New, exciting, and expensive hobbies

Tuesday afternoon I had the pleasure of attending the Waseca Exchange Club meeting. The day prior, Mikhail, the Exchange president, had shared the presentation he was going to be giving with me in advance: it was about his experiences on Sept. 11, 2001. It remained powerful as I heard it for the second time during the meeting. The impact continued as others shared their recollections as well. 

 

I was a pre-schooler in daycare in 2001. My memory of the day is that some of us were in the room where the television was on; our babysitter came in, told us a scary movie was on, and turned the television off. My dad picked me up shortly after.

 

It was deeply meaningful to me that others were willing to share what they experienced and remembered.

 

Later on Tuesday afternoon, I attended the Waseca Chamber open house. For those who don’t know, the organization has a new office; it’s attached to Suburban Furniture at the north edge of Waseca along Highway 13. The new space is nice, professional and an excellent fit for the community. 

 

Homecoming is coming up, for, well, everyone. 

 

Waseca celebrates this coming week, Sept. 22 to 26. Festivities at NRHEG and JWP will be the week after, Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. I appreciate the help of local schools as we try to publicize everything to the best of the paper’s abilities. 

 

This weekend I drove a Jet Ski for the first time. 

 

My older brother Nathan has a tendency to get into new, exciting, expensive, dangerous hobbies. This past winter we went snowmobiling. Now, we’re Jet Skiing. 

 

As we got onto the water, I asked Nathan, again, what rules/safety precautions should be taken. He told me not to fall into the water. 

 

After about 15 minutes, I started to get the hang of things. Thirty minutes in, I was holding the throttle down the entire time, without letting up, screaming and yelling with joy. I felt like a kid again.

 

The Jet Skis only topped out at about 35 mph, thankfully. But still, one can have a lot of fun jumping waves at 35 mph. 

 

After about an hour and half, my entire body hurt. I had a slight sunburn/tan and fresh blisters on my hands, but that did not diminish my gratitude and appreciation for new experiences.

 

This past Monday, I spent the entirety of my day taking care of numerous different newspaper tasks. As Amelia puts the paper together, I get to focus my attention on improving the quality of everything the paper does. I was working on advertising sales in addition to additional content, and also last-minute additions to this week’s paper. It’s very rewarding to have my time back to get these tasks taken care of. 

 

Previously, I would spend my entire weekend, in addition to all of Monday and Tuesday putting the papers together. This was very draining, especially given I used every other day of the week taking care of necessary responsibilities. I’ve gotten my first few real Saturdays off in four years this past month. Through that time, if I happened to fill my Saturdays with other activities, it meant I would make up for it by putting in 12- to 16-hour days on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

 

I’m incredibly grateful for the reprieve, and the added energy and relief I am now able to enjoy.

 

In other news, I received more results from last month’s endoscopy. 

 

On Tuesday I was scheduled for an MRI and Friday a stomach specialist. Some fluids that weren’t supposed to be in my stomach were discovered, along with some irritation. Hopefully, I’ll get some answers and solutions this week to my two-and-a-half years’ worth of frustration and discomfort.

 

“When I finish writing a piece of work, it provides a sense of relief, knowing that something previously unknown and unthought of has come into existence.”

― Suman Pokhrel