Leader of The PACK

What's better than puppies and kittens? Not much! (Maybe kids, but it's a tough call.)

A friend of mine just completely made my day by sending me a link to one of the best ideas for a volunteer opportunity I've ever heard of: The PACK, a recent project of the Washington Humane Society.

According to WHS' website, "The PACK (People & Animal Cardio Klub), consists of a group of volunteers who regularly meet at local parks to run with adoptable shelter dogs from either of WHS's two Adoption Centers." The dogs wear bright orange vests that say "Adopt Me" and many of their two-legged pals wear Washington Humane Society t-shirts.

They run every other Saturday in areas that are popular with locals on the weekends, so the dogs get maximum visibility along with their exercise. Check out WHS' web page about the program, or read "Running With the PACK," a blog post by a WHS/The PACK volunteer.

I don't know about you, but to me this sounds like an amazingly rewarding opportunity for everyone involved: dog lovers (like me!) who otherwise may not have the opportunity to do so can interact with a great bunch of dogs, the local population gets some exposure to the great pets who need homes in their area, and most importantly, dogs get the exercise they need and the attention and affection they deserve.

My training schedule (yes, I'm at it again) may not allow me to do too many runs with this group before mid-summer, but I've emailed AsktheTrainer@washhumane.org for more information, and hope to get involved soon. In my book, Washington Humane Society is the leader of the pack (Laugh at me for my terrible pun/80s music reference, but I couldn't pass it up. Obviously, given the title of the post...) in creative volunteer opportunities that do good in more ways than one.

The Changing of the Guard

The idea of replacing their parents in the workforce, of a societal "changing of the guard," isn't one that generally occurs to children. They play, learn and dream of being astronauts, dancers, rock stars, doctors and marine biologists, thinking of Mom and Dad as one of their most rock-steady constants, perhaps hearing them sigh over getting older but not fully understanding the eventual switch that will take place: one day, they'll wake up and be the ones rushing around, throwing lunch(es) together, coordinating gym shoes and work clothes and scheduling meetings, while their parents will have the luxury of deciding what they want to do that day, where they want to play and with whom.

One of the oddest sensations of becoming an independent adult has been watching that switch take place and strangest of all, being aware of it. My dad's taken up new hobbies to fill his time in retirement as I've given up old ones, sacrifices to the 40-hour work week and its commute in exchange for a salary, benefits and financial self-sufficiency. My mom used to marvel at the number of books I read in the time it took her to get through one, as she struggled to read a few pages in bed at night before succumbing to the exhaustion of working a stressful full-time job, running herd on me and managing a household. Now when she tells me what she's reading, I rarely have anything to add to the conversation - I'm still only halfway through the same books I was the last time we talked about reading.

The thing that initially made me aware of these changes, ridiculous as it sounds, was my caffeine intake. My mom's not much of a coffee person, but she had a Diet Coke at her elbow most hours of the day when I was growing up, and stopped worrying about buying it "Caffeine Free" once I was in my teens and drinking caffeinated beverages with my friends anyway. I scolded her about not drinking enough milk, which I downed by the gallon, and ingesting too much caffeine, as well as carbonation that would make her more susceptible to the osteoporosis that whittled my grandmother down from 5'1" to somewhere around 4'6".

With the exception of my hellishly over-scheduled sophomore year in college and the summer of sleepy caffeine-withdrawal headaches that followed it, I've never found caffeine to be a necessary part of my day. I'm still not physically addicted to it (anymore), but there are days I find myself detouring to Au Bon Pain on my way in to the office, needing a cup of coffee to wake me up, or dashing out for an over-sized bottle of Diet Coke at lunch to extend my morning workout energy kick into the afternoon. There have even been a couple of days when, succumbing to the demands of a muddled brain and a need to be fully functioning, I've done both.

My mom, on the other hand, has stopped buying Diet Coke for herself altogether and drinks milk with her lunch everyday. (My dad, however, is a four-shots-a-day guy (espresso), and guzzles Diet Coke the way I do water - and he's not about to volunteer to break the habit!)

It's this kind of daily minutiae that occasionally make me blink in surprise and realize that I'm now the one wrapped up in the world of work - the ups, the downs, the stress - even though somewhere in my head, "the working world" still means my parents, not me, a distinction reinforced by memories of work-related dinner conversation going back as far as I can remember.

I don't usually think about being an adult, because without a mortgage, car payments (thank goodness for the Metro!) or any insurance premiums other than the annual minimum on my apartment, I don't usually feel like one. My post-college 20s up to this point occasionally feel something like a second round of early adolescence: a little awkward, with one foot still in college, trying to figure out how to be an adult and who, exactly, the adult version of Jessalyn Pinneo is. It can be frustrating, uncomfortable, stressful and confusing, but the reward of discovering who I am and making my own way is more than worth it.

Meditation in Motion

Ever since I started doing pilates a few years ago, I've been telling myself I should try yoga, because finding that centered calm that's supposed to come with it would probably be really good for me. (I've only tried meditation once, and given that I was 16 at the time and at the height of teenage angst, you probably don't need me to tell you that it didn't go very well.) But when I even think about actually trying to meditate, or holding a yoga pose for an extended period of time, I get antsy, and start to think about all of the productive things I could do instead, which makes relaxation all but impossible.

Exercise has been my way of clearing my mind since my freshman year of college. It warms my muscles, and post-workout stretching gets out the kinks. It gives me a chance to let my mind wander while still doing something I think of as productive, and I almost always end a workout feeling energized, relaxed and happy. When running, my "zone" is usually when I stop thinking about running and just do it, my body involved in the physical aspects of the exercise and my brain off on some other tangent. But in the last seven or eight months, that's started to change.

I was running one morning last summer - I think it was a 16 or 18-miler - and about halfway through, my vision changed. I was focused on the road, but it was slightly blurred around the edges, and it felt as though my visual as well as my mental focus was suddenly much more internal than external. My initial reaction was, "Okay, this is weird..." but I gradually realized that it felt good. I was more tuned in to my body than usual, and felt no compulsion to think about anything - I was running, and focusing on the feeling of each stride was enough.

I've started clicking into this zone more and more often since then, and have come to really enjoy feeling that sudden shift in my vision. It's accompanied by a mentality of "Enough messing around, let's get down to work and run, kid!" My stride lengthens, my muscles seem to stretch further and I'm flooded with a feeling of heady strength that has me bearing down and picking up speed without even thinking about it. The giddy glee of a runner's high bounces around in my blood, but it's coated with a layer of calm that tamps it down and directs all of my energy into that steady focus that pushes me further, faster.

I call it my "runner's zen," since it seems to be just that - a sort of active calm, almost a meditative state, from what little I know of them, but one that directs relaxation into power of movement. It's not something I can trigger at will yet, but I'm able to hold onto it a little longer each time it happens - yesterday, it lasted for the final two miles of my 8-miler, and felt absolutely amazing. Until then I'd just been jogging along - feeling good, but taking my time - when all of a sudden, almost exactly as I hit mile six, my visual and mental focus turned inward, my stride stretched out and my pace picked up.

It's a great feeling, and is as close as I've ever felt to flying. That centered focus is an intense and powerful tool, and one I hope I can learn to use and control as I continue my training. But for the moment, I'm happy just to revel in my runner's zen every time I manage to slip into it - I may not be much for sitting still long enough to meditate, but if I can meditate on the go, this seems like a great way to do it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've always enjoyed Valentine's Day, for no other reason than that it never fails to makes me smile. Yes, I'm well aware that it's a day-long cliché that was more or less invented by Hallmark, and from which florists, chocolatiers, high-end restaurants and jewelers make a killing, along with the zillion other reasons people use to hate it. But in my mind, a day that's all about love can't be that bad. (I know, my hippy side is showing again.)

I didn't actually do anything valentines-y today since Metro, in all their wisdom, decided to make it extremely difficult for anyone to use the blue and yellow lines to get into the city this weekend. But two of my girlfriends and I had a girls' night yesterday, and I had a blast.

We met up for happy hour - at Ella's, for those of you in D.C. - and I brought them both roses, just to be cliché. (I had intended to bring yellow ones, for friendship and as a throwback to the "Happy Just Because Day!" that I created in college - a random day when I ran around taping single yellow roses to my friends' doors, usually when we were all stressed out about midterms or finals. But no one was selling anything but red roses, so I made do with those.) After a carafe or two of (delicious!) sangria, we made our way to a table for dinner, and caught up on work and love lives over spinach salad and a couple of pizzas.

Two of us decided to make a night of it, grabbed some popcorn and went to see He's Just Not That Into You (I know, I know, could we be anymore a portrait of the stereotypical single girl?), which I thought was very cute, and had some hilarious moments and great lines. I don't care how much the critics hate it, it hits so many aspects of life for both couples and singles dead-on that you can't help but laugh and nod in agreement with the characters. Ginnifer Goodwin's Gigi was my favorite overall, although Drew Barrymore's Mary had my favorite line, and Jennifer Aniston's Beth and Ben Affleck's Neil were my favorite couple.

I spent the Metro ride home talking politics with another single 20-something, and considered the evening pretty perfect.

I hope you all had a great Valentine's Day, too! Any highlights, or valentine suggestions for singles or couples in the future?

Update: Becoming a winter runner

One of my early posts was about my goal to become a winter runner, and since it's now February, which is usually one of Washington's most wintry months, I thought I'd post a progress update.

I haven't been able to run as much as I'd like, since it's dark until just before I leave for work in the morning and gets dark again before I get home in the evening, and running on an unlit trail in the dark isn't safe in any weather. So during the week, I've been making do with the gym. But I've gotten out most weekends to do between 7 and 10 miles, and when I was at my parents', my mom and I ran whenever we could (that's us above, post-run, with our friend the snowman melting off to the right).

I just got back from a 7-miler in this morning's 40-degree sunshine, and I have to say that it felt positively balmy after the cold snap that lasted through most of January and kept the weather in the 20s or lower most days. The sun was out, and with the wind at only about 10mph, I had my sweatshirt and gloves off and my sleeves pushed up past my elbows before I'd hit the two-mile mark.

It wasn't my best 7-miler, or even one of my better ones. Between the bone-chilling, windy cold, a surplus of translation work and being sick, this was my first outdoor run in almost a month (yikes) - the longest I've gone without running in nearly a year. Despite feeling something like a rusty old bike, it felt good to be out, getting my heart and my legs pumping and watching the sun sparkle off the surface of the Potomac.

One winter definitely hasn't transformed me into one of those runners who get out and run whatever the weather - in the dark, in sub-20-degree weather, in rain and sleet. (Although I did run while it was snowing once! Completely unintentionally - I was a half mile out when it started, and decided I might as well tough it out for another 7.5. Lesson learned: snow stings just like sand does when it hits your eyes, but on the plus side, it melts afterward.)

But it has toughened me up - my "no way, no how" temperature is about 30 now, an improvement of at least 15 degrees. And I find myself resenting the gym more and more as the winter goes on, revving the elliptical machine up to 85rpm and wishing I were outside, so I could get a real workout. In short, I feel like I've had the best first season of being a winter runner I could've hoped for. I'm looking forward to spring, but knowing I won't dash back inside at the first sign of winter weather this fall feels pretty good too.

Survival of the whiniest?

What exactly is $1 trillion dollars? Every time I read that number, I flash back to Dr. Evil's maniacal laugh and signature pinky-to-the-corner-of-the-mouth look in the first Austin Powers movie as he's demanding what he thinks is an exorbitant amount of money from the U.S. government, only to discover that $1 million has become laughably little while he's been out in space. CNN's Christine Romans' analysis of what exactly a trillion-dollar debt means is eye-opening, and a little scary.

Economics is admittedly not one of my strongest subjects (The four classes of it I had to take between high school and college were 585 of my least-enjoyably spent hours ever.), but isn't "rescuing" failing companies sort of counter to the whole idea of a free market economy in a capitalistic society? Isn't the point that the economy and its consumers choose the businesses that succeed through supply and demand, a sort of Darwinism of economics - survival of he who can afford to stay open?

I don't pretend to understand all the details of last year's bailout or the stimulus package currently being debated by the Senate, but what I do know is that it's making me very nervous about the likelihood of my being able to buy a house a few years down the road, or get reasonable loans for grad school. And on a societal level, it kind of makes me want to cross my arms and pout. Why do the automakers get help? It's been obvious for more than a decade that combustible engines are on their way out, but they've been dragging their feet on switching to a type of car that will, in the end, cost the consumer less and may actually sell more in the long run. Why does the financial industry get "rescued?" They seriously messed up in a myriad of ways and spent so much money to do so, it boggles the mind. Then they messed up some more with the money the government gave them to fix it.

So we're doing all of this to prevent companies who made mistakes from suffering the logical consequences of their actions...why, exactly? I know, I know, so the American economy doesn't completely collapse on itself. It still feels wrong, from where I'm standing. And kind of like we're rewarding economic failures for having failed - and then whining about the reality check.

I don't want more tax breaks and I don't need a stimulus check - I pay my taxes without complaint, expect everyone else, individuals and businesses alike, to do the same and all I ask is that if I've paid too much, I get it back sometime in the first half of the following year. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work? What are we really hoping to accomplish, in the long run, by throwing unfathomably large sums of money at businesses and people who have become notorious for financial mismanagement? And what have they done to demonstrate that they're trustworthy enough (I know, what an old-fashioned concept that is!) to deserve it?

The "25 Things" Thing

Okay, for those of you who aren't on Facebook or don't check it very often, this is sort of the new, social-networking equivalent of a chain letter. (And actually kind of similar to my second post.) In middle school and high school, extensive surveys with completely random questions (from "What's your favorite flavor ice cream?" to "Do you believe in ghosts?") are more popular and - at least in my time (it's depressing that I can say that in all seriousness...) - got sent around to everyone's email lists and often generated rumors about who had a crush on whom, or who might be dating or start dating soon or have recently broken up without telling anyone.

The deal with this Facebook version is that you write 25 things about yourself, covering whatever topics you want, then tag 25 people (including anyone who tagged you - 'tagging' is basically putting them on a list of people you want to read what you're posting), who are all supposed to then do the same.

There's no real point to it, but it's fun - thinking of 25 things about yourself that everyone doesn't already know can be challenging, especially if you talk as much as I do! So consider yourselves tagged, and do with this (your answers, not mine!) what you will: post it on your blog, email it around, go around the dinner table and think of things you may not ordinarily tell your family about yourself or each other...or don't do anything at all, it's up to you!

1. "I hate peas." Not really, but I do love the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. It might be an addiction.
2. If I could move to a French-speaking country (or a handful of European countries) tomorrow, with a job or scholarship lined up and none of the hassle of visas, shots, moving things and getting rid of furniture, I would do it in a heartbeat. I have no idea whether or not I'd want to stay forever, since I love the U.S., but I'd definitely enjoy a few more years of living in another culture that feels like home.
3. I'm something of a hermit. Put me someplace comfortable with books I like, a computer and/or writing implements, and creative things to do (musical instruments, things for knitting, sewing, scrapbooking, etc.) and I would be perfectly happy for at least a week. Probably a month.
4. But, I also love spending time with my friends. In a perfect world, I would spend every evening at a café, à la française, with a group of friends and talk for hours.
5. I can't stand the idea of someone not having a positive opinion of me. Whenever I'm afraid someone might think poorly of me, I get really flustered and guilty (I never said it was logical!), and am upset until I can figure out a way to prove to them I'm a good/productive/whatever-positive-adjective-applies person. This makes teaching nerve-wracking for at least the first half of the semester.
6. I'm really surprised whenever someone pays me a compliment, and my knee-jerk reaction is to deny whatever positive thing they've said (again, not logical). I've been getting better about it in the last few months, but it's still difficult for me to take a compliment.
7. I would love to live in the same metropolitan area as my family. Our family is small but has generally been very spread out, geographically, and I think being able to do something ordinary like drop by for Sunday lunch or to lend a movie would be amazing.
8. Books are my addiction. Don't get me wrong, I like clothes and shoes too, but books are less expensive, give you more and last longer. Plus, bookstores are usually fairly quiet, and no one cares how long you spend browsing. Department stores echo, boutiques usually blast headache-inducing music and salespeople try to hurry you along every five minutes.
9. I want kids, I don't feel like my life would be complete if I didn't have or adopt kids at some point, but I'm not totally sold on the idea of getting married. I think it's a wonderful institution and works amazingly well for couples who genuinely love one another and have solid pre-marital relationships as well as well-established individual identities (of whom I'm lucky enough to know several who've been married for years, and some who are getting married in the next few), but I also think far too many people get married because they're afraid of being alone or think it's just what you do once you've gotten to a certain point in your life or in a relationship.
10. I hate being sick, and am usually convinced I can ward off illness with willpower alone. I deny that I actually am sick until I've gotten to the point where I can't possibly stand another minute without medicine, then I take the medicine and go back to trying to pretend I'm not sick. By the time I admit that I'm sick, I'm usually carrying a box of tissues and a cup of tea around with me everywhere I go. (This weekend and yesterday being a case-in-point. Ick.)
11. I can take a ridiculously long time to make decisions and often overanalyze to the extreme, but once I've definitively made up my mind, I'm completely convinced I've made the right choice.
12. In the same vein...I'm very, very stubborn. About just about everything.
13. I hate, hate, hate, HATE hot, humid weather (tough luck for 3 or 4 months of the year in DC, right?). I dislike temperature extremes of any kind, spoiled child of the Southern California beaches that I am, but if I have to deviate from 65 degrees and sunny and it involves humidity, I usually prefer 20 degrees colder to 20 degrees warmer. At least when I'm cold, wearing sweaters and drinking hot things can make me warm. Although take away the humidity, and you can flip that. (N.B.: My body gets a little more used to gross DC summer every year, and this past summer didn't actually bother me that much - in part because it was pretty mild - so I may have changed my mind about this by next winter. We'll see.)
14. Totally at odds with my hermit side... I love talking to people. It stems from being a people person and generally interested in what makes them tick, and is why I actually enjoyed waitressing, particularly in cocktail (that's the tables near the bar, for the uninitiated), because people who sit there tend to be in less of a hurry and are often happy to engage in conversation with total strangers.
15. As a direct result of that, I'm one of those people who can't mind their own business and will answer a question I overhear in someone else's conversation if no one who's part of it can (like, "How many more stops to the Smithsonian?", "What's the deal with the changing of the guard at Arlington?", "Why are there so many people on the Metro at 5pm??", "Do you think the weather will be better tomorrow?").
16. I'm a culture junkie, and I mean that in the broadest sense of the word. Plunk me down in the middle of a city or town and I'll happily wander around, people-watching and absorbing the feel of life there for as long as you'll let me.
17. The first thing I do when I go somewhere new (if it's up to me) is go for a long walk and soak up the sights and sounds of wherever I am. Actually, that doesn't apply only to new places. I walk more or less the same route through Paris right after I get there, whether it's been a month or several years since the last time, just because it feels like Paris, and I love it. And I do the same thing in Manhattan Beach whenever I'm there.
18. The second thing I do when I go somewhere new is usually decide that I'd love to live there for awhile. So far, the list includes Paris, Arles (even though I can't pronounce it convenablement), New York, Seattle, Victoria (B.C.), Prague, London, San Francisco, Monterey... I think the logic behind that is that during the #17 wanderings I end up falling in love with wherever I am, and want to feel like I belong there.
19. I was really shy as a little kid (ex: it took me more than two years of attempts to actually join the K-3 kids' choir at church, because I didn't really know anyone and it terrified me), and still have random moments of inexplicable shyness.
20. Dating completely baffles me and I'm terrible at it, except for the talking to people part.
21. I desperately want a dog, but don't live in a big enough apartment to have one, or know enough about where I'm going to be for the next few years to be able to think about getting one yet.
22. My favorite thing about living somewhere with four actual seasons is seeing daffodils (and cherry trees!) bloom in the spring.
23. Inconsiderate/oblivious people are my pet peeve, and it drives me nuts that there are exponentially more of them in large metropolitan areas than there are in small towns. You'd think living practically on top of each other would induce politeness, because everyone deals with large groups of people on a regular basis. Instead, it makes people more self-centered and prone to stepping on one another, not holding doors, cutting people off, ignoring people who clearly need help, etc.
24. When I cry for an extended period of time, my eyes get really intensely blue. If they were that color all the time, without the crying, it'd be awesome.
25. This thing took me a ridiculously long time to finish. Possibly because some of my answers were much more involved than was necessary...