33: Taking Stock

Yesterday I turned 33. While my life isn't perfect by any means and while I sometimes struggle to accomplish my goals and to cross off everything on my to-do lists, the day served as a good reminder of the sweeter and simpler things in life. I sometimes forget how lucky I am. I spent the weekend hanging out with my spouse and with friends, and I really couldn't have asked for more. We had a delicious dinner out on Saturday evening followed by celebratory Irish themed drinks at the Saint Patrick's Day party some friends hosted. Then yesterday we went for brunch with a couple of friends. After gallons of coffee and the delicious Kodiak Benedict at Snow City, Mark treated me to a little bit of shopping and yummy cupcakes from Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop. I received some thoughtful gifts -- including the complete set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8, the Oxford Companion to Beer, beautiful flowers, and some lovely jewelry. Friends and family members called, texted, and sent me emails and FB greetings. All of this made me believe that some of the ennui I've been feeling lately is just a touch of spring fever and not a more debilitating listlessness.

This past year has been one of big moves, big trips, big mountains, big running, and big lists. In terms of trying new things and having new adventures, I checked 20 items off of my 32 in 32 list. In doing so, I found out that brussel sprouts and green monsters are not only edible but possibly tasty, that a month of daily yoga is well-worth doing, that snowshoeing is fun, and that gel manicures are totally worth the extra cost once and while. I still want to knit a scarf and make my own bagels and pasta and non-fugly pie crust; and an international race is in my near future. Maybe a group run in NYC will be too.

1. Climb a mountain. ✔
2. Learn to make pie crust that doesn't look fugly.
3. Take a dance lesson. ✔
4. Give brussel sprouts another chance. ✔
5. Go for a run in the Parque de Dehesa de la Villa in Madrid. ✔
6. Enter a contest.
7. Try snowshoeing. ✔
8. Get a gel manicure. ✔
9. Go an entire day without speaking.
10. Knit a scarf.
11. Go on a picnic. ✔
12. Face my fear of oral surgery. ✔
13. Do yoga everyday for an entire month. ✔
14. Go on a group run in NYC.
15. Get a zoom lens for my camera and experiment with it. ✔
16. Make my own pasta.
17. Throw a dinner party. ✔
18. Bring my half-marathon total to 10. ✔
19. Keep a travel journal this summer and share some of it on the blog. ✔
20. Have a spa day with a friend. ✔
21. Run my favorite routes here before I move. ✔
22. Spend a Sunday afternoon in my favorite museum. ✔
23. Volunteer at an animal shelter.
24. Go an entire day only speaking Spanish. ✔
25. Create an inspiration board to put over my treadmill. ✔
26. Go for a run in Central Park. ✔
27. Visit the corral at Alcalá de Henares.
28. Go to the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.
29. Run a race in another country.
30. Make my own bagels.
31. Try a green monster. ✔
32. Visit LA for the first time.



Although I don't plan to make a 33 in 33 list right now, I think this was a worthwhile exercise to push myself to try some things or at least think about trying some things that I might not have had I not made this bucket list of sorts. It's not on my 32 in 32 list or on the nonexistent 33 in 33 list, but the next adventure I have in mind is going tubing next weekend.

Have you ever made a bucket list? What's one thing that you would like to do before your next birthday or to celebrate your next birthday? 

September in Review

September really just hasn't been my month. Setbacks and unforeseen issues, like the office situation and property damage, have been difficult to deal with and were not things that I anticipated when I set my goals at the beginning of the month. However, I've done my best to keep my chin up and to keep moving forward with what I can. I don't feel that I fully accomplished any of my September goals, but I made pretty substantive progress with all but one of them.

My goals for September were:

1. Devote a minimum of 15 hours a week to research and writing which would be directed toward the following:
A) Get as close to possible to finalizing the transcription and the edition of the primary source texts for the co-edited volume.
B) Have a finished draft of the article manuscript I've been working on this summer.
C) Make progress on the conference paper I'll be presenting in late October.
I would have to say that I did alright with this. There was one week when I didn't come anywhere close to 15 hours of research and writing, as I was dealing with insurance agents and contractors thanks to the damage the winds did to our property and also was sick that week. However, the other weeks I either hit or came very close to logging those research and writing hours. I feel like I have started establishing good work patterns. I didn't quite get any of the projects that I wanted to off my desk, but I got closer to doing so with all of them.

2. Make running a priority and run 80 miles in the month of September.
I did suffer some setbacks and missed a couple of runs here and there and didn't quite hit 80 miles. However, I feel like I did make running a priority and had a solid month, logging 68.54 miles in total. This is my highest monthly mileage total for a year, so I'm pleased with my progress. I also ran a really solid 10K (more on that later).

3. Get back to maintaining my food journal. 
I have not done very well with this. Back in the spring (right before I fell of the journaling wagon) I switched from my old journaling system to Sparkpeople and for some reason I just can't seem to get into the groove with this new system. This next month I'm going to try setting some daily google reminders to journal and hopefully that will help me to establish the habit once again.

4. Finish unpacking and get organized.
Well, as I mentioned on Friday, my unpacking has been somewhat derailed by the campus office situation and further derailed by the home desk situation. We have most of our stuff hung up, but there are still some odds and ends to deal with in addition to my books, research files, diplomas, etc. I think with the exception of the items that I'm planning to take to campus we need to make a concerted effort to finish the job in the next few weeks.

5. Spend some time exploring my new city.
I did alright with this one. I acquired a library card. M. and I went to a beer festival. I ran a local 10K on one of the trails. I went in search of a local pumpkin spice latte. And this morning M. and I had brunch at a local restaurant. There is still plenty to explore and check out, but I am at least not spending all of my time on campus or at home.

I should say that September hasn't been all crying and gnashing of teeth or goals. I reencountered one of my favorite beers, hosted a little football-watching party, had a couple of colleagues over for dinner, baked a lemon cake with ginger cream cheese frosting, and went to a few fabulous yoga classes.

How was your September? Those of you who maintain food journals, what system do you use and why do you like it as opposed to other methods?

Travels: Montreal

First off, while I was in Montreal, the awesome Jodi featured me on her blog, so go check out my interview with her!

After several days with my husband's family in Toronto, we took the train to Montreal to spend a day and a half there.  M. had been several times, but this was my first trip to Montreal.  It wasn't nearly long enough to explore such a truly excellent city.  Although I am very partial to Chicago, Puebla, New York, and Toronto, on first impressions, I would put Montreal up there as one of the best cities in North America.  It had an incredibly cosmopolitan kind of vibe and almost everyone that I saw of all genders, races, sizes, and ages was incredibly stylish.  If McGill wanted to hire me, I wouldn't hesitate to go.

At the quays

M. and I packed as much as we could into our time there.  Once we arrived and got checked into our hotel, we immediately set off to explore.  We walked around the quays of the Old Port, saw some street theater in the city's historic district, and had a delicious dinner at one of the many restaurants on Rue St. Denis, followed by dessert at Juliette & Chocolat, and a couple of microbrews on a bar patio.  I had the Dieu du Ciel Rosée d'Hibiscus, which was a lovely wheat beer with a very floral nose on it.

Street theater in the old city

M's brownie at Juliette & Chocolat

Tasty Microbrews

I had wanted to run in Montreal, but the weather forecast for the second day we were there was threatening thunderstorms.  I decided to forgo my run in order to head out earlier in the day and hopefully beat the rain for a hike up the mountain with M.  The views of the city from the mountain were incredible and well worth the trek.  I saw lots of runners out and felt a little bit guilty for having skipped my run.  I think I got in some decent exercise, though.  By the time M. and I made it down from Mont Royal, it was lunchtime and we were starving.  In order to be fair and scientific we decided to sample bagels from both Fairmount Bagel and St. Viateur Bagel.  Both were delicious, but I'm going to give St. Viateur a slight edge.  We spend the afternoon museum-ing and doing some shopping as the rain poured down.  In the evening we got all gussied up and went to a light show at the Basilica. Unfortunately, it was still raining so I didn't get any pictures.  Also it was a shame that the light show turned out to be mainly cheesy historical reenactments of important events in the building of Notre Dame and it was pretty underwhelming.  Our dinner made up for it, though.  We had an incredible meal at a restaurant in the old part of the city, called Aix Cuisine du Terroir.

From Mont-Royal

I would have loved to have spent another day in Montreal, but we were due in Boston on Friday evening so we woke up early the next day and picked up our rental car to drive to make our way down.

That's all for now.  I have a recap of my time in Boston and a race report to post soon.  I'm hoping to catch up on everyone's blogs later today and tomorrow.  We just got home from our vacation last night (delayed for a few extra hours due to the discovery of a leaky front tire while still in the airport parking garage), and I had to be up and on campus early this morning for a MA defense, as I was sitting on the committee.

What is your favorite city in North America?  What do you love about it?

Back At It

The past few days have been great.  I read magazines and a book about running.  I watched countless episodes of Scrubs and a few of Buffy.  I painted my nails.  I drank beer (Bell's Oarsman Ale - good but a bit tarter than I normally like in a beer and Two Brother's Cane and Ebel - delightful and hoppy) on a friend's porch.  I went running with a good friend.  I caught up with an old friend over the phone.  Unless I was getting up to run, I didn't set an alarm clock.  I picked scenic routes for my runs instead of convenient ones.  I relaxed after my 19 miler on Sunday and didn't feel guilty about not working on something.

I feel refreshed and ready to work again.  Although I'm not teaching for the summer, I know that it's crucial to my career to publish my research.  I have a journal article to revise and resubmit, two conference papers/article drafts based on new research to write, and work on my book manuscript and proposal to do over the summer.  In other words, I have more than enough to keep me busy for at least 40 hours a week this summer.

My major goal for this week is to start tackling article revisions.  I also want to spend at least a few hours doing some reading, note-taking, and organizing to get started on one of those conference papers.  To-do lists, balance ball and standing desk, ahoy!  I'm hoping that after a few days I'll find a nice work rhythm that I can keep up over the summer, but that will still allow time and energy for running, drinking beer on the deck, and making fun of my spouse for his Game of Thrones obsession.

What's on your agenda this week?