Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

I know it's not my day to blog, but I really feel the need to think something through by writing about it. Two years ago, my son began having a very difficult time at the small Catholic school he was attending. In the end, I took him out of that school with only seven weeks of the school year remaining and put him in the public school. When all of this drama was playing out, one of my son's teachers who I considered a really good friend became very angry with me, offended that I didn't go to her. For the past two years now, she has made it clear she does not want to talk to me, does not want to carry on a friendship with me. Initially, I was very hurt by the loss of this friendship. I truly agonized over it. Because my youngest was still attending the Catholic school and had her as a teacher, and was also friends with her son, we had to interact occasionally. She remained very distant, very cool. I thought maybe after some time had passed, we could let bygones be bygones,...

Last season I didn't invest in any tri-specific clothing, thinking I should wait to see if I really wanted to continue participating in events this season before spending the money. The one piece of clothing I did buy last summer was a pair of tri shorts. While I never wore them in a tri, I did wear them in a duathlon and for my cycling events. With their thin chamois that wicks away moisture and acts as a padding while on the bike, those shorts served me well. Now, since I'm going to give the sprint tri another go, I decided to check out tri tops. I wore a simple one-piece suit last year, pulling on shorts for the cycling portion of the tri, and while this worked out okay, I really wanted to be able to wear the tri shorts this year to give my tush some added comfort during the ride. After much searching, I found the Orca Core Support Tri Singlet and ordered it. My new investment arrived yesterday, just in time for my scheduled swim. Orca Core Support Tri Singlet Bathing ...

The countdown to the Boiler Sprint Tri had begun. With only 10 days remaining before the event, I'm beginning to get nervous. One minute I'm all jazzed up to participate in the event; the next minute that awful feeling of nausea clutches at my stomach. This is when I wonder why I put myself through the discomfort of agonizing over training, eating, and goal setting. Not to mention the money I've spent on equipment, which is kind of silly as I'll never be competitive. If I let myself think about it too long, I end up feeling epically stupid over the amount I've sunk into the bike, the clothes, and most recently, the coolest sunglasses ever! The rational side of me looks condescendingly at the stupid side of me and says, "Really? That could have paid for your middle child's braces." My childish response is, "Yeah? Well, he doesn't have braces yet, so there." This back and forth goes on for awhile, until some other life business distracts me...

Mused: BellaOnline Literary Review No, today isn't one of my two blogging days for the week, but I wanted to share the link to Mused: BellaOnline Literary Review for those of you who would like to read the short story accepted for publication there. The story is under Fiction and is titled "The Garage Sale." And, those of you who do read the story, please let me know what you think, good, bad, or ugly. I'm in the process of putting a short story collection together, and I need as much feedback as possible to make the collection as strong as possible. In any case, I hope you enjoy it.

Yesterday was my first cycling commute to work for the year. I've been waiting very impatiently for the weather to warm up enough to ride, and while I know I could have been riding when it was sub-30 degrees, one terribly important reason not to stood in the way: my hair. Helmet hair is one thing. Helmet hair with headband hair (gotta cover the ears when it's that cold) is a totally different matter. Sure I could pull my flowing , long locks back into a ponytail once I get to work, but I wear my hair up so often as it is that I like having it down every now and again. Actually, the real reason I like it down is you can't see the all the gray right above the ears and at the temples. Those darn gray hairs have a mind of their own, all course and curly, so when my hair is down, they get covered up. But yesterday was warm enough not to have to wear the headband, and when I got to work, a colleague struck up a conversation about the blinking light I now have on the back of my ...

Spring break ended on a good note Sunday. I found myself completely caught up with work related issues. When I walked into my office yesterday after being gone for ten days, rather than having to sit down and read journal entries, papers, or the readings for the day's classes, I just sat and read one of my newest books, Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. I've already re-read the first two chapters; there's just so much I like about what she's saying that I want to think about it, remember it, lay it out next to my own work as I toil to find the just-right way of helping my characters say what they need to say. I even shared a paragraph from the book with my dev ed students. My cold frame: light enough for me to  lift. Today, when I had all class materials squared away within a half hour of getting to my office, giving me two hours to do "other" things before I had to go to class, I wondered why it took me so long to figure out just how much time I...

Okay, since Wednesday and my decision to cut back on the TV and the amount of time I spend online, I've realized I've wasted a lot of hours with both. In only two days, I've finished revising one of my short stories, getting it closer to the point of saying I love it enough to send out for possible publication, gotten further into a new story and am liking the direction it is going, completed my annual self-eval, completed reading and responding to the lit papers and midterms, and read three chapters in three of the four books I bought the other day. I also read the entire Bicycle Times magazine I picked up when I bought the books. (I highly recommend this magazine to all you cycling enthusiasts. The interview with Meaghan Wilbur in the current issue is absolutely wonderful.) I would have never gotten all of these things completed if I hadn't made the decision to give up the TV and Internet wandering. Seeing all of these items being checked off the list makes me feel a...

My favorite book store in town is going out of business. Unfortunate to say the least, but I was able to walk out today with an armful of good reads that cost me next to nothing. Paul Theroux's newest A Dead Hand , Joyce Carol Oates' In Rough Country and two other books along with two magazines are now piled on my desk, just begging me to lose myself in them. I've read the first chapter in three of the books, and am now thinking I'll save Oates for bedtime. Buying these books does add to a problem I already have, though: too many books to read and not nearly enough time to read them all. Well . . . truthfully I think there is time to read them all. I'm just not efficient with how I manage my time. Too much wandering through the labyrinth called the Internet. Too much time watching "Law and Order" on TV. Too much time tinkering with my short stories, two of which I polished up yesterday and sent off, hopefully to have accepted for publication, thus avail...

One of my Christmas presents was a DolphinTouch waterproof MP3 player by NU. I finally decided to get it put together so I could actually use it, and after today's swim, I'm hooked. Swimming while listening to music is bliss. My Swim Buddy The DolphinTouch is small and lightweight, and it comes with two zip-tie like bands to attach it to goggles. I was able to secure the player to my goggles without any trouble. From there, I simply inserted the waterproof earphones, being sure to screw the adapter in tightly to prevent water from getting into the MP3 player, and using the clips supplied in the package to connect the earphone wires to my goggle straps. Wa-la. Done. I had already connected the MP3 player to my computer and charged it up, and I had already downloaded the music I wanted to listen to. At 4 GB of storage, I have plenty of room to add lots of music, providing a variety to select from. All I had left to do was set the volume. I did a dry run with the goggles be...

Not quite the run I had hoped for, but given the cold (34 degrees with a real feel of 25), the wind (20 mph), the snow (really should have taken sunglasses), and the hills (four, two pretty good ones), I'm happy with the 30:10 I finished with. That's a 9:44 pace, much faster than this time last year, and much better than the 5k from four months ago. I finished 9th out of 21 in my age group, and though I wanted sub-30, I'm not disappointed. Actually, I'm kind of eager to see what I can do with better conditions. The first mile I heard the young lady call out 9:13 when I passed. I really just wanted to maintain that, and I think I did pretty good through mile 2. It was mile 3 that got me. The wind was in my face for much of that mile, and one of the tougher hills was during that mile, too. I know I slowed considerably. For not running outside for four months, I am very happy with how I handled the conditions and the course. I'm even happier with my mindset. My leg...

Ahhhh, to be on the bike again. What a great feeling. As I left for work this morning, I heard the forecast calling for sunny skies and a high of 52 degrees. Without a doubt, focusing on a full day of writing program issues during a mandatory in-service day was going to be tough when the first promising day for cycling had finally come along after four months of cold, snow, and wind. I briefly considered taking a personal day but then thought it better to do so in April, maybe May, when a truly beautiful, warm spring day is a given. Knowing my tendency to stare out the window and daydream, and already feeling the anticipation of cycling later in the day, I made sure to find a seat so my back was to the long-awaited sunshine. Only twice--okay, actually a few more times than that--did I turn to check out the blue sky, the wispy clouds. I thought about one of my rides from last summer that took me along the road in front of the college, one of my longer rides that had taken me out to ...