My turkey day list

In the spirit of the season, I decided to write about some of the things I’m thankful for. It is important to note, this is not an exhaustive list. I have to get up early so I can’t stay up all night. This is the Cliff Notes’ version.

I have to admit, I’m pretty thankful this year. I was pretty pessimistic about 2009 when the year started, but time proved me wrong. Believe me, I would not have predicted a year ago that I would be sitting in Battle Creek, Mich. I do not normally like to take risks but I’m glad I’m here (exactly 5 months today!).

So here we go (note: these are not necessarily in order of importance):

My health. Not only do I not have any serious ailments, I have managed to dodge the Swine flu, the seasonal flu, the common cold, strep throat, etc. Nobody likes being sick and God knows there’s nothing that gets me worked up like sorting through insurance/medical expenses (right, Mom?). For the record, I just knocked on the wood on my futon frame.

My apartment. We all know choosing an apartment from 185 miles away is risky. But the place is great and there are no cockroaches to date. All the fancy roach-killing skills I worked so hard to acquire last year are going to waste, but I’m OK with that.

My job. It was a tough market and I was in full freak-out mode about this a year ago. About 10 months ago, I cried in many public places about my employment prospects  but everything somehow turned out OK.

Taylor Swift. Blasting Fearless is an appropriate solution to any conundrum. I hope my neighbors like you too, because they’ve probably gotten an earful over the last few months.

The frozen yogurt in my fridge (no, I will not call it fro-yo). Whoever invited this lovely treat knew that somewhere there would be a 22-year-old girl with a craving for but not the metabolism for ice cream on a daily basis. God bless you.

Susan Boyle. I seriously wish I could wake up to “I dreamed a dream” every morning. I might be in a little better mood at 7 a.m. if I did.

Washington state license plates. I’m a recent convert, but every time I see a car in Battle Creek with plates from the Evergreen State, it brightens my day. If I ever run into the owners in the parking lot, I will probably run up and give them a hug.

All the educational opportunities I’ve had over the years. This means everything from kindergarten at Maple Hills Elementary through senior year at Northwestern. I just wish everyone could have the same experiences I did.

Living in the Fridge. From keeping score (haha) to sharing my fascination with the Duggars, sharing a roof with 8 other ladies made senior year more enjoyable.

Apples. I eat one every single day. A former roommate once told me this would be a good thing to share about myself during an icebreaker game. I haven’t had a chance to do this yet, but maybe someday.

My Civic aka Old Faithful. Here’s to many more years together.

My running shoes. Seriously, the best therapist a girl can ask for. We’ve been all around Evanston and Battle Creek together and I think our time is coming to a close, but I’ll never forget you. You also helped me avoid the unwanted consequences of eating lots of…

Chicago pizza. What I wouldn’t give for a hot slice of Giordano’s right now.

The last three, of course, are most important:

Mom and Dad. Thanks for putting up with me and my questionable life decisions for 22 years, especially the last year. You’re the best. And I’m  not just saying that because I know you recently discovered Sole Stirrings.

Michael.  See above. Except you’ve only known me about 3 years. But it’s probably felt like 22 years. Also, thank you for choosing a fiscally-responsible career path so you can support me someday. You’ll save your couch for me, right?

Everyone else who has supported me over the years. I don’t say it often enough but I really do appreciate you. And I miss you all like crazy right now.

There’s definitely a ton of things I left off. I’m just tired and my head is telling me it misses my pillow right now. Happy Thanksgiving!

Let’s get some shoes

I really, really need new shoes. The traction on my current shoes has completely worn away in some places. More importantly, I can tell I’m not getting the same support I used to.  The problem is, I’m not sure where to buy shoes here. Macy’s and Kohl’s don’t really sell good running shoes and I’m not sure what kind of selection our sports stores have. So I may have to do some searching this weekend.

My feet are flat so I need something with good arch support or my feet aren’t gonna be happy campers. I’ve been pretty happy with my current shoes (Brooks) and I would seriously consider buying another similar pair. Why can’t shoe companies just keeping the same shoes year after year? I mean, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Buying shoes is tricky because they’re all designed a little differently and the fit is critical. Buy the wrong pair and you will have blisters.

Speaking of blisters, I’ve started wearing some heels to work and they don’t hurt as much as I thought they would. However, my feet are always a little sore after I take them off when I get home and I’ve found that if I wear them a couple of days in a row, I need to wear flats for a day or two to recover. It’s tempting to wear heels because I’m short and I could stand to look a little leggier. Maybe my feet just need to acclimate to wearing heels.  Or maybe I’m just not cut out to wear them.

A cold day in July

…or a warm day in November? Today, it was the latter. I went outside in a long-sleeved shirt and ended up feeling too warm after walking around for a few minutes. It’s one thing when it’s 68 degrees in September, but you really appreciate these warm days after a couple of cold weeks. Seriously, I had frost on my windshield Friday morning.

So, I decided to get outside and enjoy what will probably be one of the last warm days in quite a long while (when is the snow supposed to start rolling in again?). Today’s destination: the Leila Arboretum. A little history about the arboretum: Way back in 1922, Leila Post Montgomery, the widow of C.W. Post (yeah, the cereal guy), donated 72 acres to the city of Battle Creek. Today, it’s a beautiful park filled with hills and trees and home to a children’s museum.

Of course, I brought my camera with me, too.  The results? Well, you’ll have to do a little scrolling. Here we go:

No, I wasn't thinking about climbing the tree. But it's kind of a cool view, right?

Yeah, I just wanted an excuse to lie down on the leaves. (Also: I am pretty sure this is the correct use of lie, but I couldn't find Marda Dunsky so I'm not positive. Where is that woman when you need her?)

Gotta love these fall colors. Who needs snow?

 

 

 

I hope the trash they pick up isn't this bad. Imagae courtesy of flickr.com

Four months after I graduated from college, packed up my stuffy little room in Evanston, Ill., and moved into a new apartment in Battle Creek, I’m still adjusting to life in the Cereal City.  I like being close to everything (work, the grocery store and most important, Target) and people here seem very nice and friendly, but I do miss the excitement a city like Chicago provides. And while I don’t mind hanging out by myself sometimes, it’d be nice to have more people around, especially on the weekend.

 

Here’s the tie-in to this blog: I signed up for  a Meetup.com account about a week ago in hopes of running into people with similar interests. I was actually hoping to find a running group in Battle Creek, which I didn’t find. But, I’ll keep my eye out in case something else of interest pops up.

In other cities, however, it seems like there’s plenty of  groups for runner-types. In particular, I’m really intrigued by this Washington, DC group that runs and picks up trash at the same time (kind of a 2 for 1 deal). Vicky Hallett mentioned the DC Trash Runners recently in her MisFits blog so I decided to check them out on Meetup. The group meets once a month and at last count had 66 runners. Seems like a cool group with two great causes.

For now, though, I will be hitting the road solo in Battle Creek. There’s plenty of places to run so I know I won’t get bored.

 

Ice fail

I’ve been thinking about going ice skating ever since I made up my mind to go earlier this week. I dusted off my old skates (literally) yesterday morning and jumped in my car to go to The Rink in downtown Battle Creek (no,that wasn’t a gratuitous use of capital letters. That’s the name of the rink). But then when I arrived, there were a ton of hockey players on the ice! Wasn’t this supposed to be public skating time?

As it turns out, The Rink is changing ownership this week. According to the guy at the counter, public skating will be back to its normal schedule next week. I was a little disappointed, but I’ll make another attempt next weekend.

 

Kiss my toepick

I’m working this weekend, which means I have Thursday and Friday off. After consulting the open skate schedule for The Rink in Battle Creek, I think I know what I’m doing Thursday afternoon. Time to shake a few layers of dust off my old skates and hit the ice.

I was a late bloomer in skating: As a 13-year-old taking beginner classes, I was always the oldest kid in class. I never had the chance to take lessons when I was younger because we didn’t have a rink near my house. Then, when I was in 8th grade, we got a new ice arena near my high school.

Like running, ice skating is a high addictive (albeit much more expensive) hobby. The feel of the cold air in your face as you glide across the ice is really refreshing. But once you get moving, you don’t feel cold at all. I remember wearing shorts on the ice and never feeling uncomfortable at all (except if you fall, but that happens to everyone).

The last time I put on my skates was nearly two years ago in a crowded public rink in Portland. I practiced my old spins but I couldn’t jump for fear of landing on a small child. But I’m hoping the Battle Creek rink will be significantly less crowded and I’ll be able to pull out all the stops. That’s why I want to go during the week when all the kids are in school.

Wish me luck!

 

Next time, bring a smaller bag

I didn’t have a chance to go running on Saturday, but that was just fine because I spent the day in East Lansing at a football game! The Cats got trounced in the second half, but I had a blast hanging out with my friend/former roommate. Plus, it’s fun to be one of a handful of people sporting purple in a stadium full of green.  And it was a picturesque fall day in the mitten: chilly, sunny and perfect for football.

As soon as we got out of the car Saturday, I noticed the game-day atmosphere in East Lansing is a little different from Evanston. There were thousands of people who had obviously had a few walking down the streets, drinking from beer cans and (in some cases) stumbling around and falling down on the sidewalks. You could actually smell the booze in the air. Of course, people drink before games in Evanston but there doesn’t seem to be quite as much outright drunkenness. Not that I’m a teetotaler myself — but I’d never seen anything quite like this before.

Anyways, when we got to the gate, I was told I couldn’t take my purse in because it was too big. Keep in mind, my purse is not exactly a svelte little clutch, but it’s not a monstrous tote, either. I even offered to remove all the contents so they could see what was inside. Nonetheless, I had to go back to the car (and thus drag my poor friend along with me) back to the car so I could put my purse inside, causing us to miss the entire first quarter. Bummer.

But the real kicker is what the guy at the gate said to me:

“Can you go back to your dorm and drop it off?”

My dorm. At this point, there is obviously no dorm to go back to. I was initially a little insulted (that guy thought I was a dumb little freshman who didn’t know the rules yet!), but after I thought about it, I decided to be flattered instead. Ten years from now, I’ll probably be leaping for joy if someone mistakes me for an 18-year-old. I have the rest of my life to look my age.

Another disappointment: Nobody, not a single person heckled us. C’mon, is NU that weak that you don’t feel the need to hurl a few taunts our way? No fun.

To summarize, here’s what I learned in East Lansing:

1) Public intoxication = absolutely acceptable

2) Wearing NU sweatshirt = absolutely indifferent

3) Pumpkin ice cream = absolutely delicious

4) Carrying a purse = no go

5) Looking forward to watching the Cats play next week in Evanston!

Don’t take my Diet Coke away!*

*But if you want to stick a tax on it, I’ll survive.

This stuff is extremely addictive. If you've known me for more than a day, you've probably seen me with one of these. Image courtesy of viewpoints.com

I’m a Diet Coke addict. I’m especially partial to Diet Coke with Lime, but just about any flavor will do (except Cherry Coke…eww!) It all started in college, when I occasionally needed caffeine for late-night study sessions. But then I started drinking it at other times during the day — an afternoon pick-me-up, a post-dinner jolt to keep me going for a few more hours.

Even though there are no calories in Diet Coke, I realize it’s definitely not good for me. I’ll probably be a bent-over, crippled little old lady by the time I’m 30 (pop blocks the absorption of calcium into your bones, I believe). I’m sure it does a number on my teeth as well. Still, I’m a can-a-day type of girl.

For people who choose to indulge in the real thing (that is to say, not the diet type), drinking  so much sugar can naturally contribute to obesity. I occasionally enjoy real root beer, but I’m not usually one to venture into this dangerous territory.

There’s been talk about instituting a tax on pop (no, I will NOT call it the s-word) and even though it is one of my favorite indulgences, I have to say this probably is not the worst idea ever.  Even if it doesn’t actually discourage anyone from buying pop, I’d rather see something that has no nutritional value carry a tax than something than we actually need to buy. I don’t believe this has a “big brother” feel to it — if the government really wanted to be my big brother, it would ban pop altogether. And I don’t think that will happen anytime soon.

On a different note, I am going to have an essential Michigoose experience tomorrow: I will attend a football game in East Lansing! I’m definitely going to take my little camera so I can show my photos to my future grandkids (and my parents…). I will report back on the game later this weekend.

Would you play this piano? I would!

Those Swedes are just way too clever. As if IKEA, ABBA and the Nobel prizes weren’t enough to love that notorious Scandinavian country, they’ve come up with something else: musical stairs.

As Stephen Dubner shows us in his Freakonomics blog post on NYTimes.com, the Swedes have got it right again. The stairs, which are made to look like piano keys (complete with sharps and flats), make sounds as you walk up or down them. The intent is to get more people to take the stairs (which in this case happen to lead out of the subway station).

Which brings me to a point I’ve made before and will make again: Exercise should be fun. Enticing people to take the stairs with something fun is much more effective (I think at least) then reminding people they can burn 10 calories if they take the stairs (which is what we seem to do here).

So, get a little exercise today and make sure you enjoy it. For the Swedes’ sake.

Sent straight from heaven

It;s the end of a busy week and I’m ready to relax a little weekend. Oh, there’s a little apartment-tidying on the agenda, but I think it’s going to be pretty low key. Tomorrow morning, I fully plan on sleeping in and making pancakes (or waffles?) when I wake up. Yum.

If the weather’s decent (which is questionable), I’m also going for a run outside tomorrow. I love being outside on crisp autumn days when the leave are changing colors. I’ve noticed, though, that the Battle Creekians (Battle Creekites? Battle Creekoids?) love to honk at joggers. Because I am usually zoned out and lost in my own bliss, I usually wave on impulse, forgetting that I really don’t know anyone here and the odds that the person in the car actually knows who I am are slim. Then I feel disappointed and foolish when I realize it’s actually a car full of 12-year-old boys.

Anyways, the inspiration for the title of this post (besides the beauty of a Battle Creek autumn, that is) came when I was driving home from Target tonight. Target happens to be in the same strip mall as my gym, which was evidently having some problems with its light-up sign. The “L” had burnt out, making the sign read “GO D’S GYM.” Honestly, I think I would leave it like that for a while. Must be a sign, right? I think so. I don’t go to church, but I must be doing something right.