The Anti-Bucket List

I keep thinking about my Bucket List Post from a few days ago and realized that I'm going to keep both an Anti-Bucket and a Bucket List going.  The Bucket List is self-explanatory, consisting of once-in-a-lifetime events, destinations, milestones, etc.  The Anti-Bucket List is the daily, weekly, or monthly type events that every time I do them, I think "I'm so glad I did this", or "I love this" or "I wouldn't be anywhere else right now".  Even if the "anywhere" I am is just my backyard.


Stay tuned....

The Bucket List, or, The Things I Never Regret Edition

I keep hearing the phrase "Bucket List" all around me.  I use it myself - particularly with regard to playing hockey or traveling.  I played at Yost.  I played in Canada.  I've been to Maine.

But what is a "Bucket List" really?   A list of things you want to do before you, ahem, die.  Things that are so important or so cool you have to write them down and check them off.  Priorities. 

If I were to make a list with those rules,  it would go like this (not necessarily in order of importance):

Go to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
Go to Ireland.
Go to Napa.
Go to Sweden.
Get a degree from the University of Michigan.
Adopt a German Shepherd.


But when you stop and really, really think about it, is  a bucket list more important than a "Things I never regret doing" list.  Like this:

Growing  and cooking as much of my own food as possible.
Spending  time with my family and friends.
Sitting in my chair with my cats.
Going to the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.
Taking walks or going on a drive with my perennial dining companion.
And, of course, because it is me, moving as much as possible every day until you can't move anymore.

So I am going out to lunch with my parents tomorrow instead of staying home and cleaning my house. Which is part of another type of list - the stuff I "should be doing" list.  Lunch is after, of course, going to the Farmers Market in Ann Arbor.  And after taking a run.  Then I am making dinner, talking a walk with my husband, and watching my favorite hockey team on television.

Sounds like a good day - the kind I won't regret.

Senior Night at Yost, or the We Have a Goalie Edition

I have a thing for senior night at Yost.  My husband and I are Michigan hockey season ticket holders and I am a bit of a hockey geek.  We sit in a section near the band among the same set of season ticket holders we have for some time.  Yost is easily one of my favorite places on the planet.  And senior night is a can't miss game.  A chance to thank the seniors for four years of hard work and effort.  A chance to say goodbye to players you've watched grow and develop over four years from rookie players to seasoned senior veterans.

This season has been a little different than recent seasons.  The team has struggled to find success despite a roster of super-talented players and one of the greatest coaches college hockey has ever known.

I am always amazed at pre-season college sports polls for both hockey and football ranking a team that had  great success in the prior year very highly in the current year after a superstar senior goalie or quarterback, respectively,  has graduated.  Such was the case with Michigan's hockey team, which lost one of the most spectacular college hockey goalies of all time in Shaun Hunwick, to graduation this spring.

And the team struggled, falling out of NCAA polls. Two of the top five defensemen battled injuries as the team rotated between three goaltenders in the search to find its goalie, sometimes losing both games in a weekend series and eventually falling into the bottom half of the CCHA standings.

Then something changed.   After months of switching up goalies, Michigan put Steve Racine in net against Ohio State and swept the series in Columbus, only to return home to a two-game home stand against Ferris State.  These games would be the final regular season games for Michigan ever in the CCHA and by winning  these games, Michigan had a chance to win home-ice advantage in the first round of the CCHA tournament.  Winning the CCHA tournament being Michigan's only change to continue its streak of NCAA tournament appearances, home ice advantage, especially at Yost,is crucial.

Racine rose to the occasion as Michigan won 4-1 Friday night and again in a shoot out on Saturday night, at a Yost Ice Arena which was without the student section, due to a conflict with spring break.   Making save after sometimes spectacular save, Racine stole the game from Ferris State on Saturday night, and saved senior night for the five Michigan seniors honored that night.

Because of the effort and heart of the team, Saturday's game will not be the last game the Class of 2013 plays at Yost.  They will return to the ice next weekend to host Northern Michigan in the first round of CCHA Tournament play.  And with Steve Racine as the backstop, Michigan has a chance.  Let's Go Blue, boys.  Way to battle back, fight through the tough stuff, and win the hard ones.  And thank you, seniors, for leading the way.

Winter, winter, winter

The background music in my head for the last few weeks has been the title of "Life in a Northern Town" by the Dream Academy - a song from my junior high years that I remember as somewhat bleak.  I don't know all the words.   I just sing the title and the "hey las", intended bleakness notwithstanding, and rejoice in the winter in Michigan.   I love my four-season state.    It is cold and snowy in January and all is right in the universe. 

During the winter, when there is snow on the ground under a clear night sky, the air has an almost unearthly glow.  Everything seems clean and fresh with the brisk air.  The stars in the night sky are amazingly bright.    We get to wear cool boots and hats, make fires, drink mulled cider or have hot cocoa.   Leave soup simmering on the stove.  Layer on the blankets.  Enjoy water that comes out of the tap at the perfect temperature.   Wear our favorite sweaters.  Watch hockey.

My friends in southern states think we are crazy to live here.  But I love the winter, both for itself and for the appreciation it gives me for the other three seasons.  And I would take January in Michigan over Florida in August hands down, any day of the week.  

It will be spring soon.  The crocuses sometimes bloom in late February.  Tulips and daffodils by Easter.   The frogs will be calling.  We will switch from wool to cotton and leave the heavy boots and mittens and hats in the closet.  Winter birds will transition to summer birds at the backyard feeders. We will plan the garden and ride our bikes.  The sun will warm our faces.    Baseball will become my obsession as the hockey post-season ends.

But not just yet.  We have a few more weeks of beautiful winter in Michigan.  Watch the moon glow off the snow tonight.  Spring will be here soon enough.  

The Basement Top 10 of 2012

We have a few repeats this year.   We must be getting predictable in our old age.

1		Модест Петрович Мусоргский – Promenade
2		Harry Nilsson – Good Old Desk
3		The Magnetic Fields – Three-Way
4		Swell Maps – Read About Seymour
5		Harry Nilsson – Puppy Song
5		Harry Nilsson – Rainmaker (Mono Single Version)
7		The Killers – All These Things That I've Done
7		Ian Hunter – Fuss About Nothin'
9		The 101'ers – Keys To Your Heart (Version 1)
10		The Flaming Lips – Turn It On

The Hard Sport or The There Is No Can't Edition

This latest chapter in my sports adventures is my husband's fault.  He's at least partially responsible for hockey, too, but I think I can put Cross Fit all on him.  One of his personal trainers at our gym had left to work at something called "Cross Fit".  "You should try it," he said.   "Have you called Cross Fit yet?" he would ask.  I blew him off.  I ran 3-4 miles a day most days of the week.  I played sports.  What did I need with this Cross Fit?

I am a weekend warrior.  I used to run 40 miles a week and even ran the marathon in Detroit in 1999 in a middling 4 hour 20 minute time.  Then I discovered team sports, and my mileage dwindled as I fell first in love with soccer then hockey, playing as much as possible as many days a week as I could.  The gym was for winter, when I couldn't run outside or when I went through one of my "weight lifting" phases when I'd use the weight machines a couple times a week.  But team sports were where my heart was.  I loved the thrill of the game - the winning or losing with my friends, and solo sports had lost their appeal.

"Try Cross Fit," my husband kept saying.   So I called.  And showed up at a converted industrial building, now a gym unlike anything I'd ever seen before, at 7am one Friday in early July to meet with an instructor who would take me through an "introductory session".  I thought "How hard can this be?"  Little did I know, 12 hours later I would barely be able to move.

We did some stretches.  We did some sit ups.  Some push ups.  Some rowing (that, at least, I could do).  I attempted a pull up.  It was hot, humid, miserable.  We went through some barbell skills.  I think there were kettle bell swings, maybe some wall ball throws.  I was terrible.

But I went back.  And back.  Then I sprained my ankle.  And I took two weeks off.  Then I went back. I kept going back even when my arms would shake with exhaustion and  I wanted to crawl into a ball in the shower after a work out.  I kept going back even when I was the least coordinated and oldest person in class and when I wasn't sure if I could make it through a work out.

And now I'm not terrible.  I'm not great.  I'm not even good.  But I think I've moved beyond terrible.  I can dead lift 125 pounds.  I can push press 65.  I can "double under" with a jump rope, do banded pull ups, do 10 "real" pushups in a row.  I am a decent rower.  I can jump on and off  a 20 inch box.  I can flip a big tire (my husband thinks that is the coolest thing).

I have learned so much beyond how to do a clean and jerk or a dead lift.  One of the instructors once told me "no one is going to do those burpees for you".   I actually look at many things in life that way, now.  No one is going to do the tough stuff for me, so I might as well just get it done.  And if I need to chip it out into small chunks; it is best to get the biggest chunk done first.

Cross Fit has taught me there is no "can't".  When you walk in for a class, the work out is on the board.  I have frequently thought "I can't do that."  But invariably, I do the work out.  I get through it.  It isn't always pretty, but I get through it and feel better for it.  So what if it is hard?  If it were easy I wouldn't want it so badly.  And I wouldn't feel nearly so good once I've done it.

And even though it is an individual sport where you mostly compete against yourself  by getting a better time or lifting more weight or getting more reps in, Cross Fit feels something like a team.  We encourage each other, commiserate over a tough work out, and help clean up each others' equipment after a class.

I haven't really lost any weight, but I'm smaller.  I have new muscles.  I can skate harder.  Run faster.  I feel great.

"Try Cross Fit," my husband said.  I did, and now I'm hooked.

Brushing the dust off....

Well, that was quite a gap.   In the interim, the sprained ankle has healed, the hockey season has started (at least for my rec teams and for Michigan),  I've fallen in love with cross fit, we went to San Diego and New York City,  many batches of chili have been made, I got a promotion at work, the cold frame is up, and winter is here.  In the past, I would have said so much has happened.

But a college friend passed away this week.   A wickedly smart, funny friend that I hadn't seen in a few years and now I never will see again.  A friend I am determined to remember as I knew him in college and not in the casket I saw him in this week.  I am faced with a friendship that, because of the "busyness" of life, I let slip.  And I so regret that.

5 years can go by in a heartbeat.  10 years in a few breaths.  I want to slow my heart rate and my breathing down to a crawl.

And so I brush the dust off my blog once again in hopes of slowing down my life and focusing on the good stuff.  The small stuff.  The take a walk after dinner stuff.  The get together for lunch or for coffee  stuff.   The best girlfriend coming into town for a night stuff.  The sit in the backyard with your Dad stuff.  The hang out with your cats stuff.

The stuff that matters in life.