Back to blogging!

Hi world.

It’s been almost two years, but I want to try my hand at blogging again. It helps to get these thoughts out of the recesses of my mind and into HTML.

It being Dec. 30, I’ve been thinking a lot about New Year’s resolutions. This year I completed one big one: I rode a century for the first time since 2008. Moreover it took me until October to complete it, so I had to pursue the resolution for 10 months of the year — a good exercise in self-discipline for someone who struggles with that sort of thing.

Unhappily, I completely bombed another resolution to cook every week. Oops. Apparently cooking doesn’t rank too high on my priority list.

And I welcomed a few goals that evolved into resolutions over the course of the year, though I didn’t pledge them back in January:

1. I took a trip each month (minus January and February): Portland in March, Marin Headlands in April, Massachusetts in May, Santa Cruz in June, Long Island in July, Seattle in August, Yosemite in September, Chicago in October, New Orleans in November, and Massachusetts in December.
2. I climbed each of the Bay Area’s peaks — Mount Tam, Mount Diablo, and Mount Hamilton — in one season.
3. I went on at least one date. Technically, I went on many more than one, but I needed to set the bar low to get back into the game.

There are a few more that for a myriad of reasons I can’t talk about openly yet. I’ll get to them in 2012.

Happy New Year! 

Overemployment

How do people work two jobs? They must not have any social life. When do you have time to go grocery shopping? Do laundry? Cook dinner? Never mind sleep, when do you do something else besides work or commute to work or think about work or plan your scarce free time weeks in advance?

I’m more tired than I was in high school — and I spent ALL of high school sleep-deprived.

On staying put

Before I started my job a week ago, I was on a San Francisco BART train in the middle of a Friday.  A twentysomething girl with a rollerboard and and a messenger bag sat diagonally from me, staring at the BART system map, counting down the stops until SFO where she would likely disembark and catch a plane to L.A. or Chicago or Orlando — some place for a weekend, a conference, a sibling’s wedding — who knows? The rollerboard indicated she was jetting off for a quick trip, and I was overwhelmed with jealousy.

The thing is, I don’t want to leave.  San Francisco is no ball-and-chain Seattle for me.  I like where I live, and I am excited to explore the Bay Area.  I have no real urge to escape.  However, there is something so deeply tempting about flying that this BART girl and her rollerboard ignited.

That’s not fair.  She didn’t do it, but I think it hit me that day because I had just committed to a job that keeps me here.  Right here.  The organization for which I work is a regional organization.  We are committed to improving the urban development and green space of the Bay Area, which means we don’t go winging around to push our agenda on all the country’s bays — we’re really just concerned with one.  My job, in particular, is very much a headquarters type of job, which means I am unlikely to be driving around, nevermind flying.

I struggle with this admission a little bit because what good environmentalist would long to fly? Last year, in my air travel alone I spewed the equivalent carbon of commuting in a hummer.  Ick.  My carbon footprint is probably way bigger than yours, and I set my thermostat below 60 degrees.

I am the kind of environmentalist who wants the world to commute via public transportation and electric  cars so we can save all the petroleum for jet fuel. I just love to fly, and I think air travel is truly one of civilization’s biggest steps forward.  Consider how exhilarating it is to explore a new place — a new country! — how much one must learn in the process of navigating a foreign land. I love the adventure! I love the frenetic energy of airports.  I even love the airplane drinks (I have two: tomato juice and ginger ale), but I am not sad to see the airplane food disappear.  I love my premier status with United, and I love calculating how many miles I have just added to my account at the end of every flight.

Now I am a grounded jetsetter.  My job will keep me firmly situated in San Francisco, so now I need to get used to what it’s like to stay in one place for a while. This is good for me.  I haven’t felt grounded in a community since before college, so staying put really affords me the opportunity to live my life in a very different, and probably more sustainable, way. But as long as there are folks with rollerboards on the San Francisco trains, I will feel pangs of jealousy when I reach for my boarding pass, and it’s not there.

Allied With the Greenbelt

After all my moaning and groaning, it feels downright foreign to announce this, but I am starting a new job on Monday! The Greenbelt Alliance in San Francisco offered me a job as the Communications Associate, and I happily accepted. I will be working on GA’s social networks, websites, and organizational newsletters.

GA is “San Francisco Bay Area’s advocate for open spaces and vibrant places.” It is committed to protecting green space in the Bay Area, and encouraging smart urban development.  A centerpiece of its present policy strategy is to champion the Grow Smart Bay Area campaign, which is a vision for sustainable growth in the Bay Area. Part of my job will be to promote that vision in local communities.

What will I do then on my last day of un(der)employment? Finish a couple of outstanding emails, and go shopping! After all, I just have to look good for my new job.

What Happened to 100 Days?

I missed a day.  That’s what.

Actually I missed two.  A Friday came and went, and I didn’t even think about blogging.  I realized my mistake on Saturday, but by then it was too late, and I was feeling a bit guilty about backdating, so when I socialized too late that Saturday night  and missed another entry, I was ready to call it quits.

Because I undertook this experiment in honor of a friend, I felt wracked with guilt  when I did quit.  I still feel guilty.  It takes a lot of discipline to do something for 100 days in a row, and to quit is to really take the easy way out.  But the thing is the blog wasn’t good.  I didn’t like it.  I didn’t like coming up with half-assed posts every night at 11:30. I didn’t like scrounging the web looking for silly photos or curious videos (correction: I did like the Grandmaster Keynes video).  I wanted to write posts that people might actually read with interest either about my life or my thoughts, and rustling up something quick every night was not the way to manifest that goal.

My friend used to practice the cello everyday for 100 days, but to to practice an instrument is not to perform. However, for a writer, to publish something daily, even at some venue as low-profile as this personal blog, is to perform.  Now some writers can perform every day.  Bloggers like Andrew Sullivan perform multiple times a day by publishing incessantly frequently, but that’s not me.  I would rather work toward something of quality — some piece into which I can put time and practice.

Thus I have a new challenge — a challenge that will hopefully be no less daunting but much more satisfying to execute: I will write everyday for 105 days, but only publish once a week (minimum). That means 15 weeks of posts about my life, thoughts, ambitions, whatever. In this way, I will continue to write, an activity at least I say I like to do, and complete a challenge in honor of a friend.