Day: January 30, 2010

Joined the Manhattan JCC

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The weather is just way too cold to go running in Riverside Park. It’s like 20 degrees out. I’m sure some crazy people run in this weather, but not me. Sorry. So, two weeks ago, I got a pool membership for me and the family at the Manhattan Jewish Community Center (Like, $1,700 for a year! NYC!). Yesterday, I packed my bathing suit and cap. I said to myself, “MB, all you have to do is swim eight laps or stay in the pool for 12 minutes.” If you recall, I seem to only be able to run for 13 minutes and then am completely exhausted. So I was cutting myself a break.

I got to the pool deck and handed the guy my membership card. The big lap pool looked so cold. Just so big and daunting. But the small lap pool, was I imagining it? A steamy, warm mist floated above the little pool. “Can I swim in there?” I asked the nice young woman. “Yes,” she shrugged.

And I ran in the warm pool. I ran back and forth and I lasted 15 minutes, that’s longer than I had planned. And I felt so good.

Prezi.com So much fun

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Learning Prezi.com

You picture your presentation as a big white board. You zoom in, zoom out, link here, link there, post pictures and words, mind map, point to tangential ideas. Am playing around and using this to summarize my sabbatical. If anyone at work asks for it.

http://prezi.com/lf5xhnrhhz1y/communicate/

So much more creative than power point. Click, square, click, square. Although I have loved making power points, have wasted days changing the ways a page flips onto the next.

I just simply like creating. And I don’t care what it is I’m creating. But given that I have to make something, I like using new technology to make something new. I like getting feedback and feeling affirmed (“Wow! Mary Beth! That’s so cool!”) I like and need to think in a non-linear fashion.

Yet, in my writing, let’s face it, I do and have jumped around and sometimes, yes, occasionally at work, people (one editor in particular) want me to be all chronological and probably she prefers the  click, square, next. Click, square, next.

The big circles, the jumping off points, the tangential thinking, the creative asides – some people don’t get that. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I can play by the rules and I can (and prefer to) play without any rules. Both And!

Remembering My 7 Rules

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1. Pile on the people (modified to pile on the useful people)

2. Escape through literature (modified to escape through the arts)

3. Remember your hoops of steel (priorities! priorities! for me, my work and my kids!)

4. Create a secret garden (shhhhhh! it’s a secret)

5.Expect the best, love what you get (from horses, kids, and yourself!)

6. Live everyday as if it’s your last

7. Embrace uncertainty