Act 27: Theology, Beer, and Going Solo

A few weeks ago my friend who works in church ministry invited me and a few others to go to Theology on Tap. I hadn’t heard of this before but it is a national ministry for young adult Christians (mostly Catholics) in their 20s and 30s. Each month the group meets at a bar and listens to a different speaker on issues of faith. They provide snacks, pop, and beer and give time to mingle before the speaker and discuss afterwards. Sounded pretty awesome to me!
We all agreed to go until about 2:30 in the afternoon the day of the event, when the friend that initially invited us had to back out because of a work meeting. This caused a domino effect. The two guys in the group decided to golf instead. The other girl had other plans within 30 minutes of the original person backing out. And then there was me. I still wanted to go so I talked to a few other friends about it that afternoon. One had to work, one had other plans, and one was uncomfortable with the idea of religious conversations (the topic was controversial). Thus the dilemma: go by myself or not at all? Some people are very comfortable going to events, movies, etc by themselves. I fall somewhere in the middle. I didn’t actually make the decision until about a half hour before it started and I decided to go. Why? Because otherwise I’d be sitting at home watching TV. If I had something else I could have done that night I might not have gone, but I didn’t. And I’m glad.

I drove to the bar and arrived about 10 minutes early. I went inside and was told to go upstairs for the speaker. There were already about 10 people there when I showed up and I introduced myself to a few of them, took part in the snacks, and got myself a drink. It seemed wrong not to imbibe at an event called Theology on TAP. I chatted with one of the organizing committee members and signed up for email updates on future events. Awfully bold considering I didn’t know if I would like it yet but hey, I’m an optimist!

I chatted before things got started with a girl named April, who just moved to Iowa from California. Talk about culture shock! We found a table with a couple others and kept up the chatting until the speaker was ready.

The topic of the night was something along the lines of “Matters of Life and Death” and covered big ticket issues like abortion, stem cell research, and contraception. Rather controversial, but so interesting! The speaker talked about the scientific facts some, the Catholic Church’s official stance on each, and the conflicting arguments. I definitely learned things I didn’t know, but I won’t get into the guts of that stuff here. If you’re interested, we can have a good conversation on it in person sometime.

After the speaker was finished there was Q&A and then table discussions. These were surprising calm, though some good debates took place. After we’d had enough of that kind of talk, April asked if I wanted to stick around downstairs and get a drink. Instead I invited her to Old Chicago since I was already planning on meeting some friends there. We shared some of our new knowledge with them and I have to say that I’m more confident talking about these subjects now that I’ve got more information.

April and I have hung out a few times since then and she’s even joining my volleyball team, so not only did I find a new activity (because I definitely plan on hitting up more Theology on Tap events), but I made a new friend. (All together now… “awwwwww” :-P ). I’d like to think I’d have been just as interested in striking up conversations with strangers if I’d had all my own friends there, but I’m not sure if that’s the case. Sometimes it’s not so bad to go solo.

Act 26: Baby We Were Born to… Ride?

Two weekends ago I took a motorcycle safety class.  For curious minds, I don’t own a motorcycle nor do I plan to purchase one any time soon.  It was just something new and interesting to do.  And in Illinois it’s free (after they refund the $20 down payment that holds your spot in the class).  So why not?

The class was one weekend long: Friday 6-10 PM, Saturday and Sunday 8-5.  Friday night was just class time.  They have a book they go through, some videos you have to watch that are quite as bad as the 50 year old driver’s education videos I watched 12 years ago, and study questions you go over as a class.  I learned all kinds of things about parts of a motorcycle (it has a clutch!) and how to operate it safely.  Good things to know since I didn’t know the first thing about motorcycles.  I knew my dad and my cousin both had one and I’d ridden on a few and that was about it.  Now I know that the clutch is the left hand lever, there’s a foot and a hand brake on the right side, and all that kind of important stuff.

I also learned something about the class.  It’s not just to teach you how to ride and ride safely.  It’s actually a licensing class.  On Sunday they actually give you the driving and written test!  That threw me for a loop.  I didn’t actually care to get my license right now.  I just wanted to learn to ride.  Having a test at the end puts all kinds of pressure on me that I don’t need.  I stress myself out about tests.  I hate failing.  Ugh.  More on that later.

Saturday we spent the first 5 hours of class learning how to ride.  It was fun!  A few times across the parking lot and I had the clutch mostly figured out.  We worked on curves and turns and emergency stops and other important maneuvering skills to keep us safe.  Then we went back into the classroom for a few hours and went over the book more. 

When I left class that night, a few things were clear to me.  I wasn’t very comfortable on a motorcycle.  Don’t get me wrong, it was fun to learn to ride, but the thought of being unleashed onto the streets and highways alone after just one more half day of riding around a parking lot didn’t seem appealing to me at all.  I could think of two reasons I felt that way.  First off, I don’t have very good balance.  Things that require balance (rollerskating, water skiing, standing on one foot) were not things I was even remotely good at.  Being on two little wheels did not seem all that stable.  And it’s not the same as a bicycle.  My bike doesn’t go 55 mph, or even 35 mph for that matter.  Okay, it did once during RAGBRAI but it was a huge downhill and though it was kind of fun in a oh-crap-my-bike-is-going-to-shake-apart-isn’t-this-exhilarating kind of way I wouldn’t want to go that fast very often.  The second reason is that I’m afraid of getting hurt.  I’m not that great of a driver anyway, I get easily distracted, and I’ve seen how scary motorcycle accidents are.  I don’t want to be a statistic.

Basically Saturday night found me not feeling all that confident that I even wanted a motorcycle license and not even the slightest bit confident that I’d actually pass the driving test.  But I got up on Sunday and went to the class anyway.  The riding in the morning was still fun but I was really frustrated for the first 20 minutes because I basically had to relearn the use of the clutch.  Turns out it’s not quite second nature on your second day doing it.  Weird.

 When it was time to take the test, I still wasn't quite confident.  Especially about the figure eights that you had to do in a little box (i.e. tight turns).  Though I never got the figure eights down in practice, I still could have passed the test.  Going outside the lines of the box was only 3 points off the test and you could lose 20 points before you failed.  So I got in line to do my figure eights because it was the first part of the test and one of the instructors came up to me and said "I really think you can nail this.  You just have to lean more to make the turn."  So when it was my turn, I leaned more than I had been before (and was really comfortable with) and... I fell over.  Yeah, that's right.  Two days and no one in the class and gone down with a bike and I did it in the driving test.  Awesome.  Turns out crashing is an automatic failure on the driving test (as I would assume is true for cars as well) so my test ended there.  It was embarrassing and frustrating at the time.  In all honesty though, for all the reasons I stated before, I'm really okay with not getting my motorcycle license and I'm not sure I'll try again.  Plus, I really don't need any more expensive hobbies!

Act 25: Dressage It Up

Though we all grew up riding and showing horses, my sister Chrissy is the only one of my family to still be actively involved with the animal and the sport. For the last 5 years she has been showing Dressage, which for those who don’t know is kind of the ‘fancy footwork’ of horsemanship. The tests contain a series of movements that showcase the horse’s gaits, such as collected walk, medium trot, extended trot, and extended canter as well as other movements such as pirouettes (like the ballet movement), zigzags, and lead changes.


For non-horsey people it might be hard to understand what it all entails but its tough stuff to do well, and Chrissy does it well. There are 8 levels of dressage show total: 4 lower (amateur) and 4 upper (professional). The highest level is Grand Prix. In the last 5 years Chrissy has trained and showed them all. It’s been a long journey, with her regularly riding 4 times per week. Now she’s thinking about hanging up her boots for a while and starting a family and her last show, at least for the near future, was this past weekend. So I went to see her perform!

Despite knowing the movements and being familiar with the sport due to her involvement, and seeing videos of most of her rides over the years, this was actually my first dressage show in person (I’ve seen several hunter/jumper shows though). And thus the first time I saw her ride in a show. Unfortunately the spring/fall show schedule doesn’t work well when I only fly to Georgia for the holidays.

All this made it extra special to see her ride now. And to make it even more special, I didn’t tell her I was coming so it was a surprise! I love surprises. My mom picked me up from the airport and took me to Chrissy’s hotel, where I popped out from behind a corner causing her to scream and practically jump off the bed. :-)

Riders generally show both Saturday and Sunday, one ride for each class they are competing in. Chrissy was competing in one class. She rode Saturday morning and had a decent ride, but Patrick (her horse) stumbled during one of the movements and it was hard to get a rhythm back after that. Though the score was a little disappointing for her, the rest of the day was great. She and I stayed at the show while the rest of the family went to do other things. We helped her teammates when they needed it and watched them compete, watched other shows, and spent some quality time with Patrick. I don’t get to spend much time alone with Chrissy anymore so it was a great afternoon of catching up on boys, family, work, hobbies, and everything else we could think of. That night the whole family sat in the lobby of the hotel playing card games and being generally a bit rowdy (as my family is known to do during card games).

On Sunday Chrissy & Patrick rode again and they were fantastic, got a great score, and ended with her grinning from ear to ear. It was a special moment and I’m glad I got to share it with her. Definitely made the plane ticket worth every penny. =)

Act 24: One Full Tent

Since the first road trip/vacation with the dogs went so well this summer, Steve and I decided to take them camping with us. We were going with two friends from college and their beagle, Ruby. Then they invited a few of their friends and their friends brought two dogs as well. So on two campsites we had 7 people and 5 dogs. That’s kind of a lot! Luckily the capsites we had were tucked away against a border of trees/tall grass so we didn’t have other campers on all sides of us. And the campground itself was extremely dog-friendly. I’ve never seen so many animals camping!
We brought what seemed like a ton of stuff, mostly because of the dogs. Traveling with dogs has to be close to traveling with small children for the amount of packing they require. Food, treats, toys, poop bags, leashes, stake, etc. We brought short leashes for walking and long leashes for staking them in the campsite. We have a stake that twists into the ground and 22 foot long leashes (they’re actually horse lunge lines I bought at Farm & Fleet) and they work great. For most of the time the first day, Dean and Satchmo were off leash. They did a pretty good job of sticking close to us, with Satch naturally wandering farther than Dean. We still had to keep our eyes on them. Satch got put back on the long leash that evening because he wandered over to another campsite. They had their dogs tied up and told us we really should too, even though Satch didn’t really bother them at all. Oh well. Dean wandered to another campsite as well but the people there were much cooler and seemed to love playing with him. No harm, no foul I guess… just depends on the neighbors.

All the dogs got along pretty well. There was a giant mutt (had to have some shepherd and probably Great Dane in it) that was a bit more aggressive so we was watched pretty closely and a hyperactive Boxer that always wanted to play. They all had a good time together. We had a campfire that night and made dogs, burgers, and smores, had a few beers and played some fun games.

I was a little nervous about Steve, me, and the 2 dogs sleeping in the tent together but it went much better than I anticipated. It took a few minutes to get situated but when everyone stopped moving, it was pretty comfortable. Satch was at the edge of the tent, as far away from everything else as possible because he was cooler that way. Dean curled up right between us at the bottom of the tent by our feet. He’s a doll to sleep with. Never moves around… just curls into a ball and keeps your legs toasty warm 

The next morning there was a little…incident… with Satch not wanting to go back on the long leash, so unfortunately Steve had to deal with that. Satch through quite the temper tantrum and it kind of soured the beginning of the day. There were games of lawn golf and Frisbee to wear out both people and pups and a couple of long walks through the campgrounds and by the beach. By that evening it was time to pack up and head home before it got dark. The pups slept like logs in the back seat of the car, all curled up together cute as can be. At least we found one more surefire way to wear them out!

Act 23: Punch It Out

I don’t really like boxing.  I’m familiar with the greats of the sport and can even get in on some nostalgic, riveting footage of the Rumble in the Jungle but the last thing I generally want to watch is two grown men punching each others teeth out.  I tend to gravitate to sports with less blood and disfiguration.  There’s a reason I didn’t go into the medical field! 

The contradiction to all of this would be the fact that I LOVE punching things.  Not people.  I’ve never hit anyone, though I can think of a few times when people really truly deserved it and sometimes I wished I had socked ‘em one just so I could feel what it was like.  But I generally like punching, well, punching bags.  I got one for Christmas during a particularly stressful time in college and it was a godsend.  There is no better way to get over a bad day than by punching something really hard.  Go at it for a few minutes and not only will you be tired, you’ll have punched out most of your anger.  (Note: Listening to the German heavy metal band Rammstein really loudly has a similar effect.)

That story was basically leading up to this one:  I took a boxing class.

One of my friends from work took up a boxing class at a local gym earlier this year and has asked me multiple times to join her.  Apparently she caught me on a week day recently because I finally gave in.  I’m not sure why I was resisting.  Partly because I find classes aren’t my favorite workout style, I’ve been trying to focus on running, and it’s not at my gym so if I loved it I’d have to pay for it.  But the first class is free so why not?

Turns out it was pretty awesome.  First we got some boxing gloves on and learned a little.  Punches have numbers.  A standard left arm punch is one and a standard right arm punch is two.  Three and four I believe are uppercuts, and there’s at least a five, but since I was new to this I only got to use 1 and 2.

The first half, after some initial stretching, was all focused on boxing.  There were punching bags around the room and the instructor had the thick hand pads.  The three of us in the class that night rotated from working the bags (he’d tell us what to focus on) or working with the instructor.  When you worked with the instructor he would call out what he wanted you to punch and you’d hit his hand pads.  1! 1! 1! 2! 2 1 2!  During this he was moving around the room and you had to follow.  He gave instruction on the footwork as well and this guy really knew his stuff.  The bag work was just okay but working with him was kind of exhilarating. 

The second half of the class was all conditioning.  Which meant ab work and LOTS of it.  Some variations of ab exercises were ones that I hadn’t seen before.  It was tough.  I was sore for three days and I only did 10 of each exercise!  A part of me wants to start doing… maybe 3 or 4 reps of these exercises and work my way up, because clearly they work and I could use some improvement in the ab strength area, but I haven’t convinced myself to do it yet.

All in all, I enjoyed the class and would be interested in going back.  I’m just not sure I will.  I loved boxing with the instructor and if I could just do that part of it every now and then, that would be awesome.  But like I said before, I’d have to pay for the class since it’s not at my gym and I’m not sure I want the extra expense.  And if I’m really going to run this half-marathon next summer, I’m not sure I have time to be flirting with any sport besides running!

Act 22: Pieces of Art

Earlier this month I went to the Figge Art Museum in Davenport.  I can honestly say I’ve wanted to go there for a while.  I can also honestly say that the only reason it actually happened was because it was the 5 year anniversary of the Figge and admission was free.  It’s only $7 normally, but the free thing really sold me.  Who said free stuff only attracts college students??

The museum is nice.  It's no Chicago Art Museum, but hey, what is?

The Figge did have some really interesting exhibits.  My favorites were two photography exhibits.  The first took up an entire floor and entitled “Scale”.  It featured panoramic (and some not) photographs of stunning geographical landscapes, mainly rock formations.  Most of the pictures were shot at close range so you could see the contour and edges of the formations, rather than being a far off picture of a mountain range surrounded by greenery.  The photographs were quite excellent and, of course, made me want to see them in person.

The second photography exhibit was by a man whose name I cannot remember who took pictures in the 1930’s and 1940’s of seemingly mundane everyday things.  A person buying a newspaper from a vendor, children playing in a park, a man working on a car, someone waiting for a taxi, etc.  They were all in black and white and contained no famous faces but they were still striking for the emotion they showed.  They were very candid, like little glimpses into the lives of these people, their thoughts and fears.

Other enjoyable parts of the museum were the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit and the Grant Wood collection.  I like Wood’s style… they remind me a bit of “home” since he lived in the Midwest and was inspired by the landscapes.  The quote painted on the wall near his collection made my day:  “All the good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.  That’s why I moved back to Iowa.”