Lessons Learned from Grit Magazine

My first job, other than household chores such as cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming the stairs, was a newspaper route. Not one for a daily early morning daily commitment, I elected to deliver a weekly newspaper rather than a daily edition. I'm not sure how I came about this particular newspaper route, but Grit was the one for me. Each week I picked up a bundle of Grit magazines from the post office and set off on my bike to deliver them to my ever-loyal customers. Some weeks I was totally ambitious and got the papers delivered on the same day I received them; other weeks they sat in my closet for a day or two until my fourth grade lifestyle settled down enough to allow for delivery.

One time, however, the few days spread into weeks and the stack in my closet grew higher and higher. The procrastination started out legitimately enough as I missed the first week due to an asthma-related hospital stay. The next week the magazines came and I added them to the pile thinking I'd take care of them later. The following week they were added to the ever-ominous pile and the pile was then pushed back a little farther into the dark shadows of the closet. This continued on for a while - until Mom discovered it. I think I've blocked out the ensuing scene, but I'm sure you can probably imagine it. Recently, Mom told me, "I don't think I've ever been as mad at any of you kids as I was at that time."

Afterwards, Mom gave me the worst punishment possible - to go to each of my customers, apologize and ask them if they were still interested in purchasing old copies of the magazine. I was so embarrassed and humbled by this - my pride was shattered. Even more so when, out of pity for me, some people actually paid for the old news. For the ones that people didn't buy, I ended up buying myself.

Soon after that, I gave away my route but the lesson has stayed with me. I often find myself putting things off for (at first) a legitimate reason but then finding it hard to get back to. A perfect example of this is grading student papers; I have every intention of getting them graded and handed back within a week. But things like student advising, faculty meetings, sick kids, etc... happen and the grading gets put by the wayside - not in a dark closet, but by the wayside nonetheless, until the night before the self-imposed deadline. Thanks to my Grit lesson, I stay up most of the night and finish the job - because it's the right thing to do.

Even though I'm done with my paper route and student grading, I'm sure I'll find more things to procrastinate on - but I realize the lesson will stay with me and the job will eventually get done. Thanks for that lesson Mom.

Retirement

After having turned in my summer grades five minutes ago, I'm now officially retired. I'm exhausted. But I'm also
* happy
* excited
* off balance as I wander the house thinking, what should I be working on now?
* caught up on laundry
* thrilled to have actual fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator (vs. the canned kind)
* working on becoming a real cook - the kind that makes gorgonzola sauce to have with the tenderloin purchased from the specialty meat market
* reading four different books at one time
* a little short on attention span (hence the four books at one time)
* finding time to sit and read more than 3 books at a time to the kids
* videotaping the kids as they sing and act out "Pirates are we..."

All in all, "retirement" feels right to me - oh so very right.

Pilates (or as Jill said to call it - Marci the Magnificent)

Sometime this summer it is my one year anniversary of doing pilates. As is appropriate for all kinds of anniversaries, I thought a reflection seemed most appropriate. When I first started, I learned (and was quizzed on!) all kinds of new terms and analogies - core, reformers, trapeze table, etc... Now most of those terms seem like second nature - when Jill, my awesome pilates instructor, tells me to go to the reformer and do "coordination" I usually, even at 6 AM, know exactly what to do. When she says, "How's your core?" - I immediately tighten it up. The pic below is of that particular exercise and I do believe my core could have used a bit of tightening. :)

Overall, I'm much stronger but the pilates exercises certainly don't become easier because Jill has this thing with springs. When she notices that something looks a little bit easier and I'm not sweating as much, she tightens or loosens the springs and my body suddenly switches to "work" mode. In the mountain climbing exercise below the springs are fairly loose so my "core" has to work that much harder to keep me up in the air.

The barrel is another example of how adaptable everything is. In the past, I've used a hand pull thingie (I obviously can't think of its name) on my left hand to help my body do the work. If this particular picture could talk, you'd hear some groaning and a few "Oh my gosh!" utterings.

I'm loving pilates - the physical strength and stamina I'm building, and the mental well being I feel are all so wonderful. There certainly aren't many things that can get me out of bed at 5:45 AM two mornings a week, but pilates and my pilates company certainly can!

Book Club

I love people, I love food, and I love books - so what's not to love about bookclub?! The answer is nothing - and last night proved that once again. A group of four of us met on a restaurant terrace and enjoyed good food and drink as we talked about the book and numerous other topics. Shelley Harwayne, one of my favorite "professional" authors once said something like, "A good book is one you have to put down so you can think about it and discuss it." I like that quote because it captures the essence of literature and the purpose of book club. Although last night's book was not one that made us ponder life's bigger questions, it did provide us with newfound knowledge and awe of the orchestrators of Chicago's World Fair of 1893. People are larger than books - I know that is so not profound, but it's true. I truly enjoy the company of the other book club members and just sitting back and hearing them talk. They, not the books themselves, help make our bookclub successful.

For a full update of the meeting and other books we've read, you can go to the newly created blog, rrvwpbookclub.blogspot.com Enjoy!

Carpet Pulling

I think I went a little overboard on July 3 - and I think we'll be paying for it for a few weeks. On that day, as typical of most lately, I woke up to an extremely stuffy nose, itchy eyes, and dull headache. You'd think my allergies would be better right now - this is usually one time of the summer when I'm "sneeze free" but that certainly hasn't been the case. In my mind, it must have been the carpet in the bedroom. Before we moved into the house, we made quite a duststorm when we took the 2+ layers of wallpaper off the wall and had the walls skimcoated and then painted. I sneezed through that project. We then had the drapes professionally cleaned, we had the carpet professionally cleaned and moved in. But still I sneezed. The next step was to get new curtains entirely - a lightweight version that is easy to throw in the washer. Still I sneezed. We then looked to Davey-baby, but even when he was in the UK, I sneezed. :)

Obviously then, the next step was the carpet. Upon the verbalization of this idea, I was greeted with a resounding "NO!" by Dave. So, I did it myself, mostly. (He did help me get the bed over the carpet lump, drag it to the deck and throw it down to the patio. He also went and got the trailer so we could dump the padding, and then he did that job. And finally, he helped roll up the carpet itself and take it over to neighbor Bob's house for use in his basement.) We now have a bedroom floor with tufts of horsehair padding still stuck to it. The floor itself is in pretty good shape, but it could use a sanding and poly job...but I'm not sure I have the energy for that one, especially considering the family room is still full of boxes.

So here we are, sleeping in the attic amidst the chaos of the kids' toys, ignoring the "elephant" down the hall, and, unfortunately, still sneezing.

Independence Day, 2006

In chronological order, a photo recap of our busy day...