Cape Cod: Beach Beard

If you have been reading for awhile and even if you haven't you know my love for the Cape of Cod is infinite.  There are things that happen there that don't happen in other places.  I feel at peace while I am there.  I am able to soul search with ease.


This also happens:

Ritual shaving of the beach beard.  What is a beach beard you may ask?  For the past few years my husband, brother and his friends have had a beach beard 'contest'.  There are no winners really it is more an exercise of laziness to see what they look like with facial hair.  Most of them are pretty clean cut the rest of the year  but they let themselves go while they are on the Cape.  A day or two before leaving they shave their beards into something to attract attention. 

When you are in an area like Cape Cod THIS attracts attention.  Peter and I were walking to a cafe at the marina on our last day and all of a sudden he doubled over with laughter.  It seems the teenager that was walking towards us gave him an incredibly dirty look.

I decided to walk a few steps ahead after that.

Don't get me wrong, it is amusing and they seem to take much pleasure in the traditional ritual. 

I just worry that one year we are going to see men in their cranberry shorts embroidered with whales and women in the Lily Pulitzer showing up at our front door with torches and pitchforks.

Journalism Today: Fail

I read an article today regarding how a dog attacked its owner.  Now, I realize that it is awful that this happened.  I am sure that the victims were scared and hurt.  When I first read it my outrage was more about what probably caused this to happen (dog did not just go nuts) rather than what I am about to write.  When I stepped back and thought about the way the article was written it got me thinking more deeply.

Is that what journalism has come to in print media?

"When Deborah Hankin's boyfriend left her and his gargantuan Cane Corso Mastiff, she continued to care for him like her own, feeding him every day at 2:30 p.m.
But in return, the beast turned around and mangled her and a friend Saturday afternoon at her home"- Philadelphia Daily News 8/2/10

This lead reads like a fiction short story rather than a news article.  That in itself is disturbing enough.  The rest of the article was poorly written as well.  The more I thought about it, the angrier it made me.  There was absolutely no research done for this article.  The writer took it upon herself to use the skills she learned in a  fiction class to make her article appear more interesting.  That is not news writing. 

It seems to me these days that when journalists...and I am using that term VERY loosely... are tasked with writing about a subject, they sometimes feel the need to either glamorize/exaggerate it, no better than a reality tv show, or they insert their own opinion in what is CLEARLY not an opinion piece.  I see this daily in any number of print and tv journalism pieces.  It seems to me that some journalists do not know where the line between opinion and fact lies.

I like to write.  I did not go to school for it but even I know the difference between an opinion piece and a news piece.  Both types SHOULD require research from different angles and both should read like a well informed person wrote it.  A news piece should cover all the angles, tell the facts and give readers a well informed idea of an issue or event.  An opinion piece should show both sides, or many sides of an issue then proceed to use well thought out research, writing and words that would back up the opinion of the writer.  Don't they teach this to aspiring journalists anymore?  I am torn between believing if it is laziness on their part or ignorance.


I guess in a world where reality tv is king, Rush Limbaugh is considered informed (about his own opinions and not much else) and the Tea Party thinks that "Don't Tread on Me" is their own motto (please, again lazy people that could not come up with their own slogan) this is going the be the norm rather than the correct.

Are You Happy?

Jenna over at Eat, Live, Run asked this simple question today. To be honest I might not have answered it if there had not been a contest involved. ;)

Why?

I am not usually a very optimistic person. I often look for hurdles and stuff that has to be done rather that stuff that makes me happy. Today though I thought about the question for less than about 2 seconds and I was able to answer, "Yes!". What is funny is I did not really think about if I was or not, I just knew that at that moment, I was not unhappy. It was almost a reflex. When I did think about why, I came up with really simple things.

1. Gorgeous weather this morning (doggy walk and my run and sunroof open on my drive to work)
2. Yummy breakfast (more overnight oats)
3. Lunch at Whole Foods, outside, in said gorgeous weather very soon
4. The smell of soup cooking last night reminding me of fall

I stopped at that because the hurdles were trying to creep into my thoughts. This just reminds me to think more in the moment. I don't mean abandon all sense of planning for the future by blowing all my cash on a trip to Anguilla (would be nice though). I mean live in the moment in small ways; a good breakfast, a good sleep, doggie kisses and good cooking smells from my kitchen. I have worries, but maybe I don't have to worry about them 24/7. That might take some effort on my part but the way I am feeling makes me want to start.

Hooked! Overnight Oats

I know my posting has been very bad but I am trying not to pressure myself too much with it. I also know I feel better when I do it so I will try to do it more often.

I HAVE however been reading lots of other blogs, many are health and fitness blogs. What is great about them is that they don't make me feel bad about where I am in my health and fitness goals but they DO have great ideas that I can use just about every day.

Just about every single one talks about Overnight Oats. Now this is not the steel cut variety, it is the rolled variety and it requires no cooking. No cooking is a good thing in the steamy summer where your a/c limps along. I do love me some oats though. I had no been putting off trying it...I just kept forgetting to make them the night before.

Many of the recipes (and I use the term recipe lightly b/c there are sooooo many variations on it) call for a protein powder but I left it out as I don't do quite as much exercising at these ladies do and a bowl of hot oats usually keeps me going till lunch time. I went very basic.

1/2 cup rolled oats (not the quick ones)
1/2 cup Vanilla Almond Milk
cinnamon
pinch of salt

I used a fork to mix together the milk, cinnamon and salt before adding the oats. I was worried the cinnamon would clump on one section of the oats if I didn't do that step. I then added the oats and stirred to combine. This was all in a 2 cup plastic Ziploc container with lid.

When I pulled it out of the fridge this morning. And gave is a whiff, it smelled really good. The sweetness of the Vanilla Almond Milk and the cinnamon made it smell a little like rice pudding.

Then I tasted it. YUM! Even without additional fixin's it was great! I did add blueberries and a little yogurt. Very good but really didn't even need the yogurt! I am thinking a little cocoa powder would be excellent as well. Might try that next. The consistency was really pretty much like oatmeal but not as saturated. I really liked the texture.

If you are looking for a new quick breakfast, I HIGHLY recommend it! Wish I had pics but I ate it too quickly. ;)

Much thanks to Jenna at Eat, Live, Run and Sabrina at Rhodeygirl Tests for the inspiration!

One of the Funniest Things to Come Out of My Cape Cod Vacation

This is my brother and his friend (ok, probably more like adopted brother he and another one of my brother's friends have been coming with us to the Cape for years). I am not exactly sure how it started but it was hilarious. If you don't think so, check with your doc. ;)

Gym Fear

I knew it was coming. This week temps are topping out at 100+ and being southeastern PA the humidity is not much lower. I can't run in this...even in the early morning.

So, I joined a gym.

I am not completely uncoordinated. I used to rock a step class like no one's business. That was fourteen years ago. I have fallen off the elliptical in my home and I tripped over my dog last month, spraining my ankle. So getting on machines in front of people makes me nervous. I don't want to be 'that girl that fell off the tread mill' or 'that girl that fell off
Also, that complementary personal training session that gyms give you? Just annoying. Some random PT shows you around and puts you on a cookie cutter circuit and looks very disinterested while doing it. It has ALWAYS annoyed me, in every gym I have ever been to. You are doing your reps and they are looking around, maybe walking away, not at all interested in what you are doing. I always feel like I am bothering them somehow. Maybe it would be different if I was PAYING them but they could at the very least TRY to get me to pay them.

Don't even get me started on the locker room. Talk about judgment. I don't need that much info about perfect strangers and I don't give that much info to people I know.

So all in all, I already have issues with self esteem and body image. They just seem compounded when I enter a gym. I guess the only thing to do about that fear is face it. Go every day, get used to it and walk around in my too big running shorts and tee and not give it a second thought.

...I am not walking around naked in the locker room though. There is only so much judgment my thighs can take.

Pre-Guilting

Oh it's bad, it is. Guilt is something I was born with and has been difficult to remove. It's like that spiderweb you run into that you can't see and you are stuck with that icky feeling of the web strands and no matter how hard you try to remove them, you still feel them. *shudder*

I used to think guilt was just a part of my Catholic upbringing and if I left the Catholic behind, I'd leave the guilt there too. Not so much.

Even worse, I have found a NEW way to feel this horrible thing, pre-guilt. I just identified it this morning when I was looking at the sucky weather report for the next 10 days. Next week we are to have temps above 95 degrees and not below 72 degrees. This is bad for the girl that has been trying to get back to her normal running pace after being hampered by an ankle sprain and no gym membership. So even though I have absolutely no control about the weather I already feel guilty that I am not going to run on Monday.

How sick am I?

I haven't even slacked off yet and here I am feeling guilty becuase on Monday, in the future, I am not going to run. This is just ridiculous. I have to do something about this before I completely lose my mind and start blaming myself for the BP oil spill (which I already kinda do, driving an SUV and all).

So how do I do it? How do I stop guilt (for things that are unnecessary...I mean, if I was nasty for no reason to someone I would still feel guilty) from taking over?

How do you do it? How do you stop guilt?