Advice for Runners

I mentioned before that I'll be running a 5k on June 6th. This will be my first official race since the Memorial Day 5k in high school, and the first official race ever for many IEc-ers. (There are 14 people running, which is impressively good turnout for a sporting event. IEc-ers tend to be totally disinterested in sports, but it seems like we have more marathoners per capita than any company.) To help us prepare, one of my friends (a four-time marathoner) emailed a few tips for training.

His tips were very serious:

• Run or walk for at least 30 minutes three days a week. (Whoops, I haven't managed to do that one.)
• Don't eat or drink anything new the night before the race.
• Drink lots of water. 
• Know your pace so you don't line up with the speed demons if you're slow.

Then a principal (not a marathoner, but she has three young kids and still runs regularly, which I consider equivalent devotion) emailed "the fine print":

• Bring a bungee cord so a faster runner can pull you when you get tired. 
• Have a friend waiting at the water station to pour something stronger into your cup. 
• Practice elbowing competitors out of the way so that it just looks like you're uncoordinated. 
• Know your "good side," and keep it towards the cameras. 
• Prepare a victory dance for the finish line. 

Good thing I have a few bungee cords laying around! I figure you either need to train or bring a strong bungee cord, but not both.

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

It's 51 and rainy in Boston. Anyone feel like grilling or swimming?

Nope, didn't think so. At least it's good weather for catching up on work and sleep. It might actually be 70 and sunny on Monday, but I'm not counting on it.

This weather makes me so sad!! This time last year, I was a sailing star. I think I actually went out last Memorial Day weekend with my buddy Manlio and crashed into the Harvard bridge after watching him do the spinnaker. This year, I've yet to get on the water. It's been too cold and rainy! Can we all do a sun-dance and pray to Mother Nature that summer gets to Boston before next fall?

Life of a First-Time Manager

I haven't updated my blog much lately because I have been so busy with work. Ten-to-twelve hour days for weeks (months?). I billed over 100 hours to a single project in the last two and a half weeks, so I've been just a little bit overwhelmed. But here's the cool thing.

I'm managing the project.

I have one Research Analyst and one other Associate working for me. I have two external, academic technical reviewers that I've had to create subcontracts for. I had to create the schedule, assign tasks, make executive decisions about methodology, and review everyone's work, on top of doing my own analytical work. And it was hard. It was so hard. There were many days that I wished the Principal responsible for this project would just take over. There still are days like that--today was one. I have a million questions about the "right" way to do things. Clients always ask hard questions, and I'm no good at defending issues when the client doesn't agree. I usually end up wanting to crawl under the table and call out, "But I'm only 25! I'm your daughter's age. Why are you asking me for advice? I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING."

But, I guess, I sort of do know what I'm doing. I gave a solid presentation to the Head Honcho Client this morning with no preparation. I literally walked in the door at 8:25 this morning, and my supervisor called me into a meeting to brief Head Honcho on this hugely contentious analysis I'm managing. The Principal for this project was out of the office today, so it was all up to me. I was starving since I always eat breakfast at my desk. But in my hungry, sleepy state, I briefed him on the project and was later complimented by my supervisor. Yay!

And then, about ten minutes after returning to my desk (still without breakfast), I recieved a call from the Normal Client (not Head Honcho). She wanted me to give a briefing via conference call for the rest of her staff, as well as another agency that was expressing some hostility concern about our analysis. Maybe I mentioned that this is a surprisingly contentious analysis? And it sort of exploded over the past week. So I agreed, but then immediately wished the Principal would be there to help. I tried to think of anyone who could help. But everyone who would be remotely helpful was either out of the office (my Principal) or in full day meetings with Head Honcho. In the end, I sent a pathetic email to the other Associate on the project, hinting that he should come for moral support.

I received the best pep talk just before the call. I was explaining to a RA who sits near me how nervous I was, and he said, "You'll be fine. You have a great calm, composed demeanor, even when you're scared. As an Associate, the best you can hope for is that you can fake it well." So, so, so true. And I was hugely relieved to hear that I appeared calm. Really?! Because, inside, I was freaking out!!

Throughout the call, I just kept telling myself: stay calm. And it went really well. I think I sounded sort of professional, but anyhow, I faked it well. I think I was able to allay some of the major concerns in a way that makes this, I hope, a little less contentious process for the client. That is, after all, the primary role of a consultant. Sure, your client wants a specific task completed, but really what they need is for you to Make Their Life A Little Bit Easier. That's my job. Sometimes it's hard to do. But today, I did it.

Now, knock on wood, if I can just get this report complete without going over budget, I will consider my first management experience a smashing success. I may not have slept much for the past few weeks, but when the draft report is published in mid June, I will be one ecstatic girl!

Thanks

Thanks to Mom's and Grandmother's and the internet's advice, my plants are doing really well. I'm optimistic that they'll make a full recovery. (Except, of course, the paper whites, amaryllis, and geranium that I threw out.)

I devoted all of last Sunday to plant care, first picking off the tiny bugs with a tissue and tweezers, then painting the leaves with rubbing alcohol to kill any bugs that I wasn't able to pick off, then spraying everything with a mixture of soap and water to disable any remaining bugs--and apparently, if you use peppermint-scented soap, like Dr. Bronner's, it acts as a pest-repellent, too. My kitchen smelled so wonderfully minty after all of this! The scent also brought back a very acute memory of washing dishes in the field in Madagascar.

After all that, I left the plants for a few hours before wiping the leaves of my dracena and spider plant with a wet paper towel. I read online that, although a little soap does not hurt plants, too much may be bad. I figured that the saddest thing of all would be to successfully kill the mealybugs and then lose my favorite plants to soap overdose.

Five days later, they are all beautiful. I've been keeping them as quarantined as possible, rotating between sunny spots and not-so-sunny spots so they don't die on me before I can squish them back into the living room. Apparently mealybugs can take a week to 10 days to hatch, so I may need to treat them again soon, but the prognosis looks good!

In other news, it was 80 degrees here today! I have had just about the most stressful week at work ever, complete with very little sleep and lots of takeout, so it was nice to have beautiful weather to perk me up. (It frosted earlier this week, so this is a welcome relief.) I have to write my mid-year self-review for work tonight. These 6-month reviews inevitably happen during the busiest week possible. Do our bosses plan it this way, just to see how we cope?? I'm tempted to write "I didn't have time to do my review because you gave me too much actual work." At least if I have to stay up late tonight evaluating everything I've done in the past six months, I can do so with the windows open and my little windowsill garden growing happily.

Infestation - need help!

I just discovered that my houseplants are in crisis. Months ago, I noticed little white fuzz on a geranium, but I had no idea what it was. It certainly didn't look like an insect. I ignored it. Then, about one month ago, it started looking terrible, so I moved it to a sunnier spot, did some internet research, and discovered: mealybugs. Thankfully nothing else seemed to be affected, so I just chopped off the greenery (it wasn't the prettiest plant ever anyway) and threw it away.

Last week, that same plant sprouted up again from its roots (I had been too busy to deal with the "empty" pot). I decided to leave it, happily thinking that now I had the chance to grow a prettier geranium.

This morning, I noticed white fuzz on that little sprout, too. I went to water the rest of my plants and noticed that my paper whites were just covered in fuzz! I angrily hacked that plant off, too, then went on to inspect everything else.

I have thirteen houseplants that rotate between my bedroom and the living room, the only two rooms that get enough natural light to keep them happy. Every single plant except my bamboo, which lives far from the window, and my cactus have mealybugs. I'm terrified I will lose them all.

I don't know what to do. There are only two plants that hold sentimental value to me--my spider plant, which I've had for at least five years and just this year finally sprouted a little baby spider, and my dracena, which was a Boston housewarming gift from Colin and my Christmas tree for the last two years. I would, of course, hate to lose my aloe and jade and cactus and bamboo, but they are easily replaceable and I haven't invested too much time in them.

So what do I do? I'm throwing out the paper whites and amaryllis and the new geranium sprout because  I don't want to take any chances with plants that don't matter much. I don't know whether to just throw out the aloe and my two jade plants and my other unnamed succulent, or try to save them (how?). They aren't heavily infested, but I don't know. But what to do about the spider plant and dracena?? They only appear to have a few mealybugs apiece, but I know they will spread. Plus, the dracena is so bushy that I can't possibly search every leaf. I also don't have a lot of space to quarantine plants. I don't want any plants next to each other for fear that the bugs will spread and I will end up with no houseplants. I can't bring them to my office because I get no natural light there. How do I save a plant from mealybugs?

Gardeners out there (Mom, Grandmother -- Happy Mother's Day! You always have the right answers.): please help!

Photo Updates

Happy May, everyone! Just in time for summer to arrive (my roommate finishes exams next week, and Colin's already gone for three months of summer field research), the trees in Boston decided to bloom. Seriously, the were all gray and barren just two weeks ago. Some still are. The Northeast is really depressing in the spring because - hello?? - it's non-existent. Spring and summer are my absolute favorite times of the year, and I can't contain my excitement when the sun comes out and it's warm enough to spend all day outside without my ears freezing. I love lazy days reading by the river, kayaking while dangling my toes overboard, sweating up a storm while running, leaving the windows open, and eating mostly tomatoes and basil and fresh fruit. That is paradise! Oh, I can't wait!

In the meantime, though, I've been busy. I've made a few things:

A monogrammed breadcloth for Rebecca and Peter.
I hadn't cross-stitched since Girl Scouts, and it was painstakingly slow.

A basket-weave scarf for Colin. I bought the yarn last summer,
but didn't have the time or energy to finish it until March.
Luckily New England spring is non-existent, so he still had plenty of time to wear it this year.

I've traveled:

To Georgia! Colin's first trip to the South-that-is-not-Florida.

And then to Bainbridge, where we climbed on train cars.

And looked cute poking our heads out of the window.

And walked across the top of the caboose, just like in the movies...
except it wasn't moving and there was no bad guy. 

We traveled to Mexico Beach, where the weather did not cooperate. 

We walked out on the pier in pouring rain but couldn't even put up an umbrella for fear of being carried into the freezing Gulf of Mexico.

Despite the weather, we enjoyed fresh seafood from the Fish House.

Also despite the weather, I ate an icecream cone the size of my head!
(It was delicious.)

We traveled to Lake Seminole, where the fish did not cooperate. 

But we tried to catch them anyway, and
then we pulled some catfish out of the freezer and ate them.

Colin discovered that south Georgia has lizards. 

South Georgia also has, at least this once, flocks of white pelicans.

We took some time for target practice at the farm.

And we enjoyed the nice weather with trips in the boat!

Then I traveled to New Haven, where I held my first salamander. This is a spotted salamander.

These are red-backed salamanders, and they are apparently not that exciting.

Colin (wearing his new scarf!) on the hunt for salamanders.

I've exercised:

IEc participated in the Run of the Charles 24-mile corporate canoe relay race again.
This photo was taken as a coworker and I paddled away at the start of our leg. IEc improved tremendously this year--
we came in 37th out of 50 (compared to 48th and 49th out of 50 last year)!

Plus, although I don't have a photo to represent this, I've signed up to run a 5k on June 6th. I haven't run an official race since the Memorial Day Run sometime in high school. Then, I finished the 5k in 28 minutes. I'm aiming for less than 30 this time, given that I have only run twice in the last nine months because it's still cold enough that my ears hurt when I run outside. (And I feel ridiculous wearing earwarmers to run in May. My ears only hurt after running, not walking, so all those pedestrians would think I was crazy.)

And I made it through the scary week of bombings and manhunts in Boston. The day all of Boston, Cambridge, and surrounding areas were shut down was the eeriest of my life. Thank goodness that's over.

Other than that, I've mostly been working long hours. I keep telling myself that I don't mind working 10+ hour days now, as long as things settle down during the summer. I hate being cooped up when it's sunny outside!