One Week...One Year...One Month

I did not disappear this week. That's not what happened here. I mean, I did say last week I was going to be back in the blogging game...and then I did not blog a single day this week...but that wasn't actually my fault. I mean, sort of not my fault anyway.

See...here's what happened...

Since last Sunday, J Word and I have been serving as counselors at Northern Light Summer Camp, an offshoot of the generations ministry (GenMin) of the church that J Word is a part of and preaches at, and a camp experience he's been a part of for a number of years now. As part of camp we teach a morning class session, help with the afternoon "campy" activities like: canoeing, high ropes, zip lines, hiking, archery, rock climbing, etc., and supervise the dorms late late late into the night when 14-16 year old girls (or in J Word's case, boys) decide that the giant slumber party can, in fact, slumber. Rinse...repeat...another day begins!

So as I said...since Sunday we've been at this. I won't claim that we were "roughing it," as the dorms were (mostly) air conditioned, the kitchen staff in the dining hall prepared 3 (very carb-based, very square, very over portioned in some cases) meals a day, and I got a daily shower (always appreciated!). But at the same time, this was not the newly-wedded life that Josh and I have grown comfortably accustomed to the last 4 weeks!

Still, we've had a good time, came back with some stories to tell (yes, you can canoe in a torrential downpour for two hours while your canoe gathers water and you get soaked to the skin), and are likely better people because of it. To the camp's credit, or maybe it's GenMin's credit, the camp program is actually wide reaching and widely successful. Northern Light is just one of tons of other camps in the same network that took place all over the country this summer...which is pretty cool. (More info here for those who are truly curious.)

Of all the weeks of the summer, this was the one I had to work hardest at, and hardest to get excited about, so part of me is a little glad that it's come and gone without incident. But that's also not fair because there's been plenty to be REALLY excited about this summer...so it's all relative!

And speaking of the other things going on this summer...the title of this post referenced three different time period. The first being a week - in this case the week of camp. The second is a year, which is a throw back to this time last year (well, actually, yesterday last year), which was the day that J Word proposed! So that's kind of fun!

Then, of course, we have one month, a flash forward to Monday which will mark our one month 'anniversary' of married life. Which is all well and good...great even!...but can I just say, THAT WENT FAST!! I mean, I know we had the honeymoon in there, and a week of camp, so it's not like we were just sitting around staring at each other, but still. It flew by! I like it. I'm a fan of being married. I'll be even more of a fan when the rest of my name change stuff is finished and I can quit with the "Dr. Jekyll is also Mr. Hyde" routine when showing one ID with one name and something else with another name. Hopefully soon! I got the blog administrator's rights officially switched to "Laack." (...because obviously that was the most important change to make!)

Anyway, it's hot, and the camp laundry marathon has begun, and there's a little bit of catching up to do around the house, so I'll be signing off for now! Hope you have awesome weekend plans. Stay tuned for next week's summer race and picking a play update! And until then...

Happy Trails,

Four Thoughts for Friday...

Every week there are things that show up in the news...on my social media feed...on a weird CNN news blip...or somehow otherwise cross my path that really make me think. Sometimes, these thoughts are pensieve and meaningful. Other times these thoughts are more in the realm of 'WTF!?!' This week tended to lean more towards the 'WTF!?!' side of the spectrum. So, if you haven't been completely puzzled or perplexed by these issues this week...you're welcome! You can now head scratch and eye roll with the rest of us. (Or...you know...me!)

 1. Fireworks: There were two mind blowingly (and in a minute you'll see why that's a TERRIBLE pun!) stupid things that caught my attention about fireworks this week. Ok...there were three if you count the fact that I can't understand why people don't pick up their firework trash after the 4th of July!? I digress... First, you may have heard the story of the 22 year old that lit a firework on his head, immediately dying when said firework exploded. ('mind blowingly stupid'...right!?...Too soon?) It seems almost too obvious to state in writing how bizarre and idiotic this is, but stupider still might be the fact that his parents are now calling on politicians to put stricter regulations on fireworks. I'm not saying fireworks shouldn't have some kind of regulation. I mean, they are essentially bombs. HOWEVER, there is no way to regulate that kind of stupidity. I just...I don't even have the words for this ridiculousness.

If the firework on the head thing wouldn't have happened, the most annoyingly stupid thing that would have happened with fireworks this 4th of July would have been the NFL player who blew off 2 of his fingers with a firework, thus likely ending his NFL career. What?! WHAT!? I'm sorry, because I know I'm a semi-paranoid, semi-hypochondriac, but if I was a multi-million dollar NFL player who relied on my body and hands to make a living, do you know how careful I would be with my body and hands!? I'm not saying they should be living in a bubble and be a slave to the gym, but maybe not blowing your fingers off in the name of freedom and independence would be a great place to start!

2. The 2016 Presidential Election: Donald Trump is inexplicably climbing in the polls...another no name Democrat has tossed his/her hat into the ring to challenge Hillary Clinton...Scott Walker is set to announce his candidacy any minute now...my "I Side With" quiz results gave me Bernie Sanders as my candidate of choice, but I fundamentally disagree with just about everyone of his stances on foreign policy...there are 19, YES 19 candidates in the Republican field...I already dislike everything about the 2016 election and it's not even 2016 yet!

3. The Bachelorette: I am a total "hate watcher" of The Bachelorette, and, because I don't have TV and can only watch it on Hulu playback, I usually don't even subject myself to a whole episode. Instead I browse for, what I call, the 'dirty highlights,' which pretty much involves crying, drama, or interviews that look particularly awkward. Basically, that means I've ended up watching A LOT of this season...which has got to be the worst season ever. J Word wonders how/why I even bother, and this was the best analogy I could give him: Sometimes, when I'm driving along the highway, I'll see a particularly nasty piece of roadkill coming up on the shoulder, and I'll tell myself not to look at it, because I really have no stomach for that kind of thing, and I know it will be disgusting and (if gross enough) maybe even make me gag...but then as I drive past I look anyway! And guess what happens!? It's completely gross, and momentarily nauseates me, and I knew it was going to happen and that I should not look, but morbid curiosity makes me do it...

...and that's The Bachelorette!

But I can't help it...and then Mookie and I speculate on what's going to happen in the end, and how everyone on the show is ruining their lives, and how people are generally insane. I hate myself a little for actually being curious about how this whole season will end.   

4. It's Shark Week: First of all, ABC should buy the rights to "Shark Week" and run it after The Bachelorette on Monday nights! It's like the same thing. Secondly, I don't watch "Shark Week" because, as previously mentioned, I don't have real TV, and something about Hulu-ing Shark Week just seems weird. And then it dawned on me...Shark Week is on Hulu! And it's on Netflix! Which means every week can be Shark Week...and this goes without saying because it's not like sharks disappear the other 51 weeks of the year. Not that you'd know this from reading my friend's Facebook statuses. I can only take one more "Guys!! Sharks are like AMAZING! Like WOW!" We all recognize that the Discovery Channel didn't actually discover sharks this week, right!?

If you want real entertainment, watch Shark Tank because I seriously saw this thing in Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day. That's right...someone's making millions of dollars on a smiley face sponge!

Enough with the ranting! Rage on runners and readers! 

Happy Trails, 

Picking a Play...lucky number 8!

Tis the season for picking a play! For the last five years, July and August have brought with them a slew of scripts to mull over and eventually pick a fall production from. Every year that I do this I find decent material...though decent material and the "right" material are not always the same thing. I do have a small production "wish list" to stage someday, but the conditions have to be right for these particular shows. Currently, the "right conditions" include next year's completion of the new performing arts space. Having a real stage will make all the difference in the world. In the meantime, I've become somewhat adept at choosing and staging shows in little niche spaces. And thus, this year I believe the choice has come down to two potential options...

 
If you're unfamiliar with the choices, "And Then There Were None" is the classic Agatha Christie murder mystery (also known as "Ten Little Indians.") I've considered staging a mystery during my last few rounds of script selection and read a couple mediocre stories in the process. ATTWN is not mediocre, would be fun and different from other things I've directed, and would have some title/author name recognition to help bring people in. Downsides? Recommended staging/set is bigger and more elaborate than anything I'd really want to build. Male to female ratio isn't ideal casting and doesn't provide a lot of room for gender flexibility. Still...not a bad option.

Choice number two is Neil Simon's "Fools." I've considered directing this show twice before, and it's made the final two of my script selection once in the past as well. That probably means I should go ahead and stage it. Merits: it's funny! Neil Simon is obviously a classic playwright. It's got a small, manageable cast, that probably provides me more flexibility than ATTWN. Downfalls: Multiple locations in the story make for trickier staging. The cast is small...only 10 or so speaking parts.

Of course, because I've named these as the two shows I'm considering picking between, the very real possibility exists I will not choose either option!

I mean...there's two months left this summer...that's a lot of time to read and consider other possibilities. And yet, the sooner I choose something, the easier the transition back to school and rehearsals will be. So (for now) it's narrowed down to these two. What would you buy a ticket to see?

Happy Trails,

Name Changes and Blogger Analytics

Well hello internet!

A strange thing happened enroute back to my blog this weekend. (And it's been a LONG time since I've blogged...I know...read: finishing the school year, getting MARRIED, going on a honeymoon, and then 'life-ing' in general). But I digress...

This week I began the task of formally changing my name and I learned a few interesting things in the process.

1. Most people (regardless of the true legal standing or status of your formal paperwork) will immediately start calling you by your married last name the instant you leave the church! I'm not complaining about this...just saying!

2. Every entity with whom you will need to change your name will have slightly different application, documentation, and verification requirements. Credit cards are alarmingly easy to change. Bank accounts are unnecessarily difficult to change. Passports...you are essentially a brand new person - please re-apply and send us your money. DMV...well...it's the DMV...

Then there was my additional decision to change my person email to reflect my new name, which was not totally necessary, but in the long run will be easier for everyone! That started the tedious process of updating every login, sign-up, free coupon, etc. list I'd ever been on, which eventually led to: forget it, I don't need 4 emails a day from this (insert social action/politician/store discount/etc.) anyway; my married life will be better without you!

It was in the process of this email update that the blog came back onto my radar screen, as my blogger account is tied to my old gmail account, therefore preventing me from ever really deleting it because I'd like to have access to this handy little archive of the last 4 years of my life. However, having not looked at my blog since April, and having recently recognized with a number of people that my writing had slowed to a trickle, I thought I'd probably just let this account sit...maybe save the archive to a flash drive...and acknowledge that the days of sitting alone and shouting at the internet in search of validation had passed (mostly because I can now shout across the house for validation, and J Word helpfully and gladly obliges!) ;)

Yet, when I signed back into my blogger account, I found something rather interesting. Blogger keeps all kinds of stats and analytics for the blog's readership, and though I haven't written since April, people have continued to visit the page in May and June and now July. Though when I write actively I have 100's of visitors a month, even when I wasn't writing I still had 3-5 page views a day. What were these people doing? Reading old posts? Checking to see if I was back? I know Mookie read the "30 before 30" list looking for things to help me check off. What were other people up to?

And thus...I find myself here writing again because I had readers even when I wasn't writing...so maybe I owe it to those readers to write. Plus, there'll be plenty of new stories to tell from married life, and J Word is great fun to have adventures and stories with. So there's that.

PLUS...one of these days I'll get my act together and check that "Write a Novel" item off my list...and then I'm REALLY going to want readers! So it's best not to alienate the few that have managed to stick it out this far.

So I'm here! Or...I'm back! And I'll try to stick around for awhile. Running, writing, and married life updates to come!

Happy Trails,

And then I was published...

Hey friends! In case you missed my various other social media links, last week Thought Catalog picked up my "Sweating for the Wedding" piece and published me on their website! If you've read many of my Friday Five posts, you know that Thought Catalog is one of my favorite freelance sites...so this was a big deal! If you missed it, here it is again.

I had just locked my locker and was reaching for my iPod when she said it. She must have caught a glimmer off my left hand because I’m not sure my post-workday, pre-workout glow radiated ‘engaged and in love.’ But she looked at me and smiled knowingly and asked, “So, are you sweating for the wedding?”

It took a great deal of personal restraint not to offer a snide retort. (“I don’t know. Are you sweating through a bitter divorce” came to mind.) Instead I smiled and laughed noncommittally, and she smiled and laughed like she’d uncovered this deep, personal secret, and then we set off to the free weights and cardio equipment to sweat for whatever it was that motivated us.

But I thought about what she said during my entire workout, not because she had revealed something about my motives that I wished to remain hidden, but because she made an unfair assumption about my motives that so epitomizes the problem with woman’s body image and self esteem in America today.

In a world where a size 6 or 8 is considered a plus size model, and a new ‘super food’ comes on the market once a month, and we spend more time worried about how quickly celebrities have melted away their baby fat than how happy and healthy the new baby is, it’s easy to see where an idea like “sweating for the wedding” comes from.

A person’s wedding day is supposed to be glamorous (or so we’re told). The bride is supposed to feel beautiful, like a princess, and if you look at the pantheon of princesses, few are sporting anything above a size 2. So when it comes to weddings, it’s not enough that everyone “ooh and aah” over the dress, the flowers, the cake, the dinner, the DJ, the decorations, the first dance… They should also be oohing and aahing over the amazing physical transformation that hundreds of dollars worth of hair, makeup and personal training sessions can buy.

With so much societal pressure to look a certain way, it wouldn’t make sense that a woman goes to the gym and works out simply because: A.) She wants to; or B.) Personal health and fitness matter to her; or C.) The same wedding that she’s supposed to look gorgeous for is also a pretty big point of stress, and exercise is a proven reliever of stress and tension.

It wouldn’t make sense that, as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol continue to plague Americans, a woman would choose a healthy, active lifestyle not because of the ring on her finger, but ‘just because.’ Without a wedding on the horizon, what other purpose could women possibly have for dedicating an hour of their lives to sweating in the presence of complete strangers?

By staying silent, I made myself part of a culture that I don’t believe in or belong to. The truth is that I ran a marathon, eight half marathons, and five triathlons before I even met my fiancé. The truth is that in the time I’ve known him, my time at the gym has actually decreased as I’ve tried to balance spending less time alone on a treadmill and more time with him.

The truth is I do not get on the scale to see how many pounds I’ve lost, but rather to make sure I’m maintaining (or gaining) muscle mass. The truth is I started working on this body long before there was ever a man in the picture, and though he certainly appreciates it, he also knows that I don’t continue to maintain it solely for his pleasure and benefit.

I haven’t lost a single pound for my wedding, and I don’t intend to, and that probably makes me the girl that other girls love to hate. That said, I will continue showing up to the gym, and running my miles, and planking, and lifting, and sweating…but not for the wedding. No, my real reason is much bigger than any one day.

See, on my wedding day, I’ll promise my whole life to someone…in sickness and in health. And more than looking gorgeous in a dress, or taking his breath away when I walk down the aisle, or soliciting the oohs and aahs from the pews, on that day, when I make that promise, I want to know that I’m doing everything I can to ensure that long, happy, healthy future together.

I’m not “sweating for the wedding.” I’m sweating for everyday that comes after it. 

Happy Trails, 

Friday Five - The five most unexpected things that happened this week...

My job has made me laugh, cry, smile, and pull my hair out...sometimes all in the same week (once or twice even all in the same day!). That said, I can't imagine what else I'd be doing if I didn't teach, so most times I just try to roll with the punches. This week, on the whole, was a good week. But that doesn't mean it wasn't without it's share of head scratching, bizarre, moments. In fact, there were a number of oddities this week. Let's consider the following:

1. A former student, now in college, Facebook messaged me a grammar question because they couldn't find the answer on Google.

2. A full section of my freshman English class became inexplicably fascinated with the idea of J Word, called him 'Mr. Laack' for the majority of an hour, drilled me with questions about the wedding, and eventually Googled my wedding website.

3. A woman at the gym asked me if I was "sweating for the wedding," and I almost bit my tongue off trying to restrain myself from 100 sarcastic and snarky retorts.

4. I found another opportunity to submit a piece of writing for publication (stay tuned.)

5. My Minnesota License Exams scores are showing up 3 weeks early! They will arrive in email form at 5:00pm tonight...either confirming or disproving my aptitude for my chosen profession. Oh goody...

In other news, my Twitter feed is active again, and I'll be posting my blog links there. So, if you're a 'tweeter' ('twitterer'?) come along and follow me at @k8_tweets.

I'm off for a birthday bash weekend! J Word is turning 30 so, you know, that's a big deal!

Happy Trails,

Dreadmill Running and Waiting for Spring

Hey runner readers!

Here's a quick tip for those of you, like me, that hate running on the treadmill and winter. I've gotten MUCH better this winter about cross-training. I've even add weight training to my routine twice a week at the gym, which...if you've followed me through my whole running journey...you know I really hate to do. But nothing really makes the treadmill an awesome alternative to running outdoors. And thus, I've been forced to find treadmill workouts that leave me feeling awesome and not like I want to pull my hair out. Here are three treadmill options if you have 30-45 minutes and can't stand straight mileage on the mill.

1. Circuits: This is probably my favorite go to winter work out this year because I'm never doing one thing long enough to get bored. Start by warming up 1-2 miles at a comfortable pace. Then, sprint for a quarter mile. Get off the treadmill and do a set of the following: 20 dumbell curls, 20 sideways arm lifts, 10 front lifts, 10 tricep lifts. Drop the weights and plank for 1 minute, then switch onto your right side for a 30 second side plank, followed by a 30 second side plank on the left side. 15 seconds in child's pose...15 seconds in down dog. Then, go back to the treadmill for another quarter mile sprint, and repeat.

2. Intervals: This is a brutal treadmill workout, but one that's quick and effective. Start with a mile run after which begin the following intervals: 30 seconds of running at a pace .5 higher than your comfortable running pace, 20 seconds .5 higher, 10 seconds at a full sprint. Repeat this pattern 5 times, then returning to an easy jog to recover. Repeat the set 3-5 times.

3. Treadmill 400s: This is also an interval workout, but less intense and more sustainable than the last one. Run a mile to warm up, then break the next few miles into 400m chunks. Run 400m at a pace slightly faster than comfortable, then the next 400m at a pace 1 setting higher on the treadmill (I run them between 6.5-7.5). Sustain for as many miles as you want to cover.

Of course, there are always the non-treadmill options as well. Biking while watching movies or catching up on TV shows isn't wildly entertaining, but it's a good way to break up some of the monotony as well. Whatever you're doing...just hold on a little bit longer! I see 50 degrees in the forecast next week!!

Happy Trails,