Hey Now! Hey Now!

The first step is always the hardest and here it is. If you’re reading this it because you've received my apologies for my poor friendship and have decided that despite my prior non-committal ways that perhaps it would be interesting to see what’s going on in my life.

Here goes!

I haven't been in touch with some of you for quite some time so for this first post I figured I'd just do a quick update as to where I am and what I'm doing. I might post again later this month to let everyone know how my race goes (more on that later), but don't want to bog everything down. I just want to keep people updated if they're interested and imagine once a month will keep everyone more than up to speed.

So-

In 2004 (ish?) I moved to Newmarket, New Hampshire. It’s located in the beautiful seacoast region of NH, which consists of 16 miles of actual seashore and a considerably larger area of water called the Great Bay. Newmarket is about 1:45 north of Boston, MA and about 1:45 South of Portland ME. The largest nearby town/city is Portsmouth, NH. It’s about 45 minutes max to the beach and about 1:30 to the mountains, though there’s a surprising amount to due locally too! This can all be seen in this interactive Google Map:


View Larger Map

When I first moved to NH I was lucky enough to find work at a local pottery called Salmon Falls Stoneware in Dover (see map). I started in the mold shop making molds for their machine produced wares, and eventually, after filling almost every position in the pottery became a production potter. Dream of Dreams! No really it was a pretty good job and my throwing skills improved dramatically, but fiscally it was not the most sound employment and after a couple temporary layoffs I was able to secure my current position with the local University of New Hampshire in Durham (again with the map).
Currently I work as the Woodshop Technician for the Art Department. It is a position that I love. I manage the shop, doing things such as keeping the machines in optimal running condition, ordering lumber and supplies, giving machine demos, and helping the students during and after class hours. It’s on my career path and allows me some wonderful opportunities. UNH is a wonderful employer with all the expected benefits of a major university. Working in the woodshop/art department allows me all the artistic resources I could want. All of which I horribly under utilize.

I've moved around a couple times since moving here, starting in Newmarket with Hanna, then to a duplex in Dover with Hanna, and my wonderful friends Chris and Erica (a married couple), and then back to Newmarket where I currently live in a wonderfully cute little shack by myself. It looks like soon I may be making my way again, back to Dover.

These Days I primarily occupy my time by enjoying the many wonderful outdoor activities that New England has to offer. This winter was (finally) a great ski/snow season, and I managed to get out to downhill (alpine) and cross county a number of times. Early in the season I managed to procure a set of very gently used telemark skis and had blast learning to tele. I didn't manage to get in any back country this year and probably won't but am excited about the opportunity and know that I will eventually.

Another thing that I've somehow unwittingly managed to do is start racing a ton. All sorts of racing. It kinda started with the Jay Challenge in 06 (results), and moved onto a couple of road and trail races, and then at the end of last fall I entered the National Wife Carrying Contest (article here) with my good friend Sarah Silverberg, and a passion was born. I hooked up with a team called acidotic RACING and am currently racing with them. Our primary sponsor is the tasty Redhook Brewery. It’s always nice to have a beer as a sponsor. I raced a couple of snowshoe races for them this winter (including a snowshoe marathon (26.2 miles)) and my first adventure race too. My next big event is this weekend (April 11-13^th) and is a 100 mile trail race called the McNaughton Park Trail Run. It’s the second in a 6 race series and is located all the way in Illinois. I’m going to journal this in a separate entry in order to keep everything as succinct as possible, but let it be known I’m excited and anxious!

That brings everything almost up to date. I’m sure I’ve missed thing major and minor that have happened to me since I have last talked to some of you, but at least now you have an idea of what’s been going on all those months days and even years that I’ve been out of touch. I’ve obviously never done this before and am not quite sure how it will be received but I want to reiterate that the point of this is to start getting back in touch with people; at least virtually. If you want to leave a comment after the post feel free if you want to contact me personally shoot me an e-mail. I’d love to hear what you’re up to too!

Love you all, thanks for checking in-

Ri