A Trip Across America

I’m a geek who really likes maps. If I lived in the days of Lewis and Clark, I’d like to think that I could have gone along with them to help them make maps of the American Frontier (if I’d been a man - since I’d be useless as a guide like Sacajawea). I play around with Google Maps and Google Earth all the time. Lately, I’ve been sucked into the vortex that is Gmaps Pedometer. Basically, it is an online program to map out a route of your choosing. I know people who have used it for running courses. I’ve used it to figure the mileage of my normal dog walk route (sadly, it’s much shorter than I’d imagined). In the past few days, I’ve utilized their topo maps to figure out how far The Boyfriend and I have kayaked, since there aren’t exactly mile markers on creeks.

So far, we’ve gone 17.92 miles in 3 trips. That’s an average of 5.97 miles per trip. I’m not sure how exact Gmaps Pedometer is, but mileage is a man-made, relative means of measurement, anyway. I like the relativity of it all. However, I envision how far each mile is in terms of roads. It’s easier for me, that way. I thought it would be interesting to log the number of miles that we are on the water, this summer. In order to have a visual representation, I’m using Gmaps Pedometer to chart our cumulative course across America. You can follow our course, here.

We started at Santa Monica Pier. I think Forrest Gump ran there, too. From there, we’re headed to the Statue of Liberty in New York City. So far, though, we aren’t out of Los Angeles. We have, however, passed some important landmarks. There are lots of things named “Westside” so-and-so. Is this the Westside of ’90s rap fame? I think so, because around mile 10, I see Crenshaw Boulevard. Cool. I love ’90s rap. Around mile 14, we come very close to The Staples Center. Lots of famous people hang out there to watch the Lakers play. I’d like to sit next to Spike Lee or Jack Nicholson, but I’m not so big on watching Kobe play. I’m not a fan of his, or of the NBA. Sitting at the almost-18 mile marker, we’re getting ready to pass the Golden State Highway.

Personally, I’m glad we’re kayaking this thing. There’s no way I could drive or be a passenger on the LA freeways.

Whirlwind Weekend

The weekend past was one of those where I feel like I never got to just sit down and relax. That’s not to say it wasn’t a lot of fun, but still…you know what I mean?

After work on Friday, The Boyfriend and I cleaned and cleaned, and then we cleaned some more. I went to the grocery and got the makings for the Fabulous Haw-Asian Dinner I was serving on Saturday. I did all the prep for that, showered, and fell into bed, immediately asleep, around 10 o’clock. I can’t even recall what I ate for dinner that night. Oh, yes. Frozen pizza.

Saturday was a wake-up-bright-and-early-with-anticipation day. We were going kayaking with some coworkers, and it was to be their first time on the water. Preparing two people for a day-long trip on the water is surprisingly more complicated than it sounds. I wonder if we take too much stuff with us. After finishing the prep for dinner, I helped The Boyfriend pack all of our gear and load the boats into the truck. Admittedly, he did a whole lot more of the work than I did.

On the trip, I got to test out some new gear:

• A new gel seat, since my boat only has a plastic molded one. Thumbs up on the Skwoosh.
• A new first aid kit. The last one was bought for camping at the Super Huge Discount Superstore of Evil and turned out to not be waterproof. This one is in a dry bag and will hopefully stand the test of my many capsizes. We didn’t need the first aid kit, which is a mystery but a good one.
• A new waterproof (really, I mean it this time) bag for important things like my ID, my phone, and The Boyfriend’s camera (which we still double-bagged because we weren’t trusting of the waterproof claim). It really is waterproof. That bag rocks.
• A locking carabiner, which was totally cool and useful for securing the bag mentioned above. I was worried that a regular carabiner might come undone, somehow and my important good s would be lost. I’m paranoid about losing my phone and afraid that The Boyfriend would seriously maim me for losing his camera, so I liked the locking aspect of this carabiner.
• A paddle leash that proved to be worth the $16 price that I thought was pretty steep. Couldn’t I just make this thing? Probably not. It features a hook-and-eye strap on each end of a coiled length of cord. One strap attaches to your paddle, the other to your wrist or boat. I didn’t like it attached to my wrist, so I strapped it to my boat, and now, I don’t have to worry about a floating-off paddle.
• A new paddle. It rocks my old paddle out of the water. The paddles are scooped, which allows the paddler to move more water with the same stroke. My old paddle sported flat ends and I wasn’t a fan. Good thing that one was free. Now, we have a spare paddle.
• A Camelbak water bottle. PBA-free. I’m glad to find that out via the Camelbak website. I worried about the #7 recycle symbol because it was the same as the Nalgene bottles, which aren’t PBA-free. It’s easier to drink from than a Nalgene (since you don’t have to unscrew the lid). I also like the harder carrying loop it sports.
• S-shaped, double opening carabiner. This was an awesome way to attach the water bottle to my seat gusset. I struggle with opening carabiners on the fly because I’m just challenged, that way. This one had two openings, so I could always get it quickly for a sip.

Good, Lord. That’s a lot of new gear. New for next week will be a pair of shorts that tries much harder to stay dry. Next challenge? Keeping water out of the bottom of my boat. Also (and how excited am I about this?) - new shoes! The water shoes I bought were cheapies. Frankly, they sucked. Yeah, they were fine to get wet, but they provided no cushion or structure against walking on the rocks and shore. I also blame them for the busted knee I got when I slipped on a rock. The new ones are fancy schmancy L.L. Beans and are a LOT like the expensive Keen’s I covet.

Ok, back on track with the weekend. After we kayaked about 12 miles, everyone headed back to be annoyed by our dogs, drink a couple of beers, and eat dinner. All parties were nearly falling asleep in their salads. As soon as our guests left and showers were taken, we were sleeping like babies.

The Boyfriend made pancakes, at my request, on Sunday morning. Even though I had to go to the store twice, dressed like a bum, under threat of severe weather, they were worth it. His pancakes are awesome. I went to my mom’s house to spend the day with her. She liked the gift, I think. We drove around the countryside, trying to find the Wildlife Sanctuary, but it was raining by the time we got there. No bird watching for us. Maybe another day. We did go watch some fish, though. We watched it go from the plates to our mouths, held by chopsticks. Sushi, baby! We ate until we were pleasantly stuffed, one more piece and we’d have been miserable. Then, it was back to her house to organize her scrapbooking equipment. She has a room that’s dedicated to that and toys. She’s got a TON of stuff. We didn’t make much headway, but we made some and sort of have a plan for the future. Dinner with the ‘rents and The Boyfriend rounded out the weekend.

This morning, back to the grind. I need another day of weekend!

Mother’s Day

Of course, today is Mother’s Day. It’s probably a happy day for most people. However, I can’t help but thinking that it’s got to be incredibly sad for some people, too. I normally go with my mom to Mass, because it makes her happy. When I was younger, they had all the moms stand up and everyone clapped for them. I remember thinking that clapping during Mass was a big deal. What I didn’t realize, though, were the people silently shedding tears over the recent loss of a mother, the realization that they could no longer celebrate Mother’s Day in the traditional sense. I also didn’t realize, as an ignorant kid, that not all women who didn’t have children weren’t necessarily happy about that arrangement. Now, though, I understand. It’s got to be heart-wrenching for some and very hard. I’ve noticed in recent years, the priest has all the expectant mothers stand, then the existing mothers and, finally, everyone who ever had a mother. Obviously, this ends up with everyone standing and giving everyone else a round of applause. I won’t go into how the people must feel who had absent or negligent mothers. I won’t pretend to understand how awful that must be.

With the knowledge out there that I’m sure Mother’s Day isn’t great for all people, I’d like to share with you my mom, because I think she is pretty great. Here she is. Isn’t she cute?

My mom has lots of different names. Of course, I call her Mom. She’s got a few variations on her first name. Her grandsons will probably end up calling her Grandma. My favorite name for her, though, is one of her own choosing - Aunt Pitty Pat. When my two younger second-cousins (or is it first cousins once-removed? JANEY!?) were born she decided that’s what they should call her. It’s caught on, and now lots of people call her that. My boyfriend in high school did. It’s part of her email address. It’s who she is. Of course, if you don’t know, it’s from Gone With the Wind. If you’ve seen the movie, don’t assume that my mom is like Scarlet’s Aunt Pitty Pat. I think she could weather Sherman’s Burning of Atlanta if she had her rosary. But the characterization sort of fits, too!

My mom and I are a lot alike, but she’s SO much nicer than I am. She might think uncharitable thoughts about someone, but she’d never say them out loud (she might agree when I blurt them out, though!). She’s way shorter than me; I grew taller than her when I was about nine years old. She loves the color yellow and collects all things yellow. She loves to read and is addicted to computer games. She gives them up as a sacrifice for Lent, each year. Mom also loves naps, especially in her hammock. She loves creme brulee. She loves Kentucky basketball and always becomes attached to the players, hating to see them leave at the end of their careers. Above all, though, Mom loves her family - her husband, her daughters, her eight brothers and sisters, their spouses, their children, their children’s children, etc. She loves her friends like they are family. She’s just an all-around loving person. That’s why I made this for her. I think it captures her sentimentality and also shows her accomplishments - being a great wife and mother and a wonderful person.

Thanks, Mom. Just for being you.

Too sorority-girly?

I just uploaded a new header. It’s here in case you can’t see it at the top (like, if I’ve decided to take it down.) What do you think? Too sorority girl-y? I was a sorority girl, though, so maybe it’s okay. By the way, I created the whole thing in Paint.net. The flowers are from a recent Dover Sampler that I received. I created the tablecloth-looking fills for the flowers from scratch.

1000 Strong

In checking my Flickr stats, today, I noticed that I have had 1,000 picture views. That’s probable a paltry number to the wonderful artists whose work is on Explore all the time, but I was excited to see it. I thought I’d pick an image or two to share with you.

This is the most viewed public image in my photostream.

For those of you reading who aren’t (gasp!) Kentucky fans, that is a picture of Sam Bowie. He played at Kentucky for three seasons and was drafted second in the 1984 NBA Draft - sandwiched between greats like Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan. I think if he hadn’t struggled with knee injuries, he could’ve been a hall of fame player. Back to the photo, though. I took this on February 10, 2004 at Rupp Arena after a basketball game. I think it’s a pretty boring shot and am surprised that it’s my “most viewed” of all time.

Most of my images are private because of safety concerns. I get caught up in events and taking lots of pictures with people in them so they don’t always qualify as interesting or having good (well, any, really) photographic composition. However, I think snapshots are the gateways to so many memories. My family often sits around on holidays going through boxes of old pictures and they can remember thousands of stories through those pictures. So, while I might enjoy looking at pictures of kayaks in creeks or rose petals, in the long run, I like snapshots of people I love better. (I do like shots of cows’ butts, too, though.) For the sake of equality, here is one “interesting” photo of people and here is one that brings back a great memory.

This is the interesting one. Although I can find flaws in every picture of myself (my eyes are stupid lopsided, too much gum shows, etc.) I really like this of my cousin and I. I let her have the camera for a while, last Saturday, and she took all kinds of crazy pictures. This one is cool, though, to me. I like faces. They are all so different.

I love this picture. Not just because the boys are being goofballs, but because I love all those people in the picture and I loved that day. We were all completely hungover because the night before was spent ringing in the New Year at a remote cabin with lots of alcohol, a hot tub, and a fire pit, but we were determined to hike to the top of Natural Bridge. It’s only, like, a 3 mile hike. To a bunch of hungover people, though, that seemed like 10 miles. You never heard so much bitching and moaning! It was so fun, though, our shared misery. We saw lots of cool things along our hike, but this shot shows us as what we were, a close group of friends (with some notables missing!) having a great time just hanging out together. We didn’t need fancy bars or swanky cocktail parties or even a holiday to have fun together. We could have fun even in the direst of champagne-induced headaches.