The Pack Is Back!!

  After 37 years, football is back at the College of Idaho. In general, I’m not sure if I really had a huge opinion on things. Last year, I had some students who were football players and while they were not the sharpest kids, they were hard working, sweet, optimistic, and not at all the stereotypical kind of football players I knew in high school. I’ve always really liked the coaches and appreciated their focus on the academics. I’ve now gone to all of the home football games and man, have they been fun. We have managed to pull off a win at each game and while sometimes it’s been a bit of a nailbiter, I’ve had a really great time at the games. I have a lot more football players this year and again, while they’re not the smartest kids, they’re still good kids and a few have gone out of their way to work around their schedules to stay focused on academics. It’s been fun to listen to the football fans around us and to see how packed the games have been is really encouraging. While we haven’t managed to win away, the fact that we’ve won at home is wonderful and so great for school morale. Go Yotes, the Pack is Back!

30B430 #6

Things that you think about when you’re preparing to run a ½ marathon.

-What is the best underwear to wear that will cause the least amount of discomfort?

-Do you eat before hand? If so, do you wake up at 6 am to eat some oatmeal and then go back to sleep so that you don’t get a stitch in your side?

-Great, it’s raining. How many layers do I wear? How many layers should I wear?

-I guess you’re going to be that person who needs to cut to the front of the line because I’m totally late.

-Why am I doing this?

Things that you think about when you’re running a ½ marathon.

-Thank goodness the rain has stopped.

-Are they interviewing Phil Collins about love on this podcast? They are interviewing Phil Collins about love on this podcast.

-How much more of this uphill is there going to be?

-Gosh, Idaho countryside is beautiful.

-A downhill! Praise Jesus!

-I’m only NOW making it to the turnaround? I’m going to be running for-EVER.

-Why am I doing this?

-OK, I literally cannot feel my thighs. I might be dying.

-Now I’ve turned into a member of the Ministry of Silly Walks. At lest I can feel my thighs again.

-I have no idea where I am. I have no idea how far I’ve gone. I have no idea what my name is. I have no idea what’s going on. But this podcast is making me cry so at least I have that going for me, I guess.

-Wait, I think I know where we are!

-Good new: I definitely know where we are and I know how much farther to go. Bad news: I running up the steepest hill known to man. I mean, it’s gotta be steeper than Grouse Mountain or Everest or a sheer face of the Dover cliffs. Or something like that.

-Sweet sweet downhill. Kick it up for the last little bit.

-I am so hungry. It is TORTURE to run through these apple orchards while so hungry. It’s just not fair. Seriously. Who does this to people?

-Holy #(%&@), I ran this thing in 2:45!

Things that you think when you’ve finished running a ½ marathon.

-Where’s the wine? 

30B430 #28

When I got an email from Esther at Chabad about a challah baking class, I figured that this would kill a few birds with one stone: I would check something off my 30B430 list, I would get to make some delicious challah and I would get to see Esther and some of the Jewish women in the valley. There ended up being a lot of Israeli women there as well and it was so nice to speak in Hebrew again and find out where everyone was from. I also invited Caitlin and she and I partnered up to make the dough and experiment with the different types of braids that Esther taught us. While I’m sure that I’ve made challah before- definitely in first grade- it certainly hasn’t been in years but it’s a cool experience to watch yeast and water bubble and to knead the sticky dough until it forms a ball that someone becomes light and fluffy bread.

While we were waiting for the dough to rise, Esther took us through a short lesson about the role of women within Jewish society and how there are certain things that only women are allowed to do- things that make us definitively women. We light the candles for Shabbat, we keep marital purity, and we bake the challah. We talked about the small portion that you remove when you’re preparing the challah and she gave us some articles about what these three tasks mean for us as Jewish women. And of course, there was eating- we had some challah and fruit and all sorts of spreads, which were just delicious (unless you don’t like olives and then wasn’t as delicious). We took our challah home and I baked mine the next day and I’m pretty sure that by the end of the week, it was gone. It’s not a hard thing to make, just a bit time consuming, so I don’t know when I’ll make it again, other than a special occasions, but I know it’ll be delicious when I do!

 

 

FIt-One Year 5

  I’ve lived in Idaho for five years now and every single year, I’ve run the Fit-One Race. It used to be called the Women’s Fitness Celebration but essentially it’s the same thing. I run for the free stuff at the Expo and for the bagels at the end of the race. And I also now run for the shirts because the fancy running shirts are pretty great. Since my last year’s racing buddy was a bit pre-occupied with a newborn, I recruited Caitlin to run with me. She hadn’t slept well the night before and I had already taken Addy-girl out on a run earlier that morning so I really had no expectations about the run so was pretty surprised when we not only ran the entire thing but we also made really pretty great time- 34:38 for me and a few seconds slower for Caitlin. I felt pretty good at the end, despite the heat, and we had a lovely day afterwards, spending some time at the market, having a really great conversation at the Crux, and then watching some terrible trash TV at the Godwins before relaxing in the pool for a bit. I think this might be one of the only things I’ve done every single year since I’ve been back in Idaho and already planning for next year. Who’s going to run with me? 

 

30B430 #11

Yes, technically I did #11 already. But it was an amended #11. Originally I had wanted to try and run a 10 min mile. But I knew it was never going to happen so I changed it to running 30 mins for 30 days straight.

Then this happened.

Now, this run app is free and not the best and sometimes a bit suspect so this may totally be incorrect but who knows....

Does this now mean I can replace another list item with running a 10 minute mile?

Biking Around Caldwell

It had been a bit of a rough week and a frustrating day so when I left the office on Friday, I knew I needed to get out of the bike. I love riding my bike around Caldwell. Over the last few years of living here, I feel like I’ve explored a lot of this town on my bike and I’ve discovered some great little nooks and crannies of this place I’ve called home for a few years. On this particular Friday, I turned down some streets in the northwest part of Caldwell I had never been down before. I was surprised at how many of the little houses reminded me of houses on the kibbutz, especially some of the more shadowed houses that are personalized with knick-knacks and lawn ornaments.

The weather was gorgeous and I just rode and observed and rode some more and turned down streets and didn’t really care where I was. At one point, I crossed over one of the roads that leads to the freeway and found myself at a little pond with a bike path around it. It was absolutely stunning- I didn’t even feel like I was in Caldwell anymore! The pond is apparently used for fishing and maybe some small boats (?) but the bike path was about a mile long and maintained by the Boy Scouts for an Eagle project and I rode around it twice before continuing down another path. The nice thing about riding a bike over running is that you can pretty much go as far as you far and getting back isn’t that bad. I followed the greenbelt path underneath the freeway and then over this incredible one-lane bridge across and next to the Boise River, which was again, stunningly gorgeous. The greenbelt path looped around, back underneath the freeway and ended up at the Municipal Park, which had soccer fields and was around the corner from the pond. Riding around Caldwell and being in nature and in new places was just what I needed to cheer me up and I’m so excited to now have a great new place to run that will make me feel like I’m not running in Caldwell but running in a picturesque location.

Back At It

These last few weeks have been absolutely insane. So much has happened that I don’t quite remember the whole timeline but I’ll do my best. Back when I was still in California, I officially was asked to teach a Friday morning, one-a-week class at CWI. The only thing was that it was HUMA 101, not 102, meaning that I would have to pick up the other book when I was back in town. I made an arrangement to do so and picked up the first volume, which is Pre-history to the Renaissance. I also got a few copies of some syllabi and spent the weekend looking everything over and trying to get a handle on it all.

I decided that I wanted to meet with Brenda, my department chair, just to walk through some things with her and ask some questions. The morning of our meeting, I was at the Godwins so took Addy out for a run. When I got back, there was a message on my phone from Brenda asking if I wanted to take on two more sections on Tuesday and Thursday. I got breakfast with Abbey and then headed over to CWI to give her my answer. I wasn’t worried about teaching more classes, but it did mean that I had to be prepared by Tuesday the 26^th instead of Friday the 29^th. Those three days seemed like a huge amount of time. She also gave me more examples of syllabi and we talked through some questions that I had. Over the next few days, I agonized over the calendar and the syllabus, and then struggled through posting the things that I needed to on Blackboard. Because I didn’t ever have an official orientation, I still feel like there are a lot of things that I’m not prepared for or that I’m missing. I’ve had to email the poor administrative assistant for the department so many times. In my defense, a few of the questions that I had when I couldn’t find things were not because I was just an idiot: they weren’t actually accessible to me at the time that at least that makes me feel like I have a slight bit of competence. I’e also been working on putting together my power points, adding questions to the online discussion board. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but man, am I mentally exhausted. I haven’t looked at some of this stuff in years and I certainly haven’t studied in depth the humanities (culture, music, art, drama, literature, etc.) side of things so it’s a bit overhwleming but also fascinating and a nice challenge.

Meanwhile, I also am doing a lot of different work at C of I. I only have one class but it’s got 21 kids in it. Way too many. We barely fit into the classroom. It’s awesome. Please read that with heavy sarcasm. Meanwhile, instead of a class, I’m going to have open office hours for students to drop by and get learning support help. I also have planned these mini seminars over the first six weeks for small groups to talk about various study skills issues. I’ve created fliers and mini-fliers, talked to the faculty, reached out to the coaches, talked to Mark who is working with the at-risk athletes, talked to the basketball teams, attended meetings with the PEAK center, a new, rebranded group at the college that covers any type of student support, be it academic, professional, learning or disability support, student affairs issues, etc.  I feel fine about the class since I’ve done it so many times- although never with this many students- but all the other stuff has been a lot of work and to be honest, a lot of stress about whether or not kids will actually show up. Part of me has given up- not on the students and not on my job- but given up that things will be any different and that the administration will actually realize that I know what I’m doing and that the students deserve to have the attention they need. So basically, I’m going to work as hard as I can for my students and for whoever comes to my seminars, do the advertising that I need, keep detailed records on who shows up and who doesn’t and go from there.

Needless to say, it’s been an exhausting few weeks. I also have been working with the campus ministries worship team, meeting with al the students, having an initial practice session and preparing for a retreat this Sunday. That’s been a lot of work as well, especially since they’re in need of a leader and that’s what my role is going to be. I’ve put together worship packets and written up a list of expectations. None of this is necessarily HARD work, but it just feels non-stop. Add to that the regular life things of errands, cooking, working out, actually wanting to see friends every once in a while, life, to say the least, has been exhilarating and exhausting.