Megan + Amy at Fenway

We’ve got two dogs who live with us. They’re pretty much family too. I mean, we pick up their poop, feed them, and make sure they have health care. That counts, right?

Maggie + Otter

The other parts of our family are my folks, brother and family, Amy’s folks, sister and family (three of our nieces below), and brother.

Mud masks with Auntie Amy!

And then there are our friends – our chosen family. Chosen family is special in a different way from traditional family, and I wouldn’t trade either of them for the world. From our oldest friends (not age-wise old, but length-of-friendship old) the newer ones, they really do make life wonderful too.

My family isn’t really all that different from most people’s families, with a few awesome exceptions:

1. They’re mine.
2. Amy and I happen to both be women.
3. Our traditional families didn’t raise an eyebrow about #2.
4. Our chosen family didn’t either.

Not everyone who is L, G, B, or T can say the same things, and that’s one reason why I’m blogging today. My family is NORMAL and I’m hopeful that someday #3 and #4 are the rule rather than exception.

What was awesome was that we parked at the Pemi Base Camp – the lot had maybe 30 cars in it total. We had the dogs with us, and with so few people around, it was really easy to head down there every couple of hours to take them out for a quick walk. (Traveling with dogs due to Maggie’s recent ingestion of something horrid which caused days’ worth of GI issues…)

Tomorrow we drive to southern Maine, and early Sunday we finish driving up to Sugarloaf for what I hope are 3 great days on the slopes. Chipping away at my goals for 2013!

Fitness

• Heal my moderately-injured body as quickly as possible. Avoid more injuries.
• Work out 5x/week at CFNE.
• Do Crossfit classes at least 1x/week when doing Oly training.
• Compete in an Olympic weightlifting meet and hit PRs on both my lifts.
• Snatch 145#.
• Deadlift 2x+ bodyweight.
• Run more, row less.
• Do the Crossfit workout called Murph (run 1 mile, 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 air squats, run 1 mile).
• Ski at least 10 days in 2013.
• Go to the women’s ski/snowboard event at Loon Mtn. in March.

Life

• Read 50 books.
• Finish one knitting project currently on needles. Start and finish one more.
• Say “yes” to social outings more often. (It worked last year, so I’m doing it again.)
• Drink at least 50 new and unique beers.
• Set up a media system in the house.
• Paint the living room, kitchen, and bedroom ceilings.
• Cook dinner 1x/week (currently Amy does almost all the cooking and I’d like to pull my weight more in this area.)
• Keep a daily gratitude journal.
• Floss daily. I did AWESOME on this for most of 2012 and want to continue. (Until 2012, I hated flossing.)
• Turn off my phone after 10pm. (This will be the hardest one for me.)

Looking forward to seeing other people’s resolutions for the coming year.

• Make it to CFNE minimum of 3x/week, no matter how crazy the other parts of my life are.
• Find my double-unders again
• Avoid the avoidable injuries, and treat the unavoidable ones
• Bring mindfulness to my Crossfit practice (some days, the PR is in the attempt, not in the results)
• Maintain a healthy sense of humor and of the absurd
• Keep work and life in balance
• Be more social – go out with friends more often.

I’m most proud of being more social this year. I’m a total homebody, so that resolution was really important for my mental well-being this year. My other huge accomplishment was switching up  my Crossfit training to focus exclusively on Olympic weightlifting. It helped me achieve the mindfulness goal, the showing-up goal, and the avoid/treat the injuries goal. Amazing what that’s done for me. Love it!

Ones I didn’t accomplish included:

• Eat Paleo 90% of the time and make the 10% non-Paleo REALLY worthwhile. – HA.
• Snatch 135# (my biggest goal in terms of fitness) – Close, got to #130!
• Run a 7:30 mile (and run at least 1 road race, either a 5k or 10k) – set aside
• Row a sub-8:00 2K – set aside
• Visit my massage therapist 6 times – got there 3 times
• Continue reading like a fiend (this year I hit 66…) – AWFUL. Only read 30 books this year.
• Knit a few items and GIVE THEM AWAY – No FOs this year. Whoops!

I think I can see a few areas for continued improvement this coming year!

The new fun thing that I’ve gotten into over the past 4-5 months has been Olympic weightlifting. Olympic weightlifting involves 2 lifts – the snatch and the clean & jerk.

There are two major misconceptions people have when you tell them you do Olympic weightlifting. The first is that I’m somehow a body-builder. Nope, not by any means. I’m not glistening, I don’t wear a bikini for lifting, and I certainly don’t use bronzer to make my body look better on stage.  I have the utmost respect for folks who have the time and dedication to put into training for bodybuilding, but can’t imagine doing it myself.

The second misconception is that you have to be HA-YUGE to be an Olympic weightlifter. That too, is simply untrue. There are 7 weight classes in women’s lifting (8 in men’s), which means that when you lift in competitions, you are lifting against other people who are roughly the same weight as you. Lucky me, being over the age of 35, also gets to lift against people in my same age class too (master’s level). Because Olympic weightlifting really isn’t that big of a sport, it means that the likelihood of me winning meets is pretty darn high.

I’ve done 3 meets so far – one was a small, unsanctioned meet at my gym, for which I didn’t do any training. Amazingly, I PRed both my lifts (personal record)! For the next meet – the Bay State Games – I spent about 6 weeks training. This was an official meet, and lucky me went 6-for-6 on my lifts, and set two more PRs! Super exciting! The most recent meet I did was 6 weeks ago – the New England Regional Championships – and I trained long and hard for that one. My coach had me work through 2 cycles – a strength cycle, in which I squatted like a mofo, and a Bulgarian cycle in which I worked a lot of heavy single lifts. I went 5-for-6 on my lifts at that meet, and again set 2 more PRs! Can’t argue with that at all. (52kg snatch, snatch 56kg, snatch 58kg miss, clean & jerk 67kg, clean & jerk 72kg, clean & jerk 74kg).

The next meet I’m planning on doing is in April, the Master’s National competition. I’m learning a new way to do the snatch, and should have enough time between now and then to really perfect it. In the meantime, of course, I’m frustrated every other day, which I think means I’m doing things right.

 TL;DR – We’re migrating from a legacy web server and a content management system to Drupal. I’m leading the academic department migrations. That is most of what I do right now, supplemented with management responsibilities and desk responsibilities.

Monday – Day 1

Today I’m working from home. We were supposed to have an all-day training on using Drupal, but that was canceled. I’m taking advantage of having cleared my day by spending the entire day working on one big project: the Art Department web site.

7:30 – get up, feed dogs, make and eat breakfast, finish reading “betsy-tacy”
8:45 – shower
9:00 – login to email, read google groups, delete a bunch of stuff
9:30 – fire up VPN connection (which hasn’t worked for me until now – hooray!) and login to new web server
9:35 – open email from art department and ponder how to approach the creation of their new website in our new Drupal environment
9:36 – open twitter (to think, of course) and see @younglibrarian’s posting about #libday8
9:37 – start this post after seeing on twitter that libday8 is today
9:40 – back to the art web site – start building structure, adding content
10:30 – let dogs out
10:45 – let dogs in
11:00 – still working on art, had difficulties uploading a PDF and had to email technical team to figure out why we can’t (missing content type?)
11:05 – technical team just had to add file type to allowed list
11:08 – 2-minute Words With Friends break (36-point word!)
11:10 – check email
11:15 – uploaded PDF to file upload area, found URL, used “redirector” content type, had colleague test, and it worked! (later: so I thought… I was wrong)
11:20 – put small dog on porch
11:25 – get back to creating site
12:05 – break for lunch (Words With Friends, Twitter, Facebook, begin reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM; eat lime-basil chicken, roasted brussel sprouts, red cabbage slaw, plain seltzer water)
12:42 – resume working on art, uploading images
1:05 – sent panicked email to public affairs folks after reading message that I fear I’ve misunderstood
1:30 – they email back – fortunately, I did misunderstand and we are not working at cross-purposes, GChat with colleague and laugh hysterically
2:15 – check email and update LibGuide for econometrics, adding in Stata tab created by instructional technologist who works with numerical and spatial data (she’s meeting with the class on Thursday)
2:30 – bring barking dog in from porch
2:36 – put dog outside
2:54 – bring barking dog inside so mailman will deliver mail
3:18 – called it a day on the art department web site
3:20 – made green smoothie for fortification for rest of day (spinach, kiwi, grapes, avocado, ice, water)
3:30 – realized I wasn’t done with art department web site, finish work on it, upload all images
4:05 – update faculty profile, email faculty member about additional information for profile
4:15 – reviewed email, answered some things, and got ready for tuesday when i’ll go in to the office
4:40 – logged off of email and VPN
4:55 – head to gym

Tuesday, Day 2

7:15 – wake up, eat, shower, check Facebook, Twitter, email, feed dogs
8:15 – leave for work
8:30 – greet colleague back from FMLA
8:35 – fire up computer, begin post, check calendar, full day of meetings
9:00-9:25 – meet with colleague on Drupal project, check progress of to-do items, send message to team re: weird behavior in one content type
9:25 – get message back from another team member saying problems with redirector i tried to use yesterday – second message saying that – deleted the content using that type and asked folks to check again. big bummer if that’s the case, as it would have solved a nagging issue
9:30-10:15 – Research Services team meeting (the group I manage) – we discuss results of fall instruction assessment. decided to continue for spring semester for WRIT125 courses and PSYC101 (larger numbers of these classes than others); saw marked improvement on most technique questions, found the qualitative data very interesting and want to figure out how to gather that for higher-level courses in a less formal way (free-form, more independently developed); discussed moved reserves (from first floor near nothing in particular to upstairs in reference room/computer area)
10:15-11:00- met with Africana Studies admin assistant and showed her new web system and her department’s content in it; she’s thrilled, very excited to get in and start working.
11:00-12:15 – attend all-LTS meeting; dean in student life came to talk about parent’s task force at college and college’s approach to working with parents going forward; introduce new staff member (yay Dawn!); demonstrate Drupal for division; CIO gives lots of updates on projects being worked on all over LTS; special collections Browning letters project is about to launch! (I admit that during the dean’s presentation, I had to get into Drupal to try to figure out what was happening with the redirector I’d used the day before – all of a sudden, anyone who logged out of the system couldn’t get back in and anything they clicked on only opened up the redirected link. Fortunately, I was still logged in to the system and was able to delete the redirectors, and also empty the recycle bin of them. That seemed to solve the problem, and folks could get back in again.)
12:15-2:00 – lunch with colleague, discuss and grapple with possibilities (it’s been a long time since she and I have done that, and it was good to get back into that groove). Lunch is shepherd’s pie, eggplant caponata, brussel sprouts with almonds and dried apricots, blueberries, and cherry tomatoes. YUM!
2:00-3:00 – met with Art department admin assistant, show her Drupal and department’s new site, ask her for certain information (missing content, matching images with pages)
3:00-4:00 – Research and Instructional Support managers meeting – discuss some workflow issues over the weekend, give and get updates on different projects all parts of the team are working on
4:00-4:30  – schedule Drupal training and drop-in sessions for first three weeks of February with colleague from drupal team, schedule meeting for next week to put together rest of training outline
4:30-4:38 – write up day’s activities
4:40 – triaged email from faculty member about a MATLAB toolbox that isn’t installed on lab computers to computer imaging manager and instructional technologist (I LOVE WORKING IN A MERGED ORGANIZATION!!!)
4:45 – finished going through emails, wrapped up for day, announce that I’m heading to the gym
4:50 – decide against going to gym on advice of colleagues (or rather, my own rationalization which they supported – said rationalization is that I only do Crossfit 3 days in a row before I need a rest day. I went on Monday, and know that Thursday is a big workout that I need to do for our gym’s January challenge. The question was – do I go Tuesday for a workout containing running knowing my hamstrings are very tight, or do I go Wednesday for Weightlifting Wednesday – one of my favorite days each week at the gym? No-brainer, really. Weightlifting Wednesday it is!)
5:00 – head home

Wednesday, Day 3

6:45 – up, eat, shower, feed dogs, twitter, facebook, email
8:20 – leave for work
8:30 – arrive work
8:40 – Drupal check-in –  explore menus/blocks with team leader, give quick update to CIO, send email to theme person asking if she can do in prod what she’s done in test in terms of hiding stuff in the left-hand menu
9:15 – update faculty member’s profile, add photos, media bio, send email to faculty asking clarifying questions
9:30 – respond to email from colleague about google calendar appointment slots, add link to appointments to my libguide profile
9:35 – go through paper mailbox, make decisions about 2 items and where they should live (one – “Progress of the World’s Women 2011-2012″ – into UN docs, the other – ‘ The Commentators’ Bible: Exodus” – into the stacks)
10:00 – one-on-one staff meeting – she has lots of exciting instruction lined up!
10:25 – check a couple of emails
10:30 – head to merged reference/instructional technology/circulation desk to cover for a colleague for an hour; met with student re: faculty member’s web site, placed lots of holds, did other minor work.
11:30 – one-on-one staff meeting – she also has exciting instruction lined up, including 4 classes and one student group doing zine work
12:00 – eat lunch and realize I have brought all the wrong silverware (need spoon and knife, only have fork. alas) Lunch consists of carrot soup, pork tenderloin, roasted broccoli, sauteed brussel sprouts with almonds and dried apricots, blueberries and strawberries, and olives. YUM.
12:30 – head back out to desk, where I answer a couple of ILL questions, work more on the Art department web site, report LOTS of oddities in behavior in Drupal to team. I also realize that the almond-stuffed olives I brought today are really garlic-stuffed. Sadness, for I am meeting with people later in the day and don’t want to blast them with garlic breath. Give a quick impromptu pep talk to colleague who looked like she needed it. I love sharing that part of my brain/intuition with her.
2:15 – Reference question: I NEED THIS DVD NOW TO BRING BACK TO CLASS BECAUSE WE TOLD THE PROF ABOUT IT AND SHE WANTS US TO WATCH IT TODAY. Realizing how challenging they can be to find in the stacks, I head up with her – not in the stacks, not in the recently returned items, but hooray, it’s on the reshelving book truck. Send her running away happy. 4-minutes from question to her heading back to class – THAT is service!
2:25 – Leave desk early because I’m off to meet w/ current and future director of the biological chemistry program about moving their web site to Drupal. Meeting is at The Leaky Beaker cafe in the Science Center. That cafe did amazing things to the social nature of the Science Center – I love it! Both faculty members are really excited, and as soon as we can put images in to the site, are ready to go live.
3:15 – Head back to my office to upload images and insert into pages.
3:30 – Images all saved to my desktop, but now there is no folder to put them in. Email technical team for help creating folder.
3:45 – Get pulled into hour-long discussion with colleagues about workflow snafus; determine cause to be miscommunication and misunderstandings about who’s doing what.
4:45 – Give pep talk #2 to colleague who I gave pep talk to earlier, and we give each other mutual love and admiration. I work with wonderful people.5:05 – Pack up and leave for the gym, where I lift heavy stuff and get measured on final day of 30-day Paleo challenge. I lost 2.3% body fat this month, without restricting the quantity of food I’m eating, only the type of food. It’s amazing what not drinking beer or eating grains/dairy will do for a girl! Also thoroughly enjoy Weightlifting Wednesday, where I set a new 10 rep max on power cleans (120#), 15 rep max on overhead squats (85#), and 15 rep max on push presses (80#). I LOVE to lift.
6:45 – Head home and eat dinner
8:00 – Fire up computer, begin doing a bit of work on web sites, see CIO’s latest work on it, diagnose weird problem with not being able to access something from off-campus (i.e. logged in to VPN and then could get to it – must be restricted to on-campus only, which will be a problem for this particular content going foward)
8:20-9:05 – write this post.

Stay tuned for days 4 and 5!

At any rate, I’ve decided to make some resolutions for the new year and thought I’d post them here for all to see (accountability!) They are totally related to my health/fitness. As it turns out, when I’m not healthy or taking care of my body, I’m unhappy. I like being happy. So without further ado, in 2012 I will:

• Make it to CFNE minimum of 3x/week, no matter how crazy the other parts of my life are.
• Eat Paleo 90% of the time and make the 10% non-Paleo REALLY worthwhile.
• Snatch 135# (my biggest goal in terms of fitness)
• Run a 7:30 mile (and run at least 1 road race, either a 5k or 10k)
• Row a sub-8:00 2K
• Find my double-unders again (%$!^%#&# DUs – had them, lost them, found them, lost them, and will find them again!)
• Avoid the avoidable injuries, and treat the unavoidable ones (even if it means stopping mid-WOD – and oh, what a metaphor for life this particular goal is…)
• Bring mindfulness to my Crossfit practice (some days, the PR is in the attempt, not in the results)

I’ll also add in:

• Maintain a healthy sense of humor and of the absurd
• Keep work and life in balance
• Visit my massage therapist 6 times
• Continue reading like a fiend (this year I hit 66…)
• Knit a few items and GIVE THEM AWAY (I have a problem with that second part)
• Be more social – go out with friends more often.

That should do. We’ll see how I do. I’m looking forward to this year like you can’t believe – it’s GOT to be better than 2011!

Donation for TRI

How I love ending with this goal!