Scientific Ink

Author: Dunrie

  • A taste of Detroit: tahini and Vernors (gratitude #44)

    The holidays is a time for family gatherings. We hosted my in-laws this weekend. Originally from Michigan, they love living in Massachusetts. Next weekend, I’m going to visit my sister in Tennessee. Born and raised in Michigan, my sister is happily now a southerner.

    But, I think that no matter how happy they are in their adopted homes, the tastes of home have a powerful pull. On their way out of town, my in-laws stopped to get a case of Vernors into the car. Apparently, they can’t find it in the Boston area. My sister called me this morning and asked me to bring tahini when I visit. The Detroit area has a strong Middle Eastern tradition, and she prefers what is available in Detroit Middle Eastern grocery stores to what is available in local health food stores in Tennessee.

    I’ve already got a stash of goodies to bring her. So, when I travel to Tennessee, I’ll be carrying dried Michigan cherries, Tahini from Lebanon, and ArborTeas Keemun tea from China. The taste of home, at least here in the Detroit area, has a global flavor ;).

  • Job changes, once removed (gratitude #43)

    My husband changed jobs. He wasn’t unhappy at the old one, just the opposite, but he got an opportunity for growth from a former employer and, after a fair bit of reflection, decided to take it. I’m happy for him and proud of him and all that. Really.

    I have also been anxious about it, and worried. Most of it is selfish worry, he’ll be gone more, with regular travel to Chicago and to Prague and to England and even farther afield like China and Korea. And I’m…here, working.

    Kitzbuhel city wallNot that I mind working really, after a few years of angst and searching I’ve found a place where I can stay, where I know my efforts make a difference, and where work on a smart team to do quality work for great clients. No complaints there. And, during my time of bouncing around and soul-searching, my husband was bedrock. Unflappable, confident I’d find my way, not in a rush for me to show results, he supported me without question.

    I suppose now it is my turn to cheerlead and support. And he’s going to be fine, more than fine. So I think it is more me I’m worried about than him. I think I’m feeling a little left behind. He started the new job last Friday, and went on the road immediately (left town Sunday). Today was his birthday and I wrapped and had him pack a small present (not beautifully wrapped, in case TSA wanted a peek) into his luggage for him to open.

    He’s going to have lots of travel, and several adventures, and I will be here, working, hanging with the cat and maybe we’ll Skype more but see each other less. I was really blue about this for a while, and my stress level has been all over the place. But this week, with him gone, has been alright, much better than I’d built it up to be in my head. I’ve been more than busy, attending social events after work and professional society events, so busy that I really really had to take tonight off and collect my head and do nothing because I was a very bent out of shape introvert. I always forget how much I like being alone.

    So, I’m still grateful for time alone despite my worries to the contrary, been chatting with my sister and college friends on the phone a little more, and I’ve had more dinner requests than I can capitalize on during his quick trip. So, there’s hope for friendships, local and distant, to fill in the gaps a little bit as the travel continues. I’m also contemplating what I can open the door to now that I’ll have more time available. Focusing on opportunity not anxiety. Really. Mostly.

  • Considering Commitment – How to Choose?

    I must confess, I have been an exercise dilletante. I am following my whims and switching between my Iyengar-based Yoga for Scoliosis DVD, cycling outdoors or spinning at Vie, and then rope yoga at the Ann Arbor RussaYog studio. I’ve been attempting balance – the scoliosis yoga once a week, and something else (Russa Yog or spinning) once. And in between, I might binge on stress or food or computer work or volunteer work or all four together.

    I talked with Jasprit at RussaYog yesterday. He said that if I was to focus on RussaYog, I should do it three times a week. I recall when I researched the requirements to teach Iyengar Yoga, I read I needed to be in three classes a week to prepare. What’s magic about three? Three seemed impossible to me at the time, but with other life changes, it might be do-able, if I focus and work to eliminate another obligation or two…But it would soak up any time I’d otherwise give to a cardio activity.

    I also have the sense that yoga elongates me, stretches my body, and derotates the spine, but spinning is good for my heart and being more vigorous, it releases pent up nervous energy. Spinning does aggravate my neck, tho. I am leaning towards yoga in some form, but I am concerned about missing any cardio. I do walk to work, and I suppose I can go back to walking up the stairs to my 5th Floor office….

    I’m doing a little reading online, and the argument is perhaps alternating between the two – so three times a week of EACH yoga and of spinning, but I think jumping from twice a week to six times a week is simply impossible, especially with work and other non-athletic volunteer/service activities. Sigh. Hard to choose.

  • Writing a letter to my five-year-old nephew (gratitude #42)

    So, my nephew is sad when he doesn’t get mail, and my sister asked if I would write him a letter. I was happy to, as he’s one of my absolute favorite humans, though I was also mildly stumped. What should I write?

    Kite tail

    I decided a letter at all was more important than the perfection of its contents, and I let my editor relax a bit.

    I know he just moved, from the Atlanta suburbs to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and I’m going to visit in early December, so I asked him how his new school was, and what he could see from his bedroom window. I asked him if he was an Atlanta Falcons or a Tennessee Titans fan. I told him how much I was looking forward to seeing him, and I asked if we could go on a walk together when I arrived.

    It was sweet to write him and I am excited to mail my letter tomorrow. My husband will send one in maybe a week.

    I was reminded of myself as a child, how I envied my parents getting their junk mail and bills. I longed to get mail as a sign that I was alive as well. And I was reminded of the letters my grandfather Heinrich wrote me. He used to write me handwritten letters that I was thrilled to receive, and I was touched by his thoughtfulness. My sister mentioned he used to give us stationery. I forgot that part, but I still have the letters he sent me. Maybe it is time to review them and learn how to write a letter to a child you love, so I can pass along that tradition to my nephew.

  • Grateful for dial-up – the pleasure of not being connected (gratitude #41)

    So, this past weekend we went up north with some friends. It was a brief trip, much too short for the length of the drive, but it was nice to get away, get up north and relax.

    Breathe in. Breathe out. Appreciate the scenery. Repeat.

    In the summertime, we share DSL and a wireless router with the neighbors. But they locked their place up for the winter, shut down the DSL/wireless, and they won’t be back until the spring. We go year-round. I really love it when it is quiet and the winter woods especially are quiet.

    I did have a bit of work to do, so I had to reinstate our old dial-up service, through Bruce Municipal Telecom. I discovered a few fun facts:

    • My space-age Macbook doesn’t even have a place to plug in a phone line, but
    • My husband’s Dell laptop did.
    • Neither of us had a thumb drive to transfer the file I’d painstakingly prepared to send to a co-worker for the Monday I’d be out.

    I borrowed Dave’s laptop, recreated the spreadsheet on his computer, and dialed in to get stuff into Basecamp for my colleagues. Hooray for connectivity.

    Yet, dial-up definitely put a damper on my online activities. Because I didn’t have connectivity, I let a few things go. I put off work email, Twitter, uploading photos to my flickr account, personal email, blogging, working with my MiUPA colleagues to set up the chapter meeting we had the Monday evening I returned, etc. I could answer some of the email on Tuesday morning during working hours, the MiUPA team is all-powerful and organized without constant input from me. I could upload the few photos I took late Monday. My twitter friends didn’t need instant reporting of my hikes and naps and the weather at Gillies Lake.

    It all worked out just fine. So, even though I’ve loved having the wireless broadband up there, it is nice to disconnect for a while. A real vacation after all. A chance for downtime, not uploading.

  • Fall chores

    Today was a day of fall chores: sweeping out the garage, tidying it and getting it ready to store the table and chairs for the winter, raking leaves from the back yard, and pulling in all of the “tender” bulbs (voodoo lily and calla lily) that I had planted in pots on the deck and porch. They’ll slumber in peat in a bin in my basement – cool and dark – until it is time for them to grow again in the spring.

    Nice to feel I’m ready for the change of season.