Amazing how a tragedy like the Boston Marathon Bombing makes you willing to go out and be active. This past week, I have been running more and i have started using the RipDeck App on the days that I do my running program. Over the weekend, the kids and I did the first real hike (not nature walk!) of the season. We climbed here - the Sothern one. It was the perfect hike. The trailhead is pretty easy to find: the GPS got the kids and I to the mountain road and then got confused as to where the parking lot was.  However, the road itself actually dead ended into the trailheads. We elected to take the winding trails to the top – that trail was well maintained and well-marked.  It was also very well travelled – we saw many other hikers going to the top with dogs and children.  The view wasn’t that bad either although I didn’t like the fact that there were a TON of cell towers there:

The day was perfect and the hike was a good one for families. We ended by going down the shorter path – it took less time; however the trail was much steeper and not nearly as well maintained.  There were loose rocks all over the place that made me scared that I was going to turn my ankle or that my kids were going to fall down.  This week, I’m hoping to do Mt. Major with the kids and maybe Mt. Monandnock on my own. 

I felt so many things – and they were all really similar to 9/11. In some ways it felt worse.  Marathon Monday when I was in college was always like a holiday.  We were right at mile 13, so there was an element of pride and cheer. It was truly a party atmosphere – bands, picnics and watching the runners.  We were affectionately dubbed screech alley because we had the best cheerers. So this bombing completely stole those happy moments from me.  Then there was the sheer terror of the experience for the people that lived through it and the deaths that followed – a total of 4 (3 from the day of the incident and the fourth from Friday when an officer from MIT was shot and killed). I had walked down Boylston Street hundreds of times when I went to college in the area and even recently, with my children. This was supposed to be a happy day for everyone and it ended up being just plain awful.

The week felt like we were all walking on eggshells although I don’t think that we realized it until everything culminated on Friday evening. Pictures of the suspects were released on Thursday and I thought for sure that we would have leads to hear about on Friday. Definitely nothing crazy.  Oh boy though…i woke up Friday morning and turned the TV on. I hadn’t had any coffee yet so it didn’t quite register that the press was talking about how the suspects had fired gunshots at MIT, executed an MIT police officer, carjacked a car, released a hostage 30 minutes later, tried to rob a grocery store and then got into a shootout with officers in Watertown, resulting in the death of one of the suspects, the injury to another officer and the escape of the other suspect.  This resulted in a massive lockdown of all of Watertown, boston, Cambridge and most of the suburbs surrounding them, closure of all MBTA buses and trains, closure of AMTRAK service and restrictions on flights leaving Logan. Eventually the suspect was located, injured in a pool of blood and in the back of a boat. It seemed just surreal…like I was watching a movie that I was participating in to some extent.

I’m now at a point that i’m almost morbidly curious. I want to know so much more about the people that were involved from the people that lost their lives to the people that did this.  I want to know why.

I 

I get the little one in the pack and I attempt to walk a nature path or trail or two for an hour or two to get my strength up as well as my stamina. Hiking season is upon us and I want to try to get at least another 4K or two under my belt this summer. As a mom of a 5 year old and a 2.5 year though, who also works outside of the house full time, in all likelihood it’s going to have to include one or both of the kids, one of which will be on my back. Best to get started the training sooner rather than later.  In the upcoming weeks, I will be upping spinning and running and some weight training which are wonderful cross training.

Yesterday, we went to Monson Village. The story behind Monson is absolutely fascinating. Monson was the first inland settlement in New England – and was settled in 1737 but then abandoned in 1770. Many of the foundations of the buildings still exist as do the main roads and the tremendous cleared field that must have comprised the center of town. One of the homes was reconstructed and is a museum that details the history of the town. The village was abandoned in 1770 because of skirmishes with the local Native American tribes and because the land was very unyielding, making it difficult to live.  I can completely understand the inability of the settlers to not be able to grow food because the land was very rocky and would have taken a lot of time to make friendly to crops on a practical level.  During the time period that the settlers were trying to make the land arable, they wold have been dependent upon other communities and the Native Americans, making them vulnerable to some degree.  What was also really interesting was that a lot of the settlers left and then lived very lengthy lives, many dying only in their 80s and 90′s.  It was really neat

On another note, our .  More pics:

On another note, our bathroom is coming along nicely:

I went for my workout there yesterday in part because trail running is easier on my ankle – it’s more cushioned as opposed to the pounding that inevitably happens when I go running on the street. I also went there in part to scope out the trails because I want to put my daughter in the backpack and start walking/hiking with her again so that when the end of May rolls around, or even sooner (perhaps the weekend before our Disney vacation), I can start doing short hikes with her and then the longer hikes. The trails weren’t that bad actually. There were one or two spots that were really muddy and where I had to be a bit more careful (I’m so not afraid of mud in and of itself) but other than that, the route that I would have taken with her on my back wasn’t that bad at all.  Tomorrow, I want to bring her out with me for a hike/walk. We would have gone today but the winds would have made the trek absolutely miserable for the kids, so instead, we opted to make a Syracuse Spirit Cake:

The boys in Orange are playing tonight and I’m hoping for the win. It would be awesome to see them take on rival Louisville in the Final.  I remember being at law school at Syracuse in late March and early April of 2003 – Izzy came to visit me that weekend and we all went to a bar to watch the Final Four game.  People were so hyped up and excited and then, when they won two days later (it was a Tuesday) – we were all glued to the TV at 913 Ackerman Ave like it was no one’s business. I lived in that house with three other girls – two other law students and a master’s student (Yay Trace Face!!) and it was located in a student ghetto.  We were literally a 10 minute walk from the Syracuse University Main Campus and a 10 – 15 minute drive from Armory Square in Downtown Syracuse (although we were also known to start off our Fridays at Faegan’s, the best Irish pub ever and a stone’s throw away from the Main Campus). Once the final buzzer went off, everyone went crazy – all of the homes around us were filled with students living off campus and they all emptied into the streets.  And then, people started dragging their furniture into the street and lighting it on fire. I had never seen anything like it before in my life and probably won’t again. That being said I still would love to see another national title!!

That’s my grandma with her great grandkids and they LOVED every minute they spent at her house, seeing her. And I’m sure that she loved every minute too.  On Friday night, we drove down there. We left at about 7 and got to my parents’ place at about 11 which isn’t bad all things considered. Much of the traffic had cleared out by the time we got to what would be the more congested areas and the kids slept for the last half of the trip.  This is both a good thing and a bad thing because it meant that they were wide awake from about 11 until midnight, until they calmed down. It also meant that mommy and daddy were super exhausted the next day. I was so tired that I slept on the couch with Gabby while she took her nap. We both passed out watching Forrest Gump – that should show you how tired we really were.

Then, that evening, we visited my aunt and uncle and cousins at their home in Huntington. The only people that weren’t there were my aunt, uncle and cousins because they are in Europe – I mean really?!  The house in Huntington was beautiful and has apparently been under construction for the last year or two.  It has come along so nicely – I was particularly impressed by the kitchen and the open office structure that they had on the second floor. Gabby and Nate had a great time with their cousins, and they spent a ton of time running around the backyard and playing video games. Nate had so much fun, that he wanted to sleep over.  I had fun sitting by this:

WE also watched the basketball game – which resulted in a Cuse win and them moving to the final four, although that was eclipsed by the Duke/Louisville game tragedy. It’s absolutely horrific viewing – which I saw live action the following night (and which resulted in a gasp, yelp and tears for me – having had a bad fracture – though not as bad as his!).  I just hope that he is ok and makes it back to the court.  

That was my weekend…and this week is back to the grind and the stress. 

1. Brave - Set in the Scottish highlands and stars a female lead, Merida, who is really good at archery and who is struggling against the tradition that says that she, as a princess is only good for marrying into another clan’s leading family. As she struggles, she consults with a witch and ends up having to reverse a curse. I liked it because the heroine is different from some of the other Disney princesses that are out there – she’s more self-reliant and shows how some people don’t fit into “normal” and how that ends up being ok.  I also like how it deals with mother/daughter relationships when each are very different from one another and hold different goals.

2. Up – The first ten minutes. Need I say more? Those of you who watched it know what I mean.

3. Wall-E - follows the story of WALL-E, a robot whose job it is to clean up an Earth that is just covered with so much trash, that they trash has been moved into orbit from outer space. I loved it because it was a funny, yet absolutely searing and zinging critique of our society.

4. Toy Story 3 - talks about what will happen to the toys when Andy goes to college. Maybe it was because I saw it when I was pregnant with Gabby; however I cried at parts because it tapped into memories that I had about growing up, leaving things behind and touched the worries and fears that I have about my kids someday moving far away.

5. Monsters, Inc. - because the relationship between “Boo” and “Kitty” is just super cute and she looks like Gabby!

While there, I performed my good deed of the day.  As I was walking into the children’s section to find my family – my husband had graciously taken them while I got lost – I felt a tug on my sleeve and I totally thought that it was one of my kids…until I turned and saw a little girl – she was probably 7 or 8 – and she was crying and mumbled that she had lost her dad.  I brought her over to a sales associate, who I think helped her to track down her dad.  Karma points.

So I’m still alive (barely) and fighting with the sinus infection (barely) and going back to the doctor probably tomorrow to get wicked good meds but until then, I’ll have a glass of wine and relax with a good book. 

Then there’s that whole practical thing.  I can’t telecommute to court or to a victim impact meeting or to staff briefing, even though I might be able to field questions and respond to emails from home.  We barely even have the technology to play videos or do video arraignments in court (a work in progress that hasn’t happened yet but whatever – it’s in the works) and we don’t have e-filings so if something needs filing by 4 that day I need to drive my butt to court. And, quite frank, I need to have access to our Crime software, which I don’t have at home. So there’s that practical limitation on my ability to work from home. 

I also like maintaining my work/life separation.  I want my home to be my refuge from the hectic life that work can be. I need to create a safe place for myself in order to preserve my sanity – which is a way for me to maintain my mental health; so I try to wall it off as much as possible.

On the other hand, I know that what works for me doesn’t work for other people.  I have a husband who works in the computer industry and he can work from home when a kid is sick and I can’t. The kids have good daycare.  Not all people have that, so why should a company like Yahoo dictate to them what they should do, if there is a risk that it would stifle creativity?  I would think also that WAH people might actually be more friendly if they got into the office as well – I personally crave the company of other people and when I returned to the office after my maternity leaves, I loved the adult interactions that I didn’t have when I was home. 

What is shocking to me, and where I draw the line and become hesitant, is that I feel like Mayer is making this a big step back for the effort to be able to blend family and work in the WAH realm if that’s what you choose to do or need to do. I also feel like it was hypocritical and presumptuous of her to do something like this when she built a nursery right next to her office so she could have her infant in work with her.  Really Melissa Mayer? Really?  But your staff can’t be near their children while they work?  That made me utterly BS. 

 I mena, seriously, if people are abusing the policy and aren’t getting their work done, you fire them.  Simple as that.  A blanket policy doesn’t necessarily solve anything and puts us back like 20 years.  And I don’t care if she didn’t want to be a role model for women in business because, guess what?  She is almost by default – she’s the youngest, female CEO of a Fortune 500 company and the first one to assume the mantel while she was pregnant. When you’re that much of a rarity, you have no choice and you must bear that mantel with responsibility and honor, and it’s a shame that this isn’t the best foot forward necessarily – I hope that Yahoo doesn’t lose good employees because of this.

1. There’s a big difference between free range parenting and the parenting described in the article. When I hear free range – I think that the kids have a set, clearly defined boundary and they can explore within that boundary but can’t go beyond that. If they go beyond that, the parent calls them on it. I tend to try to do that with my kids but am not always successful so thankfully my hubby helps back me up.
2. I don’t like helicopter parents all that much, in part because I think that my parents were in part, helicopter to some extent.  I think it makes a kid nervous and neurotic and worried about failure or upset if they don’t live up to expectations.  I think it can stifle creativity, which is something that is extremely important to me.  Thinking outside of the box is pretty darn cool.

There’s a helicopter mom at the daycare that my kids go to and, quite frankly, I can’t stand her.  She and her husband are both helicopters.  They seem so…I don’t know…intense and both of their daughters get this absolute look of fear in their eyes when their names are called in a certain tone and I feel really bad.  It’s almost like a PTSD trigger. And I feel so badly…because even though I’m fairly certain they’re trying to protect their children from ill, I think that the negatives are outweighing the positives…

As you can see, the snow was piled up pretty high.  It didn’t really start snowing until Friday in the early evening hours, but snowed pretty steadily until the middle of the next morning, leaving us with a good two feet of snow. The snow, luckily, was the light and fluffy kind of snow, so it made it easy to plow out but wasn’t so good for snow balls. It was good, however, for this:

The kids and Izzy built a pretty rocking snow fort in the front yard that even included a crawl space:

The night after, Saturday night, I woke up with a raging fever and felt like I was swallowing razors.  That’s always fun.  I felt like I had been battling a cold for a few days before – my nose hurt on the inside and I had the usual gunk coming out.  I woke up Sunday feeling very lightheaded and weak.  I crazily attempted to go into work to do paperwork but nearly vomited into my trash bin so I turned around and left.  That afternoon, I went to Urgent Care because I wasn’t feeling any better and was, in fact feeling worse.  In fact, when I got there, I was starting to spike a fever again. I had a hacking cough and was still swallowing the razor blades and I had aches.  I thought for sure tha tI had succumbed to a plague that no one had a name for and which was an amalgam of the plagues that had been making their way around work. Anyways, the MD took one look in my throat and was like “Holy Cow” – apparently, one of my tonsils was sreally swollen. And lo and behold I had the beginnings of a strep infection in my throat and a wickedly nasty sinus infection, so now I’m on an antibiotic.  That night, Sunday into Monday, I had a fever still so I stayed home and tried to get better.  I went to work on Tuesday feeling very light headed – nearly passing out in court.

I am feeling better in the physical sense, although this week tried me in other ways too. My laundry machnes broke and I’m not in a position to really invest in a good one for another few months.  I DID take my kid skiing at Pat’s Peak yesterday and we both ahd a great time. Pat’s Peak is my local mountain – nothing crazy but really good for learning to ski and for me to just have some fun while the kid was in his program. I would go again just to see a view: