" AHHHH

I'm feeling a little stressed today. Well not just today, it has been all week and a portion of last week too.

Tonight is our annual IGNITE kick-off anniversary celebration. (IGNITE @ BOCES 6-8pm BOCES on W Genesee St Rd Tickets are $10 each or 2/$15 and proceeds go to the Literacy Volunteers)

I'm very excited about all this but I'm also a little nervous that the snow and cold will keep people home and not at our event. I know I can't control the weather and believe me I'd love to be snuggled up under a blanket after work with a fun romantic comedy in the DVD player just like the next person on a day like today. But that's not in the cards till much later tonight and that's ok.

On top of all the work from IGNITE (which I do enjoy doing) I've got a ton of projects at work, a packed weekend schedule, and lots of things to catch up on at home.

The problem is when I get stressed like this and I've got a lot going on, the only thing I want to do is curl up on the couch and relax for a bit with a big ice cream sundae, which is certainly not helpful for getting things done or my waistline.

All in all I'm pretty confident we'll have a decent turn out tonight. We've been working our butts off to make this a success. But no matter what event I help plan I'll always have this thought in the back of my head - what if no one shows up?

I guess we'll have a lot of food and cookies to eat then!

-Harkins
"

" EASTER EGGS

It finally happened.

I knew it would. That it was only a matter of time. I knew I was throwing caution to the wind by leaving them there, blindly believing that everything would stay in its place.

You see I make Ukrainian Easter Eggs. A tradition handed down to me by my grandmother and one that I’ve been perfecting for nearly 15 years. In that time I’ve dropped or broken countless eggs, set my kiska (the utensil used to draw on the eggs) on fire too many times to count, and numerous general mishaps. But never have I ever knocked over a full glass of egg dye.

That is probably because when I made eggs with my grandma she had the dyes all clustered together in a nice holder. Not that she had any more room to work in her kitchen than I do, but she was generally a bit more careful than me.

Now, I had them all spread out on our tiny counter. (Mistake #1) I’ve been leaving them uncovered. (Not that it would have helped much but Mistake #2) And, I was relying on both our elbows and hands to stay away from the glasses when we were gathering something from the cabinets above. (Mistake #3)

I really shouldn’t have left them there but it was easier than putting them in the back room. I’ve had a few close encounters where I almost set off a domino effect myself. But as my fiancé grabbed something out of the cabinet and brought his arm down, it just knocked over the light blue egg dye.

I can honestly say I’m not mad or upset at all. I actually feel bad about the whole thing because I know I should have moved them long ago. We cleaned up the huge mess together and he was great. But I know he’s still not going to have a good day today because of how our morning started. And, even though we spent a good half an hour cleaning up, there is still much left to be done.

The white cabinets have a blueish tint, the wood underneath the drawers is all blue, and the floor I’m afraid may never be fully wood looking again. And the whole time we were cleaning up I kept thinking that it would be our luck that we would make another one fall after we did all this work. Thankfully it didn’t, and with the exception of our hands we both came out of it pretty clean.

All in all, the good thing is that the floor really needed to be mopped anyways and at least we didn’t drop the black dye.

Oh and I did move the other sixteen dyes to the back room.

-HARKINS



"

" MY GREAT BUSY DAY

I started off the day with mingling and coffee at Governor Spitzer's speech at the Holiday Inn. Myself and other IGNITErs were able to get a photo with the governor, which was a great plus to the morning. His speech made some good points and while it's not something that I've been following very closely, I'm interested to learn more. This was one of those events though that you just feel fantastic after going to. Like there is real progress in the air.

Then I came back to The Citizen where I gave a tour to current Leadership Cayuga students. I am a proud graduate of the Leadership Cayuga Class of 2007. If I could have taken the program again this year, I so would have. I recommend it to everyone. In any case, I'm used to giving tours to young children, which I enjoy, but it was nice to speak to adults. I always get so excited to speak to Leadership Cayuga people because I know they are learning about all the wonderful things the county has to offer and are experiencing a lot of great things too.

Now, I just returned from a good will luncheon put on by the Auburn Purple Lancers Drum & Bugle Corp. I attended as a member of IGNITE.

Some of you may recall the Purple Lancers Drum & Bugle Corps from the 1950's, 60's and early 70's. There is a group of dedicated individuals who are trying to restart this group now.

The group would march in parades, be ambassadors for Auburn around the state, and would eventually compete with other corps too.

To learn more about the groups efforts or how you can become involved go to http://www.auburnpurplelancers.com.

I think this is wonderful. I was a member of the AHS Maroon Vanguard Marching Band and I loved it. I fully support the Purple Lancers efforts! Maybe they will even let me march with them! I'd gladly learn another instrument!

Walking back to work after lunch I was so excited! In fact, I don't think I could be any more excited about life in Auburn right now.

Later I'll be attending my first board meeting for the Cornell Cooperative Extension. I'm very excited about this board because environmentalism is very near and dear to my heart and I'm also very interested in agriculture and nutrition, all of which are programs of the CCE.

Maybe after that I'll be able to go home and sit down for a bit. But I probably won't get much sleep tonight. I'll be too excited.

-HARKINS :-D "

" SWIMMING

Did anyone hear about the 16 year old swimmer, Megan Romano, who has qualified for the US Olympic Swimming Trials in not one, not two, but six events? (Read more at: http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=775785)

That is amazing. Even though I swam competitively for eight years, I never really followed the sport of swimming. So my only connection to the swimming world sometimes are these terrific stories of super fast swimmers that make it into national news.

I wish her good luck and I hope she makes it - I'll be cheering for you Megan!

Unfortunately, swimming is one of those sports that is highly competitive, and those competitors tend to be on the young side. The reasoning being that if you've been swimming since you were like 7 or 8 and continue through your formative years, you are really crafting a swimmers body. By the time you are in your teens your body has been trained to move a certain way and as you grow stronger and work more at it, the better you become. By the time you are my age, if you haven't been swimming that long or that much, you do it for the love of the sport, not your chance to make it big.

My swimming career started my freshman year of high school. A lot of the other girls had been swimming for years with the YMCA Stingrays, but I hadn't. Needless to say I was a little behind.
In fact, ironically enough, I can remember my mother asking me when I was about 8yrs old if I wanted to try out for the Stingrays. Even though I loved swimming I said no, not knowing that years later I would have wished I had accepted.

In college I was a distance swimmer which meant that I swam events like the 500 Freestyle, 1000 Freestyle, and the 1650 Freestyle which is also known as the mile. Only occasionally did I get to swim sprints like a 50 Freestyle. And for a while I tried my hand at other strokes like butterfly, breaststroke, and backstroke. In the end I was in love with the mile and it still holds a dear place in my heart.

Today, I swim very little. Most recently I swam in a one-mile swim for a fund raiser called Carly's Crossing. I'd love to get back into it. I really would. But swimming on my own isn't very motivating and the closest master's swim team that I know of practices in Skaneateles...at 5:30am. And I'm just not sure that I'm that dedicated. The only highlight of finishing my senior swim season was the thought of no more early morning practices.

Perhaps as the weather gets warmer and nicer I'll look more into these master's practices. Maybe I'll be inspired by Megan and her determination.

Or maybe I'll just suck it up like a Swim Griff would and dive right in. ;)

-Harkins
"

" PRESIDENT'S DAY

I could tell you that elephants can't jump or that February 11th was the day that Willy Wonka opened his factory in the most recent movie. I could also tell you that it would take 12,000 post-it notes to fully cover my desk or that watch fobs are making a comeback.

But presidents? Not so much. As was evidenced by my comments this morning. (Mrs. Shosa is probably rolling in her grave after what I said.)

Even though I was very involved with the Living History Players in high school and I was a pretty good student, I have to say that my American history isn't the best. And by "isn't the best" I mean really bad. For whatever reason, it just didn't stick.

So today I'm going to learn more about Harry S. Truman the 33rd president of the USA. Why Mr. Truman? Well that was the first president that came to my head when asked to "pick one". (Random, I know.)

In fact, did you know that Harry S. Truman didn't have a middle name, only a middle initial?

What president would you like to know more about?

-Harkins


"

" PUPPY LOVE

It's almost Valentine's Day and despite some of our misgivings about the subject, it's hard to turn away from all the decorations and hearts and romanticism of the time of year.

I've got to tell you, dear readers, that I'm looking for a new love. It must be soft, easy to get along with, make me laugh, sit with me when I'm sick, play with me, and most of all be oh so excited to see me when I get home at night.

Some might say my expectations are a little high. But I'm confident I will eventually find the right fit.

That's because I'm looking not for a new man, but rather a four legged friend.

Feline or canine doesn't really matter to me although I think a little kitten (or two) would do best in our apartment. But a small dog would be also super fun to play with.

If I had it my way, I would have a big house and yard with cats and dogs that I was able to take home from the shelter to love forever.

Even though I've been wishing for a pet for some time, I know it's not fair to it. I'm not home as much as a dog would like and I really don't have much room for it to run around. And my fiance is slightly allergic to cats.

So I will keep day-dreaming away and visiting others to play with their pets until I can find and bring home the "love of my life".

Puppy (or kitty) love that is. :)

-Harkins "

" TURN IT OFF

A friend relayed this story to me this weekend.

She was out for a day of shopping and while trying on some clothes couldn't help but over hear a young college student talking very loudly on her cell phone in the dressing room next to hers.

The girl was having some boy drama in her life and felt that dressing rooms at the mall were the place to discuss it. Funny enough, it turns out that her most recent date dumped her because she was on her cell-phone too much while they were out. For the life of her this girl couldn't understand what the problem was and so the rudely loud dressing room drama continued.

As my friend told me this story we were both laughing at not only how dramatic everything can be at that age, but also how blind the girl was to what she was doing wrong.

Now, I can’t say that I've never answered my phone while with someone or stopped to chat while shopping, but it seemed that this girl had taken it to the extreme. And I can’t help but think that even if someone had explained to her that her date felt ostracized by her actions that the girl wouldn’t have understood anyways.

When did people decide it was ok to be so rude?

Actions like those seem so commonplace these days. And I’m not saying that if you’re out with one person that you should never pick up the phone for another. Every situation is certainly different. But to let it consume your life so much that you can’t pay attention to the (what may just be a) great guy sitting across from you, then that is a big problem.

It seems like, for some, when that phone rings or text alert goes off everything else stops and no one else is in the room. Not only can this be super annoying, but it can be hurtful too. So, at what point will we make our cell phones stop?

There is a movement in some larger cities for non-cell phone eateries. Places where technology is not allowed and Wi-Fi is a fancy drink, not a standard. Can you seriously be so connected that you need a place of business to enforce you put your Blackberry away?

I’ve been able to work on a pretty decent balance between cell use and non-use that seems to work for me. I leave it home sometimes and sometimes I will just turn it off. And while I know that I will always be the eternal, worrywart, I certainly hope that I don’t become so dependent on my cell phone that I lose the very relationships I was trying to build by using it.

-Harkins

P.S. What do you think is the most inappropriate time/place to answer your cell phone?
"

" VOTING SPECTACULAR

Did you vote yesterday?

I did. I was one of the 15% of democratic voters and 9% of republican voters between the ages of 18-29 who turned out for the New York's Primary. (You can find detailed election results and exit poll information here: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/dates/#20080205)

I was reading on Seth Godin's blog yesterday, his post about "Lessons from Voting" (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/02/lessons-from-vo.html). He wrote "If you voted with your parents, I bet you're more likely to vote now."

As I went into the polling place yesterday, I saw a few children around and I couldn't help but think back to my childhood and how exciting it was to go with my parents to vote.

They always made a point to go vote. I can remember them reading about candidates in the newspaper because they always made a point to be informed about who they were voting for. And the one thing that I remember most about going with my parents is that they always saw someone they knew in like at the polling place.

I don't think they knew that each time they brought me there they really did instill me with the importance of voicing my opinion and casting my vote. (Thanks!)

Now, here I am, years later, reading up on candidates, forming my own opinions, and voting. And of course running into people I know. (Like father, like daughter. :D )

So, what's your earliest memory of voting?

-HARKINS




"

" I would just like to point out that the newly elected Chairman of the Young Leader's conference is my son. Michael Frame is currently working at SUNY Binghamton as their Director of Federal Relations, but was previously employed by the MDA in Syracuse where he was instrumental in founding the Under 40 Summit and advised in the starting of IGNITE. Although not a product of Auburn Schools he did much of his growing up here when he was with me on weekends and he graduated from CCC before transferring to Cornell. "

" It was announced on Tuesday that NYS First Lady Silda Wall Spitzer is creating a Young Leaders Congress(YLC). The YLC will be a group of dedicated young professionals appointed to build upon the I Live New York initiative.

The release said that she is hoping that the answer to some of the state's problems will best be addressed with the help and forward thinking of young professionals.

I think it's great that young professionals are being called upon to voice their opinions and ideas on topics that will determine our ability to stay in this region. Things like taxes, jobs, the economy all will be brought up as a result of the YLC.

I hope that the result of the YLC isn't just more ideas thrown on to the table. If there is a viable way to counteract these issues then by all means I hope that it is able to be instituted and doesn't get held up in political red tape.

I Live New York was started in May 07 to bring together young professionals throughout the state to be part of a solution.

Here in CNY, IGNITE is starting a similar campaign called Live, Work IGNITE "It's not where you live. It's what you make of it". With it we hope to get across the importance of young professionals being involved in the community and creating the future that they want to see here.

For more information on either of these initiatives:
http://www.ny.gov/governor/firstlady/iliveny/index.html
www.ignite-cny.org

Have a wonderful weekend!

-Harkins "