Posted on December 23, 2011 by reginadma

It’s not horrible,

But it ain’t so great neither:

Biking home in rain.

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Posted on December 8, 2011 by reginadma

While in the metro,

Except turtle green jacket,

We all are blended.

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At My New Job

Posted on November 12, 2011 by reginadma

I started a new job on October 6 (2011). I’ve been praised for my willingness to jump in, and, I’ve found that I’ve wanted to jump in with alacrity. I just…really…want to…help. So, I jump in, and then I’m like, oh, wait, I can’t help any of you at all right now, and since I’m in here, can I just ask you these 30 questions real quick?

It’s interesting, having been at Coro Pittsburgh for 5 years, and having gone fairly high up (relatively speaking) the arc of learning my job. First, there’s not being super clear on what you’re supposed to do, or the impact that you’re supposed to make, but you put some things down on paper, you present some ideas and you work.  Slowly you figure things out a bit more, which occurs mostly in the second year. The second year at any job is always so interesting to me–and if you haven’t stayed at a job longer than two years, try it…it’s good for the economy. In the second year, you have some battle scars, you know your way around, and you, at various points, whether diving into old notes* or perusing through old emails, bump into yourself from one year ago. You review the work you did, see how you communicated with various people, your approach to your work, and if you’re like me, you often think, “What the hell was I doing?” That’s year two. Year two is paving over some areas of what you “accomplished” in year one, and if you’re lucky, you don’t pave over everything, maybe you do some pruning here and there. Year three just gets better because at this point, people know you, they know what you can do, and they rely on you to open doors, make decisions, and get things done. It’s beautiful. It’s a nice thing, to know what you’re doing and from that position, open yourself up to new challenges.

I’ve been at my job for a little over a month. I’m at the beginning of this new learning curve, but at least, a bit more, each day, I feel more confident in my work. Luckily, as comes with age, I’m not a brand new hiker and not everything I’m doing at my job is completely foreign.  (Though I did ask one of the IT guys that was setting up my computer for me how I turned on my computer…he gave me a perfunctory laugh.) I’m like a new adopted puppy in the office where little by little my personality can come out. Hell, I can almost commute to work on my bike and not get lost. (14th street really creeps up on me. Were I biking on my own, most days I’d just fly right past without a care in the world…until I realized I was still on R and had no idea where I was…not that has happened at all or four times.)

So, though I continue to be excited about being at the tip of this new learning curve, I have a feeling that no matter where I am in life, the following conversations are ones that I’ll probably always have:

IT Guy: Do you know if Janet is coming in today?
Me: Oh, ummm, I’m not sure…I think so…she didn’t say anything about not coming in…
IT Guy: Okay. Well, there’s usually a meeting at 10am every Tuesday. Do you know if that meeting is still going on?
Me: Oh, ummm, I didn’t even know there was a meeting on Tuesdays. I’m not sure. [Pause] Wow, I’m really not helpful to you at all.
IT Guy: Nope, not at all.

* I once learned at a workshop that gave tips on how to organize yourself that if you have a piece of paper on your desk or in a folder and you haven’t looked at it in one week, recycle it. You don’t’ need it. I think this is true.

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Posted on November 5, 2011 by reginadma

A conversation you’ll probably never hear in America:

Guy: Let’s dance! It’s Stevie Wonder!

Gal: It is?

Guy: Yeah! It’s “Superstition”!

Gal: Oh…

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Realizations

Posted on October 29, 2011 by reginadma

During the regular season.

CN: So, Josh Reddick took over for J.D. Drew.

RA: Oh really?  Is Drew injured?

CN: He was.

RA: So, wait, he’s not injured anymore?

CN: No.

RA: But wait, so, but he’s still not playing first string? They’re keeping Reddick in?

CN: Yeah, I guess so.

RA: But Reddick was playing right field because Drew was injured, but Drew isn’t injured anymore. Aren’t they going to  put Drew back in?

CN: I don’t think so.

RA:…oh, I don’t like that.  If I played baseball, I wouldn’t like that at all.

CN: I don’t think you have anything to worry about.

RA: [silence.]

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On Stacking Chairs

Posted on October 23, 2011 by reginadma

Closing: chairs come in                                                                                                               Corner stacks messy and neat                                                                                                    Makes me want to help

I wrote this haiku when I was in London at the Founders Arms, but it’s a feeling I have no matter where I am.  Usually, I’m at an event, a community discussion hosted by Coro Pittsburgh, a fundraiser/party like Love of Friends, The Midwife Center client picnic most recently,  where I concluded that the chairs at the Avalon Community Center are the worst to stack, where I am indeed helping to stack the chairs.  I can be involved in another “closing up” activity, but once people start stacking the chairs, I bee-line it over to help.  It’s probably because with stacking chairs, everyone knows what to do: you take these chairs, and you put them over there.  There’s a sense of accomplishment as you see the chairs stacked higher and higher.  There’s a community of people involved in the same task and you talk about the event, you talk about each other, and you talk about stacking the chairs.

On this particular night at the Founders Arms, the people working at the pub didn’t seem to care much if you were already there, they just dissuaded others from coming in, and cleaned up around us.  I had the feeling they were trying to give us a hint to move along, but was told otherwise.  That’s just how it’s done there.  I didn’t offer to help on this night.

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If YOU* want to stay in shape…

Posted on August 19, 2011 by reginadma

YOU have to have a workout buddy.  Period.

There are two types of workout buddies.  Within that venn diagram are running buddies, of which there are also two.

I’ll describe the first kind of running buddy.

Kelsey is my running buddy.  We’ve been running together for awhile now whenever our schedules match up.  Kelsey also runs with a few other friends all of whom train for marathons.   They run a lot.

This kind of running buddy is on the same page as you.  Of course you work hard, but it’s not outside of your limits to say the following kinds of things to your running buddy:

Hey, only wanna run 5 miles today?  That sounds great, I’m beat.

Hey, mind if we…skip the run today? Thank god you said that.

Hey, mind if we take it kind of easy on our run? Sure.

Hey, can we walk a bit? Totally.

With this kind of running buddy, you talk while you run, you have fun while working out.  These running buddies make sure you get out and get moving, and that’s important.

BUT, to not just stay fit, but to get better, you need a running buddy who is better than you.

This second kind of running buddy is NOT on the same page as you.

Sure, you might start your run off together, being all like, “we’re so bad ass, we’re running. Everyone else is totally not running right now.”  You might even high-five a few times, but soon, no.  Soon, you do not look like a zero calorie beer commercial, you look like shit, and your running buddy is about two blocks ahead of you.  What’s worse, you might catch up to your running buddy at a red light, and your running buddy might be waiting…for the light to turn green.  As soon as you catch up, (you might even have time to come to a complete stop) you think you’ll have a chance to talk to your running buddy.  You might.  You might have the following conversation:

Your running buddy: Which way?

You: Straight.

The light turns green and you have no break like the one your buddy took.  No, what will happen is your running buddy will turn back around and say, “lengthen your stride!” Translation: “run faster.”  You both know this.  But, you take the literal interpretation and say, in your mind, “If I do that, I could injure myself by changing my stride up too much.”  And, if you hadn’t already, you really begin to question the reasons your running buddy could possibly have to want to kill you.

Or, on the off chance you’re doing sprint workouts, and you’re running the length of a block as fast as you can, heaving and wanting to die, you’re running buddy will say, “now SPRINT!” and blow past you (even though your running buddy gave you a head start) and yes, you will whine, “I am sprinting!”

“What’s in it for the running buddy?” My running buddy asked me while we were “running,” meaning I was shouting at him from about 20 yards up the road what could possibly be in it for the other running buddy, to which he replied, “I can’t hear you.”

What’s in it for the stronger running buddy?

Well, they get to go for a jaunt.  Get their muscles loosened up a bit.

Beyond that, I think here is where things get sinister, I don’t know, I’m not a “stronger” running buddy for anyone, but, well, the running buddy get’s to chase something, and that is primal fun.  But more, the stronger running buddy gets to beat the weaker running buddy…all the time  Sometimes if feels good to be strong.  I could only imagine.

Is that it? Is that all the stronger running buddy gets?

If all involved play their cards right, at the end of your workout, you get to take a shower with your running buddy, and in those situations, everybody wins.

*Now imagine, all thoses "yous" are "ME"! (and "I")

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Changing Your Diet…?

Posted on August 8, 2011 by reginadma

I think it’s good to change your diet.  Like clothing styles, friendships, your job, eating is serious stuff, and should be taken lightly**, it’s not etched in stone and probably originates in some fashion from long traditions and habits.  It’s complicated, it’s not complicated.  If you want to stay current, relevant, and keep things fresh, change and evolution is a good thing.  I’m not talking about week-to-week fad diets, rather thoughtful diet changes.

Whenever I’m talking about food…which is very often, what kind of eater I am comes up the majority of the time.  Figuring out how someone eats is one of those standard questions people talk about, like the weather or occupations…and most of the time you don’t really care, but you ask anyway.

This is an example of a standard conversation:

Me: Yeah, I had this great seitan sandwich at Salt.

Person: Oh, are you vegetarian?

Me: (pause…pause mostly because I’m struggling with myself to figure out how to explain myself, and then restruggling with myself because I think, this person doesn’t care. I don’t care, how can I talk about this? The fact that I’m struggling so much adds to the absurdity of myself and the situation.  Bam, in the span of about a synapse, but what feels like eternity, I say,) Well…

Person: Oh…are you a flexitarian?

Me: (Struggle ridiculous struggle ridiculous struggle) Um…well…

I’ve learned that clearly I have struggles with my brain.  I’ve also learned that like ethnicity, when given the opportunity to actually talk about who they are, or what they eat, people have a lot more to say than, “I eat meat” or, “I’m a vegetarian.” I think that’s good.  Humans just like boxes to put things in…biological stereotypes have helped us live all these years.  That those biological stereotypes gave way to cultural stereotypes, well, who saw that coming?

Hopefully we will all live a long time, and as the years go by, who’s to say we’ll have the same diet one year or decade to the next?  I’ve had people tell me they were vegetarian for 8 years, 20 years, one year, or, they’re learning to eat vegan because of health concerns.  People started eating fish, stopped eating gluten.

I mean, hell, the food “pyramid” has changed.

The other thing I noticed is that, when given the opportunity to talk about their eating habits, people had a lot of guilt associated with the diet change.  Though I struggle internally a lot and about a lot of things, I can say without struggle, I am DONE with the feelings of guilt associated with incorporating more things back into my diet.  I encourage everyone to do the same*.  Used to be vegetarian, but now you eat meat?  Fine.  Used to only eat raw, but had to give it up for whatever reason, that’s okay.

It’s okay to change your diet.

The ability to even change our diets and then have this guilt on our chests like the horla, this smelly rancid guilt coming out of our pores like a vegetarian might after eating meat for the first time in four years, due to changing our diet is definitely a First World Problem I say we can do without.  So, eat up!

Cheers.

* I thought I could do it, I thought I could write a whole post without an asterisk.  Well, I can’t OKAY? I had to say, incorporate more food into your diets (let me climb on this little soap box right here…that’s better), just don’t eat at McDonalds or places of that ilk.  NO ONE needs that except maybe professional athletes…don’t eat there unless you’re getting a frosty or an ice cream cone made from powder.

**Want to try something funny? (Requires a Twitter account) Tweet about genetically modified food and ask a simple question, or even state something you believe about GMO foods and  you’ll get a BARRAGE of folks that take themselves VERY seriously and DO NOT joke about food, at all.  It’s funny.  (Do this on a day when you need a self-esteem boost too because you’ll also pick up at least 3 new followers…and if you don’t…I’m sorry I just made you feel worse.)

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I’m a Crier

Posted on July 27, 2011 by reginadma

I cry at everything.  I mean, I don’t wail and sob, but tears come to my eyes pretty easily.  For those that know me, you’ve seen it literally, and without hyperbole, a million times.

Graduation celebration? I’m crying.

Wedding? Pass the tissue, because I always forget mine.*

StoryCorps? Forget about it.

I tear up at most American-centric songs.  I like them.  During the 7th inning stretch when “America the Beautiful” is sung, I cry, even if it’s a bad rendition.  Clearly I must be brainwashed** because a) I think our national songs are far superior to the songs of other countries and, b) I want to own a house some day.  Hey, I like my country…even though I do plot the governance and culture of my own nation-state…I’m currently trying to figure out how to properly handle the folks that don’t stop for pedestrians in crosswalks.  I mean, the standards to get a license in my nation-state will be much more stringent than the states’.  Plus, reliable public transportation coupled with a learned concern for our impact on our environment in my nation-state will ensure people will opt for alternative transportation instead of drive.  Despite these factors, people are human and sometimes their behavior is unpredictable, like ignoring the traffic laws…

I cry when I hear people have done amazing thing like the group of friends that organized to save the life of a young man in Haiti.  I cry when I try to retell the story, or when I try to tell any of them what an incredible thing it was that they did.

I’m tearing up writing this.

I cry when I see someone genuinely touched by something.  I was reading an interview I conducted with my friend Alyssa and she relayed the story of working in the Dominican Republic.  She helped pregnant women hear the heart beat of their babies and described how great that was…I teared up.

I have to say, it’s not easy being a crier.  Hey, you think I want to cry all the time?  I don’t.  I get ridiculed.  My coworkers and my friends give me a hard time.  They roll their eyes at me.  I feel their frustration.  “I feel their pain.”

John Boehner and I have at least one thing in common…I guess two.

*I love “hot yoga.” If you’re not familiar with this form of yoga, the room is heated to about 98 degrees or so and the flow is vinyasa, or power yoga, meaning you are working hard…you sweat a lot.  You drip sweat.  Despite the fact that I’m so great about scheduling this into my day, I would say about 80% of the time I forget to bring a towel to wipe off my yoga mat so I don’t slip and crack my chin trying to downward dog. Fine. That’s not a big deal.  I’m human, and resourceful.  I’ve used a spare tote bag I just happened to have lying around.  What truly freaks me out is that over the 2 years that I’ve been going to Amazing Yoga, I’ve only noticed about twice that someone else has forgotten a towel or one of those trendy little towel/mat things you put on top of your yoga mat. TWICE.  And I take note of this every time I go.

** If I’m aware that I’m brainwashed, does that mean I can’t be brainwashed in the first place?   Or, is letting the brainwashee know that he or she is brainwashed a new form of brainwashing?  Brainwashing and culture are apparently bed fellows, or slippery slope buddies.

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It’s an ear worm AND a trigger!

Posted on June 29, 2011 by reginadma

I’ve positioned myself so that my job and my personal life as a community member (blended role) require that I make a lot of decisions.  I like making decisions by myself, within a group, you name it…And I will make them in the rain.  And in the dark. And on a train.  And in a car.  And in a tree…

As of late, I’ve been asked to weigh in on some things.  For example, the car that Clayburgh and I share, a 1995 Volvo named Vick E. Coyote has been the source of a lot of decision making.  What to do about Vick E.

That’s all fine and good.  I have strong opinions about Vick E. (I love him.)  The thing that is getting to me is not the fact that I have to make decisions, it’s more, how I’m being asked in the first place.

“I dunno, what do you think? Is it worth it?” “I just don’t know if it’s worth it. What about you?”

Is it worth it?

Every time I hear these words, in my mind, and lately, out loud, I say, “is it worth it? Let me work it. I put my thing down flip it and reverse it.”  Bam.  A trigger is born thanks to Missy Elliott.  Unfortunately for me, and those around me, when this trigger is in my head, I can only think of “replacement words” that keep to the beat because I don’t actually know the lyrics.

To help my sanity, and again, the sanity of those around me, so I didn’t have to sing, “is it worth it, let me work it, la la la la, la la la la.  La la la la la la la yuh…do do do do, do do do do.  Do do do do do do do,” I looked up the lyrics.  And I’m happy to report that there are sections in the song where the lines are actually played backward…so it doesn’t make any sense anyway…and I recognize I’m the last one to know this factoid…and what the hell is a factoid anyway?  Is it different from a fact? Can a factoid dress up like a fact for Halloween?

Anyway, enjoy a personal trigger of mine, and what I also believe is an ear worm.

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