Full on summer and taper mode

June felt like a busier month than usual, although we didn't leave town like we often do, saving that for the month of July. Busier, I suppose, with work-related obligations which ended once July rolled around and my summer school class ended.  This past week, therefore, presented me with the opportunity to fully appreciate vacation/summer mode, especially with the 4th of July on Thursday.  Summer mode incapsulates many things, but one of the major aspects of summer for me is that there is a large percentage of my closet that I will not have to touch for the next two months.  It's funny because I like to look somewhat "nice" or professional for work, but when I don't have an obligation that moors me in a certain way, I throw all fashion concerns out the window.  The other indication that it's absolutely summer?  I spent all of Monday and Tuesday reading The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, which is not the best book I've read but definitely a great read.  It starts out with a group of friends who meet at summer camp - how much more of a summer book can you get?  I also can't remember the last time that time sort of stopped and I ignored most obligations in order to just read a book.  Okay, maybe it was last summer with the Game of Thrones series.  In June, I sat in on two Shakespeare classes that our English department is offering for the adult population (alumni and parents and, with me, faculty), and while I loved reading The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, I can't see myself picking up Shakespeare on my own this summer!  However, there are plenty of options out there, so I don't think that I'll be bored or lack good reading material.

As my days have opened up, I've hit the metaphorical descent in my training - I'm pretty much coasting from here until, gulp, next Sunday.  I hadn't even thought too much about counting the days down, even though I have read the race program, a 24-or-so page document that includes my start time, at least twice.  Then, this morning, as I was making coffee, I thought "I should be on my bike at this point next week, if all goes well!".  I logged in my final long-ish training day yesterday which might be a bit close to race day, but I'm not scientific in my approach to these sorts of events.  Also, I felt pretty good, especially on the 6-mile run post-ride, which I needed - I was sluggish and 'off' my previous run, so this was nice for a final bric.

It seems a bit premature to talk about training since the point of training, I suppose, is to be ready for race day and who knows how the race will go.  That said, I think that I'm ready for race day, at least at this point, and there certainly isn't anything that I can do now.  As per usual, it was far from being a 'perfect' cycle, and there are a few goals that I had which I totally missed (a 60 mile ride, for instance; hit 400 miles on the bike in June).  However, I have stayed relatively healthy, and after my lovely bout with plantar fasciitis in December and January and then a calf issue in May, I don't consider that a mean feat (I was just tempted to make a bad pun about plantar fasciitis and mean feet - ha ha).  So, even if I don't perform as well as I would in an ideal world next weekend, I am quite grateful that I've made the workouts that I wanted and intended to make and that I've enjoyed most of the training!  Fingers crossed that I don't come down with a weird summer cold or something else.  Barring that, I should be good to go next week!

And the other training goals that I did not hit - more strength training and better nutrition.  One of these days, I do hope to incorporate agility and strength training into my repertoire, but it clearly did not happen this time around.  And nutrition?  Well, nutrition while training has held up, and I haven't had any terrible moments this year like I did last when I didn't eat soon enough post-workout.  However, I did sort of hope to make better decisions at other points during the day/week - you know, lay off the ice cream, eat a few less chips, drink more water and less beer/wine/margaritas.  With the exception of the alcohol, I've felt like quite an adolescent (or who knows - plenty of adolescents do imbibe, so maybe I should include alcohol as part of the adolescent diet), eating less-than-ideal food stuffs.  Perhaps the low point was Monday when I ate two servings of ice cream in the afternoon.  Oh, and when I ordered guacamole fries the other day, intrigued by the name, only to find out that they are fries with a huge blob of guacamole on top.  Definitely not the healthiest option.  Ah, well, win some, lose some.

In the meantime, we (or I) are starting to prep for our trip.  I am looking forward to Sonoma - this is our first time to that part of the world, and I can't wait to hit the road this week as we head north to San Francisco and then on to Guerneville!

Signs of summer

June, graduation, final meetings - all of these signal that it's summertime!  Plus, almost right on schedule, June gloom arrived in the Southern CA area.  It wasn't quite June 1st, but when I went out for a long run Sunday morning, the day was still quite gray and gloomy - ideal!  May seemed like a warmer-than-usual-month, with fires already breaking out in different parts, and I was skeptical that June would bring about the usual weather 'system', but it did, and I'm not complaining about the cooler mornings.

I have tried to already take advantage of the change of pace - Michael and I took Monday afternoon to go to LACMA and enjoy our membership there.  We saw lots of German Expressionism which could have been quite depressing, but we mixed in some late 19th/early 20th Century American painting and a Matisse cut-out exhibit.  By the time we returned  to the east side, it was the afternoon, but not yet evening, so we hit up The York, for a small but potent margarita.  Drinks on a Monday?  Yes, please!

Food-wise, we're enjoying a somewhat different menu with summer fruit and veggies, and I've already enjoyed being at home for lunch.  After less-than-responsible eating in April and May, both nutritionally and financially, I'm making a push to cook more.  This week has so far been quite the success with a white, veggie lasagna on Monday and a fresh corn salad with a cilantro lime dressing (recipe for the dressing is here - we cut down on the oil; we'll definitely be making this again!) last night, and some peach and blueberry scones today.  Not so successful is the plan to drink less beer/wine and eat less ice cream.  It is summer, after all!

After a few months of pretty lame entertainment, of both the reading and viewing variety, I'd like to be more deliberate in my choices over the summer.  It's sheer laziness that I haven't pushed myself to read or watch interesting books or movies lately.  Thanks to Michael's insistence that we watch Chinatown (again), I read a few commentaries about the last line of the movie ("Forget it, Jake; it's Chinatown").  Apparently, some people think that it connects to the death of Polanski's wife, so I started reading about that, which then led me to pick up Helter Skelter, which I'm currently reading (okay, not a great intellectual oeuvre but it's fascinating to learn about LA in the 60's and who doesn't enjoy reading about cults).  And all of this prompted us to watch Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired last night, which was an interesting documentary, to say the least.

Other plans for the summer include a trip to the Hollywood Bowl, finally, and plenty of hiking and biking, road tripping, reading, beach walking, hitting up a few more museums, cooking, napping, and training.  Not necessarily in that order.

Summer 2013, I'm ready for you!

A few notes on June

Life has slowed down to a fairly luxurious pace these days. My main question of the day is: do I swim before the water polo team practices or after? Usually it's after, which explains the lovely tan-line that is developing, despite my efforts to remain as pale as I possibly can (and that is pale!). Also, after weeks of procrastination, Michael and I got our butts back on the saddle after a month-long hiatus from biking (we do not cycle; we bike). The good news is that the Angeles Crest Highway finally re-opened after a massive mudslide dramatically closed it off about 15 months ago or so. After a bazillion dollars in repair, it's now a great place to bike, if you can handle the crazy elevation gain and the equally crazy descent. And sharing a fairly narrow road with lots of traffic. No super crazy rides for us - but we did gain something like 2,000 feet in 5 miles. That was painful on the bike!

A few other highlights these days:

- Gus is wearing the cone of shame which we find very entertaining! I know that we shouldn't, and we are mainly thankful that he has made such a great recovery. He started to lick the stitches and on Sunday, we noticed that two of them had come out. So, we 'coned' him. He doesn't seem to mind the cone as much as we thought that he would, but he does run into walls and eating is more of a challenge than he would like. He should get the stitches out on Friday, and then he will be a 'free man', more or less.

- I have enjoyed some pleasure reading these days, although I really need to crack a few more challenging books this summer to stimulate my brain cells. However, I would definitely recommend Just Kids by Patti Smith, This Is Water by David Foster Wallace, The Private Patient by PD James and am currently reading Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carré.

- Along the same lines, Michael and I are watching movies rather than TV shows (although we do watch an episode of Law & Order once a day thanks to our DVR). A few notable movies we've seen recently: Mother (not to be confused with a 1996 Albert Brooks film), is a Korean suspense thriller that was sharp, intense and quite bizarre at times; Flame and Citron, a movie about the Danish Resistance during World War II which was good but definitely not great and seemed to want to be a gangster movie at times; Dr. Zhivago, which definitely fits into the "epic" category, all 3 hours and 20 minutes of its sad, sad story; and last but not least, Barton Fink, a movie that I probably haven't seen in 18 years or something ridiculous like that and that I should watch at least once a year now that I live in the LA area. It is SUCH a great movie! Best Coen Brothers' movie? I'm still a sucker for Miller's Crossing, but this one might actually trump it.

- We enjoyed another weeknight out on the town with a family friend who also works in the "Independent School World". We ate mediocre Thai food and swapped lots of shop talk. There are times when I fantasize about quitting my job, but then these moments make me wonder if I could ever enjoy anything as much as working with teenagers, school curriculum and program development and talking about crazy colleagues!

- Mentally packing for our trip to the East Coast! We leave next week for a bit of a whirlwind tour of DC, NYC and Rhode Island. I am mixing business and pleasure as I do have a workshop to attend in Delaware, but we also plan to spend time with family and friends and enjoy the urban chaos of NYC and the peaceful sleepiness of a small Rhode Island beachfront town.

Final book reviews of the year!

I believe that one of my random 'goals' for 2010 was to read more. While it's uncertain that I read more than in 2009, I will say that I read some very high-quality books, in addition to a few totally crappy quick reads. I won't mention the crappy reads, which I consider to be junk food for the brain that normally come out during long airplane trips or family visits. I did finish strong, so I'll give myself credit for that.

The most recent reads are:

Americans in Paris by Charles Glass.

My uncle recommended this book to me, and I'm not much of a history buff, don't spend hours watching the History Channel, but this sounded fascinating. It's about the American community that lived in Paris during the Nazi occupation. There were moments of great sacrifice and selfishness, heroism and treachery. All in all, a very interesting book. It did take me months (literally) to finish it - I think that I started it in October and finally finished it up over Christmas break. Shew!

Then came a quick read: The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.

This book was SO GOOD. I know that I've said that about a multitude of books this year (okay, a handful, the handful that I've read), but seriously, there was so much to like about it. Funny at times, devastating yet restrained at other, it seemed to reflect the entire range of human emotions and experiences in it's slim 200+ pages. I loved the structure, which made it not seem like a novel in some ways, more like stories connected, but then very much novelistic in others. And the end? I cried. I was so sad that it ended. Very few books that I've recently read pulled my emotional cord, and this one did, but without manipulating or contriving. It was a brilliant, funny, sad book.

Finally, I, Claudius by Robert Graves.

I read this book years and years ago and very much enjoyed it then. Michael and I have been watching the HBO series Rome, so I gave this book to Michael for his birthday. He took it with us to Colorado, and I ended up reading it on trip back. It is filled with intrigue, politics, war, perversion... All of those fun aspects of the Roman Empire that historical fiction can bring to light. Graves slyly plays with history, fiction and narrative, and he writes quite well too. I've now sworn to Michael that I won't read Claudius the God until he reads this one. We'll see if I keep my promise!

Just to recap a few old favorites that I read this year:

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead - Definitely one of the most original novels that I've read in recent years.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clark - Billed as "Harry Potter for adults", it's actually much, much more. A fun, wonderful read.

Travels with my Aunt and The Quiet American by Graham Greene - Both are REALLY well-written books that seem to catalogue a different era and generation, and the melancholy and nostalgia of growing old. Mixing in politics and intrigue, they make for satisfying reading.

Next on the list: Some Mario Vargas Llosa. I have a book in Spanish and one in English, so I'll work through both of them in the new year and refresh my Vargas Llosa base. I'd also like to read Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler which looks marvelous.

Siren song of summer

Source

There are unequivocal signs that summer is waning (has waned?), you know, small details such as going back to work, procrastinating and not grading students' weak analytical essays, but it isn't officially the end of summer. Almost, I know, but it seemed like a good opportunity to give one last, dying shout-out to summer months. Friday night's "adventure" has inspired this, and I finished my last summer book last week. These are the final nails in summer's coffin, I suppose.

Not to be too morose, because summer has gone out with a bang. On Thursday night, a friend called and asked what we were doing on Friday. Not much, since my preferred Friday night involves a lazy and an early evening. She, however, offered us tickets to a Dodgers' game, and since we hadn't gone to a game since June '09, it seemed like an opportunity that I/we couldn't refuse. By 6:00 pm on Friday night, I was regretting my decision - Netflix and my bed both called to me. However, a commitment is a commitment.

It ended up being a fabulous experience, of course! First of all, it was fun to go with our friends, and I always forget how much I love attending baseball games. While I'm not much of a baseball fan, the experience at the ballpark is definitely unique and the energy in the crowd is contagious. I may be a bit partial, but I do think that it's a treat to go Dodger Stadium, which is old-school. Plus, I love the palm trees that are all around it! The added plus for us on Friday was that these tickets were crazy, amazing seats! I've never experienced such an "up close and personal view" of a sporting event. We were right by the Colorado Rockies' dugout, and the players were 20 feet away from us! Finally, the food... When isn't food a part of the baseball experience? I'm not a huge "Dodger Dog" fan, but the spread to which we had access was definitely NOT 'regular' baseball food, and Michael and I must have had a bite of everything! We ended the evening in a food coma, a bit sad that the Dodgers lost, but very happy to have shared the entire experience with good friends. We also decided that we must remember to attend at least one baseball game every year!

And now, summer reading. It wasn't, to be honest, a very reading-heavy summer for me. Perhaps the Internet has eroded my ability to focus on longer texts? I doubt it, but it seemed like a lackluster summer reading-wise. That said, I did enjoy the books that I read, and there was a trend amongst them - travel and adventure. Ha! It was completely unintentional, but perhaps some unconscious, 'id', part of my psychic apparatus dictated this connection?

A few highlights:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke. I must say that I was quite envious of her when I finished this book. It was SO good! I had started it years ago, when it was toted as "Harry Potter for adults". While it does involve magic, it is so much more! That was a fun read.

Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. My parents gave me this book which I then left for my fried Sara in Paris. Not the "best" book I've ever read, but it was an entertaining read. Part personal reflection/experience on running, part treatise on running, part science, and a great chronicle of adventure and athleticism and some amazing athletes, this book did make me want to run an ultra-marathon. I have yet to do that, however!

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. A memoir about attending the Cordon Bleu in Paris. It was a quick read after our trip, and I wanted to enjoy it, but I felt that it lacked much substance. The stories/experiences shared were quick, and I somewhat identified with the writer, but it was a poorly-written book. It actually annoyed me that she was/is a professional writer and could be so lazy in her writing.

Travels with My Aunt by Graham Greene. I thought that I had read this book years ago (like 15 years ago), but my memory of the book differed starkly from my experience of reading it this time. Funny how that happens. I thought that it was a bit more light-hearted, but I found it much darker this time. It was, however, a good read, full of surprises, and Greene is an excellent writer. I'll actually leave it at that.

And, while the siren song of summer calls to me now, I absolutely MUST grade these papers!