Pumpkin Carving!

So again, this is about six months overdue, but in mid-October we had a pumpkin carving party with friends, yummies (like pumpkin doughnuts and cider), and power tools. Here are a few photos from the event!

Overdue update

So it's approaching six months since I last posted anything and that, frankly, is pathetic. Now it's true that for some strange reason I've started hibernating during the Minnesota winters (not a strange approach to the mind-numbing cold, grey, and dismal experience that is winter, but that I didn’t feel this way growing up in MN) but I do not find that excuse enough for completely not posting a word for near half a year. Anyway, the big updates:
1) In November, the school district I was working for did not pass their levy, which meant that I would be without a job come next fall.
2) In short time I decided that didn't sit well with me and I decided to start looking for a job.
3) Within about six weeks I applied for and was hired at TRIO Wolf Creek: a charter school in Chisago Lakes, MN (hooray!)
4) I've almost completed my first term there and am very happy (I work from home two or occasionally three days a week, I respect and enjoy my coworkers, and the actual work is much more fulfilling.)

That’s the big news for me. As far as family and friends go:
1) One of my oldest and dearest friends from high school had her first baby in January (Welcome to the world, Miss F!)
2) Matthew received tenure at the University of Minnesota (Congrats!)
3) Jason started a new career in actuarial work (Excellent!)

I am finding the longer days and tempting warmth (40 plus degrees) of spring invigorating and have started running again (training for the TC Marathon), planned a micro-con of relaxation, hiking, and games for a group of ten friends, and picked up my paints. I also hope to finally start a garden this spring/summer; I have grand visions but I think I should start out a bit humbler than my Martha-inspired aspirations.

Happy Spring! Persephone has returned (I keep wondering why she had to eat six pomegranate seeds)!

Twin Cities Marathon

The good news: I finished! However, once we were several miles into the run I knew I would not be finishing at a better time than Grandma's. I've posted a number of pictures and you'll see than I am a) soaked from pouring water on my head and/or soaked from my own sweat and/or b) I've lifted up the bottom part of my tank top so it wouldn't be so darn hot. Jason was once again a fantastic running partner but after mile 19 we agreed to split up. Besides be a great running partner, Jason is also a significantly faster runner than I am. Running too slowly can be difficult on the body as well. I knew around mile 13 that I wouldn't be running much more of the race so Jason and I agreed to walk most of miles 15-19 and then go our separate ways. He finished just under 5:00 and I finished around 5:37 (I think this is correct.) Both my parents, Jesse, and Matthew were there as well as my soon-to-be-newlywed friends Ian and Laura (a very nice surprise!) Everyone was very supportive and as we passed my parents at mile 14, I desperately shouted, "Ice!" at them and I was kindly met by a giant cup of ice the next time I saw them. Jesse was at Lake Calhoun, the beginning of Minnehaha parkway, mile 17, and mile 23. Matthew and my parents were at mile 19 (just before the Franklin Bridge) and everyone was at the finish line. Even though this marathon was a lot tougher heat wise (humidity was around 80%) I felt better at the finish line than at Grandma's. I also have to give out a big, "Thank you" to the wonderful strangers who were handing out ice all along the last five or six miles of the course; it was a life saver! I haven't made up my mind about another marathon yet, but there are a couple that intrigue me: The Whistle Stop Marathon in Wisconsin (near Lake Superior) the second weekend in October (for next year) and the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon in Anchorage Alaska (mid-June), oh, and of course the New York Marathon (November next year). We'll see.

The first weeks of school

It’s hard to believe that the first three weeks of school are almost over. Teaching at two schools every other week certainly makes time fly; unfortunately, it also makes it hard to get to know the students. Overall, I think things are going well considering it’s my first year of teaching. But I also have considerable room for improvement: particularly in my classroom management skills. I know if I want to stay in this long term I need to buff up those skills quickly. I don’t want to be a pushover but I don’t want to be a crabby control-freak either. I think finding the right balance will be a continual challenge. In other teaching news, I was briefly on KARE 11’s “What’s Cool in Our School” last week. All I can say is that they did a nice editing job.

New Job!

Some of you may already know, but about a week and a half ago I was offered and accepted a new job! (actually, I was offered two positions and had to choose between them). The story begins in April when I found out that my position with Minneapolis Community Education was excessed (meaning I wasn't laid off but I wasn't guaranteed a position). Anyway, shortly after my spring break trip to California, I started searching and applying for jobs in the education field. It was a frustrating six weeks before I heard anything, but finally I was asked in for an interview with an after school, nonprofit program the day I left for Grandma's Marathon. A week or so later, I was asked in for a second interview with the same organization. I was very excited and hoping that things would work out with them but then I received a call from Robbinsdale Area Schools. They wanted me to come and interview for an art position. I was now hoping and not hoping to be offered both positions. And indeed I was. I was happy about the nonprofit, which called me first, but when I received the call from Robbinsdale, I started shaking and crying; I felt as though my entire eudcation and the past five years working for AmeriCorps, substitute teaching, and piecing together odd education jobs were validated in that moment. After a few calls to friends/family to discuss the options, I decided to accept the position with Robbinsdale. I am now a K-5 art teacher for Meadow Lake and Northport Elementary. For the most part, I will switch between schools every other week which I find more appealing than driving between two schools every day. I am excited, nervous, and astonished. I am also hoping that the next few years can be a bit calmer (no marriages, home -buying, puppy raising, or job changes).

Marathon post (both subject and length)!

Hooray! I finished my first marathon two days ago and while I had hoped to finish a bit faster, overall it was a great accomplishment of which I am very proud. I couldn't have done it without the support of family and friends, especially Jason, who encouraged me and motivated me the whole 26.2 miles. For a not quite blow-by-blow breakdown of the pre-race and day of, see below. Photos to follow soon.

Friday afternoon Matthew, Jason, Jesse, and I drove up together reaching Duluth in about 2.5 hours. We reached the convention center where we were to pick up our race packets and the otherwise good flow of traffic quickly turned into a stop and go hell. For those of you who don't know, I am horrible and pretty much at my worst when my forward movement is impeded by others (whether on foot, in a car, etc.) Jason and I exited the car while Jesse and Matthew toughed it out waiting for a parking spot. I thought the traffic was bad, but inside it was worse. If I ever doubted I was an introvert a la Myers-Briggs/Keirsey, it was confirmed as I entered the aimless, seething mass of humanity and countless booths of running gear and pointless marketing paraphernalia. I broke into my State Fair-walking tactic of quickly weaving through dumb-struck adults, strollers, and small children, attempting to make my way to the race packet area at the back of the center. I reached the race packet area in tact but alone; I pretty much left Jason to fend for himself. I felt much better once I had packet in hand and it finally occurred to me that there were probably other ways out than the way I had come in. We all connected in the service halls flanking the convention space and promptly headed to Two Harbors where we stayed with family friends.

That night Matthew gave me a tarot reading on the race and it really helped me prepare for the marathon. I've never seen tarot as a "see into the future" sort of thing but instead a conduit to tap into your subconscious and bring forward concerns, challenges, etc. so that as an individual you can address them in a more concrete arena: a Jungian/existential exercise if you will. I was concerned about a lingering injury and really wanted to finish in under five hours. But by doing the reading with Matthew, it helped me understand that the goal for my first marathon was to have fun and finish healthily.

That night, I slept decently, but woke at 4:30. I couldn't really get back to bed so I took my time getting ready for the race and enjoying the sunrise over Lake Superior. By the time everyone else was up and about I was nervous/excited/happy, grinning from ear to ear. Jesse dropped Jason and I off at the shuttle bus pick up around 6:30 and we headed to the starting line. On the bus we overheard other people's stories about Grandma's and other marathons and it was very reassuring; there was a great sense of community and support amongst the runners that I hadn't anticipated. Sitting in front of me was a woman in her forties who had run the Boston Marathon (you have to qualify in order to participate in that race; for women in the 40-44 age group, the qualifying time is 3:50:59 or better.) Running in the Boston Marathon has always been a minor dream of mine since attending Wellesley and cheering on the runners as they passed the college. I figure if I decide to stick with the running thing, ten years is enough time for me to "shave" an hour and 28 minutes off my marathon time - about ten minutes each year. We'll see. Once we were dropped off, Jason and I quickly headed for the Biffys. There was a long line and I was rather anxious that we wouldn’t have time to “take care of business”. But all was well and we made it to the 5:00 estimated finish time line up. We then waited about five minutes after the gun went off, listening to epic music such as the theme from “Pirates of the Caribbean” before we even started moving. It was another two minutes until we crossed over the start line and our ChampionChips activated.

The first five miles or so were fairly crowded but steady. Jason and I amused ourselves finding groups in matching outfits and noticing a number of women runners wearing sport-skirt contraptions: basically a tennis skirt over bike shorts. I am still trying to figure out the point of them. On a dissimilar female note, I was upset to discover that my race number not only had a pink background (I’m a girl!) but also started with the letter “F” whereas Jason’s was a plain old number. What’s that all about? I mean can’t they also put an “M” in front of the men’s number? Or have one gender’s numbers start at 6000 or something? I understand the need to track them separately since individuals’ placements are ranked by gender, but really!

Miles six through ten were great as we were finally warmed up and the crowd of runners thinned out. As we passed through the water stations, music blaring “Feeling hot, hot, hot!” Jason and I danced, skipped, and sashayed to the music. Some of the views of Lake Superior were amazing; the lake was so calm and serene you could see the rocky bottom in the shallow areas– I have rarely seen it that way. Jason and I continued to make the occasional snide and catty remark, Jason accidentally using his outside voice when doing so. I was feeling really good through these miles and think I pushed the pace a bit too much (one of my goals for Twin Cities is to do a better job maintaining my pace). We saw Matthew, Jesse, and our family friend Liz at mile 9. Matthew had made a poster with the words, “Wonder twin powers activate! Form of a carbonated beverage, shape of a bean burrito.” Let’s just say that Jason and I each have a similar but different physiological method of expressing how quickly we metabolize our fuel when running.

Miles eleven through fifteen were still going quite well. The scenery was getting a bit old (one of the few negative about Grandma’s is that for the majority of the race it is one long, straight road with trees on either side) but there were plenty of people cheering us on, handing out Vaseline, turning on hoses and sprinklers (the weather was pretty hot for running – 67 at 7:30 in the morning and 75 by late morning.) Much of the water I took at stations was poured over my head and at several point my shorts were soaking wet; hooray for wicking fabrics! They also had ice at the water stations which was fantastic since I’d throw it in my water bottle and then have icy cold water to pour on myself or Jason. At several points we could see Duluth in the distance We saw my parents at mile 14, my mom jumping up and down, waving a red bandana, teary-eyed, my dad running along side us saying we were looking good.

Miles sixteen through twenty were ok, but I think this is where I really started to slow down. Miles seventeen through eighteen were rough because it was so sunny (I wore a visor which helped a great deal but the part in my hair eventually got sunburned), I was ready for a change in scenery, and I was starting to feel tired. Jason was great in helping me stay positive and focused during this time; we celebrated each time we crossed a mile marker, hooting and hollering, another mile down. We saw Dale and Linda, my in-laws, at mile 19 as we started to enter Duluth. They had bottles of water, one of which I snatched and promptly poured over my head. In Duluth there were a number of frat-boy partiers handing out beer (I really wanted some but refrained) and cheering us on.

Miles 21 through 25.5 were the toughest. My knee started bothering me around mile 22 or 23 and we were running through not-so-scenic areas of downtown Duluth. I walked much of miles 23 through 25, but Jason reminded me that we’d finish under six hours (the cut off time for officially finishing) even if we walked the rest of the way. We saw my parents and in-laws again around mile 24 which encouraged me to run/shuffle as we passed them and then Matthew and Jesse shortly thereafter. Matthew had another sign and Jesse ran up beside me whispering, “I’m so proud of you.” Those helped me go another block or so. I picked up a jolly rancher from a volunteer around mile 24 and as sad as this sounds, the distraction of crunching and eating the candy, kept me going to mile 25. Somewhere around this time an older gentleman who had been keeping pace with us ran ahead, kindly wishing me well for the rest of the run and remarking on Jason’s great job as a supporter and encourager.

I wanted to keep walking until I could see the finish line, but Jason knew I had it in me to step it up the last three-quarters of a mile. We started running/shuffling again and I was determined to jog the rest of the way to the finish and kick it in at the end. I don’t know how many times that last ten minutes or so my negative, just stop running voice nagged me. But we rounded the last corner and I could see the mile marker for mile 26 and knew I was almost there. In the distance was the balloon arch marking the finish line. I started to pick up the pace and I think we passed the man who ran ahead of us earlier. When I saw the finish line I pushed it to the end, finishing at 5:18:36. I was so happy, proud, physically and emotionally exhausted, and basically overwhelmed by the whole experience. I gave Jason a big hug and we walked forward to receive our medals and shirts for finishing. I was shell shocked for the next 30 to 45 minutes as we grabbed food (they had mint chocolate chip ice cream!) and connected with our cheering section (apparently the area where families meet the runners is poorly set up at Grandma’s; I was rather oblivious to most things going on around me at that point.)

On the car ride home (and here I must thank Jesse who drove everywhere during the trip even though he loathes driving) I was already thinking about Twin Cities and how I can better prepare for my next marathon. I don’t know yet if I’ll run more than those two but the first was a great and humbling experience. Never in my life have I been so happy and proud of performing in the bottom 15%.

Two and a half day countdown

While I think my life is rarely exciting enough to blog about, an interesting tidbit is that I am running Grandma's Marathon with my brother-in-law in less than three days. While I feel relatively prepared physically (I've already run over 27 miles in one go for training) I'm concerned about the mental game: not letting the negative thoughts weigh me down. I'm also wondering how I will feel once I finish my first marathon. During my long training runs I've never had a strong sense of accomplishment at the finish; it's always been more of a check mark, "Yep, completed that step." Anyway, I hope to feel glorious and proud (and exhausted) by 1:00 pm on Saturday June 16th.