Author Archives: Christina Nowacki

A weekend in pictures


Friday night: after a week that was not necessarily as frazzling as last week, but included the extra special ingredient that was a Mon-Fri off and on (mostly on) hormonal series of head/shoulder/neck/sinus aches so…yeah…it sort of didn’t matter that I only had one football meeting to go to (which was actually quite good and productive)…all that dominate my sense of each day was how miserable I was. Grumpy and just working extra hard to keep my wits about it – which I did – but then I would be so so tired. Therefore, Friday night all I wanted to do was sit on the sofa and watch all the shows that had piled up on the DVR. And I did. From 6-11. Me, the cats and the remote.

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Saturday I woke up pain free and HAPPY! Oh yeah! I went to a boot camp and was thrilled to be able to do all the exercises with 100% effort. Then I had a meeting to learn about a new writing assignment for a local client, then I got home and wrote for Blogmutt to clear those off my agenda so I could write for the new client today. My goal was to write two posts, but I swear I was so amped up from feeling GOOD that I was able to knock out three and still have 30 minutes to spare! In a week when I would have been happy to sell 5 posts, instead I sold 7 ensuring another tank of gas will be funded by Blogmutt:

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When my posts sell next week, I’ll hit level 5 in points and earn a Linkedin badge – which is pretty cool because it means more exposure to my freelance writing availability and credentials.

The main event this weekend was a neighborhood pizza party at a house across the street. There, we hung out in a yard that is smaller than mine but 1000 times more functional! The owner put in a completely functional kitchen/grill and pizza oven in one corner and a gorgeous fireplace in the other. He picked up raw pizza dough from a local restaurant and let us choose our toppings. It was so much fun and so yummy! The collage below is from the party – disclaimer – the beer bottle was empty! Seriously :)

Pizza Party

I managed to pull myself away at a decent hour and still get up early enough to join Renee for a run out on the switchback trails again. My first time tackling those hills since my IT band has calmed down. I am thrilled to discover that not only could I do the run without issue, but now several hours later after some decent sofa time, it is still totally fine. Hopefully that means I can increase my mileage again…slowly!

View from the top out over the Santa Fe Valley:

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I hope your weekend refreshed you in the same way mine has.

Frazzled


I posted on my Facebook status today, just this one word: Frazzled.

My brain has had to be so ON the last 3 days – that I can feel the synapses burning from overuse. A football meeting directly after work on Monday followed by more work I had to complete from home that wasn’t done until 9:30pm. Yesterday was the first of 3 AP tests for 16. Of course all 3 are morning exams. So I went in to work for 3.5 hours in the morning after dropping him off, then picked him up, and we went home so that could work until his dentist appointment (didn’t want to drive back to work for just 2 hours). After the dentist I worked at home again until 6:30. Today was AP test #2. This time, I picked him up and brought him back to school and then came back to work. But of course the proctor for his exam messed things up and they didn’t get out until 12:35. They were supposed to be done before noon. When I got back to work, it was more mania until a little after 3:30. It’s just been a series of days with system problems, people making careless mistakes and things falling on my desk to cover gaps again.

None of this would be that difficult except for PEOPLE needing THINGS and with QUESTIONS and never having a moment of quiet to get anything DONE (dammit!). I can handle the tasks – I just need to be a Hermit for a day to get them all done properly. So it took 3 days and 2 evenings, but it’s done. And I’m frazzled.

So today I was happy that the rain had stopped, and I could take another walk. I mixed in a few photos from my house over the weekend when we had an amazing sunset. I loved the glow from the sky on the roses in the side yard.

Yes, that is a helipad in one of the photos. When I walk out of this building I head down the property to the helipad which is, of course, abandoned and not being used, but does make for a nice quiet place to walk around and take in the view across the freeway and listen to some birds. the towhee cousins were out and about quite a bit. Both brown and rufous sided. That blue roof building is some other business across a canyon from ours. No clue why it is such a bright blue, but there it is!

Anyway, here’s hoping that tonight is quiet without too many demands from the other occupants of the house and that I can just watch TV and stay offline. Thankfully there is a break in the AP schedule – the last one is next week so tomorrow is just a normal school day. No earlier than normal drop off or mid-day pick ups. Phew!

Walk #3

May Day Sunshine


It was 64 degrees as I drove in to work this morning. Gray and cloudy like the videos below. However, word on the weather news was that we would gain a hefty 25 degrees in the next 48 hours. Yipes!

After a mildly annoying day filled with miscommunication, lack of communication and then a cancelled meeting (not yet re-scheduled which is also annoying since it needs to happen by Friday, grrrr)…I remembered that perhaps I should check out the outdoors to see if the sun was out at least.

Yes, it was and yes, it was already feeling warmer. Photos from a much needed walk today are a little bit brighter as a result

Afternoon walk at work 5-1-13

Click on the collage to see it full sized. I played a little more with borders and backgrounds. I love the single, bright red leaf in that one tree. A holdover from the fall? I don’t know, but it sure stands out.

Whale Sighting at Torrey Pines State Beach


Off the top left about 7-10 seconds in, there is something that leaps up out of the water – this is most likely a gray whale as that is what we usually have cruising along our coast line though I thought this was rather late in the season (clearly I could be wrong about that!)

I first spotted it while turning onto the coast highway from driving into work and immediately I saw a large splash down and knew it was more than a pelican diving or a dolphin playing. When I saw the breach two more times I made the decision to pull over and join the many other drivers who had done the same. I was part of a line of folks holding up our cell phone hoping to capture the action even as a shaky, distant view. The next video the whale is breaching JUST as I started a fresh file (I was trying to keep them under 2 minutes long). So you’ll see it already out right from the start and then splashing down. What amazed me is that the people running/walking along the shore NEVER saw it. I suspect that being right on the surf line meant that even the rather anemic wave action blocked their view. The whale was cruising north from La Jolla towards Del Mar, and once he passed that lifeguard tower he settled down a bit and just came up for air, but stayed on the shallow line there. He wasn’t all that big – as I saw his entire back graze the top of the water he was maybe only 2-3 times the length of a standard dolphin. So I’m guessing it was a juvenile gray coming up from the birthing waters down south along Mexico.

It sure was a fun way to start the morning!

Super Soup Sunday!


Hey, did you guys forget that I like to share recipes?

You did?

Oh, I guess that is because I forgot to share any since the flood of posts in December ;)

Fine – since I will be otherwise occupied for awhile, I will at least make sure to share when I find a gem or two. I came up with my own unexpectedly earlier in the week that I will more properly document and post when I make it again.

This one is courtesy of a friend from high school. Yet another “thank you Facebook!” connection that I made in the last few years. She just started her own blog specifically for sharing recipes and today she shared this Super Soup Sunday idea. First of all, I love that plan. Make a pot of soup to and save for leftovers during the week or freeze for longer time frames.

Soup Recipe

 

That’s direct from the Purely Nourished site.

FWIW, I did saute the onions and celery in lemon juice. I did not buy any garnish, and I did buy some french bread to go with it. Here’s what I had after 20 minutes of chopping:

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A mixture of organic and not quite organic ingredients. I had to go with what I already had. I did have to make a trip to Jimbo’s to get the red lentils.

For the after picture I am using Jodi’s – it’s much prettier and she at least has some garnish:

Marakesh Express Soup

 

Yum yum and YUM! This soup is packed with proteins and ridiculously excellent nutrients thanks to the beans, spices and veggies. As you might see from her site – that is the focus.

I’m looking forward to more Super Soup Sunday recipes from her.

Afternoon walk at work


A task in my Happify track this week was the Walk of Inspiration:

Take a meditative walk in a place that always inspires your best ideas. It could be a busy street, a hiking trail, or even the mall. (Hey, great ideas can come from anywhere.) Walk slowly at first, with eyes on the ground. Notice the tactile sensations of walking: the feeling of your feet, the temperature, the way your body feels.

Once you can walk at a normal pace while paying attention to sensory experiences, start noticing sounds—but try not to think too much!

Once you can attend to tactile and auditory sensations, start looking around and noticing any activity around you.

I decided that I would set out with the photo app opened on my phone and walk the grounds around the “campus” here at work. We are surrounded by Torrey Pines and native sage brush so it’s perfect for losing yourself in the sights, sounds and smells of nature. A welcome respite from the desk! Today was a good day because I am wearing softer soled shoes so that my own footsteps didn’t interrupt the sounds. It was a little chilly – I was glad I had on a sweater and I needed to button it up due to the gray skies completely covering up the sun. Often though, I find that the gray days mean I can see the bird life more clearly. The lack of glare and deep shadows makes the movement and colors catch your eye a bit more.

Sure enough, not a minute into the walk I heard the soft call of a rufous sided towhee. Not the main trilling song – he wasn’t up on the top of a bush singing – he was just flitting on the ground and then low in the bushes making his more sedated wheezy call. He moved too much for a photo, but was still so beautiful with his black and orange feathers providing a striking contrast to the green of the grass.

After spending a little time watching him, I set about taking pictures and had some fun afterwards making this collage in Picasa. I was paying attention not only to color but also to shape and textures as I walked:

Afternoon walk

 

There was more bird song serenading me through the walk, and the scents were fairly strong too. Sage and pine dominated.

Not a bad way to spend 15 minutes, but something I probably would not have done without the reminder – thanks again Happify :)

 

Priorities


I didn’t join the usual group on a long trail run today. The IT band on my left knee has been barking way too much, and since I don’t have any specific goals to run a long distance anytime soon, I thought it best to just start taking it easy with shorter (4.5 miles) less technically challenging trails like the 56 near my house. What I love about that trail is that you really CAN zone out mentally and since I was by myself that is exactly what I did.

And it was good.

OK, so my knee wasn’t so good – it started tightening up as usual around the 2 mile mark despite the easy footing and relatively level ground and mellow pace. That probably means I should stay off of it entirely, but…I need to at least run a little bit!!

Anyway, it was good because I needed that zone out time.

It’s been a little crazy around here.

Por ejemplo – here’s the calendar on the ‘fridge for the next few weeks (mind you, this is after crossing off a week of items from last week)

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It occurred to me as I was running and thinking about how I am only writing in here once a week and feeling guilty – hey it’s a miracle it happens once a week! So, guilt has been released :)

Here’s what I know is going to have to be my priorities for the rest of 2013:

  1. Daily house/cat/kid upkeep
  2. Day job
  3. Football liaison tasks
  4. Blogmutt writing
  5. Running
  6. Everything/everyone else!

Numbers 4 and 5 might swap around depending on how much extra cash I need in a given week. So far, I’m earning between $48-$72/week or, as I like to call it “gas money” :) My goal is to AT LEAST sell 5 posts per week which means writing  5-6 per week (given that about 10% get rejected no matter how well you write). I’ve got 6 in the queue for this coming Thursday, then 4 each week after for the next 3 weeks. That means I really don’t NEED to write 5 new ones this week  or the next which is probably just as well looking at that schedule up there!

The point is that I think I needed that time on the trail to just let my brain settle on this ranking.

That list doesn’t even include the new task I inherited for the football team – website mistress…err..webmistress..er…webmaster….err….crazy person who never learns to stop saying “I can do that?” Yeah..so that was four hours today learning how to use the software and switching every page at all levels to have 2013 information.

Also – yes! 16 is now wearing contact lenses! And I will have “driving glasses”. My near-sightedness has returned somewhat. Just enough that I will feel better having some cheap frames to wear while I drive and watching football games at night. I don’t – and won’t need anything for reading despite my age since the lasik surgery back in 2006 will keep that issue at bay for a quite a bit longer.

Oh, but you should have seen the poor boy learning how to put in those daily wear contacts! He is lucky that his prescription is the same in each eye so we wont have to keep track of leftie and rightie. And the folks at the Optometrist were SO good and patient with him showing how to put them in and take them out. I, of course, was the usual supportive mom sitting and giggling at his red red eyes with the tears flowing out of them :)

Hah – I did the math and I’ve run 143 miles this year! Maybe my knee is right to be cranky and demand some rest. Perhaps I’ll listen to it and go enjoy some quality sofa time now. As you can see, that is a rarity!

 

Xterra Trail Race #3 and…maturity?


As I reported a couple of weeks ago, I think aliens have invaded 16′s brain. Either that, or maybe there was a threshold of maturity crossed recently that appears to be sticking around. I’m crossing fingers for the latter, but not ruling out the former just yet.

He took the ACT test this weekend. And he CARED. He actually did a full practice test online! And? Since this was the ACT-no writing test he asked me to sign him up for the next full scale ACT and even…(gasp)…the SAT!!!

This from the kid who REFUSED less than a year ago to even CONSIDER taking the SAT when he knew computer majors didn’t *really* need it. And he insisted on the NO WRITING test too.

Suddenly he can tell you that his GPA is finally closer to 3 than 2.5 and that he WANTS to take all the normal college entrance exams.

Oh, and he thought the ACT no writing test was stupidly easy. Math was 8th grade level at best in his opinion, and he is no longer impressed if he hears of near perfect scores. He’s thinking that American schools are slacking. Yeah, probably so kiddo!

Anyway, I even marginally tricked him into doing the dishes twice this week without any whining. Again – WHO IS THIS??

Of course, even though he is now done with PT and is cleared to start running again on his newly repaired knee, he still wasn’t willing to join me on a mid-week jog around the block or an evening run tonight. So there’s still that.

Speaking of running…yes, I finally DID keep my promise to run on Wed night after work! It felt great, and I did my usual 2.3 mile hilly loop in record time without really trying to run too fast. Guess those long slow trail runs are helping my short course speed.

Meanwhile, instead of joining R2 for usual monster run this morning, I ran in my third in the Xterra trail race series. The first was Crystal Cove, the second was Mission Trails, and today was Black Mountain. It was a 6k route and just about in my backyard only 5 miles east of me. It was a nice change to not have to drive on the freeway to get to a race!

Unfortunately, someone turned on the cold and wind and wet again around here, AND this course was an ASS KICKER!

Come to think of it, Xterra only does ass kickers. The hills are always intense, and today was no different. 2+ miles barreling down down down with an occasional straightaway or small uphill only to go down again. The rule in running of course, is that what goes down, must come UP. And come UP we did. The last mile solid was UP UP UP. No switchback, no level off, just UP. I walked it. Wanted something in the tank to run through the finish line.

The best part was that as we all gathered before the start, I chatted with some lovely ladies who were also talking about going nice and slow. Having found some kindred spirits, I stuck with one of them most of the way and made sure to stay and cheer them in after I finished. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we are now all facebook friends and will be following each other’s running exploits via blogs.

Also, I still ran with R2 – she has a new thing on her training plan – she does the long run in the morning then has another 1:15 in the evening. Just got home from that so I did 9.3 miles total today. OUCH. I’m going to make some tea and rest now. Enjoy the photos :)

Cold, gray, and windy at the start

Cold, gray, and windy at the start

Gorgeous in the canyon - more spring flowers in bloom!

Gorgeous in the canyon – more spring flowers in bloom!

5th in my age group! Dang it - could been 4th if I had known the course a little better. :)

5th in my age group! Dang it – could been 4th if I had known the course a little better. :)

New friends in running! Great job ladies! Thanks for the companionship.

New friends in running! Great job ladies! Thanks for the companionship.

 

 

 

 

Springtime Flowers


I went home for lunch earlier this week and was treated to this spectacular display for the first time this year. It’s either been cloudy, or, by the time I get home even if it is still light out, some of the flowers are starting to close. (nearly all of the daisies and groundcover close up at night). What I LOVE about my yard is that all of those flowers are self-propagating. I haven’t planted anything on that hillside in years. All we have to do is pull some weeds in spots where the yellow flower ground cover hasn’t totally taken over yet towards the back end of the hill. Which is what 16 and I were doing last weekend meaning I could take this pictures knowing it wouldn’t look TOO unkept!

Enjoy – oh, but maybe take a zyrtec if you have allergies – ACHOO!
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Unexpected connections, sunglasses and – chi?


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I knew Thursday would be packed.

Another department manager had resigned, and a replacement wouldn’t arrive until next week. That meant existing folks jumping in to fill the gap. For the month end close, my day helping out would fall heaviest that day.

I was prepared because I had cleared out my own tasks faster than usual and I made sure no one needed me for anything that evening in case I had to stay later.

The additional challenge to the day was not even, really, presented by the work itself.

It was the damn Health Fair!

First of all, I had it in my mind to make sure to bring the temp worker and my other full time female co-worker with me. (The male in my office was not interested).

The reason I did was because I had read a Happify task: Reach Out To A Potential Friend

Is there someone at work you’d like to befriend but don’t know how? Is there a neighbor who once said “I’d love to have you over for a drink, sometime!” but never followed through?

Now, I never take these tasks 100% literally – in fact, they all have an option for you to decide on your own how you want to approach it, but it’s the intention behind it that matters.

I wanted to reach out to the temp so she could enjoy the giveaways and presentations. She couldn’t win the raffle as someone not a full time employee, but she still might see something of interest to her and just be part of a social event to break up the day. The full time co-worker is a normally shy and quiet gal who I knew wanted to go but would also feel better if there were people with her.

Well, the other full time employee and I were over there for the full 90 minutes of the event! We had so much fun doing little things like trying out food, juice, lotions, getting a bone density reading, a BMI test and then….then..then! The one that blew us both away – the chi analysis.

We had watched them in the corner booth for a bit and already heard reports that the woman who did the reading was amazing. Her husband uses chi for pain removal, and he was also there. My co-worker has some cranky knees so she sat down for a session with him while I put our names in line for the reading. It took time because she was giving everyone at least 10 minutes at a time.

All I will say when it came to my turn is that I was astonished at how accurately she “read” me without asking me a thing! I stood in front of her for about 2-3 minutes. She was about 2 feet back from me, and she kind of bounced her hand in the air over portions of my body – mostly focusing on the torso and shoulders.  She took notes on an iPad, and when she was done I sat down, and THEN we talked.  Truthfully, she asked spot on questions, I did my best to answer succinctly because people were waiting in line – but just even her questions were so revealing that my head was in utter turmoil when I stood up.  Turmoil sounds bad, but it’s not really – there was just so much she uncovered so quickly I knew it would take time to process.  My co-worker felt the same way when she was done. Oh, and her knees felt much better, and they still do today!

We are both going to call them for a full 30 minute free session.

So, clearly I reached out and connected with my co-worker quite successfully. We were still talking about it again this morning, and it’s probably the most animated I’ve seen her since she started working here. I know I probably would not have stayed as long at the fair or perhaps not even done the chi session without her.

Oh – and we both won prizes! She won a free facial treatment, and I won a pair of pretty snazzy new sunglasses! Which is kind of funny since I had just left my old ones at my parent’s over Easter  which reminded me that those were cheap and scratched, and maybe I could treat myself to some new ones. Hmmm…maybe I gave off a chi vibe about that?

Anyway, I was extra grateful at the end of the day to have this additional task in my Happify track:

Body Scan Meditation:

Block out 10 minutes, lie down somewhere comfortable, and spend a minute focusing on your breathing.

Now, imagine you’re taking a scan of your whole body, starting with your feet and moving past your torso on up to your head.

This was absolutely perfect for me to do and I know the reason I had such a good night sleep despite working until 7 and having that turmoil in my mind is because I first talked to M about it and then did this task.

The bottom line is that these tasks make me approach things so much differently each day.  I certainly would not have made the connections that I did on Thursday which would have been a huge loss.