So, I haven't thought about CSOT (Constant State of Temporary) much in the last few months...and the truth is I have been so busy running around, that not many decisions are hanging around for my perusal or deliberation. But I happened upon a lovely little quote from a dear friend of mine in the UK (you know who you are) that epitomizes some of the thoughts behind CSOT.
The quote is: "You can only steer a moving ship" - John Smith While this seems so very basic, and one of those kind of "duh" comments, I am hoping that it is actually one of those "ah hah" moments! How often do we want or seek direction without movement or momentum? How often are we instructed to take action and continually seek guidance? Are we ever instructed to not act until guidance is received?
This is short and sweet, but I thought I would drop it in there while I had the time to think about it (ok, I don't really have the time, I more have this thought in my head, and out of fear of forgetting said thought, I posted it in hopes of dispersing it and preserving it for future reflection.)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Weekly Word: Equanimity
So, I went to visit a certain someone, whom only those in the know, know with whom I had the pleasure of visiting, and oddly enough they had this printout for a new word just for me....and now that word is to be shared with all the dear souls that read this blog (yes, I mean all 3 of you....and I think I am 1 of the 3! :) ).
The word is Equanimity (if you use this word in a sentence..you will get a Chocolate bar from me in the mail!).
Webster has to say the following about equanimity:
Now, I don't know how I feel about this. It gives or evokes the sense that emotional stability, removed from all effects of external stimuli would be the optimal sense of being and a desired homeostasis. I however would argue that this is not the optimal.
My family tends to be a very even keeled family. We don't have too many in the group that are all over the place emotionally, that gets overly excited or overly depressed....however, certain in-laws and others have commented on this as a negative rather than a positive....so I found it interesting that this equanimity was/is/could be perceived as the epitome rather than a void of emotional connection with ones surroundings.
A penny for your thoughts? (Really, a chocolate bar for your thoughts!)
The word is Equanimity (if you use this word in a sentence..you will get a Chocolate bar from me in the mail!).
Webster has to say the following about equanimity:
Main Entry: equa·nim·i·ty
Pronunciation: \ˌē-kwə-ˈni-mə-tē, ˌe-kwə-\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural equa·nim·i·ties
Etymology: Latin aequanimitas, from aequo animo with even mind
Date: circa 1616
1 : evenness of mind especially under stress
2 : right disposition : balance
Now, I don't know how I feel about this. It gives or evokes the sense that emotional stability, removed from all effects of external stimuli would be the optimal sense of being and a desired homeostasis. I however would argue that this is not the optimal.
My family tends to be a very even keeled family. We don't have too many in the group that are all over the place emotionally, that gets overly excited or overly depressed....however, certain in-laws and others have commented on this as a negative rather than a positive....so I found it interesting that this equanimity was/is/could be perceived as the epitome rather than a void of emotional connection with ones surroundings.
A penny for your thoughts? (Really, a chocolate bar for your thoughts!)
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Where I Went
I know, I know. I haven't been around lately. That is so unlike me. But I have been very busy. Not in the conventional sense of the word, i.e. driving around to various places in my car, working like a dog at my day job, or traveling the world. No, no. Rather, I've been off visiting places I really don't like to go and trying desperately to find my way out.
It's been almost a month since Ben and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. (It was lovely, by the way). As the date approached, I had wanted to post something big and exuberant about how fabulous my husband is and how great this year has been. But truth be told, I wasn't really up for it. I didn't have the gusto I needed to write it. Truth be told again, this year hasn't been "awesome" per se. I'd say a more accurate description would be "challenging". And who wants to write about that?
Now before anybody gets any ideas, let me lay to rest a few concerns you may have. I can easily tell you that my husband is fabulous. I am still trying to get him to cook me dinner, but aside from that he's really just great. And I still have hopes of succeeding at the dinner thing. :)
But marriage and moving and changed routines and new jobs and new.... everything -- well, it all threw me some curve balls I wasn't expecting.
I knew to expect a few challenges with all these life changes. I expected to miss good friends. I do. I expected to have to make adjustments in sharing my home with a male. I did (although not that many). I expected Ben and I to fight like children over whose turn it is to pray at night. we do that. And I expected to have my monthly grocery bill go up. It definitely has. But some things.... well you just can't anticipate everything.
Like what, you ask? Hands down, the biggest curve ball was revisiting me as I was at 13. And by 13, I mean the "riddled with baby fat and terrible acne" kind of 13. It's been so terrible. Really, you have no idea. I was waiting for the day I woke up to discover big, thick metal braces had cropped up all over my mouth. It was THAT bad.
Allow me to elaborate: for still inexplicable reasons, my skin has wreaked havoc all over my cheeks, nose, chin, forehead and any other resting spot it could find on my little face and littler forehead. I really had no idea marriage and moving to Ohio caused acne. I still don't know if it's one, the other, or a combination of them both.
And then there was the insatiable hunger I felt all year. Where did it come from? Again, marriage and Ohio are the only culprits that I can find. Well, as I tend to do when I'm hungry, I ate. But I was hungrier than usual, so I was also eating more than usual to satiate said hunger. As you might guess, gradually I got more and more "baby fat" --- which really only looks cute on babies.
I started dubbing it "5 lbs", even though at times the number really no longer applied to, well, the number. But I couldn't really bring myself to verbally acknowledge anything more than 5 lbs.
And then it got worse. Not only did I have the chub, but I wasn't fitting into all my clothes. My CUTE clothes. Now, here is where I seriously get concerned. We all know I have a fetish for clothes. Ben looks at my closet and marvels that I claim to "need" the entirety of its contents. But I run into problems when I can't maintain my weight. I can no longer call my clothes an investment if they only fit me temporarily. And if they're not a smart long-term investment, how will I justify my wardrobe? I won't be able! And what am I going to wear if I can't wear.... all my clothes? Now, THAT is seriously a problem. I knew this needed to be nipped-ay in its bud-ay.
I totally took a proactive approach. Many days, I went to bed very, very hungry, denying my appetite that seemed to be on overdrive. And I ran... a lot. I watched everything I ate. Ok, I didn't give up ice cream, but I never give up ice cream. I did watch the ice cream I ate, (literally and figuratively. Mmm.) I also got a new prescription from a dermatologist for my acne. And I washed my face religiously both morning AND night.
Pro-active shmo-active. None of it had any effect. Puzzling. Believe it or not, previously I didn't try very hard to maintain my weight or my relatively decent complexion. I worked out 2-3 times a week and washed my face in the morning. That's it. And now? I should be looking like a goddess at this point! I was training for a marathon, washing my face twice a day, going hungry, taking meds for my skin.... but still NO SUCCESS. Confused? I was.
Decidedly riddled with acne and chub, I was BEYOND frustrated for the whole of this last year. That's a long time. Poor Ben. I would periodically go off in the car and cry about my descent into misery after having made the tragic mistake of marrying, moving to Ohio and thus, somehow, losing all cuteness I ever had. How was I to know this was what was waiting for me on the other side of the alter? I thought I was jumping into an abyss of all future happiness. In reality, I was just jumping into a replay of my adolescent misfortunes. How tragic.
My one solace has been that the husband I had picked up in all this was, in fact, still great. To Ben's credit, he never once said anything derogatory about my acne or my weight. Not a word -- as bad as it's been, I'm sure it would have been much worse had I found out my husband only loved me because I was thin or had clear skin. He apparently loves me for other reasons, and I have the entire last year as proof. As good as that is to know, however, his fabulousness didn't alleviate either of the problems at hand.
Failing in all efforts to surmount and overcome challenges might cause one to want to give up on life, one being me. Temporarily at least. And I'm not one to support deprivation or underestimate a new strategy. Giving up could totally be the way to go (at least for a little while). So I indulged myself one week and sat on the couch eating chocolate chips for dinner almost every night. You can even ask Ben. It was made more memorable when he tragically sat on two lingering chocolate chips and melted them onto his jeans (on two separate evenings with two different pairs of jeans, no less). Basically, I looked weight gain in the face and brashly taunted, "Bring it." It was fabulous.
Of course, then there's always a day of reckoning when one is reckless. For one thing, Ben banned me from eating chocolate chips on the couch (I'm glad I enjoyed it while I had the chance). And then of course there was the largess of my waist to deal with. At the end of the week I got on the scale to see what damage I had done, expecting to have to devise some heretofore undevisable plan as to how to lose the excess that had now compounded on top of the excess that was already well-established on my short, little frame.
If this entire ordeal weren't already inexplicably odd, here's where it gets even more so. When I finally hopped (I'm using the term "hop" loosely) on the scale, I found that I hadn't added any pounds at all. Quite the opposite. I had in fact lost 2 pounds. As I gazed down at the scale, I was loving my body more and more by the minute for not one reason but for two. Not only had my frame shed some undesirable chub, but a diet high in chocolate was apparently an excellent weight loss plan for me! That's the best news of the millennium, to date. Finally, a diet plan I can get along with!
Since then, things have only gotten better. My skin, again inexplicably, is now clear. And I have consistently kept off five pounds of the "5 lbs" with, basically, no effort and no hunger pangs. I'm happy to say I don't care if I ever lose the rest. Ok, maybe I care a little. But all the same, I feel like I have myself back and my visit back to age 13 has been curbed.
What was it? I have a theory. I theorize that my body was under duress, both physically and subconsciously, because of all previously mentioned life changes. Therefore, it caused my skin to go loco. I hypothesize that the move to Ohio made my body want to bulk up for the long winter ahead in this new barren land, causing my insatiable hunger. And now that a year has passed, my skin and my body are suddenly in agreement --- we're not in a strange land. We're home. And we're no longer dealing with change. We're in a routine now so we can stop freaking out.
But really, I have no freaking clue. I keep having this phrase play in my head, "after the scourges are over." What a plague. Despite the fact I don't know what all of this was about, I can still learn lessons from the experience. For example: I would not make a good military wife. Also, it's rough going back to being 13(I like me in my almost 30's much better).
So, in case you were wondering, I'm back now and I hope to entertain you all with more frequent blogging in the near future.
It's been almost a month since Ben and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. (It was lovely, by the way). As the date approached, I had wanted to post something big and exuberant about how fabulous my husband is and how great this year has been. But truth be told, I wasn't really up for it. I didn't have the gusto I needed to write it. Truth be told again, this year hasn't been "awesome" per se. I'd say a more accurate description would be "challenging". And who wants to write about that?
Now before anybody gets any ideas, let me lay to rest a few concerns you may have. I can easily tell you that my husband is fabulous. I am still trying to get him to cook me dinner, but aside from that he's really just great. And I still have hopes of succeeding at the dinner thing. :)
But marriage and moving and changed routines and new jobs and new.... everything -- well, it all threw me some curve balls I wasn't expecting.
I knew to expect a few challenges with all these life changes. I expected to miss good friends. I do. I expected to have to make adjustments in sharing my home with a male. I did (although not that many). I expected Ben and I to fight like children over whose turn it is to pray at night. we do that. And I expected to have my monthly grocery bill go up. It definitely has. But some things.... well you just can't anticipate everything.
Like what, you ask? Hands down, the biggest curve ball was revisiting me as I was at 13. And by 13, I mean the "riddled with baby fat and terrible acne" kind of 13. It's been so terrible. Really, you have no idea. I was waiting for the day I woke up to discover big, thick metal braces had cropped up all over my mouth. It was THAT bad.
Allow me to elaborate: for still inexplicable reasons, my skin has wreaked havoc all over my cheeks, nose, chin, forehead and any other resting spot it could find on my little face and littler forehead. I really had no idea marriage and moving to Ohio caused acne. I still don't know if it's one, the other, or a combination of them both.
And then there was the insatiable hunger I felt all year. Where did it come from? Again, marriage and Ohio are the only culprits that I can find. Well, as I tend to do when I'm hungry, I ate. But I was hungrier than usual, so I was also eating more than usual to satiate said hunger. As you might guess, gradually I got more and more "baby fat" --- which really only looks cute on babies.
I started dubbing it "5 lbs", even though at times the number really no longer applied to, well, the number. But I couldn't really bring myself to verbally acknowledge anything more than 5 lbs.
And then it got worse. Not only did I have the chub, but I wasn't fitting into all my clothes. My CUTE clothes. Now, here is where I seriously get concerned. We all know I have a fetish for clothes. Ben looks at my closet and marvels that I claim to "need" the entirety of its contents. But I run into problems when I can't maintain my weight. I can no longer call my clothes an investment if they only fit me temporarily. And if they're not a smart long-term investment, how will I justify my wardrobe? I won't be able! And what am I going to wear if I can't wear.... all my clothes? Now, THAT is seriously a problem. I knew this needed to be nipped-ay in its bud-ay.
I totally took a proactive approach. Many days, I went to bed very, very hungry, denying my appetite that seemed to be on overdrive. And I ran... a lot. I watched everything I ate. Ok, I didn't give up ice cream, but I never give up ice cream. I did watch the ice cream I ate, (literally and figuratively. Mmm.) I also got a new prescription from a dermatologist for my acne. And I washed my face religiously both morning AND night.
Pro-active shmo-active. None of it had any effect. Puzzling. Believe it or not, previously I didn't try very hard to maintain my weight or my relatively decent complexion. I worked out 2-3 times a week and washed my face in the morning. That's it. And now? I should be looking like a goddess at this point! I was training for a marathon, washing my face twice a day, going hungry, taking meds for my skin.... but still NO SUCCESS. Confused? I was.
Decidedly riddled with acne and chub, I was BEYOND frustrated for the whole of this last year. That's a long time. Poor Ben. I would periodically go off in the car and cry about my descent into misery after having made the tragic mistake of marrying, moving to Ohio and thus, somehow, losing all cuteness I ever had. How was I to know this was what was waiting for me on the other side of the alter? I thought I was jumping into an abyss of all future happiness. In reality, I was just jumping into a replay of my adolescent misfortunes. How tragic.
My one solace has been that the husband I had picked up in all this was, in fact, still great. To Ben's credit, he never once said anything derogatory about my acne or my weight. Not a word -- as bad as it's been, I'm sure it would have been much worse had I found out my husband only loved me because I was thin or had clear skin. He apparently loves me for other reasons, and I have the entire last year as proof. As good as that is to know, however, his fabulousness didn't alleviate either of the problems at hand.
Failing in all efforts to surmount and overcome challenges might cause one to want to give up on life, one being me. Temporarily at least. And I'm not one to support deprivation or underestimate a new strategy. Giving up could totally be the way to go (at least for a little while). So I indulged myself one week and sat on the couch eating chocolate chips for dinner almost every night. You can even ask Ben. It was made more memorable when he tragically sat on two lingering chocolate chips and melted them onto his jeans (on two separate evenings with two different pairs of jeans, no less). Basically, I looked weight gain in the face and brashly taunted, "Bring it." It was fabulous.
Of course, then there's always a day of reckoning when one is reckless. For one thing, Ben banned me from eating chocolate chips on the couch (I'm glad I enjoyed it while I had the chance). And then of course there was the largess of my waist to deal with. At the end of the week I got on the scale to see what damage I had done, expecting to have to devise some heretofore undevisable plan as to how to lose the excess that had now compounded on top of the excess that was already well-established on my short, little frame.
If this entire ordeal weren't already inexplicably odd, here's where it gets even more so. When I finally hopped (I'm using the term "hop" loosely) on the scale, I found that I hadn't added any pounds at all. Quite the opposite. I had in fact lost 2 pounds. As I gazed down at the scale, I was loving my body more and more by the minute for not one reason but for two. Not only had my frame shed some undesirable chub, but a diet high in chocolate was apparently an excellent weight loss plan for me! That's the best news of the millennium, to date. Finally, a diet plan I can get along with!
Since then, things have only gotten better. My skin, again inexplicably, is now clear. And I have consistently kept off five pounds of the "5 lbs" with, basically, no effort and no hunger pangs. I'm happy to say I don't care if I ever lose the rest. Ok, maybe I care a little. But all the same, I feel like I have myself back and my visit back to age 13 has been curbed.
What was it? I have a theory. I theorize that my body was under duress, both physically and subconsciously, because of all previously mentioned life changes. Therefore, it caused my skin to go loco. I hypothesize that the move to Ohio made my body want to bulk up for the long winter ahead in this new barren land, causing my insatiable hunger. And now that a year has passed, my skin and my body are suddenly in agreement --- we're not in a strange land. We're home. And we're no longer dealing with change. We're in a routine now so we can stop freaking out.
But really, I have no freaking clue. I keep having this phrase play in my head, "after the scourges are over." What a plague. Despite the fact I don't know what all of this was about, I can still learn lessons from the experience. For example: I would not make a good military wife. Also, it's rough going back to being 13(I like me in my almost 30's much better).
So, in case you were wondering, I'm back now and I hope to entertain you all with more frequent blogging in the near future.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Mothly Word...was Weekly Word, but I have been lazy!
I'm thinking....just wait...wait a minute....ok...now!
Sorry, I opened this page about 2 hours ago...and then got stuck doing some other things...you know that thing called work....which I don't really do, I only pretend to do.
Anyways, those that know me, know that I tend to call myself a geek/nerd. I like to read, I like computers, and I like technology in general. Recently, I was at a meeting and we were all asked to introduce ourselves (no, this meeting had nothing to do with meeting girls or declaring that I am an alcoholic, although both of the previous may be relevant, pertinent, and activities which I may indulge in from time to time.). In my introduction, I stated that I was a "geek" at which point a fellow attendee decided to indoctrinate me on the original definition of the word geek. I was so entirely enthralled with the definition that I have decided to share.
Sorry, I opened this page about 2 hours ago...and then got stuck doing some other things...you know that thing called work....which I don't really do, I only pretend to do.
Anyways, those that know me, know that I tend to call myself a geek/nerd. I like to read, I like computers, and I like technology in general. Recently, I was at a meeting and we were all asked to introduce ourselves (no, this meeting had nothing to do with meeting girls or declaring that I am an alcoholic, although both of the previous may be relevant, pertinent, and activities which I may indulge in from time to time.). In my introduction, I stated that I was a "geek" at which point a fellow attendee decided to indoctrinate me on the original definition of the word geek. I was so entirely enthralled with the definition that I have decided to share.
Main Entry: geek
Pronunciation: \ˈgēk\
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from English dial. geek, geck fool, from Low German geck, from Middle Low German
Date: 1914
1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
2 : a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked
3 : an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity
So, in reading the above....#2 may not shock you, except the part about being disliked....I mean really...doesn't everyone love geeks? #3 I think is the more modern/social definition of the word geek. But #1....I mean really....biting heads off of chickens? To say the least, I felt a bit foolish, odd, and at the same time proud (yeah....I did say odd didn't I?).
How often does someone associate you with something as eccentric as biting heads off of chickens? It is a rare day that I can walk around and say I bite heads off of chickens without everyone dropping their jaw, or losing their lunch, or just being absolutely disgusted.....as I probably would be if I ever saw this act in person.
So, alas, I am a geek.....and there is a reason that there are no chickens around my house....i try to stay away from temptation!
Interesting Read
So again, I slack...the only difference this time is that Sharona has slacked as well. Nonetheless, I think I will come through for all those that are information mavens...(by the way, I always refer to myself as a "geek", but did you know that "geek" has a really weird definition?....Weekly word coming up!).
Up, we have a study done by the Pew Charitable Trust on Mormons...since I am mormon, Sharona is mormon, and well, probably 90% of the people that know this blog exists are mormon, the post has significant value to those reading it. You can find it here.
Enjoy the read...I found some things very interesting, like the difference in education standards between converts and lifers. I also thought the ideological differences between single and married mormons was very interesting. I was hoping they would break that down to a gender coefficient, because that would have added a very interesting dynamic to the reading of numbers (just who is swaying whose beliefs?).
The ohter fairly shocking notion was that 35% of the mormon population believes that the Bible should be interpreted literally. I thought (perhaps to my self dissolusionment) that the Bible was to be read figuratively or allegorically and rarely literally (except for perhaps historical facts and what not)....and have you noticed that I use parantheticals way to much to make ridiculous inoccuous and wasteful asides?
Anyways, enjoy...and hope to share more often.
P.S. Tell me that Elder Holland's talk at conference wasn't just amazing? And also, now that the Priesthood sessions are all on the web....how many women are watching them?
Up, we have a study done by the Pew Charitable Trust on Mormons...since I am mormon, Sharona is mormon, and well, probably 90% of the people that know this blog exists are mormon, the post has significant value to those reading it. You can find it here.
Enjoy the read...I found some things very interesting, like the difference in education standards between converts and lifers. I also thought the ideological differences between single and married mormons was very interesting. I was hoping they would break that down to a gender coefficient, because that would have added a very interesting dynamic to the reading of numbers (just who is swaying whose beliefs?).
The ohter fairly shocking notion was that 35% of the mormon population believes that the Bible should be interpreted literally. I thought (perhaps to my self dissolusionment) that the Bible was to be read figuratively or allegorically and rarely literally (except for perhaps historical facts and what not)....and have you noticed that I use parantheticals way to much to make ridiculous inoccuous and wasteful asides?
Anyways, enjoy...and hope to share more often.
P.S. Tell me that Elder Holland's talk at conference wasn't just amazing? And also, now that the Priesthood sessions are all on the web....how many women are watching them?
Monday, September 14, 2009
INTJ - You can call me Bob the Builder!
So, for reasons not to be disclosed, I took a personality test the other day, and while I don't know how accurate or inaccurate they are, we'll go for it for now.
If you go over to http://www.humanmetrics.com/, you can take the Myers-Briggs Jung test for free, and it will give you 4 little letters and a score corresponding to each letter. The bigger the number, the more you possess that specific trait.
After I took the little test, the little site told me I was an INTJ...or rather Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging. Well, let's just say that 4 little letters aren't all that indicative to me of anything other than 4 little letters, so I went to do a bit more research and found this little site: http://typelogic.com/intj.html Whatever your personality type, it will give you a reasonable idea of what someone interprets those characteristics to mean.
Now, normally I don't get into all this classification mumbo jumbo. It seems simplistic, limiting, and well, odd to me, but nonetheless, I am going with it. After reading the description of INTJ, I thought it was fairly accurate, or accurate enough for me to give it more than a 50% reliance factor, and probably more like a 60 - 70% reliance factor...which in my book, is really pretty high.
Anyways, if you have free time, or comments on the Myers-Brings...would love to hear it. According to the personality test, apparently I have picked a very apt career, which is nice to know, and am destined to conquer the world, which we all know is my life long dream and ambition.
Oh and apparently if you are an ENFP or ENTP, you and I should get together for a drink or something! :)
If you go over to http://www.humanmetrics.com/, you can take the Myers-Briggs Jung test for free, and it will give you 4 little letters and a score corresponding to each letter. The bigger the number, the more you possess that specific trait.
After I took the little test, the little site told me I was an INTJ...or rather Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging. Well, let's just say that 4 little letters aren't all that indicative to me of anything other than 4 little letters, so I went to do a bit more research and found this little site: http://typelogic.com/intj.html Whatever your personality type, it will give you a reasonable idea of what someone interprets those characteristics to mean.
Now, normally I don't get into all this classification mumbo jumbo. It seems simplistic, limiting, and well, odd to me, but nonetheless, I am going with it. After reading the description of INTJ, I thought it was fairly accurate, or accurate enough for me to give it more than a 50% reliance factor, and probably more like a 60 - 70% reliance factor...which in my book, is really pretty high.
Anyways, if you have free time, or comments on the Myers-Brings...would love to hear it. According to the personality test, apparently I have picked a very apt career, which is nice to know, and am destined to conquer the world, which we all know is my life long dream and ambition.
Oh and apparently if you are an ENFP or ENTP, you and I should get together for a drink or something! :)
Monday, September 7, 2009
A blast from the past
So, I have been a slacker of late and I honestly am not sure I have a very good excuse. Life has been busy, but no more busy than usual....perhaps, it is because I have been away from home more rather than just working at home (shhhhh....don't tell anyone!)
Anyways, last Monday and Tuesday, I took the young men in my ward on a little camping trip...oh the good ol' days. Anyways, I was conversing with the other adult on the trip...wonderful guy, and we were reminiscing of a camping trip we went on when I was like 12. It was probably one of the craziest, but most memorable trips I had as a boy scout. And lo and behold, he had pictures and journal entries of the trip.
I don't normally post pics or anything like that, I mean Sharona is the expert on that, but I guess I'll do it this time. Here are a few pics from all those years back....enjoy!
This is all the junk we carried for the few days we were out there. This is in Adirondack Park, New York on a 4 day trip.
This is Scott Whale, Mike Janosko, and myself, paddling in what was probably the craziest canoe trip ever!!
We were freezing...and I mean freezing! Let's just say fires are real nice. The funny part about this campout...Jim Perucca brough a CHAINSAW!!! That is where all that fantastic wood came from. Unfortunately, he also sank his boat, and so we had to go diving for food!! :)
Ahhhh...this is the crew....the crazy bunch we were. Norm Swindler is missing from the crew, but eh, you get the idea. I was a little tike, I was.
Anyways, last Monday and Tuesday, I took the young men in my ward on a little camping trip...oh the good ol' days. Anyways, I was conversing with the other adult on the trip...wonderful guy, and we were reminiscing of a camping trip we went on when I was like 12. It was probably one of the craziest, but most memorable trips I had as a boy scout. And lo and behold, he had pictures and journal entries of the trip.
I don't normally post pics or anything like that, I mean Sharona is the expert on that, but I guess I'll do it this time. Here are a few pics from all those years back....enjoy!
This is all the junk we carried for the few days we were out there. This is in Adirondack Park, New York on a 4 day trip.
This is Scott Whale, Mike Janosko, and myself, paddling in what was probably the craziest canoe trip ever!!
We were freezing...and I mean freezing! Let's just say fires are real nice. The funny part about this campout...Jim Perucca brough a CHAINSAW!!! That is where all that fantastic wood came from. Unfortunately, he also sank his boat, and so we had to go diving for food!! :)
Ahhhh...this is the crew....the crazy bunch we were. Norm Swindler is missing from the crew, but eh, you get the idea. I was a little tike, I was.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Mammoth Cave National Park
This past weekend, Ben and I drove down to Cave City, Kentucky as part of a general effort we are making to adventure and see the amazing sights around us in this new place called Ohio. Cave City is about a three hour drive south of Cincinnati, so we decided to leave Friday after work and stay in a hotel/motel for the night and see the sights on Saturday. As we drove into the ever-luxurious Econolodge late Friday night, we were a little shocked by the parking lot. First we saw this:
And when we got back to the parking area by our little room, we saw this:
I know what you're thinking. It's a sure sign the economy is in the dumps when all the corvette owners in the world have to stay at the EconoLodge. Alarming signs of the times, indeed! Well, take heart my dear friends. It just so happens this is probably just an indication of sold out rooms in plusher digs. It was the annual Corvette Show down in Cave City this past weekend. Who knew? Here's a great shot of one of the older beauties, taken the next morning:
Ben and I woke up early. We wake up early most days (though not so early for some people, I'm sure) to get to work on time. Unfortunately, we find more and more these days that this habit we've made dies hard on days even when we don't have work. Tragic. And since Kentucky is an hour earlier than we are (we're the last hanger's on to the East Coast time zone even though we're significantly far away from the coast) we found ourselves bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:30 am, rearing to go. We showered, got ourselves ready and went down to enjoy the free continental breakfast. I ate a bagel and Ben found his pancakes inedible, and the fruit juice was questionable, so we ended up doing less enjoying than we would have liked. We decided to supplement Ben's breakfast with McDonald's Egg McMuffins -- breakfast of champions.
And then off to Mammoth Cave! They had several tours starting early that we were excited to try out. We wanted to get there in plenty of time to get a ticket.
Ah, well, sometimes the best laid plans go to waste, and the not so well laid plans, well.... you can imagine. As it turns out the note at the bottom of the Mammoth Cave Website where it reads, "*Not available by reservation. Tickets can only be purchased the day of the tour at the visitor center," doesn't mean you can't buy tickets before. It just means the one tour on the list that has an asterisk of the 20 tours they have available can't be bought ahead of time. When we got there at 7:45, all the tours I had any interest in were sold out. I was devastated and, to be honest, totally ticked at their website information that was (in my humble opinion) misleading. I had driven 3 hours for this! All the good tours are gone!?!? Seriously?! I wanted to just turn around and go home. Ben, however, calmed me down just enough to buy a couple of tours worth of tickets to the less challenging, but still available. I was pretty certain I wasn't going to like them. But we were already there. And though I might not end up enjoying them, Ben might.
On our first cave tour, we had a nice small group of people and we were made aware of the reason for the Cave network's name. We already read on the website that the caves were the longest system in the world, with 360+ miles of caves inside. But the caves are not only extensive. Individually they're areas inside can be huge. The first room we were in was a 1/4 acre large. Here are a few cool pictures from our first tour:
Above is a picture of the "natural opening" to the cave. It's pretty huge.
When they were in the caves in the last 1700's, early 1800's they used it to mine saltpeter to make gun powder. You can see some of the equipment they brought down in this picture.
I think these two pictures above give you a good idea of how huge some parts of the inside of this cave are. Or they would if I could make them any larger. :)
Overall, aside from it's extensive and sometimes huge tunnels, there wasn't a whole lot more to see in this cave tour. Our guide, Bobby, reminded us that Mammmoth Cave is not famous for its stalactites, stalagmites or other amazing features in the cave. It is famous because of it's size. So there you go. We had all been made aware we could stop looking for more wonderment. And I found it relieving to know, despite the fact I wasn't in awe of the cave's beauty, I also "shouldn't" be in awe of it.
After this two hour tour, Ben managed to get me to go back for one more, through another area of the cave. I was trying to raise my spirits up to be enjoyable company, but I did a pretty crappy job, if I do say so myself. It wasn't terrible, but I'd say it may have potentially ben slightly reminiscent of pulling teeth for me.:) For a lot of the tour I just didn't say anything, so to minimize the negativity that might come out of my mouth. If you can't say something nice....
Looking back, I think I should have known I wouldn't like this very much. I don't know what I was thinking with all these guided tours. I don't even like being guided through aerobics class. And on our second tour, our group was so large that I felt like I was in a never-ending line for a ride at Disneyland, with the tour group of over 140 people. Only with cave tours, the line IS the ride. I'm used to caving where you get "down and dirty" and have to twist yourself into funny shapes so you can get out. I came out clean as a whistle from these two tours and I think I might have had to duck my head and shift my hips a couple times. Somehow, not quite the same effect.
Not to say it was all a waste. Or painful. On the bright side, The second tour ended up having some of the coolest formations we'd seen and 80% of the formations there are to see at Mammoth Cave (jackpot, I guess). Here are a few pictures of what they call Frozen Niagara:
Our pictures don't do this feature justice. It was much cooler in real life. One part of the tours I enjoyed (yes, I did end up enjoying at least one part. Maybe two.. I'll have to think about it) was a little bit of comic relief in the naming of various parts of the caves. For example, they had an area in one of the caves where they had installed toilets. The called this area the "The Great Hall of Relief". Below is a picture of an area they like to call "Fat Man's Misery."
He he he he. They make me laugh.
And here is a shot of how they would "smoke" their names into the ceiling. I checked one of the covers on the lights they had in the cave to see if the names weren't on the cover of the light instead of actually smoked onto the ceiling (so, I can be a little bit of a skeptic sometimes..). I got in trouble for that. You can't stray too far from the tour, apparently. Woops. I like getting into trouble sometimes.:)
I complained to Ben a couple times how we were doing family friendly vacations and we weren't even a whole family yet (meaning we have no children). He was a bit surprised I didn't like this activity as much as I didn't like it when I had honestly told him before that I had a good time at Mt. Rushmore, which is also very kid-friendly. I reminded him that when I went to Mt. Rushmore I WAS there with children -- my niece and nephews. See, if you take your kids to they little, shallow wave pool, you can very well have fun with them there. But you don't usually see a lot of adults hanging out by the little, shallow wave pool of their own volition, do you? No-- because it's not as fun to do kid stuff without the kids, in my opinion. And I was banished to the kiddie tours without having any kiddies. And I just didn't like it very much.
This, aside from a much anticipated, luxurious dinner, was the big event to celebrate Ben's and my 1st anniversary. I spent the activity sulking and complaining (with mild signs of amusement at times) while Ben tried to pacify me and enjoy himself. Sometimes, the best laid plans... you get the idea. Let's hope this isn't some foreshadowing of the eternity that awaits us. I think the celebratory event was very non-reflective of the year that preceded it, thankfully. And just maybe, next year, instead of the outdoors, I'm gonna suggest we check in at the Four Seasons and go on a shopping spree. I think that would be sure to elicit better moods from me. :)
And when we got back to the parking area by our little room, we saw this:
I know what you're thinking. It's a sure sign the economy is in the dumps when all the corvette owners in the world have to stay at the EconoLodge. Alarming signs of the times, indeed! Well, take heart my dear friends. It just so happens this is probably just an indication of sold out rooms in plusher digs. It was the annual Corvette Show down in Cave City this past weekend. Who knew? Here's a great shot of one of the older beauties, taken the next morning:
Ben and I woke up early. We wake up early most days (though not so early for some people, I'm sure) to get to work on time. Unfortunately, we find more and more these days that this habit we've made dies hard on days even when we don't have work. Tragic. And since Kentucky is an hour earlier than we are (we're the last hanger's on to the East Coast time zone even though we're significantly far away from the coast) we found ourselves bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:30 am, rearing to go. We showered, got ourselves ready and went down to enjoy the free continental breakfast. I ate a bagel and Ben found his pancakes inedible, and the fruit juice was questionable, so we ended up doing less enjoying than we would have liked. We decided to supplement Ben's breakfast with McDonald's Egg McMuffins -- breakfast of champions.
And then off to Mammoth Cave! They had several tours starting early that we were excited to try out. We wanted to get there in plenty of time to get a ticket.
Ah, well, sometimes the best laid plans go to waste, and the not so well laid plans, well.... you can imagine. As it turns out the note at the bottom of the Mammoth Cave Website where it reads, "*Not available by reservation. Tickets can only be purchased the day of the tour at the visitor center," doesn't mean you can't buy tickets before. It just means the one tour on the list that has an asterisk of the 20 tours they have available can't be bought ahead of time. When we got there at 7:45, all the tours I had any interest in were sold out. I was devastated and, to be honest, totally ticked at their website information that was (in my humble opinion) misleading. I had driven 3 hours for this! All the good tours are gone!?!? Seriously?! I wanted to just turn around and go home. Ben, however, calmed me down just enough to buy a couple of tours worth of tickets to the less challenging, but still available. I was pretty certain I wasn't going to like them. But we were already there. And though I might not end up enjoying them, Ben might.
On our first cave tour, we had a nice small group of people and we were made aware of the reason for the Cave network's name. We already read on the website that the caves were the longest system in the world, with 360+ miles of caves inside. But the caves are not only extensive. Individually they're areas inside can be huge. The first room we were in was a 1/4 acre large. Here are a few cool pictures from our first tour:
Above is a picture of the "natural opening" to the cave. It's pretty huge.
When they were in the caves in the last 1700's, early 1800's they used it to mine saltpeter to make gun powder. You can see some of the equipment they brought down in this picture.
I think these two pictures above give you a good idea of how huge some parts of the inside of this cave are. Or they would if I could make them any larger. :)
Overall, aside from it's extensive and sometimes huge tunnels, there wasn't a whole lot more to see in this cave tour. Our guide, Bobby, reminded us that Mammmoth Cave is not famous for its stalactites, stalagmites or other amazing features in the cave. It is famous because of it's size. So there you go. We had all been made aware we could stop looking for more wonderment. And I found it relieving to know, despite the fact I wasn't in awe of the cave's beauty, I also "shouldn't" be in awe of it.
After this two hour tour, Ben managed to get me to go back for one more, through another area of the cave. I was trying to raise my spirits up to be enjoyable company, but I did a pretty crappy job, if I do say so myself. It wasn't terrible, but I'd say it may have potentially ben slightly reminiscent of pulling teeth for me.:) For a lot of the tour I just didn't say anything, so to minimize the negativity that might come out of my mouth. If you can't say something nice....
Looking back, I think I should have known I wouldn't like this very much. I don't know what I was thinking with all these guided tours. I don't even like being guided through aerobics class. And on our second tour, our group was so large that I felt like I was in a never-ending line for a ride at Disneyland, with the tour group of over 140 people. Only with cave tours, the line IS the ride. I'm used to caving where you get "down and dirty" and have to twist yourself into funny shapes so you can get out. I came out clean as a whistle from these two tours and I think I might have had to duck my head and shift my hips a couple times. Somehow, not quite the same effect.
Not to say it was all a waste. Or painful. On the bright side, The second tour ended up having some of the coolest formations we'd seen and 80% of the formations there are to see at Mammoth Cave (jackpot, I guess). Here are a few pictures of what they call Frozen Niagara:
Our pictures don't do this feature justice. It was much cooler in real life. One part of the tours I enjoyed (yes, I did end up enjoying at least one part. Maybe two.. I'll have to think about it) was a little bit of comic relief in the naming of various parts of the caves. For example, they had an area in one of the caves where they had installed toilets. The called this area the "The Great Hall of Relief". Below is a picture of an area they like to call "Fat Man's Misery."
He he he he. They make me laugh.
And here is a shot of how they would "smoke" their names into the ceiling. I checked one of the covers on the lights they had in the cave to see if the names weren't on the cover of the light instead of actually smoked onto the ceiling (so, I can be a little bit of a skeptic sometimes..). I got in trouble for that. You can't stray too far from the tour, apparently. Woops. I like getting into trouble sometimes.:)
I complained to Ben a couple times how we were doing family friendly vacations and we weren't even a whole family yet (meaning we have no children). He was a bit surprised I didn't like this activity as much as I didn't like it when I had honestly told him before that I had a good time at Mt. Rushmore, which is also very kid-friendly. I reminded him that when I went to Mt. Rushmore I WAS there with children -- my niece and nephews. See, if you take your kids to they little, shallow wave pool, you can very well have fun with them there. But you don't usually see a lot of adults hanging out by the little, shallow wave pool of their own volition, do you? No-- because it's not as fun to do kid stuff without the kids, in my opinion. And I was banished to the kiddie tours without having any kiddies. And I just didn't like it very much.
This, aside from a much anticipated, luxurious dinner, was the big event to celebrate Ben's and my 1st anniversary. I spent the activity sulking and complaining (with mild signs of amusement at times) while Ben tried to pacify me and enjoy himself. Sometimes, the best laid plans... you get the idea. Let's hope this isn't some foreshadowing of the eternity that awaits us. I think the celebratory event was very non-reflective of the year that preceded it, thankfully. And just maybe, next year, instead of the outdoors, I'm gonna suggest we check in at the Four Seasons and go on a shopping spree. I think that would be sure to elicit better moods from me. :)
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