“Wow, that’s a lot of Nike Stores.” Said while looking at a map of the Nike World HQ
Campus.

Today I had my first training session with Alex Molden, a previous college and NFL player who is helping me get physically ready to kick a field goal. You can find more about my project on my UNTANGLING THE KNOT – field goal vlog.


The topic of this overhear is about seeing the world the way children see it. My overhear was said by my daughter whose frame of reference for Nike is strictly consumer oriented. I am sure, if she saw the campus for Costco or Hasbro she would have the same reaction.

It amazes me that the brain is all about connections… and that this is what learning does for us. She understands that people work, but hasn’t yet made the connection that a World Headquarter is made up of people creating
the business. Especially for her, work refers to something that her dad does mostly from home or I do, well, mostly at Starbucks.

Check out the website, Brain Connection, which has a plethora of information on how the brain works, and is much better qualified to explain it than me. One article they posted recently follows the day in the life of a child, exploring how mentally complex living is. Reading this I was struck by how much we take for granted in performing even simple tasks. And, while we spend a great deal of time conditioning our body, once we are out of school we stop focusing on conditioning our brain.

So, here are a couple of brain teasers (courtesy of Brain Connection) to work those brain muscles. Once you have completed them be sure to stretch and relax your brain with meditation… or a nice long nap.

Platyhop
The flower turns white and makes sound. Click on the flowers in the same order they light up to tell Platy where to hop. If you do it right, all the flowers will turn green while Platy hops.

Rapid Naming
How fast can you name an object, a color, a letter, or a number? Get your hand on the mouse, and get ready to start naming!

Word Wanderer
Travel the road less taken by spelling your path to mystical castles and treasures in the sky. Become Jack the word slayer.

Dress the Doggie
Help Soupy get dressed! Soupy the Dog tells you what color to paint his clothes. If you color them correctly, you can select more clothes

Good Luck!

“We sat in bed and laughed at your videos last night.”

Why does this not surprise me? I have been acclimating myself to the idea that this is my year of humility. Fitting, I think, since my book releases are making me a more public figure. My daughter likes to think I am famous… but aren’t we all within our own circles?

With publicity, though, comes attention. To be honest, I am not really big on attention. I like not having to wear make-up or worry about how I am being perceived. I am happy to have my characters take center stage. As a reader, though, I like to get to know the author of the books I enjoy. I always read the bio and sometimes even follow them on Twitter (btw – if you want to find me there, go to @dwilsted… or if you want to see one of my character’s tweets go to @jessatbettingj)

So, it may be that readers of BETTING JESSICA or UNTANGLING THE KNOT are also curious about me. Obviously my bio is published (link here). But now, with my goal of learning how to kick a field goal, my personal achievements
will be balanced by my personal failures…. And in a comic way.

By now you have probably seen my video blog about this journey. While I have jumped into this with both feet, part of me knew that the water was shallow enough I could wade out if I wanted. Not so anymore. I think I just threw myself into the deep end by inviting the help of a professional athletic trainer, Alex Molden. He has agreed to begin working with me to build the strength and mobility I will need to actually accomplish my goal (without hurting myself in the process).

There is nothing like including someone else in a project to ensure commitment. In this case I am fortunate to be working with one of the best. Perhaps Alex will also be able to help me understand how to handle public attention, since he himself has had lots of it over his lifetime (first playing football for the University of Oregon and then later in the NFL). He even has his own Wikipedia page. 

So, check in over at my Untangling the Knot Vlog page in a few weeks to catch my first training session with him… it may be that my humility will reach an all new high.

“They carry a big pipe.”

I admit I am still trying to figure out exactly how a pipe would help climbers pee when they were up on the side of a mountain. The individuals were talking about the risks of belaying, and the story of being below flying, um, garbage came up.

Every sport has its risks. Baseball has hurt elbows. Soccer has hurt knees. Swimming, well, okay, I’m not sure you hurt anything by swimming. But football has hurt everything. Apparently climbing has falling or being hit by falling stuff.
(*picture courtesy of National Geaograhic)

I don’t see myself ever doing mountaineering (a fancy word for saying you are climbing a rock outside). However, I do see myself possibly belaying my daughter as she mountaineers. So, I suppose I should get to know the equipment she will need. Personally, I would want a really big, soft, squishy, mat underneath her. Sadly though I don’t think I would be able to haul it around Yosemite and get it to the base of El Capitan.

Certainly there are more dangerous sports she could have chosen. Take for example, doing gymnastics on the back of a moving horse. Oh yes, that’s right, she does do that. It’s called vaulting and is actually a competitive sport. With her first competition coming up in May, I will get a chance to practice my mat chasing skills. Again, it is pretty
unlikely the judges will want me running behind the horse dragging a big red mat.

I’m not sure how we got here in terms of her activities. Two years ago we were doing gymnastics (okay, a bit dangerous with the high beam and all) and swimming. Still, as I watch my otherwise anxiety prone daughter scale a 40 foot climbing wall, or pull herself up onto the back of an enormous, moving equine I am struck by the sense of empowerment and freedom she must feel.

And although I hope it is years away, I can still imagine her real sense of freedom when her only toilet is the huge pipe hanging below her. 

“Oh yeah! If I were single I wouldn’t be here. When my daughter’s in college I’m on a sailboat all over.”

Do you remember the song by Christopher Cross, Sailing? When I was in middle school it was my theme song. At the time I’m not sure I even really paid much attention to the words. But the idea of escape must have registered in my pubescent brain like an anchor in a storm.

Since then the thought of sailing anywhere has been sadly replaced by the reality that I get easily seasick. It didn’t used to be that way. Pre having a child I could go through the murkiest water and keep my sailors feet. During one momentous trip across the Channel in England it seemed like the entire boat, other than my husband and me, were throwing up all over the place. Somehow, though, we made the two+ hour (usually it would only be about 1 1/2 hours) crossing without losing our lunch as well.

Fast forward six years and it would be me in misery as I suffered through a multi-hour whale watching tour/party in Mexico. I was near hysteria at the point where the crowd with us began dancing the Macarena and encouraging the
boat to stay out a little longer. I was told by the captain that if I swam for a moment I would feel better. Probably he was simply sick of my whining. Unfortunately, he didn’t warn me of the jellyfish. I was back in the boat within
minutes, jellyfish stings across my back.

Since that memorable trip I have been understandably hesitant to get back on a boat. I am wary of even short social trips by speedboat on our local lake. Still… the idea of a sailboat, skimming across the water, sails stiff in the wind, holds a unique place in my imagination. Through the power of dreams I do not feel the nausea, but only that glorious sense of escape.
(Photo above courtesy of; www.Sailingforyou.ca)

“We don’t say I can’t here; only I don’t want to.”

It’s really not that high…. And the trapeze isn’t as far away as it looks, but when you are standing on the top of a 5 inch round log, with nothing to hold onto and only air surrounding you it seems like the most impossible obstacle in the world.

Obstacles are funny that way; I suppose if they didn’t seem impossible they would just be called play-structures. The ropes course at Squaw Valley challenges you to face the thoughts that tell you something is impossible (although it doesn’t really do anything about the inner voice shouting‘this is crazy’). 
 
Writers face plenty of these obstacles as they go through their journey. Some of them are entirely internal (you’ll never be able to finish it), and others are voiced openly and with such confidence you assume they must be true (do you know how impossible it is to get an agent).  

And the funny thing is, I have found it doesn’t really help when eventually you do get published (because, believe me, if you stick to it, you will). Then the inner voice says something like, (no one will like your work) and the external ones talk all about the impossibility of making a living at writing.

Listening to these voices it is easy to forget that the reason I started writing was because I loved it. Rather than the sheer joy of writing, the obstacles begin to look like the purpose for my work.

At the top of a 100 foot tall pine tree I was so intent on ringing the bell that proved I had reached the top that I completely forgot to look at the beautiful scenery surrounding me. And ultimately that is the biggest problem with using the word can’t; I become so focused on overcoming the obstacle that I forget I am actually there because I want to be.

The sound of grunting and balls flying.

Tennis! I’m talking tennis at the French Open here guys so get your mind out of the gutter (or the erotic novel you are reading.) It amazes me how loud tennis players are now days while at the same time the judges still ask
viewers to be silent… as if the players could even hear the clapping over their own loud cries. 

Two years ago I was fortunate enough to be at Roland Garros, the stadium for the French Open. Of course our first attempt was rained out; a devastating event when you have travelled all the way from the U.S. to attend. (To be fair, the Parisian cafes may have factored into our destination decision a bit as well.) 

Ironically enough, while sitting outside one of the stadiums waiting to see if the rain delay would ever end, my husband and I had the great fortune to make a wonderful new French friend. A woman who was such a fan she went to almost all of the tennis matches around the world. It turned out to a be a highlight of our trip, sitting there on that wall, watching torrents of rain fall, and learning all about each other.

Sometimes, especially now as the school year is ending, it feels like the whole world speeds up; so that there is never time to simply chat with a friend or stranger. It is only when life throws me a curve ball; stuck in line at a store, waiting for an overdue appointment, or during a rain delay, that I am forced to take a breath and be present to the space and people around me.

Sometimes that looks like attention to detail (maybe an overhear or two:>). But sometimes it leads to conversation…. And from there, to friendship. I think this is one reason I love to travel on my own. Stuck in an airport with no company but myself, fellow travelers frequently reach out and begin to talk.

I am sure my husband would say his favorite part of that trip to Paris would be when we returned to Roland Garros a couple of days later and got to see some phenomenal tennis; grunts and all. For me, though, the highlight will always be that remarkable afternoon spent talking with a new friend.