August 2016 in Review

It's been a few weeks since I've had a chance to post here. The rest of my trip was a whirlwind of research, seeing friends, playing tourist, frenetic writing, and an academic conference. My itinerary took me from Valladolid back to Madrid and then on to Paris, Leiden, Bruges, Gent, Cologne, and Frankfurt before I headed home. One of the major highlights was going to Moulin Rouge, Versailles, and out for a night on the town in Paris with my friend Adeeb, whom I met a decade ago in Mexico City but whom I hadn't seen in person in almost as many years. While in Paris, I got in a somewhat bewildering 9 mile run that took me through my neighborhood, along the Seine, and around the Eiffel Tower. The addition of Leiden into my itinerary was a bit last minute, but it enabled me to see another friend after far too long and to ride a bike along a Dutch canal.

My academic conference was productive and intellectually stimulating. Plus, it took place in Bruges, where I'd never been. In between papers, I explored some of its streets and churches and ate my weight in waffles, frites, and chocolate. And the beer was more than amazing! It was also lovely to see professional friends. I roomed with my friend John, and we were able to get in a short run together and take a quick trip to Gent for some more church and castle exploring before I made my way to Germany and after two days there back to my corner of the Arctic.

Once I got back home, I had to immediately begin to prepare for the start of the semester since classes commenced on Monday. I also have a big deadline looming so I've been working toward that. I have managed to eek out a little bit of progress toward my goals.

I'm eking closer to my mileage goal for the year, but am likely going to fall short of this one, and that's probably okay. In August I ran 64.3 miles. Of course with my traveling schedule I encountered some challenges in fitting in all my scheduled training runs. However, I only missed one long run on the trip and usually managed to run at least two short runs a week. The same can not be said of this week since I've had a nasty cold and haven't run at all.

Like July, August was quite research focused. I finished up my archival work for the summer and wrote and presented a conference paper. I would like to continue the positive momentum and continue carving out an hour here and there to work on my new book project. I also recently received a revise and resubmit for a journal article that I submitted in the spring and will need to find some time over the coming months to deal with revisions.

Because I rarely had an internet connection for my last week in Madrid and then couldn't get my phone to connect to the wifi in my Paris hotel, I kind of fell off the wagon with my gratitude app. I'm hoping to use it more consistently in September. The bright side of not having internet access meant that I didn't waste time reading way too many comments on the internet so that likely contributed to my over all health and well-being in August.

Also because I was on the go, I didn't have much sustained energy or time for other types of writing. However, I did have a piece of non-academic writing accepted for a publication by a local literary journal! Their fall issue will be publishing a poem that I wrote over the summer.

If you're going back to school, how has the start of your term been? What was one of the highlights of the last full month of summer?

June 2016 in Review

Forgive this post for being a bit bare bones, but I had it all drafted (but not yet proofread or saved) and stepped away from the screen for a few moments when my laptop randomly decided to restart. I lost the entire post. I've been having problems with my computer for awhile so July will bring an appointment to the Genius Bar among other things. I really hope I don't have to shell out the money for a new computer as that is not really in my budget right now. Aside from these annoying technological difficulties, June was a good month for me. I raced; I traveled with my awesome spouse; I hiked; I wrote; I spent time on my yoga mat and with friends; I accomplished one of my goals for the year and made progress on the others.

1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it. I get to check this one off and put it in the Win column! I PR'ed at the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon and am still pretty happy about it. Ideally, I'd like to run an even faster marathon in Chicago, in October but I'll have to see how training while traveling goes over the next couple of months. In June I ran 63.25 miles and that brings me to 335.56 miles for the year. I've got some ground to cover in the second half of the year if I want to bring my running total to 800 miles for 2016. I'm hoping my body feels more capable of speeding some of those miles back up soon as right now I'm still feeling like each run is a bit like trying to move my legs through a vat of molasses.

2. Make significant progress on other research projects. I transcribed a number of documents in June and created a sort of database to help me keep track of a number of them as I progress through reading, transcribing, and starting to puzzle things together for this project. I'll know more once I've wrapped up my archival recon mission in Madrid and Toledo in a few weeks. I also have a paper to write for an upcoming conference and, although it's not specifically related to my research, I still need to finish that book review and send it off to the journal before I leave for Europe. The review, archival work, and the conference paper are my top priorities for the next few weeks in terms of my academic research and writing.

Corral del Coliseo in Seville, where I stayed on my last research trip two summers ago

3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. I used my Gratitude app 19 days in June. While I freely admit I have a lot of room to improve with regards to consistency, I've been doing better about journaling and being mindful over the past few weeks after a decline in this from about the middle of the spring semester until about a month ago. My decision a few weeks back to try to limit my use of social media and email has fed into this goal. My marathon was also in many ways an exercise in gratitude and optimism.

4. Write some non-academic things. I'm not sure whether or not I'll have a full draft of the short story I'm working on done by July 14th as I underestimated how much was going on (friends visiting, fundraising, academic responsibilities, travel planning, etc.), but I have been working on this and some other things (more about this eventually). Some of it is atrocious and will never see the light of day, but some of it might have potential. We'll see. I hope to have more news to report related to this goal in the coming months.

Midway through 2016, how are you feeling about your year so far? Is there something that you want to focus your energies on for the rest of the summer?

"Pissing on the Present"

A few weeks ago, one of my yoga instructors was describing the challenges many of us face in tuning out mental chatter and focusing on being in the moment. She remarked, "if you have one foot in the past and one in the future, you are pissing on the present." These words resonated with me, as someone who is prone to dwelling on the past (after all I am a historian) and sometimes not in especially constructive ways and as someone who is also prone to worrying about the future. What if? What if? What if? These past few weeks of the summer have presented me with the chance to spend more time in the present moment in my yoga studio. There are definitely still moments when I'm thinking about the past (and not just the seventeenth century) or fretting about the future (Alaska's economic outlook especially) or tuning out (wasting time on social media), but I've tried to take those words to heart and spend more time centered and aware of the now.

Through more time on my yoga mat and on the trails I've been able to physically engage my body so as to help bring my mind into flow. In some ways it's a lot easier to do this in warrior poses and in the fifth mile of an eight mile run than it is to do this when seated at my desk (or, to be more honest, on my couch) and trying to write. Sometimes I can even be absurdly prone to multitasking and tooling around on email and Facebook while watching a show I enjoy. Enough of that! Life's too short to spend so much of it pissing on the present.

I don't need to post the flowers to Facebook to appreciate them.

Now that my summer class is winding down, I'm hoping to spend a bit more time offline in an effort to cultivate presence rather than pissing. I love Facebook and Twitter and blogs, and they absolutely do have some positive attributes (even for the act of writing), but they can also send me into a type of writing and thinking malaise in which I get stuck in a labyrinth of newsfeeds, and by the time I escape I have no mental energy or time left to be creative. So I've decided to put some new limits in place -- at least temporarily. Between the time I finish my online class this Friday (if not actually the grading for it) and the time I leave for Madrid in the middle of July, I intend to limit my connectivity to email, Facebook, and other forms of social media to just two or three 45-60 minute intervals a day. I still plan to interact with friends on social media and to read and comment on blogs, I just want to do it more mindfully.

I hope that by limiting my use of social media (and to a lesser extent to my laptop and phone more generally) to certain times of day that I'll not only have time for more yoga and running but also more time for researching and writing and novel reading during this period in which I'm off contract and have fewer demands on my time and obligations to students and colleagues. I really want to cultivate my identity as a writer and not just an academic one over the coming few months and especially in the next few weeks. I feel vulnerable and self-conscious but also excited about committing to spend more time engaged in non-academic writing. I'm giving myself a deadline of July 14 to complete a rough and gnarly first draft of a short story. It's time to stop pissing on the present because I'm worried about how long it's been since I've written in certain different modes or how rusty I am or how freaked out I am about the idea of future failure or about how poorly I might compare to others.

It's time to get comfortable with this feeling of discomfort. If I fail, I fail. At least I'll have been present.

May in Review

May has been like a magical elixir that has restored me to former self. The past few weeks have been a nice balance of work --I'm teaching a 5-week summer course, doing research, working on an assessment report, and have had some development workshops -- and play. I've been running, hiking, indulging in a couple of series on Netflix, and catching up on some yard work and other projects. I've managed to spend a bit of time lounging on my deck while reading novels and drinking some vino and cerveza, too. 

1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it. My mileage total for May was 75.21 miles. Time on the trails this month included lots of good conversations with running buddies and moose, muskrat, and duckling sightings. I've been mixing in at least one yoga class and often two each week here lately for some good stretching and strengthening. With the Seattle Marathon now less than three weeks away, I'm feeling alternating stretches of confidence and anxiety about my ability to PR. On the one hand, I've put in the time on my feet and followed the training plan with consistency. On the other hand, I'm logging slower paces than I did during my last marathon training cycle in 2011. I'll be writing a post dedicated to my goals for the race and some thoughts about this training cycle soon. 

2. Make significant progress on other research projects. My book is going into production, which has meant I've been dealing with some odds and ends related to it this month. There will still be some things to deal with in the coming months, but most of my focus has shifted to other projects. This past month I met my transcription goal. I've set a goal of at least 5 hours of transcription and research each week for the last week of May and throughout the month of June. I joined a new write on site group with some colleagues in other disciplines so that should help to keep me accountable to this goal and get me some quality distraction-free time to devote to it as well in between now and the time I go on my research trip to the archives later in the summer. 

3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. I was better about using my food journal and my Gratitude app this month. I didn't hit the 25 day mark for either of them, but I was more mindful than the previous month or so I'll take a partial victory lap. Even more importantly, there have been many opportunities for me to feel joy, contentment, and thankfulness over the past few weeks. It hasn't quite been a panacea, but I feel really blessed to have had the cameraderie of my local chapter of TNT over the past four months. I feel grateful for friendships both old and new. My dog has made me snort with laughter a lot lately. Even though a certain Canadian claimed we don't need to have our housecleaner come as often while I'll be gone, I still think he's swell and can't imagine a better partner. 

4. Write some non-academic things. I've only written and completed a full draft of one non-academic thing this past month that is not a blog post. I'm both surprised and not surprised by how vulnerable writing in another mode and sharing work (even with someone that I wholeheartedly trust) made me feel after only writing in an academic mode (aside from blogging and very incomplete things) for so long. Forgive me for not saying more. I'm not being coy, but I'm not quite ready to share more yet. Perhaps that will be another place to get comfortable with feeling discomfort in the coming weeks and months.

Does summer bring a more relaxed pace to your life? If you set goals for this year, how do you feel about your progress now that we're almost half-way through 2016?

More on the Running/Writing Parallel

I’ve blogged in the past about how running long distancesand marathon training and academic research and writing have a lot of parallels. I’ve been thinking about that quite a bit lately because of where I’m at in my current training cycle and where I’m at in my academic career as a researcher and writer. For the first time in a long time my pipeline is essentially empty. Articles based on my dissertation or side research project are out or under review. The critical edition I co-authored came out two years ago. My book Treating the Public is in the hands of my editor and the press production team.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about what it means to have written a book that is at least partially about the spaces charity, alms, and good works created for performance in the early modern period and what it means to perform charity today. They are very different beasts, but both are subjects I'm passionate about. Over the past several months I’ve dedicated numerous runs to those of you who have so generously sponsored me -- if I were a better actress I'd come perform monologues from early modern Spanish plays for you. I’ve given time, sweat, tears, and my own funds to training for the Rock and Roll Seattle Marathon, which is now just four weeks away.

Once again running and writing – or at least the mindset needed for them – seem to coextend and synchronize. Although there are still some things to be done for Treating the Public (and miles to be logged for Seattle) I am finally really embarking on another reserach project, which will hopefully grow into another book. It is daunting to have so few documents fully read and transcribed, such a limited sense of the shape the project will take, to have no idea if my next trip to the archives will be boom or bust (it’s usually never really bust, but I may not find things that answer the research questions I’m asking now). But it’s good to remember that I have the skills to do this; I’ve done this before; I can do this again. Like all big projects it will requre discipline and the investment of time and energy. I’m also beginning another training and fundraising cycle with Team in Training. Our Fall Team meets for the first time tomorrow to begin training. Another investment of myself that I know I'm capable of but that will require mental and emotional effort, especially once I leave on a research trip and have to run on my own in Madrid. 

My new research project is more about corruption and political intrigue than charity and is perhaps a fitting metaphor for running Chicago in October. I would love to have you sponsor me for Chicago (no amount is too small)! I promise not to embezzle your funds like a corrupt politician from the seventeenth or the twenty-first century! If you donate by the end of May, you will be entered into a raffle for a $25 amazon gift card. (You get one entry for every $10 donated to my fundraising efforts to Seattle or Chicago.) I will dedicate one of my training runs to anyone who donates and one of my marathon miles to you if you donate $50 or more.  You can donate by following this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/wa/chicago16/rballn

And with that I'm off to finish transcribing some seventeenth-century documents I have digitized. Wish me luck! 

Do you see any parallels between your work/vocation and your hobbies? Do you have any big projects or races coming up on the horizon?

Frenetic February 2016 in Review

The second half of this month has been insanely busy. At the moment, I feel really overextended because of a confluence of events and deadlines on top of the grading, committee work, class prep, and marathon training. I may require many centering moments and mini meditations and copious amounts of coffee and glasses of wine in order to not lose my sh*t over the next couple of weeks. Thanks to my husband's deft cooking skills and kindness and wine's antioxidants I probably won't contract scurvy. 

Even with the intense schedule, I've made some progress toward some of my goals. 

1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it. I was sick and off my feet for about a week during the middle of the month. However, I still feel like I'm making decent progress with my marathon training plan. I've had several good runs with my TNT group, including a 70 minute long run that featured a beautiful sunrise a couple of weeks back. In February I ran 39.55 miles and dedicated training runs to my friends Gail, Jen, John, Liz, Shanda, and Zeynep.  

Scenes from a 6.3 mile training run dedicated to my friend, colleague, and sponsor Liz

2. Make significant progress on other research projects. I only transcribed three documents this month so I didn't meet my transcription goal. I made better progress in some other research arenas. I wrote a research presentation and have made some significant progress on my article project. In the month to come, I'll largely be focused on working on a conference paper and copy edits to my book manuscript that just came back yesterday and have to be turned around pretty quickly. 

3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. Although I haven't used my gratitude app every day, I've used it most days. I've also tried to be kind to myself, to make yoga more of a routine for both my overall physical and mental health, and to not compromise when it comes to getting enough sleep. Exhaustion is the enemy of optimism.

4. Write some non-academic things.This has been on the back burner for most of this month as grading has mounted and academic writing deadlines have popped up. I'm alright with that as I'm still percolating on ideas for the short story I've been working on and writing down a sentence or two here and there. 

How are you progressing toward your goals for this year? Did you do anything special with your extra leap day?

January 2016 in Review

I know it's cliche, but I can't believe January is already over. The semester is in full swing. I already have piles of grading to do and more irons than fires to heat them. Yet, I'm not sure I would have it any other way. Here's a brief recap of my progress toward each of my big four goals for the year.

1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it.
I'm hoping to hit 800 miles this year, and in January I ran 41.15 miles. My first full week of marathon training with TNT is also in the books, and it was lovely to run with other members of the team. My most challenging run was probably just a short recovery run last Monday. The trails were really mushy and slick and my slow pace felt a lot harder than it should on a recover run. I might have bailed early had I not been with my buddy who shares my love of bright running clothes. My best run was probably Saturday's 50 minute run. I just felt steady and in-tune with my body the whole time. Also I was delighted that the trails were much less slippery than I anticipated. I did a fair amount of cross-training this month, as well, so 2016 is off to a solid start in the running and fitness category.

2. Progress on my academic research projects. I have been leading a writing group at my university and, as a result, over the past couple of weeks have made some good progress on revising a draft of an article I'm hoping to send out by the end of this term. As of yesterday, I have met my goal of transcribing five documents for my new book project this month. I've also started drafting a proposal for a conference paper. I'm hoping that I will get accepted and be able to go to the conference in August.

3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. There have been some pretty big obstacles to this: the Alaska economic problems and concerns about budgets at my institution have been worrisome. The semester started with the announcement of a hiring and travel freeze (thus, my uncertainty about being able to attend the conference if I'm accepted). We know more cuts will be coming. There's not much I can do about the price of oil, though, so I've been trying to focus on positive things and positive steps to change things I can control. One thing I've been doing is journaling daily in a gratitude app. I only missed one day in January. Another thing I've been trying to do is say thank you more frequently to colleagues who lend a hand and to students who are working hard inside and outside of the classroom. In general, I'm trying to be a bit more polite and patient. I am privileged in many ways.

4. Write some non-academic things. Well, I've already written more blog posts in 2016 than I did in 2014 and 2015 combined so there's that. I've started working on a short story, but I admit that I'm struggling a bit to find a voice and a style outside of the academic genre. It's been ages since I've written any fiction so it's not a surprise that I'm finding it to be alien terrain. We'll see how it goes, but I'm hoping to finish at least one draft of one short story by the end of the semester. I've been trying to get up early and research and write this piece two days a week, but due to the insidious workaholism to which I can be prone it's hard for me not to feel guilty for using that time to work on fiction rather than academic writing or class prep.

If you set any goals for the year, how is your progress going? Do you struggle with maintaining work-life balance and/or with feeling guilty about spending time on your interests and hobbies?

Goals and Intentions for 2016

As some of my friends and family members know, I can be something of a chronic goal setter. Obviously this tendency can be good for my professional ambitions and general productivity. However, it can also lead me to feel overwhelmed at times and to feelings of failure at others. It sometimes also creates situations in which it's hard for me to be still or to feel gratitude for a recent accomplishment before feeling like I have been slacking. It can make a person feel like she always needs to be moving on toward the next milepost. Knowing all of this about myself, I would like to set fewer major goals this year than I have in some (I'm looking at you, 2011 and 2012).

The truth is I know that I will continue to work hard to advance in my career, that I will continue to set goals for myself as a (pretty slow) runner, and that I will continue to challenge myself to grow in other ways, as well. I'd like to think that I would do this even without putting pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard in this case), and I probably would. Just in case, though, here are the big things I would like to do/accomplish in 2016.

1. Run my third marathon and PR while doing it. I'm registered to run the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon in June, and I will be doing it as a fundraiser for Team in Training! I ran my first marathon with them back in 2009, and I'm excited to be doing this again. If you would like to support my fundraising efforts, you can do so here. I'll be posting more about my training plans and workouts, as well as my fundraising endeavors and running musings, in the weeks to come. My intention is to do a lot more of the team workouts this time around than I did the last. Hopefully, that will connect me with some new running buddies. While it's really only an ancillary goal, I hope to hit at least 800 running miles over the course of this year. Time to remember my dailymile password. :)

2. Make significant progress on other research projects. In the spring semester I will be leading a faculty writing group at my institution, and my goal is to submit at an article to an academic journal by the end of the term. I'm also starting to dive into research for my next book project. There are a few contingent factors that make it harder to set more concrete goals at this point, but ideally I would like to transcribe and take notes on at least 5 documents a month during the spring semester. At the end of the term I'll be able to evaluate my progress (and I should also know about the status of some grants and fellowships) and can make further plans for the summer and fall. One of the things I did this past year, which I really got a lot out of on a number of levels, was making a writing pact with my seminar students, so that I had to produce the same number of pages that they had to for their final paper. I would definitely consider doing something like that again in the autumn semester.

3. Establish a mindful practice of gratitude and optimism. There are two key areas/development of habits that I want to focus on in this regard. One is keeping a gratitude journal by using the Gratitude app on my phone on a daily basis. The other is working to retrain my emotional responses to food and my body so that I don't associate so much value and judgment with food.

4. Write some non-academic things. One avenue for this will be this blog. Although it's debatable whether or not it's a good idea to do so pre-tenure, I'd like to write a couple more journalistic pieces even if it turns out that I can't find a home for them. I'd also like to try to return to writing some fiction in 2016. It's been a long time, so I plan to start with a couple of short stories. If it's possible without making work and life overly stressful, toward the end of the year I hope to participate in NaNoWriMo in November. November tends to be a rough month for academics, so if it doesn't work out I'm not going to sweat it.

What are your goals for 2016? If you posted about them, please feel free to share a link in the comments!

2015 in Review: Focus on the Positive

Well, I'm just going to come out and say that I'm not really sorry to see 2015 go. It was not the worst year of my life, but it was definitely up there in terms of crappiness. There were workplace issues (that I won't go into here) and budget issues that made the workplace issues even more challenging. There were health issues for both a beloved family member and for me. I didn't run much in the winter or spring so it was a pretty low mileage year for me. In the early summer, a week or two I submitted my book manuscript to the academic press with which I hoped to publish, I was on the phone with my best friend and pretty much broke down and wept tears of exhaustion, bitterness, anger, and sorrow. Because the first part of the year had been so hard, I had put all of my energy into finishing the book manuscript in order to cope. That meant I had been avoiding a lot of emotional discomfort, but it also meant that I had been working almost nonstop. I couldn't articulate a single goal or dream that wasn't career related. I felt like an automaton.

Since then I've been slowly digging out of that hole with a lot of help, but it's hard. There are still many low moments, when I'm reminded of exactly why the first part of the year was so challenging. Yet, I am resilient. I have some level of agency in all of this. I can make choices. And the year hasn't been all bad. Even during those dark times, there were many good things happened that buoyed my spirits and kept me moving forward. Here is a recap of some of them.

In January I took a trip to New York City to go to a conference. The highlights included meeting with several editors for presses and seeing some dear friends from graduate school. Later in the month Mark and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary.

In February I worked alongside some great students at a community service project. We celebrated Mark's birthday.

March brought the returning light to my northern abode. It also brought a fabulous spring break trip to visit friends in Florida. ANC friends helped me celebrate my birthday with a cupcakes and cocktail party at my house. I also directed an undergraduate research conference, which was an amazing academic experience for all involved.

In April I really returned to running. I ran a fun 5K with a couple of frolleagues (friends + colleagues). I tapped a birch tree for the first time and went on a sea life watching excursion with a couple of girlfriends.

May brought the end of the spring semester and with it more flexibility in my schedule. I turned my focus to finishing my book manuscript, but Mark and I were able to squeeze in some nice hikes, bike rides, and brunches.

During the first part of the month of June, I was completely focused on finishing the book. When I submitted, I didn't immediately get a bit of a break because I had previously committed to attend two back-to-back conferences in the Midwest. Although I don't recommend that and it was rather stressful, I love conferencing. I got to see a number of friends, talk intensely about research and approaches, and get good feedback on my new(ish -- I think I can still kind of call it new) side project. I also roomed with a copanelist at one of the conferences, and we got on like a house on fire and continue to be in touch about fun books and running as well as academic stuff, which was an unexpected but delightful boon. After the conferences I was able to tag on a visit to see my family for a week.

July allowed me to downshift a bit. We went on more hikes and bike rides. I read a lot of novels and bought an adult coloring book and a box of crayons. I went to a weekly yoga class with a couple of girlfriends. Mark and I also went sea kayaking, which was amazing!

In August we visited Mark's family for a few days in Toronto and at a cottage on a lake in the Ontario countryside, where my oldest niece learned to canoe and play card games that I have never mastered. My sister gave birth to a third baby girl! After our return, my dear friend Lizzie came to visit for a few days. The fall semester started, and the nerd in me couldn't help but fall for the promise of a new academic year. August brought me a lot of really great moments. Without a doubt, the best professional moment was hearing from my editor that my book had been recommended for publication.

September was a pretty quiet month, but it brought a 10K PR. I also drew up my plan for tackling the revisions for my book manuscript.

In October, I ran a half marathon. It wasn't a PR, but I achieved my time goal for the race and took several minutes off my time from this race back in 2012. Toward the end of the month I went to a conference in Vancouver. Although I didn't get to spend much time outside of the conference hotel, it's such a great city! I ate well. I saw friends. I talked about the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

November was pretty hectic, as I worked to finish manuscript revisions and grade my way through many piles of papers. I did the gratitude project which really helped my emotional and mental state at a dark and stressful time of the year. I also started running with a new friend here.

In December, I hosted a fun cookie party for the student organization I advise. Mark and I had a Chanukah Dinner Party featuring his delicious latkes. I watched some of my students graduate. I finished my book revisions and sent off my manuscript. Finally, we hopped on a plane and spent Christmas with my family. I got to meet my new niece and play pony castle and hide and seek, color, and read (and reread) books with my other two nieces on that side of the family.

In my previous post, I talked about making a more conscious effort to shift perspective and cultivate gratitude and happiness. So while I'm relieved to see 2015 go, I will also acknowledge that this year provided me with many beautiful moments and a number of opportunities for growth. I'm still working to overcome some of its challenges, but I'm thankful to have the chance.

What was your greatest challenge of 2015? What was one of your happiest moments of this past year? Happy New Year!

Currently: January

This month has really gotten away from me, but mainly for pretty mundane, work-related reasons. Here's what's been going on with me of late in currently fashion….

Current Netflix/TV Obsession: Even though neither seem to be as good as they were in the earlier series, I've been enjoying the return of Downton Abbey and now Sherlock. My guilty pleasure the past few months has been Dracula.

Current Running Revelation: I need to be doing more of it.

Current Food Journaling Progress: This past week involved a few meals out, so I had to do some guestimating. But I've journaled every day this month so far.

Currently Looking Forward To: I'm really looking forward to a trip to Hawaii next month. We're going to Maui! I've never been before, and I can't wait to enjoy some warmth, hike, and walk on the beach.

Current Book: I'm currently reading a novel in Spanish by Isabel Allende called Inés del alma mía. I'm reading a lot of fiction written by Latin American authors these days. Up next is The Underdogs, which was written by Mariano Azuela during the Mexican Revolution

Current Drink: I've really been enjoying Midnight Sun's beers here lately. If you can get your hands on any of them, I definitely recommend doing so. My favorites are the Panty Peeler Tripel and the Cocoho Imperial IPA.

Current Excitement: I'm pretty jazzed about the Super Bowl party that we'll be hosting on Sunday.

Current Fashion Trend: I may regret this, but I'm buying into the floral track pant trend. I'm not wearing them to work with a blazer yet, but that may change as the semester progresses. I jest… I jest….

Current Love: I love texting with my mom a few times a week in addition to our more or less weekly catch-up phone calls.

Current Food: I bought Mark a waffle maker for our anniversary, and I am enjoying reaping the rewards of my self-serving gift.

Current Indulgence: Dark Chocolate Açai Blueberries. We bought a big bag at Costco….

Currently Pondering: A haircut? I haven't been to the salon since early in the fall semester. It's pretty overdue, but I'm not sure what I want to have done to it at this point.

Current Mood: Pessimistic. For now I'll just say we are looking at some serious institutional budget cuts in the works, and I can't think that they will mean anything good for the overall quality of any of the facets of my professional life.

Current New Find: I'm not sure that I have one this month.

Current Outfit: Not the floral track pants. I hadn't planned to wear these particular tights with this dress, but I started to put on three pairs of black tights only to discover giant holes or runners in each.

Current Peeve: It's not a pet peeve exactly, but I've been irritated the last couple of times I've been to the gym because a) it's been more crowded since the new year (New Year's resolutions no doubt) and b) my favorite elliptical machine got removed from the premises.

Current Song: I really found all the songs that Lily & Madeleine sang on the NPR tiny desk concert they did incredibly charming, but I especially liked "Devil We Know."

Current Triumph: I broke through a bad and ill-timed case of writer's block to get an abstract sent off for a conference and to make some progress on a book chapter. I wrote/revised over six pages in about two hours yesterday.

Current Wish-List: I'm really wanting an end to this crisis in Higher Ed. I'm more likely to actually receive a nice Le Creuset Dutch Oven.

Currently Delaying: Grading some short writing assignments from one of my classes. I can't put it off too much longer, though.

Do you have a guilty tv pleasure? Are you planning to watch the Super Bowl? What's currently on your wish-list?

Four Goals for 2014

Somehow 2013 came and went, and I didn't do too much blogging during the year. Although I ran two half-marathons and a 10K, it was also a low mileage year for me (only about 520 miles logged and most in the first half of the year). While 2013 had some good moments and brought with it some opportunities for professional and personal growth, it wasn't my favorite of years for a variety of reasons that I won't go into here and now.  I'm welcoming 2014 as a symbolic reset and setting four major goals/intentions for the year to come.

1. End 2014 in better physical condition than I am starting it. I will get into better shape by running more -- hopefully closer to 750-800 miles and at least two half marathons: one in the spring (I'm still deciding between a race in Portland and one in Salt Lake City) and one in the late summer or early fall. I might also run one in the later autumn, depending on how the rest of my schedule is shaping up. I will also achieve this goal by maintaining a food journal every day for the entire year. For every day that I honestly log everything that I consume I will allow myself a dollar to spend. I'd also like to work toward eliminating most junk food and meat from my regular diet and trying at least one new healthy recipe a month. Finally, I will establish a regular meditation practice.

2. Work smarter (but not necessarily harder). This is a year when I really need to prioritize research and writing. To that end, I'm going to make a work plan and priority list at the beginning of each week, limit my use of social media during regular work hours Monday through Friday, limit my reading of and writing of emails to a couple of times a day, and make better use of small available blocks of time between meetings and classes. Those random half hours that appear when a meeting ends early or a student doesn't show up for an appointment seem like good times to grade homework or do a quick Italian lesson. I will also continue to strive toward a goal that has been successful for me over the past two years of writing or revising a minimum of 3 pages each week.

3. Take a class and learn a new thing or two. Aside from my continuing Italian lessons, I'd like to learn more new skills. Maybe I'll take a cross-country skiing class or an online photography class or a cooking class. Maybe I'll do all three.

4. Blog more (and more regularly) than I did in 2013 in order to be accountable and connect with wonderful communities on the internets.

Happy New Year! What are your goals or intentions for 2014?

Progress Toward Goals: April in Review

It's hard to believe but April is over and so are classes! I taught my last class of the year on Monday, and now I just have a final to administer tomorrow and exams and papers to grade. It's been a busy few weeks for me professionally, as I've had a lot of papers to read and mark, submitted a journal article, and served on a search committee. While I'm not feeling quite as well-rested as I would like for my upcoming half marathon, I am really looking forward to a bit of a break and perhaps some more spring-like weather.

So far the only flowers I've seen here this spring have come from the grocery store

I did pretty well with my fitness and health related goals this month. I definitely could have done more yoga, but I got in 65.32 miles running. I also walked a lot this month, but I didn't keep track of my mileage. I've been doing well with journaling in the form of tracking my points on Weight Watchers Online.

I consider this past month to have been a writing success, as I not only met my minimum page production goals each week, but in the early part of the month I exceeded them pretty significantly. Getting an article kicked out the door felt really good. Now it's just a matter of waiting and seeing what the journal editor thinks. My language study did drop off a bit this month, as I spent a lot of time marking papers and reading through applicants' files for a faculty position, but I did manage to continue to make a bit of progress.

My personal goals were again something of a hit or miss category. I epically failed again at re-jumpstarting my 365 project. But fun travels are upcoming and I'm determined to get back into the habit of taking pictures on a daily basis. I made progress with my novel-reading goal. I'm about a fifth of the way through Bolaño's mammoth tome 2666. I also read Aphra Behn's Ooronoko, which was deeply upsetting but incredibly interesting to me as a historian of the early modern period, and Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending, which had been recommended to me by a friend. It was interesting as an exploration of memory, but I have to say that ultimately I didn't love it. After going overboard with shopping and spending in March, April was a lean month for me. I honestly didn't feel much like shopping as the weather has not really been spring-like, but I'm tired of winter clothing. I spent about $20 on socks and nail polish.

How was April for you? If you set any goals for the year or new year's resolutions, how are you doing with them a third of the way through the year? Academics, has your term wrapped up yet?

An Unplanned Break

I hadn't intended to go almost two weeks without posting here, but in the days immediately following the terrible bombings in Boston and the devastating fertilizer plant fire in Texas. Most of last week I felt like anything I might write here might seem too trite and cliche for some, too self-indulgent for others, and maybe even too political for a few. I'm still trying to process all of it. I'm still angry and still sad.

By the time I felt like I might be ready to write again at all in this little space of mine, I had become inundated with work. It's the end of the semester, and I'm feeling the fatigue that comes at the end of the academic year. Between committees and grading and trying to get a manuscript off my desk and out to a journal before the end of the term, I've had little free time lately and what time I've had lately I haven't wanted to spend looking at a computer. I hosted a departmental/honors society event at my home so part of my typical bit of weekend downtime was used to clean my house both before and after the event. As this week started, I found myself still wading through my students' papers and through paperwork for several other service tasks. However, I did finally get that article sent out, after taking advantage of a grey and snowy day to power through some of the lingering revisions I had been putting off tackling and a final read through for copyediting and proofreading.

Ducks on a pond near my house

Although I wasn't blogging about it, I did also get some running done since I last posted. While I'm not quite where I hoped to be with my training, I had a solid 12 mile long run this past weekend and an 800 repeat session last week that gave me a bit of a confidence boost. I'm starting to feel both excited and nervous about the upcoming Vancouver Half Marathon. I head into taper mode in just a couple of days.

Progress Toward Goals: March in Review

March has been a pretty eventful month for me, as I went to San Diego for a few days to run my eleventh half-marathon at the beginning of the month, hosted a mini writing retreat over part of spring break, celebrated my birthday, and had a pretty busy second half of the month on campus between classes and some service tasks. I am very happy to say that I felt much better emotionally than I did in February. Thanks in part to Spring Break and to some fun activities -- I caught up with an old friend in San Diego, Mark and I went to a fun Seder for the second night of Passover, and we went tubing for the first time -- I was able to feel a bit of that often-elusive life-work-training balance thing.

At the Japanese Tea Gardens in San Diego's Balboa Park

Tubing Adventure!

Also in most areas I made some progress toward my goals. As far as my fitness and health goals are concerned, I did pretty well. Although I was still pretty lax with eating while in San Diego and not journaling during the first half of the month, I knew that a day of reckoning was coming as I struggled to get into one of my pairs of pants toward the end of spring break. The day after my birthday I joined Weight Watchers Online and have successfully journaled each day since then. My yoga has dropped off horribly this month, as I used up my class pass last month and since my yoga studio was closing at the end of the month (tear) I did not renew it. However, I'm planning to check out another studio soon for a class with some lady friends. In terms of running, I logged 64.2 miles in March, and, as I mentioned in my race report, while San Diego was not my fastest half it was 8 minutes faster than any of the half-marathons that I ran in 2012. I feel good about that.

Happily, this month even with travel and some of the general malaise that often makes itself known at this time during the academic year, I met my writing goal of at least 3 pages each week. Last week I sent a rough draft of an article manuscript to a couple of friends for some feedback, and I'm hoping to incorporate their suggestions and kick it out the door by the end of this next month. My Italian lessons did drop off a bit this month, but I still made some progress there.

In terms of my personal goals, my progress was something of a mixed bag. I really fell of the wagon with 365, though, and will be looking to recommit to this in April. I think part of it was that I opted not to take my DSLR with me to San Diego and when I returned I didn't really feel inspired to take pictures of snirt and then more snow on a systematic basis. I'm pressing reset, though, and I'll be better this next month. I did do some good reading in March and finished two novels, started two others, and read a memoir. I finished Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which I would rank as one of the best books I've read in the past few years, and Shirley Jackson's classic and creepy The Haunting of Hill House. I bought A Thousand Days in Venice on the cheap for my kindle back in December, and wasn't paying close enough attention so I didn't notice it was a memoir and not a novel. I wasn't impressed with it, which is too bad as Lord knows I love Venice and eating. The prose was just not to my taste -- though I was pretty happy that I got almost all of the Italian passages without her translations. March was an expensive month due to my trip to San Diego and then we bought our tickets for Vancouver, and I have to admit that I went over budget this month. I blame DSW for sending me a birthday coupon. The damage: $170. I bought two pairs of shoes, and I also bought a pair of navy polka dot jeggings.

I hope those readers who celebrate the holiday have had a wonderful Easter! Did the Easter Bunny visit your house? If you could learn any language, which would it be and why?

This and That, Odds and Ends

I have decided to "downgrade" to the half marathon at Vancouver. While I felt like I had a pretty strong half in San Diego, I just didn't (and don't) feel physically or emotionally ready or in a state of near-readiness for a full marathon in less than 2 months and with the pace of the semester that didn't (and doesn't) seem likely to change. Instead I'll be targeting a sub 2:20 half marathon, which may be something of a challenge for me due to the hills. I've taken something of a reverse taper this week, but will be back with a new plan for the upcoming weeks soon.

I'm also excited that my spouse will be coming with me to Vancouver, and we'll get to spend some time playing tourist, too!

Since we are currently on Spring Break, I hosted a two day mini writing retreat. It was great for a couple of reasons: my house is a lot cleaner than it was earlier in the week and I have made substantial progress on an article manuscript. I'm hopeful that I'll have a complete draft by the end of next week and then can spend some time polishing. I aim to have it sent out to a journal before the end of the first week of April.

My birthday is coming up on Sunday, and I really want to buy myself a pair of adorable open toed booties. Then I look outside at the snow that is likely to be on the ground for another few weeks and think about the mud that is to follow. Living in Alaska is an amazing adventure -- just not for my fabulous shoe collection.... I'm ready for it to be spring, but until then I'll go tubing. Also I'll go back to San Diego here and there in my mind....

Earlier this week I received the happy news that my sister is pregnant with her second child. I'm thrilled that I'll be an auntie again in the fall!

What's new with you?

2013 Goals

I have to admit that I was a little bit sad to see 2012 go, as, all told it, it was a pretty fantastic year for me. It brought me a niece, a tenure-track job, adventures with my spouse, time with far-flung friends in Madrid, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Columbus, among many other good things. I spent most of the last week of the year in Louisiana with my family - eating too much, playing with my niblet, enjoying sister time, drinking copious amounts of coffee with my mom, playing Santa, and going to a bowl game with Mark. It was the perfect way to wind down the year.

Playing with new toys on Christmas Day

As a perpetual goal setter, the transition from one year to the next is a time for me to reflect on what has been working well for me and what I can do better. I'll be working toward several major goals over the next twelve months. Here they are.

Running/Fitness Goals
1. Run 800 miles in 2013. I know that I'm starting to sound like a broken record with this goal, but considering my relatively low mileage in 2012 (only 557 miles) it seems reasonable to set this number as a target again. Since I have a marathon on the schedule for late spring and won't have the craziness of job market related travel going on this winter (thank you, God!), it seems likely that I can get the year off to a good start with running.

2. Get faster. I definitely want to set a marathon PR this year. I still haven't completely determined my race schedule for the year - in part because it is prohibitively expensive to travel from Alaska and in part because I plan to be in Europe doing research during a good chunk of the time of year that I can find more local races here - so I'm not sure quite yet what other distances I will be targeting. Hopefully, I can get a 10K PR and a half-marathon PR as well. In general, though, I also plan to integrate more speedwork into my training and set some short term training goals to work on this. For example, I have a goal to shave a minute off my timed mile time (currently a slow 8:53) by my birthday (3/17).

3. Eat more healthfully and mindfully in 2013. I've been pretty lax in my eating habits here lately, even when maintaining my food journal. I want to eat more whole foods and significantly fewer crackers and cookies in the year to come. To that end, I will be not only keeping a food journal this year, but actually working to specifically keep my intake focused on plant-based foods and within a certain caloric range.

4. Continue to deepen my yoga practice. Since the summer I've been doing yoga pretty consistently and have started attending classes at a local yoga studio. I want to continue with this as well as continue having a regular (if not daily) home practice. I see another month or two of yoga streaking in my 2013 future and working toward finding peace in a couple of poses, as I keep my joints healthy.

Writing/Professional Goals
5. Write or revise a minimum of 3 pages of academic writing each week in 2013. I did really well with this writing goal in 2012, and, while part of me is tempted to take it up to 4 or 5 pages a week, I know that 3 pages is reasonably challenging during the weeks of the year when there are research papers to grade or while on family vacations. Again I hope that I will be more productive most weeks, but this sets a bar, and again I will be keeping track of my progress on a tab here on the blog that I will update regularly. This year I want to focus my energies toward:
A) Submitting two journal articles for publication. One of these will be a revise and resubmit that I need to tackle. The other is a piece that I have about 80% drafted but will require some significant time and polishing once that's done.
B) Send my book proposal out to presses, get a contract, and finish writing the manuscript. Oy vey. I really do not want to be putting this down on my goals next year. It is time to really get cracking with this project.
C) Finish work on the co-edited volume. While I'm not entirely in control of the timeline on a collaborative project, I'd like to do everything in my power to get this off my desk and into print in the next year.

6. Learn another language for my next research project. I'll reveal more about this at a later stage, but I have an idea for another research project, but it's going to require more than the cursory reading knowledge of a language aside from English or Spanish. My plan is to use Rosetta Stone and grammars to teach myself the basics and then read some books and look for a Skype language exchange partner later in the year.

Personal Goals
7. Continue working on my photography skills. To that end, I will finish my 365 project and take a class (either online or in person) at some point in the next year. I'd also like to do a couple of photo challenges on Instagram.

8. Read at least 26 novels in 2013 and at least 6 of them in Spanish. I've been watching more television and Netflix than I should here lately, and I would like to limit my tv watching time to only a few hours a week. So instead of watching shows in the evening, I'd like to spend more of that time curled up with a good book in the next twelve months. I know that some times I'll need to work after dinner to meet my writing goals this year (especially when my course load goes back up in the fall), so I think a book every two weeks will be challenging but doable.

9. Stick to a budget for all clothing and accessory purchases. After going on a shopping diet in 2011, I was pretty bad about keeping track of and limiting my spending in 2012. As it's so expensive to travel from here and I want to see family and run a couple of destination races, I'm going to have to make some changes in my spending habits. For 2013 I will be limiting my clothing, shoes, and accessory purchases to $100.00/month. I'm including nail polish and manicures in this tally, but I won't include things like shampoo and haircuts (I am long overdue for one incidentally). I will allow my unspent budget to roll over each month. If I PR at my marathon in May and have either submitted two articles or have a book contract by then, I will allow myself one special reward outside the budget.

Did you set any goals for 2013? I'd love to hear about them in the comments or have you link up if you wrote a post about them! I hope that 2013 will be a wonderful year filled with productivity, excellent runs, and sweet moments with loved ones for all of us! Happy New Year!