penn

Life is good

Matt and I had a wonderful weekend. I managed to avoid my official work. I will have a pile of grading on Monday, but the weekend was worth it.

Saturday was long but fun. We taught an exploratory science day for middle schoolers first. We crashed carts, made babies (genetics), examined our own cells with microscopes, and did some acid/base chemistry. Oh, and we blew up a gummy bear. We immediately headed home to get dolled up for prom. I inserted a pic below - we did not go quite as fancy as the kids.

Prom was at the Wabasha Street Caves in St. Paul. I believe the site was a speakeasy at one point. It is lovely inside, with stuccoed cave ceilings and many adjoining rooms. The night had minimal drama, casino games, and not too much rap. All in all, a success.

Sunday, we explored outdoors. Matt ran a 5k at our nature center (yes, the one I used to work for). In the afternoon, we went back to watch a prescribed burn and do some hiking. We spotted spring wildflowers poking up (spring beauties below) and looked for frogs with some 6 year old friends we ran into.

We finished off by grilling burgers and brats with our neighbors and their kids. I taught their kindergartner how to make homemade whipped cream for our strawberry dessert.

Wonderful to have a weekend that was simultaneously jam-packed AND relaxing. Exactly what I needed to refresh for another long week.

Channeling Narnia

This is the winter that will not end. Thankfully, I am still awed by the beauty of the heavy snow that blankets the ground. We seem to thaw out for just long enough to melt the snow, then we get a fresh covering.

Tomorrow marks yet another late start (and maybe snow day) for my school. I teach in a rural district, and the snow-thaw-snow cycle wreaks havoc on gravel roads.

I think I will still settle down for bed now, and I will enjoy some extra sleep and morning grading while looking out on the loveliness.

A marriageable age

Julia Shaw wrote an intriguing article for slate entitled I Married Young. What are the rest of you waiting for?". The article struck a particular nerve with me. Shaw discusses how she had originally planned to wait for marriage, because life needs to be all ironed out first. Then, she met her wonderful husband during her sophomore year of college, and she decided an early marriage wasn't so bad. This, it turns out, has been a great decision for her. Her article enumerates all the benefits she has gained from the support of her husband and their wonderful marriage.

While I'm certainly happy for Shaw, as she seems to have married well for her, I am irked that the article focused on the age at which folks marry and not instead on who and how people date and make the decision for marriage. If Shaw had instead said "don't let your age hold you back from marrying your amazing boyfriend" or "don't break up with a great man because you have 'life plans'," I wouldn't be half so annoyed at the article.

I didn't get married at 29 because I was waiting for my life to fall into place. It just took me that long to find my wonderful, amazing, kind husband. Matt truly is one of the best people I know, and I am both proud and lucky to have him as my life partner. We were 26 when we met, and we prudently dated for awhile because we'd both dated people who started out nice and devolved into awful. If I had the good luck to have met him earlier, we would likely have married earlier.

I did meet a guy my sophomore year of college, and we did consider marriage. But my reasons for leaving that relationship weren't related to "not being held back." Yes, I did break up with him to study abroad. But, even at the time, I knew that was just a convenient time for a break up. He would have held me back in life. Not due to changing my goals, but because he was not the right partner for me. If I had pushed to get married earlier so I could have had that life partner through my random wandering 20s (which were mostly independent apart from being on my parents' cell phone plan), I would have married wrong and had that early divorce that many young people do have.

I'm glad Shaw's marriage worked out well. For some of us, it takes world wandering, soul-searching, and some growing up to find (or become) the right partner. To Shaw: don't judge us because we were not as lucky as you.

Snow Day

We are covered in snow today. We haven't had that many inches, but the storm struck during what would have been my drive to school, so I was relieved to stay home in bed.

For now, I will enjoy my snow day with hot chocolate, Harry Potter, and grading. Shoveling can wait until the wind dies down.

100%

Matt and I have decided to run 12 in 12: 12 5ks in 12 months. We started today with the 100% Irish for a day 5k around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. It was a slightly drizzly day but much better than I expected.

Due to melting snow, there were a few bottlenecks that kept me from my goal of a sub-40 minute. As you can see below, it was also quite crowded (can you find Matt in the first picture?). But I still had fun, and I clocked in at 40:50, which is good enough for me as we kick off this year's 5ks. Matt rocked at 23ish (the race wasn't chip timed) and then patiently waited for me.

And as befitting an Irish 5k, there was beer at the end. I gave mine to Matt (not a fan of the bittering hops), and I enjoyed his shamrock cookie.

All in all, a good day and a great start to our 12 in 12.

Pursuit

Recently, I've struggled with my job teaching. It seems like every day is a treadmill: plan, grade, plan, grade. I get a few days ahead in planning, and then I fall behind if I don't keep running. As the Red Queen says, you have to keep running just to stay in one place.

And, yet, there is always a bright side to this. The pain and struggle reminds me that I am delightfully alive. Time continues, and I am not a static being. I am always learning, growing, and changing from my work. And this reminds me of a quote we included in our wedding bulletin:

"Love does not just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new." ~ Ursula K. LeGuin

And we, fallible humans that we are . . . we are the same. I like to think of us like bread rather than like laundry, but either metaphor stands. We must continue to be worked on, continually. And so must our endeavors. I imagine many other jobs are like this too, but I only know the teaching side. It's tempting to say that I will sit down, plan, and be all ready and prepared for what lays before me in the year. But that is not realistic nor possible. This reminder came up for me a few days ago in reading a friend's blog post on not quite meeting her personal challenges.

I actually like to see posts when people admit to being not-quite-perfect. So often, we only see the outer side of the people with whom we interact. It is so simple to imagine that we are the only ones with challenge; I must be the only person who didn't receive a manual. But there is no great, orchestrated conspiracy to keep me in the dark. Just like every other human around me, I'm trying to pick my way through the path ahead of me without stumbling too often on the rocks I couldn't see.

Matt and I have been running recently. It is easy to get discouraged, because I am not a good runner. I can sprint at Matt's normal running pace, but my mile time still lags far behind where I'd like it. I'm almost too embarrassed to share here, but I'll post in the spirit of sharing our failings along with celebrating achievement. I currently run at a pace of 13 minutes per mile. But it is something, and I run faster in small bursts. Better still, I feel stronger and happier because I run.

This pursuit has been good for me, and so has teaching. Both remind me that I am making progress, even if that progress is not as fast as I'd like. For me, both running and teaching are pursuits I enjoy but cannot master immediately. And that is okay. Again, I am alive and ever changing.

And, of course, this brings up the lovely line by Tennyson: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." Here's to fighting the entropy!

Snow day

Thanks to an Alberta Clipper, we got 9 inches of snow and a free day from school. I took the day as a welcome chance to relax and get a little extra work done. Matt is on spring break, so we were able to enjoy together.

The highlight of the day was popping Lucy in the snow. She's never seen so much, and she was quite perplexed. I dumped her in a deep area, and she couldn't figure out how to escape. Once I scooped her up, she ran back inside and has been content to just look out the window.

Cozy

We have two pets around these days: our cat Lucy and our crayfish Blue. The other night, I noticed a similarity between the two. In case you can't quite tell from the difficult-to-take aquarium pics, yes, both our pets love to snuggle heaters no matter how warm it is in our house.

 

Still nice

Dear people who don't shovel your sidewalks,

My wet shoes and I are not fans. Still, thanks for the motivation to finish my run quickly.

Sincerely, the gal who just ran 2 miles outside for the first time since October

New happenings

In our first year of marriage, I have discovered a plethora of benefits from being married. Many are fairly run of the mill: Matt takes out the garbage, shares in laundry duties, and provides some bed warming in the evenings. More exciting has been learning about the myriad small, fringe benefits of my spouse.

This week I played my first game of backgammon. I lost by just one chip, though I think this is more due to Matt being a kind opponent than to any innate skill on my part. I found the game enjoyable, and I look forward to having that as part of our game regimen. We enjoy Scrabble, two player Blokus, and a few other titles, but we're still lacking in two-player offerings. This is a good addition, even if it does make me feel a bit old-school.

Another first from this week is Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was a Star Wars gal growing up. I remember seeing the inevitable glimpses of Star Trek here and there, but I never pursued the series. Matt grew up watching this with his family on the "family couch." On Netflix, he discovered we that we can watch the whole series. I only have three episodes under my belt so far, so I'm withholding judgement. I find the show fairly enjoyable but haven't converted.

Other miscellaneous changes include me skiing (cross-country is fun, but downhill is not my bag), lots more camping than I've ever done, and a good bit of hiking and outdoorsy fun. I might have done some of those without Matt, but his prodding has certainly pushed me farther than I would have gone alone.

We realized tonight that Matt has also changed from knowing me. When we met, his idea of cooking dinner was warming up a burrito or cooking ramen if he felt fancy. Now, he has dinner ready for me if he didn't work that day, and he also often starts dinner for us to finish together once I get home. He also reads far more than he ever did before.

Yes, having a spouse has suited me well so far. Our anniversary was December 30th. Here's to one great year and hopefully many more.