Shhhh It’s a Surprise…

Picture courtesy of author Lawrence D. Elliot, whose nifty book this is (click to read more)

The business of life inlcludes… celebrating milestones. Sometime not your own.

This week my Dad is 1) having his retirement party and 2) turning 72.

He’s spent the past two years battling skin cancer, lost his hair, and managed to keep his sense of humor.

I’m in awe of him.

So, instead of clearing it with my parents who’d probably tell me NOT to come. It’s too far. My children start school soon. My family needs me. I’ve decided (and aggressively supported by my husband) to surprise them. Him.

So here I come Dad. To set up your iPad. To find cool Apps and play Angry Birds. To eat Wahoo’s Fish Taco’s. To watch bad TV and argue monetary policy. Drink wine in Laguna. To walk (slowly) around and see dawn break (Hell, it’ll be 8:30am Boston time!)

To celebrate your milestones.

Looking forward to it.

My Lord of the Flies Day

Thanks to God's Little Wonders site for the photo.

Boston is raining.

After a dry spell (which = a pretty nice summer but also = water shortages), Mother Nature is now making up for lost time.

And it’s raining like a BAH-stard.

Short of rainy day activities, and a member of the Boston Children’s Museum, take the kids for an outing ther seem like the logical thing to do. Jeepers! The carpet structure in the lobby (picture above) is a vertical art installation spanning 3 stories- that the kids can climb– and it is totally worth the price of admission just by itself. It is beloved by my high-energy kids and their mother who can sit in the benches and relax.

So great idea! Off to Boston we go… Hi-ho!

And so did every other Boston parent with kids.

I should have knows, the lobby was choked with strollers. It looked like the mall parking lot during tax-free or high holidays. Hysterical kids and their equally hysterical parents fought tooth and nail for each square inch of mind-enriching space.

It was totally not for the faint of heart.

Thank goodness I have my parking karma (a super power that allows me to find parking spaces at will, usually right next to where I want to be) it somehow translated into activity station karma and lunch table karma. So while parents (and kids) were battling lord of the flies-like over lunch room and water tables, my crew sailed in to empty or nearly-empty ball rooms and Buster’s Jet.

But boy it WAS great people watching. I, being the hazed and now a much (more) relaxed parent of school-age kids, just sat back and watched the show. While my kids negotiated obstacles and other kids, I watched one shaky exasperated mother tell her pre-teen son point blank “I’m leaving now, if you’re with me great! If you’re not, you can figure out a way home because I’M DONE!… DONE!”

Others would cling tightly to their kids’ hands, worried that the swarm of toddlers, grandparents, ‘rents and kids would sweep the ‘em away. A few looked like they really didn’t know where the hell their kid was, letting the fates sort it all out. And the gaggle of Dads out for a group playdate? They were the best– the most relaxed. If their kid decided to use the water tables as a personal jacuzzi, no problem. They laughed it off as they hauled out Skippy Jr. out, later Skippy was flying out Spider-Man style from the bridges in the Construction Zone. One Day saying “Look at him GO!”

I felt the worst for the grandparents– you could see the terror in their eyes– fear of losing their kid’s kid, the realization that “I/we are too old for this shit.”

I’d tell you, if there were a kid-friendly pub in the museum, it would have been doing some BRISK business.

Brisk.

ORGANIZING. Yep.

Picture courtesy of http://www.tristat.com

So I’m spending the next few days organizing. My desk. My calendar. The kid’s calendar. My closet. My life.

Where some people do this in the Spring, I find Fall, with back to school in the air, my time to get myself ready for the next year. It’s the beginning of my version of the fiscal year.

One thing I’m doing is getting back to basics by relearning Omnifocus, my favorite tool for organizing life’s “to-do” lists.  It takes the GTD (Getting Things Done) theory of time management, all contextually based (tasks are organize by “context”, e.g. phone, computer, errands) and puts it into super-efficient software (and iPhone App!) that can also be crossed referenced. I’m about 60% proficient at using it and it still kicks the ass  of ANYTHING I’ve tried before, IMHO. Check out the basics of Omnifocus HERE and you too will become a convert.

One of my main challenges is seeing how I’m going to fit in my workouts, now that I don’t have a trainer or pilates appointment to make (or to someone coaching me). This may be “it’s 5am get-my-sorry-butt outta of bed to exercise,” which — for those who worship sleep –isn’t the easiest thing to digest as anything more than a once-in-a-while anomaly.

Again. This is my challenge.

So I ask my readers- how do you work in exercise, obligations, family into your schedule?

The Finish Line! 90 Day Fitness Challenge DONE! (Update #13)

This is not me. (but it is here courtesy from yourscreenplaysucks.com)

Sometimes The Business of Life includes… GETTING TO THE FINISH LINE.

I just crossed the proverbial finish line.

90 Day Fitness challenge COMPLETE!

First off I have to give a HUGE thanks to the folks at Modern Pilates and Bodyscapes Fitness in Hingham.  Truly awesome group of people! They motivate, they push, they encourage one sorry ass into a leaner, meaner fitter Betsy!  Truly class acts, both Lisa Johnson (queen bee at Modern Pilates) and Laura Dosdall (manager and my trainer at Bodyscapes), I can’t say enough about them and their people without risking this post turning into a full-on love letter.

Prior to this I thought I was pretty healthy, now I know how far from “healthy” I was. Sure, I was healthier  by eating well. but I was missing the cardio and strength portion of the picture. Now, working with Laura post- challenge, I hope to enter in a 5k race — a concept so ludicrous prior to this, I would have not only scoffed at the suggestion, I’d probably ruthlessly make fun of the person until they cried.

So what’s next buff Betsy? Well, I am now going to figure out how life will be post-challenge. How do I fit in a 5 day workout in my calender when it’s not scheduled for me? (I guess you know what my next Friday posts are going to be about…) The business of life is now training myself!

But back to my friends who made all of this possible. These people are great. They were like advocates/coaches pushing me to do better, but in a really nice way. No “FEEEEEEL THE BUUUUUURN!” Gunar the scary muscle man. Promise. No matter what my preconceived ideas on how this fitness challenge would go, and the recent tweaked back aside, I loved the experience and can’t thank these people enough. I feel great. I look great.

What a GREAT experience!

Final challenge stats (as of 8/19/10 ):

• Bust: 36.5 inches (No change from last week, -2.5″ total)
• Waist: 29.5 inches (-0.50″,  -3.5″ total
• Hips: 37.25 inches (-0.55″, -5.25″ total, Still losing)
• Upper arm: 11.0inches (+0.50″, -1.00″ total)
• Upper thigh: 21.0 inches (-1.0, -4.75″ total)

Total inches lost 17.00″ !!

(I think I “placed” just fine.)

Read all about the 90 day health challenge I’m doing, you can read all about it HERE.

Check out my partners in the Go Betsy Go! 90 Day Challenge:

Battle of the crappy back continutes but since I’ve started practically dating my chiropractor, things are looking much better. I believe I can now walk without dragging my foot like zombie from Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, and when someone calls my name, I don’t turn my ENTIRE body around to greet them, but just my neck. Exciting stuff happen in Le Betsy land folks.

So my numbers might go up. I take them bright and early tomorrow AM.

So as of 8/09/10 :

Bust: 36.5 inches (No change from last week, -2.5″ total)
Waist: 30.0 inches (+0.50″, -3.0″ total
Hips: 37.75 inches (-0.25″, -4.75″ total, Still losing)
Upper arm: 11.0inches (+0.50″, -1.00″ total)
Upper thigh: 22.0 inches (+1.0, -3.75″ total)
Total inches lost this week: , total 15.00″ since starting. Oh jeez I gained. Well I expected as much, didn’t I? Put treats in, get treated to bigger numbers. Hopefully, now that I am more aware of my desire to soothe my pain with food, the less ice cream and pizza will go go in!

Read all about the 90 day health challenge I’m doing, you can read all about it HERE.

Check out my partners in the Go Betsy Go! 90 Day Challenge:

Cool Media: iPad Fuels Digital Frenzy (or Digital Does Books and Mags)

So lately I’ve been researching the huge movement currently happening in publishing from paper to digital.

From textbooks to magazines there is a quiet revolution going on, focused on how we read. You should totally read  the nifty article the New York Observer did on Scott Dadich, being heralded as the “Saviour of Conde Nast.”

As Wired Magazine’s creative director, Dadich, inspired by the iPhone, thought that though the iPhone was much too small, a 13 inch tablet would be just about the right size for a fully-realized digital version of the magazine (this was all prior to the iPad’s debut). He must have convinced the right people because, from conception of May 2009 to debut of the Wired iPhone app, it has since sold a mind-blowing 102, 884 copies since it’s been on the market.

That deserves a “Holy Schnikes!” , especially in a world where plummeting subscriptions is the norm, and magazines are being shuttered left and right.

Since then Conde Nast has totally jumped on board- changing their business plan to focus (and capitalize) on promise of digital.

It’s amazing how much of a shift this is (and is going to be) in media. With the iPad as the catalyst, magazines, novels, newspapers, textbooks all are all in play. And it’s ramping up faster than you think.

The landscape of how you view media, gather information or how your kids (and not just college, I mean K-12) are educated will be totally different in 5 years. Totally different.

And it’s going to be awesome.

(Lord, I love technology and progress.)

Here is some more info on Wired’s very cool digital offering:

Moving On…

One door closes, another opens (this one just happens to be a capitol door.)

A few things are ending in my life right now. Some of them are bittersweet, some are just plain sad, others you just want to say “Oh Thank GAWD that’s over” (or as they say in Boston “Ohhhh-VAH!”).

Sometimes it’s time to move on.

But… you can’t help playing in your head what you’d like to have done differently, better — and I like to try and learn from my experiences both professionally and personally, both good and bad. I think it’s a good thing to take a step back and assess. Perhaps the next go around you’d do a little differently, perhaps a little better.

But I have to remind myself  in all of this assessment that (1) it’s in the past and (2) what’s done is done.

At some point it’s just time to move on.

Doors close, other doors open. It is the ebb and flow of life.

So where the one constant in life is change, this week you’ve caught me between the spaces of ending some and beginning others.

And while some of it is “Awwww,” I’m kinda excited about the next great things I have yet to know.

(I love surprises.)

And just because I love this…link to the video The Future’s So Bright (I Got To Wear Shades)

Personality Set by 6.

Image courtesy of Guru Design

Some study says your personality is pretty much set by age six.

It would seem that a few thousand first graders from the 60′s were studied, and around 150 of them were interviewed later in their 40′s. Four traits were followed: talkativeness, impulsivity, adaptableness and self-minimizing behavior.  If you were chatty, impulsive and adaptable- goody for you! The study says you just won the personality jackpot: you’re most likely going to be cheerful, intellectual, with great language fluency.

What if you’re not chatty, like consistency, and talk badly about yourself? Not good my friend, not good at all. You give up easily, seek advice, are insecure and have an awkward interpersonal style.

As a first grader I was talkative (I know, I know. But seriously, in my report card it says “extremely talkative” and it wasn’t meant in a good way.) I was also adaptive — I loved change and still do. And impulsive- I was totally A.D.D. material. Sure I’m cheerful, somewhat smart, but I’m also shy, insecure and self-minimizing at times.

Basically I’m a mosaic of good and bad personality traits. I think we all are.

Is personality set at age six? Can four traits really be a good predictor?

Well, a human can be broken down into about $4.50 worth total of Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Calcium, etc., but gathered the elements together- a human body it doesn’t make.

I really don’t like studies like these. They are always well-meaning, and somewhat interesting in a cocktail party chit-chat sort of way, but it can be wide-open to crap interpretation and actual application. Can you imagine the devastation if something like this was actually used as a diagnostic tool? Intervention on six year olds because they’re shy, get after themselves for making mistakes or just like routine? Therapy to be more impulsive?

Good news is, if they start now, it’ll take about four decades to get any more insights…

Oy Vey! of Chiropractic Fun & 90 Day Fitness Challenge Update #11

Sometimes The Business of Life includes… GETTING INJURED.

Working out can mean injuries.

Now, I’ve also been dealing with stress (the husbands company was sold, a process that took a couple of really, really stressful months,) so that could also be a contributing factor to my back issues. Friday found me cancelling my training with Laura the super trainer, which I hate doing, and making a beeline to a chiropractor.

Since college volleyball, I’ve dealt with back issues, sometimes chronically, but this was new and different pain, traveling up and down my back and neck, and shooting down my legs.

Fun.

A couple of X-rays, and back I was in Saturday morning to listen to the diagnoses: muscle spasms in my right side, my left hip is higher than my right, my spine, rather than straight, veers to the left. The good news is that  it all can be treated quickly. The tricky wicket is my neck. Seems rather than a natural curve, it is straight up and down, and actually starting to curving the wrong way.

And some arthritis is starting to show.

Great, just great.

So off I will be going to the chiropractor at least 3x a week for the next few weeks to get this back and neck treated. I don’t know how I’m going to swing this with three kids, but then again, the business of life is messy isn’t it?

Now for a dose of honesty.

I don’t know what my numbers will be looking like this week, first off I’ll be measuring myself (my official “measurer” is off on a business trip,) and I’ve done less cardio the past couple of weeks to rest my back in hopes that it will heal itself. Another wrinkle: I’ve been babying myself with food and drink. Not proud of it for sure, but I’ve had more wine and pizza than I should have and just tonight (Sunday) tucked into some ice cream.  Looks like I soothe myself with food.  I’m totally not proud of it, but there you have it. Good news is, the wine and ice cream have made me feel a whole lot better, but probably not after tomorrow’s numbers roll in!

So my numbers might go up. I take them bright and early tomorrow AM.

So as of 8/09/10 :

• Bust: 36.5 inches (No change from last week, -2.5″ total)
• Waist: 30.0 inches (+0.50″,  -3.0″ total
• Hips: 37.75 inches (-0.25″, -4.75″ total, Still losing)
• Upper arm: 11.0inches (+0.50″, -1.00″ total)
• Upper thigh: 22.0 inches (+1.0, -3.75″ total)

Total inches lost this week:  , total 15.00″ since starting. Oh jeez I gained. Well I expected as much, didn’t I?  Put treats in, get treated to bigger numbers. Hopefully, now that I am more aware of my desire to soothe my pain with food, the less ice cream and pizza will go go in!

Read all about the 90 day health challenge I’m doing, you can read all about it HERE.

Check out my partners in the Go Betsy Go! 90 Day Challenge:

Bad Backs Stink.

My update on my Go Betsy Go! 90 Day Fitness Challenge will have to be postponed today on account that I may have tweaked my back. I will post it on Monday.

I’m off today to a chiropractor in hope that they can manipulate it back to some form in which I can work out from.

I don’t know if I overworked it, or did some wrong move and just ticked it off — but it’s definitely unhappy. I do know that when this happens you don’t want to wait 3 weeks like I have been doing to see if it gets better. Even if you cut down on your cardio.

It doesn’t.

So look to Monday for an update.

Until then, keep on keepin’ on.

-Betsy

Simple is good.

I just ran across one SCARY-LOOKING infographic outlining how the new healthcare bill works.

Simple it is not.

I’m a huge supporter of the flat-tax.

Why?

It’s simple. It’s simplicity gets rid of most of the reason for the IRS. And filing for taxes. And HR Block. And your accountant Louie. Gone are a lot of the bureaucracy and peeps you pay money to, via taxes or a direct check, to help the government get it’s operating budget.

See simple is good.

But this new health care?

Not good.

I was skeptical and really not at all for government-run “Universal Healthcare” from pretty much the beginning — say when Hillary Clinton was the point person in the 90′s — but this really only solidifies my point. It is not simple. In fact, it is very, very complicated. And each time the direct path is deviated, bifurcated or split you’ve just added on more staff, infrastructure, and costs. And bureaucracy and confusion.

And when it comes your or your families healthcare, direct and easy is what you want.

So take a gander- is this the way you want your health care to look?

Download Chart (PDF format)

Thanks to Congressman Kevin Brady's office for the infograph