Cold Spring

This may come as a surprise, but I've noticed through careful observation that spring in New England and spring in North Carolina are different. All my friends are posting on facebook about the pollen. I remember the feeling in the air when you come outside one morning and the air is suddenly softer, and the smell of dirt is in the air. In New England, the calendar says spring, but this morning we woke to a dusting of snow. It will be another month before I plant anything, and when I do, I'll keep a close eye on the low temperatures. No buds on the trees, the tulips have just barely begun to poke leaves above ground. I haven't seen a daffodil yet. The birds are traveling in packs and my feeder has suddenly gotten quite popular. The ice has melted off the pond. Spring in New England is not its most beautiful season. It's wet and muddy. The weather isn't reliably warm until mid-May or even June (and then sometimes it goes straight from cold and wet to hot and sunny). It makes up for it the rest of the time though. Autumn in Boston is beautiful, and I like winter here better. It may be cold, but it feels right.

Weird Ankle

Thanks to an odd confluence of things, I developed tendinitis in the outside of my left ankle, kind of under the part where it pokes out. It has been sore off and on for years, but I was able to run through it, so I never addressed it. Then one Sunday I was in incredible pain by the end of a couple of miles, couldn't walk well for a week, and it was finally time to do something. A visit to the podiatrist, orthotics and physical therapy, and I suppose I'm making progress. The orthotics are very effective, and unfortunately tendon/ligament injuries, especially in the feet, take a while to heal. Like many runners, I am quite impatient to get back out there.

I have two weird biomechanical issues. First, I overpronate. My arches collapse with every step. I have arches, I don't have flat feet, but I have really flexible arches. That puts a strain on the feet. Then on top of that, I have z-foot (do NOT google it). Your foot bones are supposed to be more or less straight forward, but mine are at an angle, which led to tendons getting hurt in weird ways. (If you googled it, my feet do NOT look like that, they look normal)

Air out that Sickness

We've been passing around a cold. It's fast and relatively mild, in that one could function through it. We each get a slight fever (99.5-100.7), super congested, and really painful, swollen lymph nodes. Headache, exhaustion, general not feeling great. So far each person has needed one day off, Luke was home Friday, I was out of commission Tuesday, and Micah is home today. Unfortunately for me, I get disrupted each of the days. It's the sort of illness where if we needed to, we could take Advil and make it to whatever is going on. But if you have the space to take a day, it'll really help recovery. I enjoy lounging around more than probably most people do, but even I have limits to how much time off I like.

Spring Restlessness

There are certain times of year I know I'm going to feel more restless, and I'm most likely to make sweeping life changes during those times. Not surprisingly, spring is one of those times. The earth is thawing, the sun is increasing, and I start looking around to see what I can change. Another time this happens to me is in the fall when school starts. Last fall I assisted in an English as a second language class at the women's shelter. I ended up really enjoying it, much more than I'd expected.

Our class was a pre-literacy level class, which means the women in the class couldn't really read or write well in their own language. So we taught the alphabet, how to be in class, how to live in Boston, and how to speak and read and write English. Most of the students in our section happened to be Haitian, and the oldest was 86 years old! I hope when I'm in my 80's I'm still out tooling around town, taking classes, and making it happen.

This spring, we didn't have enough students to hold our section, so I find myself at loose ends. That combined with tendinitis in my ankle that's been limiting my running miles, and I feel restless. One way I act on that is joining the Y. Spin class for the win! And I started looking for a job.

I look for a job a lot in the spring. I don't know if I finally get bored or if the light and warmth give me new energy or what, but this year I finally remembered Idealist. I have a degree in social work and certificate of substance abuse studies, but I assume working in addiction I'd need a license or the only options were full time or evenings and weekends. So now I've applied for two options, one of which is 12-15 hours a week working with families in addiction. I'll be interested in seeing how it all works out.

One Good Snow

It's been a rather un-snowy winter. It has been very cold, but not very snowy. On the days that we got rain, it was too warm. We had one snow day this year (in Boston?!).

When we did have a snow day, we made the most of it.

Second Fall

I never expected to be a person who enjoyed fall. Fall means dead leaves, gray clouds, less light, cold is coming. However, fall in New England is a lovely time. The air is clear and cool, the light is so beautiful, and the leaves are beginning to turn. It's relaxing and interesting and inspiring. This year, I'm actually looking forward to winter, cold, and cozy indoor routines.

Good intentions, the best even

Y'all, I had planned to write every week. I have the best intentions, I mean to write, I sometimes have things I want to write about, even. Then I forget. Or I get busy. I want to write really good posts and give them my full attention but I think I don't have time. So here's a picture of Micah on a dinosaur:

Did that make up for it? Micah and I had a great time at the zoo. Mike has been working like crazy for the past few weeks, including yesterday (Father's Day). He takes doing a good job seriously but he also takes being a good dad and husband seriously, and he feels guilty when he needs to work during what is usually family time. The kindest thing I could do for Father's Day was to take the boys to do something fun so they would be occupied out of the house and he could work without distraction or feeling guilty. We were getting ready to go to Skyzone, then Luke spiked a fever suddenly.

Luke stayed home and read a book, Micah and I went to the zoo because no one needs us bored around the house. It turned out we had a REALLY good trip together. I forget how good it is to have one on one time with him. He's a chatty person who shares a lot about his thoughts and feelings, but it's just a different dynamic when it's just the two of us without other distractions or personalities.

Plus the zoo is doing a dinosaur exhibit and that was fun.