A Day of Reflection

One of the great benefits that my company offers is a paid day of reflection - that's right, once a year we get to take a day off and reflect on our career, personal lives and just relax away from the office.  It's an awesome idea and I used my day of reflection to the fullest.  Prior to taking the day we are required to submit a short essay explaining what we will be doing throughout the day and what we plan to reflect on.  Originally I was scheduled to take mine in mid-August, around the day of my 4 year anniversary of moving to Albany, but at the time my work load was just too heavy and I wasn't able to take it so instread I decided to take my day last Friday.  My original plan had included hot yoga, a small hike and lunch at one of my favorite lunch spots; however given that it's the middle of November I opted to forego the hike and spend approximately two hours painting my own pottery at The Pottery Place in Stuyvesant Plaza.  Actually, the majority of my day of reelection took place in Stuyvesant Plaza!

 

First thing I did the morning of my day of reflection was sleep in!  That may have been one of the best parts!  The past couple weeks have been really challenging and stressful - between travel, work assignments, follow-up and some person things I needed a day to just sleep in and enjoy a pot of coffee in the living room while watching some trashy reality TV.  After a relaxing morning I headed off to a hot yoga class at The Hot Yoga Spot.  I love hot yoga and use to take classes multiple times a week, but ever since I joined F.I.T. Strength & Conditioning and began taking boot camp classes, hot yoga has more or less fallen by the wayside.  I really should do it more often - I have noticed my flexibility has decreased and it really does relax and calm me; not to mention it's challenging!  Anyway, I took an hour and fifteen minute class and sweated my stress away - it was great!

 

Hot yoga!

 

The class ended around 11:30 AM and I headed around to the other side of Stuyvesant Plaza to walk around a little bit and do some 'window' shopping.  I really enjoy walking Stuyvesant Plaza and going into all the little shops.  Stuyvesant also happens to be home to one of my favorite places to eat - Bountiful Bread!  I go to Bountiful probably at least one time a week and it has become the regular meet up place for myself and many of my friends.  I love Bountiful's create your own salads and 90% of the time I go there that is what I get, so that afternoon was no exception.

Awesome 'create your own' and a breadstick.  Also notice the HUGE pumpkin whoopie pie in the back of the shot.  Bountiful has awesome whoopie pies so I bought one to split with Adam later that night.

After lunch I walked around a little more and then headed over to The Pottery Place to paint some pottery!  Awhile back I bought a groupon for 4 free hours of studio time; I used two of those hours back in June when my friend Barb came into town and even though it was fun I didn't really like the mug I made.  This time I decided to paint a salad plate and after careful consideration (it took me forever to pick out my colors and stencil) I decided to go with a blue base with black and yellow flower designs.  One of the ladies who worked there actually gave me a great tip that helped me ensure my design looked decent!

Getting ready to paint!

The end result turned out awesome!  I will get it back this Friday and I can't wait to see how it turned out.  One of the guys who works at the Pottery Place said my plate looked 'wicked awesome,' I was excited!  I have never been a real creative person so they fact that I was able to paint something like that (even with the aid of a stencil) really made me happy!

Can't wait to see how it looks once it's fired!

 

While painting was a ton of fun it was great to just sit by myself for about two hours and work on something that wasn't work, house or life related - it was really relaxing!  Overall I had a GREAT day and I am very appreciate that my company offers a day of reflection - it was much needed and a great way to reflect, relax and refocus! 

Learning to SOAR

You may remember that I occasionally blog for my company, Policy Research Associates and so far I have written two posts in my series 'Confession of a PRA Newbie'.  My first post was about the PRA hiring process and the second post was about the experience of Co-Piloting Boston to Albany.  It has been a while since I blogged for PRA this week I remedied that situation.  My post will probably not be on the PRA blog for a couple of months so I wanted to share it over here.

 

First some background - for the past couple of months I had been working with a homeless gentleman to apply for SSI & SSDI.  (PRA does a lot of work with the Interfaith Partnership to End Homelessness - we cook monthly breakfasts and bi-monthly dinners, donate and work to promote their events as much as we can.)  Since I had never done a SOAR application before my supervisor thought it would be a good idea for me to take on a SOAR case and actually do the process that I am teaching.  If you are interested can read more about the SOAR process here, but overall it is a comprehensive way of applying for SSI & SSDI that all but ensures a higher success rate.  Just this week I wrapped up everything for my client's application and faxed off all the appropriate documents; now all we can do it cross our fingers and wait for the decisions.  Below I write about the experience of working with my client (names have been changed) and completing the SOAR process.

'Learning to SOAR'

 

I estimate that in the three months I consistently met with Anthony I spent well over $100 at McDonalds.  Yes, McDonalds and occasionally Wendy’s.  Anthony was a 23 years old homeless gentleman that I met through a local shelter that serves the homeless.  Anthony was in need of help completing his SSI/SSDI application and after our first meeting, the trips to McDonalds began.  You see, Anthony loved McDonald’s breakfasts and before every one of our meetings I would always stop and get him breakfast.  It became our ritual, we would sit in the conference room at Interfaith – he would eat his breakfast, I would drink my coffee and we would just talk.  We talked about everything from his childhood, how he was about to become an uncle, about whether or not he had had contact with his family Florida and what led to him becoming homeless in upstate New York.  The application seemed to become somewhat of an afterthought – sure we completed all the paperwork, visited the SSA office and set up doctor’s appointments but what really became important was our twice a weekly meetings, and those sausage egg McMuffins.
 

Unlike the other Senior Project Associates on the SOAR team I had never completed an actual SOAR application before coming to PRA.  I had previously worked with individuals experiencing homelessness and became well versed in work incentives and SSI/SSDI but SOAR was not a part of my professional experience until I joined the team.  There is much to be learned from the SOAR training but nothing compares to the hands on experience of working with an actual client.  Initially I was nervous about taking on such a large task while working to balance travel and the ongoing work with my states but I knew completing an application would make me a more informed member of the SOAR team.  So I dove in head first – getting to know my client, completing all the necessary forms, writing all the narratives and assessments but in the end it turned out to be so much more than that.

 

Anthony went through some tough times and wrestled with some challenging decisions during the time I was working with him but because I had gotten to know him through using the SOAR process I was able to serve as not only his case manager but also the one constant in his life.  In the end Anthony decided to return to his family in Florida; we had our last breakfast, I assisted him with getting his cell phone turned back on, dropped him off at the bus station and told him to be sure to call the office when he had arrived safely.  

 

Throughout it all it may have seemed like I was the one assisting Anthony but in reality he was the one teaching me.  He taught me not only about the SSI/SSDI process but also about the experience of being homeless – without even knowing it he taught me empathy, best practices, patience and that the easiest way isn’t always the best solution.  I had the privileged to be a part of Anthony’s story and I know that the SOAR process is only the first step along his road to recovery.

Race #1 - CDPHP Workforce Team Challenge

Last night at the CDPHP Workforce Team Challenge (3.5 Miler) I kicked off the first of three races in three weeks.  And as much as I would like to say that I kicked butt and did awesome - the race didn't exactly go as well as I had planned.  My time was definitely a lot slower than I wanted it to be but it wasn't all bad! 

 

Some background on this race - every year the major health insurance company - CDPHP - puts on the Workforce Team Challenge; you must register as a company and run in teams of 4.  Teams also typically make team shirts and overall it is a really fun event.  This year over 9,000 people participated!  That is a HUGE number and A LOT of people to fit in under the Rockefeller Plaza for the start of the race.  I was right in the thick of it and being crammed up against 9,000 other runners did not allow for much picture taking - however I was able to lift a few from 'Google Image' to give you some idea of the race.

Getting ready to start the race!  Under the 'bridge' between the NYS museum and Rockefeller Plaza.

Tons of runners heading up Madison Avenue toward the course.

So now on to the not so great news - as I mentioned my time was a lot slower than I had hoped, but then again you can only go SO fast when for the first 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile you are elbow to elbow with tons of people and trying not to fall flat on your face.  Anyway - according to my chip my overall time was 41:52 (11:58 mile) and according to the 'MapMyRun' app my time was 41:20.  The goal I set for myself was to finish between 38 and 40 minutes, so when I crossed the finish line and saw over 41 minutes I was pretty disappointed.  However, some good did come of this race - I pretty much ran the entire race, the only time I walked was at the water stations (2) because let's be honest drinking water, running and trying to breath all at the same time simply does not work well for me.  I also now have a good goal - I know I can run the distance no problem so now I need to work on my speed!

 

My next race is in a week - Survive the Farm 5K and Obstacle Course - that race I won't necessarily be going for time since there will be obstacles involved so between now and Friehofers (June 1st) I hope to up my fitness and be able to run a decent 5K time.

 

My t-shirt and race bib!

'Why YOU wished you worked at PRA'

Yesterday

Yesterday (and I am including Saturday night in 'yesterday's' time frame) was busy!  In fact the weekend as a whole seemed go-go-go - but in a good way.  I will admit though that on this particular Monday morning I am feeling pretty tired and wishing for a three day weekend, oh well.  So anyway, Friday night we attended a high school production of Beauty and the Beast - for a HS production it was pretty decent.  Saturday morning was relaxing and followed by various errands to the bank, Target, LL Bean, Trader Joe's and ShopRite.  After a quick dinner we headed to The Egg in downtown Albany to see Sara Watkins!  Sara Watkins is 1/3 of the band Nickel Creek and is now touring solo.  The tickets were (very) reasonably priced for The Egg and while I have not listened to a ton of Nickel Creek I remember my best friend Dana being pretty obsessed with Nickel Creek growing up.  So it was off to The Egg, but not before a quick walk up the hill to Ben & Jerry's on Lark Street - I had a groupon that needed to be taken advantage of - perfect timing!

Sara Watkins was great - she performed with two others who played everything from the base guitar and piano to the banjo.  If you know nothing about Sara Watkins know that this girl is dynamite on the fiddle!  Her music is categorized as 'progressive bluegrass' and it pretty much sounded like the music I grew up with.  While Sara Watkins was awesome to me what made the show was the opening act - a group named Field Report - out of Milwaukee, WI.  They were touring with Sara Watkins for a couple of show and I was really happy that one of their shows happened to be in Albany.  I had never heard of the band or their music before Saturday night but they were great and I can without question that they are band I would see live over and over again.  During intermission I ended up buying their CD and got to meet the lead singer Chris Porterfield!  I said his music is awesome and I hope that they come perform in Albany again soon - he said they definitely would so let's hope they keep that promise!

Sara Watkins and company!

Sara Watkins and band + Field Report!

Field Report's CD

So after a late night at The Egg I was up bright and early the next morning to spin for 'Building Stronger Survivors - Pedaling Toward A Pink Cure'.  Every year all the VENT Fitnesses (formerly Gold's Gym) in the area bring their spin bikes into the gym at the College of St. Rose and hold a 5 hour spin-a-thon to raise money for breast cancer.  This is the second year I have participated in the event and each year my 5:45 AM spin class gets a team together to ride.  Afterwards we go out to breakfast and it is a ton of fun - this year was no exception.  We rode the 8 AM - 9 AM ride with our instructor John leading the group.  In total there were about 130 spin bikes in the gym and for our ride I bet 115 were filled!  It's a great event, tons of energy and of course raising money for a good cause.

Early shot of the gym before the 8 AM ride.

Later that afternoon I decided I wanted to make something healthy and delicious for dinner!  Saturday  morning I had watched Bobby Deen's show on the Cooking Channel 'Not My Momma's Meals' - not my favorite show but man he has some good recipes!  From the show I decided upon a twice baked sweet potato!  His original recipe called for shrimp and cheese but I amended it to exclude the cheese and used spicy andouille chicken sausage instead of shrimp.  The recipe takes a little bit of time because you have to bake the sweet potatoes twice but the in between the create the filling is super simple.  Here's the recipe.

Sweet & Spicy Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

 

Ingredients

3 medium sweet potatoes (may vary depending on servings - 3 medium sweet potatoes for two people yielded leftovers for lunch)

2 links Spicy Andouille Chicken Sausage (I used Trader Joe's)

1/4 cup light sour cream

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup spinach

 

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350 and place forked sweet potatoes on a raise baking sheet ~ bake for about 1 hour or until tender ~ once cooked allow the potatoes to cool then slice in half and scoop out the insides, placing the sweet potato in a medium mixing bowl and the potato shells back on the baking sheet ~ if not already mashed, mash the sweet potatoes ~ in the meantime slice the sausage into half inch pieces and allow to cook over medium heat until browned ~ just before the sausage is finished add the garlic, salt and spinach ~ allow the spinach to cook down ~ once complete transfer the spinach/sausage mixture into the mashed sweet potato bowl and add the sour cream ~ mix everything together ~ once mixed transfer the mixture back into the sweet potato shells ~ if desired top with cheese and bake at 350 for an addition 20 - 25 minutes.  Enjoy!

 

Honestly - these were awesome!  Probably one of the best things I have made in a while.  I served the potatoes with a big chef's salad and that was dinner!  The potatoes were simple, healthy, filling and the perfect mix of sweet and spicy.   I can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch today!

 

A Saturday In Saratoga

A couple of weekends ago Adam and I headed up to Saratoga Springs, NY for the day.  Saratoga is an awesome town only about 30/45 minutes from Albany; it is most famed for the horse racing that takes place there every August.  Adam when to college in Saratoga so it is always fun to go up there and walk around.  The purpose of the trip was to check out the Adirondack Sport & Fitness Expo and go to dinner at Hattie's with some friends (using a groupon that I had purchased) but in between those we ended up walking up and down Broadway, did some antiquing and had the best coffee at Saratoga Coffee Traders! 

 

The Adirondack Sport & Fitness Expo was a lot of fun, we walked around and checked out everything hiking, camping, biking and kayak!  If you were in the market for any equipment surrounding those sports it was the place to be!  After checking out the expo we walked around Broadway - there are a ton of great shops but one of my favorites had to be the Saratoga Olive Oil Company.  This place has every kind of olive oil and balsamic imaginable!  And the best part, they provide little pieced of bread and you can taste each one of them.  I ended up buying a butter olive oil - not only was it delicious but it is also vegan and can be used in place of butter - I figured it would go great on pasta and veggies in place of butter - I tried it out the other night and boy was I right, it was freaking delicious!

 

After purchasing the amazing olive oil we headed to an awesome little antique shop where I was on the hunt for Pyrex dishes (thank you mother for instilling this in me).  I have a bunch of Pyrex and the older stuff is becoming harder and harder to find.  I ended up finding various nesting bowls but never a complete set, I was just about to give up when I located a dark green mixing bowl!  I have the exact same bowl in a slightly larger size so clearly I had to purchase it's mate!

Found!

Following my Pyrex find we stopped into a couple of more stores and then headed back to Broadway through Congress Park.  It is a nice little park and gorgeous in the summer but on that day it was dingy and muddy from all the melting snow - luckily that didn't stop a TON of ducks and geese from gathering.  There were so many of them they were just walking in and around the crowds not caring that their were people in their way.

 

Hey ducks!

Last stop on the agenda before heading back to meet up with our friends was to get some coffee and I must say that by this point I needed a pick me up.  I was debating what to get until I heard the lady in front of me order a french toast latte - sold!  It was amazing - best latte I have ever had and with good reason I'm sure it was chalk full of calories, but I got a small and enjoyed every bit of it.  Saratoga Coffee Traders is a pretty awesome coffee shop located right on Broadway in downtown Saratoga; they have a ton of fair trade coffee and make really interesting lattes (hence the french toast latte).

 

Hello deliciousness - french toast latte!

 

Ha!  Probably one of my favorite pictures of Adam.

Later on that night we headed to Hattie's for dinner which is a great southern-style restaurant in Saratoga.  I ordered the chicken and dumplings while Adam got the fried chicken - our meals were delicious; Hattie's is one of my favorite places to eat whenever I'm in the area.  After that we headed back and watched Sinister - talk about a creepy movie!  Overall a pretty awesome way to spend a Saturday!

Happenings

A lot has happened the past couple of weeks! My workouts have been hits and misses - one week I was right on target and then another week I struggled. Lent has started which means I have given up cheese so my workouts and diets have been more on track as of late (more on that later).  Here what has been going on ...

Adam celebrated his birthday! First with his family in Pittsfield, MA.

On his actual birthday (February 5th) we went out to celebrate with a bunch of friends. First stop with was the Ole English Pub & Pantry. On your birthday they give you a 'tea cup' full of beer (about 100 oz) for free!

That is one BIG tea cup!

 

Next we moved on to the Biergarten where on your birthday they give you a free 'boot' which about another 100 oz of liquid!

Man vs. Boot!

And done!

 Happy at the Biergarten!

 

So after all the birthday festivities everything calmed down and went back to normal!  Work has been busy and I am planning extensive travel for March and April - Iowa, Missouri, Western New York, Florida and New York City!

 

New curtains graced my living room!

We had this little snow storm called 'Nemo' - it was sort of a dud in Albany though - we only got about 6 - 8 inches!

After Nemo - the next morning!

The snow storm hit Friday night into Saturday morning - so on Sunday Adam and I decided to go snowshoeing!  Last winter I tried cross country skiing  which was a lot of fun but I had been wanting to try snow shoeing for a while!  During the summer and fall we hiked a lot and since snowshoeing is essentially hiking in the snow it seemed right up our ally!  We went to Pineridge Cross Country Ski Area which is located about 35 minutes outside of Albany.

Hiking boots strapped into snowshoes!

Here we go!

Adam snowshoeing!

Very pretty scenery!

 

Snowshoeing was a ton of fun!  So much so that we are contemplating  buying a pair for next season.  Hopefully it'll snow at least once more so we can go out again - fingers crossed!

 

I also got this wicked cool new headset for work!  It helps a ton when I am on the phone all day strategizing with different states! 

One of Adam's birthday presents were concert tickets to see Matt & Kim and Passion Pit.  The concert was really upbeat and a ton of fun!  Here is Kim of Matt & Kim booty dancing on top of the crowd!

 For Valentine's Day Adam got me an awesome French Press coffee maker! 
(As well as a book cook and a necklace!)

And through everything that has happened over the past couple of weeks - a kitty was often cuddled!

Tis' the Season for Giving!

Christmas is right around the corner!  I cannot believe it, I feel like Thanksgiving snuck up on me.  Anyway - around this time of year I like to give!  I have a pretty good life and while I don't make millions of dollars I am pretty set with myself - I have a nice apartment, a good car, can do shopping or see a movie if/when I like and I always have food in my cabinets.  Obviously there are MANY people in my community who are not as fortunate and I am so lucky to now work for a company that recognizes that!  PRA and the Delmar community as a whole does a ton of things around the holidays to help and I am trying to participate in every single one of them!  

First up was the Delmar Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.  For this they ask all the participants to bring canned goods for the Albany food bank.  You may remember that LAST YEAR I gathered donations for SICM so this year I was all for it again.  Using my couponing abilities and massive Thanksgiving sales I was able to put together two reusable grocery bags full (one was a Marshall's bag which are extra big) of non-perishables.  The director of the race said that they are typically able to fill a tractor trailer full of donations which more than stocks the food pantry!

Next up are the monthly shelter dinners and breakfasts at Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless in Albany.  For a while now PRA has been providing monthly shelter dinners and just recently they began serving breakfast at the shelter in Albany.  I of course am all about this idea and immediately signed up to be apart of the next shelter breakfast; if I can I am pretty sure I will volunteer for all of them.

And lastly, I am adopting a 17 year old girl and an 8 year old boy for Christmas!  (Well, me and a few other people.)  They are both currently living in a shelter and their family does not have the means to provide them with 'Christmas' so we are adopting them!  I am super excited for this - we used to adopt families from the 'giving tree' at church every year growing up but we mainly provided basic needs, socks, shoes, under shirts etc ...  And while we will definitely provide the basics you also get a flavor of what the children like (for instance my 17 year old loves the Walking Dead and the 8 year old is into books and board games) so I will be able to pick out some special toys as well as an outfit for two!    

Honest Abe & MLK

Two weekends ago Adam and I headed down to the New York State Museum to see the Abraham Lincoln's preliminary Emancipation Proclamation and Martin Luther King's speech on the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The NYS Museum set up a two day exhibit to highlight the documents and man was it popular! The line was out the door and we waited about 45 minutes to see the exhibit. It was a good and historical way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Apparently the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is owned by and housed in the New York State library (there is a crazy story of how it came to be housed there - originally being sold to fund the war and then traded and later bought by the state) but is rarely displayed. Recently though it was taken on a multi-stop tour through the state of New York. It was really interesting to be able to see Abraham Lincoln's handwriting as well as his edits to the original document; it was also clear that he put a lot of time and effort into the document!

Banner along the way to the exhibit.

 

Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation

Written by Abraham Lincoln himself!

The Martin Luther King Jr. document was also really interesting! It was a copy of the speech he delivered on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation proclamation. Just like Abe's the speech (although this time written on a type writer) had many edits and marks and was eventually signed my MLK himself!

MLK's speech!

I know this will sound super corny but there is something about looking at a person's actual speech and corrections that make you seem more connected to them and the events which transpired because of the speeches.  Here are some pictures!

 

Fair! Fair! Fair!

Saturday we went to the 2012 Altamont Fair - I was beyond excited and the fair did not disappointment!  Where I grew up (Clarke County, VA) the fair was a HUGE deal!  But since leaving Virginia I had not been to a fair so this was long over due!  It was a gorgeous day - not too hot, a nice breeze and sunny!  Overall it was a great day and I had SO much fun - the highlights ... the animals, the food (awful for you yet delicious!), the shows and the ferris wheel!  Get ready for fair picture overload!

Sky and a view of the mountains at the entrance to the fair.

Alpacas!  So cute!

Oh ... well hello there goat.

And another!

Awesome sign.

Baby goat!

Yes there was a giraffe at the fair!!

Sheeeeeeep!

I guess mutant things are a staple at any fair.

Chicken ... not mutant.

Cows!

"I bite!"
"I eat children!  That's how I got so big!"

Ferris wheel!

View of the fair from the top of the ferris wheel!

At the top of the ferris wheel!