A Little Bit of Random

I really hate that after I typed out that title, I have "Mambo No. 5" going through my head. If you do too, I'm sorry. Or, you're welcome.

Last night was a big night in Columbus. The USA men's soccer team played Mexico in a World Cup qualifier right here in the Cbus (and won, and clinched a spot in next year's World Cup). Several of us got together for a viewing party at a private "club" above a bar on campus. Our friends Mike and Amy, who live in Atlanta, happened to be in town and another friend (also named Mike) drove up from Cincinnati. Aaron went to high school with Mike and Mike, and the three of them, along with Ben (of the 2-ball wedding toast) have remained close all these years.

Missing their fourth "brother" but they conference called Ben during halftime.

Unfortunately, the power went out about five minutes before the game started (and never came back on). Some of us just walked up the street and watched the game at a little bar where the beer was mighty cheap.

To get to campus from our house, Aaron called a cab. Here's how the cab company had him in their system:

"Aron Climax." This is now Aaron's porn name. Carlos Danger who?

In other news, today is of course 9/11. I'm not going to spend time trying to put something into words when others can do it so well. My friend Steph wrote this post last year on Resilience and I'd love for you to read it. This year she wrote "I wish we remembered more today about the acts of kindness in the days that followed, and the feeling of unity and love for country and our fellow citizens."

I couldn't agree more.

For those who don't know, today is also the anniversary of a scary event that hit Aaron and me very directly. Three years ago, Aaron was in a serious bicycle accident. Two years ago, I wrote my second blog post which details what happened to him. You can read that here. We are so fortunate and grateful - to have friends and family who were available at a moment's notice that day and beyond; to have had excellent medical care for Aaron; and that Aaron is resilient and healed like a superhero when the outcome could have been so much worse.

We now have the frame of that bike hanging on the wall in our bedroom. I wish I could show you his helmet. We never saw it but we were told that it split in two. Please, please always wear a helmet!

Happy Gwensday!

Let's go CoGo!

A little over a month ago, Columbus launched a bike sharing program called CoGo. The initial installation is 30 stations (300 bikes) in the downtown area. Yesterday I tried it out from home to the brewery (my new employer). Witness my attempt at giving you a visual as to where these locations are and roughly the route I took:

OK, not great, but hopefully you get the idea. It's roughly 2.7 miles from my house to the brewery. I walked a couple blocks to the nearest CoGo station, then rode to one that's just a couple blocks from the brewery. It was a pretty hot day so I was, shall we say, glistening by the time I got there. I had a tour of the brewing process and left a couple hours later, got another bike and then rode to Giant Eagle, where there is also a CoGo station. I bought a few groceries and put them in my backpack, got another bike and rode back to the station closest to my house.

Here's the scoop on CoGo. It costs $6 for a 24-hour period, but you can only have a bike out of the station for 30 minutes at a time (if you go over the 30 minutes, it's $3/half hour). There's a kiosk where you swipe your debit/credit card and you get a code to be able to unlock a bike. You must dock it at another station to stop the clock. When you're ready to make your return trip, or go somewhere else, you swipe your card again for a new code (you're not charged again). You can do this as many times as you want in 24 hours.

There's also an annual pass option for $75. For my math-challenged friends, that means if you use the system 13 days in one year, it's worth it.

via

The bikes are easy to ride, but they're 3-speed, and frankly first gear is a joke, especially in Columbus where everything is relatively flat. You need to bring your own helmet (in my house, we never get on a bike without a helmet, and if you don't already know why, you'll find out tomorrow). There is a place in front where you can strap in a bag or something, although I didn't try that.

Now, you might be thinking "but Gwen, don't you already have a bicycle of your own?" Yes, but by using CoGo I don't have to wear special bike shoes that clip in to the pedals, I don't need to take a lock with me, and I don't need to worry about the maintenance. My bike is meant for riding distances, not tooling around town.

I'll definitely use it again; I think soon I'll go to the library, as there's a station there as well.

Do you have bike sharing where you live? Have you ever used it? Would you?

I'm an ISFJ, how about you?

So it's Monday and I don't feel like doing a weekend recap. It was a good weekend and all, but I took zero pictures and, like I said, I'm just not feeling it. A few months ago I participated in Blog Every Day in May (and I actually did!). The brains behind that, Jenni from Story of My Life, is hosting a new challenge called Blogtember. I'm not fully participating in that one, even though it's a little easier because there are no weekend prompts, but I hopped over to find out what today's challenge is for some inspiration.

Take this short personality test and respond to your results.

I've done these before and honestly I can never remember my letters exactly. But here's how I scored:

Introvert - 56% (moderate preference over Extrovert)
Sensing - 1% (marginal or no preference over Intuition)
Feeling - 12% (slight preference over Thinking)
Judging - 33% (moderate preference over Perceiving)

There are different areas in which you can "leverage" your personality type (career choices, business decisions) and Jenni asked us to get the results from the Self-Awareness and Personal Growth section. So I read the first paragraph and ... whoa.

ISFJs are often unappreciated, at work, home, and play. This is ironic, because they prove over and over that they can be relied on for their loyalty and unstinting, high-quality work, those around them often take them for granted--even take advantage of them. Admittedly, the problem is sometimes aggravated by the ISFJs themselves; for instance, they are notoriously bad at delegating ("If you want it done right, do it yourself"). And although they're hurt by being treated like doormats, they are often unwilling to toot their own horns about their accomplishments because they feel that although they deserve more credit than they're getting, it's somehow wrong to want any sort of reward for doing work (which is supposed to be a virtue in itself). (And as low-profile Is, their actions don't call attention to themselves as with charismatic Es.) Because of all of this, ISFJs are often overworked, and as a result may suffer from psychosomatic illnesses.

Um, yes, this totally applies to me. (Also, I'll mention that I slightly altered one of the sentences due to its poor grammar.) Unappreciation is one of the biggest reasons I felt I needed to leave my previous job. This also fits in with some other areas of my life, though NOT at home (pinky swear!). And I'm not great at delegating; I'd much rather do something myself.

In the workplace, ISFJs are methodical and accurate workers, often with very good memories and unexpected analytic abilities; they are also good with people in small-group or one-on-one situations because of their patient and genuinely sympathetic approach to dealing with others. ISFJs make pleasant and reliable co-workers and exemplary employees, but tend to be harried and uncomfortable in supervisory roles.

*Ding ding ding ding* Correct again! People often count on my memory, and I wasn't super great at being a supervisor.

Like most Is, ISFJs have a few, close friends. They are extremely loyal to these, and are ready to provide emotional and practical support at a moment's notice. (However, like most Fs they hate confrontation; if you get into a fight, don't expect them to jump in after you. You can count on them, however, run and get the nearest authority figure.)

This one is accurate, except for the last part. While I don't like confrontation, I've been known to get in an argument or two if I feel that someone else is being abused. Some of you have witnessed that side of me. Of course, afterward, I end up crying because I'm so angry so maybe if I didn't jump in, I'd be better off.

Since my Sensing and Intuition scores were so close, I also looked up INFJ. Some of that was pretty spot-on as well, such as INFJs have a knack for fluency in language and facility in communication.

This was an interesting exercise. I'm sure Aaron remembers what his letters are, and I'd ask him but I'm already pretty late with this post as it is, and he's busy being social. (My guess is that he's ENFJ; I'll keep you posted.)

Friday Faves

Today I'm linking up for the first time with Lindsey for Friday Favorites. Lindsey is also in one of my Fantasy Football leagues, which leads me to one of my Friday Faves for this week: football season!

I'm in three fantasy leagues this year, which may be nuts. One is with Aaron and his high school friends and their wives. I've been in that league since 2007, when I finished dead last (but I redeemed myself by winning the next year). The other two are blogger leagues; one is a traditional head-to-head, the other is a floating salary cap league, which I still don't totally get so that could be interesting.

In case you live in a cave, or just don't care about football (WHAT?!), last night was the NFL season opener. Denver crushed Baltimore, and Peyton Manning lit it up with 7 touchdown passes. And I have Peyton in one of my leagues.

Just to be clear, 46 points is HUGE for one player.

Unfortunately, I did not pick the Broncos to cover the spread in Aaron's and my own little contest (read more about that here).

College football is my number-one-with-a-bullet favorite sport (Aaron's, too). Last week we went to the Ohio State game, and I even painted my nails scarlet and grey. I think today I'll paint them blue and white. Last Saturday was a much better first day of college season than last year's was, for me personally.

Even though I love football season, I'm still quite invested in baseball. The Pirates are leading their division, and this week they reached the 81-win mark, which guarantees that they will not have a losing season, breaking a 20-year streak. This weekend they have a big series against St. Louis. Go Bucs!

Also making my favorites list this week: the weather (it's been absolutely fabulous); the first church choir rehearsal last night; and of course, my new job!

Have a fun, fantastic weekend and enjoy this blast from the past in honor of fantasy football!

Gwen Coco's List of No-Nos, Volume 2

Back in the infancy of this blog, I wrote a post about some pet peeves. Most of you may have missed it; you can read it here. Well, there's always room for more irritants, hence "Volume 2."

If you're wondering about the title of the post, my lovely friend Marla started calling me Gwen Coco a while back, and in fact she came up with the post title (sorry Marla, no royalties).

(From Mean Girls, if you didn't know.)

A reminder of the disclaimer that I won't hate you if you do one of these. And please forgive me for using the gif above, because honestly another of my pet peeves is overuse of gifs. They kinda make me queasy. So let's get that off the screen, shall we?


















Ah, that's better. Please don't do the following:

 Give your child a name that you don’t intend to use

I talked about this in my brother's birthday post, because my own parents were guilty of it. I just don't get it. Trust me, as your kid goes through school, he or she will constantly have to say "I know the roster says my name is X but I go by Z." Just stop. Sorry, Mom.



Eat at a chain restaurant on vacation

I beg of you, just say no. Find out where the locals go, and hopefully the locals don't say Buffalo Wild Wings. The only exception is if it's a regional chain that you don't have back home.

Leave crumbs in the butter/cream cheese/peanut butter…

This seriously grosses me out. Just wipe off the knife on your toast or bagel, NOT in the remaining condiment. And how about not putting so much on your knife in the first place if you're not going to use it.



Beep at the car in front of you the moment the light turns green

OK, this is probably particularly annoying to Aaron and me because of where we live. I took this yesterday from our screened porch.

As you can see, we're quite close to a somewhat busy intersection. You wouldn't believe the number of car horns we hear. Chill out, people!



Attention Target shoppers... 

See this?

Do you see how there's a place to throw away the wipe after using it? Then why the hell do I have to get a cart like this?

Never mind that I don't understand the need for cart wipes in the first place. If you're that germaphobic, you probably have your own wipes with you. (If you read the first pet peeve post, you'll see that shopping carts show up there, too. If you didn't read it, go ahead and do that now.)

I'm sure Volume 3 will appear someday. What are some of your annoyances?

Brand New Day

I'm writing this post around 11 am on Monday from Panera. It's my first day of working from home but the house is being cleaned so I vacated the premises. Later today I have a meeting so I'm not sure how much work will actually be done "from home." And I guess none is really being done right this minute either since I'm writing a blog post. Hmmmmm....

Here are a few tidbits from the long weekend:

Friday I got a new 'do for the new chapter in my life. I don't have any great pictures of it but here goes:

Ugh. Terrible picture quality. 

Saturday we went to the Ohio State game. Let me be clear: I am and always will be a Penn State fan first, but a) I live in Columbus; b) I'm married to a Buckeye fan; c) I love college football and if I have the chance to go to any game, I'm going and I'll embrace it.

First, some pre-game beers with friends:

O-H-I-O with our (empty) tube of beer

Script Ohio right as the sousaphone player is dotting the I

Saturday was a great college football day for our house because the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions both won, as did Clemson (someday I'll tell you about our weird affinity for Clemson).

Sunday I sat on the porch and read all morning. It was glorious. Then we went to this cutie's 2nd birthday party:

Monday I cleaned off my desk at home. I can't believe I'm doing this, but here are before and after pictures:

We did a little shopping and chores around the house, then rounded out the weekend by eating BLTs with our neighbors. Aaron wants to know, is there a more "American" sandwich than the BLT?

I even showed some love to the Reds, because they beat the Cardinals (and the Pirates won). Pittsburgh only needs one more win to break their 20 year streak of losing seasons!

It's quite understated, but there ARE rhinestones!

I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!

Such a Week

This has been quite the emotional week for me. Tuesday was the first symphony chorus rehearsal of the season, and Aaron and I weren't there for the first time since 1992 (I wrote more about that here). I received several texts and Facebook messages from other singers who missed us.

And of course yesterday was my last day at work. I've worked there since June 30, 1997. There aren't many people in my office who have been there longer. While it's definitely time for me to make a change, it was also bittersweet. We had a happy hour last night and by the end, when I had to say good night to John, who hired me and became a friend, and Kendra, whom I hired almost 15 years ago and is now one of my very best friends, I couldn't stop the tears. (Plus Kendra slipped a note in my purse and when I found it later I cried all over again.) Luckily Aaron was there, both to let me cry on his shoulder and to drive me home (I MAY have had too much sauvignon blanc).

I tried to get these taken before I started crying, but was unsuccessful.