The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Random Handstand Club

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    Ruth Carter

    The U.S. Olympic Trials for gymnastics is this weekend! I was a gymnast for 17 years and I love this sport. Unfortunately, elite gymnastics is on TV only 3-5 times a year, so when it’s on, I drop everything and watch it. I’m sure all my ex-gymnast friends will be watching too except for the handful of friends who still live in the Bay Area that get to be there in person. The U.S. has a lot of talent gymnasts on the men’s and women’s side so it will be exciting to see who makes the team.

    San Francisco - December 2011 Handstand Ruth Carter
    Handstand in San Francisco – December 2011

    Gymnastics is a sport that when you stop doing it, you lose your skills pretty fast. At this point, I need a trampoline to do anything except for a few simple skills – like handstands. A lot of current and ex-gymnasts are proud members of the random handstand club.

    Ex-gymnasts are pretty easy to spot when we’re traveling. When we take pictures with important monuments or iconic places, we usually take one “normal” picture and one handstand picture. It’s a gymnast thing. I love seeing all of my friends’ handstand pictures from their travels. A few years ago, one of my teammates did a big trip through Europe and made it a point to take a handstand picture in every country.

    I’ve been meaning to add a tab to my site for all my handstand photos. The Olympic Trials seemed like as good an excuse as any . . . and I couldn’t think of anything better to write about this week.

    If you look through the album, you’ll notice I’m in the same pose in almost every handstand photo. That’s because this is the only position I can hold long enough to get a decent photo. I wish I had better balance so I could do handstands in more daring places, but I’d rather not die because of my random hobby.

    I hope to be able to do handstands for a long time and to share my adventures with you. Enjoy!

  • I Got A Dog

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    Ruth Carter

    I adopted a basset hound this year. Her name is Rosie. We’ll celebrate two months together this week. I never thought my landlords (aka parents) would agree to let me get a pet, and I was shocked when they said “Yes” after two years of prodding.

    I adopted Rosie from the Arizona Basset Hound Rescue. After I passed my interview and my home inspection, they started sending me picture of prospective dogs, and to be honest, I wasn’t that enthused by Rosie when I first saw her. Her head looked too small for her body in her picture but she was the right age (four years old) and her foster parents lived close by so I agreed to do a meet and greet. I knew within minutes of seeing her that she was my dog.

    I was so nervous about becoming responsible for another life. I had never owned a dog that I was solely responsible for. I’m so grateful to my friends who have dogs and the clerks at PetSmart for helping me make sure I had everything Rosie would need.

    Rosie’s had mostly a good life from what I was told. Her first owner took excellent care of her for about four years but then his job situation changed and he didn’t think it was fair to be away from home for as long as his job required. He supposedly thought he lined up a good home for her, but she ended up with someone who neglected her. Her nails looked like they were never trimmed so they got way too long and curved under her paws. Thank goodness she ended up at the basset rescue after only a few months in that situation.

    Rosie is the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet. She has the cutest face and she is a total attention whore. We go walking twice a day and she has become one of the darlings of the neighborhood. She’s mostly mellow and well-behaved. We usually play with her ball every day.  Sometimes I roll it and she retrieves it and sometimes I roll it at her and she acts like a goalie. Sometimes she likes to throw the ball for herself and chase after it. It’s so cute.

    When I first met Rosie, I tried to make her howl but nothing worked. I mainly wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t howl when I sang. After I had her for a few weeks, I learned that the only thing that makes her howl is the sound of a ringing telephone. It makes me laugh every time she does it.

    Sometimes I look at Rosie and it’s so surreal that I have her.  Having a dog that sleeps at my feet in my office was part of my master plan for my law firm. We’re still working the kinks out of our relationship. She’s not always excited about meal time or walking at my desired pace, but I really couldn’t ask for a better dog.

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  • My First Trip to Chicago

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    Ruth Carter

    I had the pleasure of spending three days in Chicago last week for the American Bar Association TechShow. It was a geek-tastic time. I met a lot of wonderful people and learned a lot about ways law firms can use technology to be more efficient. Our keynote speaker was the awesome Ben Stein. It was weird to hear him speak with inflection in his voice. I also got to present on flash mob law during the Ignite-style kick-off event LexThink.1. The audience really seemed to enjoy it.

    This was also my first real trip to Chicago. The conference didn’t give me much free time. I only had one evening and one afternoon to get in all my sightseeing. Chicago is known for having wonderful museums and an aquarium, but I skipped those. I am someone who can appreciate art, but I need a guide to tell me why things are significant or else it will be lost on me. Without a guide, I can walk through a museum in 10 minutes and wonder why I spent $20 for the experience. When I’m traveling alone, I prefer to use Roadside America to find a city’s quirky gems.

    On the second night of the conference I decided I wanted to experience some Chicago flavor. I asked the doorman where I should go for real Chicago pizza. Without hesitation he said, “Lou Malnati’s.” It was a delightful little pizza place with wonderful deep dish Chicago-style pizza. I grew up on the west coast, so this was the first time I had to eat pizza with a fork and knife. If you want Chicago pizza, try this place.

    After the conference was over, I had a few hours to take in the city with my cousin who lives in Chicago. He’s in a medical residency, so he doesn’t have time to see the city. He said there’s a wonderful architectural boat tour and a gangster bus tour in the city that he’d love to go on. Unfortunately our schedule didn’t allow for that so we took our own walking tour near the lake.

    Our first stop was Millennium Park. I had to see Cloud Gate – aka “The Bean.” Despite it being a freezing cold day, there were a lot of people out to see the giant sculpture. Being an ex-gymnast, I had to do a handstand in front of it.

    Our walk around Chicago also featured the Chicago Cultural Center, the Navy Pier, and the beginning of Route 66. I was tickled when I randomly encountered the statue of Bob Newhart and his couch. After I explained to my cousin who Bob Newhart was, I posed for a picture. It was odd to sit on a couch that was rock hard and ice cold. There was also a giant statue of Marilyn Monroe in her signature pose from The Seven Year Itch. We giggled when we walked around it and saw that the sculpture included an accurate depiction of her backside and panties. We also walked around Tribune Tower which has pieces of other buildings embedded in the outside like the Parthenon, the Taj Majal, the World Trade Center, The Alamo, and the Great Wall of China. I was little bummed when I didn’t find a piece of Stonehenge but I was happy to see that it had a piece from Antarctica.

    It would have been nice to visit Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower). They have a glass observation deck that sticks out over the street on the 103rd floor. It would have been fun to do a handstand on that, but it was cloudy day and kind of expensive. Instead, my last adventure in Chicago was a ride back to the airport on the L.

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