A Heck of A Good Time

This past weekend,  I had the pleasure of attending two sold-out events locally. Now, that may not seem so remarkable to most folks. I should clarify. My town has halved in population in the past 70 years or so. The main industry of paper-making is all but gone. Unemployment is quite high and incomes for those who are employed is typically low. When an event is planned in the local area, it's expected to not sell-out. So, two packed houses in two days was quite remarkable.
Saturday night was a spaghetti dinner and dancing to a live band. The event was put on by the ski club I'm always talking about. The evening was scheduled to start with a cocktail hour at 6. We arrived at quarter of, thinking we'd have time to help with setting things up. We thought there would be a slow trickle of people coming in during that hour. My jaw hit the floor when we pulled in to the parking lot and there was already a steady stream of people heading in the door. It was a great night with some really good raffle prizes, plenty of food, and dancing well into the night. We also got to honor some long time volunteers and the ski club made some much needed money.
Sunday afternoon was another music-filled day. We weren't sure how much energy we'd have to go out after a birthday party and a late fundraiser, but we went anyway. And boy are we glad we did! I had a feeling the place would fill up early, so we went a half hour before the show started to get good seats. Turns out, we needed to be that early to get seats at all! The band was Le Grand Derangement, and they are good! They're an Acadian band from Nova Scotia. Singing in French and English, and also a dialect of French that is unique to their own town in NS. I think my favorite part was hearing the conversations during intermission. Many of the old timers here grew up speaking only French at home. They were told that they were stupid to be speaking French and it was discouraged. I love hearing those same old timers speak with each other, flowing seamlessly between French and English. I overheard one woman saying "They called us stupid for speaking French, but we could speak two languages and they only spoke one. How ignorant!" Yep. It really was neat to see such pride in cultural heritage. Many folks brought their kids and grandkids to the show, too. I strongly believe that a rich cultural heritage is a big part of what makes communities thrive.
Another cool thing about the weekend? The two amazing events I went to were put on by small community-driven non-profit organizations. Non-profits like these really prove to be the backbone of society in America. [steps on soapbox] So if you are a person that happens to have a few spare dollars or hours, or talents to give, consider giving to these types of organizations that will re-invest it in your community. [steps off soapbox]

Where's The Snow?

Just a quick note to whine about the weather. I'm not one to complain too much about weather where I live, as I know the climate in northern New England is fickle. I am, however, losing my resolve. By this time last year, I'd done a ton of nordic skiing and I was kicking my own butt learning how to skate ski. Although we've had a couple of storms, none of the snow stuck around for very long. Looking at the 10 day forecast is pretty grim as well. Looks like about one new inch of snow is likely. Not enough to do much of anything on.
Although this lack of snow is affecting morale for us skiers (especially those of us relying on natural snowfall versus the machine made stuff on the slopes), it's really not good for the economy. The local economy here relies heavily on winter recreation: skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiles, dogsled tours, etc. The folks that really make their bread and butter off the snow are just itching for the next big dumping of fluffy white stuff to sell to the tourists. Although I complain about the lack of wintery weather, at least I don't rely on it to keep my family fed.
All we can do is grin and bear it, and go for a hike instead.

Letting Go and Simplifying...

I'm trying to simplify my life these days. Eating better, exercising more. I think I finally figured out a work schedule I can be happy about. I'm even working on simplifying my wardrobe, little by little: a few practical things that I can mix and match; giving away the clothes that I don't wear. I have dreams of simplifying my home decor but am coming up against some opposition from the lovely people that live with me.
The biggest thing that clutters my thoughts (and home) these days is my responsibility to the ski club. I love to help the club, I can be effective in my role with them, but I know I took on more than I'd like. When they made me president of the board, I was torn between feeling honored (It's the oldest ski club in America, after all) and the feeling of "oh shit, what am I getting into, now?"
8 months ago, I told the board that I wanted to let go of my role as president. Yeah, that didn't happen. Now,  I'm searching for ways to let it go without hurting the club too badly. I've got an idea of my ideal role with them: Local fundraising, community contact, web presence, helping with events, connection to club members, that sort of thing. Somehow the stuff that I'd love to do gets pushed aside in favor of the things I need to do: chasing paperwork, communicating with the state (our trails are on state land), helping with grants, being the go-to person for everything else with the club. ugh. How do I let go of the stuff I don't want to do in favor of the things that excite me about being involved with the club?
I've let the rest of the board know that I'd rather not do these things. No one else is keen on taking it over, though. Some days, I just want to walk away from it all. Then my sense of responsibility kicks in and I concede to sticking around a while longer. My current goal is to make things simple and streamlined enough for the next person to be able to just step into the role without too much difficulty. Simplifying my job so I can let it go to simplify my life. Sounds complicated...
Meanwhile, I hope for snow so we can open the trails for the season!

To Market, To Market

I love the farmers' market.
OK, flashback 3 years. A friend of mine is wishing the local community had a farmer's market. She goes to another market in the region to check things out and suddenly she's the coordinator for the first ever farmers' marketplace in our depressed mill town. Inspiring to say the least. Last year, I lugged my massage chair downtown every other week and did back massages for a buck a minute. I alternated with another massage therapist in town. Mostly, I did it because I wanted to be in the market scene. I made a few bucks and left most of my earnings back at the market with the food and hard cider vendors. My business is pretty well established in town, however, and it seemed that folks thought I wanted to build up clientele. They'd refer me to folks thinking I needed more business. Not to complain about abundant business, especially in this economy, but I have been doing massage for 11 years and intend to do it for many more, so overworking myself is not on my to-do list. Also, since moving my business to my at-home office, I have been more discerning about who I let in to my space, and frankly, I didn't need every market client coming home with me.
So this past summer, I let the market go. Instead, I visited as a customer when I could, and liked it that much more (except that I often stopped by between in-office massage clients and rushed through so fast I barely got to say hello to those fantastic market vendors I've grown so fond of.)

My friend the market coordinator could not be stopped at a simple weekly outdoor market. She decided that the community also needed a harvest market in November just before Thanksgiving, and a Holiday market in December as well. So we moved indoors. Last year, I lugged my massage chair over and did the back massages and sold gift certificates. This year, I decided to devote my harvest market day to the ski club. As we're in the middle of a membership drive, I figured I could get some new and returning members on board and sell a few t-shirts as well. Plus, I can bring my 4 year old to sell t-shirts where she'd be distracting for massage.

Although I made no money for myself today, I brought in nearly enough to buy groomer fuel for the season. That makes me happy. 

Aside from the monetary gain for the club, I was able to talk up our events and programs, and shmooze with folks that may or may not have local influence and even money to help our cause. 

I also get to meet folks with Nordic ski history that puts my meager kick and glide abilities to shame. Today I got to meet a guy that won first in his division in ski-jumping in '68. From this 171 foot insanely steep jump.  

On top of all that, I got some amazing multi grain bread from a local baker, fresh local cranberries, and some leeks. All in all, a good market day.

Oh, and while we were at the market, (and the 6 year old's birthday party immediately afterward) the Mr. was installing the base for the new shower and some backer board for the fancy tile job we're doing. What a productive day! 

Busier than we ought to be.

OK, so I've been MIA for a while.
I'm still trying to find some balance between my work life and my volunteer life. This ski club I volunteer for is great and fun and has some real historical significance, and I feel like I ought to give it more energy than I have been. Of course, it's all volunteer run, and although I get some great ideas, I keep having to remind myself I'm just a volunteer. So I need to lay off. Or not. I am having fun learning new things, like how to write a grant, and I'm loving the trail work and the times we get to get outside.

Now, if I could spend more time outside and less time squinting my eyes in front of grant-y terms and what not...

I did get to spend some time with Lils and the neighbor kid jumping in leaves last weekend. That stuff brings me back to the best times of my childhood.

To make an eventful week even more so, our hot tub busted last Thursday. In the midst of my stressing out about something that was probably unimportant, I decided to take a few minutes in the tub to relax. then the jets stopped and this happened:

Yeah, that's the contents of my tub draining out onto my yard. It was on warranty and the hot tub company sent a very adorable redhead man to repair it for us. Although the broken tub totally harshed my mellow, I am well aware that this is not a real-life problem, so if you were pitying me, you should stop now.

So what's on tap for the weekend? It's Veteran's day so Mr. has Friday off. We're going to tackle the shower project this weekend. A while back, we totally re-did a bathroom and installed a shower that we chose mainly because it was inexpensive and looked cool. Like a portal or something. the shower turned out to be a total piece of crap and the floor cracked in several places. It wasn't how it was installed. It's that the base was a not-so-dense foam covered in a thin plastic coating and never made to last. We got a pile of tile and a new floor and glass doors and are tackling the demo of the old shower tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll have it done by Monday. 

The Before Picture

Of course, We've got a pile of other stuff going on this weekend, so we'll see how the project goes. 

I'll post more often, as we're getting psyched and planning our Europe trip and this shower project ought to have some progress to report soon. 

A week in pictures

What on Earth have I been up to this past week? Well, Halloween, for one thing:

 It's quickly becoming my favorite holiday. Kiddo was a witch (her choice) and I went all out and did 2 different costumes. A witch for the daytime trick or treat, then this awesome fairy costume for a party and the night time trick or treat. Fairy costume is a little on the racy side so I'm not posting it here.
While I had the sewing machine out, I restyled a couple of boxy t-shirts. This one's my fave:

 Apologies for the bad bathroom mirror sideways shot.

We got our first real snow of the season. About 4 inches here, but some folks south of us got more than 2 feet of snow from the same storm.

 First snowman of the season:

Aside from all that, I've been stressing myself out to the max, trying to get the ski club I volunteer for all set for the season. Herding volunteers isn't always easy. I'm also working on boosting my own enthusiasm to make things work. It's been waning, and that's no good for anyone. 

Wish me luck!