Walk-O-Rama: ADD, Our New Disorder of Choice

Library staff and OCD, due to the very nature of our work, go together like mashed potatoes and gravy. Peas and carrots. Peanut butter and bananas (no wait, that’s really, really disgusting). And we’re ok with that.  But we were very excited today to have a new sort of disorder represented in our group. As we learned, those inflicted with ADD are awesome excursion leaders, in more ways than one!

Having happily branched out and drawn in members of departments outside of our own building, we were feeling quite pleased with ourselves. This is until we realized that there were no leaders among us now that Ken had threatened to report us to HR for assuming his gender implied that he was a successful decision maker. Fortunately, first time member Katherine took charge by instructing us all to please at least start by going outside. So we did.  It was a step in the right direction since the temperature was quite a bit cooler for and change and…hmmm… I could go for some Skittles right now, which is strange because I don’t really like Skittles, except the orange, yellow, and green ones. They are alright. What was I talking about again?

WOR newbies learn that they may be photographed against their will so they might as well look happy

Spontaneous path chosen thanks to Attention Deficit Disorder

Oh yes, being outside.  Knowing that semi-new member Arielle had never been to the legendary Roth Pond before, and since we learned that she is a kayaker and would soon be nominated by everyone to row in the Regatta next spring, we decided to take her there.  Being led, as I mentioned before, by someone with ADD, we somehow were able to travel to a place we had been so often down a totally different route to places not all of  us were aware were part of the university grounds. Jumping from subject to subject, attention eventually had to be drawn to the elephant in the room (if that expression can be used out of doors)…the footwear of one of our new members. Though stylish to be sure, this unconventional walking shoe had never been worn on a walk before. Laugh if you want (which we did), but it did add a bit of glamor to this Walk-O-Rama adventure.  The only thing that would have been classier is if…hold on, why is there a peanut on my desk? Oh yeah, we didn’t see any squirrels.  Now where was I?

Clearly (if one can say the word clearly in a description of  this picture) the pond was at its prettiest for Arielle’s first introduction to it

The new standard issued Walk-O-Rama shoe. Ken is very excited!

Having passed only one bike in SBU’s bike share rack, the crew decided to head on over to the train station to see if more could be rustled up there.  As it turned out, there were plenty more to be found, only Kristen was told that they could not take personally owned bicycles from the racks, even if Ken did remember the chain cutters.  As we stood wondering what to do, Katherine proposed Green Cactus – a decision which led them all into a harrowing den of lies!!

Having reached Green Cactus, we all decided to spontaneous shake things up again by following Raquel next door to Soup’s On.  After being denied her much anticipated soup, and upon afterwards hearing that the hot dogs that had lured Ken there had just all been sold out (most likely by 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon), the group had to think extra hard about their decisions. After all came up with suitable alternate choices, we were met by other initially less obvious disappointments. Did you ever watch 30 Rock? I love that show.

Feeling all happy about having a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich, which she’d not had in I don’t even know how many food truck seasons ago, Kristen would have thoroughly enjoyed her meal, had Katherine not pointed out the sign that advertised grilled cheese sandwiches for several dollars less than she had paid.  The company will hear about this, trust me! Katherine, too, was very pleased with her choice since she so dearly loves green peppers, until a few bites later she realized that her wrap had been served without them.  The fire of this anger was further stoked by the tabletop ad that proudly boasted that the establishment sold hot dogs, which we saw no evidence of.  To be fair, Ken did really like their chili, and Raquel declared that her banana bread was surely homemade!

Yeah, NOT!

Green peppers, enhanced with Red Dye #9. Seriously. Would we lie to you?

Yes, we’re pretty sure you are comfortable lying to us

Apparently, no campus buses were to be had since it is summer, so we were forced to walk back on our own. The OCD-ness of the library folk dictated the return trip, however, as we set off on the only path we ever take on return trips from food. The only diversions that distracted us from this office-bound journey were the few moments when conversation was abruptly halted by Raquel yelling “DOG!” Kisses were awarded by five dogs in total.

We hope you can join us next week as we….DOG!

Our new friend Dixie’s occupation is making people happy. Yes, this requires a vest

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Walk-O-Rama: Insert Hilarious Title Here

Due to the fact that our blog title writing assistant is not in today, I will leave it to you, the reader, to set your own mood for this blog entry by piecing together a series of your own favorite words to personalize this post. For instance, my own personal title would be “Walk-O-Rama: Llamas Paid CASH to Eat Ice Cream on the Beach”. Hopefully this will work out more successfully than my self published novel “Write 2,000 of Your Favorite Words Here!”.  It sounded like a good idea at the time.

We did not let our newest member Arielle’s absence interfere with our decision to introduce her to Stony Brook’s Roth Pond. The fact that she was not there was just a hiccup in our plan to educate her about all that our campus has to offer.   Having been to the pond so many times ourselves during Walk-O-Rama excursions, we discovered that the geese there instinctively associated our members with food and they all raced into the green waters from all directions to forge through the sludge in order to see what goodies we had to share.  Much to their annoyance, we had no edibles for them to feast upon.  We instantly lost our fan base and a majority of our blogging geese demographic in the Roth Pond district due to that very reason.

Proof that we are symbols of eating to all we encounter

This goose tries looking at the other side of Raquel’s empty hand in disbelief. What, no food??!!

Feeling a bit guilty, we decided to go find the geese some food.  I’m sorry to report that we ended up eating it all ourselves and forgetting about them entirely until I stumbled upon the pictures of their disappointed faces on my phone.  Many fine topics were discussed on our lunch break, at least.  We learned that today’s outing was actually training for Raquel’s walking marathon that she has entered to help raise money for breast cancer patients.  Go Raquel! To learn more about this charity event, or to sponsor Raquel, visit her site.  Do it! Now!

All the cool kids are clicking on this pic to support Raquel

We do hope you will join us on Monday for our farewell John walk, which we intend to hold whether or not he will be here.  It should be fun, though a little more so if he is indeed in attendance.

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Walk-O-Rama: An Equal Opportunity Organization

Today we found ourselves sans most of our usual group and had to go out recruiting additional walkers.  This proved very challenging, which was strange on such a beautiful day.  As it turned out, the only member replacements we could find were three canine stand-ins, which we settled for since we have not yet discussed as a group whether or not we’re the discriminating sort.  They were excellent walkers and did not even ask to stop for lunch, which has not become standard WOR practice.  Patting walkers on the heads is also not usually done (though perhaps it should be in the future), but we made exceptions today, because how could you not pat such a fluffy head?

The John, Ken, and Kathy of today’s walk. Lookin’ good, guys.

We were relieved to see that we were not the only ones lacking members today, as we swung by Roth Pond and saw a lone reporter serving as her own star and camera crew.  We briefly considered taking over the project and creating our first Walk-O-Rama feature film, but we were not in the mood.  Plus we had little baby geese to find.  Strangely, they too were missing.  Is there some cool place on or off campus that we do not know about?

This project could have been awesome if we were not so lazy. I’m sure she did great too.

No baby geese were to be found in the Roth Pond area, which made Kristen cry like a baby person.

Having taken about 5 too many wrong turns in our attempt to take the quickest route around a construction zone, we ended up lost and confused in the wilderness.  Perhaps Kristen + Celeste, the two least direction savvy people alive, should not have embarked on such an adventure alone.  But Celeste vaguely recalled having taken this barely traveled path before, and so we bravely continued on.  Fortunately for us, we soon found a building that we could cut through (because Walk-O-Rama is all about taking short cuts to reduce distance), which is where we spotted the plans for a building we will soon be able to explore!

We can’t wait to cut through this building in the future.

Hopefully more people can join us next week, as the weather continues to get better and better! We’ll be whining about the heat in no time!  Perhaps we’ll see you there, especially since these canine understudies most likely have other plans.

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Walk-O-Rama: NOW WITH PIE!!!!

As we discovered today, thanks to Raquel’s bold “I’m an adult and I can eat dessert for lunch if I want!” attitude, pi(e) as a meal makes for 3.14159 satisfied walkers.  Why not four out of four, you might be asking yourself and your monitor?  I will tell you.  1) Because this number is a mathematical constant and you can’t argue science unless you were part of the Bush administration; and 2) Kristen is only .0014159% happy with anything on Mondays.  The delicious Granny Pie was consumed with the utmost pleasure while dining at the previously explored Hilton Garden Inn on the Stony Brook Campus, which welcomed its first eaters today – us!

Dessert for lunch: Adult status achieved!

There are certain perks to being the first people to do something.  We were as giddy as mice about to experiment with what was sure to be the hottest new cosmetic trend. Everything was still clean and sparkly, and even the pricy ceramic pots housing sugar packets still decorated the tables before campus thieves had the opportunity to swipe them.  We considered selling them on ebay to pay for our meal, but thought better of it when we realized we did not have enough time.

The bowl that should have paid for our lunches

Everyone commented on the high quality of the meal, even the chef who kept excitedly rushing out of the kitchen to inquire after our satisfaction.  We were like royalty, minus the riches, which reinforced our long standing belief that Walk-O-Rama members are awesome.

Many topics were discussed as we strolled to and fro, some more appropriate than others.  Seriously, I am a rather tactless person in general and not even I can bring myself to reveal some of the tasteless discourse that we laughed about today.

Other topics can be written about – and should be! The Library will soon be focusing all of our non-WOR attention on the upcoming Roth Regatta! This year’s cardboard boat race is sure to be every bit as exciting as last year’s.  Volunteers who would like to hide in the murky Roth waters on race day breathing out of reed straw air tubes in order to flip over all serious competition should let us know ASAP.  Think about it.

And also think about whether or not you would like to walk this Wednesday, when the lure of the Annual Food Show in the SAC promises to be a distraction worthy enough to abandon our desks. Most are. FREE FOOD! Maybe even pie!  Hope to see you then…

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Walk-O-Rama: To Infinity and Beyond!

Today’s walk seemed to start off just like any other (we even considered taking the same route as last time, until a mysterious wind blew from the North – or whatever direction it was – and beckoned us to venture down a road not yet taken…since last year). However, so many adventures were soon to be encountered that it quickly became apparent that we needed photos for evidence.

We saw many new faces in our group this week (a few were missing as well, though we tried hard not to take that too personally).  Armed with Celeste’s fancy, high-tech pedometer, we were able to measure our total distance walked to be .55 miles!  But what is distance when one has seen all the wonders that we witnessed today?  While taking in the serene beauty of Roth Pond, which some of our party had not seen before, we began discussing our plans to participate in (and naturally conquer) the Roth Regatta in the Spring.  Anyone interested in joining in the fun can contact Kristen C. or Kathy.  

As we were leaving this peaceful setting, Steve went rogue and began wandering off into the uncharted wilderness.  He had noticed something quite alarming.  Trees had been pulled from the earth in what seemed to be either a destructive natural disaster or an epic war of the worlds.  Our bets switched to the latter scenario when we encountered a UFO not 1/10 miles away (by the pedometer’s count).  On our way to bravely explore this vessel, Kathy paused to unwisely stick a limb into a small animal’s tree home, probably a chipmunk or a grizzly bear, for the sake of getting some great shots with Donna’s iPhone (a little advertising for Apple – I’ll expect my check in the mail).

Steve striking a pose in uncharted territory.

 

Kathy invading a woodland creature's home

Our walk turned into an excited jog through the minefield of goose waste that littered the lawn surrounding the UFO.  To our disappointment, however, it was not an alien spacecraft, nor was it a random piece of rusty junk art, as one sometimes sees on campus.  It was an underwater vessel used to explore the Long Island Sound, which is also cool in its own way.  It did provide us with a few moments of entertainment as people poked their heads inside for a better look.

The UFO. Meddling with matters beyond our comprehension

 

The UFO's less exciting real life function

 

Next week, consensus has ruled that we should wander over to the new Simons Center for a rooftop view of our surroundings.  Perhaps the elevated altitude will help us discover some more intriguing routes for future walks.  If we’re too lazy or unmotivated to make it to the top, I hear there’s a fantastic little cafe inside! Hope to see you there!  

Taking a break from walking

 

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