Yesterday (Mar 11) was a day I dreaded because it was full of meetings.
6AM: the dreaded spinning class - peddling stationary bikes with a coach and background music. It so sounded boring when I first heard of it that I ignored it for half a year; but the results that my wife Kris had gotten were so striking that I finally gave it. It works! The "boring" part simply doesn't exist with a good coach.
(Of course, one develops a certain scepticism when she says, "OK, one more song, let's sprint crazy fast." Typically my brain is so low on oxygen that I believe her every time; there's a moment of confusion when the next song starts. But, technically, there was "one" more song; she just didn't mention there were a lot more after it. If that's what it takes to fool myself into good health, I'm glad she assumes the karmic burden.)Next: cataloging and packing books, and worrying about the 1 PM meeting, a presentation of Female Faces of War, a documentary by my friends Kiya Bodding and Moni Law, on the Iraq War/Occupation as seen by women: soldiers, mothers of soldiers, and civilians. It's quite striking! The presentation was to a Mike DeCesare, a staffer of our federal Represenatative, Jim McDermott. He turned out to be quite a friendly guy, with a lot of good questions. I was just along cuz I'd helped set up the meeting (knowing Mike slightly from some contacts through the Bar Association.) We still have to figure out how to present the documentary to more Congresscritters (or, more practically, their staff) but hopefully it will help them take some action!
I was happy to see Jim still had posted the Ralph J. Bunche Award that the WSBA World Peace Through Law Section had given him a few years ago. I'd gotten the photo of Bunche from eBay and arranged the matting & calligraphy. It's still hanging in the office.
The next meeting basically started immeditely, but 10 blocks away. This is where the spinning showed its value: running a few blocks didn't make be breath hard!2:30: An IRB at Cancer Research And Biotatistics (CRAB). My job is to be a non-scientist, and by golly I very much am! There was quite a discussion about some studies for which CRAB is doing some data management but fortunately I don't need to understand the science well to figure out if the rules set up to protect human subjects are being followed. One of the long-time members brought he young child who want happily crawling all around while we discussed confidence intervals!
Next was a light dinner with Kris and our friend Mel. That was totally nonstressful, especially considering the location: Two Bells in Belltown. The skinny blond waiter was funny, as usual.
Our final meeting was Sustainable Belltown. The topic was container gardening so I definitely didn't want to miss it; in the mingling afterwards I think those of us from the Centennial have a concensus to try to get herbs going in the big pots by the grill (...imagine having fresh herbs to put on the charred slabs of charred stuff!) I think the rooftop pots will be excellent for tomatoes, not only due to the sun but also because the pavers get really, really warm.
We got home rather late for us, but it was a day in which I got a lot done. Tomorrow I'll have to follow up.
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