What will become of US?

This morning I taught a class about the Federal Budget including Social Security. This is in the context of teaching community college students about money. While gathering material for the class I grew increasingly insecure about my financial future. All this in the month leading up to the iconic money wasting day of the year that still claims to be associated with religion. From what I've heard of Jesus, I'm not sure he would approve of how his birthday is celebrated today in my area of the world. But maybe that won't be for long...

The national debt is over $15 trillion, that's about $50,000 per household. Skimming the Internet it seems 1/3 of the debt is to China, 1/3 to lots of other entities, and 1/3 to ourselves, including the Social Security trust fund IOUs (can you say Ponzi). Since my salary is funded by the government, I'm naturally curious what is the best course to steer for the future of my family.

Join an international healthcare startup? Learn Chinese? Join a company based in one of the countries with economies that are still strong and not based on debt?

French phrase for the day:

Nous nettoyé la cour pour l'hiver ce week-end

Today had all the potential for a particularly challenging day. It turned out quite well considering.

Woke up with a cold that I've had all weekend. Seemed to be getting worse. Now it's almost gone.

Had planned to run 12 miles for my half marathon training. It turns out it's really dark at 5am. At 6:00 I headed out with hiking head lamp on. Where was Chrissy with her camera? :-) Ended up running 6 miles. 12 tomorrow...???

Didn't feel solidly prepared for my class. Still working on lesson plans up to the night before. Always worried about running out of stuff to talk about. Ended up running into the setup time for the next class. One of my students was actually mad that the next teacher barged in while I was talking. Thanks Kevin! Would have been nice if both of the last people who haven't taken the last test showed up to take it today. One for two is better than zero though. Still need to start making up the next test for Friday.

Was worried about my weekly Monday status meeting for one of my projects at work. Then it turned out that meeting was cancelled. Not only did I not have to report that I haven't finished but I gained an hour to better organize my work for that project so my next status report will have PowerPoint (actually Google Presentation, but it doesn't roll off the tongue as well).

And of course I'm still pretty excited about winning a 5k this weekend!! :-)

Woke up a few minutes before my 6:09 alarm. I like to set it for odd times. Not sure why. It was dark. That is the theme these mornings. I didn't feel like getting out of bed, as one often doesn't, so I waited until the alarm went off.

I came in to Boston early this morning to go running along the Charles with my friend, Eric. He is not feeling 100% so I was able to keep up with him all the way. Still have some work to do on my running psychology...

Now, in the office, my legs are feeling great. Even my feet. I'm preemptively drinking half a cup of coffee...

The morning has been above average so far on the productivity scale. That's good. Hoping I can spend some time at lunch grading papers so I can reduce the amount of time I would have to spend on such things tonight.

Last night Chrissy and I had a nice, though short, bit of relaxing on the couch watching... anything that was on the TV really, turned out to be the first part of the third (or fourth?) Harry Potter.

Now I'm listening to news in French. Not that I understand french but I would like to be more than monolingual and I have a head start with French... (ah futbal, that means soccer right? ;-)

Woke up at 5:30 this morning. It was dark. Real dark. In spite of the temperature outside I think October is, in fact, coming soon. I had gathered most of my things last night and pumped up my tires for the first time into their suggested psi range with my new bike pump I got for my birthday. Very cool.

Since I had a little extra time, and did I mention it was real dark outside, so I folded some laundry and then headed off to the train on my bike.

I'm teaching a class now. I gave the first test on Monday. I brought the papers with me this morning but I fully intended to devote all of my energy on the train ride in to trying to sleep. Usually I can't sleep on the train but closing my eyes makes a big difference too.

Met Nick at the Hatch Shell and did a short run around MOS to the BU bridge and back. Felt pretty good.

Uncommonly crowded in the shower at Sleeper Hall. This means two other guys in the closet that houses the two men's showers in the dusty basement of what must be one of the older of the MGH buildings.

Called Gramma to check in and thank her for the pumpkin bread and the card. She always gets me the best birthday cards. I still have last year's one taped to my office wall.

Now I suppose I should get back to work...

Feelin Good

Pretty proud of myself this morning.

Woke up without the alarm at 7am. Crawled into the attic over the garage and pulled apart the junction box to add in the new outlet for the garage door opener (read project that has been on the list way too long). [Sorry Chrissy if I messed up anything you had going on the computer...].

Then I went for my new regular 5 mile run that now includes 6 sets of 25 push ups evenly spaced along it.

And the weather is beautiful!

Goal 1 progress:

.phd researcher, lecturer, traveller w a purpose

Did a bunch of work on my pet Ruby/Rails user interface project at work. That could make me a star in some circles some day.

Goal 2 progress:

.musician/writer

NONE :-(

Goal 3 progress:

.physical trainer - martial artist(arnis,capoeira), fitness coach, health coach, nutritionist

Technically none, but my workout above certainly helps in this area.

What I did yesterday for my goals

Let's see. What did I do yesterday to progress along my three paths...

I posted a quote above my monitor at work that is attributed to Einstein. It says: "One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through ones greatest efforts".

Goal 1 progress:

.phd researcher, lecturer, traveller w a purpose
I signed the paperwork to be a co-author on a radiation risk paper at work. Having my name on publications will help with this goal.

Goal 2 progress:

.musician/writer
Set aside my guitar, my song folder, a notepad, and a song writing book to take to NC next week.

Goal 3 progress:

.physical trainer - martial artist(arnis,capoeira), fitness coach, health coach, nutritionist
Rode my bike to the train both yesterday and this morning in spite of the rain. That probably has value here.

What I want to be when I grow up

This morning I'm thinking the vast plethora of things I still want to be when I grow up could be roughly boiled down to these 3, still broad, bullets:
.phd researcher, lecturer, traveller w a purpose
.musician/writer
.physical trainer - martial artist(arnis,capoeira), fitness coach, health coach, nutritionist

I'd like to write down on this blog each day what I've done to move in these directions. Let's see how it goes....

Comfort Zone

I think it was high school graduation where I started to crack my introvert shell. Since then I've had the 'you only live once', feeling like I need to make up for lost time, kind of philosophy about life.

Today I'm considering that I've worked so hard to challenge my comfort zone for so long that I don't remember ever actually having a comfort zone. I think I'm going to start building one...