Week Round-Up in Photos

As I was out and about last week, I took photos for the blog, but didn't come up with any posts for them, so now I clump them all together. 

Book club members now live in the hills above San Bernardino. Here is the view from their 4 acres.

A walk through the Pomona farm showed us this statue. Presumably the goddess Pomona.

Streamers have been up at CMC since Alumni weekend. I like the reflection in the water.

The new arts building going up at Pomona College

International Festival

I don't remember when I went to CMC's International Festival last, but today's perfect weather was a great excuse to walk through the goings-on.  At the Festival one can peruse items to buy, from books and other treasures to a great variety of foods from all over the world. The lines at Thailand were very long. One can also sit a spell and listen to storytelling or watch dancers, or try your hand at crafts. 

Claremont is hoppin' today, and among the other offerings was Nano Days at the library. You can read about last year's Nano Days here.

Fitness Room at CMC

Pretty soon now, the Ducey Gym at CMC will be torn down to make way for the new Roberts Pavilion. Here is the sign with the artist's rendering of what's in store. It looks pretty nice.

Before Christmas vacation, we saw this sign on the door to the Fitness Room. 

We were told that the cardio and weights would be moved to a room across from the Ath and the Hub and would be open sometime in early January. That day has finally come, and we are back in business! In the meantime, we have been walking the track behind Ducey and adding interval training. When we get to the stadium side, we run up and down the stairs, and then on the other side of the track, we jog for one length. While that has been great cardio and still an option for some days, I have missed the weight machines.

New Year's Workouts

Last week at the CMC Ducey gym where I work out, I counted 10 students starting off the new semester getting their sweat on. This week I see 4-5 students. 

When I worked out at the YMCA in Evanston, the New Year's rush lasted until March. I was glad when it was easier to get a parking spot and had more space in the locker room.

I am at the point in my life where working out is not an option. I might miss a day or sometimes a week, but then I crave it, so it's back to the gym or yoga or brisk walk I go.

Saturday Night in Claremont

When it cooled down a bit last night, we made a quick decision to take a walk through the colleges. The sky was beautiful (even if my little camera couldn't capture all of the subtleties). 

As we wandered through the various parties on CMC's campus we heard the sounds of football, so we headed over to the stadium and watched some of the CMS v Lewis and Clark game. After sitting in the stands with screaming college students and then walking home via various other loud parties, we decided that we would not want to have to go back to college....

Luis Alberto Urrea

Urrea

Last night Luis Alberto Urrea spoke at the CMC Athanaeum as part of the Claremont on the Same Page program regarding his book Into the Beautiful North. He spoke, among other things, about his life and how various people who he has met and known played their part in this particular novel.

I found it interesting that while some people I have spoken to said that they felt that most of his characters were not real, but mere cardboard or caricatures, Urrea spoke of the characteristics of flesh and blood people who were the models for his book.  I guess that truth can be stranger than fiction.

Some writers are not necessarily good speakers, but Urrea was funny and kept us listening for nearly an hour which did not feel that long.

Ducey Gym

On Monday the Ducey Gym at CMC closed down for a bit so they could replace all the cardio equipment.  I think this is the third set of elliptical machines that I have used here in the past 10-15 years.  I believe that the founder of LifeFitness is a CMC grad, and the story that the tour guides tell when they come through the workout room (when I've been there) is that he wrote a proposal for this company as his senior thesis, but he didn't get a very good grade on it.  Obviously he was better at starting a company than writing a proposal....

A Night on the Town (with some Gown)

We took advantage of the CMC Atheneum tonight and heard Steve Levitt, author of Freakonomics, speak. We weren't actually in the same room since there was an overflow crowd, but we saw the live feed in the next building. Levitt is an entertaining speaker with some interesting and some odd ideas. Maybe I should read the book.

After the talk, we rode our bikes to Village West to try out Yogurtland - yet another tart yogurt sold by the ounce. I recommend the pomegranate raspberry tart flavor. The addition of mini m 'n ms and raspberries is also recommended.

Athenaeum Talk

Tonight I heard James Fallows speak at the CMC Athenaeum. His topic was "The 'Axis of Evil' and Beyond: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Complex and Dangerous World." He has been living in Beijing for the past year and began his presentation with a slide show of various things, including the horrendous smog we've heard about, and a few of the billion people who live ordinary, poor lives in China. He was engaging and funny, and made me think I should probably go out and get an Atlantic Monthly (which I haven't done in a long while).