Monday, January 21, 2013

A few photos

Just a couple of photos from trips to LA/Seattle and summer 2011 in Montana



Grauman's Chinese Theater


Santa Monica Pier


Jamie!


Washington Coast


Hanging out with Dave!


Peter taking a break on staff backpack


Fourth of July Rainbow



We peaked Crow!

RAGBRAI

As this blog is titled "Adult on a Bicycle", it seems fitting to have a post dedicated to the week I spent riding RAGBRAI  this past summer. RAGBRAI stand for "Register's Annual Great Bicycle Race Across Iowa" (Register is the Des Moines Newspaper).  The ride happens annually durning the last week of July.


RAGBRAI started in Sioux Center and took us across Iowa all the way to Clinton on the Mississippi River.  It was an incredibly hot ride with temps going into the triple digits at a couple of points along the way.  I've never been sunburned after using so much sunscreen in all my life.

I was fortunate to be able to cross this off my bucket list and to do it was one good friend, as well as make some new ones along the way!  Our team, Chicycle, was composted of four members: Libby, Jane, Leah, and myself. Leah was kind enough to drive our sag wagon for the entire week, which I have to imagine was a little boring at times.  We put in a lot of miles each day, ranging from the upper 50's to the 80's.  I must admit that we took a day off in the middle, staying with my brother David.  We really debated it, but in the end it was the right call as our bodies and spirits were rejuvenated.  All of us ended the week tired, but I for one felt incredibly accomplished.


Our first day in Sioux Center


Second-morning maintenance


Taking a break


Counting Crows Concert


Taking a break from the heat


Break to pee in the corn


At the Mississippi!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Grad School!

I'm happy to report some positive developments in my life over the past six weeks. During a recent trip to Chicago, I had the grad school "ah-ha!" moment that I had been looking to have for a long time. While chatting with my friends at Katie and Chuck's Chesterton home, we got on the subject of Valpo having a M. Ed for school counseling. Frankly, I'm surprised that I had not given this much thought before as I have come to see more and more that what I like about working in a school is not academic instruction, but processing issues with kids (in fact, when it comes right down to it, I now know that I really don't want to be a teacher).

Well, once I got back to SD, I jumped on the Valpo website to check out what their program was all about. I'm not planning on going back there, but I thought that it would be a good place to start the process of looking into what a grad program might look like. This was followed up with a Google search that brought me to the UNC Chapel Hill website. After reading about their program, I just went "YES! This is what I have been looking for." Again, I'm not saying anything about where I am going, but the way the site described what a counselor does got me really excited about the possibility of becoming a school counselor.

So, now I have been doing some work on finding different programs in places which I might like to live. Seattle, Minneapolis, New Mexico, the UNC program...I feel that I have options. Luckily, I have a strong undergraduate GPA as well as good work experience/references. The only unknown is my GRE score, which I am now planning on taking early in the fall. Then I will have a clear picture of where I can apply to. As long as I can pull out a decent score, I should be sitting pretty.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Movement

The weather is starting to turn for the better in Sioux Falls, and I'm starting to feel as though I am coming out of the lazy-haze that winter seems to bring. I had this feeling as I was getting ready for the day of wanting to learn something new. I'm not quite sure what yet. A new piece on the piano maybe, or new words in Spanish. The latter may prove to be important, as I am increasingly hopeful about finding an opportunity to go way South for a year or so. The realization that there is no better time than the near future to learn a new language has really sunk in.

I feel well poised to make some great personal strides this spring. It has been so freeing to not have any work to attend to after 3pm. Currently I'm watching more television on Hulu than I would like to admit, but I guess I can live with that. Reading would be better, but that's the way it goes. But I've been out running the past few days, and feel great! I can't wait to get my bike into the shop for a tune-up and then start using it to commute again. And I've started to toy with the idea to see if I can make it for one whole month without spending any money (maybe it will have to be just on weekdays...that could be really difficult) But we'll see...I just read about a bunch of 30 day experiments people tried in Outside Magazine and think picking something would be fun. I'll have to see what I can work out.


Saturday, February 26, 2011

Golden

Today is my birthday. And not just any birthday, but my golden birthday. If it was my goal to live to be 100, my life would be more than a quarter over at this point. That seems almost scary, but then I think about how at least the first 4 years of my life I have few to no memories of (which makes infancy just seem like lost time). And then up until high school I didn't really experience too much in the way of freedom. So I guess I have a lot to look forward too, which should go without saying.

This is also a birthday that comes with no perks to it accept for the experience and wisdom of the past year and the possibility of new beginnings for the next. Now that my car insurance is as low as it will ever be, there are not too many benefits to getting older until AARP starts showing up. I'm certainly in no hurry for that to happen.

I feel as though I am cautiously optimistic about 26. There are some big choices in front of me that I face with both excitement and trepidation. Really, I just want it to be a year of movement and growth. I'm at a point where I want something new, something different. What that will be will take some careful discernment and searching on my part. But I'm geared up for the search and hopeful for what I will find.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a great day of coffee, movies, a visit with Grandma, and a night out with some great friends!

Friday, November 12, 2010

Treading Water

The wheels have been spinning in my head ever since getting back to Sioux Falls from Christikon: What am I to do now? Where am I to be? What are the years before I turn 30 going to look like (the thought of that age seems so much closer than it did even a year ago)? These questions have weighed down on me for the past few months, and my emotions and thoughts have been all over, per usual.

Upon first returning home, I felt solid. Not that I had any idea of what I was going to do, but I felt ready to be settled somewhere, at least for awhile (but what does that mean?). The allure of jumping from one place to another had largely faded, and finding social, geographical, and job stability seemed so attractive. I was ready to grab onto anything that presented itself. Through the course of the summer, one application after another had been discarded. Maybe not so much discarded as most likely not even looked at. A blessing in disguise, maybe. When it came right down to it, did I really want to feel "settled" with any of these jobs?

What had happened to the idea of planning for my future during the course of travel? Maybe I was so wrapped up in the experience I was having that post-adventure didn't matter all that much. I had been living for the moments I was experiencing...the experience of a lifetime, accord to many whom I talked to. And yet, I had been thinking about it. Jon and I would talk about it on the trail in Turkey, and Tezra and I would guess at what the future might hold on our long bus rides across Latin American borders. Where had the ideas from these conversations escaped to?

That desire for stability has largely faded. What was a feeling of sure desire for a job with the library when I applied in early September had faded to trepidation about my desire to work anywhere long term just six weeks later. Sitting at the coffee shop collecting my thoughts pre-interview left me wondering what I would say if actually offered the job. It came almost as a relief to not have to make that choice when the position wasn't offered.

As I sit and brainstorm what my future holds, I have come to several conclusions. To start with, I can't escape this philosophy that my 20's are meant to be a time of travel, learning, and self-discovery. So, I'm going to continue to embrace it! There are hundreds of options out there for those who want to see, or continue to see, the world and all it has to offer. Next time I go, it will be in a context which sustains itself. A long-term volunteer or work opportunity perhaps. This desire has led me to my next realization: finishing paying off my debt needs to become my priority right now. The coming months will most likely be as if stepping back in time two years. I'm again living at home (which I said I didn't want to do) and looking forward to May. But then summer will come, and I will find myself back in the mountains with many opportunities in front of me. And I'm feeling really good about where I am at right now! The payoff will be huge, and my life is filling up with projects I want to accomplish and things I want to learn about. I'm looking forward to this next part of life.

A few summer photos






Well, these have been a long time coming...but here they are. Some pics from my summer in Montana.