Movement

And it begins with just one step

I walked to work today. Don’t know exactly what got into me, but maybe something about not working out, getting heavier and the like. I got up early and was getting ready in my normal way, when I just decided…”I’m not going to the gym this afternoon like I planned (going to pub) so why don’t I just walk to work?” And so I went and grabbed my sneakers and took off.

It took me about 50 minutes to get here. Not too bad for a 3-mile or so journey. Didn’t want to speed walk too much as I’m not hugely into sweating a ton in my work clothing. But I kept up a decent pace.

The beginning of my walk is through a lovely residential area. I like to dream of winning the lottery and being able to buy one of these houses. They are among the few detached houses in the area and have to be worth a bundle. Definitely not something we could afford. I then began to think about our plan to buy a house in London one day. It’s something we’ve talked about a lot and we’re going to have some serious conversations this summer. Realistically, we’re going to have to move in with R’s parents in order to really save up enough money to have for a really good downpayment and for fees. His flat is probably worth about £250,000 or so, and we could probably get a mortgage that would bring us up to about £350-375,000. So with a ton of money saved, we could easily buy a £400,000 or so house. Now this won’t be a stunner of a property - most likely it will need work on it. Or it’ll be small. But it will be more than the flat we’re in now. But to have to live with your in-laws. Not sure how I’d feel about that. I know it’s the norm for Indian families (at least in the not so distant past). We’ll see. It would help us to achieve this dream.

As I continued my walk, I headed toward the busy Finchley Road. It’s a busy road with shops and people all along it. I was able to continue my fantasy by looking at the type of furnishings I’d want in my dream home. And also what I might want for dinner!

Finally, with slightly tired legs, I arrived at work. I feel that I accomplished something already today. Woo hoo!

A teaspoon of this…

I love to cook. I find it utterly facinating to try new recipes with new ingredients. I look online, look in cook books…pretty much anywhere that I can find to get ideas. One of my favourite websites is a blog called Nosheteria, which I’m quite certain I’ve spoken about before. And then there’s BBC Food for those recipes that are so British (though I do find more than that there).

I’m still getting used to the ovens over here - remembering what celcius temp is the same as the farenheit one. It’s a challenge. And then our teaspoons are not the same as UK ones. But I rarely ever totally follow recipes, so it’s not that big a deal.

Next week I’m cooking for my in-laws for the second time. They both tend to like the same old things over and over again. But I want to do something different. I found a recipe (in one of my old cut-out collections) for a spicy thai prawn pasta. I think they’ll like the spice while appreciating how different it is from what they normally cook for themselves.

Have to say that it’s a bit nerve wracking to cook for two people who have so much influence in our lives. Crazy. But I’ll be all ready to try this new recipe. And if it doesn’t work…well I’ll be sure to have something in the freezer that could be used in a jiffy.

Tonight I’m going to make another pasta dish. I’m thinking something like a plain spagetti with a tomato based sauce with chorizo or perhaps pancetta. Add a chili or something for a touch of spice. Mmmmm…my mouth is watering just thinking about it. What R. likes is that I try to make new things, while he tends to stick with what he knows. That way we do have old favourites regularly (like curries) and still have something new every so often too. I think we’ll probably have something simple on Friday and then perhaps find something good at Borough Market for Saturday night. Can’t wait!

Journey

I’m doing well. I’ve left on time from the house with hair looking okay (forgot to buy mousse but the gel seems to be working) and my bag packed for the afternoon hockey session.

I get to the train station three minutes early. Excellent. Time to walk to my favorite spot where I can do some people watching.

A few of the same people are standing next to me. The black woman in her usual white coat, with platinum blond streaky hair; so put together. The couple who look like they love to gossip, glancing around at their fellow passengers and giggling into shoulders. The business man who is reading the Financial Times and looking harried.

Train arrives on time (what luck). But what I see before me isn’t good news. It’s packed. People try to get in. No one wants to move down the center aisle of the carriage. You could fit so many more passengers on the train, but no one is willing to move. Come on people. So not fair. I’d move for you. Nope, can’t get on anywhere. Several others are left behind too.

I’m not willing to wait the 12 minutes for the next train. No way. Cause it’ll probably be the same. What a pain. Should I take the bus? Yes. Walk out of the station and see both buses that I’d normally take drive on by. Not another bus for 10 minutes at least. Damn it.

So I begin to walk. Walk toward my job. It’s good exercise I think. I’m wearing trousers and comfy shoes. It won’t be a problem. And perhaps I’ll catch a bus along the way.

I walk by people waiting for the C-11. They glance at me struggling along with my over sized black work bag and my small pink backpack. Perhaps they are thinking, ‘Why aren’t you waiting for the bus?’.

On I go. When the heck is the next bus coming? How could I have walked a mile without seeing one? And then it comes. I’m only a quarter of a mile or so from the tube, but I jump on it anyway. Darn traffic. I should have kept walking. It would have taken less time. But I finally make it to the tube. It’s also crowded but at least I can make it on the carriage. And whisked to work.

Made it. Time to get busy.

I’m in charge of what?

Next year is going to be crazy busy. I mean CRAZY busy. I have quite a lot on my plate for work and it’ll be interesting to see how it works out. Here’s just a little breakdown of what I’m going to be doing:

Counseling - I’ll still be the high school counselor. I’ll be there to meet for short-term therapy with any of our 450 students. Many of our students who need therapy end up going to someone outside, so I’m more of a support than a serious therapist.

Teaching - I will teach two sections of my Introduction to Psychology class. It’s quite a lot of work, but I’ve handled it okay this year. But I’m going to have to do some summer work to get it totally up to speed.

Peer Advising - I am in charge of this program. Juniors & Seniors meet once every 8-day cycle for 40 minutes with the freshmen. I have to design and run the curriculum, meet with all the advisors at least once a cycle to go over it all. Yeah - it’s busy!

Health info - I have to bring someone in to do the alcohol and other drugs education (for Freshmen and Sophomores), I work on trying to educate the students on other health related topics

GSA - I am one of two adult mentors for our Gay Straight Alliance. Next year we’re trying to bring in a speaker to work with all the groups in the high school - teachers, faculty and students…with a few workshops for the student leaders. It’ll be interesting. I’ll be in charge of this.

Coaching - field hockey - I’ll do the defense & middle school coaching. It’ll be a 5-6 day a week after school job from late August until mid-November. It takes up a lot of time!

9th grade advisory - I am the director of this new program. I have to train the faculty who will be taking part, come up with the curriculum, meet with the 8 faculty regularly to go over the curriculum…it’s going to be a HUGE task.

So yeah. I may need to employ some serious stress reduction technques - or else have weekly therapy sessions myself! I can’t wait to see what’ll happen if I end up getting pregnant…

A cognitive twist, not shaken or stirred

Recently, in my psychology class, we’ve been talking about errors in thinking that we all have. Such biases such as the Fundamental Attribution Error or Actor-Observer bias. And these are things we all do. It’s wild. And if you try to catch yourself thinking this way…it really blows your mind.

Fundamental attribution error – this is the tendency for people to underestimate situational influences for others behaviour and over estimate personal or internal factors in persons behaviour. We often neglect situations and just look at personality as an explanation. For example…a person you meet at a party acts distant. You assume that the person is either not friendly or is arrogant. What you don’t know is that the person just found out that her grandmother died and yet she didn’t want to bow out of the party at the last minute. So you attribute how she acts to ‘who she is’…whereas it’s really about the situation that she’s been put in.

Actor-observer bias - this is the tendency to attribute your own behavior to the situation but others person’s behavior to person (internal) causes. We all do this quite regularly. I walk to work on a busy road. Quite often I have to side-step another person coming at me, which causes me to somewhat cut off the person next to me. It’s something that I wouldn’t normally do, but because of the situation, I have to do it. But sometimes as I’m walking on that same sidewalk, I get cut off…and I get angry at the person for doing it to me. I think, “How rude!”. But maybe they were about to be run over by the person heading toward them and had to do what I did just a few minutes earlier. But I attribute their movement to just ‘rudeness’.

Then my fav error, that I see in England (and the States) constantly….primarily because my hubby and I are sports fans and players. This one is the self-serving bias…tendency to take credit for our successes (internal for doing well), but we deny responsibility for what we do poorly (external attributes). When my team wins (teams I play for or teams I’m rooting for), it’s all about how awesome we were. But when we lose…well it had to be the umpire, or we had injuries, or the conditions just weren’t fair.

How many of you will catch your cognitive errors today? I know I’ve already seen a few in my day…

Flying time

Wow. It’s already May. Can’t believe it. The school year is flying. We have only 6-1/2 weeks left until graduation. My dad’s school in the States only has about 3 or 4. And then it’ll be time for vacation - OUR HONEYMOON!

In between all of this I have tons to do. As a school counselor I run a Peer Advising program and I have to interview all the candidates. We usually take about 24 or so. These kids teach a once a cycle seminar on how to adjust to the high school to 9th graders. It’s a cool program…but I am in charge of it and our 9th grade advisory…which means that I also have to develop all the coursework and sessions that go with both programs.

It’s also the start of cricket season. This year R. isn’t taking part, he’s retiring after several years of professional and non-pro cricket. I, on the other hand, will be getting revved up for my 3rd season of playing. It’s very strange to be an American playing this sport. But I seem to be decent…this year I’m hoping to make the competitive team instead of the developmental team, but it’s a long shot. I have to improve both my bowling (which is like pitching) and my batting. Especially my batting as that seems to be my core strength.

And then there’s working out, going to my in-laws at least once a week, trying to keep the flat clean, teaching a new topic in my Psychology course (which means hours of prep each day/night)…yeah there’s a lot going on.

So…when am I going to get time to go shopping for a bikini?