Farewell, New Spectrum

Effective today, this blog has become a digital time capsule. Go here to learn why.

A Glimpse

There's a street on the edge of town that I go to sometimes. The street truncates suddenly - within a few feet the asphalt turns into gravel, then sand, to finally the rabbitbrush that composes most of the prairie that stretches beyond. It's a lonely place in some ways, but on warm sunny days there are few places I'd rather be.

As I stand here a breeze wraps around me. I feel the sun on my face. Sometimes my heart will open for just a moment. That's when I might notice.

Happiness.

Let's Talk About Me

I've been tagged on the "25 Random Things About Me" exercise several times, so here goes:

1. I like playing Scrabble and poker, though I'm not much good at either.

2. I have had stitches twice and a broken bone once.

3. I am fascinated by the squirrels in our yard. Their dexterity in managing fence rails, telephone wires, and tree branches is just astounding.

4. I broke the school record for cross country when I was in high school.

5. I ran 13 miles from Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak without training for it. Not recommended (not training for it, that is. The climb is spectacular).

6. I could easily live on cereal, plain pasta, red bell peppers, provolone cheese, steamed broccoli, coffee, lunch meat, root beer floats, potato chips, and white wine. Oh, and water.

7. Erin is my best friend.

8. My favorite short story is James Joyce's "Araby." I must have had a similar experience once.

9. Nearly all my friends are women, which I think is great.

10. The best driving song ever is Jimi Hendrix's version of "Drivin' South." Apropos, indeed.

11. I've always wanted a 1967 Corvette. It needs to have a very specific options package, so please ask before you go out and buy this car for me. This is exactly what I'm looking for.

12. I haven't watched a single professional sports event since John Elway retired ten years ago. Can't say I've missed any of it.

13. One dream I have is to walk alone for a week across the Mojave Desert. Not during the summer, of course.

14. I cannot handle watching the roller coaster on top of the Stratosphere in Las Vegas.

15. I drive the same way to work every day.

16. I love the prairie.

17. I love the fish tanks at a nearby sushi bar.

18. I didn't see the ocean until I was 40 years old.

19. I am interested in design of all types and how it affects our attraction (or not) to certain things.

20. Being married has been the hardest thing I've ever done, but it has also been my greatest source of happiness.

21. My color blindness doesn't affect my enjoyment of color.

22. I'll take doing laundry over cooking any day.

23. I like life's ambiguity.

24. I have been among the top 300 finishers in all six years I ran the Bolder Boulder (running has obviously played a major role in my life).

25. Nothing feels better than a big, genuine laugh.

There, got 'er done.

Buckfifty.org

For those who don't know, Denver quietly turned 150 last November. To celebrate the city's sesquicentennial, Hugh Graham, Hadley Hooper, and a few other creative folks have put together a really fun website called buckfifty.org. For the past few months, locals (and not-so-locals) have submitted interesting pieces about the city's history, personal memories, and other bits that paint a human picture of the town so many of us love.

Today's buckfifty post is one I wrote about Zeckendorf Plaza, a wonderful public space that once existed downtown, but is no longer. Many thanks to Hugh and Hadley for finding some marvelous images of Zeckendorf and posting them on the site. I love the one that shows the miniature golf course.

And there's a mention of my post on Westword's blog The Latest Word. How cool is that!?

Twenty-oh-Nine

It's a new year and it's time to set some goals (which are not to be confused with new year resolutions - something I realized the futility of long ago and therefore don't do). This is purely off the cuff and not a comprehensive list:

Read. I already read a lot, but I'm sloppy as hell. I found/rediscovered three books last year that inspired me to spend some quality time with great literature (How to Read a Book by Adler and Doren, The Well-Educated Mind by Bauer, and The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Fadiman and Major). I've kicked around with Moby-Dick and The Education of Henry Adams each for at least a decade, but I've never tried to truly understand them. This is the year.

Get out. By this I mean to hike, backpack, camp, snowshoe, and climb. I love nature and I want to learn as much as I can about it and explore as many out-of-the-way places as possible.

Pitch in to preserve landscapes and places. I volunteered a weekend at Riverside Cemetery last summer and felt like I did something truly worthwhile. I'm going to find more projects that appeal to my love of architecture, neighborhoods, and natural settings.

Develop my expertise as a cultural resource manager. I really don't think of myself just as a librarian anymore, because my professional interests go far beyond that. My job has cultivated my appreciation and sensitivity about donor relations, what's worth saving, and information design. My colleagues William Turkel, Hugh Graham, Beth Heller, Erin Landeck, and Nina Simon have been inspirational on these fronts as well.

Become involved in my community. It's amazing how easy it is to live in a town and not really know what's going on next door. The Arvada city council is looking for members to serve on the boards of the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority and Arts and Humanities Committee, so I hope to be soon contributing on one of those.

Increase my professional participation. Work stays interesting if you get out of the office once in a while to see what your colleagues are doing. The Colorado Association of Libraries just started a new chapter for special collections libraries (like mine). I'm also going to write for publication. I'll probably begin by doing some guest blogging on some high-traffic CRM (cultural resource management) blogs to develop ideas.

Build healthier relationships. I always say I'm going to do this, but the sands shift so much and I too often find myself lost when it comes to effectively managing them. Personal relationships are what I find the most bewildering in this life, but since I also find them the most worthwhile, I keep getting back into the ring. A specific point I'll work on is being aware of my own behavior triggers and owning my own "stuff." Everyone (spouse, friends, family, co-workers, etc.) will be subject to this treatment.

That's enough, I think.

Love Thy Neighbor

That kind of love can be tough to grow. I realized that again when my neighbor "Tom", who I've written about before, came over yesterday to complain about my inattention to a stretch of sidewalk that becomes troublesome after winter storms.

Tom first "encouraged" me years ago to shovel my sidewalk because I used to not do it at all. I thought shoveling was pointless and dumb because Colorado snow melts pretty fast. Tom disagreed. But not wanting to start a neighbor war, I bought a snow shovel and waited.

I soon discovered that I actually liked shoveling the walk. It was good exercise and I vainly believed that I was in infinitely better physical shape than my neighbors because they all used snow throwers and therefore couldn't hang. Probably only "Josh," the seasoned landscape worker who lived across the street from me, could give me a run for my money, I would sometimes think as I carved out my paths.

A lot of people think I'm nice, perhaps too nice. For most of my life, I've perceived this as an unattractive label and that I was hopelessly cursed. Kind of like the way a woman might tell a guy that he's really sweet and maybe even adorable, but that she doesn't want to screw things up by becoming more than just friends. Right.

But I've discovered that I usually get what I want by being my nice self. Not always, but I can avoid becoming a jerk yet be tough, stand up for myself, and not let people take advantage of me. I'm beginning to see my brand of conflict management more as an asset than a liability.

However, when Tom came over yesterday and vented his frustrations about my handling of the sidewalk as he stood on MY porch, I struggled to choke down my defensiveness and anger. But at the same time, I could sense Tom's unhappiness and that it went far beyond any issues he had with me. I felt sorry for him and even wished in my heart the world would lighten its burden on him. I always wish that others would do the same for me. I can use it.

So, Tom and I decided we would work together on keeping the sidewalk cleared. Later in the evening, I went out and spread some sand on the ice that had indeed become treacherous. Maybe that sand will become a sort of temporary bridge between Tom and me. A bridge that will give us time to build something new together.

The Facebook Experiment

Every time I decide to engage in a new online technology, it tests my boundaries between the personal and professional.

Facebook is my latest adoption. I signed up for an account about two years ago, but abandoned it soon after. I didn't put any effort into finding any "friends", which made it hard to see the point in continuing. It's a social platform, after all.

I deactivated my account, but of course it never completely disappeared. My real friend Amy found me on Facebook a few months ago, so I decided to give it another try. It took a few weeks, but I even filled out my profile and added a picture of myself. I've become quite progressive in this whole online world. Maybe someday I'll even get an iPhone.

Anyway, it wasn't long before some of my other real-life friends found and friended me. Still, I thought Facebook was weird. It seemed little more than reading other people's email. Not so much from a voyeuristic point of view, but that it was extraneous information. I could barely keep up with all of my RSS feeds, work and personal email, and print information, so looking for yet another spigot to open felt like I was one step closer to going under water for good.

I finally began to see the appeal of Facebook. I liked how the platform allowed me to simply touch base with the people I cared about. It helped to facilitate my real world relationships.

Then the test came. I started getting friend requests from former classmates, colleagues, co-workers, and people who I hadn't spoken to in years. Even though I was selective about those requests, I suddenly had people from all parts of my life in the same room. Individually, I had varying levels of intimacy with my "friends", but I soon realized that I needed to find an identity that would work with everyone as a group.

And that's what I've enjoyed about Facebook. It's challenged me to look at my relationships in a new way. I've made some meaningful connections with people who, in another time, I thought I would never hear from again. I get bits of information about my real-life friends, which allows me to slide right back into conversations with when I see them. And I'm learning about some really cool projects my colleagues and professional contacts are working on.

And I get it all from a single interface. Life should be simple like that, shouldn't it?