CITO Geocaching Event and Walking Club

In honor of Earth Day, Groundspeak and the geocaching community held a CITO weekend this past weekend. CITO stands for “Cache In, Trash Out,” and it’s a movement to encourage geocachers to help clean up the environment while we’re out searching for caches. Jon and I aren’t as good about CITO as we should be, but it’s something I’m aiming to improve on this year.

Souvenirs!

Anyone who participated in a CITO event earned a souvenir, so of course I couldn’t resist (I love my badges and rewards). Our local geocaching group was holding an event to clean up our section of adopted highway. We were up early and out the door and meeting everyone at 10:00 out at the scenic overlook. After visiting and eating a donut, we split into groups and each took a mile of highway. Luckily, things weren’t too gross, though I did almost fall in some mud once.

Our strategy was to drive along the side of the road and get out every few yards to pick up stuff. It seemed slow going when we both got out and walked a stretch, so we’d take turns getting out of the car and doing a section. It wasn’t bad at all! We came away with sore backs, but the fact that we completely rocked those bright orange clean up vests more than made up for it.

In other news, I finally took baby steps towards building a local walking club. I’m starting small with a Facebook group and friends. Eventually I’d like to reach out to people in the community, but I’d like to build a foundation and do some more research. Right now, it’s a good incentive to schedule walks and stick to them. If I know other people are expecting me, I’m more likely to get out there and move.

A.

Writing at 9 Years Old

The year continues to be challenging, but I’m hanging in there.  This past weekend was spent  avoiding snow and cold temperatures and pretty much staying inside. We also stayed home on Monday, partially because of the conditions and partially because we were both feeling under the weather. Today was my first day back at work, and it felt like a Monday. Jon also got news of a wrench thrown into our budget plans for the next few months, so that was pretty disheartening. I’ve been depressed anyway, so I’m having a hard time going with the flow right now.

On a positive note for the night, it was chilly but not horrible, so Jon and I took a walk down Poyntz. I was in a funk, so I didn’t really stop to enjoy things, but being outside was somewhat therapeutic. We also attended a geocaching event at the mall. It was just a quick flash mob, but it gave me a chance to wear my jersey, which still doesn’t fit well, but I can put it on now. Progress!

One interesting thing I did this weekend was to read some of my old journals. Blogging really isn’t new to me, I just did it using pen and paper for years. Oh, and I kept it secret. Which is good, because the first journal I picked up to read was from my second semester in college, and boy…was I strange. I was angry and stressed, my priorities were completely out of whack, I had mean thoughts about everyone and everything, and I spent a lot of time “having fun.” I always remember college fondly. When anyone asks me, I truthfully say that I had a blast in my time at Lake State. But my journal reminded me that not everything was sunshine and roses. Of course, it was only a short time frame I was reading about because I tended to write pages and pages for just one night or one event. Still, it was a bit uncomfortable.

After traveling back to freshman year, I went even further back and pulled out my diary from third grade. Hilarious!  I talk about all kinds of important things, like what I had for lunch, who I hung out with at recess, the recap from the latest episode of Jem (because she was, and always will be, truly outrageous), and the boys I thought were cute (2/3 of the list was actors).  My favorite thing, though, was a story I started writing. Besides the content, it was funny to see that I’d very carefully written out every word, like I wanted it to look like it had been typed.

To perk myself up and to show what a goofball I was at such an early age, I’m going to share my story here. Feel free to skip if you’re not into the (word for word, I kid you not) creative writings of a nine-year old.

The Stranger – by Amanda S. 

A man in a black suit walked down the street. His pants were tight-fitting. His shirt hung loose around him. His black jacket was slung over his shoulder. His black boots were dusty. His shirt was tucked into his pants and his pants were tucked into his boots. His hair was black, and he wore dark sunglasses.

Nobody in the small town of Alonta, Michigan had ever seen him. Little did they know, he would become their worst nightmare.

Sue Antonio was daydreaming as usual on the job in the “St. Luey” coffee shop. She was an unmarried woman of 23. She was tall and slender. She had frizzy, strawberry-blond hair, and bright blue eyes. On either cheek, she had a small sprinkle of freckles. Sue worked in the St. Luey coffee shop from 9:00am to 12:00pm. She lived with her boss, also her best friend, Maria Maio.

Sue got payed well enough to buy herself a house. But she had come to think of Maria’s house as home, so she never left. 

Sue was the first to ever see the man. She was working late one night when he walked in. 

“Hello. May I help you?” asked Sue. 

The man sat at a stool near the counter. 

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll have a coke.”

She got him his coke, then leaned against the counter.

“What’s your name?” the man asked.

Sue was too wary to give him her name, so she said, “What’s yours?”

“I asked you first,” said the man, without even flinching. Sue didn’t like the way the man was looking at her. “Sue,” she replied, hesitantly. 

“Just call me Wolf.”

Epic, right?? Besides the fact that I think I’m describing Danny from “Grease,” I have no idea where I came up with this stuff! Also, do baristas really make enough to buy a house? Especially when they only work for like four hours a day? I really did spell it St. Luey, and I love the melodrama of “He would become their worst nightmare.”

I kind of want to write this as an adult, now. I’m pretty sure I already have some ideas of where to take this.

On that note, I’m cold and tired, so I’m going to shower and sleep. Hoping tomorrow is a better day all around.

A.

 

Training and Office Shenanigans

It doesn’t feel like Wednesday. In fact, most of the day I’ve been stuck on the fact that it’s Tuesday, when it’s not. This week is flying by. Even today went fast and it wasn’t a good day for me. This morning, I let the stress of things get to me, and I didn’t seem to have the mental capacity to get as much done as I like to. I have one of these days at least once a week, sometimes twice. Maybe it’s a brain defrag, but it’s kind of uncomfortable and makes me feel bad. By the end of the day I was rolling with it, but up to that point, things were kind of rough.

I lost track of time last night, and by the time I realized I hadn’t blogged, I was too tired to think. It was another busy day with nothing major to note. Jon’s ankles were hurting, so he was going to take a rest night and I was going to walk the track.  But when I got out there, the parking lot was a sheet of ice, and I wasn’t brave enough to trek across it, especially since I was out there by myself. My balance still isn’t great, and I have a fear of falling on the ice. So it ended up being a mellow night at home. I made up for it today, though.

My day started with some office shenanigans. Even being in a low mood, this cracked me up, as do the daily events in the lives of our resident elf and nutcracker.

Our team really enjoys their breaks.

Later in the day I did some training as part of my job transition. Some of it involved working with html code, a subject that makes me think of Jon and his infinite love of all things web design. My work won’t be that detailed, but what I learned was pretty interesting.

Besides the elf and training, another highlight of the day was that the new app from Six to Start came out today. I’ve been waiting for The Walk to come out since I first heard about it a couple months ago, and I bought it right away, considering it my Christmas present (one of them at least).  Since Zombies, Run! has done wonders in keeping me motivated to move more, I’m hoping The Walk gets me up more at work and gives me incentive to utilize my breaks and lunches for some extra step time. It did the trick today. I finished the first chapter/mission at work, walking on first break and half of my lunch.

As for the app/game itself, so far I like it. There are still a few things I have to figure out, but it looks like I can run it at the same time as Zombies and I can use it with a radio app if I’m tired of my playlists. At the moment, I can’t use it on the treadmill because it acts as a pedometer and tracks the walking you do. I’m still nervous on the treadmill, so I still hold on to the rails while walking. At some point though, maybe I’ll be comfortable to let my arms swing and I’ll wear my armband.

I was able to test this out after work when we went to the gym and on top of my work walking, I got another thirty minutes in: twenty on the treadmill and then several laps around the track. We cut it short to make it to a geocache event in one of the local parks. It was a quick flash mob, so we weren’t there long, just long enough to sign the book, do a quick geocache toast, and visit with some fellow cachers. It was cold, but fun. We each got another cache container, so at some point in the near future we’re going to have to hide something. Before we left, we were visited by a cop who’d seen the cars and the people and wondered what was going on.

I wasn’t feeling up to working on any knitting projects tonight, so I took the evening off in favor of working on some writing. I’ve been using my UfYH timer to do twenty minute stretches of revising my novel between ten minute breaks on Pinterest and Twitter. This last twenty minute stretch is devoted to finishing this post. Then it’s off to shower and read before getting some sleep.

Word on the street is that we’re going to get some nasty weather this weekend, possibly in the form of freezing rain on Friday. Do not want! I’m looking forward to our work holiday party, and I don’t want the weather to jack up our plans. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

A.

 

Our First Geocaching Event

Tonight, Jon and I attended our first Geocaching Event, Post Hallo”weenie” Roast, and had a blast, though getting to that point was a little rough.

The day started out okay. I had an eye exam this morning and everything checked out fine. I believe my vision has actually improved slightly in the few years since my last exam. I ordered some new lenses and frames, and I should have those by next week. So that was good.  Work wasn’t horrible. I got quite a bit done and used my lunch to start this year’s NaNoWriMo project.  After work, however, anxiety crept up on me and I had a tough time in the two hours we were doing stuff before the event.

Besides my normal social anxiety that was peeking out due to the prospect of meeting new people, I was also feeling road anxious and had a hard time driving with all the people leaving work and going to sporting events. Normally, I can deal. Today was really tough. I think that even though I used this week to do more activity outside, this coming week needs to put me back in the gym, because that has been effective at keeping the high amounts of anxiety at bay.

Things finally eased up when we found two caches near where the event was being held and actually made it to the event itself. The event was a fire and weenie roast hosted by one of the area’s more well known cachers. The place it was held seemed a little scary at first, but it was actually a really cool area. There was a 400 yard walk from the parking lot to the campsite where there was a grill, a firepit, and some stone benches for seating. There was also a huge field to one side, and a hill that I believe lead to a creek on the other. There were two caches in the park, but we opted out of going to them, deciding to go during the day sometime to explore the area more thoroughly.

This reminded me of The Blair Witch Project, but the actual area wasn’t as creepy as one might think.

We had just gotten settled, did a few introductions, and were getting ready to roast some hot dogs when a storm started blowing in. We’d seen the lightning in the distance, and it just seemed to be getting closer. There was talk of moving to the event to the host’s house, but after checking the weather, it looked like it would only be a short one. To stay out of the rain, everyone walked back to the parking lot and waited the storm out in their cars.

I have a mild phobia of lightning. I love thunderstorms, but I worry about being outside in one because I don’t want to get struck by lightning. I was more than happy to wait it out in the car, but once we got there, it rained for three minutes and the thunder and lightning were nowhere to be heard or seen. Once the rain let up, everyone headed back to the campsite to eat and enjoy the rest of the evening.

The event gave us the chance to put some faces to names. Everyone was super nice and offered to help us when we were ready to hide our own caches. Semmels (the host) gave all the first timers a bison tube, and later he hooked us up with a few micro containers to hide as well.

Film canisters and bison tubes

We also met North Coast Cacher and discussed how his Wamego Boat Ramp cache has thwarted us several times. We had a good laugh over it, but seriously….we are going to find that one. If the weather holds tomorrow morning, I think we’ll head out there again, despite me saying last time that we were going to give up on it completely. Now it’s just becoming a challenge.

The event also gave us a chance to discover several travel bugs, including one brought by NCC and ones on people’s vehicles. This only confirms that we really need to get one for our car.

Besides talking to people, I got to enjoy a bonfire, something I loved doing as a kid and don’t get to do nearly enough as an adult. I got to eat roasted hot dogs and have a s’more, and Jon and I got to look at the stars for awhile. It was a great night! There are two more events coming up, and I’m definitely less anxious and more excited to attend both of them.

It’s way past my bed time, so my writing projects will have to wait until tomorrow. Hope everyone out there is gearing up for a good weekend!

A.