At the core of every great team is the ability to work together, not only when you're on top but most importantly when you're on bottom and at the end of your rope.
Today Chris and I definitely got tested on this one! We left at 8:30 this morning for a supposed 17 mile cycle to Walden pond, where the plan was to practice open water swimming for half an hour, then cycle an easy 6 miles to an amazing cafe called Taste (Number one in Boston and number 12 in the country!!!) and then cycle home. We should be home by noon.
Little did we know we would get lost on every single street. Literally...every. single. street.
Damn googlemaps.
A few hints for navigating Boston, from yours truly:
1. If you are looking for Blue Heron street in Waltham, Mass, give up now. It doesn't exist. We found this out by cycling down literally every single side street within a 5 mile radius of where Blue Heron "supposedly" is
2. Sometimes streets just turn into other streets without a sign, or any sort of hint as to what road you're actually on.
3. North street turns into Main Street becomes W117 which becomes North Street which becomes Old North Street...no street signs tell you this, you're just supposed to know.
4. No one in Waltham has ever heard of Blue Heron street.
5. Just when you think you're 20 miles away from your desired destination, you ask someone who DOES known and realize you're a right hand turn and a mile down the road
6. Newtonville is actually Newton.
7. GPS navigation on a Blackberry is about the equivalent of asking a baby monkey
8. There is no use in getting frustrated with your travel partner, he's just as clueless as you are..if not more clueless
9. Beware of any direction that says, "Turns towards...." because it is not the same as, "Make a ___ on" ...in this case you're just supposed to KNOW where the street is that you're turning towards
10. The best way to get back on track is to laugh about it and take turns on whim until you find a street name you recognize
11. If you rip your directions in half and get them soaking wet, don't fret. They're useless anyway.
12. Sometimes 1.4 miles on googlemaps actually means 4.4 miles
So basically we were lost every two minutes, dripping in sweat from carrying our wetsuits on our back, sore from working out yesterday, and on the verge of giving the whole trip one big "SCREW IT!" and going home back to bed. But we pressed on and eventually made it to all of our destinations, though I had my doubts a couple of times, I will admit.
One thing I really appreciate about Chris and I is that we never get with angry with one another. A lot of people get extremely anxious and frustrated when they get lost, especially if they get lost on literally every street they ride down, but Chris and I had an awesome time navigating through Allston, Brighton, Waltham, Lincoln, Weston, and Newton. We laughed when we were on the wrong road and made up the route as we went along and ended up having a great time. We got where we wanted to go eventually, even if it took us 11 more miles than it was supposed to.
I definitely learned teamwork from my parents - I think I've only seen them fight once, maybe twice - and that was when my dad bought a frying pan from Target and mom got mad because it wasn't stainless steel Williams and Sinoma, Ohhh mommy. I think that's the main reason why my parents are still together after all these years, they learned how to work together. With my dad's patience and reasoning and my mom's intuition and copious amounts of common sense, there's nothing they can't overcome together. Together they've built my entire house from bottom up- I have pictures of my mom ripping drywall off the walls while my dad is hammering next to her. It came so easy to them, my dad knew exactly what to do and my mom learned as they went along, and soon she was painting and building all by herself, sometimes without my dad even knowing it. They built a basement, added onto the house, redesigned the entire interior, built a pond, fixed our cars multiple times, and raised 4 kids who love each other more than anything in the world. How they did it? I have no idea.
But from them I learned that you get nowhere with frustration and anger, and you can go anywhere if you, as my mom tells me all the time, "just go with the flow."
That's something I absolutely love about my family, we take whatever life gives and run with it. Whether it's driving the 22 hours to the condo in Naples or a four day canoe trip down the 11 point river, every single one of us goes with whatever happens and makes the best of every situation - even if it means laughing at a flat tire on the side of the road in the middle of the country or sitting in a canoe, ten miles up the river from our destination in 50 degree weather and the pouring rain. Other times it lands us driving through the country at 1 in the morning looking for campsites, flooded into our cabin the country, stuck in the mud, climbing trees to rescue our family pet, or lost in upstate NY trying to find Boston, just to name a few. But these are my favorite times with my family, the times where we're all laughing our asses off at each other because we're so clueless as to what to do.
I had the best childhood I could possibly dream up because my parents were so laid back and my family all worked together for everyone's best interest, and that's what I try to implement into my life every day.
After all, imagine life if you always knew exactly what path you were going down. Would you take a look around, live life in the moment and appreciate every minute? Or would you focus only on the destination, because in the end you'd know you're going to end up there anyway?
We don't record hard times, but they're the ones that get us from one smiling picture to the next.
love love love,
me
Today Chris and I definitely got tested on this one! We left at 8:30 this morning for a supposed 17 mile cycle to Walden pond, where the plan was to practice open water swimming for half an hour, then cycle an easy 6 miles to an amazing cafe called Taste (Number one in Boston and number 12 in the country!!!) and then cycle home. We should be home by noon.
Little did we know we would get lost on every single street. Literally...every. single. street.
Damn googlemaps.
A few hints for navigating Boston, from yours truly:
1. If you are looking for Blue Heron street in Waltham, Mass, give up now. It doesn't exist. We found this out by cycling down literally every single side street within a 5 mile radius of where Blue Heron "supposedly" is
2. Sometimes streets just turn into other streets without a sign, or any sort of hint as to what road you're actually on.
3. North street turns into Main Street becomes W117 which becomes North Street which becomes Old North Street...no street signs tell you this, you're just supposed to know.
4. No one in Waltham has ever heard of Blue Heron street.
5. Just when you think you're 20 miles away from your desired destination, you ask someone who DOES known and realize you're a right hand turn and a mile down the road
6. Newtonville is actually Newton.
7. GPS navigation on a Blackberry is about the equivalent of asking a baby monkey
8. There is no use in getting frustrated with your travel partner, he's just as clueless as you are..if not more clueless
9. Beware of any direction that says, "Turns towards...." because it is not the same as, "Make a ___ on" ...in this case you're just supposed to KNOW where the street is that you're turning towards
10. The best way to get back on track is to laugh about it and take turns on whim until you find a street name you recognize
11. If you rip your directions in half and get them soaking wet, don't fret. They're useless anyway.
12. Sometimes 1.4 miles on googlemaps actually means 4.4 miles
So basically we were lost every two minutes, dripping in sweat from carrying our wetsuits on our back, sore from working out yesterday, and on the verge of giving the whole trip one big "SCREW IT!" and going home back to bed. But we pressed on and eventually made it to all of our destinations, though I had my doubts a couple of times, I will admit.
One thing I really appreciate about Chris and I is that we never get with angry with one another. A lot of people get extremely anxious and frustrated when they get lost, especially if they get lost on literally every street they ride down, but Chris and I had an awesome time navigating through Allston, Brighton, Waltham, Lincoln, Weston, and Newton. We laughed when we were on the wrong road and made up the route as we went along and ended up having a great time. We got where we wanted to go eventually, even if it took us 11 more miles than it was supposed to.
I definitely learned teamwork from my parents - I think I've only seen them fight once, maybe twice - and that was when my dad bought a frying pan from Target and mom got mad because it wasn't stainless steel Williams and Sinoma, Ohhh mommy. I think that's the main reason why my parents are still together after all these years, they learned how to work together. With my dad's patience and reasoning and my mom's intuition and copious amounts of common sense, there's nothing they can't overcome together. Together they've built my entire house from bottom up- I have pictures of my mom ripping drywall off the walls while my dad is hammering next to her. It came so easy to them, my dad knew exactly what to do and my mom learned as they went along, and soon she was painting and building all by herself, sometimes without my dad even knowing it. They built a basement, added onto the house, redesigned the entire interior, built a pond, fixed our cars multiple times, and raised 4 kids who love each other more than anything in the world. How they did it? I have no idea.
But from them I learned that you get nowhere with frustration and anger, and you can go anywhere if you, as my mom tells me all the time, "just go with the flow."
That's something I absolutely love about my family, we take whatever life gives and run with it. Whether it's driving the 22 hours to the condo in Naples or a four day canoe trip down the 11 point river, every single one of us goes with whatever happens and makes the best of every situation - even if it means laughing at a flat tire on the side of the road in the middle of the country or sitting in a canoe, ten miles up the river from our destination in 50 degree weather and the pouring rain. Other times it lands us driving through the country at 1 in the morning looking for campsites, flooded into our cabin the country, stuck in the mud, climbing trees to rescue our family pet, or lost in upstate NY trying to find Boston, just to name a few. But these are my favorite times with my family, the times where we're all laughing our asses off at each other because we're so clueless as to what to do.
I had the best childhood I could possibly dream up because my parents were so laid back and my family all worked together for everyone's best interest, and that's what I try to implement into my life every day.
After all, imagine life if you always knew exactly what path you were going down. Would you take a look around, live life in the moment and appreciate every minute? Or would you focus only on the destination, because in the end you'd know you're going to end up there anyway?
We don't record hard times, but they're the ones that get us from one smiling picture to the next.
love love love,
me
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