Links for Today

Just some fun/quirky/moving/thinking links. All of which I've read recently. So you should too.

• How Your City's Public Transit System Stacks Up
•  Statistics plus infographics plus public transit. What's not to love?
• Finding Myself Again
• A guest post from a current teammate on my former grad assistant coach's blog. It shows the struggle and the fight against eating disorders. It's why I am a member of the committee for the National Eating Disorder Awareness Week at school. Becca is so strong.
• 17 Brilliant Animal Puns
• I love puns.
• How to Outsmart the MTA
• Another public transit article (sorry). But it saves you money in you're in New York.
• Optimism With a Splash of Sass
• One of my roommates' blog. A more practical guide to life than this thing where I just say whatever I want to. And I do want to say that she is super optimistic and I can definitely learn something from her!

Christmas Break Activities

So, now back at school, everyone has been asking me and everyone else, "What did you do over break?" or "How was your break?" I hate these questions, as I'm very bad at small talk and usually find something to complain about. This year, my go to answer has been that I went to the movies a lot. This leads to a lot of other questions I never anticipated so what am I to do? Be awkward right off the bat or talk about the movie and then be awkward. Either way, it ends awkward. Kind of like that sentence. Anyway, here's the master list of everything I read and watched the past four weeks or so.

Movies (seen in theaters):

• Foxcatcher
• St. Vincent
• The Theory of Everything
• Force Majeure
• The Imitation Game
• Big Eyes

Movies (at home):

(Disclaimer: I can't help I watched some weird/bad movies. It just happened.)

• Catching Fire
• The Spectacular Now
• If I Stay
• Raising Arizona
• Jurassic Park
• Submarine
• Saving Mr. Banks
• Bad Words
• Charlie Bartlett
• Walk the Line
• Boyhood

Books:

• One Last Thing Before I Go
• Down and Out in Paris and London
• Think Like a Freak
• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
• Murder on the Ile Sordou
• Empathy: Why It Matters and How To Get It
• The Birth of the Pill

Montco 2040

Last night I attended a meeting at the community college. The commissioners and the planning committee have been developing a plan for the next 25 years for growth and success in the county. I signed up to attend on a whim. I hadn't heard of such a plan until I read about it in the paper--and even that was only an announcement of the meeting. What excited me most was all of the trails that were being proposed. While this doesn't help me now, hopefully I'll still be running in the future to take advantage of it. The other day I "found" a trail that runs near Ambler, with stone pavers to cross the creek.

But back to the meeting. I pretty much drove all around the campus to find the building. And then I was pleasantly surprised when I was the youngest and least-dressed-up person in the room. Needless to say, I felt pretty awkward in my slide-ons from 2007, jeans, and a sweatshirt. So I just sat down and kept to myself. During the public comment time, I was hoping for some drama but none happened. The meeting was adjourned and I took two soft pretzels home. It was the least they could give me.

Here's the link to the plan for those who want to learn more. I also have an extra pin if anyone wants one. Don't all jump at once.

Just Driving

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time." 

T.S. Eliot

Snow Day at the Library

The Stairs to Nowhere

My day consisted of running through the snow on my run and then walking through the snow on my walk. Yes, boring. But I did walk to the library, where I bought a cookbook at the used book cellar and read eight chapters of book. So really I didn't much at all during the day. But walking in the snow wasn't bad at all all. I wore two pairs of pants and my snow boots and headed off. Luckily, on the way home, I had three options: one to walk and two to get a ride home. I was picked up a mile from my house (the library is about two miles). I enjoyed the crisp air and the independent spirit I got from walking to the library. If it wasn't so far (or if my bike had air in its tires), I'd do it more often.

Essentialism

I just finished reading Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. It's a guide book to cut out the unessential parts and activities in your life to become more centered and less stressed. As I read it, I felt like, for the most part, I live an essential life. Yes, sometimes I do things because other people want me to or because I feel like I have to even if I don't want to. But I do say no often and I do try to do essential things. But I'm not 100 always living the essentialism model (see below). 

But the book did give me some guidelines and ideas to follow to make essentialism a strong part of my life. I took the ones most applicable and interesting and doable. The book did seem catered to business professionals who are overstressed.

• Journal
• If it isn't a clear yes, then it's a clear no.
• Ask yourself, "What's important now?"
• Extreme preparation--start early on semester projects and create a master calendar for the whole semester with due dates
• Small wins are better for progress than one big win
• Design a routine
• Finally, ask "What is essential?"

New Year, Same Katie

As much as I hate on New Year's resolutions, I do applaud those people who took time to reflect on the past year and to make a commitment to make themselves better. I do think that people shouldn't wait for January 1st but I do realize how hard it is to make a change without a concrete start. All the things I want to improve in 2015 are just little things that I sometimes do now and again but I'd like to make them more routine.

So what are my goals of 2015?

I'd like to journal more, so that I can gauge my change and to stop bottling things up.

I'd like to worry less--both about the present and the future. I can't guess what will happen in a week from now. I just need to take it a day at a time. No need to stress myself out about things I can't control.

I'd like to stop saying sorry all the time. It's me or how I am so I shouldn't have to say sorry.

I'd like to read a little before bed--a novel or a fun book that has nothing to do with school to relax and get my mind off of things.


I'm sure there's more that I could do better or do less of or something I'm just forgetting that I meant to include. But here's to not beating myself up this year--or anyone else for that matter (that was a joke--I don't get into fights).