Archive for the 'A Challenge' Category
Moving Furniture
Uncles, sons, cousins and Grandpa moved this fuchsia couch into the cabin.
It was because of my height that I didn’t help, not because I’m a girl (we had to clarify that as a group before the activity began). First, they hauled it from Balty to Upstate New York in a trailer, then unstapled the screen on the side porch, then hoisted it up and over the railing, then into the cabin, then into the living room.
All while being directed by Grandpa.
Iron People
One of the most exciting things that Anna and I witnessed in Nice (besides swimming in the sea, watching the USA/Ghana match at an Irish pub and just spending time as sisters) was an IronMan triathlon.
Number of bicycles lined up on the promenade the night before: 2500.
Number of those bicycles that belonged to women: 200.
We saw the first guys come in from the 100 mile bicycle ride after about five and a half hours. We saw some of the first guys cross the finish line after about eight and a half hours.
But, the best part of the day was checking back in with the race at 9 p.m.
The racers had started that morning at 6:30 a.m. with a 2.4 mile swim. They had until 10:30 p.m. to finish the swim, the bike (one of the hardest in all Ironmans) and then a marathon (which was four loops that had runners coming back to the finish line area with each pass – brutal).
So, we came back at 9 to cheer for the finishers. We thought we’d stay until 9:15, 9:30. No. We stayed until 10:30. We saw a couple wearing matching uniforms walking the course holding hands. We saw a guy running completely hunched over. We saw all these tough tough people going and going, some for 16 hours! Wow. And, lucky for us (and them), they had name tags on their bibs.
Anna and I cheered for an hour an a half, yelling out words of encouragement in English and French for Jean-Pierre, for Natalia, for Katarine. Our favorite was a woman with a New Zealand jersey on. We just cheered for “New Zealand.” We gave her a two-person baseball style wave.
On her last lap, she grabbed our hands and thanked us.
We were teary cheerleaders for an hour and a half, blowing kisses, cheering people on, imagining ourselves doing the same one day.
After the course closed at 10:30 p.m., the fireworks started. The moon was a clementine orange color. Anna stayed at the course and I went for a closer look at the bright lights. After, Anna said one guy was still running on the course despite the officials’ best efforts to clear everyone out (rollerblading “refs” with whistles, a siren spinning van, and clean-up crews). A group of kids with American flags ran on to the course when they saw the guy.
“What time is it?” The guy asked them.
“it’s 10:35, Dad,” one said.
Then the whole family ran toward the finish line together. In the dark.
CommentsWolf Desk
Putting the finishing touches on a big story I’m writing about wolves and sheep. Changing it around now that the hunt is on. This is my desk at J’s aunt’s house. I have my Pearl Street Bagel’s sticker to remind me of home, my cup of coffee to keep me awake, and the New Yorker for writing inspiration. Shot with the iPhone. Hoping this will be the last major project not for school this year. Hard to concentrate on grad school when I have paid work in the wings. Hard to write a massive story about something that seems still so inconclusive. Wolves are here. What is everyone going to do about it?
CommentsDid You Forget Your Bag?
Dig the signs. And the passers-by (passer-bys?). Though, in the 27 seconds I stood reading the sign, not one person had a reusable bag in hand.
These guys chose paper. Not sure if pink pants (above) prefers paper or plastic.
Trader Joe’s on La Brea. L.A. (So psyched to have a TJ’s close by.)
They should have a third sign. Suggestions for the Bagless. (J’s method, which I’ve adopted: re-load the cart post-purchase, sans-bag. Wheel it out to the car, deposit your eggs and arugula and organic kettle corn in the backseat, return the cart.)
CommentsMy First Assignment
The other students in the Specialized Journalism program are rad. One guy is taking a break from his reporting job at the Washington Post, another woman is an anchor at CBS, another woman worked as a science reporter at Public Radio International. I’m impressed. And, a little intimidated.
Weird thing is, I am the only one who stood up and said I wanted to study Sustainable Cities, environmental issues, Earthy stuff. And, I was the only one who ate my breakfast on a napkin instead of the provided Styrofoam plates. And the only one with a mug.
Clearly, my first assignment is to encourage Annenberg to ditch the ‘foam. (They do have recycling bins, so that’s a start.)
My favorite quote from yesterday came from my new friend, D, who writes about Dancing with the Stars for TV Guide. She saw the mug covered in stickers.
“Are you green?” she said. “I just knew you were green. That is so cool!”
CommentsInfinite Summer
Infinite Jest has been sitting in my mind since reading Federer As Religious Experience and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, and sitting on my shelf since Nic gave it to me for my birthday in January. The 1,079-pager sits sandwiched between Jonathan Franzen’s How To Be Alone (short stories, 305 pages) and John Cheever’s Oh What a Paradise It Seems (100 pages). And I’ve been too intimidated to take it down.
Until today. When I saw this:
So, it’s like the support from NaNoWriMo where participants write 1,600 words a day during November to come out at the end of the month with a novel. Except, this is Reading a Novel.
Summer Reading Support Group.
Complete with conversations, encouragement and commiseration. And no pressure to understand footnotes, allusions, mind meanderings. Just, enjoy. And, so I will start. Seventy-five pages per day all summer long. Woot! Starting… now! Who’s in?
This, from the project’s brainchild Jason Kottke:
But what I am qualified to tell you — as a two-time reader and lover of Infinite Jest — is that you don’t need to be an expert in much of anything to read and enjoy this novel. It isn’t just for English majors or people who love fiction or tennis players or recovering drug addicts or those with astronomical IQs. Don’t sweat all the Hamlet stuff; you can worry about those references on the second time through if you actually like it enough to read it a second time. Leave your dictionary at home; let Wallace’s grammatical gymnastics and extensive vocabulary wash right over you; you’ll get the gist and the gist is more than enough. Is the novel postmodern or not? Who f’ing cares…the story stands on its own. You’re likely to miss at least 50% of what’s going on in IJ the first time though and it doesn’t matter.
And and and! It is a fact that Infinite Jest is a long book with almost a hundred pages of endnotes, one of which lists the complete (and fictional) filmography of a prolific (and fictional) filmmaker and runs for more than eight pages and itself has six footnotes, and all of which you have to read because they are important. So sure, it’s a lengthy book that’s heavy to carry and impossible to read in bed, but Christ, how many hours of American Idol have you sat through on your uncomfortable POS couch? The entire run of The West Wing was 111 hours and 56 minutes; ER was twice as long, and in the later seasons, twice as painful. I guarantee you that getting through Infinite Jest with a good understanding of what happened will take you a lot less time and energy than you expended getting your Mage to level 60 in World of Warcraft.
And so, readers: Forward. I wish you way more than luck.
