Bicycling out of a funk

       My husband and I recently completed a bike race for which we collected donations for cancer research.  Getting involved really just happened all of a sudden. For me it was just the thing I needed to focus on so I would not be so sad all the time from losing our beloved family members.  We started training seriously in May with a training schedule provided by the race organizers.  There was a training workout assignment every day for six weeks leading up to the race.  First, we began with an easy bike ride for a mile or two, just to warm up.  Then, we included a walk or a run on alternate days to build up endurance. The training schedule also had rest days, those were my favorite.  Eventually, we realized if we were going to be serious about riding twelve miles, all at once, we needed to step up the training pace.  My husband, kids and I would dedicate each week to one or two rides.  We would start out enthusiastic, but forget to fill the tires with air or not lock the wheels properly to the bike rack.  As we continued our training we found some kind of order and began to be less and less clumsy.  We found different metro parks to try new trails with hills or flat paths to develop stamina and distance endurance.  It turns out I enjoyed it!  I learned that when I ride a bicycle, memories of past rides with my friends come over me, as if I were a teenager.  I feel joy.

        Finally, we get to bike race day and of course it is the hottest day of the summer.  We manage to get to the starting line of the race, line up and then off we go.  On the road I met a woman who was actively going through clinical trials for cancer. We partnered up and talked the entire twelve miles sharing our life stories.  My husband wanted to ride ahead and so we met up again as he was coming out of Progressive Field, the Cleveland Indians baseball stadium.  It turns out, that as a special treat for the riders, we got to ride the track around the ball field.  "Slider", the Cleveland Indians team mascot was available to cheer us on and pose for pictures. 

     We still had the last mile to ride before the end of the race and I could not believe we finished it.  In that heat, riding that distance and raising the money for cancer research made last weekend a truly special day.  In our swag bags we were given blank stickers to wear and write why we were riding this race.  I read many heartfelt reasons that people shared. Cancer was just one reason people were riding.  Mostly the reasons were to honor friends and family that were taken too soon.  This experience was a good first step in remembering those we miss, but also an opportunity to wipe our eyes and take that next step back to the world of the living.

Ups and Downs of 2014

It is December 31 2014 and I am sitting at the kitchen table with my youngest daughter and my husband talking about our favorite things we did in 2014.  We travel a lot as a family so putting together a list of where we went during the year brought back some fun memories.  My daughter reminded me that we started 2014 with a Caribbean cruise to St Thomas and other Eastern ports of call with the entire family.  It was lots of fun. We took this great food tour of Nassau, Bahamas. I wrote about it on my Stone Soup Blog for Food and Nutrition Magazine. It was a three hour walking tour with stops at local restaurants and historic places of interest.  I highly recommend it when you travel there.  After we got back I hosted three bridal shower teas for friends and family whose children were getting married in the spring and summer of 2014.  These turned out to be quite fun, although, I have to admit by the time the third shower came around I was catering the food rather than cooking it.  My friends and daughters helped with the arrangements. I owe a huge thank you to everyone. I could not have done it alone.  Weddings bring out the joy in everyone.

 By the spring my youngest daughter graduated college and we were off to her graduation in Washington, DC.  I came to DC early so that I could attend the special events honor students get invited to at the end of the year for doing a job well done.  I went to an Order of the Engineer Ceremony where students are presented with a ring to remind the newly minted engineers of their ethical responsibility.  It was a lovely.  I also attended an honors open house located on the top floor of the 1957 E building the Elliot School of Public Affairs.  It offers a beautiful view of Washington DC and they served drinks, hors d'oeuvres and cake! The graduation present for my daughter and her friends was a trip to Brazil to see the opening ceremonies of the 2014 World Cup, soccer, for those not in the know.  This came about because my daughter's Brazilian friend invited their crowd to come and stay and by that I mean the friends said to him " how about we go to your house to stay while we visit the World Cup in Brazil".  Who could say no to that invitation?  Anyway, another marvelous thing we did at graduation was plan a luncheon so that all the parents in and out of Washington DC could meet one another.  It was a model UN with many different languages and good food. This lunch offered parents a chance to be included in their college students lives and to celebrate a job well done.  I would do it again in a minute.

In May and June we attended weddings, danced and reconnected with family and friends in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Chicago, Illinois.  Then the rains came and flights got delayed my husband and I headed off to Montreal, Canada to reconnect and celebrate our thirty third wedding anniversary where we honeymooned.  Some of my girls flew to DC to celebrate the 4th of July with friends  while others went back to work and school. Our visit to Canada included Montreal and Quebec City. We heard great jazz at the Montreal Jazz Festival and enjoyed the festivities at the 450th Anniversary of the discovery of Quebec City. In late July, the kids went to Colorado for hiking in Boulder and we joined them for the weekend.  That was lot's of fun.  I forgot how hard it is to hike in the mountains and how out of shape I am.

In mid July and August, the girls and I took a road trip to Pennsylvania to visit my brother and his wife.  We then moved on to New Jersey to visit with an aunt, who turned 89 years in November.  After that we went to New York City to visit my nephew who moved there last year, we were on our way to pick up my oldest, who was moving from Washington DC back to Cleveland.

 By August, my daughter mentioned she never saw Niagara Falls, so we planned a quick get away to see Niagara Falls and take a ride on the Maid of the Mist, the boat that goes under the falls.  I forgot how wonderful and fun that was and decided to not let so much time go by before we go there again.
Labor Day weekend brought one last road trip with the girls to Dartmouth College. My husband flew up to Boston and took the Dartmouth Bus from Boston to meet us.  We were supposed to have lunch with  cousins in Boston but that didn't happen. The rest of September I wrote about in the previous posting with the sudden passing of my father in law.  We had one more trip to NYC for work and then finally, we went on a family cruise in early December.

Unfortunately, we end this year with a very sad event, my brother passed away suddenly from a heart attack after coming home from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  Although we had a wonderful Thanksgiving as an extended family with brothers and cousins, we had a very sad and traumatic end.  It is still too painful to think about it now, but aside from this very great loss of my beloved brother, and my father in law the year 2014 was an up and down year.