It’s All About Exercise: Body, Mind and Soul

Whew! I was shocked to realize it has been almost a month since I last posted a blog entry AND I still have one last Costa Rica one to wrap up and post (this weekend). Sheesh! I suppose it shouldn’t be shocking that the last blog was the weekend before classes started. Yep, that is the time suck right there! Any spare time I have is spent shackled to a book or writing a response to something I am reading. It’s okay, though, that’s what I am here for. It has been a good, but weird semester start. I started out ahead, and now I am behind/barely on top of everything (dependent on the moment and your interpretation!) I am really enjoying my classes and a lot is connecting and overlapping, which is a wonderful thing as I continue working on forming a philosophy and working framework that I can try and articulate when needed and apply to the work I want to do in promoting sustainable living.

I am taking Environmental Sociology, which is fun for me. I have taken quite a few psychology classes, but never a sociology class so I am enjoying looking at the topic through a new lens. This week we are to be reading Walden, which I have never read and writing a journal for a week straight about nature in all its forms. I am also taking what we call “602.” This is the second required class for my class and its official title is: Environment, Culture, Community, Economy: An Interdisciplinary Seminar. Don’t ask me what that really means yet. I just know, that like the Sociology class, it means a ton of reading. We have started with looking at the indigenous culture, and I have enjoyed learning more about that. We were also required to go hear Winona LaDuke speak who is an amazing activist in the realm of environmental justice with a specific focus on Native people. My wild card class is a journalism class called Documenting Southwest Parks. The instructors received a grant to work with the National Park Service and have the students create documentaries that the parks can use to promote the work they are doing. I am treating this as a research methods class of sorts as I really enjoy qualitative research and see this an opportunity to explore a variation on that. For the project I selected, I will be working with 3 photojournalism (or “PhotoJ” as they are called in the biz) students. I will rely on their passion and expertise in the photography realm, although I do plan to do a bit of experimenting myself, and I will concentrate on the research and interviews. My professor was even able to locate a project proposal that ties in with some of my interests. We will be travelling to the Verde Valley to the Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot Monuments to document their efforts to get local children and young adults connected with nature and the value of stewardship through educational and restoration programs. I am super excited and hope some of this will keep building towards the ever looming thesis. And then, just for fun, I am auditing a Construction Management class called Sustainable Buildings and Assessment. It will develop my building and facilities lingo, we get to take cool field trips, and it prepares us to take a LEED Green Associate certification exam if we are so inclined. Not sure yet, if I will, but I figure it can’t hurt and could look good on the old resume…

So in addition to studying and working, my other primary focus is being “Get In Shape Girl.” I have been extremely proud of myself for drastically increasing my level of physical activity since moving to Flagstaff. Mainly this has been happening through mostly giving up driving and relying on my feet and bicycle to get me where I need to be, as well as our weekend hiking excursions, but I have realized it is still not enough. I have needed to up my cardio and strengthening quota, so one of my goals with the start of a new semester was to take advantage of some of the group exercise classes that are offered, since they are “free” (I am sure I paid for them with one of the gazillion fees I get charged). I wanted to get them incorporated into my schedule from the beginning so that I could not make excuses or feel up the open time with other stuff. These are really the best option for me. I am a bit of a fair weather working out type of person. I hate exercise machines like the treadmill or elliptical. They are mind numbing and tedious. I don’t like to run, and I don’t like to walk or bike long distances when the weather is not an optimal temperature. So, a class keeps me motivated and moving. Someone else tells me what to do, and all I really have to do is follow the directions. Following directions doesn’t require too much thinking, but the concentrating and remembering of a sequence of moves distracts me from the fact that I am hot, and sore, and out of breath!

I am happy to report, so far so good! With the exception of last weekend when our temperatures were in the negatives and I just couldn’t bear the thought of stripping off and putting back on 3 or 4 layers just to work out, I have been getting to classes regularly. I have even been getting up for 7 am yoga, okay so not this week, but I am back on track next week! I am going to some Cardio Kickboxing classes which I always love, and this week I added a Stretching and Toning class that I really liked. My final step is to add in a Step class or two. I am feeling challenged, but not overwhelmed and not too out of breath. Now, my abs might argue with me about that whole challenge thing, now that I think about it. So I am pleased with myself and now I am just focused on keeping my momentum and having it be a continued priority.

R also took me out on a trail on my bike a couple of weekends ago. We went down to Sedona and went on the Cockscomb Area Trails. It was challenging, scary, and fun. I also had a big wipe out, but it has not scared me away, despite the fact that the bruises running down my left side are still a wee bit tender and are fading slowly! Really, the actual fall didn’t hurt that bad. I was a bit dazed, but not too traumatized. If anything, I was relieved that I had conveniently fallen between the tree and the cactus instead of on one of them! I also truly appreciated my helmet for the first time. Again, I didn’t really knock my head particularly hard, but I definitely appreciated the skull protection when I landed. Here are a couple of pictures of me including one of my battle wounds from where my gears scratched my calf. I think R was afraid he scared me off, but I assured him that I am ready to go back and am determined to not have to walk up those hills quite so much and have better control as I go down the hills. I suspect I will always prefer the tame and “easy” trails, but I think I will definitely add it to my list of recreational activities. Look at me branching out!

Don't I look cool?!?

Robert leaving me in the dust

Here I am in action. Such great scenery, too!

Yep, that's really me.

One of my ouchies!

Thanksgiving, Flagstaff Style

We just finished our first major holiday in our new home of Flagstaff, and it is filled with lots of happy new memories. The fabulous Aunt M made the trek from the Big D to join us for the holiday weekend. Having some family here definitely was the icing on the cake! The only black mark on the weekend was me being sick. After almost a week of constant coughing and persistent throat tickle, I called uncle and went to the doctor on Wednesday morning. As I suspected, he said it was most likely a sinus infection and prescribed me antibiotics, which I was trying to avoid. ANYWAYS, a minor inconvenience at most. It slowed me down a bit, energy wise, but did not stop me from enjoying my long weekend!

Our Thanksgiving plans were to join some of my fellow SUSer graduate students for a potluck feast. We had purchased a pasture raised turkey through our CSA. It was not inexpensive, but we concluded that it was worth the cost to know that Buddy (what we named him) had a humane life. So this meant we were cooking the turkey. Luckily, we agreed to do an early evening meal so that we did not have to get up crazy early to start roasting. Roasting our turkey turned into a b it of an adventure with some ups and downs. Upon reflection, I am pretty sure it was our first attempt at roasting at turkey, so we should have expected a learning curve.

Unfortunately, even though we had been letting it thaw in the refrigerator since we picked it up Saturday it was still pretty frozen on Thursday. So, we tried the dripping water technique and finally seemed to get it thawed for cooking. And, we were still on track for getting it in the oven by about 11 am. See, everything said that our size turkey should take about 3.5 to 4 hours to roast. So, this would get it done

around 3:30 and allow enough time for it to rest before we carved and took it our host for the evening. Thanks LE for being a fabulous host, by the way. Soooo, our lovely instant read thermometer (which I highly recommend, by the way) went off right about the time we expected it to do so. We were a little surprised by the lack of drippings in the bottom of the pan, and we were certainly not prepared for the gush of liquid that came out of Buddy when R pulled him out of the pan. Liquid that was a definite pinkish color… that was our first signal that all may not be as we hoped… but at least we knew where all our drippings were!

However, we decided to let him rest, and after a while, R started carving. As he got close to the center, we realized it was definitely not cooked all the way yet. Okay, so perhaps the core was not as well thawed as we had hoped. The turkey went back into the oven for some more sun tan time… And kept roasting as each temperature check did not tell us the inner core was where it should be. Finally, about an hour and half after we had anticipated it being done it finally seemed to be ready for carving. It did turn a lovely golden crispy brown, but of course, we completely forgot to take a picture before we carved it up!

Along with the turkey and gravy, we took mashed potatoes and a big salad of mixed greens with pistachios (all from the CSA), pear, dried cranberries, Rogue Creamery bleu cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette. The fabulous Aunt M made her famous buttermilk pie (recipe to follow) and pumpkin pie. Our potluck extravaganza included the following contributions: two types of dressing, two types of cranberry sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted butternut squash, sweet potato rolls, cheesy potato casserole, veggie tray, roasted root vegetable fries, dairy free pumpkin pie and an amazing chocolate turtle tarte. It was a lovely evening filled with tasty food and great new friends.

Robert had to work on Friday, so I spent the morning doing some studying. After lunch Aunt M and I headed into downtown Flagstaff to check out some of the local shops. Neither of really planned to spend money, but we ended up finding a few goodies. Aunt M found fun Christmas presents for her daughters, and we each bought each other a fun little gift for less than $5! I had been meaning to spend some time checking out some of the shops, and this was my first opportunity to really just wander and do this. We concluded that we had done our duty as citizens and contributed to the local economy by spending some money on the day after Thanksgiving, and we headed to Macy’s Coffeehouse to indulge in Macy’s Specials. I had a gift certificate for Oregano’s, so we decided to take a break from turkey and got pizza for dinner. We got the Frisco Thin Crust Pizza with a tomato cream sauce and bacon. Yum! We rounded out our evening with several competitive rounds of Quiddler.

Saturday, the weather looked promising in Sedona, so we headed south for an afternoon of hiking. We couldn’t have asked for more beautiful weather. After several days of highs in the 30’s, we welcomed the clear sunny day and temperatures of almost 60 degrees. It was amazing what a change in elevation could do. As we drove into downtown, we encountered some lingering fall foliage that we could not resist photographing. We picked out a new trail to explore called the Jim Thompson trail that was on the edge of downtown Sedona. It was perfect for what we wanted. It was a pretty easy, fairly flat trail with spectacular views of the surrounding red peaks. We took our time and even though it was a holiday weekend, the trail was not super crowded. It was also nice because it was JUST off the beaten path in Sedona, but you still felt like you were in the middle of nowhere most of the time.

Here are my pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2222387&id=18808643&l=c0dcb9d79e

After returning, we put together a white chili using some leftover turkey and roasted chilies and dried beans from the CSA that we slow cooked in our Crockpot. We have been getting a bag of roasted chilies almost every week. Although that is great, our freezer is quickly filling up with them. I recently went on a quest for recipes that called for chilies, and this one seemed like a good one to try. Obviously we substituted roasted turkey bits for the ground turkey, and chopped up our own chilies and used our own beans.

Today, I rounded out the rest of our holiday weekend with a Thanksgiving Leftovers Casserole. I already had a vision of what I intended to throw together, but then encountered this recipe from one of the blogs I like to read. I did a layer of stuffing, then tossed chopped turkey with gravy and thawed frozen peas. I then topped it off with a layer of mashed potatoes and some shredded cheese. Yum, yum! All in all, it has been a good holiday weekend.

The Fabulous Aunt M’s Buttermilk Pie Recipe

3 eggs

2 Tbs flour

½ c. butter, melted

1 c. buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

An unbaked pie shell

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all the ingredients together and place in pie shell. Will bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Flagstaff Adventure: Devil's Bridge

For the first time since my arrival in Flagstaff on July 12, I went down the mountain. Well, not the whole way down to the Valley, but about 3000 feet down to Sedona. Talk about a drastic change in terrain and temperature! We took the scenic route, 89A, which winds through a canyon and suddenly the pine trees start disappearing and you begin seeing massive red rock cliffs. As usual, I was in awe of the scenery and could not get enough of it. As we drove the hour to Sedona, I began to truly realize how much there really is to see in do in this area. It seemed liked we saw countless spots to pull off, hike, camp, enjoy the view, etc. I have no idea how we will see it all, over the next two years…

Since it was the weekend, the roads were busy. In many locations near popular destinations, cars lined the roads as people walked to where they wanted to go to avoid paying the $20 parking fee. Can’t say that I blame them! Sheesh! In particular, Slide Rock State Park is a popular destination with a natural rock slide you can ride into the river. Will have to check that out one of these days.

Sedona itself was hopping with visitors. It definitely looks like a tourist destination with its main thoroughfare of shops, art galleries, and restaurants. I would like to go back at least once and wander the main strip a bit. Touristy or not, there did seem to be a few cool and interesting looking places to poke around in for an afternoon. Again, you can’t beat the setting: A cute little town nestled in the midst of red rock mountains in every direction. Sedona is also known for being super new agey… more on that later when I actually go visit. Once we arrived at the Red Rock District, we found a place to park shortly off the turn off. The road was pretty rough and vehicles with low clearance (like ours) were discouraged from trying to drive to the trail head. As a result, we walked about a mile in to the trail head for Devil’s Bridge.

The trail was fairly short, but it felt like a pretty intense hike because it was about 1:30 in the afternoon with the sun directly overhead and temperatures in the 90’s. Again, definitely the warmest weather that I have experienced since moving to Flagstaff. The trail allows you to circle around to underneath the arch so that you can get views from that direction. In order to reach the top of the bridge, you have to climb a pretty steep rock staircase. The climb is definitely worth it as you will see from the pictures.

When we first approached the arch, I got really overwhelmed and with the perspective I had, said there was no way I was going out there! The bridge looked super narrow and precarious. I did go around so that I could get a better view and then I realized that it was actually a lot wider than I initially thought, so as you can tell, I did venture out to the middle. However, my fear of heights took over, and I went nowhere near the edge. Of course, several of the others that I was with were much more bold and adventuresome. This freaked me out, too. I kept having visions of them slipping and falling. Needless to say, I felt a certain amount of relief when we were all done exploring and started heading back. Anyways, it was super awesome. Definitely my favorite vistas of all the hikes so far.

Cori’s Pictures

R’s Pictures