La Jolla Shores 5K

Today, I did the La Jolla Shores 5K. It started off with my fastest mile time as an adult. I ran for over ten minutes straight, which is totally a record for me.

Of course, that was partly because the first mile was almost entirely downhill. And, the downside of running the first mile, was the running out of energy for the next two. I definitely need to work on evening out my pace.

This was a pretty fun run, and you could see the beach for most of it. But, they only give medals for the half marathon. I know a 5K doesn't seem impressive to marathoners, but for some people, a 5K might as well be. I think you should get something for finishing any organized race, regardless of the distance.

In the end, I PRd and had fun, but now I'm icing my knees and slathering them in Tiger Balm.

BEDA Tracker:

4/1/15    4/6/15   4/11/15   4/16/15   4/21/15   4/26/15

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Walking

I got a FitBit Charge for my birthday and I've been wearing it ever since. It amazes me how much tracking my steps makes me want to move. At my last job, I was glued to the computer, so I very rarely got close to my step goal on a weekday. At the new job, I move around a lot more. I've hit my goal both days. Yesterday, it was because I went walking after work, but today I hit my goal by going shopping after work.

I never really thought about how far I walked when I went to a mall before. Before I got my license, I walked everywhere. I worked at a mall, and I would walk to work where I stood for my entire shift, then walked home. I wish I could continue that kind of lifestyle. I love driving, but I really miss the time I spent putting one foot in front of the other. Plus, when I walked everywhere, I didn't have to add walking and running into my routine.

I really wish San Diego had a better transit system. It's really only good if you live downtown. In Sacramento, the light rail and bus system was really good in all the places I lived. So, I could walk to the bus or light rail and get pretty much anywhere I wanted to go. I really miss the excursions I would go on, meandering around Sacramento.

BEDA Tracker:

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4/4/15    4/9/15   4/14/15   4/19/15   4/24/15   4/29/15

4/5/15   4/10/15  4/15/15   4/20/15   4/25/15   4/30/15

Unemployment

Technically, I was unemployed again today. I finished one job yesterday and start another tomorrow. It was kind of surprising how much it brought back the emotions of being unexpectedly unemployed a little less than a year ago. I decided to spend my day the same way I did on the first day of unemployment last time. I went to Balboa Park and wandered the San Diego Museum of Art.

Tuesdays in San Diego have free admission to museums for residents. It just so happened that the same museum I visited last time was open today. I never really connected with art growing up. Considering the roles music, literature, acting, and crafting play in my life, it's kind of surprising. I think I had a sort of block toward drawing and painting. I did take an art class in junior high, and the teacher didn't like my art, so I got a bad grade. I thought I was terrible at art, so it's possible that had something to do with my block. I do tend to avoid things that I don't do well.

Regardless, in the past couple years I've been wanting to learn more about art. I especially like to find out what was happening to the artists at the time the pieces were made. This is something I especially love about literature, too. It's why I thought I wanted to be a history major. I love making connections between creation and causation.

While wandering the museum today, a woman randomly started talking to me about this piece. I was looking at the name plate to figure out if the artist was female or male (It's really not that hard, very little art in the museum is by females. Sigh.) My interest attracted the woman, I suppose. She explained to me that Morgan Russell painted this piece, Still Life Synchromy with Nude in Yellow. He was attempting to capture music through the paint. We kept chatting, and I found out Russell was a contemporary of Picasso, and spent time at Gertrude Stein's salon, which means he was also a contemporary of authors like Hemingway and Faulkner. Knowing all about them from studying the lost generation in college, I felt like I knew a lot more about where Russell was coming from when he painted. I'm really glad that woman noticed me. This is the kind of thing that makes me want to learn more about the art world.

Another piece in the museum really stood out to me today. It also featured music. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but we were told not to take pictures of the art. Something about it being the free day. The above painting was gorgeous. It's called Robin, and it's by Kaley Powers. It's hard to tell from the picture, but it's not just painted. It has a 3-D element as well. There are painted paper cut-outs on top of painted background. The birds are birds, but also music notes. It's just a beautiful piece. Oh, and the artist is a local high school student. Seriously. It's phenomenal considering it was done by a teenager.

BEDA Tracker:

4/1/15    4/6/15   4/11/15   4/16/15   4/21/15   4/26/15

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San Diego

Today the weather was almost perfect. Sunny with blue skies, but not too hot. I couldn't bear the idea of wasting such wonderful conditions by sitting around the house. So, I made my brother join me for an afternoon at Balboa Park. San Diego has some truly amazing places, and Balboa Park is one of the best. I've noticed when I mention going to Balboa Park to friends and family who are visiting, they seem pretty reluctant. The name is a bit misleading. It's not a playground, though there are a few playgrounds at the Park.

Balboa Park is a little like Central Park in New York. It was host to the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Some of the prettiest grounds in the county surround most of the major museums, an outdoor organ pavilion, International Houses, a botanical garden, the San Diego Zoo, and the Old Globe Theater. It's a great place to visit, even if you just walk the park to explore. Many of the buildings were built for the Exposition, so the architecture is really quite exquisite.

The Spreckels Organ Pavilion has one of the largest outdoor pipe organs in the world. And on Sundays, they have free concerts performed by area (and out of area) organists. I had forgotten it was Sunday, so when I heard the organist playing my all-time favorite organ piece, I dragged my brother over to watch. Widor's Toccata is one of the most awesome feats of music. At my church in Sacramento, the organist would play it at the end of services frequently. He was a phenomenal organist, so I was spoiled. The person who performed today wasn't quite as good, but it was still incredibly moving. When all the stops are pulled and the last chords are ringing out, it gives me chills. Every time.

We also stopped by the Moreton Fig Tree that is one of the largest (in girth) trees in California. I remember climbing the tree as a kid. It's over 100 years old, so they had to fence it off to protect it, but it's still a gorgeous tree. I need to go through some old pictures to see if I have any of us as kids playing on it. It was also the Earth Day celebration at the park today, so it was a lot more crazy and crowded than usual, but all in all, I took a walk on this lovely sunny day. And I'm really glad I did.

BEDA Tracker:

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Lines

My day started very early in the morning. It was dark when I woke up. My friends and I drove up to Anaheim to get in line for the Diamond Anniversary pins. We waited almost two hours to eventually be turned away. We arrived at the line at the time they said we could line up. Unfortunately, people who did not follow the rules, showed up overnight to wait for pins. Rather than being turned away, Disneyland brought them onto the property to wait to get wristbands to buy pins. So, hundreds of people who followed the instructions were left waiting in the standby line for nothing. And the people who cheated the rules, got the pins, so they could sell them on eBay for three times what they cost. It doesn't really make sense for Disney to let people do this, because they aren't even benefitting from it.

This problem is not exclusive to Disney. The same situation happens at Comic Con. They give a date and time that people are allowed to start lining up for a hall, the Con floor, or exclusive sales. People start showing up to line up early. Sometimes as much as two or three days early. So, Comic Con then announces that people can line up as early as the night before, "to discourage overnight camping." So, people start lining up early. And because people are lining up early, Comic Con decides, rather than not allowing it, they will start giving out wristbands. The same thing happened at VidCon, with the autograph sales and panel access. And, this is not just a Convention/Amusement Park issue. The same thing happens with stores on what used to be Black Friday.

Let me tell event organizers a little secret: Wristbands do not discourage people from waiting. They don't minimize the amount of time people will be willing to wait. Rather than being in any way a deterrent, the wristbands then become part of the package. It means people now want the panel, toy, or pin and a wristband.

The real truth is this: Event organizers don't want to do what needs to be done. The way to discourage people from lining up overnight and causing issues by milling en masse is not to reward them for that behavior. Rather than giving them what they want, these places need to let the police handle it. They need to let the giant group of people disturbing the peace get the tickets/arrests they deserve.

I don't see this ever happening. Because, then there would be bad publicity, but it really is the only way to stop people from pushing an envelope that has already been pushed too far.

BEDA Tracker:

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Water

California depicted by the US Drought Monitor - White means not in a Drought

A lot is being said right now about the state of water in California. Talking about the drought is good, but it's not enough. California is desperately thirsty right now, and too much of our potable water is being wasted on roadways, sidewalks, and lawns; down drains; and to grow crops that are, frankly, too water-reliant to be grown in a drought-stricken region.

Individually, there is a lot we can do to help. Not running the sink while brushing your teeth or lathering your hands is a good start. Changing to drought-resistant landscaping is best, but following the new regulations for watering is not just mandatory, it's beneficial. You can also visit one of the many sites online with tips, like this one and this one.

Kristen Bell issued the #WipeForWater campaign with Neutrogena and The Nature Conservancy, and I have joined in. (Instead of washing my face with water and face wash twice-a-day every day, I'm using the Neutrogena Naturals towelettes.) In 7 days, I will have saved around 35 gallons of water. I shudder to think how much water I have been wasting waiting for the water to get warm enough to put on my face!

While there are many ways the average citizen can help reduce their H2O footprint, even if everyone in the state did follow all of these, there would still be a problem. Water isn't falling from the sky, but the population keeps increasing. In what makes little sense to anyone not benefitting from the process, California continues building homes, and not just in small amounts. Here in San Diego, I am aware of at least four housing projects that are bringing hundreds (yes hundreds each!) of new homes or condos to the area.

California's population has doubled since 1960. Southern California's rivers are already cemented in order to control where the water goes. And for the greater part of the year, these cement rivers could be considered streams...at best. Northern Californians like to complain about furnishing Southern California with water, especially during these more drastic drought conditions, but the fact is, the majority of Californians live far below the dividing line. In fact, if you only count San Diego, Imperial, Orange, Riverside, LA, and San Bernardino counties (that's the six southernmost counties, which you can see on the map above isn't even close to half of the state), the population is 21,146,632. Out of 38,802,500. The ecosystem wasn't designed for 40 million humans. And projections for 2050 show population growth going up over 50 million.

As great as it can be for an economy to have population growth, California has outgrown its sustainability. So, feel free to come visit, we have a wonderful state, but, please, do us a favor and don't stick around.

BEDA Tracker:

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4/5/15

Emergency Rooms

In the past two weeks, I've taken two people to the emergency room. Thankfully, both were released with not-too-serious maladies. But, I spent a lot of time sitting around, my stomach twisted with worry. There isn't much to do in an emergency waiting room, so my curiosities kick in and I go into what I like to call my hyper-observation mode.

My two visits were to two different hospitals, with very different methods and facilities. Here in San Diego, we have a couple major healthcare systems. I think Kaiser probably has the largest amount of people, and that's the one I was in for my first visit.

It. Was. CROWDED. We were there at 8:00 on a Friday night. There weren't very many chairs available, though there were a lot of chairs. It was a rather large room, sort of divided into sections. The chairs were okay, but not very comfortable. Certainly not meant to be sat in for hours.

They had an immediate triage nurse that those checking in waited about 10 minutes for, which was good for the patients, but then they had people who had just been triaged stand in line for about 45 minutes to get checked all the way into the process. Every person in that line looked miserable.

We were able to leave the emergency room around 1:30 am. I sat in that chair for about 5 1/2 hours.

Then last night, I visited another of the major hospitals in San Diego, Sharp Memorial. We arrived at the emergency room around 1:00 am. It's a smaller ER than the one at Kaiser. the two waiting areas are separated by the check-in/security/triage areas. An RN checked patients in, determining who needed immediate triage. Rather than performing triage in the waiting room, the patients were brought into triage rooms. All people who went to a triage room, went back to their ER rooms. Not sure if that's just how it works, or if everyone was serious enough to warrant going straight back.

The waiting area at Sharp was a stark contrast from Kaiser. It was decorated well, and the chairs were really comfortable. It didn't feel like a hospital. We were able to leave by 3:15 am. So, I sat in this chair for only about 2 1/4 hours.

I don't know if the time I was there was a factor, but the Sharp experience was definitely better and we left in much better spirits, than I did with Kaiser, despite the fact that it was quite a bit later (well, earlier in the morning).  Despite the waiting room critiques, I definitely want to give thanks to all the wonderful medical professionals that helped my people. Oh, and a special shout-out to the Walgreens Pharmacy Drive-Through that provided us with the prescribed medication at 3:30 am!

BEDA Tracker:

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Fan Fest

Today marked the beginning of baseball season in San Diego. My brother and I went to the Padres Fan Fest. (Well, my brother went to the whole thing. I just joined him later.) The Padres played an exhibition game against Diablos Rojos del Mexico.

We got to see some of the new players, and for the first season in a long time, what we saw looked pretty great. I'm really looking forward to see what they can do. The ended up trouncing Mexico. I felt bad for them, because they had more errors than hits, and no runs. Even still, it was a lot of fun when the Padres scored each of the eight runs.

The new HD scoreboard is kind of fantastic. Almost as sharp as watching the field itself. Possibly my favorite part, was the new between-inning entertainment: The Padres Boom Crew. They're basically a snare drum line that uses trash cans. They are awesome and add a lot of energy.

BEDA Tracker:

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