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My greatgrandparents

I wrote this story (still unfinished) a few years ago, describing what little we know, pieced together from the few documents we have and my mom's memories. This story is dedicated to my ancestors, who fled poverty in Poland to find even greater poverty in America. They fled Poland, seeking the “American Dream”, to a country that despised and demonized immigrants (and continues to do so). I don’t have their entire stories. I have a couple of baptismal records, thanks to a very kind priest in Brooklyn. I have some names and then my mom’s memories of Helen and Chiotka Maruska. Her father said very little of his early days, and so I’ve recreated their story. She was 17 years old, yes old... with her second child, Wanda, in a country whose language she did not speak and without a place of her own to call home. She lived in a tenement, like so many other Po...
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The what relay? The Great Lakes Relay 2015!!!

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  S ometimes one just has to be open to the totally unanticipated and unexpected!  I didn't plan on running this race, in fact, I had never even heard of it before I got a message from most awesome MSU alum and former Sparty's barista Andrea Zuchora asking me if I were interested in running and being on her team.  They had a few people drop out because of injuries and it seems they were desperate (they had to be to ask me).  I thought about it for a bit, checked my schedule to see if there was anything pressing on Friday, and then said YES!  Actually, I have to admit, I had no idea what I was agreeing to... except that I was going to run.  Didn't know with whom, how far, where, etc.  but heck, I needed a break from the daily stress of preparing materials for the upcoming ABET review, trying to catch up on research, and dealing with the emotional roller coaster of having one's oldest child cut off all communication with the family.    And so b...
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Kensington Marathon: The Journey

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  Having trained for months (actually almost a year) New Years Day 5K... training with a 20 lb backpack for the backpacking trek at Philmont, I decided that it was time to do a marathon.  I had done 20 mile training hikes (both over two days). Backpacking on the North Manistee Trail   We trained at 11,000 feet in Colorado Hiking in Colorado and then we hiked 100+ miles with a full backpack at Philmont.  On the trail at Philmont      I hemmed and hawed and waited until after returning from Philmont to sign up for the only fairly local marathon in July, the Kensington Marathon.  It was a new marathon, run in Kensington Metro Park.  It seemed perfect, just about 40 minutes away, in a park, two loops and two out and backs, so if I needed to I could cut the run short.  And so I signed up.  I continued training after Philmont, mainly walking lots of miles with Simon and my friend Elaine, who recently had knee surgery.  Another runn...
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