Summer feels so OVER. It feels fall-like, the folk festival is over, the students are starting to stream back into town, and the LLBean catalog is making me want stuff like a "fleece-lined hoodie" (chocolate, yum.) Anyway, I have a bunch of stuff that's been floating around, and none of it is really connected, but yeah, hi!
I've lost the Bloglines love and totally converted to Google Reader, and so should you. Well, you don't HAVE to, but I love the layout more, and the adding of subs more, and especially the sharing stuff. I can share professional links really easily, and that is SO great, to have my professional stuff and personal stuff in one place, but without the risk of cross-pollination. I mean, my faculty doesn't need to know I read the Superficial, right?
I kind of really want an iPhone, except I will not be getting one. We don't have 3g, I don't want to pay for the data plan, and really, if they'd just add a camera and GPS to the iPod touch, well, that's what I really want. (And rumor has it the update on 9/9 will have GPS on the touch…) My cell carrier was sucked up by Verizon, and there hasn't been a change yet, but I'm already contemplating a shift, just in case.
I lost and kept off 10 pounds using WW earlier, but didn't want to pay again, so now I'm looking at online fitness thingies. Like gyminee, fitday, sparkpeople, etc… I don't really want to count calories, as much as track stuff like exercise, vitamins, veggies, etc, and have some place to weigh in every week. For free, of course. Any other recommendations?
I ordered a new stroller. Which, yes, Ingrid is 2+, and I've loved our Mac Techno since she was born, but the Mac Volo was released in Orange in 2007, and has been singing to me ever since. It's ridiculous, really. Then someone posted a link to a NIB one on ebay for 75 bucks, total, which is a steal in the Mac world, so I sprung for it. I felt better about the impulse buy (that I'd been considering for over a year) when we went to the festival and I saw kids that were older than Ingrid being pushed around in strollers that are unwieldy and huge. An 8 lb stroller with a shoulder strap (and did I mention, ORANGE!) will be a great solution for the toddler-preschooler outings where the walking and strolling are switched off. Plus, ORANGE! I'm beyond excited for it to arrive. Dumb. I know.
I've been going to the Y for a year! I don't know that I'm any visually different, I guess my pants are looser, maybe, but I definitely feel stronger, and HELLO, I GO TO THE Y now. NOT ONLY do I go to the Y, I just signed up for my fall session classes of Group Power, and added BELLYDANCING. I am so excited. It's at 745 on Tuesdays, so basically when Ing is in bed anyway, and just kind of a wacky thing to do, I think. I'm also doing elliptical machine on the days I'm there for GP, too, and I dunno, I go to the Y! That's huge, that I even go. That I have the little tag on my keys now. Crazy.
I took Ingrid for the library for the first time, as a patron, and she loved it. She is so great.
I am teaching two sections of a 1cr class for first-years, to foster college success, which is a RIOT since I failed out of college on my first try. But in talking about this, it turns out, a lot of people I know did the same thing. Which led me to have the epiphany that success isn't about doing it right the first time, it's just as much about picking yourself back up and doing it right the 2nd time. Or the 3rd. Or whenever. I feel like, all considered, I'm a pretty successful person. I get hungup a little bit that I'm not a success in the area that everyone, growing up, thought I'd be, but… damn. I'm only 33! Life is short! To be successful in the area I'm in, well, that field didn't even exist when I was in high school. Weird.
I wrote a letter to my city council and the city manager this week, constructively criticizing their horrible website. (Basically, it's mostly .docs and PDFs. Even the "directions to city hall" are a word doc. Grr!) and within 15 minutes of hitting send, the manager called me directly, was awesome, and we ended up setting an appointment to meet today, which was great. It was so great to be taken so seriously, based on both my writing skills (it was a pretty good letter) and my technology expertise. I had this moment of "holy shit, I'm a grownup! Professional! I'm being taken so seriously and it seems like just yesterday the bike cops were chasing me out of West Market Square!!" I can't wait to see the website change, and know that I was really instrumental in making that happen. Citizens of Bangor, you're welcome.
There was probably more. But it's time for bed.