A New Adventure

I'm embarking upon a new adventure: going back to school!  Massage Therapy school, to be exact.  It will take me between one-and-a-half to two years to earn the more than 500 credit hours necessary to get my certification from the school and take a licensing exam to become a Licensed Massage Therapist.  After being out of college for more than ten years, the idea of being back in the classroom is exciting and a little bit daunting: homework?! After all this time?!
Massage is a discipline that I've always enjoyed being the recipient of (there are a few people out there who do not like to be massaged, but I'm not one of them), but never crossed my consciousness as a personal career.  I have had some informal instruction in massage, most notably a sweet infant massage course that I took at our local hospital when Alton was a baby, but I definitely always thought of it as being firmly ensconced in the "hobby" sector of my life.  After all, my college degree is in Liberal Arts / Literature!  My work experience spans University Administration and the corporate world of Communications / Marketing. Surely there's no room for a body-centric subject like massage, even if I had been thinking about going back to school (which I hadn't).
But recently, a good friend of mine, Fabi Zawalski, began her first courses at a local massage school.  She also took a non-credit "basics" course to learn some of the rudiments of massage and get a taste of what being in a massage class would be like.  She offered to practice her learnings on me and a couple other friends (oh, darn), and her enthusiasm for this healing therapy was infectious.  I could hear myself agreeing with her in my head: "Yes, yes it would be nice to know that you are helping people to feel better...flexible job hours--who doesn't want those?...low-stress work environment is a must...wow, all the courses are offered at night, so I wouldn't need to spend money on daycare...."  I quizzed her a bit more on the program, and she encouraged me to attend a student preview night at the school, where more information would be dispensed from school staff, so I did.  And found myself agreeing even more: with the mind-body-spirit focus of the school (I loved the idea that adult education didn't have to make me feel like a big dollar sign in the eyes of the school), with the relaxed approach to program completion (no penalty if I didn't finish "on time"), and with the diverse and seemingly plentiful job opportunities that were available to graduates.  I liked their small classes, the campus that was not too far from my house, and the chance to enroll at approximately the same time as my friend Fabi, providing us each with a built-in supporter, study buddy, and carpooler.
At the info night, I was also invited to take the same Massage Basics course that Fabi had just completed, free of charge.  The four-week course was commencing the following evening, so I signed up and drove back to the school the next day.  I figured that this would give me some good insight into how I felt about massage as a profession; obviously, if I went into the classroom and felt shy or uncomfortable or dismayed by the thought of massaging people I didn't know, this was not the program for me!  But I felt myself really enjoying the course, for the scratch-the-surface knowledge I was acquiring about the body and healing, for the instructor's laid-back style, and for the very meditative qualities that I found massage to impart on the giver (and receiver). I couldn't help but feel a gratifying success when my massage partner claimed to have fallen asleep on the table while I was at work--twice!
After doing some more thinking, discussing with Andy, and budget planning, I have officially enrolled in this massage therapy program as a student.  My classes begin in April and include the homework of two practice massages per week....

Flying Solo

Andy and I were invited to a birthday gathering this weekend for one of our close friends, Chris, a guy who lives in Seattle and was renting a tour bus for an all-day tour of Washington wineries. Heaven! But since I am currently enrolled in a class on Friday nights (more on that here), it made logistics tough for us to drive up there and I had another commitment scheduled for Sunday morning as well. It was looking like we'd have to send our regrets, but then I thought about our folding bike(s). I suggested to Andy that HE go up for the weekend solo, using his folding bike and the light rail system to reach Portland's Union Station, where he could jump on Amtrak all the way to downtown Seattle, just another few miles' ride to our friend's house on the trusty Brompton bike. He could have a guys' weekend, try out the folding bike on a full-size passenger train for the first time, and I could still attend to my commitments back home and hold down the fort with Alton. Sounds like fun!
So the little guy and I are flying solo for the weekend, for the first time in a long time. There have been a few occasions when I have left Alton and Andy together for a weekend, and Andy always springs into action for the father-son time, planning trips to the science museum, the kiddie amusement park, pizza dinners--a nonstop party. Since I am a stay-at-home mom/superhero by day, being alone with Alton for the weekend isn't really very different from our normal weekdays. What should we do to make this special, and distract a bit from missing Daddy?
So far on Friday morning, Alton was adamant on continuing work (pre-breakfast, no less) on his little wooden pirate ship model. He first built and painted a wooden model kit of a space shuttle with his Grammy when Andy and I were out of town for the weekend, and we're now on project #5, which he and Daddy began a couple days ago. Alton loooves the intricate work of gluing wooden pieces together, carefully selecting paint colors, and daubing on the paint with a fine brush. I think I see more model hobbying in our future!

Cycling with Visitors

Okay, so here's the deal: if you come visit us at our house, we're going to ask if you want to ride a bike. We're bike-nuts, we have enough bikes and helmets for everyone to be outfitted, and we remember enough what it's like to be at the beginning stage that we stick to slow speeds and short distances (no professionals here!).
At Christmastime, Andy's parents rode our two folding bikes on a trip around our subdivision to the little neighborhood park.

But there's no pressure: if you aren't interested, we'll save a bike adventure for another time. We just find that most of our houseguests will respond to the bike riding question with a "Hmm, sure!" and that most folks are too shy or worry too much about their two-wheel inexperience to request a test-ride. So let us ask, and feel free to say no.
Our most recent visitor was game for a park trip by bike, even though like my sister, she had not ridden a bike since probably her elementary school years!

Jamie and I have been friends since junior high school, and I was so excited for her to visit with us for the weekend. She came up solo for some "girl time," but when she looked around at Andy's kickass custom-made workbench and beer-brewing setup, she bit her lip and pondered whether she should have encouraged her husband to come on this trip, too! On our sunny Sunday morning, Jamie buckled her helmet and test-rode both of my full-size bikes to see which one felt more comfortable to her. She elected to ride the xtracycle Radish, with its easy upright handlebar positioning and step-through frame, and carefully wove her way up and down our residential street, managing to relax enough to smile for Andy's camera. She set aside her bike-newbie jitters the longer we rode, although at one point on our trip she said, "You guys are crazy: taking pictures and riding with only one hand!" It's okay not to want to pop any wheelies just yet.
Our trip was through residential streets to the big city park that's only one mile away: a good stretch of the legs that takes less than 10 minutes to complete, with no challenging hills for riders with less experience. I rode alongside Jamie on my hybrid bike, the one that Andy upgraded with comfortable new components for my birthday. In addition to all his previous work, this winter he also installed twist-grip shifters on the swept-back handlebars, which make changing gears a quick flick of the wrist, rather than the previous shifters where I had to take time and really push hard to switch gears.

Andy and Alton rode to the park on Andy's Brompton folding bike, with Alton's little balance bike strapped to the front of the frame for fun park time. Once we were at the park, Jamie and I locked up our bikes to walk the trails while Alton zipped ahead of us on his balance bike, and Andy scoped out the terrain on his folding bike (at Alton's request: he wanted to ride bikes with his daddy).

We reveled in the sunny, warm (60s!) day and communed with nature. Alton was so delighted when we spotted this banana slug slowly cruising across the trail.

Farther into the park, the water level in the creeks had risen to cover the rest of the paved trail, so we couldn't walk or ride any farther. That didn't stop Andy and Alton from hopping on the Brompton together to do some doughnuts in the shallow water.

Alton spent some time on the swings before our group split up to multi-task: Andy, Alton and Jamie rode the mile back home, while I rode a mile in the other direction to hit up Subway to get sandwiches for everyone!

And despite a little bit of saddle soreness from being unaccustomed to sitting on a bike, Jamie asserted that the bike ride to and from the park was an adventure for her and her favorite part of the day.
So future visitors: keep it in mind! Which one of our bikes are you dying to try out? Where would you like to go on a ride? If you're too nervous, we can work with you to make you comfortable, or save the bike ride for another time altogether. So far, I'm full of enthusiasm for our varied roster of cycling visitors and the diverse types of bike trips they've logged:
--Julie: My East Coast friend who suggested that we ride to the post office to ship home the 10+ pounds of books she'd acquired on her trip to Portland's Powell's Bookstore.
--Grammy and Grandpa: Andy's parents Jennifer and Charlie hopped upon the nimble little folding bikes (as my cousin Louise said: they can turn on a dime!) for a zip around the block in December.
--Aunt Cici, Uncle Julio, and baby cousin *S: My sister and her husband quizzed us about kid-carrying bike options for their almost-one-year-old, and got to test out one of our bike seats when we all rode to the park. They ended up getting the same baby bike seat for their bike back home!
--Louise: My cousin Louise, reacquainting herself with riding on the preschool dropoff, and happy to burn off calories on a long (more than 13 miles!) ride with me.
--Jamie: Back on a bike for the first time since grade school, proud of her successful trip to and from the local park.

Will you be next?