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Some of you may not know that I worked in politics for 3 years in Washington, DC before my career in public health. Although I was a Political Science major in college I couldn’t pinpoint when I decided to get personally involved in politics. In college I got credit for being a volunteer on the U.S. Senate campaign of the Democratic candidates against Sen. Orin Hatch in 2000. I don’t know how my volunteer stint came about in the first place, but it was when the political bug really got into my system.

After graduating from college I moved immediately to Washington, DC where I was planning to earn a masters degree in political management/communication. Pretty soon afterwards I decided it was too soon to earn a masters degree and started working instead. I got involved volunteering to manage the campaign of a candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates (who I met in the grocery store parking lot) and pretty soon after that got my dream job representing an organization on Capitol Hill and with the media. I’ve been to South Dakota (twice), Iowa, concerts, my first NHL hockey game, more Wizards games and fancy dinners than I like to remember and Bill & Hillary Clinton’s house in Washington, DC all on the job. It was pretty cool, especially as a young just-out-of-college career.

Which is to say that I continue to be a bit of a political junkie. Not nearly to the extent as when I was working in D.C., but enough. Sometimes (like last summer when Michele Bachmann was topping the Republican polls) I think I need to cut back on my political info intake. It really is enough to drive you crazy. And don’t get me started on the need to reform our primary system … Right now I have three primary sources for political news:

  • The video podcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press” I LOVE this show and have been watching it for years. It was a staple of my Sunday morning routine when I lived in the U.S. David Gregory is a great host – pinning people down when they don’t give straight answers. I thought his line of questioning about the role of women in society when interviewing Rick Santorum last week was spot on.
  • FiveThirtyEight If you have ever had a discussion about politics with me I have either 1) recommended that you read this blog or 2) quoted something I read from here (with or without attribution). Nate Silver is so, so, so smart. Plus I’m a huge nerd and love all the numbers he uses and the regression modelling. I’ve been reading the blog for four+ years now – even before they were part of the NYTimes family – and can’t recommend it highly enough.
  • The Politics Blog on Esquire.com. By far the most liberal leaning of my suggestions. His thoughts on the Virginia abortion law this past week were pure brilliance. I’ve been reading this for at least 6 months and only last week recognized the fact that the author (Charles P.Pierce) is also a frequent participant on “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me”

For those of you who are not on Facebook I wanted to share the link to pictures from my adventures last weekend hiking from Bokong Nature Reserve to Ts’ehlenyane National Park. Have I mentioned before that this is my most favorite time of year in Lesotho? The rain makes everything look better. Not to mention the big blue sky and big fluffy white cloud. The whole country is positively stunning. And, if you’ve ever wondered why it’s called “The Mountain Kingdom” just check out the picture above taken at ~3,100 meters above sea level before our descent to 1,900 meters. Our views were pretty much like this all day.

Abseil

For Christmas I got the Aperture app for my Mac so I have been slowly importing and organizing my pictures. This weekend I was importing pictures from November 2011 and realized that I never did a page about when I went abseiling at Semonkong. This page came together pretty easily. What I like about it are 1) the frames (I LOVE frames as a starting place for layouts. These came already put together as one digital elements, I just added the pictures.) and 2) the yellow brush work (a color I picked out from the helmets in the pictures.)

Supplies:

Katie Pertiet:

  • Photo Clusters No 37
  • Classic Curled Frames (staples)
  • Monarchy Kit (alpha and background paper)
  • Wooden Alpha (screws)
  • On the Go Kit (brads)
  • Zipper Pull Dates No 2
  • Spot Dot Brushes No 4

Ali Edwards:

  • This One Brushes & Stamps

Kristin Cronin Barrow:

  • Going Places Kit (bolts)

I have had quite a few discussions about my 17 Before 2017 list over the last couple of months. I guess that’s related to the whole New Years resolution thing. Sadly, most of the time I can’t remember all 17 things on my list. I need to do something about that because even though very few need daily follow-up I think I need more frequent reminders. I’ve also decided that there are a few things on the list that I don’t want to do anymore. I told this to my friend V and she said that I should feel free to make changes because it should be a living document. She’s totally right. So here are the changes I’m making:

REMOVE:

  1. Take swimming lessons because everyone tells me I don’t really need to know how to swim to learn to scuba AND I technically can swim, I’m just not very good at it.
  2. Be on a digital scrapbooking creative team because I decided that’s not my goal with scrapbooking.
  3. See Cirque du Soleil because it was a lame goal. Plus I went to see them last year and I had already booked my tickets when I added it to the list.

ADD:

  1. Run a 10k. Last year I specifically mentioned not including running on my list because I hate running. Shortly afterwards I started a Couch to 5K training program. It may have taken me the whole year (with a big gap in the winter when I did no running), but I finally finished it.  And then I went on a live running Hash that was 8-9 kms and I didn’t die and I wasn’t even sore the next day. Now I’m signed up for the Two Oceans 10k Trail Run on April 5th. My goal is to finish it – even if I’m 397th out of 400 runners I will not care. (And I very well might be because I “run” only slightly faster than I can walk.) Depending on how this goes this may morph into “Run a 10k every year”. I can guarantee you that it will never morph into running a half marathon or longer.
  2. Have an impromptu conversation fluently in Spanish. I have gone back and forth in my head about learning another language at all. I took Spanish in high school and a little of college but have really terrible speaking skills (and have forgotten most of my vocabulary). I also took a semester of French in grad school because I thought it would be a good language for furthering my opportunities in Africa, but really did not take off with it. After accepting that I will never become fluent enough to get a job because of my language skills in either French or Spanish I still felt compelled to work on a foreign language. Therefore I invested in the Rosetta Stone for Spanish since that is the language I have the most background in.
  3. Donate at least as much as I’m spending on animal food per month to charities supporting maternal and newborn health. In Half the Sky I read that there are estimates that it would cost as much as $9 billion a year to provide all effective interventions for maternal and newborn health to 95% of the world’s population while $40 billion is spent annually on pet food globally. This had a real impact at the time and I even started looking for charities to support but then it kind of faded away. I definitely struggle with finding organizations after being in the field and seeing what actually happens. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of good being done but sometimes I find the advertising a little misleading. Please comment here if you have any suggestions!

Other ideas I’ve considered (and may end up on future revised lists):

  1. Take more pictures of the people in my life. I love documenting my everyday life, but I find that I take too many pictures of things and not enough of people. I really like this idea, but I don’t know how to quantify it.
  2. Go skinny dipping
  3. Attend the Summer Olympics since I’ve been to the Winter Olympics and I think it’d be nice to go to both. Plus the next Summer Olympics are in Rio.
  4. Paint a wall in my house a bold color like red.

Tour Paris

I printed 200 digital layouts when I was in the U.S. It was so awesome to get to see my layouts off the computer. Plus very motivating to keep creating. These are my first two pages for 2012 with pictures from my 12 hour layover in Paris.

Supplies:

Katie Pertiet:

  • All Mapped Out No 1
  • Monarchy Kit (brown journal block)
  • Ledger Grids stamp
  • Clustered Frames No 1
  • Gator Crossing Kit (turquoise bow)
  • Classic Curled Photo Frames (staple)
  • Zipper Pulls Dates No 2
  • Little Layette Kit (turquoise stitches)

Ali Edwards:

  • Thick Travel Words

Andrea Victoria

  • Simple Boy Paper Kit

I’m really loving this quote right now:

“You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.”

Matt Damon as Benjamin Mee in “We Bought a Zoo” (2011)

Found via Ali Edwards weekly newsletter

On Friday I checked off the second item on my 17 Before 2017 list that has a recurring deadline – annual blood donations. (The only other recurring goal is to read 42 books per year.) I had to give myself some leeway after re-discovering blood donating on my list at the end of the year when work commitments got in the way of getting to the blood bank before I left for the year. Since I can’t donate in the U.S., I gave myself until the end of January to count for 2011.

I added annual blood donations to my list because it is way outside my comfort zone. Shamefully, until Friday I had never voluntarily given more blood than is necessary for physicals. In fact, the first time I ever had blood drawn for medical purposes was for my pre-Peace Corps physical. The doctor used a butterfly needle because I’m such a wimp. I even passed out one time giving blood for a mid-Peace Corps physical (although I’m pretty sure that was due to poor technique by the MO). At the same time I think that being a blood donor makes you a good grown up. My Mom is a great example. I remember her donating regularly when I was growing up through blood drives at church or school, etc. My brother-in-law is also a regular blood donor. I’ve just been a wimp this whole time.

Friday’s experience at the blood bank was fine. The worst part about it was when the nurse grimaced when she saw the tiny veins in my arm. I am not joking. I recruited several friends to come along and the staff at the centre were thrilled to have us. There is a desperate need for blood products in Lesotho and in most developing countries. Maternal mortality here is high and sometimes those deaths are as a result of not having blood to give when a woman has postpartum hemorrhage. The staff at the blood bank told us that if we had called ahead they would have come to us. For just 4 units! That really struck me.

I’m keeping annual blood donations on my 17 Before 2017 list, but now my intention is to go every 3 months and to try to bring someone new each time.

It was so great to be back in the U.S. for the holidays. Not only did I get to see almost all of my immediate family (the exception being my youngest sister who lives in Germany) I also got to see a huge chunk of my girlfriends who are living in the U.S. It was rejuvenating to get to talk to people in person, instead of over Skype. By the end of my trip, however, I was ready to be back home in Lesotho. Here are some random stats of my visit:

Airports Visited: 8 (BFN, JNB, CDG, SLC, SEA, BWI, JFK, and MSU)

Cities Visited: 4 (Salt Lake City, Seattle, Baltimore, NYC and Paris)

Flights Taken: 10

Hours Spent on a Plane: ~55 (does not include layovers)

Movies Seen: 11 (2 on a plane, 4 in a theatre, and 5 at home)

Days in the U.S.: 26

Friends Seen: 12

Amount of snow falling from the sky: 0. This was the driest December in Utah on record.

Hours spent watching Teen Mom 2: I didn’t count, but enough to know that I should never be allowed to have cable TV.

Miles I Drove a Car: less than 1. I’ve realized that driving on the right side of the road just isn’t natural for me anymore. Every time I was in a moving vehicle and it made a turn I had to think twice about it.

As some of you may remember, at the beginning of the year I published my “17 Before 2017″ list outlining the things I want to accomplish/do before I turn 40 at the end of 2017. The biggest item on my list that requires continual progress is reading 250 books – or 42 books per year. This has become quite the topic of conversation. Besides getting asked about how I’m doing, the other most frequently asked question is “Why 42 books?” Good question. I wanted to challenge myself to read more than I was previously, which I thought was about 2 books per month. Turns out, on further analysis, I was reading more like 1.5 books per month. 42 books also adds up nicely to just more than 250 books. It has been tough keeping up and sometimes I just want to read long articles on Instapaper but I feel the pressure to keep reading. Right now I only have 2 more books to finish before the end of the year. (Likely “Blue Nights” by Joan Didion and “Seriously … I’m Kidding” by Ellen Degeneres.) Here is the list of the books I read this year, in order of the ratings I gave it on Goodreads with random comments/reviews.

5 Stars:

  • The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani (I don’t read much about AIDS because I generally read to be distracted from work, not think about it more. This was worth reading.)
  • The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. (Sob.)
  • Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristoff and Cheryl WuDunn (Eye opening and motivating.)
  • Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (You can tell that a TON of research went into this, but it’s all woven together into a coherent and engaging story. I tell people about this book all the time.)
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Another book I tell people about all the time.)
  • The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. (Fun, blast to the past.)
  • Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall (Really interesting read, even for non-runners. Bought a pair of “barefoot technology” shoes after reading this and LOVE them.)
  • The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (Sob. Epic.)
  • Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt (Brilliant YA book that’s not just for kids. Sob.)

4 Stars

  • The Giver by Lois Lowry (How did I not read this as a kid?)
  • Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann
  • Faithful Place by Tana French (Have read all of her books. I love a good mystery/detective story.)
  • Mrs. Kimble, The Condition and Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh (Becoming a big fan of hers.)
  • The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
  • One Day by David Nicholls (The ending helped win the whole book over for me.)
  • Bossypants by Tina Fey
  • In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin by Erik Larson (Also a big fan of his. Fascinating.)
  • The Informationist by Taylor Stevens
  • Austenland by Shannon Hale
  • Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo
  • Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson
  • The Most Dangerous Thing by Laura Lippmann (Will be reading more of her work next year.)

3 Stars

  • Saturday is for Funerals by Unity Dow (Book about AIDS in Botswana.)
  • The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet (Meh.)
  • Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
  • The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer
  • Alone by Lisa Gardner
  • Lonely Planet Morocco (Yes, this counts. I read basically the entire book as part of trip preparation.)
  • Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (This was only okay. I’m trying another of her books as I’ve heard good things about her in general.)
  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (Did NOT turn me into a vegetarian.)
  • The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War by Greg Marinovich (Better than the movie as it dealt more with the boundaries between when a photographer should get involved or not.)
  • Why He Didn’t Call You Back: 1,000 Guys Reveal What They Really Thought About You After the First Date by Rachel Greenwald (Yes, I read a book about dating.)
  • Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
  • Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach (Fun. Great for listening to on a long car ride with mixed interests.)
  • The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
  • Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

It’s not a secret that I’m a bit of a Christmas music nut. I may or may not have almost 500 songs in my collection … That said, not every song in my collection is created equal. With my non-Christmas music I am much more of a song person than an album person. I will happily delete non-Christmas songs that I don’t like from albums making them incomplete. With Christmas music, however, I tend to have more sentimental feelings towards entire albums than individual songs. (“I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” is an exception.) I also have a compulsion that all of my Christmas music get listened to in the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The problem with shuffle, though, is that albums/songs you don’t particularly like tend to pop up too much. This all results in the need for a different kind of music organization. I’m trying something new this year. First I went through and rated all of my albums – 5 stars for albums I LOVE (e.g. Christmas Portrait by the Carpenters), 4 stars for albums I like (e.g. A Very Special Christmas) and 3 stars for albums I don’t want to hear a bunch but still want in my collection (e.g. all of the Kenny G albums). Then, using the same technique I use the rest of the year, I created smart albums that includes: 5 star song that hasn’t been played in 3 days, 4 star songs that haven’t been played in 5 days and 3 star songs that haven’t been played in a week. So far it’s working for me, although I’m considering extending the 3 stars to 10 days. We’ll see.

P.S. Although I’m sure that the above graphic is based on actual data, I would have to add “All I Want for Christmas Is You” originally by Mariah Carey. It’s from the 90s and – for me at least – gets heavy rotation. In fact, I may or may not have 3 different versions of it … Otherwise all those songs are definitely classics in my book and I definitely have several versions of each.

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