Some 400-Footers For A Change

Hey, remember when I used to post things to my blog?

My original plan this past weekend was to head north to the Whites, join the AMC for a car camping weekend, and hike at least the 2 Osceolas. My tummy was pretty rumbly and grumbly though, and not in a good "let's have a snack Pooh Bear" kind of way. So I stayed put at home, chilled out, and then took my new hiking boots for a trail walk at one of the nature preserves here in town on Sunday afternoon.

I may not have climbed any 4000 footers this weekend, but I did bag 2 - count 'em, TWO! - 400 footers!

It's been several years since I was last at this preserve - usually I trek around at the one closer to me behind the High School. But this one has a little more varied terrain, which I definitely wanted so I could check out how the boots did.

It was almost 5 before I got on the trails. It's pretty flat going in for the first half mile or so on an old logging road.

 

Lots of swampy/marshy areas. The water is still pretty low in this neck of the woods, so there was a lot of mud, but luckily no mosquitoes this time of year.

Overall, the main loop trail is 4.5 miles long, with a lot of side loops and spurs in various areas. The nature preserve is 500+ acres in an area that used to be farmland, but for the most part the only place that's still open is the power line.

About a mile and a half in, the loop trail met back up with the power line, and I decided to cut the loop short and take the summit trail to the first of the immense mountains I would climb. Sadly, much like Zealand and the Tripyramids, it is a completely treed summit with no views.

 

Not even a USGS benchmark disk! Lame. I had to make due with a rock and a best guess for the summit location so I could take my usual feet picture, as well as the obligatory summit selfie.

 Headed back down to another old woods road turned trail. Some portions looked like they are still driveable, while other sections have had quite a bit of wash out over the years.

 

  The conservation department in town has discontinued some of the original trails, rerouted others, and created new ones. The originals are still pretty obvious. If it hadn't been getting so late, I definitely would have explored offtrail a little more. Good reason to go back soon though.
 

Note: do not enter the ground at this location. It is a dead end. Not sure if that notice is for the hikers, the snowmobilers, or the local wildlife.

I had joined up with the loop trail again by this point and started heading back towards the parking lot. But first I made a run up the other peak in the park. This one was significantly higher than the first at ~430' vs ~390'. Supposedly this was all pasture back in the day, but there appear to be plenty of trees nowadays.

As before, it was a little hard to tell where the summit was located. The free trail map at the park entrance was a little confusing in this area. Was the summit this lump of earth at the intersection with the mountain biking paths on the back side of the hill?

 Or was the summit this pile of rocks just off the trail after I turned the corner?

Ah-HA. Twenty feet further along, there was a side path to a clearing with a cairn (and campfire remains and an empty beer can. Sigh.) I was so excited to reach the actual summit that I forgot all about feet fotos and just took my selfie. Who knows if I will ever make arduous the trek back there again!

 It is much too early for there to be fallen leaves on the ground and I would like to register a complaint. There are still 2 more days of Summer left.

Back down off the mountain and heading back out to the trailhead, but there were still a few more sights to check out. There's a pretty good sized beaver lodge and dam just off the loop trail. No beavers were spotted this time! Since the last time I hiked here, they've added a couple of benches in this area, and it's supposed to be a nesting site for blue herons. It was definitely getting dusky by this time.

Headed back out the first woods road. About halfway between the beaver pond and the road, there's an old well just off the trail.

According to the town website, there are 2 old wells on the preserve property, and one is still useable.

I am thinking this well is not the useable one!

Overall, I wandered for about an hour and a half and covered somewhere around 3.5 miles. I didn't even come close to seeing half the preserve - I skipped the "back half" of the loop trail which is closer to 2.5 miles, and I didn't check out any of the spurs other than those heading to the 2 summits. There are at least a couple of old foundations on the far side of the property from where I was, as well as an intact segment of the King's Highway from the colonial era - a route created so that King George's tax collectors could move through NH more easily.

I also seem to recall an old rusted out jalopy hidden in the woods from when Merrow and I hiked this several years ago, that I didn't run across this time. Planning to go back soon when I have more time, more daylight, and a fresh camera battery.

In Which We Prove That Every Vote Really DOES Count

Here are some facts and figures to chew on, followed by a rant.

New Hampshire has one of the largest parliamentary bodies (read: legislature) in the English-speaking world. The NH General Court is made up of the Senate, with 24 members, and the House, with 400 members. No, I did not add a 0 by accident. That's right - Four. Hundred.

NH population according to the 2010 US Census is 1,318,194. That gives us 1 Representative for every 3295 residents.

Out of the 1.3 million NH residents, 21.2% are under the age of 18 and therefore unable to vote. So the voting population is (at most) 1,038,736. As of January 2012, there are 791,249 registered voters in NH. Which drops our Rep-to-resident ratio all the way down to 1/1978.

In the 2008 Presidential election, NH voter turnout was 72.5% (kicking the national turnout rate of 61%, I might add). Assuming a similar turnout this year, that puts us at 573,656 ballots cast in NH. Which now drops the ratio to 1 Representative per every 1434 voters. How few people it now takes to swing the election one way or another.

My presidential vote may be a drop in the ocean, but my vote for State Representative is more like a drop in a shot glass. Although, I should say my votes. I actually have 8 votes for State Rep. My district is my town, and based on our town population, we get 8 Representatives. It's not broken down by area any further, so I currently have a ballot with 16 names from which to choose.

I understand not breaking the district down further to assign each Representative a specific area. I'm not crazy about it, I think it makes it much harder for me to understand who my elected Representatives are and who they stand for, but I do understand. I don't really understand why NH needs 400 Representatives, but that's coming from someone who grew up in a similarly small state that manages to get by with merely 151 Representatives.

What I do not understand is why, on Election Eve, I can find so little information on any of my 16 choices. I very much dislike voting "blind" - I want to have at least read up on a candidate or an issue before I make my choice. At this point in my life, I do not vote a party-line ticket. However, I feel like that is what I am going to have to do tomorrow if I want to vote for Representatives at all.

No candidate websites with their policy statements. Barely half of them answered the questionnaire sent out by the Town Patch online newspaper - and that had more questions about their hometowns, families, and education than it did about their ideas for government.

I am incredibly frustrated that I feel completely incapable of making an informed decision. And I'm wondering, if getting elected doesn't actually seem to require any campaigning beyond having a voter decide they like the way your name looks on paper, then maybe I should run for State Representative. I mean, throw up a cheap, static, 1-page website and I'd already be miles ahead of my competition....

On second thought, never mind. A wee bit of research shows that NH Reps and Senators get paid a whopping $200 per biennium. And I didn't drop a 0 this time either.

Monday Montage

Which is posting on Tuesday. Oh well, at least I'm posting! Moving on....

Miss me? I've just been slowly going crazy with an overwhelmingly overloaded schedule here!

I spent most of Memorial Day weekend with my parents in the Lakes Region of NH. We went to the Canterbury Shaker Village on Sunday and hiking on Monday.

Earlier in June, I took this group of munchkins to Washington DC for 4 days. We had such a blast! The girls all had a fantastic trip - we got to tour the US Capitol Building, visited the Air and Space Museum and the American History Museum, spent almost 3 hours at the National Archives, walked all over the Mall, and went a giant Girl Scout Sing-Along at the Washington Monument. And I do mean GIANT:

We all had a blast at the concert, but I think the highlight of everyone's 90-degree day was when the Washington DC Fire Dept stopped by with their ladder truck. Giant sprinkler party!

Tired feet after a long day.

I left DC and flew directly to San Francisco for work. Do not pass NH, do not collect $200. I was only in town for a few days and most of it was spent either giving training classes or trying to catch up on some sleep. I did get a chance to walk around Pier 39, have a drink, and see the sea lions though! And I got to spend the night with Red and her awesome husband.

After a convoluted planes-trains-automobiles trip home from CA, my parents joined me at my house for another weekend and we hit up Ribfest. Ribs, pulled pork, bbq chicken, beer, grilled corn on the cob, fresh cut French fries, fried Oreos, and a really good Beatles cover band. Perfect weather, it was a great night.

Mom and I made a long-planned visit to see Auntie L, my grandma's twin sister. Today the twins celebrate their 83rd birthday! I will be seeing Grandma this weekend when I make the trek up to Maine for some family celebrations.

World Thinking Day

When I was a wee lass, I was a Girl Scout.

Actually, since I was only ever a Girl Scout Junior (never a Brownie or anything else), and back in the 1980s Juniors were girls in grades 4 - 6, I suppose it wasn't so much that I was a Girl Scout as a wee lass, as it was that I was a Scout as a moderate-height-but-still-skinny lass.

I don't actually remember a whole lot about being a Scout. I do remember selling cookies, and earning a bunch of badges (the last of which I just sewed on my old sash last weekend. 23 years later.) I remember going  to day camp and making a really nice woven basket that is still on my dresser to this day. I remember my troop going on a hiking trip to a local mountain on a cold, rainy fall day. I had a uniform - sash, green and blue polyester blouse, and a little button neck tab/tie thing - but I'm pretty sure there are no pictures that exist of me in said outfit.

After 6th grade, I aged out of Juniors and there was no Cadette troop locally for me to join (and I'm not sure I would have kept going at that time anyway) so I figured my Scouting career was over.

Flash forward 2 decades. Four years ago, I was flipping through the local free newspaper and saw a community announcement for an interest meeting for Girl Scouts, both interested girls and adults were welcome. I had been thinking I wanted to get involved with some form of community service, to give back a bit, so I went to the meeting. The rest is history!

Not having a daughter, I've kind of been able to float around and fit in with troops that didn't have a second or co-leader. Last year, I hooked up with Mrs. J and her troop, and I can say without a doubt that I have definitely found my place! It's a Junior troop, just like I was (although Juniors is now only for grades 4 and 5). The girls are fantastic, really active and interested in learning new things, doing community service, and getting out and doing some of the traditional Girl Scout activities like camping and hiking. 2012 is the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting, and we are planning so pretty big and special ways to celebrate in our troop!

Today, February 22nd, is World Thinking Day. It is the shared birthday of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, the founder (and wife) of Boy Scouts. They were friends with Juliette "Daisy" Gordon Low, and inspired her to found Girl Scouts in 1912. World Thinking Day is a day when Girl Scouts and Girl Guides around the world take time to think of their sisters in Scouting, and hopefully spend some time learning about different cultures.

So Happy Thinking Day to all the other Leaders, Scouts, and Guides out there! I am happy to be your sister in Scouting.

Troop 12270, getting a little crazy!

That Which Everyone In the Israel Office Would Like To Know

1) Why aren't you staying for the RTS meeting?
and
2) Your mom is coming to Israel for only 5 days? Why such a short time?

The answers being
1) Sigh. Ask my boss.
and
2) Yes, because I can only afford to stay that much longer after my work trip. Some of us only get a couple of weeks of vacation and have to use our days judiciously.

Some quick background on work. My official title is Applications Engineer. I work for the Customer Support department. There is one other Apps Eng in the company who also works for the CS department; he is in the Israel office. There are actually quite a few other Apps Engs around the world, we've got two in our office back  home, but they all work for the Sales Operations department. Basically, they are the technical applications resources up until the customer signs the purchase order; and I am the technical applications resource after installation. We also have 3 Regional Technical Specialists in our office who also work for the CS department. They deal more with the "my machine broke, how do I fix it" side of things. Ultimately, we do all collaborate together, but we each have our own special areas of focus. Clear as mud?

So. Even though I work for CS and not SO, I got myself invited to the annual SO Applications Worldwide meeting (which is why I'm in Israel right now). That's this week. There is also a RTS Worldwide meeting next week. Back in December when we got the dates for both of these meetings, I asked my boss what he wanted me to attend: Apps, RTS, or both. One of the Apps guys in my office had already forwarded me the agenda for the SO Apps meeting; it's pretty heavy on the sales side of things. Nevertheless, my boss said I should go to that as it would be a good chance to mind-share knowledge. He also said that the RTS meeting agenda was focused on hands-on "how to fix the broken machine" stuff, and I didn't need to plan to go to that one.

So I booked my tickets and hotel. My mom booked her tickets and hotel. And the following week, I got the agenda for the RTS meeting, which yes, has plenty of "how to fix the broken machine" sessions, but also has several theoretical and applications-based sessions. That I really should be at. But now it's too late. Argh!

And yes, Mom and I would both love it if we could stay an extra 2 weeks. However, I only could manage to take 2 extra days of vacation. Maybe next time. You'd be surprised how much you can see and do in 4-5 days though, especially in a country the size of New Jersey.

Spiritual Flailing

I don't necessarily like to talk about religion a lot, especially in a public forum like my blog or the Book of Face. Partially because I feel that a person's religious or spiritual believes are his own private business; partially because I don't want to come off like I am proselytizing. I've been thinking a lot about things lately though, and I want to try to sort them out on paper, so to speak.

In the past year, I think I've gone to church once or maybe twice - Easter service with my mom, and I don't remember if I went at Christmas last year or not. I know I haven't taken Communion in well over a year, and that has only partially been due to not having been to church on the first Sunday of the month (Protestant over here). I've struggled with this a lot. I've wanted to go to church, but there have been certain aspects of my life over the last year that have left me feeling "not right" with God, and therefore feeling pretty awkward about walking into a sanctuary. It has been much easier to pull the covers up over my head (literally and figuratively) and sleep in on Sunday mornings. I don't feel right taking Communion, because I don't feel like I am in any kind of a state of Grace. I believe that God is forgiving, but I also believe that you have to ask Him for forgiveness. Asking for forgiveness implies repenting and saying you're sorry - and I just can't.

I don't regret what happened. I don't regret my part in things, what I did. Given a second chance, I do believe that I would likely make the same choices. I walked all over one of the Big 10, and I'm not sorry about it, and that makes me feel like a complete hypocrite when I go to church. I believe in God, I consider myself a part of the Christian faith, but I think this may be the first time in my adult life that my personal life and spiritual life are at such odds with each other, and I'm lost. There were a lot of instances in the past year where I said "Maybe the universe (i.e. God) is trying to tell me/you/us something" and really did believe it. Part of me still thinks it is part of some bigger Plan, something I can't see yet, but what if it's just my brain convincing itself of that to assuage my guilt? My guilt that I don't actually believe in, but that I feel inside every time I think about church?

So where do I go from here? How do you reconnect with your beliefs and with God when you know you are a sinner, an intentional sinner, and don't want to take it back? Is that even possible? Probably not; I feel like I am being the typical, 21st century, Christian-when-it-suits-me spiritualist who wants the happy touchy-feely aspects of religion but doesn't want to do the hard work. I don't know how to get past this. It would almost be easier if I was questioning my beliefs - atheist/agnostic/I-believe-in-a-higher-power-but-not-the-trappings-of-a-Christian-God are all valid choices in our world. But the fact that I do believe in a Christian God narrows the scope and focus of my personal spiritual world, and I am at odds with that.

I am forcing (and yes, it really is "forcing") myself to attend church services during this Advent season. It's 4 weeks, plus Christmas Day service with my family. I don't have to take Communion next week, and if I sit in the back row, it is likely nobody will notice. I am reading a couple of books on the spiritual aspects of the Christmas season, and I plan on having some kind of nightly ritual during Advent (once I dig out my decorations and unpack the Advent candleholder). And mostly, I'm hoping that somehow I'll figure this out.

Deep thoughts for the end of a long weekend.

Review Tuesday: Brain Origami

Ahem. There will be spoilers of the movie Primer. And probably of Memento and maybe even of The Sixth Sense. If you haven't seen these and want to at some point, it's on you if you read any further and get spoiled!

I would like to start by saying I normally have no problem with non-linear timelines. I read and enjoy books about time travel that skip back and forth between eras (Connie Willis's The Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Blackout/All Clear; Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife). I had no problem understanding the "twist" to Memento - and given that the movie's website was www.otnemem.com, I didn't understand why everyone was so flabbergasted that (SPOILER ALERT) part of the movie is shown backwards!! (And I'm not trying to make those of you who didn't get Memento right off feel bad, I'm usually not very prescient. I didn't pick up on any of the clues and was therefore completely shocked by the ending of The Sixth Sense.) At any rate, I liked Memento and didn't have any problems following it at all. I like brain-teasers; I like things that make me think through them, I like puzzles.

And then I watched Primer. Which starts out as a time-traveling nerd/engineer indie, and then got really really weird, and my brain tied itself in knots trying to figure it out. The IMDB synopsis states "Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention." Which I guess is technically true, but really doesn't even come close to describing half the movie. The premise of Primer is a bunch of engineers designing a time travel device, and then traveling back (and forth!) in time to affect their futures. And their pasts. Basically, the movie made sense through the first half, and then started doubling back on itself so may times I lost track. Person A came back from the future to tell himself something to tell Person B so that Person B could discuss it with Person A (current) to enable the whole time travel thing so Person A (future) could come back in time? (And that was the part I understood!) There is an excellent diagram of movie timelines on XKCD, comparing Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park, the original Star Wars Trilogy, 12 Angry Men, and Primer. Having seen all of those movies, I can honestly state that the following graphic is correct.

http://www.xkcd.com/657/

My brain is still trying to untangle itself from attempting to understand the full plotline of Primer.

Elevenses

Thank you to all the veterans and service members who are currently serving our country and protecting the rights guaranteed to all Americans in the Constitution.

Congratulations to my cousins, M&M, on their wedding day. I wish you a life filled with happiness.

And finally, happy anniversary and another big congratulations to Crow and Mander, who celebrate their 10th anniversary with a LEGAL wedding in their home state. I hope that by the time you celebrate 20 years and M&M celebrate 10, that your wedding will be legal in all states and recognized by the US government.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

"In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in about 2:55, when you know you've taken all the baths that you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul."

- Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I think this describes every one of my weekends that I spend home alone.

Saturday was productive. Sunday morning was productive. The beginning of Sunday afternoon was productive. But now? It's 10:00 at night, I have to get ready for work tomorrow, and my house is still a mess. A different mess than it was on Friday night - I did accomplish quite a bit this weekend - but I also half-finished a bunch of projects that are now strewn about the place.

Of Imaginary Friends, Real Friends, and Care Packages

I have a group of friends I've never met. Call them penpals, because that's a term that everyone understands and seems nice and safe. 21st century penpals. Which means our communication is electronic. Yep, that's right, I have a bunch of "imaginary" internet friends. Cue the older generation panicking that I'm going to be killed or sucked into a cult or have my identity stolen.

Anyway, these friends knew I had a rough winter. Got laid off at the beginning of January, my pipes froze, my furnace was temperamental (and still needs to be officially fixed...), my boyfriend first fell off the face of the planet and then broke up with me, and to top it all off, it snowed for pretty much the entire freaking month of February. Basically, I wanted to crawl into bed with the cats and never get out. Which I actually did for a couple of weeks.

So a bunch of them pooled their pennies and put together a lovely care package for me. Among other things, they sent me flower seeds to brighten my garden, a candle to light and relax with, and a nicely-funded gift card for Dunkin Donuts so I could get out of the house without having to pull out my own wallet. I was so touched I cried. I couldn't get over the fact that these women, only one of whom I had met before, and all of whom I know have their own crap in life to deal with, cared enough about me to lift my spirits.

Since then, I have contributed funds to other care packages for others who were having a hard time. I sent a bunch of postcards from Israel. And slowly, slowly I've begun meeting more and more of them in person. It helped that there was a Moot in Maine this summer, so I met a whole bunch of awesomeness all at once. I've met up with another local-ish woman for Restaurant Week, and somehow timing worked out that I got together with someone else when I was in Michigan for work last week. My "imaginary friends" are turning into Real Friends and I am so happy about it!

PS - So far I'm still alive, my identity is intact, and I don't feel any compulsions to drink any KoolAid. I do think I need to acquire a zester though...not sure if that counts for Cult Indoctrination 101 or not.

The Final 5%

Why is the last little bit of a home improvement project always so hard to motivate myself to complete? The latest on a long list of not-quite-done tasks that has been growing since 2006 is the laundry closet redo.

Here's what I've done so far:
-sold the old washer and dryer
-had the walls repaired, the dryer vent moved up to the level of the outlet on the stacked dryer, and an extra subfloor put down
-removed the shelf and patched all the screw holes
-painted the ceiling (1 coat), trim including inside the door frame, and walls (all 2 coats)
-installed press-and-stick vinyl tile floor - please note that there were 6 tiles I could lay whole and 9 that needed to be cut!
-had a new washer and dryer delivered and installed
-bought and assembled a closet shelving unit to go next to the stacked washer and dryer

You know what I need to do before I can call it complete?
-buy 4 extra-long L brackets and secure the shelving unit to the wall (and a shorty level, since mine is too long to fit on the shelves to line everything up)
-install the hanging rod that came with the closet shelving unit. This involves carrying the stepladder upstairs, so you know, quite the effort there! But I can't really do that until the L brackets are on.
-buy some ironable hem tape, turn up the hems of the curtains I use instead of doors, and hang the curtains and rod back up. But again, there's no point in doing this until the other 2 tasks are done, because they'll just be in the way.

If I really wanted to get crazy, I could also reinstall the CO detector in the closet (took it down to paint the ceiling) and mount the little bar light I had on the shelf previously to the door frame. But let's not get carried away here!

Le sigh. Motivation. Sometimes it's so fleeting!

How to Ruin an Awesome Night

So you meet up with friends to go out in Beantown for a going-away celebration. Said group of friends includes your ex-boyfriend, but you figure you can handle it for an evening - you've been talking over IM for a while and you've both agreed that this night is about your friend who is moving back home overseas. And secretly, you figure the night will be a success as long as you don't wind up crying in a bar bathroom somewhere.

So you go out, and everyone has a great time. Drinks are had. Food is consumed. More drinks are had. There is some dancing at some point. And you and the ex are friendly, and then flirty, and keep "accidentally" touching each other, and it's wonderful. The night winds down, the band finishes their set, you're all hanging out at the bar finishing last-call drinks. You head to the restroom one last time, and when you come back 2 minutes later, he's gone.

You all head outside, ready to take a cab back to another friend's apartment, and everyone is looking for him and wondering where he is. Finally he texts someone that he left, and texts you, telling you that he finds you way too attractive and so is walking home. Drunk, tired, feeling both abandoned by him and annoyed with yourself, you text back, telling him to F off.

So, what had previously been a fun evening suddenly feels like it has fallen into the shitter. Cab ride back is miserable - hot, lonely even with 4 other people there, and ends as all drunken cab rides seem to: with contents of stomach no longer where they should be. You somehow manage to avoid crying (a minor victory of sorts), but do spend some time outside whining to the only friend of the group who knows that the ex is your ex.

You crash on an air mattress at the apartment, and wake up at 7 and drive yourself home. Where you promptly go back to bed for 4 hours, and then spend the rest of the day alternating between reading and napping. You kind of hate yourself for still feeling this way about the ex, even though it's been 5 months since you broke up. You also kind of hate yourself for getting your hopes up that maybe things had changed. You really hate him for not being the man you thought he was, and for, as typical, taking the easy way out by disappearing on you. And you really wish that there was an off switch somewhere in your heart or brain so you could just get over him and move on with your life already, because missing him this much cannot be healthy.

Love sucks.

Hot Hot Hot

Right now, at 9:56 PM, The Weather Channel says it is 87 degrees in my town, and it feels like 98. I finally broke down and turned the air conditioning on in my house! I was hoping to just use it this evening to cut the humidity in here and then be able to open up the windows when I go to bed, but not if it feels like 98 a couple hours after sunset. Damn.

The cats are much happier now that I've turned on the AC - they were sad, wilty little beasties when I came home from work today. Stumbled up out of the basement all "Mom, we're hot. Make it unhot," and shedding puffs of fur.

I took advantage of my location in the center of town. Put on my bathing suit (tankini with a cover-up skirt), walked down to the chocolate shop and got a black raspberry ice cream cone, and then walked across the street to the park. This is the newest park in town, finally opened last year, and it's right along the banks of the river. There are a couple of paths down to the river bed and there is a great big sand bar, so it makes a nice swimming hole. I think about half the town has discovered this - even at 7 PM when it's starting to get dark there were a couple dozen people still there. I jumped in and sat in the water for about 20 minutes, just cooling off. The channel is deep enough to do a shallow dive into and swim around, but the rest of the water is only 2-3' deep, so once I got in and got wet, I headed back out of the main flow and just sat on the sandy gravel bottom in water up to my neck. Aaahhhhhhh.

Israel By Numbers

10:15 PM Israeli time.

11 - number of days a 3oz bottle of contact cleaner will last
14 - number of showers I can take before I run out of shampoo and conditioner (also in 3oz bottles)
16 - number of days before using up a travel-sized tube of toothpaste

4 - greatest number of showers taken in one day
3 - number of those showers that included washing my hair
In my defense, it was the day I went to Masada and the Dead Sea, so one in the morning, one after getting out of the sulfur bath at the spa (no hair washing that time), one after swimming/floating in the Dead Sea, and one when I got back to the hotel in an attempt to not smell like sulfur any longer.

1 - number of restaurants where I actually did see bacon on the menu
0 - number of times I ordered bacon. I figured I could control my cravings and be culturally sensitive for 3 weeks.
Eleventy-six - approximate number of times I craved bacon

$178 - amount spent sending laundry out through the hotel
$107 - additional price it would have been had I not washed socks, unders, bras, and 3 blouses in the bathtub
$4 - price of a can of Coke from the mini bar in the room
3 - number of cans of Coke pulled from the mini bar when I was either too tired to go elsewhere, or it was Sabbath and everything was closed

3 - number of glasses of wine I consumed the night before going to Jerusalem
1 - number of glasses of wine I should have consumed the night before going to Jerusalem
Probably less than 0.5 - liters of water I drank on a hot sunny day wandering around Jerusalem
3 - liters of water I drank on a hot sunny day wandering around the Dead Sea, after learning my lesson the hard way in Jerusalem (plus about 750mL of Coke, for extra liquid and to keep my sugar level somewhat up)

19 - number of days we teased the guy from CA about eating nothing but chicken here
1 - number of days I successfully goaded him into picking the beef dish at lunch. For the record, he said he enjoyed it.

4 - number of days I forgot my key card to get into the office and had to borrow someone else's every time I needed to go to the bathroom
1 - days when I discovered after getting back to the hotel that the key card was actually in my purse all along

3 - number of chicken livers I ate at our class "graduation" dinner. First time I've ever eaten liver. It was actually pretty tasty.

UPDATE, 6/3/11:
2.5 - number of hours it took me to get from being dropped off at Ben Gurion Airport to finally being inside security. They aren't kidding when they tell you to get there at least 3.5 hours early.

Comments From A Friday Night

5:30 PM Israeli time.

In one of my many shopping sprees through Target before my trip, I found some little notebooks of blank paper in the same size and style of a passport. They were on clearance for less than $3 for a pack of 3, and they have cute little designs on them, so I scooped them up. Stuck one in my purse before I left on my trip, figuring that there would be things I might want to jot down while I was out and about.

I did wind up getting out of my funk mood and out of my room last night, and went to Gordo's, which is a beach bar right next to the hotel. Much like the upstairs tavern at my favorite local restaurant back home, Gordo's seating is couches, chairs, and low tables. I parked myself in a deck chair, ordered a glass of Israeli white wine and a plate of pasta and shrimp in garlic butter, and pulled out my passport notebook to write down some observations. Here is some of what I wrote.

"Enjoying the summery feeling of humid air combined with a cool ocean breeze."

"Oddly, this is not the first time on this trip that someone has assumed I am Russian and spoken to me in (yet another) language I don't understand. The taxi driver who picked me up at the airport assumed I was because of my first name ("Is Russian name, yes?") and tonight was the second waiter/maitre d' who thought that. Which makes me wonder - do I look Russian? As far as I know, I have absolutely NO Russian blood in my background!"

"There is an orange and white tabby cat at my feet, trying to make friends with me. He must know I ordered the shrimp." There was a black and white one making friends with me at the seafood place a couple of nights ago, too. Clearly it is obvious to the feline world that I am a sucker.

"The three women at the seating area next to me (who may actually BE Russian) ordered a bottle of Chardonnay with ice to put in the glasses." Blasphemy!

"Clearly not a Jewish/Kosher restaurant, because in addition to the pasta with shrimp, I could have ordered a bacon cheeseburger!"

"Interesting how my handwriting gets larger as I get further into the second glass of wine...."

"And now the women sitting next to me sound like they are speaking French. But I can't imagine any self-respecting French person sullying a glass of wine with ice."

"Why is it that my brain, when faced with any foreign language EXCEPT French, comes out with the French? I did this in high school in Italy and I'm doing it now - formulating all my conversations in my brain in (bad, grammatically incorrect) French. But when I'm actually in France or Quebec, it all abandons me. What the hell?!"

And at that point, Brian from class showed up and ordered a 2-foot tall beer. So I had a third glass of wine to keep him company. And we shut the place down at 2AM - which I can assure you was NOT the best plan for the night before an 8:30 start to Jerusalem. More on that trip later.

Brian and his impressively tall beer. It has a spigot on the bottom!

Ups and Downs

Or maybe, Mostly Downs. 7:30 PM Israeli time.

I read something recently that mentioned it takes one day per hour of time change to get over jet lag. Israel is +7 hours from the east coast and I got here last Saturday, so today is Day 7. I thought I was over my jet lag a few days ago, but today I slept until 9, didn't actually make it out of the room until 11 (when I found out I had missed breakfast, despite the hotel guide saying they serve until 11:30), was back in the room after a walk by 12:30, and slept from 1 until 4. I should drag myself out to dinner, since I skipped breakfast and just snacked on random food I have in my room for lunch, but I'm still feeling pretty tired/lazy.

This feels pretty similar to how I felt for a while back in February, which to be honest, isn't a great sign. I think a lot of it has to do with being a little lonely - despite my introvert rant the other day. I'm in this beautiful, glorious place and don't have anyone to share it with. It's just enough of a culture change here that I'm not nearly as comfortable going out to dinner by myself as I am in the States. And it's not that I feel unsafe walking around Tel Aviv or sitting in a restaurant by myself, I just feel much more awkward and alone. I know I could try being more social with my classmates. But my classmates aren't people I would normally choose to hang out with (unlike other coworkers I have traveled with in the past) and after a day/week of class, I want a break from them. So it's a Catch-22 situation. Honestly, a big part of it is that I walk around here and keep thinking of how much Le copain français would enjoy it here, and I still really miss him. I know most people's opinion is that I should try to focus on moving on, and that I should try to use this trip as a "reset button" and a fresh start, but still....

So despite the fact that I originally had big plans to go to the street market, poke around Jaffa some more, and maybe do a walking tour I found online, I did nothing. And now I'm disappointed with myself that I wasted a day here - after all, I only have 4 "free" days that don't involve class, and tomorrow we have the group tour planned for Jerusalem. On the other hand, maybe I just needed to catch up on my sleep. If nothing else, I think this has shown me that I need to do better next weekend about making plans to fill my time, and not try to play it by ear. And I really hope this isn't an indication that next year's planned trip to Paris will result in me holing up in a short-term rental for 2 weeks....

3 Months, 1 Week, 5 Days

I survived unemployment. I guess I should be thankful that it wasn't worse. After all, being out of work for only 3 months is pretty good these days; I know several people who were/have been out for much longer. But man, it was rocky.

I was 100% unhappy with the job, the company, and the commute, so you would think that I would have been thrilled when they basically paid me 2 months' worth of salary to look for a new job and not have to drive into the office. Unfortunately, it was winter, it was cold, I was terrified of burning through all my cash and then not being able to pay the mortgage so I never went anywhere or did anything. I wound up hermiting in my house for a few weeks, which was not a good thing. I've been reading back over some emails and Skype conversations that I exchanged with Le copain français, and I can definitely see where I started to come off the rails towards the end of January. I didn't notice it at the time; it took about another 3 weeks (and my relationship completely imploding) for me to actually realize I needed some outside help.

Thankfully the low point was also the turning point. The week after everything with LCF went to hell (and I did start getting help that week, as I thankfully still had health insurance at that point), I got calls from a recruiter and an HR rep about job openings. Both were interested in me, and over the month of March I had phone interviews and in person interviews. The interview schedules for both jobs were pretty much on the same timeline, and at the end of the month, it paid off. I got one solid job offer, and I think I would have gotten an offer from the other company, but they were dragging their feet on making a decision, and I had really wanted the first job anyway.

Last Monday I started, and so far I am still really excited about the job. My title hasn't changed, I'm still an Applications Engineer, and still working in a customer service role. Unlike my last job, though, I'm going to be almost entirely focused on technical support, and the job is 100% post-sale. They already have 2 apps engineers who deal with pre-sales/marketing/prospective customers. So I get to do technical problem solving, advise customers on materials (yay, I'm going to get to use the graduate degree after all!), and eventually do some user training for customers. The company's product is something I knew about from working at my first job in Rochester; it's technology that I've always found really cool, and it has grown leaps and bounds from when I was working with it back in 2004 and 2005.

So now I'm back to 8-5 Monday-Friday, and trying to get used to getting up, going to work, and being productive for 8 hours every day! First week was exhausting, and I'm hoping it gets better damn quickly. I've had just over 3 months off, and for what feels like the first time in my life, I was actually ready to go back to work. I've done just about everything I could around my house without spending any (or much) money; now it's time to go earn some again so I can plan more expensive projects!

What did I do during my unemployment? A little bit of everything:

• Read 60 books. Yes, sixty. 6-0. I know, I can't believe it either. Blame shitty weather and depression that made me not want to get out of bed for the second half of February. I availed myself of the many free ebooks for the Kindle on Amazon. Some were surprisingly good, and a few were hysterically bad. I also reread a bunch of favorite "comfort reading" books.
• Went skiing a handful of times. Not as much as I would have liked, given how much snow we had, but I was trying to be frugal.
• Spring cleaned my house from top to bottom. Thanks to my mom for coming down for a weekend to help!
• Finished 2 cross-stitch projects that I had been working on for a while. One for myself, which I will get framed once I have a little extra cash again, and one as a gift for my Great Auntie, my grandma's twin.
• Lost somewhere around 5 or 6 lbs. Completely unintentionally, and I'm not entirely happy about that since it was kind of a result of the not getting out of bed. Ooops. Eating again, and doing much better now, thanks.
• Re-joined the gym! And actually went a few times! Hoping I can keep it up now that I've started working again.
• Went to Maine a couple of times to visit family; watched a bunch of movies; shoveled a lot of snow off the decks several times over; and was available at a moment's notice for napping with the cats. I'm not sure how they are taking this back to work thing!