High Anxiety - you don't win

In 1977, on a break from our vigorous study Iowa State University schedule, Vicki, Jane and I went to see the Mel Brook's movie High Anxiety. In the movie, Mel sings a little song that has the refrain, "High Anxiety - you win", he chortled.

Oh how we laughed at that idea. Yes we had worries as college students.

• What did I get on that test? (Back when they posted scores by Social Security Number in the hall outside the classroom)
• What will I wear when we go out tonight and will the cute guy be there?
• How will I get along with everyone on my dorm floor? (we had to call the girls next door on their dorm phone - to notify them that we could smell the pot they were smoking.) Of course we couldn't be as obvious as telling them that. Vicki came up with using a fake voice like an old neighbor lady - she dialed and said "Your dog's in our garden". Worked like a champ! They stuffed towels under their door...
• Later, I worried about, gasp, getting a job. I didn't want to move back home to Atlantic and live with Mom and Dad.

Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman

As you can see - there isn't all that much to worry about there. My health was good. My parents were footing the bill - and I didn't even question that, or understand how lucky I was. It was just the way my life was - back before the price of college became so outrageously expensive. My parents and Atlantic grandparents were alive. Some of my personality traits were set by then. I feel nervous about being on time for anything (thanks Dad). Unlike my friend Chris Deardorff - to whom time has always seems to be an abstract idea.

I lost my "I am bullet proof status" in my 20's. I think most of us do. I worried about the usual stuff. Work, family, relationships, health. But not obsessively.

That changed last summer. I remembered just how bad is was when I got together with a couple good friends last week - and told my story. Thanks to Julia and Christine (who is looking great in her last trimester of pregnancy) for allowing me to tell my Graves Disease story - which is therapeutic for me.

Last summer before my Graves Disease diagnosis, anxiety was running high - mostly about my symptoms.

Once I was diagnosed, a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Even though I still had the medical symptoms, much of the anxiety was gone. Oh I still have my quirks! I am becoming even more of an introvert than ever. It's a good thing I have vitamin Paul to ease my symptoms. I wish it were that easy for everyone with major anxiety.

I'm working on being healthy - that's the best way to fight GD, which is an auto-immune disease that attacks the thyroid, causing it to emit hormones throwing one's metabolism and stress hormones out of whack. I'm hoping a March blood test shows me to be heading toward remission. No matter what, I'll always have GD and will deal with symptoms. But hey - everyone is dealing with stuff. This is mine.

Thanks to my friends and fam for helping me through this. For listening to my story. If you need a listening ear for your story. Just ask. We all have one. Or two!

Speaking of stories, the Creston wrestler who collapsed at the state duel meet the week may be released from the hospital today. His heart stopped and he had to be shocked six times before he got to Mercy right across from Wells Fargo Arena where the match was held. It turns out he has Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. You can look it up. It is something could have taken his life without quick action by those present.

Facebook photo of Tayler and 2 CHS finals wrestlers

I worked with Tayler's grandmother at Gits Manufacturing (she is a character!) and remember Tayler as a little guy running around when Jud played soccer with his older brother. Everyone is so pleased with the great outcome from this near tragedy! And the Panthers bounced back with a 2nd place finish at state. Proud of our former home community and their support of this family.

Eastern Iowa, Goodbye Joan's place

Area behind Marriott, Coralville - gorgeous!

I headed to "the dark side" Monday and Tuesday - Coralville (a suburb of Iowa City) for the annual Iowa Recycling Association (IRA) and Iowa Society of Solid Waste Operations conference. Knowing I'd be in the heart of Hawkeye country, I threw in my Cyclone quarter zip. Good thing too, because the Marriott Conference Center was freezing!

The City Carton Recycling folks broke out their Hawk polos across from our DNR booth. Somebody had to represent the good guys. Though nobody else had on the cardinal and gold, I had plenty of supportive comments - and took no crap. I guess it helps when you win the big game 2 years in a row! So proud.

Colleague Scott Flagg and I arrived early Monday for a Bottle Bill meeting. Same 'ol stuff - some glass recyclers plan to submit legislation to expand the bill once again this year. I'm not expecting much, but I do agree with them. The present system is dying on the vine as handlers haven't gotten a raise from the $.01 per bottle/can they got in 1988 when the bill passed. Small town redemption centers are dropping right and left. People are getting frustrated because there are fewer and fewer places to take their deposit items.

The beverage and distributors will fight any expansion. I wish we could find some middle ground that would keep items out of ditches and landfills and keep our recycling rate at the near 90% rate the present system provides. That's a tall order though. I can understand why grocers don't want them back in their doors, but haven't they had over 30 years to come up with alternatives? The outside areas/separate entrances work.

After lunch Scott and I went on a tour of Iowa City's new East Side Recycling Facility. I've reported on it before, since they are part of my program - Environmental Management System. Awesome education facility with a drop off for used motor oil, place where people can get compost. They also partner with Habitat for Humanity and the Salvage Barn.

After that, we toured a couple places that have located in town because Proctor and Gamble manufacture shampoo and other home products there. First we visited ALPLA - they make many of the containers P&G products go in. Blow mold, injection - you name it. They wouldn't allow us to take photos as they make their own equipment. I had a burning desire to use my phone to snap a quick shot, but I squelched it...didn't want my arm broken, or encased in plastic! Very interesting place - operated by surprisingly few people.

Next we walked to Heritage Environmental. They started up in town to assist an un-named client with off-specification products. (Proctor and Gamble is my guess!). The place smelled like shampoo - they de-package it, explaining typically this product is colored wrong, or touched the floor - stuff like that. I decided America needs to get over our "perfection" requirement. How about a store for stuff that's not quite right? Like the old bread store?

Anyway Heritage has found uses for the slickery stuff. They use it to help asphalt slide out of trucks. Genius! They're also coming up with new uses all the time. They are also dabbling in other things like carpet recycling, and water filter recycling. Interesting company - with the home base in Indiana.

That night was schmoozing time. Nice to see people I hadn't chatted with for a while. This is when my history - having been "one of them" for 10 years helps! Got to see my pal Susan Salterberg, and lil buddy Christine Richter - though my conversations with her came in short bursts between interruptions from her clients (they took priority - darn them!). I also talked to Kjrsten Bobb - who I'm FB Friends with - but I hadn't seen in person in forever!

On Wednesday Scott and I went to supper with Susan and a couple women about my age. They tried drilling Scott about the baddest thing he's ever done. It was hilarious - like he was under a bright light. He didn't spill his guts though.

Wednesday was my big day. Consultant Cory Sander and I gave a program "EMS Jeopardy" to market our Environmental Management System Program - my baby. We thought using the Jeopardy format might seem less preachy than the traditional ed format. We were right! Jason, the education guy from Cedar Rapids is good with technology and they have these clickers that we handed out to the 25 people who attended. The computer program kept track of $ scores and we handed out prizes for the top 3 in various categories. Water bottles, flashlights etc. I filled in bits of information on answers of questions. Phew - glad it's over.

When I got back to DSM, I spent my last night in Waukee at Joan's. I am somewhat at a loss about that. It's been such a great situation for me - and I've so enjoyed getting to know Joan better through this past nearly 4 years. She joked that I kept her informed on family stuff (through her bro Jeff, and he said the same thing...) And I sure slept well (most of the time) in the big bed in the basement. It's nice and cool and quiet down there. Even though I know I'll continue to see Joan periodically since we'll be living in town, it won't be the same as living with her. It was hard to clean my stuff out of the drawers. I'll miss her!

Bustin' with "Proud"

Rock Star Coaches (from Texas game) Below - Rhoads, above - the Burnhams

It's a never-ending roller-coaster ride. Being a fan of the ISU Cyclones, I mean. I know - I've chosen to get on that ride. I could be a casual fan - enjoying the victories and ignoring the other stuff - but oh, not me. I'm the type that invests heavily (emotionally, and..in recent years $) in the Alma Mater sports teams. Mostly football. I spent only four years at Iowa State University, but those years have shaped my life forever somehow. I'm in the cult.

As a Cyclone fan I've seen and felt my share of heartache from athletic losses - especially in football. I've written about it in past blogs. It's like the Cyclones are Charlie Brown - believing somehow, again and again that Lucy will really leave that football out there for us to kick this time. But each time, she whips it away at the last second - laughing cruelly. We fall on our asses, embarrassed, defeated yet again.

We've had some memorable wins through the years. A few. In college I was there when ISU defeated Nebraska at our stadium. It was the fall of 1976 - Dexter Green, baby! Back then I was really more in it for the fun. They didn't care when we took glass bottles of liquor into the stadium. Sometimes the game became a backdrop to mixology! I remember another exciting game vs. Kansas (OT?) in the 90s where ISU prevailed by kicking a field goal. It was very cold and a streaker blessed the event. There wasn't much to see...

Vicki, me, Sal, and Jane - in our ISU Cowboy hats - Iowa game 1979

The ISU vs. Iowa has become a great rivalry game. This year's Triple OT win was one of the most exciting games I've ever seen in person. Our victory over the Hawks during the brief Chizek tenure was memorable too - Shaggy field goal winning, thanks to Diana and I using our special lucky finger clutch. I gave up my ticket to Jud, when he was still in high school, the year the Clones beat the Hawks when they were ranked #10.

Paul and I have season tickets you know, and haven't missed a home game for quite a while! It took all week to decide whether or not we were going. Arguments for not going to the game. Someone Paul worked with was retiring, and Paul was in charge of collecting the guy's laptop and other equipment - so he had to work late yesterday. Plus Paul has not gotten to hunt much this fall, due to our busy social/football schedule. He was concerned a late night might cut into hunting time.

Our tailgating mates were not available for this game. Why going to a game without them would be like making a lemondrop without lemons. Diana had major surgery, taking the backbone McKim family out of the mix. Higgins chose to head to their Lake of the Ozarks home, and McFees couldn't make it. . I also admit I wasn't overly enthusiastic about watching the Cyclones get their asses kicked by #2 Oklahoma State. In the past few years, the Cowboys have had our number. I couldn't see how could we possibly compete with #2.

But...on the plus side of attending the game, my friend Christine was going to be running on the field with the team! Her buddy from Texas successfully bid on some auction package and that was the prize, along with sideline passes. And our pal Hauser from Minnesota was going to be "in the house" for the first time all year.

Ultimately we decided not to go to the game.

Damn, Damn, Damn! What a dumb decision - in hindsight. Bobbie and Jeff came over for wings and a chicken casserole Bobbie made. I enjoyed one nice lemondrop martini before I managed to spill the leftovers from the shaker on the floor. (can you say sticky?). The game looked marvy on the TV and I thought we were hanging in there pretty well, despite not taking advantage of some early miscues by OSU. But that ending was one for the ages.

The early missed field goal - memories of ISU's bowl game miss vs. Alabama. Our boy AJ Klein was a complete stud! Leonard Johnson finally backed up all his trash talking. Our frosh QB made some mistakes, but had nerves of steel. Tip by Iowa boy Knott in OT and interception by Benton (another trash talker). Jeff Woody ran like a man on a mission for the end zone to score a touch down - Clones know better than to rely on a field goal. ISU 37- OSU 31. I love our coaches! The defensive plan was stellar. Paul and I jumped up and hugged - hopping up and down in unison!

scene from last night - crazy!

I wanted so much to be there to drink it in - just like after the Iowa win. The crowd rushed the field and players raised red helmets skyward! That atmosphere is addictive. It was wonderful that ESPN continued to carry the feed long after the game ended. Sweet Caroline played, then Celebrate Good Times, as they interviewed Coach Rhoads and talked about the game.

This morning on ESPN Gameday, they showed a replay of Coach Rhoad's post game lockeroom speech. Some say he's overused the "so proud" phrase. Check out the video: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10100342216168020
Not me. What else can you say? Others say OSU was flat. It may have been a perfect storm - but the Cyclones had the perfect boat to ride the storm out!

Far left - AJ Klein, our hero! (his parents tailgate near us) 

I clicked my heels together

And said, "there's no place like home" and magically, I appeared in my comfy chair in my living room! No...not really. I drove my car - my trusty Subaru - which is like a comfy pair of ruby red slippers.

Today I was itching to get out of town - back to Creston. It's been a long stretch of work - since late September when I organized our first Environmental Management System (EMS)Audit through this week, after completing six audits and now the workshop. I'm beat! As I said in my blog of a couple days ago - the workshop went well...it finished up yesterday with a half day. The evaluations were good. Yay!

Continental - a drink from the bar sounded enticing, but I held back!

When the workshop finished up yesterday, I went to luncheon at the Continental - on Locust at about 4th in the East Village with Laura and Christine. We talked mostly shop. I had a nice blackened chicken sannie. After that, Laura had to catch a flight back to Dallas.

I spent the afternoon figuring out how to update information on the EMS website. Then I heard from my honey PGG, that he was in town having work done on his car. We decided to meet at HuHot for supper. That place is good! You fill a bowl with raw meats, fish, crab, veggies and noodles. Then you pick a group of sauces to dump over the top and take it to an open griddle for men to grill for you. There is white rice to eat with it back at your table. Yum!

After supper we took a walk around Sports Authority, but didn't find anything we couldn't live without. All too soon it was time for Paul to head back to Creston. I went to Joan's to watch TV. My shoulders were so tight from a week of stress! Guess I'll need to contact my friendly masseuse Chris soon to get the kinks worked out. But for now - tomorrow, I get to work at home. I like that perk of my job!

Duh Byuke

That's how you say it (Dubuque). Although I did like the Canadian pronunciation - Duh Buke. I've been there since Monday. I'm thinking of relocating there (okay it's just a fleeting thought). But what a cool city! (Except it IS on the dark side where everything is Hawkeye).

This year's annual Recycling and Solid Waste Management Conference was in Dubuque. Colleague Scott Flagg and I drove up there Monday afternoon and set up the DNR booth.

The DNR displays are brand new - and now I don't even need an engineer to help me put them together! They are like window shades. The old ones involved magnets and assembly. See the orange thing on the table? I forked over $5 of my own hard earned money for pretzels to lure people in to our table...since we don't have swag like other vendors do. And yes, I went around and gathered swag from other booths to distribute to my supervisor and key staff for bonus points when I get back to the office. I'm a suck up, I admit it. Plus I just like the joy of giving - especially when I got the stuff FREE.  

There were some great speakers at the conference, including the gal from the City of Ontario - who pronounced Dubuque so delightfully. This morning's session was about social media - using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like to further the cause of your organization. Yesterday our Bureau Chief Brian gave a DNR update, and a state senator from Dubuque talked about legislation she's sponsored on recycling.

The downside of representing the State of Iowa at this conference is that I can no longer party like a rockstar at this event. In the olden days, when I just represented Adams, Taylor and Union Counties, I used to tip a few. Just a few years ago in Dubuque as a matter of fact, Christine, Jeff and I drank our way up Main Street in Dubuque Night 1 of the conference. We went to a place called Paul's Tavern - where 60 year-old mounts of long ago hunted animals are located. Last night, co-workers Laura, Scott and I went there for 1 beer. Yeah, that's my limit now - I figure I can party on non-work nights. After the Tavern (3 beers $4.65), we hit an Italian place that was really good.    

This morning I took an early walk around downtown Dubuque. The sun was just coming up, and I saw things that I'd never seen before, despite all my years of hanging around NE Iowa. After all my Paul is from Earlville - not too far from Dubuque. And I did do the tipsy walking tour a few years back. Here are a few photos I snapped.

American Gothic - as seen at the Art Museum

 There were so many cool architectural shots - wished I had a real camera, not just my Blackberry. But the emerging light was part of the beauty. Our consultant for a project I work on is from Dallas. She does talk about moving to Dubuque. I can see why!

WASTECON

a unit for organics that only needs to be collected every 3 weeks

I was lucky to attend this event put on by the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA). The organization includes Canada as well as nearly all of the states. I attended one session on rural recycling by a woman from New Mexico named English Bird. My name is so boring in comparison. Another session was led by a gal from right in Nashvilled named Sherry Smith - I wanted to ask "our grade or theirs?" as in Atlantic there were girls in the classes of 1976 and 77 of that name. We did some more wandering and got literature from products that might be helpful for cities and landfills back home in Iowa.

I felt lucky in that it's very difficult to get permission to travel outside of the state in this economy as a state employee. I did have to jump through several hoops to get permission, but was happy that the governor's office and the director approved the trip. Paul decided since he'd never been to Nashville he'd go along - which was so cool!

Wednesday night was party night for WASTECON. All the people there to take technical courses had taken their exams and were ready to party. Ten busses pulled up to transport us to the Wildhorse Saloon in town. As we walked into the joint, staff rang cowbells and cheered - it was pretty cool! The place has 3 levels and 2 were set up with buffets - pulled pork, chicken breasts, salad, and my fave - black eyed peas. Good food.

Mary and Christine

After we ate we enjoyed drinks with the Iowa clan and a singer from American Idol entertained us. Paul and I checked out all 3 floors. Christine, Mary, Muriel and some consultants sat with us later on the first floor as the staff gave line dancing with their Wild Horse Dancers. Later we shopped a bit along the streets of Nashville - I love neon lights. We caught the bus back to Opryland at 9 and hit the hay as we had a 4 a.m. wake up call for our flight.

They had all the cool stuff on the streets of Nashville!

Nashville

Pablo and I got up at 3:15 a.m. Monday August 22nd to get to the DSM airport for our flight to Minneapolis on the way to Nashville. A minor miracle occurred when everything went smooth as silk - a first for flying this year. In fact I was sound asleep when we took off - something that never happens! We got all situated for our next flight - set for 9:30 or so, when they announced that it was overbooked and they were looking for volunteers to be bumped.

Paul and I looked at each other - hey, we didn't have anything set we had to do that day. So I hot-footed it up there to put our names in, and was told to wait until everyone boarded and they'd let us know if we hit the jackpot or not. The flight boarded, and sure-nuff. We won! When it was all said and done, we ended up with $1,200 in flight coupons, plus $32 in lunch vouchers. We headed to TGI Fridays for lunch, and then awaited our 3:30 flight. Free Florida tickets - here we come!

View from our "handicapped" balcony

We ended up hitting Nashville about 5:30 p.m. and took the fancy shuttle bus to our village. When we checked in we learned that we got an "upgrade". Yeah..to a handicap room - with a view. Two very low queen beds instead of a king bed. A zero entry shower. But hey we had a balcony and a huge ironing room! Vacation Village was really Gaylord's Opryland Hotel - 49 landscaped acres under a dome. Pools, restaurants, various pods of motel rooms with fountains. Little shops and bars with escalators going to them. The convention center was on one end with Opryland beyond that. I only got lost about 10 times, but Paul was even loster (is that a word) than I was! I'm now very worried about him hunting elk in Colorado next month - good thing he has GPS!

Outside the pizza shop - our friends the horses..

When we first got there we hunted up my old pal Christine, who was the engineer for the Union County Landfill when I was the manager. We got to be buddies through all the (insert bad word) we went through. I had a lovely drink in the "Library" lounge. Then Laura a project consultant from Dallas hunted us down and we went to Fuse to get a bite to eat in a sports bar that only had about 52 TVs. Then it was off to find our room...after several false starts we did!

Sara Bixby cuts the ribbon

In the a.m. we found a little shop where I could purchase granola and skim milk, and Paul could get a roll and coffee - all for $16. Then we hit the ribbon-cutting ceremony for WASTECON. I know...awful conference name - but descriptive - no? I had not slept well, nervous for my speaking gig at 2 PM. But I managed to drag myself around the display area where vendors had their wares, and picked up a few cool freebies. I also attended a session on Rural Recycling that was excellent.

We choked down some lousy pizza at lunch and it was time to head for my gig. The others I was talking with were beginning to gather outside our room. Kathy, Mary, and Laura all got to talk before I finished up. Sara - another Iowan, who spent the year as the president of the whole international organization, was scheduled to introduce us.

About twenty people showed up to hear us - not too bad considering we were scheduled in a room off the beaten path. Paul was there for moral support. Our PowerPoint was superb. When it was my turn, I spoke a few words and my mouth turned to the Sahara. Gummy! I struggled along for a while...but had to excuse myself to get a drink. Of tea. Otherwise it went pretty well. Not as well as it did in my kitchen all by myself the Friday before, but oh well...

Liking people

When we like someone right away, is it a case of seeing qualities in them that we have? (or think we have?). I began thinking about this today when I was pondering people I've enjoyed hanging with at my various jobs through the years. (see blogs from months past to read about my exciting and not to exciting careers).

Take my little buddy at work at the Wallace Building, Becky Jolly. She's nearly half my age. Okay she's thirty - and preggers, due any day with child number two. Becky is nice to everyone - much like me. Alright, I'm not exactly like that, but I usually try to avoid being a jerk. I take time to word emails and letters just right so not to offend anyone's feelings.

And at my last job, our consulting firm engineer Christine was another youngster - from Chicago. You'd think we wouldn't have much in common. But she's something of a smart ass, and is smart - not afraid to let people know it. I liked that about her. Because I can be like that myself. Christine and are friends too - though we don't get a chance to see each other as much these days.

What does attract us to others - as friends, mates? Is it opposites attract? Or similarities?