The apartment got some "redecorating", the most important being house plants. Here is my favorite one- please, please don't die on me.
As expected the 1st week as a SLC resident included all things new. The apartment got some "redecorating", the most important being house plants. Here is my favorite one- please, please don't die on me. Started Master's swim. I feel so slow- hopefully the acclimation to the altitude kicks in soon. I did a solo cross-country ski day in Park City. The town has a vast trail system that is free to use. Clearly, I need to improve my map-reading skills because a planned 2 hour ski turned into a 3.5 hour one! We had a visitor- my sister Jessica from NC. We hiked up City Creek Canyon, took her on her 1st cross-country ski outing (and my 1st skate skiing attempt!), and had some good eats. What a treat. On the more professional front, my 1st job interview is tomorrow. I'm getting a bit antsy having gone from having 3 jobs in grad school to 0- so here's to hoping it goes well!
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We survived the move to Utah. The fact that I'm here to stay doesn't quite feel real yet. I'm still expecting to head to the airport to go back to Madison any day. The move was, thankfully, nearly without incident. We were originally going to take our time packing up and head out of Madison Monday morning, but then we saw the weather report. Monday morning... -40 to -50 degree F with the wind chill. Uhhh...what?!?! So, Dr. Hottie got to Madison Saturday at 8am- we packed all day- went out with friends and family on Sat night- and were out of town by Sun @ 9am. The drive is loooonnnggg. I wouldn't recommend it. We made great time though and got to SLC in ~20 hours. 850 miles on day 1 and 550 miles on day 2. Usually Nebraska cracks me, but this time it was Wyoming. 50mph wind gusts, blowing snow, and near white out conditions = Rebecca's head in a pillow praying we get out safe + Dr. Hottie at the wheel. After arriving in SLC, we got a good nights sleep and woke up to do more driving! Dr. Hottie had the whole week off of work, & I would have felt awful if all he got to do was pack and drive across the country. We drove 4 hours to Moab, UT for some fresh air and hiking. We experienced all of Arches national park in a day- there were practically no other people around which the locals told us to soak up and enjoy- a rare occurrence indeed. Enjoy a few of my favorite pictures! So what now? I'm in a new place for the 1st time in 11.5 years. Dr. Hottie is back at his 80+ hr/ week job. There's unpacking to do, new places to find, people to meet, goals to go after. The only guarantee is that I'll get frustrated and be out of my comfort zone- facts I must happily (ok... more like begrudgingly) embrace and accept.
Happy New Year! My apologies for the lack of blogs the last 2+ weeks. I'm sure you can all relate to the business of the holiday season. Here's a quick holiday recap in pics. I finally graduated! My M.S. in exercise physiology is complete. My whole family came to Madison in the midst of a blizzard, and below is a picture of myself with my advisor. My little sister was visiting from NC, and she & I trudged through the snow to get to the graduation ceremony. She had never seen that much snow! Holiday cheer in the WI capitol building! Christmas in warm, sunny NC. Family picture- missing Dr. Hottie :-( The 3 sisters and my lovely niece. Practicing mommy skills. Babies are fun but so exhausting. Hiking in the NC mountains. Dr. Hottie arrives in Madtown on Saturday- to move me to Utah!!! I haven't seen him since Thanksgiving, and the 7 months apart is finally coming to a close. This is my last day with internet, as I'm packing up the apartment the next few days. My next check in will likely be as a newly minted resident of the Mountain West. I hope everyone has a wonderful, blessed new year with good health and achieving new goals!
Finals week is here! Home stretch. Thank God. I never get in as much movement as I'd like during finals week, but that's just the way it goes. I generally opt for workouts at home ranging from 20min-60min. Sometimes I will do my own yoga routine or circuit, but workout videos are my guilty pleasure when my brain hurts and motivation is low. I actually like Denise Austin- her target audience is women looking to lose weight, but her exercises are quite good and are good for injury prevention if you tend to run and bike a lot. So if you can mentally block out all the times she says, "this is for the waistline"! you will get a decent, well-balanced workout. I often do the following videos in order (they are 15 min. each):
1) Abs & Back level 3 2) Legs & Buns level 3 3) Arms & Shoulders level 3 4) Total Body Pilates There are TONS of free workout videos on the internet. Find 5-10 that you like, and bookmark them so you can easily knock out a short, easy workout at home when life gets crazy. Wisconsin got dumped on with snow yesterday. It was light & fluffy and the temps yesterday were pretty warm in the low 20's and no wind. Today, we took a turn for the worse with 25mph winds and below zero wind chills. I'm convinced Wisco wants to give me as much winter as possible the month of December. The December interview guest is my big sister, Pauline. She, like my little sister, has her Master's degree in accounting (yes, I'm the black sheep of the family). She worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for a number of years and last year took a job with VF corporation. She also has the most adorable 11 month old girl. How she manages to balance everything is beyond me, and something I wanted to gain more insight to. Enjoy! 1) What does your job at VF entail, and what is your work schedule like?
As a senior financial analyst, I support the company's global IT operations and IT projects groups, which includes performing month-end, quarter-end, and year-end close and financial reporting functions, as well as variance analysis and forecasting and planning for future months and years. I also work on ad hoc projects to assist our group CFO as needed. My work schedule is generally Monday - Friday. I usually get in between 7:30 and 7:45, and leave around 5:30. I normally work through lunch so I can leave in time to pick up Ella from daycare. I work later about 2-3 days per month, and on those days, my mom picks Ella up from daycare for me. Sometimes I log in on the weekends to work a little, but it's not very often. 2) What is the hardest part about being a working mom? The hardest part is balancing my drive to have a successful career with also wanting to be there to experience everything about Ella growing up. Before she was born, I always thought that if me or her dad could be there for any given day or event, we were good...but once she was born, everything changed. As a mom, I don't want to miss anything, and she has become my #1 priority. I'm still driven to find success in my career, both for myself and because I want to be a strong female role model for my daughter, but she absolutely comes first. 3) What are the plus sides of having roles as both a career woman and mom? First, the time that I do have with Ella means so much more to me since I can't be with her every second of every day, and second, I'm excited that Ella will grow up seeing that women can have strong, successful careers. I'm all about girl power!! 4) You started this job shortly after having your 1st baby. Is it considered taboo to ask about "family-friendliness" in a job interview? Not at all - in fact, one of the things that I asked during my interviews was whether my interviewers had kids. All of them did, and I could tell by the way they talked about their families that family was a priority for them as well. I made it clear from the start that Ella would have to come first, but that I was dedicated to making it work and that I would always be able to deliver a successful work product on a timely basis. Any company that doesn't embrace family friendliness is not a place that I would want to be. 5) What do you see as some of the key barriers to breaking the "glass ceiling" for women in the workplace (in the US specifically)? One of the barriers I've seen is lack of strong female leadership. Once the first woman in an organization has broken through to an executive leadership role, and is successful, that paves the way for other successful women to follow. The other barrier that I see is emotions. The blessing and the curse for most women is that they tend to wear their heart on their sleeve, and care so much that they sometimes have a harder time than men being stern and making quick decisions. The female role models I've had during my career have found ways to use this skill to their advantage to coach and develop people while still finding a way to be tough when necessary. **bonus** What's your favorite barbeque restaurant in Lexington? Finally -- an easy question! In my opinion, the best is Speedy's BBQ. They have the best sauce, great hushpuppies, and killer sweet tea! Wisconsin is COLD! When I woke up this morning it was a lovely 1 degree F. I'm already experiencing some seasonal mood disorder, although that might be more senioritis?!
I have one week of class, 1 week of finals, & then I graduate! Done. With school. Forever. Life planning is definitely getting in the way of the studying and packing that should be happening. I've been in a research intensive setting the last 3+ years, so my original line of thinking was that I needed to get a research job post- grad school. Steady job, normal hours, benefits, good salary. All of my research mentors are cheering for me to stay in research (after making it a little too clear they're disappointed in my not continuing on to get a PhD). While I appreciate everyone's input (whether it was asked for or not), the answers ultimately have to come from within myself. Answers are starting to come, although they're still foggy... 1) Why I went to grad school. When I was swim coaching, my training plans were rooted in tradition and what I had experienced as a swimmer for 13 years. I wanted to know the scientific basis behind training and how the body adapted to exercise. If I was going to "prescribe" exercise to people, I wanted to be able to explain the how's and why's. 2) The 10 year plan. When I envision my life in 10 years, I see coaching- not research. I'm almost 30, and see no reason in wasting time in something that's not my dream. I have the foundation, education, and drive to pursue my passions. It may initially lead to more hours & less pay, but it's time to start building my dream now- not when I'm 35, pregnant, & stressing about Dr. Hottie's next move. 3) Patience! I can't and won't have everything figured out day 1 of living in Utah. I will figure it out eventually & in the meantime I have a whole heap of celebrating to do, will reunite with my husband, and get to know a whole new city! Earlier this week, as I was doing a challenging swim practice I realized that the mental game of getting through something physically challenging is scarily on par with life challenges.
1) I hear the set. Fear, anxiety, knowledge of pain and suffering to come. 2) We start the 1st repeat. I wonder if there is some way I can get out of some of the set. Fake an illness? Say something came up at work? I only have 5 seconds rest after repeat 1- I unfortunately don't have time to tell my lane mates about some lamo made-up excuse. 3) Middle of the set. Getting into a groove despite lots of pain. Surprising myself. Can I actually do this? Maybe I'll make the whole set, maybe I won't but at least I made it # x repeat. 4) Last repeat. There is no way I'm NOT making this set. Do or die. It's happening. I can do it. 5) End of set. Worked so hard, I want to puke. Feeling good. Wondering why I ever doubted myself. This is pretty much my line of thinking with any life challenge (grad school, relationships, big decisions)- Fear & doubt at the beginning- taking the plunge anyway- improvement, tenacity, and pride. A friend recently posted an article talking about success in life. It suggested the amount of success you experience (the typical definition of success- career, relationships, good home, etc.) is not based on how much you want something but how much pain/discomfort you are willing to tolerate. Did I mention I love sports?! :-) We attempted some cross country skiing in icy and warm conditions- I only made it about 45min before calling it quits. Here's to hoping for more Utah snow come January. Along with the warm weather came an amazing hike towards Mt. Olympus. It's a 7 mile round trip hike and climbs 4000 feet in elevation on the way up! We didn't quite make it to the top, but it's definitely on the bucket list. Thanksgiving dinner was a success! I made the bacon-wrapped pork loin, ricotta and butternut squash toasts, and triple chocolate pumpkin pie. It feels good to know when we have kids, I won't poison them ;-) Finally, I got in a couple great runs on the Bonneville shoreline trail in mid-50 degree weather! On my Thanksgiving day run, there were TONS of people out hiking as a family, running with their dogs, and mountain biking with friends. It was awesome seeing so many people using their day off work to be active. Overall, another fantastic Utah trip! It will feel good to finally be able to start establishing some roots in the city after visiting so many times. Now I have to pull my **** together and get through the last 2 weeks of school, finals, and packing. I smell a pity party....
I'm in Salt Lake City....again. Dr. Hottie's day off work is tomorrow, so I'm playing hookie from school...again... so we can have a day of fun. I'm looking forward to some warmer weather, hiking, and maybe even skiing! The 1st few hours here involved taking the light rail downtown, walking 2 miles uphill with luggage to the apartment, and cleaning...I ate Dr. Hottie's toblerone chocolate to make myself feel better- it's the least he could do for never being able to pick me up right? Madison got the 1st real snowfall of the year yesterday, and although my commute was slowed by having to walk instead of bike- it really was beautiful. There's been a family of foxes hanging around campus this fall, & yesterday I was finally able to sneak a picture of one! Although my family is Swedish, and I'm uncertain as to how "happy" the history of Thanksgiving is- I am truly thankful for the following:
1) the obvious- family, friends, and good health 2) my education 3) moving to the ultimate outdoor playground in a month (and leaving WI winters-they are so brutal) 4) exercise- running, biking, swimming, skiing, hiking- love it all 5) my morning coffee 6) the unknown future (scary, but I love new adventures!) Have a wonderful holiday filled with movement, family, friends, and good food! This week I got to try something totally new- a barre class. My soon-to-be sister in law is a newly minted instructor for Barre3 in Madison, and she was teaching a few free classes this week to family and friends. I've been in a workout slump, so I had to jump at the chance for something new and fresh! The description of barre classes is, "where ballet barre meets yoga and pilates". I can definitely attest to the combination of yoga and pilates, but since I have 0 experience in ballet I can't say how much of that was in the class. My guess would be very little, or I probably wouldn't have made it out alive! The class was 60 minutes. We started with a dynamic warm up, then worked arms and legs both on and off the barre, and finished with core work on a mat with a ball. My favorite parts of the class included: 1) The focus on form. We never rushed through exercises (but also didn't go at a snail pace), and each exercise had a purpose. At the start of each exercise, the instructor gave a brief description of the target muscle group and a few helpful tips on form. Practicing good form in classes can be the make or break in terms of whether you get an overall benefit, and this class did an excellent job! 2) Working the often neglected muscles. I typically do a lot of running, swimming, and biking- none of which include very much abduction. I'm also very prone to muscle weaknesses including the glutes and hips (most women are). Most of the leg work offered in the Barre class focused on hips and glutes, and further, the exercises had a good mix of balance and strength. The ab work at the end of the class got me to work my deepest abdominal muscles (the transverse abdominis) which is really hard to target. Overall I really enjoyed the class, and would definitely go to another one! I know a lot of athletes (particularly triathletes) emphasize strength work in the off-season, but gained strength doesn't just hang on for the other 9-10 months of the year- you lose it quite quickly. Working on your muscle weaknesses is important to maintain all year- especially when you're in heavy training and more susceptible to overuse injuries.
Cheers to getting out of my comfort zone- may be a theme for 2014! |