I have been hired by Accountemps for a long-term temp job, at least six months and maybe more! The job starts Monday.
This past two weeks has been a weird case of either Murphy's Law, or "It never rains but it pours", because I was at the end of a week's training with Vermont Teddy Bear when Accountemps called me. The VTB job is in the call center, and was to be only for Christmas season, so it wasn't a BIG deal, but it's still weird ... I went from having no employment for 3 months to having too many jobs. At the same time, I was starting training for the tax job I had planned to take in January. I'm still hoping, if I can find time, to fit in that training and do a few tax returns for them.
So, I work my last shift at Teddy Bear tomorrow, and so today, I have to make sure I've picked out all the gifts I want to get with my employee discount. :)
The opening got started a little late. I think that, because of the insane traffic, they held the start time back to let more walkers get there. I was enjoying playing with my cell phone, sending tweets to entertain my fans. I filmed various snippets of the Opening Ceremony, and sent one via email to Jay, who reposted it to Facebook. From the timestamp on my phone, I estimate that opening was over by 7:05.
However, SOMETHING happened…I heard that someone ‘collapsed’, I don’t know for sure, but an ambulance had to get in and out of the crowd, and had to depart into Plano morning traffic. As a result, we (by which I mean myself and the people standing in my immediate vicinity) had to stand around for about 25 minutes after the ceremony had finished, before starting to walk the route. So we got on the route about 7:30…40 minutes after the walk had officially started. We were pretty much the last people in the crowd. Worse, most of the day’s walk was on narrow routes where nobody could go very fast; the crowd didn’t spread out, and it was nearly impossible to pass.
Not that it’s a race, or anything… but it was really frustrating, having trained for months to walk at a pace of about 3.5 miles per hour and expecting to walk the route in 6 to 7 hours, but still being on the route after 9 hours because I had to shuffle along at 2.5 a lot of the time.
But I shouldn’t be so negative. There were a lot of GREAT things about the first day. To start with, the elementary schools on the route: They apparently planned for us, and when the 3-Day walked by, HUNDREDS of kids turned out to give us high fives and cheer us on! I know we had passed two by 8:30 and I’m not sure how many others we passed.
An elementary school that came out to cheer us on.
I am walking around slowly and marveling at the size of this whole thing. This is my THIRD 3-Day, but it’s my FIRST opening. The first one, I was crewing in Boston, and we spent opening in our crew van, either stuck in traffic or stuck in the mud! The second one was Philadelphia, and you know what happened – there was so much weather that they cancelled the first two days, so, no opening!
The 3-Day staff puts up these banners, I think mainly so that people have a place to pose for the milestones of the event. I get someone to photograph me at 'Opening Ceremony.'
Mom did find me before opening, but she blinked in every picture, so, no snaps of her.
I’m writing a sort of stream-of-consciousness travelogue of my experience of the Dallas Breast Cancer 3-Day, Nov. 6-8, 2009. I’m going to post my notes in chunks, but the dateline should be three weeks ago.
11/06/09 DAY 1. Opening ceremony is at 6:30, so I’ve told Mom we should leave at 5 to drive to Plano. Alarm at 4. Left a little later than 5, but the trip to Plano didn’t take too long. But when we get to Plano exit, OMG, never seen such a long line of cars. We eventually get there, I drop off bag, Mom goes to park. She’s staying for the opening, but I’m thinking she’ll never find me in all this mob.
Me before leaving Grandfather's house in Dallas
The gear trucks: I have to drop my bag off at 'N'
A member of the Road Safety crew, directing the traffic dropping off walkers.
I can't believe it's been a week and a half since the 3-Day.
One of these days, I really hope to get some impressions about it written down. For now, I'll just say: It was great. I walked almost all of it, though I rode the sweep van/bus 3 times, for about 6 miles altogether.
I will not be staying in a hotel. My mom is flying down to Dallas, too, and we'll be staying probably at my grandfather's house. Mom is going to get up with me at oh-dark-thirty on Friday to take me to the opening in Plano.
Training: After Philly got washed out, I didn't train for about two weeks. But when I decided I'd be doing this, I got back on the 3-Day website, downloaded the suggested training schedule, and have been following it. Friday, I did yoga. Saturday, there was rain predicted, so Jay & I went to the gym and I walked 8 miles on the track (while he did 10).
Yesterday, Jay had decided to walk 45 MILES to make up for the missed miles of the Philly 3-Day. So he got up really early, started walking around 4, walked 22.5 miles and then turned back. I met him in Williston for the final ten miles. My entire walk was after dark, and we got home around 9. I'm fine, but Jay is hurting today, I think.
Today, the training schedule says Rest. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to do an easy 5 miles. Wednesday it says 30-minute cross train -- and Wednesday, I fly to Dallas. Thursday, it's Rest again. And Friday, I walk!!!!
Short version of this post: I will be walking the Dallas/Fort Worth Breast Cancer 3-Day in a week!!
Long version:
This year I TRIED to walk the Philadelphia 3-Day (60 miles over 3 days to raise funds for breast cancer research), but was only able to do the third day because the first two days were called off due to horrible rainy cold gusty weather. Incredibly depressing to walk hundreds of miles of training walks and then only get to do a very abbreviated one-day event. :(
The organizers of the 3-Day knew how crushed we all were and offered the opportunity to walk any remaining 2009 event if we could get there -- no additional fund-raising required. Unfortunately, that "if we could get there", combined with work and lack of additional vacation and stuff, is going to keep most people from moving on to another event.
But I'm unemployed, so that, at least, gives me the freedom to make last-minute travel plans. At the very last minute -- TONIGHT -- I decided to take advantage of the offer and go down to Dallas IN ONE WEEK to walk. The Dallas walk starts Friday, November 6 and finishes Sunday, November 8.
I called tonight, minutes before the coaches' office closed, and got the ball rolling, but won't be 'official' until tomorrow, probably. My husband Jay got me a pretty decent price on a ticket to Dallas via Priceline, so that's all set.
I've got dozens of people in Dallas ... aunts and uncles and cousins and grandfather ... who will hopefully be able to give me lodging before and after, rides to the airport, rides to the opening and back from the closing. (And maybe they'll even come to the route to cheer for me -- but I know they have other things going on.) My mom might even fly down from Ohio to be there for me. I'm hoping to find people via the message boards on the 3-Day website to walk with on the event. I'll be camping with whatever other unmatched female walker the 3-Day finds for me. Now let's just hope the weather is fine!
I'm really looking forward to this -- my husband, who walked DC last year and crewed Boston with me this year, kept telling me how incredible it'll feel to be able to say that I walked sixty miles and how incredible the event will be, period. And after hundreds of miles of training walks, I didn't GET that -- darn weather! I want to cross that finish line for real.
It's a gloomy, gloomy day. Raining hard, and so dark it looks like a tropical storm outside.
Seeing (and hearing) the rain reminded me of the leak from the roof down our chimney, and I decided to vacuum around the chimney in our living room. The chimney is plain concrete, and it's enclosed in a closet of tongue-in-groove boards, the same material used in the ceiling of that room. I knew that mice get around in there, and I knew there were piles of chewed fiber (insulation or drywall, I don't know) in the closet, so I got the vacuum and its attachments and went at it.
Forecast is rain all afternoon, and I have to go pick up my bicycle from the bike shop. I guess I'll cover it with a large garbage bag to keep it from getting wet. Anybody know how much damage rain does to your bike? I don't know how to clean and lube it myself, that's why it's at the bike shop in the first place.
Did I mention here that I had a good interview a couple weeks back? Well, result was disappointment. The job went to another person because she had specific experience with their payroll system, which was SAP. But they were very polite and professional about the whole thing. The HR guy was really nice about keeping me informed while they made their decision.
Oh well. Fifth month of unemployment now. it's the economy, stupid.
Jun. 18th, 2009 @ 01:14 pm
Our neighbors keep chickens, and today about a dozen of them came up the hill through the woods to our yard while we were out doing yardwork. We went down to their house to tell them, but they weren't home. We sure as heck didn't know how to catch them and get them home, so I was heading over to tell another neighbor about it and ask what to do, and Jay had gone back to our yard, when suddenly I noticed that the chicken coop's door was propped open. Apparently it was okay for the chickens to be out, they'd just never sauntered our way before (that we'd noticed).
As I was heading back up to our house to tell Jay about the coop door, I rounded the corner to our driveway and met an astonishing sight: Jay marching down the driveway clutching a chicken in both hands, with two or three others clucking around his heels. The chicken was so still I thought it was dead for a minute, but apparently, that's just how they react to being picked up. Jay passed me heading for the neighbor's yard, and I tried to herd a few of the stragglers, but they wouldn't be herded, so finally I picked one up, and yes, it went completely still in my hands. It felt to me like it was relaxed, not terrified. Apparently these hens are as tame as dogs, and being picked up and carried feels perfectly safe to them. Huh.
So I guess I'll have to add "chicken wrangler" to my resume.
This came at the very end of the evening -- Jay had bicycled 20 miles, crossing the river in the south to north direction 3 times, and just barely made it to the ferry for the second to last trip of the day at 8 pm. I was *tired* -- maybe that's why I was using the canopy to support myself -- just had one more trip back to do and then I could join Jay on the north bank where he was waiting, camera in hand.
May. 23rd, 2009 @ 02:06 am
Jay took this tonight while I was volunteering as a deckhand on the 6-8 shift. The big jolt at the end is the result of him backing up and forgetting there was a step behind him.
May. 23rd, 2009 @ 02:06 am
I have a Google news alert on the phrase "sea otter." Today I got this from the San Diego CityBeat:
"The live sea creature that I do find amazingly delectable is the sea urchin, whose prehistoric-looking spiny shell protects five lobes of gonads—yes, the sex organs. Sea otters and humans alike are attracted to their sweet, creamy flavor and delicate texture that melts on your tongue; it kind of feels and tastes like you’re making out with the ocean."
Hmm. Despite my pretending to be a sea otter, I've never eaten sea urchin. Or abalone, for that matter.
We didn't do much today. Got up, went to church at a United Methodist church a couple towns over where we've attended services about 3 times before. (We are "unchurched", which means without a church home, at the moment, for reasons too lengthy to discuss here.) Afterward, drove around for awhile, then went to a brunch buffet at Butler's, one of the training restaurants of NECI (New England Culinary Institute). They put on a good spread, but I guess I'm getting jaded, having attended it too many times in recent years. I better think of something new to do for Thanksgiving.
Afterward, we came home and went food coma.
I used to be very into assembling Easter baskets, coloring eggs, sometimes even having an egg hunt with The Lemur, aka hubby. Didn't bother this year. I guess you have to grow up sometime. :S
But that ain't the point of the holiday, anyway. Christ is risen, y'all!
Apr. 12th, 2009 @ 07:27 pm
Yesterday I went to the Green Mountain Club headquarters and took an all-day workshop in map & compass reading. It was fun and informative.
I was kind of bored for the first two hours, when we were just looking at maps (mostly topo) and learning how to read them. I already know that pretty well. But when we got to compasses, I immediately learned something important: the function of the little metal wodget on the compass cord. It's a micro-screwdriver to adjust the compass for local magnetic declination! (Geogeeks will understand. If anyone else wants to know, ask & I'll expand in the comments.)
Then when we got outside, it really got interesting. There must be more than one way to navigate with map & compass, but it helped a lot to learn a sequence of actions: Orient the map. Take bearing on map between where you are & desired destination. Follow that bearing. Look for map features on the ground as you go.
It was a good balance between a science and an art, left- and right-brain activity. Fun! I'm hoping to do some more orienteering some time.
Apr. 12th, 2009 @ 07:06 pm
I took the day off from my part-time job at the Census yesterday to go to a seminar/training day called the "REVIVE! Development Retreat." It was a day of talks about resumes, interviews, and how to get in touch with your vision, reduce stress, etc. Sounds corny, but it was free, so I wasn't about to turn it down. I heard about it from a recruiting firm I'm registered with.
The hosting group was Dale Carnegie Training. I've been a fan of Dale Carnegie since I read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" as a teenager. I think Carnegie had the gift of saying things that were really obviously true about people, but saying them in a way the reader might never have thought of before. I guess that's what any really good self-help book does -- it tells you things you already know, but hadn't realized you knew.
Anyway, the Dale Carnegie speaker was really inspiring; she started the day with a talk about Renewing your Vision. Next we had another speaker talking about networking; she emphasized developing your "elevator speech", and I think I got the idea how to do it. Then the Carnegie speaker again on Interview Attitude. She gave a lot of good ideas how to get psyched when you're on the spot. I also realized I have a LOT of work to do on interviews, figuring out the answers to all the hard questions.
The final speaker of the day was Steve Taubman, a guy who's a bit of a local celebrity, having done stage hypnotism shows around the area for years. It appears he's reinventing himself as a motivational speaker. He's also written a self-help book called "Unhypnosis," based on the idea that we've all been hypnotized by our wrong beliefs since childhood. I was fairly impressed. He's a bit too obviously "canned", working from memory and not connecting with the audience as much as he should, but he's still new at this. He's got some good ideas. He does some of the "restating the obvious" like Dale Carnegie, but he also synthesizes a lot of ideas from religion, philosophy, etc. He's self-made, and I think he shows by example how other people can be.
By end of day, I was wondering who had paid for this whole shebang. It had been free to us, so I figured it was supported by the state or something. Turns out, everyone speaking gave their time for free; the space was free; Green Mountain Coffee even brought in java for free. All donated. What a wonderful gift! There were about 50 people there, I think 90% laid off, the others just thinking about looking. I got some inspiration out of the day. I bet other people did too.
Thank you, Dale Carnegie Training, Steve Taubman, et al. It was a great day.
Apr. 8th, 2009 @ 10:20 pm
Distance: 11.1 miles Time: 4 hours Shoes: Brooks walkers with Superfeet insoles Pack: Camelbak Ventoux (3L water)
On Friday, April 3, Jay took the day off work, and I was done at the Census office at 1 pm, so we planned to do a major training walk, despite a forecast of torrential rain. Originally, the plan was to walk home from the Census office, which Jay had done by himself on an earlier occasion. However, he must have decided it would be boring to walk the same route again, because when he picked me up at work, he just started driving and wouldn't tell me where to.
We eventually arrived and parked in Waterbury, a town about 10 miles east of our house (and home of the Ben & Jerry's factory). Vermont State Route 2 goes directly from Waterbury to our house, following the path of the Winooski River. But it's a major road and fairly busy. So, we walked on the other side of the river, on a minor road called River Road in Waterbury and Duxbury Road in Richmond, and unpaved for about half (or more) of that span.
We started walking from Waterbury at about 2:30. The predicted rain hadn't fallen yet, but it was overcast, and we knew it might come anytime. We were lucky, though ... it held off until we were almost home. I don't think I would have been a happy camper if I had gotten soaked. I had an extra warm shirt in my pack, but it could've gotten wet and then I would NOT have been happy. I should plan a little better. My big problem with heat regulation is that if I wear the warm stuff, I get really overheated and then I lose my energy, but sometimes it's hard to put on the warm things when you need them. Well, most of the time while I'm training, it will be warmer & that won't be such a worry.
Mostly, it was a pretty nice, relaxing walk, though in the second half, my feet started to hurt an awful lot. Happily, I didn't blister. The rain held off until about the last mile of our walk, and it didn't cut loose then, just sprinkled us. (We got the torrents later that night.) We were really hustling, that last mile -- just hoping to beat the rain, and fighting footsoreness, both of us. Jay raised some really huge blisters on his toes. But, we got home before 6:30 -- about 4 hours for 11.1 miles. My longest walk yet! I'll be doing 20 miles in no time, I'm sure. ;-)
On Saturday, March 21, it rained cats and dogs. We went to the gym and I did yoga while Jay walked the track. Afterward, we went shoe shopping. That was interesting, because I've never been "professionally" fitted for a pair of athletic shoes before. We went to a store called Fleet Feet, which, although a franchise, has really thorough training for its sales staff. They learn about how to diagnose your gait, whether you over-pronate or -supinate, and what kind of shoes you need to compensate. And they put you on a treadmill to watch how you actually walk. I wound up with a pair of Brooks shoes. They cost more than I've ever paid for athletic shoes before, but as Jay was saying, these shoes will change my life. (Walking hundreds of miles to train for 60 miles in three days, you know.)
On Saturday, March 28, we took our first training walk. Leaving one car at the Park & Ride near the interstate, 4.8 miles from our house, we walked home. It wasn't terribly hard -- after all, I've walked that far before. I didn't stretch at the very beginning, but I stopped and stretched a few times on the way, usually when my feet had started to hurt. It helped, even helped right away. The super shoes got their first major use.
On the way home, we passed a neighbor's house who has two donkeys, a camel, a goat, chickens, and a dog. We greeted the critters, but didn't have anything to share with them at the time. After we got home and cleaned up a little, we grabbed a bunch of old carrots from the fridge, jumped in the car, and went back to feed the hoofed beasts. The donkeys snubbed us (wouldn't come over) but the camel, Otis, and the goat, Nicky, enjoyed the snack.
Below: Jay says hello to Otis the camel during our walk.
Otis gives me a kiss, during our walk.
I forgot to mention the hat. That was also acquired during our Fleet Feet outfitting trip. Not only is it Day-Glo, it also has a flashing light on the back for nighttime. :)
We're both signed up to walk the Philadelphia Breast Cancer 3-Day in October (and we're going to serve as support crew for the Boston 3-Day in July) and we both have to raise at least $2,300. Counting matching gifts from Jay's employer that will be released in a couple of months, he's over his minimum -- being notorious on the Net and being shamelessly self-promoting can have advantages. I'm stuck at $500 so far (and that'll be matched by Jay's employer too) because I'm really just getting started and haven't done much to spread the word. It doesn't help that I don't have any co-workers to hit up for donations... yes, I'm still unemployed. I feel a bit jealous of how fast Jay raced to his minimum. It's my competitive instinct coming out, I guess. Jay says that's not wrong, that it's okay to be competitive, and furthermore, he says that now that he's exceeded his minimum he'll try to point any further donors toward my donation link (http://www.the3day.org/goto/carole) instead. But still, I'd rather not ride on his coattails -- I'd like to think of zany, amusing things I can do myself to get the word out and hopefully raise the remaining $1,300 I need to get to my minimum.
Does anyone have any ideas, maybe things that you've seen friends or family or co-workers do for similar events? Suggestions and ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Today I joined in a conference call run by the 3-Day people, called a Get Started Meeting. It's an introduction to the whole 3-Day experience, tips about fundraising, training, etc.
I found it surprisingly inspiring. Why surprising? I guess I don't expect canned stuff to touch me, emotionally. But even if the script for the meeting is canned, it's sincere.
Apr. 6th, 2009 @ 10:15 pm
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caroleotter's journal
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