Blogs vs. Facebook

Facebook turned ten years old recently, so I decided to write about some interesting differences I have noticed between blogs and facebook.

Some bloggers post a link on facebook every time they post a page on their blog.  One of my nieces does that.  And as I watch her pages, I noticed that people commented on her facebook link to the blog way more than they commented on the actual blog post.

Then, there's that dang like button on facebook.  So easy to press, no need to think of something to write.  That was a genius idea.  When I recently posted a link to a post about my team winning the puzzle contest, twenty three people liked it.  That's the most people I know for a fact have read my blog.  Although, I don't know if they read the whole blog post, or just the quick summary I posted on facebook.

And, four people commented that day on facebook.  I don't think four people have ever commented on any particular blog post.  This is not a complaint, merely an observation about how different social media work.  And an acknowledgement about how facebook seems to understand how many people function.

I won't give up this blog for facebook though.  I get to write longer pieces here, and muse about whatever catches my fancy this leave year.  And anytime I want to, I can post a link on facebook, directing all my friends here. So get comfy, we got months more to go.

Indulgences

I woke up yesterday morning with a slight sore throat.  If I weren't on leave, and I had to go to work, I would have sucked on a cough drop, drunk hot tea instead of hot cocoa for breakfast, and gone off to the job with no hesitation.

Instead, because I could, I spent the whole day doing pretty much nothing, indulging my need to "rest."    That means I read, watched television, drank lots of tea, and generally lay around on the couch.

Maybe I won't get sicker because I took the time, or maybe I would never have gotten sicker no matter what.  I'll never know.  But it was good to have the chance to relax.

Relax when you need to, if you can.

A Toast to Prohibition

One of the many perks of being on leave is that I have free time during the day to go to entertainments that I normally couldn't attend.

Last week, I got the chance to do one of those cool daytime "activities".  I got myself down to the central library of my town and listened to an amazing free concert.  The Rose Ensemble, a choral group devoted to performing what I might call "old music" was promoting their most recent recording, A Toast to Prohibition.

What a blast!  A group of vocal artists and musicians having a great time singing songs of the wets and drys.  The songs ranged from catchy dry tunes like Close Up the Booze Shop from 1913 to a slower paced wet song from 1932 trying to convince listeners to Okay Beer.  All of them were good fun to hear and the group explained the history behind each of the songs they sang.  It was very fun!

At the daytime concert I realized that I had missed their theater performances celebrating the same album.  That was done with staging and in full costume, but I'm hoping that maybe someday they'll repeat the production and I can see it.

Since the novel I am revising is set during the last days of Prohibition, this concert and CD seems like it was meant especially for me.  It will make up the bones of a playlist for me to listen to while I am grounding myself in the period.  It's a fascinating time and I'm enjoying doing research and learning more about it.

Saint Charles, Mo

Rising earlier than a bunch of college kids has its positives.  On Sunday morning before our last game at 11:20, I woke up at before 8am and decided to go exploring.  One of the team members had heard that Saint Charles was a sweet little historic town with cobblestone streets.  This was not at all evident around our hotel, which was very close to a huge overlit casino, and many chain stores and restaurants.

Undeterred, I asked at the front desk and was told that I could probably walk to the historic district in under twenty minutes.  It was cold outside, but not too cold, which was lucky, because my parka, hat and gloves were still locked in the trunk of the car.  The walk was well worth it.

Turns out that the old downtown of Saint Charles is a charming town with brick buildings and some cobblestone streets. Nearby Saint Louis is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its founding, although many of the Saint Charles houses and businesses seem to date from the mid-1800s.

I didn't know it before this trip, but St Louis is tucked between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.  Must be why it got its start as a town way back when.  Saint Charles is on the eastern side of the Missouri as it flows north for a few miles before making a hard right to head back down to the Mississippi.

There's an awful lot of history there.  Saint Charles was one of Lewis and Clark's first stops when they went west on the Missouri River.  It was also an early state capital. What I mostly saw were antique shops, old train cars, and one really cool combo bike store and coffee shop.


I got a hot chocolate to warm my hands as I walked back to the hotel in the modern tacky area of Saint Charles.  A pretty good start to an exhausting day.

I didn't see . . .

Home from my road trip, I realized that there were many interesting tourist sites that I was very near, but didn't visit.  Here are a few photos highlighting all the places I didn't see.

St. Louis' Gateway Arch

Mark Twain's house in Hannibal, Mo

University of Iowa, Iowa City

I would dearly love to have stopped the drive at any of these spots and spent hours and hours perusing museums, historical sites, and coffee shops.  It was unfortunately not to be.  Someday, maybe.

Tomorrow — what I did manage to sneak a peek at . . .

Polo Tourney

Yesterday I coached a team of the most amazing young women.  They played their hearts out for three exhausting games.  Unfortunately we lost every one.  On the other hand, our play improved in each successive game, a good sign for the future.

The tournament was held at a large, public recreation center.  This place had just about every sport facility you could think of:  a 50 meter pool, a small water park, diving platforms of many heights, an ice rink for hockey and figure skating, a fencing room, snack bar, running track, exercise rooms for dance classes and spinning classes and kettlebell classes, and I'm not even sure what else was there.

The pool and water park area are kept extremely hot and humid.  I was exhausted after being inside all day even though I didn't swim a stroke.  I'm considering wearing my suit today and sneaking down the water slide.

We have one more game this morning and it's one we have the potential to win.  If everyone managed to get a good night sleep last night, and they're not too tired from yesterday's games and we keep playing as well as we did in our last game of the night, we've got a good chance.

And after that, there's that eight hour drive home.  It's been a good weekend, but it'll be good to get home too!

Road Trip

The major plot point in my 2013 nano novel was a road trip.  Yesterday I had the luck to be able to take an unexpected eight hour road trip.  Leaving my honey at home, I travelled to the outskirts of St Louis to coach a team at a women's water polo tournament.

We started at two o'clock in the afternoon to sunny, clear skies.  Our incredible driver managed over four hours straight in the driver's seat before we had to stop for gas.  Amazingly enough, that means I went more than four hours without stopping to go to the bathroom.  I'm not sure that's ever happened on the road before!

Once I started driving, it got interesting.  The forecasted snowstorm decided to finally show itself.  It looked a lot like this photograph except that it was darker and thankfully our highway was divided.  

My knuckles were white, and the car was slow, but I kept us safe and we kept on going.  

Then we were through the storm and our first fearless driver got back behind the wheel to finish off the trip.  We had some rain, some icy roads, and we passed a huge accident, but we're here now and we may even get a chance to see the Gateway Arch in between games.  

Plus, no matter what happens at the pool, we've got the return trip on Sunday to look forward to!