Adam Yauch and daughter

Adam “MCA” Yauch and his daughter, Amnesty International awards, New York, NY in 2001. Credit: David N. Berkwitz

Working Out at Work with Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Continuing my guinea pigging of workouts you can supposedly do in your cube or office, today I went through a small routine by Tracey Anderson, found in Bloomberg BusinessWeek‘s September 22 “How To” issue. If you don’t have a copy, you can view most of the same article here. Keep in mind that the purpose of these routines is not to get you in the kind of shape that Ms. Anderson is in, but rather for your good general health – as recent studies have discovered that even a small amount of sedentary time is very bad for your body, regardless of how fit you already are. And obviously that is definitely not good news for us desk jockeys.

This workout has little going for it compared to the Washington Post workout I reviewed last week. With just four moves, it’s decidedly faster than a full set of WP moves. Which is a good thing, because presumably you have to get actual work things done in the office, too, right? But the moves don’t include the number of reps to start out with. I found I was more likely to injure myself or bump into something with these moves – the first one in particular means balancing yourself on your rolly chair with both legs off the ground. The second exercise means you better wipe down your germ-laden workspace before planting your snoz on it. The third one is confusing – what is a “flick kick”? (“I don’t know, is it a kind of movie?” said my sister when I texted her with this question.) I did find the last move pretty satisfying; it’s a good stretch, and anything that gets us moving more during the day is a good start. With this one, that’s about all I can ask for.

Saturday

I have a post about Murrells Inlet all ready to go; unfortunately, WordPress is doing this song and dance where it doesn’t want to put the captions on some of my photos or center them properly. I’m annoyed and don’t feel like fiddling with it, so you’ll have to hold on till a bit later … please try to contain yourselves.

Flying

I fell out of a plane today! It was my first skydive ever, but it’s not going to be the last. I have lots of pictures (thanks Eric) as well as a video coming in the mail. I’ll make a post soon and tell you all about it. For now, I have the dubious joy of catching up on some work on my case study for school. Next weekend: Omaha.

To Everything, There Is a Season

This past Friday marked the three year anniversary of a horrid day I will remember especially clearly for the rest of my life: Monday, April 16th, 2007. Clearly, I don’t have to explain why it was horrid or why I will remember it, and I don’t want to. But I would like to point out that our Virginia Tech Distinguished Professor Nikki Giovanni was right: “We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.” Three years later, we still mourn. We still don’t forget; we can’t and we won’t. And we embrace that mourning to better the world and better ourselves.

I loved Blacksburg for being a peaceful, easygoing place where drinks and laughter with friends were always just minutes away, where people of all ages and experiences could find serenity, and where a college experience had easily transitioned into a certifiable townie experience for me. So it was like everyone else that I was completely unprepared for that awful morning and the endless sound of sirens. Those sirens went on forever and I knew something was very wrong, but I had no idea how very wrong that something was. Today, the sound of so many sirens at once, and for so many minutes can still trigger that same feeling of dread in me.

There are no words to describe the utter heartbreak of seeing a school and a community that mean everything to you completely shattered. I could try to say it’s like the wind has been knocked out of your own small view of the world. Sometimes, that image is very literal: as I walked to the April 17th convocation where Professor Giovanni gave her now legendary speech, I was struck by the complete silence of the thousands and thousands of people streaming into the Coliseum and Lane Stadium. No sound, just quiet, hanging over all of us. Sound was useless, inappropriate; there were no words that could do justice. Yet Professor Giovanni inspired hope like none other when she used her glorious words to remind us that beauty can be rebuilt out of something that hideousness has attempted to destroy.

Now as much as we’d like it to be so, grief is not an ephemeral emotion by any means. As this anniversary approached, old Hokie friends of mine began to get back in touch. We mourned those that we lost and those that were hurt and tried to make sense of this grief, still sharp after three years. But there is no making sense of it, there’s only accepting it and leaning on one another. And it was clear that we all share the same desire: to make things better in the world, to honor our lost friends, clients, classmates, professors, and students just by living the best life that we can. We heard that ringing refrain once again: “We are Virginia Tech. We are the Hokies.” We do seek to become positive change in the world, as those 32 we lost sought to be, and that they can continue to be through all of us. And that’s what a Hokie really is.

Welcome to WordPress

Hey everybody, welcome to WordPress. I’m still setting things up and getting used to it for now, but I thought I’d go ahead and make the switch. Here are some things some of you need to know about the new format.

I’ve imported my old blog, so you can still browse my old entries and comments here. If you look to the right, you’ll see a handy calendar display that you can use to surf to old entries by date. Or, just go about it the old-fashioned way and scroll top to bottom through the pages, same as you did with maplesstraveler.blogspot.com. Some of the imported entries will appear slightly “off” where pictures and text captions are concerned. I’m not going to bother with fixing these for now. (I am not taking down my old blog; you can still view it if you ever want to for some reason

You can leave comments without creating an account, or logging in to one. All you have to do is enter your name and email address when you leave your comment. Your email is private and for verification purposes only, and will NOT show up on the blog entry page. You also have the option of leaving your website or blog address if you so choose — doing so allows others to link directly to it from my blog.

When you leave comments, you will have the option to subscribe to all future comments to that post. If you choose to do this, you will be prompted to verify this decision through your email before it takes effect. In the future, I may require everyone leaving a comment for the first time to have it approved by me first. I’ll let you know if I make this change, but it shouldn’t affect those of you leaving comments now.

You can subscribe to my blog! Look in the bar to the right (above the calendar) and enter your email address. Every time I update my blog, you’ll get an email informing you of this. You won’t get spammed, but be aware I am now updating up to three times per day and you will get just as many notifications. You must verify your wish to subscribe before it can take effect – check your email after you enter your address.

You can browse through my posts by category. Your third option in the bar on the righthand side of this page is to browse by category. I’ve assigned certain labels to various posts, so if you want to read all of the posts that fit under one of these labels, just click on the appropriate word and you’ll be presented with just those posts. Many posts will fall under more than one category.

The font is small. I am experimenting with Windows Live and other ways to change this. For now, if you have trouble with it, go to your Internet Explorer toolbar, click on View, then click on Text Size and change the size from the menu that pops out on the side.

Expect the layout of this page to change often. I am still fiddling with a lot of things, and I’ll likely change headers and/or backgrounds soon. Or, I might transfer my homemade “passport” background over to WordPress in the near future. If you ever find a particular layout I have chosen difficult to navigate or read, please don’t hesitate to tell me. For the most part, all navigation options will look about the same no matter what!

Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions!

Hello world!

Hello!  I’m currently still located at maplesstraveler.blogspot.com. I’ll be making the switch before too long, but for now, you can find me at that address … happy travels

Who Am I? And Where Is My Map?

Hello, and welcome to my fledgling little blog!

I’m 27 years old, and I live right next to Washington, D.C., where I’m pursuing a career in defense contracting. Some might say that makes me your typical 20-something yuppie, and to tell you the truth, I’m a little afraid that I might become one. I’m passionate about what I do for a living, and I think I do a great job, but I’m neither traveling nor writing as much as I used to. I wonder what I have lost through this neglect of two of my true loves.

Two years ago, everything was entirely different. I was unemployed, fresh out of college at Virginia Tech (after lingering there for far too long), and slowly draining away my savings as I applied for random job after random job. I was living with my much-too-patient boyfriend, Eric, a Puerto Rican born and raised in The Bronx, who is quite possibly the most gentle and understanding soul you will ever meet. I was 25, but I felt like a child. While my loads of friends had moved on to nice jobs, or marriages, or just some set straight path, I was languishing, doing nothing but trying to find some kind of purpose. I’d always wanted to be a travel writer, but I also felt that I needed to try to make a real life for myself.

In short, I wanted to be a responsible young adult.

The word “responsible” had been alien to me. Although quite studious as a child, spending long hours reading books at home, I have a mischievous streak a mile long. Daydreamy and a bit of a space cadet, but with a long-term memory like an elephant, it’s easier for me to remember things I did at just a few months old (and in great detail) than it is to get a bill paid on time! And there’s a big part of me that’s restless, dissatisfied, immensely devoid of patience. I’m not happy staying in one place for too long. Oh, I’m not talking about moving — I’m talking about traveling, learning, seeing, doing — not just staying the same old and seeing the same old for so long.

So it’s no surprise that one of my greatest loves (besides Eric) is travel. When I’m in an airplane, no one on the Earth can reach me. When I’m someplace where nobody knows me, I can explore and be someone different, learn from people who see the world entirely differently, eat foods that can’t be found where I live. Until August 2007, I had lived in small towns my entire life, and I was used to the friendliness and ease of living (relatively speaking) that comes with that. But when I finally landed a job in the big city, this little girl finally grew up — all the way up. I have the jobs I’ve held to thank for that, but I also have travel to thank. I have been many places since I was a little baby, and while I can’t travel as much these days, I am thankful for every wonderful new experience, place, person, or idea that I come across.

I’m a pretty strong individual. I have learned to navigate hairpin turns with relatively clear, fast, and smart thinking. I am not afraid of what is coming next, but I like to tell myself it is good. If I live in fear, I can’t really go anywhere or do anything meaningful. And I realized the other day that I love the person I have become! I am that responsible young woman — but I’ve never lost my sense of fun and adventure, my desire to push it a little harder to see what happens, my refusal to give up even when things seem as bleak as they can get — because they never are!

So, where is my map? Well, I am always traveling — every day is a new journey and a new adventure. You see plaques with sayings like that on the wall all the time — but it’s true. I am not going anywhere in particular — even when I’m on a plane across the ocean — but I am always traveling, even without a map telling me what’s ahead.

This blog will talk about past and current travel experiences I have had, and those I hope to have. It will serve as the travel writing I should have been doing for many years, what I have always wanted to do. It will be a journey that I hope you will enjoy taking with me! I welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions.