around the area seemed like a good excuse to show up on site. There were lots and lots of people out in running clothes. I caught the eye of at least one runner and received a knowing nod.

Side effects of snobbery

I've learned through my wine tasting habit that when identifying smells, it's often helpful to blurt out the first thing that comes to mind because there's often a good descriptor in that first impulse and if you think too long, that smell/concept will escape you. However, sometimes it's better to think about why you had that impulse before you speak and identify the cause of the impulse.

During the long ride today, we were sampling some energy products. I picked one, smelled it, and exclaimed, "Wow, it smells like a tanning bed!" The flavor was piña colada, which I didn't know before hand, so it sorta makes sense. Sorta.

It ended up tasting okay. Not great, but okay.

A (very) small plague of grasshoppers

As I was coming home from the grocery this evening with 5 heavy grocery bags in hand, I was attacked by a grasshopper as I was trying to get into my apartment building. He was sitting just outside the door and hopped to my bag, then off the bag, onto the door. I started to open the door while he was sitting there, but somehow, from the door, he went around, in front of my face to the brick facade just at eye level. He then jumped back down to the ground, ready to start again. He was very aggressive. I wonder what they feed the grasshoppers around here...

The Simpsons

The Simpsons have been on for 2/3 of my life.
That is all.

Realization

I didn't watch Beverly Hills 90210 the first time around, yet I was swamped with the overwhelming marketing of the show and tabloid exposure of the actors. I appropriately swooned at pictures of the cast. The guys were super-cool and the girls were beautiful--not just beautiful, but unattainably beautiful.

Fast-forward to the second round of 90210, which I refuse to watch on premise. Again, the cast, well, they're all beautiful. Also unattainably so, but in a different way. Jezebel posted these pictures and I was shocked at how "beauty" has changed in a relatively short time. Does the new cast look healthy? Ack!

And what happened to jeans and t-shirts??

Any day...

Any day with beautiful weather, a good run, and a giant cupcake cake is a good day.

**Note: not the actual cake, but it looked a lot like it...mmm...tons of icing and not so much cake. I should mention that the image is from Capital Cupcakes.

Missing Moosie

I'm not entirely sure when my cat turned into a pinhead, but it seems that he has. It doesn't stop me from missing him and his glorious belly.

Welcome Back!

Please, please, please make your comeback as open and graceful as Dara...

...and kick some ass.

Fame

A few outstanding Olympians are still in the news nearly a month after the games ended. This means that some less popular sports are getting a bit more time in the spotlight, which is a good thing. The thing that irks me is that it seems that the only way our society knows to show appreciation to people is by putting them on TV. This would be fantastic if it was simply interviews and endorsements, but scripted television gets hokey and seems to be an option for at least one athlete (I put SNL and The Simpsons in a slightly different category). It would also be nice to see endorsements from these athletes at some point between Olympic games.

Why can't we let these people go about their training and outstanding athletic endeavors and keep them in the news and spotlight with better coverage of these sports in non-Olympic years rather than let them slip into obscurity only to be rediscovered four years later? I'd much rather watch fencing, track and field, swimming, water polo, or even equestrian events than baseball anytime.

Quarterbacks!

My favorite quarterback, Drew Brees won his opening game against Tampa Bay today. Yay!

Kyle Orton, another Purdue alum, started for Chicago. Unfortunately, they're playing the Colts, so I have to root against him.

Go Boilers!!

Dingbat

I've had a day full of dingbat moments.

1. I heated some water for my tea this morning and started to pour it over my already prepared cold cereal. I could chalk this up to lack of caffeine. I may still do that.
2. Some very poor driving decisions were made, mostly having to do with stop signs (not lights). Fortunately none of these resulted in anything resembling an accident or near-accident. I just realized about three times that I would have yelled and thrown hand gestures at someone who did the same things to me. Again, caffeine could be to blame. High oil prices could also be to blame.
3. While I suppose this dingbat moment happened when I was packing for the week, I just realized today that I left my running shoes behind in TN. I have a race this weekend and thought I had all the things I needed for that. Guess not.

Repercussions of Extra Effort

After the extra-effort push-up marathon on Monday, the inability to lift my arms over my head became the inability to lift my arms by Wednesday. This made driving difficult but not impossible.

Yesterday, I got to visit with Texas and Ezra. I hadn't seen Ezra for a long time and we got some snuggles in as well as a short game of chase so I could see him run (hilarious and adorable!). During snuggles, he decided he was done with the snuggles and seemed to instinctively know that my arms and pecs were unhappy and when he was wiggling around manged to put all his weight on those areas. Owww! It was worth it though.

Teh Cute

I dare you to not click on this video. I saw it on Jezebel who linked to Cute Overload who linked to YouTube. LinkieLinkieLinkie!
Enjoy!

First

Today, I trimmed a couple bothersome nails with an X-acto knife.
That is all. For now.

Summary

In the last couple days I've managed to:

• Make a full dinner (complete with dessert) for one of my friends. The menu consisted of steak, leeks and bulgur wheat, roasted squash, salad, and chocolate-banana springrolls. We also split a fantastic bottle of wine--Moulin de La Lagune, 2003, which was garnet colored, had a beautiful, soft mouth feel, and tasted of dark berries. It was ready out of the bottle. I'd recommend it for anyone who can find it.
• Finish my classes. Just a final left for one. That'll be next Thursday.
• Nearly get hit by a car. It was close enough that I had to jump back a bit and very quickly change directions. I was in a crosswalk with right-of-way and the guy driving had the nerve to honk at me. Not okay.
• Fence twice. I haven't fenced for months. It was good to be back on the strip.
• Sleep for 10+ hours a night. And take naps. Silly sleep debt.

Anyway, it's been interesting. Just thought I would share.

Cute Sells. Sometimes.

Prelims are in 10 days. I should be up to my elbows in technical papers, but since Jeremy took off this afternoon, I've taken it upon myself to make sure I make the most of my Netflix streaming time, fix the front derailleur on my bike, drink some wine, eat some leftovers, and most importantly NOT read technical papers.

While similarly procrastinating earlier this week, I came upon this ad (linked from Jezebel) for ummm....feminine hygiene products. I'm not sure it makes me want to buy anything, but it's certainly...something...yeah.

Update...I'm not really missing

Motivation is pretty low right now. I have several things to post, but no real motivation to do so right at this moment. A short list:

• Update on the Lenten Flashback series. I'll have to double-up, I think. Big question: Teenage years next, or continue with the cuteness?
• A playset found on Amazon that's making the rounds in the meta that I think I'm still obligated to post.
• A bartender with too much time on his hands. And a background in government contracting. What could go wrong? Or right?
• Feminine hygiene at its finest.
• Crazy triathlon workouts!
• Seems that there was something else....I'll have to reference my notes later.

Also, "Hi" to Logan who made his commenting debut recently. Glad to see you around!!

Found

When I came back to Nashville from the semester break (and Christmas and stuff), I had a few days before classes started to have nice, leisurely walks to the office. One day, I noticed a fantastic sculpture that was reasonably close to what I had in my head for what I wanted over my couch. I didn't have time to stop and look or any way to get it anywhere. Then, I forgot about it. A few days later, I saw it again and decided that it should be mine and that it would be mine if it was still there after fencing practice. Jenn offered suitable sister-encouragement and convinced me that it was the right thing to do.

Naturally, when it was time to do the grabbing, it was dark, cold, and raining. It was still there, sitting in the alley leaning against the fence, ready to be claimed. It barely fit in the cruiser. Here's a picture of it on the floor:

A couple closer pictures so you can see the detail:

Finally (after two months of it hiding in my bedroom), Jeremy helped me hang it this weekend. The results: