Choose To Hope

Today was an outstanding day. It wasn't anything specific that made it such, but overall it really was quite good. This week had me feeling a little overwhelmed Monday morning when my alarm went off because I was either facilitating a meeting or hosting a major event every day through Thursday and then flying across the country on Friday. Add into the mix that I needed to get my house under control while at the same time not having the flexibility of taking any time off work because of the meetings. Monday's meeting went well, and I didn't need to pull out any of the facilitation skills that I don't really even know if I have (it's kind of like CPR, you learn how to do it and hope you never really need to use it because you aren't sure if you're going to remember how, and even if you remember how if you are going to be good at it).

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were events that have been in the works for 2 years but because of construction delays are just now being held. We are holding these events to show engineers, developers and planners what went into producing a development that uses low impact development practices rather than 'business as usual' development practices (which are clearly not working well for the environment, or society as a whole). There are a lot of partners, but since my program is the main host I end up with the 'what do we do now' questions if something doesn't work as planned. Yesterday went swimmingly with nothing out of the ordinary, most of the registrants showing up, lunches on time, no rain for the site visit, and good reviews from both the speakers and people leaving the event. Since today and tomorrow are a replay of yesterday with the only change being the 25 people taking the workshop, I was feeling pretty good. Add in that between Monday and Tuesday night I cleaned the house, and did one work related item that needed to be finished this week outside of the meetings. Tonight after I finish this I've got the other work related item that needs to be finished before the end of the week, and then tomorrow I need to pack. Being that those are reasonable items to finish each night in addition to making dinner and cleaning up afterwards I feel much less in an internal panic than Monday morning at 6am.

So, today, once we again had most of the registrants show up (For some reason you can always count on about 10% of the people not showing up. Nevermind you are giving them a free lunch, the course is free, you've made it clear to them there are people on the waiting list and you've confirmed with them that they are attending. Apparently there are 10% of any meeting group that just want to be jerks.), lunch was great, no rain in sight, and we were receiving rave reviews. Our training is on the low impact development practices that are being used in the Oak Terrace Preserve, so obviously our site visit was to that site. It is pretty awesome, and if I had an extra $200,000 I would totally be living there. Unfortunately I don't, because it's a really cool neighborhood. The project is one portion of a greater effort by the Noisette Company, which in itself is a really inspiring effort to renew the original area that made up the City of North Charleston. It is headed up by the same guy who headed up the Baltimore Harbor renewal, who by the way is an incredible speaker (I love speakers who you can tell really believe in what they are talking about).

We provided vans to drive the people from the area we gave presentations to the development site, and on the way back to the meeting spot we drove through two more redevelopment areas in the works. Mixon and Horizon. Mixon is super high density housing that is set up to mimic old cities like Florence, Italy. It's not really my thing, but it's definitely cool and I like that developers are finally providing alternatives in new housing rather than the same old clear-cut, tract housing where you have to count the homes down the street to figure out which one is yours. Horizon is being done by the housing authority, but you would never know it by looking at it. You definitely think of broken down, low quality homes when you think of government housing, but these are beautiful. They have a mixture of to rent and to own, both government subsidized and non subsidized in the same development. The theory is that people can rent in government subsidized housing, then when they get on their feet buy a place in the same development where they have made relationships and built a life. It was inspiring to see developers who are trying to walk the talk of improving their community, rather than just coming into an area, making as much money as they can and getting out. Perhaps it was necessary to actually drive through and have one of the project managers explain things to you, but I personally was excited to be even a tiny part of the whole thing.

So, my overall comment to all my faithful blog readers, which I came to as we finished our drive down the redeveloped section of the old Navy Base - choose to be a positive change in your little part of the world rather than just existing. Everyone has a little part to play and you can either choose to be status quo, or you can choose to hope for something better and do what you can to get there. A little deep for 9:15 in the evening when I need to spend the next hour making a presentation on performance measures, but it's good to be reminded of what's important in life every once in a while!

this is one of the houses in Oak Terrace, seriously how cute is that!

So this is what they do

I came home early today because I have 3 days of hosting training events in North Charleston and it will end up making me more efficient to just do a few hours of work from home once I get back rather than going into the office and getting caught up talking to people in the one hour left in the day. The animals were obviously very excited to see me and once I pulled out the computer and started working they went back to their own little worlds. Right now the dog and both the cats are laying on various parts of the furniture curled up in balls taking naps. So apparently this is what they do all day while I'm at working making the money that buys them food! We need to find cat and dog part time positions somewhere!

Welcome a Guest Blogger

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we welcome a guest blogger to 'Wedded Bliss'. He has been a frequent topic of conversation, and made an appearance in numerous adventures over the past 2 years. His name is...the Chicken.

Many of you may not know that Halloween is my favorite holiday. Last evening I was able to carve my pumpkin. In the atmosphere of this current political season I felt the need to promote peace and harmony. Thus, I decided to carve a peace sign into my pumpkin in the hopes that little trick-or-treaters all over the neighborhood would be inspired by the symbol.

After careful consideration of the tools at my disposal I picked my weapon of choice and began:

I quickly realized my wings were not strong enough to complete the task and I asked enlisted the help of a fellow blogger, known on the world wide web as Agricola. I respected his wishes to remain anonymous, especially considering his political leanings.

TA DA!

Weather conditions in the Charleston area prohibited me from showcasing my pumpkin in the traditional way (with a candle). So, I asked the Agricolae (Agricola's wife) to present the final product.

Happy Halloween.
- the Chicken

P.S. There was some dissent voiced over my choice of the peace sign. Some thought I was jumping on the hippy-peace bandwagon. For the record I remember 1967 (unlike MOST 'hippies' of this generation) when people actually wore large peace medallions and leather headbands (my mother told me not to talk to them). And I lived in Boulder, CO for two years. I think that qualifies me to use the peace sign on my pumpkin.

Can't we all just get along?

I just need to write a post congratulating those of us in the world who are comfortable enough with our opinions as to not need to surround ourselves with only those who agree with us. I think one of the things I most enjoy is understanding why people believe things and what went into their decision making. It annoys me more when someone who agrees with me can't explain their rationale, than when someone who doesn't agree with me can. Especially at this point of the election I would like to thank all those who can confidently, but respectfully discuss their opinions. It makes me smile when I can agree with someone on one point, disagree with them on another, but all the while respect them for their interest in hearing me at the same time as I hear them. I don't understand why some people get so crazy about their political opinions, but apparently it's worth it to them to act psychotic just to attempt to prove a point. Oh well, such is life. I can say that I can't wait for the election to end, I'm ready for politics to slow back down to a simmer rather than a rolling boil.

This is Spectacular

ahh, I love Photoshop. That by the way is not my work, but whoever did it did a brilliant job.

Zippidy Zoo Da

I have no idea how to spell that, but if you've seen 'Song of the South' or were even paying attention to life when you were younger you'll know what I'm singing...you know with the blue bird on my shoulder. It's more or less a way for me to convince myself that today was fun :) It began rather harmless with me actually getting up on time, but then falling asleep on the couch, yet waking up with just enough time to get to work (I don't think I've really caught up on sleep from the weekend binge of visiting people and not sleeping much). Work wasn't too bad, but still rather crazy when attempting to handle 4 projects that all are due within a week of each other.

The fun began about 10 minutes before I left work when I realized that I didn't know where my phone was. This is a bit of a problem for me since I have very few people's phone numbers written anywhere, and only Sandor and my parent's memorized. But I thought positively and determined that perhaps I left it at home when I went back to grab lunch. So, after finishing a few things up I headed home to find that in fact my phone was not in my house. I also came home to find that my cat seemed to be attempting to pee all over the house. This is not a normal occurrence, but a disturbing one unless you like the smell of cat pee. Of course my vet was closed at that point and it has to be pretty bad for me to head to an emergency vet, so I figured I would start calling some of the other vets in the area to find out if they had extended hours. Turns out the vet I used to go to when I lived in West Ashley did and they could fit me in, so instead of having a nice relaxing evening at home (the first of those in about 2 weeks) I chased the cat into the cat box and headed across town.

Upon entering the car, I did find my phone which was a step in the right direction. And $146 later I found out that Mishu has a UTI and I need to give her antibiotics for the next 10 days - that should be pretty entertaining seeing as how I still have marks on my legs from her claws when I tried to give her flea meds a few months ago and didn't position her so she could bolt without scratching me in the process. I then found out once I got home that my parent's cat died, which is sad, but she lived a long life so it's ok. And now I'm trying to pay bills without sinking into the very real feeling of 'are we EVER going to get out of debt?'. Oh well, at least we can pay our bills without going into more debt, which at this point is something a lot of people are not able to say.

So, I will end today on a good note (and with a blue bird on my shoulder) purely because I feel it would be a waste of a day to end it badly. After all, I still have all my phone numbers and my grandfather's surgery went well...well enough anyway. A good mood or a bad one is all a choice after all...

C is for Cookie

This week I've been at a 2 day conference and then yesterday had meetings from 8am until 2pm. Needless to say, I'm a little over taking in information and need some time to sit and actually let my brain figure out how to deal with it all. My brain did figure out a few things about how to deal with conferences, however, which up until this point I have been unable to truly accept about myself.

1. Eat the cookies at break time and don't feel bad about it. It is not humane for a person to sit through hours and hours of being talked at without having some sugar to get them through the day. Sandor and I are doing a detox (thus no sugar or starches) so I felt even more guilty about having a cookie than I normally would, but at some point during the day I realized that while there are certainly times in my life where my self restraint is an asset, eating a cookie during a 2 day conference when I know that I'll be a crankypants without it, is really not that time. Therefore I have finally come to terms with the fact that I love cookies and my life will just need to deal with it!

2. Do not feel as though you are wasting your conference fee money by going to talks that don't necessarily have to do with your job, but that you think would be interesting to go to. On Wednesday afternoon the last two talks I attended were first - the tearing down and recycling of the old Cooper River Bridges and second - water response for the tsunami and Katrina. Clearly neither of them have anything to do with my job, but they looked interesting and by the time you get to the end of your second day the talks need to be pretty darn interesting to hold your attention. So, I left the session that had to do with my job and went to those talks, and man was it worth it! It was a nice reminder that saving estuaries, while important, is not the center of the universe - and every one can do with a good dose of reminding they are not the center of the universe...specifically after they have had a cookie and are feeling able to hear that message.

3. Conferences, while useful, need to be taken as nothing more than what they are. Take what you can out of them, don't worry about what you miss, and move on with life! There is always a trade off at this big conferences with concurrent sessions where you feel like you have to be in 3 places at 1 time to get the most out of the day. In the end, you get what you get and you forget the rest, so stop worrying that you are going to forget the important stuff. If it's important enough to remember, you'll remember it (or at least write it in your notes to remember it later).

So, for anyone getting ready to go to a big conference there is my advise, and really the advise probably works just as well for a normal day in life - eat a cookie if you want to, listen to things that are interesting rather than only thing you think relate to your job, and don't worry about missing out on things - there is plenty to catch in this crazy world of ours!

It's Official!

I have officially voted - I dropped my ballot off at the post office today and off it went! I always feel humbled when I vote knowing how blessed we are to live in a country where even voting is taken for granted. I hope that more people start seeing what a privilege we have to live in the United States, and accept the responsibilities that go along with living in our privileged country.

One Crazy Animal

I am FINALLY organizing all the pictures we took on the new camera during the first few months. Sandor went a little out of control, so I am doing some QA/QC work so we don't have 8 million of the same picture with different lighting. This one cracked me up...welcome to the world of living with Kaylinn...this is how she insist on greeting you every day...

On of those days

Today is one of those days where you just want to curl up in bed with your pets and take a nap. Which always reminds me of this picture Sandor took last year that cracks me up. Good luck to all of you who are still trying to motivate yourselves to finish off the week...it's going to be a rough next 2 and a half hours...

Funny Things in Random Places

I am generally not a huge fan of 'King of the Hill' but Sandor watches it every Sunday (in addition to all the other cartoons on Sunday evenings). As I was sitting here tonight checking e-mail I did hear a pretty funny quote however regarding carbon credits. 'It's for people who care about the environment but don't care enough to do anything about it.' It's kinda been my whole view of carbon credits as well. Not that they are not useful, but generally you don't see people using them in addition to actual changes to impact their carbon imprint. You see people use them as 'the way' they deal with their carbon imprint. There is now an entire episode about making their own carbon offsets by planting trees on a random plot of land. So there you go, you can find entertainment anywhere!

And as I was trying to find the exact quote I found the clip of the Saturday Night Live skit on the VP debate. I heard it was pretty good, but man, it's incredible! If you watched the debate you will be laughing out loud. Tina Fey could literally pass as Sarah Palin and the guy who did Biden's description of Scranton is awesome. They also did a great job of making fun of the fact the moderator wrote a book on Obama. Ah, sometimes Saturday Night Live comes back to it's glory days of actual humor.

Sneak Peak of What's to Come

This morning on my bike to work I was a little taken aback by how chilly the breeze is while you are biking. I'm used to running where you wear a long sleeve shirt for the first mile or so and then you are warm enough to sometimes even take that off, but you certainly don't need to wear anything over your shorts unless it is REALLY cold out. Biking is a bit different. You get that breeze from actually riding faster than one would run and so the legs and hands tend to be a little cooler. It seems as though I'm going to need to get some biking pants (and wear my little gloves) now that the mornings are cooling off.

As I was riding I was thinking about the fact that I think a chilly breeze on a bike is cold and in one month I'm going to be leaping into the water in Monterey Bay to go diving in the kelp beds. I'm actually quite excited about it, but being that my poor fingers were cold today I am a little concerned with how well my wimpy body temperature regulator is going to deal with life. After talking to my dad last night I'm also concerned with how much weight I'm going to need to wear. I had to wear 12 pounds when I was diving with nothing but my swimsuit, so I'm probably going to have to wear 40 diving with a 7mm wetsuit. It should be pretty interesting!

But then I think about the fact that I can most certainly suck it up for 45 minutes so that I can see something like this...
Yeah, I think I'll live :)

Rock the Vote

Today I received my absentee ballot, which means that I could technically vote at any moment. Granted it's not going to be counted until November 4, but it's still kinda fun to know I could fill it out tomorrow if I wanted to. I will be in California on election day this year at the NERR annual meeting. I think I'll be surrounded by a bit different world than I would sitting in South Carolina on election day! I have thus far attempted to be unclear about who I'm voting for, not that I don't know, but more to leave you all guessing :)