where to focus

Not a new question for me - but here it is, again: where do I focus my time?
 

from pete laburn's blog

The working and the working out and the writing - how does it all fit into my life? Within each area I also have questions, but I have to start with the basics - the question of time. Oh, and sleep. Always sleep.

I want to spend more time writing. Partly because I want to get the novel revision done, and the memoir, and I have stories to submit. And I want to write more stories. I love to write. I'm not as comfortable with the editing and revision process of the longer works - but I think I will be in time. Time. That word again.

Time. I know money doesn't buy happiness, but it could buy some time. As in, pay the mortgage and the other necessities of life. That's where my profession comes in. Don't get me wrong - I still like what I do; but it's not writing. Right now the scales are tipped more in the direction of work for several reasons - the mortgage being one, of course. Right now I don't have money comng in from my writing (although I've had a few things published and that's good). So I have to work more than I'd ideally like.



Then there's the working out and physical activities. My back is better, although not back to problem-free. But better. Last weekend I bought another pair of shoes which I hope will help, too. I might even get a chance to go out an walk tomorrow for two or three miles to test them out; I'm holding out hope for that - the weather to hold and the shoes to be part of the solution. I still won't do the Portland Half Marathon; I'm not trained and I know my back is not up to that. But I did meet with a good friend and sometimes workout/hiking buddy and we may do a spring half marathon together. That would be great. The dragon boat weekly off-season paddling has ended, so I don't have dragon boat practice until January when we start back in with two nights a week until May, when we go to three nights a week.



Writing. Working out/physical activity. Working.

I also have to remember that I'm just settling into a new schedule. These last couple weeks have been rough, with the last of my old schedule and the beginning of the new one overlapping, not quite meshing. It's better and will soon be smooth sailing - just long enough to get settled a bit before NaNoWriMo begins.



And I didn't even mention the long weekend trip to San Francisco. Which was great. I caught up on sleep. I rested. I wrote. And I met with Bonnie Hearn Hill. I'll save that story for its own post - but will say that I had a great time with her, even though it was short. I hope to be able to spend more time with her and it was inspirational and didn't feel like it had been as long as it has since we last saw each other.

I've been quiet with my posts. Contemplating. Waiting. Wondering.

I think something is brewing!

 .

catching up

This is a time of high activity. Not all work - but not all fun; intense.

Today the pace caught up with me in the form of missing my chiropractic appointment because I mis-remembered the time. And I really wanted that appointment today. We rescheduled and there is no giant, serious thing going on that will limit my ability to work or play (well, not much) - but it would have been really nice to have seen her today. Now I have to wait another week; and I'll be fine.

But missing appointments is not something I normally or frequently do. I'm generally very good about keeping track of where I need to be and when; sometimes I misjudge the traffic or get bogged down in a project and am a little late, but I get there. Noticing when I start running a little late too often is a sign that my life is out of balance. Missing an appointment, for me, is a sign that I'm slipping into the over-coping mode and need to evaluate my schedules and activities.

That would be now.

And in that looking at things, I also see that I have fallen behind on working on the novel. I am writing pretty regularly right now. I'm back in the Wayward Writers group and loving it. I write at least two pieces a week and give and get feedback; it's wonderful! But it's not the novel (but some of these short pieces will be developed into sections of the memoir). For the novel, what I need now is time. Blocks of time. I've done notes and research and charting - now I need chunks of time to work on revision/editing. I'm going to look at what I have in October and plan to spend some time on that before NaNoWriMo-November; I'll do some in September, too - but I'm not sure how many blocks of time I can fit in around PICA's T:BA:10 and a short trip.

I also have two friends who have had some serious medical situations in the last couple of weeks. One was a planned, major surgery - a member of the dragon boat team and everyone pulled together to set up daily meals delivery for her and her daughter; amazing group of women! The other one is an acute and unexpected illness that has had her nearly immobile and hospitalized for a couple weeks; and she has just moved to a rehabilitation facility for about six weeks. Another member of the team and, again, the members have been great about visits and phone calls and really being there for her, too. These two situations have really emphasized the value of friends and community and having people who care. I feel so blessed to have these women in my lives.

It's also important for me to note that not everything I have going on is negative or bad stress. Last week I got to interpret for ZZ Top and this Friday I will interpret for Lynyrd Skynyrd. I like interpreting concerts. They are a lot of work to prepare for - but fun. It's fun to play with languages (the translation from English to ASL) and to make it match the performers. And the audience members I'm interpreting for really like these bands, I know what their language needs are, and they like my style. Last week they had an awesome time, they said - they left smiling and happy -- and isn't that the goal?

So - one more concert, then I will get a couple weeks off of that type of preparation. Next week my work is light and the TBA festival begins. The TBA festival is theater, writing, drama, performance, dance, film, music - all stuffed into 10 days of creativity. I will be an audience member - and a creative observer.

Ahhh.

MissFit Dragons capture the flag

This is a great picture from the Rose Festival Dragon Boat races last weekend. It shows the coming together of all of our work and training: the paddlers give us the momentum to get from the start on the east side of the river to the finish on the west side of the river, I steer us from point A to B in as straight a line as possible to maximize the efforts of the paddlers and to hit our target - the flag, then Tawna grabs it from its buoy and raises it high to signal the time-keepers, with our coach-caller Nikki kneeling on the deck keeping us in time and motivated. We all work together to make it happen - each piece important on its own and yet its significance is lost without the others: power, direction, achievement, and guidance.

Thanks for the beautiful picture and the amazing weekend, Nikki.
You brought us all together.

MissFit Dragons update before exhaustion overtakes

We made it to the finals today and brought home third place bling in our division.

Way to go, MissFit Dragons! You paddled hard and well, I held us on a straight line (which was not easy in the strong winds and very choppy waters of the finals), and Tawna captured the flag every time. All under the leadership of awesome coach and caller, Nikki.

Thank you, everyone. It was an incredible weekend and we all performed well.

And we have the hardware-bling to prove it.

Rose Festival Dragon Boat races: day one

The MissFit Dragons were in excellent form today, as was the weather. We paddled hard and kept competitive. We are in the "B" teams - and we're fine with that. Tomorrow morning we will have a semi-final race about 10:45 am. And then we'll see after that - hopefully we will go on to the finals.

What we really care about is that we work together, keep our timing in sync and I hold a straight line to our flag so that the flag catcher can grab it effortlessly.  We did that really well today and we were against all (except one) "A" teams.

Even with the swifter current due to higher than average water tables, excess debris in the river, and the anticipated warm weather wind (which was milder than it could of been, but still present).

We all can sleep well knowing we gave it our all.

And awake refreshed and ready to go for day two tomorrow!

photograph from www.pksca.net

.

resting and waiting

.

The Rose Festival Dragon Boat races are this weekend. Day after tomorrow they begin with the opening ceremony at 8 AM. The races begin about 9 AM each day and end somewhere around 5 PM. My team, the MissFit Dragons, know our races for Saturday (9:42 and 2:03); the Sunday times, heats, and lanes will be determined after Saturday's races are done. At this point, we don't know if we will be an A team or a B team. We could fall into either category this year. On Sunday we may be in two races or three.

The weather being forecast is amazingly perfect, especially given all of the weather drama we've been having. I will qualify that "drama" as being relative to here - where drama does not generally involve tornadoes or hurricanes or severe earthquakes. What we have had is a lot of rain. Here in the known-for-cloudy-skies-and-rain Pacific Northwest when I say a lot of rain, I mean a lot of unseasonably frequent and heavy downpours. Buckets and buckets of water, for days on end. By the third or fourth day of the month we had tripled what we normally get for the entire month.

But this weekend it is forecast to be upper 70s to low 80s for a high and sunny. Okay, a little overcast would make those temperatures perfect in my opinion for when we're on the boat - but I'll take it. We will have two tents and enough shade to keep from overheating. (Boy, do I sound like a typical Oregonian, or what!) Seriously, when we have the races, it's best to keep our muscles warmed up and keep our bodies from getting chilled or overheated.

And it looks like this weekend the weather will be perfect. The races themselves are about three minutes long; it takes longer to get the team on board, paddle out to the start, get all four boats in the heat lined up, and get going than it does to get from the start to the finish.

With all this rain, it will make my job a little more challenging, as will the nicer weather. The amount of rain we've had has raised the water level. Normally this time of year it's running about a level six to seven; right now it's about fourteen to sixteen. Which also makes it swifter. That means that steering will be a little different, since we are crossing the river which means going across the current. I am visualizing holding a straight line and hitting our target (the buoy with the same color flag as the one on the boat we're assigned to) on the other side, so that our flag catcher - the long-limbed and limber Tawna who will be hanging out over the nose of the dragon - can grab the flag easily. Which brings me to the wind.

I'm really good at holding the line. We've also done some deliberate "near miss" flag catching practices to build confidence on last minute corrections. That may be caused by the swifter current carrying us off target, other boats encroaching on our (unmarked, generally) lane, or - tada - the wind. We did have one practice run on Thursday where the swifter current did carry us one way and the wind blew the flag the other direction and I had to do a sharp adjustment. And the amazing Tawna still grabbed the flag, even though it was on the opposite side of where we want it and was bending toward the water.

The clearer skies typically mean more wind. So the "oops we might miss it, correct! correct!" practices will come in handy. We are expecting stronger winds than we've had - though I know they won't be terrible. But the dragon's ears and tail really snag the wind and it does up the challenge of going cross-wind and change my tilling. Keeping the line takes more focus and work - and I can do it. I won't need to be also looking out for the "dare you" boaters, or the other teams practicing & who has the right of way, or the floating flotsam and half-trees that have been prevalent the last couple weeks. There will be booms put up to keep out the boaters (along with a couple of patrols) and the floating debris. My whole focus will be on keeping us on target, as straight as possible, and bringing our nose in to the perfect position for Tawna to grab our flag smoothly.

Tonight we had our final gathering before the races. We are strong. We are fit (well, I'm getting back to fit; still not quite back there after the long annoying "Northwest Crud"). We are ready. And we are a great team - cohesive - willing - and focused.

An easy day today. An easy day tomorrow. And Saturday and Sunday we sweat.

Bring it on!

photograph from http://www.pksca.net/

.

On the Water

.
I have two major events in process right now.

One, the dragon boat races, is just around the corner. My team starts practice at the beginning of January and we end with the Rose Festival Dragon Boat Races. Which are happening this coming weekend, June 12-13. (A couple weeks ago coach tossed out the idea that we might go to a race in Canada in 2012 that is three weeks or so after the Rose Festival races; but this year, as in the previous seven years of this team's existence, the MissFit Dragons goes on to other activities after the Rose Festival).

We still don't have the full schedule of events - but this morning our coach sent out the schedule for the first day. We are an all women's team, so check out those times if you'd like to come see us paddle! We are a strong team this year and practices have been going great. We know we will be competitive and give it everything we have. Where we will place remains to be seen - but we will know we gave it our all.

Portland Rose Festival Dragon Boat Races for Saturday, June 12th:

8:00 AM Opening Ceremony

First Round:
8:30 AM to 8:57 AM High School
9:06 AM to 9:42 AM Women
9:51 AM to 11:30 AM Mixed

11:30 AM Gorman Cup

Second Round:
1:03 PM to 11:30 PM High School
1:39 PM to 2:15 PM Women
2:24 PM to 3:54 PM Mixed

We will be in at least two races on SUnday; but we won't know the times until Thursday night.

*
The second "water event" is my 8-day rafting the Grand Canyon trip. I'll be leaving for that in just over two weeks. Yikes and yippee!

This morning our leader (who just happens to be the dragon boat coach, and many members of the trip are also MissFit Dragons) sent out the current weather for in the canyon. As we are facing another day of rain here - we did have a sun break on Saturday, thankfully - I see that today's temperature IN the canyon is going to reach 112 degrees. The overnight 'lows' are warmer than some of our highs. Again, I find myself thinking, "really? I need a rain suit for the mornings on the raft in the canyon?" And I know that Nikki and the guides wouldn't steer me wrong, so I'll take it. But all I can think of is sweating inside even a "breathable" (I've yet to find one where that statement is really true) rain suit in those temperatures while I'm being baked by the sun and splashed with cool/cold water. But I trust them.

Anyway...

So here is the forecast for in the Grand Canyon for this week (we start our rafting journey on 6/25):

Today: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 112. West southwest wind 5 to 8 mph increasing to between 14 and 17 mph.

Tonight: Clear, with a low around 67. West southwest wind 14 to 17 mph decreasing to between 5 and 8 mph.

Tuesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 108. Calm wind becoming west southwest between 18 and 21 mph. Winds could gust as high as 26 mph.

Tuesday Night: Clear, with a low around 72. Southwest wind between 8 and 18 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph.

Wednesday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 108. Southwest wind 6 to 9 mph increasing to between 15 and 18 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph.

Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 71.

Thursday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 103.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 62.

Friday: Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 99.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 63.

Saturday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 97.

Saturday Night: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 61.

Sunday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 96.

No matter the termperature, I know it is going to be amazing. I have a pile of things to practice packing. That large grocery bag sized drybag is shrinking as I remember more things I "need" to take. I have a day later this week where I will actually spend a couple of hours seeing what I can get into a similar sized container. Eight days; 20 punds of stuff in a grocery bag. Huh. Oh, plus one "ammo" container for camera and a waterproof notebook and weather resistant pen.

*
I'm excited. For both events.
.

When Worlds Collide

This has been a recurring theme in my life recently: my own experiences and those of friends.

I'm not sure what it's all about and know I'll have to wait for that answer.

A writer friend has made an important decision about her life. It redefines who she is and how much time she will have for writing. She has two children at home and this job provides them with some essentials and has good perks. So she is a mama writer who will be doing (that job) for a while.

I'm in the midst of a similar situation about my continuing work. One thing I do is partly up to me whether I continue doing it. Another thing I do is something I could keep doing easily as my safety net base work - though I need other things to keep my mind fresh and body moving; and that one has some potential major changes coming, including going away.

And I'm in a collision time of having to do student observations, the final two weeks of dragon boat practice before the big races, preparing for my big vacation rafting from one end of the Grand Canyon river to the other, preparing my Paddling Poet series and the Creative Wandering series, and making final preparations and reservations for the 132 mile relay. And my regular work.

Writing. It's time to get back to it. I've been doing little bits but I need the big chunks. Just one more day of observations, write up the reports, and I'll have a little more time to write.

Collisions of responsibility and desire. Of work and writing, the teeter totter.

WAS: time to play; NOW: time to walk

I hit another wall. Sometimes I'm surprised I have anything left to hit with - recently, anyway. I'm mostly recovered from the long-lasting sickness; I don't normally get the long-play versions but I did get this one. Now that I'm mostly over it, there are some residual symptoms that are mostly minor, until I work-out.

The issues?

One is that the dragon boat races are only four weeks away. Truthfully - I will be fine for the races, although maybe a little sore at the end. I'm the tiller and that takes the ability to stand despite wind and current and the rhythm of the paddlers - it can get a little straining on my low back near the end of the hour on the water, but bearable (and the soreness resolves quickly and is a direct result of being below fitness level due to two months of sickness). Tilling also requires a different type of strength and different muscles than the paddlers use; and those muscles are still strong since I've been able to keep up with the strength training (thanks, Nikki!). The warm-ups can get me breathing harder than I should be as the last strands of this illness linger - but for the actual tilling, I'll be okay with a little Advil.

Two is a biggie: the Cascade Lakes Relay is two and a half months away.

Oops - no, let me back up. The Grand Canyon Rafting trip is just over a month away! Yikes. I'll be fine, I guess. At least it's rafting and not kayaking! Not that I would kayak the Grand Canyon/Colorado River - a little too ambitious for me and I'm not that big of a thrill seeker. So, I will ride the giant raft, help load and off-load my grocery-sized bag of belongings which will contain everything I need for a week (hear me laughing? still haven't quite figured that one out), with a couple extra things stored in an ammo can - I plan to have a book to read, a waterproof notebook and/or sketch pad or two and probably thin sharpies or special pens, a camera... Then, if I'm still not up to par with my lung capacity, I can skip a hike or two. Be technically disconnected and fully immersed in being present. Relax. Nap. Look at the scenery. But I may have to moderate my hiking a bit more than I'd like. I'm okay with that; I think I'll be fine being there.

Then the Cascade Lakes Relay. I've started back to training. Though barely. My pace is about 1.5 minutes slower than it was and my hill walking ability is diminished. I'm trying to not be frustrated. I'm trying to find that balance between not pushing my lungs too much and pushing my fitness level just a bit; it feels like a tightrope of which way is too much or too little. Saturday I did my first deliberate hill walk in over two months. I survived and I cut it a little short when my lungs started to hurt; not just out of breath, but hurt a little. I recovered quickly - which is good.

A couple months after that is Portland's first half marathon - on 10/10/10. I'll see how the relay goes at the very end of July to know if I will be able to get up to half marathon status. I think the answer is yes - but I'm obviously in a period of doubt. And I hope that means it's just a bit of the illness remaining, which I've heard from other people can cause this feeling of hopelessness about getting back to full normal activity.

I didn't plan to write about this when I started writing. It was going to be about play and dreaming and time; something profound and energetic, with a bit of humor.

But this is where my mind and fingers went. So this is what I have.

Another time of one step. One breath. One hill. One mile.

Recovery. Being present and knowing when and how much to push, to try, to back off, to let go. To move on. To not give up hope.

To know that a few years in the future I will look back at this time - if I even remember it - and think how short is was in the overall picture of my life.

Time.

.

Thoughts on Revision/Re-Vision

I completed two pass-throughs of The Novel with my 3x5 notecards. I didn't plan on making two passes - but that was what was required.

The first round I was looking for "scenes" and making notes in the margins about the characters and main events. I had a decent size stack of cards when I was done and a few notes. Nothing earth shattering nor a toppling tower. I looked at the cards and thought about what I could move around and went, "huh."

Not much. (Though I imagine sometimes writers think things have to be in the order they are even when they could move -- or at least new novelists get a little stuck in reordering.) I will defend myself and say that it's a mystery ghost story, so I think some of the plot does have to be in the order it is. I'm not looking to find a new Memento style twist nor seeing dead people approach, so some things need to happen in a certain order for it to make sense.

But I started thinking that there were parts that could be moved around. Back story. Character development or history, flashbacks. Maybe there were other hidden bits that I could move.

So I re-entered The Novel with the completed notecards and new notecards and a pen. This time I made more notes in the margins and wrote out new scenes within scene cards. It's still not a toppling tower but it nearly doubled in size.

And there are things that can move.

Then a couple weeks ago I took a drive to the coast. A part of The Novel happens in Manzanita - an Oregon coastal town I haven't spent as much time in as other parts. I had the afternoon of a writing day free so I decided to drive the 90 miles to the coast. I stopped on the way and bought an inexpensive digital camera (I was across town from home - on the coastal range side of town). That spontaneous trip turned out to be the right thing to do.

On the drive over to the coast I had some insights into a couple of characters. I drove the route I had one of the characters drive (which was not my usual highway to the coast), so I took a few pictures along the way and picked up some excellent names of parks and towns and sightseeing spots. And when I arrived in Manzanita I took some pictures and drove around and feel like I have a much better sense of the layout of that part of the story.

And now? What?

Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed by the thought of revising or re-visioning The Novel in its entirety. Especially when I'm also doing things like preparing to interpret a play (this coming Friday night) or have dragon boat practice three times a week (third weekly practice added this month) or am planning 10 days off work for a rafting trip down the Grand Canyon (the end of June; this planning includes working extra to get money to cover taking time off work since I don't have benefits) and ... there's more but those are the biggies. Oh, except for being the team captain for the second year for the MissFit WiseWalkers Cascade Lakes Relay team - just a little bit of organizing to do for that.

But enough - I have The Novel to finish. To edit. I tried to think of it as one page at a time but that is a lot. It seems easier to think about one character at a time. One story angle at a time (there are three seemingly separate stories that converge). One scene at a time!

I will get there. The play will be done this Friday - so that will free up a chunk of time for novel editing. And I have jury duty on Wednesday, so that may also give me some time unless I get selected to be on a jury (which is unlikely, in my experience). My plan for jury duty is to alternate between Friday's Script and The Novel, when I'm hanging out in the jury room.

Highway 26 West Tunnel
photo by Dot.

Noticing

Noticing how I miss my novel when I don't have time in a day to work on it. How I think about how to round out a character. How I carried the folder around all day in hopes of having 30 minutes; or 15; or even 5.

Noticing how much better I feel after two days in a row of at least eight hours of sleep. Not so tired at the end of a long day.

Noticing how the wind and the current in the water change as the sun goes down over the west hills and the dark clouds start to roll in. How the rain starts slowly, picks up, slows, stops. Rain drops on our rain coats blending with splashes from paddles in the river.

Noticing.

In this moment.

I will remember.

Vessel

plaster excavation

by Serena Barton

Work in Progress

.
Three of the important things in my life right now are: the MissFit Dragons (dragon boat team), getting back to 100% health after this prolonged irritating illness, and My Novel.

The dragon boat team is going great. We have a few new people and mostly returning and experienced people. We are strong and paddling well. I love this group of women and, again, am reminded how lucky I was to get into the right team last year. As we paddle on the river, passing and being passed by, other teams, I hear coaches yelling and berating and belittling. I'm not saying that our coach doesn't reprimand if needed - but it's not her modus operandi. We are a cohesive team - a recreational team who wants to be competitive. Don't misunderstand - I don't think we'd mind if we won, but our goal is to do a good job as a team and be proud of our efforts. This week we add a third practice to our weekly schedule - and that's good, although it does take a chunk out of one of my days off. But we are a community, not just teammates. There are a couple of people with significant life issues right now and it's wonderful how the team is pulling together to help them out. We have fun, we laugh, we workout, we train, and we do other things besides paddle together.

And this illness. Enough, already. This is one of those lingering things and it is also one of those Life Lesson things, I think. It's forcing me to take naps or sleep more. It's forcing me to slow down. And in this process I am finding that I feel better when I sleep more. Lessons. My Naturopath will be happy that I'm learning this lesson. I am much better. A little better each day, if I get enough sleep and if I nap if I don't get enough sleep at night. I think this is my longest running illness ever in my life. Even longer than when I had walking pneumonia as a kid. It will pass. And I'm learning how to pace myself - which is including not doing my pace training. Sadly. But part of this lesson is to listen; not push; check in and follow what I find. And to keep going. Balance, anyone?

And, definitely not least on the list is The Novel. It has a working title, but I'm not telling. The working title will be changed. I did the scene cards and a few notes. Then went back to add margin notes and add a few scene cards. Right now I'm about 2/3 of the second pass through for scenes and full margin notes. And I'm thinking - okay, what's next? This is the first time I've edited a full novel. Some parts of it I really like; some parts are confusing. Some characters are pretty solid and clear, some are caricatures and need to be filled in a little more. Some facts conflict themselves. All in the process of writing and editing a novel. Right now I can't think about editing the whole novel - the sitting down at the computer and revising, rewriting, deleting. But I can think about scenes. And stories. And characters. Some pieces I have edited for my writing workshop/group. Some are as raw as when they were first written. But I will get it done.

Page by page.

Follow the current
- of the river for the dragon boat
- of my body for healing and working out
- of the story for the novel.

Works in progress.
.

Awakening the Dragons

Thanks to my MissFit Dragons teammate, Linda, here is a video of the PKSCA Eye Dotting Ceremony on 3/27/2010. This "awakens the dragons" and sets the intention of a positive boating season. Thank you, Linda!

Returning to the Self via Community

Today I returned to the dragon boat. I've been training with my team since January and this has been great. We've been doing circuit training and core work and strength training. I love the team; we have a few new paddlers who are awesome - and most of last year's team is back. We are a cohesive team and we get along well; it is a great season so far and this coming Tuesday we take it to the water.

Today, though, I attended the Awakening of the Dragons ceremony. This is done by monks, with chanting, blessings, traditional string of firecrackers and, the big moment: a red dot is painted in the center of each dragon's eye ......this is for good luck and successful paddling and so on. Following the ceremony, there was a paddler's on the water clinic and a tiller's on the water clinic. I went. I have not been on a dragon boat since the Rose Festival Races last June.

And I will admit that I was a little nervous. For those who don't remember (and why would you remember all the little details I posted last year?) or those who weren't following me - statistics are that, if or when a person from the dragon boat goes into the water, it is generally the tiller (the person standing up at the back of the boat) or the caller (the person standing at the front of the boat between the dragon's mane), or during a race, the flag catcher hanging over the nose of the boat is also a likely candidate. So, I was a little nervous. My goal for today was to not get wet; meaning that it wasn't raining (it didn't) and that I didn't fall in (I didn't).

A good day.

And I am now re-certified as the tiller for MissFit Dragons and re-freshed in being a tiller. I will also admit that it came back to me just like they say riding a bicycle comes back to you. I was glad I went out today, as the expert tiller did notice that I had my feet placed backwards, which would increase the likelihood of being knocked into the water by the till. But once I got my feet planted correctly and told the paddlers to push off, paddles up, take her away -- it came back to me. I remembered where to start my turn to get us out of the harbor, I remembered what to do when there was a tiny burst of wind and I felt my control slip a little (get the till out of the water, reposition myself and start again). I remembered where to say Paddlers Let it Run, hold the boat, ready to take her back. I parked almost flawlessly, although Clyde and I have a slightly different approach of whether to go a little behind where we're parking or a little ahead.

It was beautiful. A beautiful day. A beautiful first return to being on the dragon boat.

And I was on the boat with people I didn't know, other than Clyde and Carol Lee. So I met new paddlers and tillers. I met someone who knows someone on my team and saw us doing our workout on the Esplanade last Tuesday.

And I met someone who invited me to be on her team after the Rose Festival races; her team is year 'round. I may do it in my team's off time; or may not. Now, at the beginning of the water part of the season, that sounds appealing. Sometimes I missed being on the boat - about a month after the Rose Festival Races were done; sometimes I was very grateful to get that time back and be able to do other things. But, no matter what decision I make, it was nice to be asked. I was told that I have a nice reach. I was asked to sit in the front, the lead paddler position (I know I have good timing - partly a result of early music training, I think - and that is important to being the lead). I also do really well at keeping in timing with other paddlers. Striking up the conversation with the tiller from another team is yet another example of the cameraderie of dragon boat people. Overall, we're a good lot - friendly, and willing to help each other out, and talk to people we don't know from other teams. I know there are some who keep to themselves and are highly competitive. But there are others of us who are all a part of this giant community and we get along - despite being on different teams. Don't get me wrong, we have our competitive sides, too, and want our individual teams to do well - and maybe I'm only drawn to the more community-oriented paddlers and tillers and callers. But it felt great.

I must also say that I'm proud to be a part of the team I am. Our coach is great and she does a wonderful job getting us to be a team and to do our best, whatever that is. If we were to win, she wouldn't complain and we wouldn't complain. But she has us oriented toward doing our best and being fit. Winning is a bonus if it happens and we'd all smile and shout.

But this is a great community and I sure felt at home on the water.

Ah.

On the Fitness Side: an expo

Dragon Boat training has started up again (the first week of January). The Cascade Lakes Relay team is meeting monthly with clinics and talking about our plans - at least a few of us are going to do the Shamrock Run on March 14th. The Grand Canyon group keeps getting our snowshoe trips cancelled because it's too icy or now too warm (predicted 60 for this weekend) and not enough snow - so some of us will go hiking instead.

As we regroup during the winter months and stretch and begin again our trainings - the expos start coming up, with or without events. I saw this one on the OregonLive RunOregon blog. Looks like fun if you're going to be in the Portland, OR area and want to check out some product and go for a walk/run with a group.

Me? I'll be out in the Gorge, hiking!
The Racecenter Event Expo is coming this Saturday, Feb. 20th at the NE Foot Traffic! What can you expect at this great annual tradition?

• 
  Discounts to some of the area's top events
• 
  Raffle for sweet prizes, free shoes, free race discounts and more!
• 
  HUGE, free group run/walk starting at 9am
• 
  FREE Lompoc Beer while it lasts!
• 
  FREE hotdogs and snacks
• 
  Discounts on store products ranging from 10% off for some of our most popular models to 70% off for discontinued models.
• 
  Special offer on all regular priced shoes:
  .......Buy one get the second 25% off!!! (one per customer, same size).

choices

I will admit I reached overload this past week. A couple of things had situations come up which necessitated additional attention. And time. Time I didn't have and didn't allow for. Nothing major or serious. But I found myself only being able to deal with things from most critical to least and in order of deadlines - triage. I hate it when things get that busy.

Choices. I made choices.

And I made another choice today to take the next Wayward Writers online workshop-course with Ariel Gore. It will begin a month after the first meeting of the 2010 Cascade Lakes Relay team, which is a month before the first training meeting of the MissFit Dragons which will be two to three days a week. I'm captain of the relay team and tiller for the dragon boat team - I'll be there. And I'll still be writing.

MissFits on the move

What an amazing group of people have gathered under the leadership of MissFit Adventures owner, Nikki Becker.

As I've written about over the last six months, the MissFit Dragons was an amazing experience with an incredible group of women. We really came together as a team and we worked to do our best. And we did our best and we had fun.

Out of that experience, I created a Cascade Lakes Relay team, which we have called the MissFit WiseWalkers. (Remember that name! You have until July 1st to put together a team - either walking or running. If you do put together a team - for either this year or next - mention me and my team; we will get a referral gas card!) Most of the team is from the dragon boat team.

And speaking of other adventures from the paddlers, some of them are with Nikki right now and will begin their descent into the Grand Canyon tomorrow. They are doing a several days hike into and out of the canyon. Wow.

Another of our paddlers started organizing a Race for the Cure team. We will have walkers and runners; friends and family will be joining us, too. We don't have a name yet and many have been tossed around. Think about it: what rhymes with MissFit?! We probably won't go *there* with the naming .. but we had fun with seeing what we can come up with. I will let you know when we decide on something.

Then there are two of us who are planning to walk the Seattle half marathon in November. We will start recruiting other runners and walkers to join with us in that.

And I signed up for next summer's rafting the Grand Canyon eight-day trip with Nikki and some of the others from the team.

Gals on the go, indeed!

next?

After a rest and sustenance following two days of races, I returned to writing.

I did a final edit on a piece I'm sending off to the "Readers Write" section of The Sun magazine. Of course, the piece does relate to my new found physical freedom and to dragon boating. Of course. My working title, but not the one I used for the submission, has already appeared here: "Dragon Boating: My Gateway Drug."

The actual title of the piece is the theme to which I am submitting: "Walking Home."

event: Dragon Boat results

My team, the MissFit Dragons, made it to the semi-finals. That is really good for so many reasons. And there was only less than a second which kept us from the finals. We paddled hard, we all showed up and kept our focus in the boat, and we gave everything we had to the team, our coach, ourselves. Our goal, in the words of our coach, was to be able to ask ourselves at the end of the event: "did I do my best today?" And all of us can answer with a heart-felt and proud: "yes!"

Awesome job this weekend!

Pictures:
(L) Tina captures the flag: yellow #2
(C) the team
(R) Tawna captures the flag
(center-below) Neck & Neck to the finish line for quarter finals

practice mid-May

This is from a practice in May ...




Stay tuned for results of this Rose Festival weekend's races! No matter our place in the races, we will give it our all and we will have fun. We are a cohesive and mutually supportive team. If I would've known it could be like this, perhaps I would have done more team sports earlier.

Go, Miss Fit Dragons!

Special thank you to teammate
Karen's husband for this
video!