The Hockey Spirit

Friday, January 22nd and Saturday, January 23rd, 2009

Lynah Rink, Ithaca, NY

While at Hillary's place over break, I made an excellent new hat for hockey games-- my big red bear hat.  Yes, I'm aware that it looks very silly.  I used a regular hat pattern with hairy yarn and added ears of my own invention, with the result earning me many comments.  Hillary's hat was also knit by the wearer, and in spite of being a little too classy to be next to the bear hat, is awesome nevertheless.

Our zamboni driver at the first game, wearing another amazing costume.

We played against North Dakota two nights in a row, winning the first night and losing the second.  The Friday night game, we're pretty sure they won because is was Hillary's birthday.  The second game was a bummer-- North Dakota scored within the first 20 seconds, and we were forced to play catch up through the rest of the game.  Although we scored right at the end by pulling our goalie, North Dakota ruined it by immediately scoring an open net goal with only a few seconds left to go.  But, to quote another Lynah Faithful, "look at it this way, at the end of the day, THEY still have to go back to North Dakota."  Good way to put things in perspective.

At the second game-- we had amazing seats, right on the ice.  It's impossible not to love watching the players slam into the glass right in front of your face.

Our team saluting their loyal fans-- win or lose, they do this at the end of every game, and we always stay to cheer right back.

Wilderness First Responder

January 5th-13th, 2009

Ithaca, NY

Leave it to COE to make 70 hours of intensive first aid education actually fun.  In spite of the fact that each of the 8 days of class started at 8 am and went straight through til 6pm, and in spite of spending much of that time in a basement, the class was hands on, interactive, and very engaging.  We performed CPR, created our own improvised litters from equipment we had in the basement, cleaned out wounds on pigs feet, actually injected each other with saline, and spent a lot of time in "simulations."

A spinally stable improvised carry

Using a tarp and ropes to create a litter

A piggy back style carry using a mountaineering rope

The small scale simulations used some very realistic makeup and some improvisational acting skills to create one-on-one situations between a patient and a rescuer.  These let us practice patient assessment and deciding on treatment plans for everything from common problems, to "once in a blue moon" problems, to "hope this never, ever happens" problems.  The full-blown simulations created larger accident scenarios where rescuers had to work together, organize triage, allocate resources, and safely evacuate patients.

A beautiful winter afternoon at the Challenge Course

The class after finishing Simulation 2-- 1 dislocated shoulder reduced, 1 ankle injury stabilized, 1 anaphylactic reaction stopped, and 1 possible spinal injury carried out through 20 inches of snow.

With this new WFR certification, I'm cleared to give CPR, use an AED and supplemental oxygen, give injections of epinephrin for anaphylaxis and severe asthma attacks, and give spinal assessments.  This is the level of first aid necessary for me to hopefully teach the Costa Rica tree climbing class next winter.

But, intense as the class was, we did get one free day and a little extra curricular play time-- we spent an afternoon building an igloo, an evening rock climbing, and a morning winter tree climbing.

Igloo building process-- after sleeping in and a hearty pancake breakfast on our day off, everyone was ready for a day of fun in the snow.

Starting to dig out the igloo.  We ended up with all 9 of us fitting comfortably inside.

Bouldering on the Lindseth wall-- most of our WFR class stayed late one night, and we ended up climbing until midnight.  I discovered that bouldering is really just twister for grown ups.

Dusting some snow off the platform for a little winter tree climbing.  Julien (one of my co-instructors for tree climbing, who also took WFR) and I took a bunch of our classmates out to try it for the first time.  It was a little chilly, but beautiful.

Pre-Enroll

After a disgustingly early morning, I am now tentatively enrolled in classes for next semester.  I am signed up for an English seminar called "the great Cornell author," which will include works by Toni Morrison, Vladimir Nabokov, Kurt Vonnegut, and my current creative writing professor J. Robert Lennon.  I'm also taking a cognitive studies course called "the psychology of language," a French seminar, a linguistics class on the history of the English language, and biology lab course.

Lynah Faithful

After both Hillary and I weren't able to make the annual camp out in line for season hockey tickets, we were ecstatic to get an email saying they had a few remaining unclaimed season tickets.  We rushed to the ticket office, landed first in line at the window, and managed to buy the next-to-last season tickets.

This makes us officially "Lynah Faithful," the dedicated fans of Cornell hockey that frequent Lynah rink.  Our first game was against Dartmouth (who we whomped 5-1), and our second was the legendary Cornell-Harvard match up, our biggest rivalry.  Tickets for this game are nearly impossible to get, unless you happen to have season tickets, of course.

Hillary and I with our Lynah Faithful shirts (free with tickets), and our fish.

Fish, you say??  One of the weirdest hockey traditions is throwing fish on the ice at the Harvard game.  The history behind it is that Harvard once threw a dead chicken on the ice to make fun of Cornell's agriculture school.  The next year, we threw dead fish to mock the fishing industry in Boston (not sure why that deserves to be made fun of, but I'll go with it).  After that, Harvard tied a live chicken to the Cornell goal, but they (obviously) got in huge trouble, where as we have been throwing fish ever since.  Security is intense on the way in, patting people down for dead fish.  Most people now use swedish fish, gold fish, or paper fish as a more symbolic gesture.

A giant fish head thrown on the ice after the 2nd period-- like the fish thrown at the beginning of the game, it was picked up by designated fish-picker-upers with garbage bags.  Fun job.

The line up at the Cornell-Harvard game

The zamboni man, who is now retired but makes special appearances, always dresses up in some crazy costume.  I believe he is a Chinese emperor here.

In case you care (that's a rhetorical question, OF COURSE you care), we stomped Harvard, 6 to 3, in a very high energy game that stayed neck and neck right up to the third period.

The Knitting Craze

Come on, everybody's doing it!

Hillary knitting a scarf outside on a lovely day

Melissa knitting in some awesome footie pajamas.  This is her first practice swatch, she's now moved on to a scarf using the needles I gave her for her birthday.

Hillary starting a baby hat for her cousin's baby, and Illika working on a swatch she started last winter when she learned to knit

Hillary and I with our dueling mittens.  Her mittens are Pittsburgh Penguins mittens for a friend, mine will be flip-top mittens.

Here's the finished product for mine.  I added a cable down the center to make them go with a hat for a gift for Laura.  The project's on Ravelry.

Here's the full set.  I LOVE the hat pattern-- it's molded after Hermione's hat in the 5th Harry Potter movie.  You can find it online here as a free Ravelry download.  I used a bamboo yarn, but the yarn suggested by the pattern is heavenly.

What can I say, I'm a trend setter.  And, knitting makes a great low-stress, high-productivity break from homework.

Murder at the Speakeasy

Friday, October 30th, 2009

362 Becker House, Ithaca, NY

For halloween, our suite decided to throw a murder mystery party.  We bought a kit online for a 1920's themed mystery to take place in a speakeasy, and raided some local thrift stores for supplies to cobble our costumes together.

Hilary, playing tailor for Melissa.  A lot of our costumes were basic dresses that we decked out with fringe and other 1920's accessories.

Illika, stitching fringe to her dress.  But of course, it couldn't be just normal fringe, because that would be boring.  She went with purple.

Setting up the suite.  We stacked our coffee table on our end tables to make a bar, complete with mini-fridge hid underneath and stocked with juice, soda, and energy drinks for mixing.  What's a speakeasy without a bar, right?

The final product of our costume efforts: fringe, fun headbands, and pearls.  Hillary was Dina Diva, the singer, Tahra was Molly Moll, the prima donna, I was Rosie Marie, owner of the speakeasy, Illika was Cindy Butt, the gossipy cigarette girl, and Melissa was Kitty Cocktail, the waitress.

We had a blast, and in the final vote 3 people correctly guessed the murderer.  It was the police chief, can you believe it?

Insomnia Hat

October 29th, 2009

I call my most recent knitting accomplishment my insomnia hat.  After some difficulty falling asleep, I decided to knit a couple rows on this hat every night before going to bed.  It helped a lot, and now I have an awesome hat.  I picked the yarn to match my favorite scarf-- a plaid cashmere that my grandma gave me for Christmas.  I also modified the pattern to add a button flap on the side.  Find the super-simple pattern here, and my project on Ravelry.