Good List Week 8
Kite flying
For my artist date this week, I bought a kite at the toy store and went to the local park to fly it. It is funny to me that I just read Julia Cameron share on synchronicity and serendipity. I first went to Target, assured by Claude that they'd have kites in stock. The store worker looked at me funny and suggested I order one on Amazon. Not to be deterred, I called a nearby toy store and they were stocked! The weather that day (Tuesday) chanced to be the last beautiful day for some time (it's rained every day since), at a gorgeous mid nineties with just the right breeze.
Flying the kite, I was taken back to memories from childhood, flying kites at the beach, and at a nearby park from my home. I could recall the string spinny handler thing rolling in my hands; the kite diving into the water, to be resurrected back into the sky.
Presby Iris Gardens
Driving through Montclair, I passed the Presby Iris Gardens, and noticed cars parked along the side and people walking among the flowers. With a tinge of spontaneity, I went back later that day, and stopped to smell the flowers, a mix of sweet, earthy, candy, bitter. I must've driven by this park dozens of times, plenty during in spring season, and yet have never visited this delight before.
Running
After reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, I (presumably in good company) became very interested in mountaineering. In order to manage my expectations and build up to Everest, I set a modest goal of running a 5k. With serendipity, there is a local race six weeks away, plenty of time to train. I went to my local thrift shop to pick up some running shorts, and they had the exact kind I was looking for, at a steep discount.
I have hit the track at Brookdale Park twice so far: 1 mile, 1.25 miles. I'm following a modified couch to 5k schedule, reformulated for a track (eg 1 lap run, 1 lap walk) rather than time (30s run, 60s walk).
It's taken me back to the year I ran track in high school. I also ran a 5k in college. I remember running a mile or so maybe six years back or so. I've long had a difficult relationship with running: I didn't feel comfortable in my body, the internal pressure to achieve was more harm than help. This time around, with about a year of yoga under my belt, and a much better relationship with myself, these training sessions have been, well, surprisingly easy.
Veggie points
This was a fun one, my girlfriend suggested that we log each unique vegetable that we eat for one week. The catch is that the veggies should not be processed in order to count (we made exceptions for minimally processed foods like peanut butter and hummus). The target was 30 unique veggies, which we both hit! As vegetarians it wasn't particularly challenging, and I'd say I didn't make any special effort to consume new veggies for the list.
Side note: the Good List Visualizer has been updated to include these new entries.