Knitting, Botany, Mycology, Nature, Adventure, and Life... in no particular order.
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Time Addict
So I love wearing watches. I find them comfortable, convenient and aesthetically pleasing. The first watch I really remember wearing was a Swatch watch with a pink edge and an neat pattern in the face and on the original strap. (Holey crap I found it!) I wore it for many, many years. One of the times I needed to get a new strap I stored it somewhere in my room for safe keeping, and then by the time I got a new strap, it was lost like buried treasure. (I am pretty sure one day I or my parents will come across that watch.)
Then in high school, because I was on the track team, I got a simple black Timex watch with a multiple lap memory and split function. It was super easy to use, very reliable, and the buttons were easy to press but did not get pressed accidentally. That became my daily watch for about 8 years or so, of course with strap and battery changes over the years. (Older modal, similar to this, but older model was better!)
After college, in my first good job (the same one I am in now), I treated myself to a really nice watch. A Victorinox thin officer’s watch with brushed metal and a navy face (here-ish). I wanted something that would be very accurate, that would make me feel more grown up, and that I could wear to nice places (because generally a grimy, beat up, black timex watch is not considered appropriate with a nice dress).
Eventually my Timex kicked it at the beach. Too much salt water I guess. I had to replace it, because I still use a digital for timing runs and sports. (And the one I have now is not near as good and I will probably need to replace it after negligible use in 3 years. Also I do need lap capability after all.)
Here’s the thing, that’s probably an account of my watch wearing history over the past 19 years at least. So, slowly I have become extremely used to wearing a watch, and I feel incomplete when I don’t wear one. (Occasionally lazy weekend day exception.) I have also become very aware of time (some say obsessively) in my daily life. I use my watch to gauge my walking speed from place to place in case I am dawdling, or in case I have time to dawdle. I use it to check the date when I am signing paperwork at work. I use it to see if it is almost time for lunch, a meeting, to make coffee, etc at work because I am often away from my desk and I do not carry my phone with me at work. (No reception in most places anyways.)
So, when I forgot to wear my watch to work yesterday I seriously considered for a brief minute turning around and going home to get it! (I also tried to see if my sweet, darling, handsome and considerate fella had any errands that would bring him my way. Nope!) I complained over twitter a bit, but mostly jokingly. It was very disconcerting and uncomfortable to be without a watch. I really like being punctual, especially when cookies or people waiting are on the line. Maybe my friends are right, maybe I am too obsessed with time. Certainly I can cope and figure out timing when I don’t have a watch. However why take a chance when there are potentially cookies on the line?!
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V Day
Happy Saint Valentine’s Day!
Wait, who’s Saint Valentine… well, according to the all-knowing Wikipedia, the holiday was founded in 496 AD and was in reference to more than one martyr named Valentine. (Apparently we can blame good old Geoff Chaucer for making it about romantic love, maybe.) We are perhaps celebrating the Valentine of Rome and the Valentine of Terni. Ultimately though, it is not known what Valentinus’s acts were and romance did not enter into the equation till the 14th century, and in 1969 the feast day was removed from the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints. Apparently most of the thoughts linking Valentine’s to love with the story about the priest marrying people against the law, which is part of the Legenda Aurea.
Ok, so what does all that mean today. Well to me it means a lot of nothing, especially with the over-commercialization and the pressure to spend money. I think remembering to tell people you love them is good, and making Valentine’s cards as a kid was fun (or for co-workers in past years). To me it also makes me angry that the commercialization also makes many people feel like it is wrong that they are single. Wanting to be in a relationship is wonderful, but feeling like you are supposed to be on one is not. Sometimes it is great to be single!
So, on to V-Day! Happy V-Day! Thanks to playwright Even Ensler and her work The Vagina Monologues (which you can also get the book and read) the there is an additional meaning. It is the celebration of being a woman. It is a recognition of our biology and sexuality. It is about our fears and societal pressures. And it has turned into a movement to stop violence against women and girls. If you have a chance to go see a performance (they are performed on many college campuses as well as other places) do go and see it. Be prepared to feel shocked, embarrassed, uncomfortable, proud, and angry. Possibly even to feel like now you want to try to make a difference in the world.
That too is love you know.
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I Am My Own Superhero
A while back I decided to signup to run an all women’s half marathon. At the time I figured that since I was already training to run a 5K and I was interested in training to run longer distances that it would be the perfect opportunity to push myself.
Training for the 5K went well, as did the race back in late September. From there I planned on having just over a month from being ready for a 3 mile race to a 13 mile race. I figured that 5 weeks would let me get up from running 4 to at 10 miles at a good clip and would be able to then do the whole thing if I paced myself. Especially since all I wanted to do was finish.
Isn’t it interesting how things hardly ever go quite as planned?
Between the end of September and yesterday I managed to get 2 different bugs. The first one left me just utterly exhausted for several days. The shortly after that got better I got a terrible cold that kept me home on the couch or coughing for some time. So while I ran several more times in the end of September (for ultimate), I ran not at all in October until our last ultimate tournament on Halloween.
If you’re trying to figure out the numbers here folks, it means I did 1 day of running in the month before my first half marathon and previously had only been running up to 4 miles. As you can imagine, yesterday was interesting.
So what happened yesterday? I completed my first ever half marathon. That’s right, 13.1 miles from start to end. Not only that, it is the longest distance I have ever run. (And for full disclosure, I did not run the whole race. There was walking, especially up some beastly hills and towards the end. However no full mile between mile markers was walked at any time.) The race was in lovely coastal York, ME on yesterday’s beautiful, warm, sunny, and slightly breezy day. I miraculously finished the whole thing in under 3 hours! I did it in 2 hours and 55 minutes (and 58 seconds). At times I felt very much like giving up and just laying in a stranger’s yard until my guy came and found me, but I did not. (Miles 10-13 were especially hard, and 11 & 12 were torture.) Nor did I cry. Nor did I get mad at myself. (Nor did I figure out how to drink a cup of water while running without getting all of it up my nose. Stopping for water was the way to go!) Heck, I even enjoyed myself for most of it! And while I maybe did not pace as well as I could have, and perhaps could have run a little more here and there, I crossed the finish line running (albeit very very slowly)!
So yesterday in the car on the way home I said to my handsome fella that I felt simultaneously like a superhero and the lamest person alive. I felt like a superhero because I did it and lame because I always feels bad when I finish so far behind everyone else that there is no pack, or sign of a pack, or hardly anyone at all. Today, after I figured out my average pace was a 13.18 mile I was convinced of my own superhero status. Who cares if I came in towards the very end of the pack. Heck, who cares if I had come in last, I did it! (and boy oh boy do I have the aching body to prove it!)
Next time, however, I will definitely train. (Note how I already know there will be a next time. Nicole was right.)
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Anniversary!
Well, now that today’s workday is over I have officially been at my job for 6 years! It seems like 3 Nov 2003 was an awfully long time ago, and I guess it was. Looking back it is hard to comprehend all I have done, learned, affected, and continue to work on.
Some things I have had the opportunity to do in the past 6 years:
- Take a 3 week course in Miami on Biodiversity of Tropical Plants
- Participate in workshops on: Southeast Asian plant family identification, identifying diatoms, identifying lichens
- Go to Eagle Hill in Maine to take courses for professional development on Slime Molds (Myxomycetes), Bryophytes (twice!), and Hypogeous Fungi (truffles and stuff)
- Refresh my Latin and learn some German
- Take a mycology course
- Listen to countless fantastic speakers
- Go to a large Botany conference in Chicago
- Become a member of the IPM-WG and go to the working group meeting 2 times
- Work with wonderful, intelligent, compassionate and friendly people
- Learn a lot about databases and how to test them
- Give tours to all different people of all different ages
- Help with research projects
I can’t even begin to estimate how many specimen I have filed, and I could probably get estimates on the number of things I have sent on loan or databased but I think I would rather not know. I’ve corresponded with people all over the world and I’ve helped people translate English into Latin for publications. I have found things thought to be lost, and I have probably “lost” some other things. I’ve made my own field collections with my own collecting permit (and still need to finish the identifications!), I’ve gone on walks, and I even attended several forays (for bryophytes and for fungi). I have made many friends in many places who study many things.
I have not finished everything the previous person had not finished. I have not managed to knock the ever-growing piles of things to do down to a tiny pile, I have not finished every project I have started, but I also have not been miserable. Not once! Stressed and overwhelmed at times, but still happy with my job. I have watched at least 9 co-workers move on to other jobs, graduate studies, and places… not including graduate students and post-docs whom have also left.
And after these 6 great years I wonder what I will do in year 7. Will this be my final year? Is it time to move on to graduate school or some other place? Will I accomplish something great, take on some amazing project, complete some of the things I have been trying to finish for almost as long as I have been here?! I have no idea, and THAT is pretty exciting.
So here’s to you, job I love and that I have gown and changed with! Thank you for the past 6 great years and uncountable opportunities! Tonight I’ll raise a beer, some knitting needles, and perhaps even a field guide to you… and I’ll be back in the morning to see what is in store next!
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Wicked Cool →
Sliding scale to see the size of things. From a coffee bean down to a Carbon Atom. Excellent!
