Well, summer vacation has reached the end of week one, and I finally
managed to get my bike out for a ride. I've been wanting to get it out
for several weeks now, but due to time constraints, I was unable to.
Then I managed to get completely scorched (I'm talking cooked lobster
red) on my arms and chest last week when I was outside all day for the
field day activities we had for our students.
So I
decided today was the day to get out. I didn't have much planned, and I
finally felt like I could stand to be out in the sun without feeling
like my arms were boiling.
I went out and decided to
check out the local bike trails. I was ready for pretty much anything
(or anyone) that might have come along my path. So with my pepper spray
in one pocket, and my cell phone in the other, I donned my helmet,
grabbed my bike and took off... well, almost. I had to walk my bike up
to the corner gas station to put some air in the tires, as both seemed
to be pretty flat. But then I was on my way!
I was a
bit nervous, since this was my first ride after breaking my ankle. I had
been doing the recumbent bike in therapy, for 10 minutes per session,
but I hadn't been on an actual bike outside riding. I wasn't sure how my
ankle was going to take it. Luckily, it held out and is feeling pretty
good!
While riding the local bike trails, I discovered
that one trail that I had previously planned on checking out came to a
dead end where I thought it started. Another one, aptly titled "Dead End
Trail" had a killer hill. It was a short hill, but really steep. My
summer goal is to make it up that hill without having to get off and
walk my bike to the top!
While checking out the trails,
a fox ran across my path. At first I thought it was a small dog, but as
I got closer before he ran into the weeds, I realized that it was
actually a fox. He was too quick for me to catch a picture, which was a
bummer.
I also came to an area where the path went
under the train tracks. As I started to ride through the tunnel, I
couldn't help but think about the scene in "The Walking Dead" where Glen
and Tara enter into the tunnel. This one wasn't nearly as long or as
dark, but it was just as creepy! I was definitely on the lookout for
Walkers while I was riding through!
This was the tunnel over the creek, I didn't stop to get one of the tunnel the bike path went through!!
This
is a little waterfall along the bike trail. I could have sat here and
listened to it for hours, it was so peaceful and calming!
I
didn't go super far, just under 6 miles total, but that's pretty good
for my first ride! I can't wait to keep taking the trails and see what
else I discover.
It was a cold, wintery day in Michigan and a light snow began falling partway through the day. In a rush to get to the grocery store and home before the weather got worse (or got colder!), a young, lovely, fair (albeit klutzy) maiden rushed out the door from work without changing into her trusty, durable winter boots.
Thus, the plot begins to get interesting.
While walking out of said grocery store, the young maiden stepped quickly onto an area of the pavement that had been painted for customer crossings and vehicle warnings to "stop" for said customers. The lovely mixture of the beautiful snowfall and painted parking lot caused the maiden to slip and roll her ankle. This created quite the image of legs flailing, with the grocery cart being used as a life saving device, completed by a high pitched screech to spew forth from said maiden's mouth.
Somehow managing to stay in an upright position, the fair maiden limped to her car, proclaiming an embarrassed, "I'm okay," to a gracious witness who inquired of the maiden's good health.
Fast forward two weeks, after the maiden has been working and on her feet regularly. Her rolled ankle still in quite a bit of pain after her parking lot ordeal. This has caused her to take a whole new view of purchasing stock in Advil brand Liquigels (not a paid endorsement), while a previously purchased ankle brace has been utilized daily. The fair maiden has determined that while she has a high tolerance for pain, things are starting to become unbearable, and just the brushing of the bottom of her pants leg over the top of her foot is enough to cause great distress.
After much "hemming and hawing" and threats to "stop being an idiot" by her friends, our lovely maiden finally visits a local urgent care clinic where a kind doctor took one look and proclaimed it as being a "high sprain." He also determined that the young maiden was to be placed within the confines of a chair with wheels in order to be transferred to receive x-rays of her injured limb.
After mere minutes (oh, the wonders of digital, modern medicine!), the nurse returns with a boot-like contraption and crutches to support the fair maiden on her quest through the next 4-6 weeks of life.
Four. To. Six. Weeks.
Day one: After hobbling out to the car and receiving help from the nurse who carried the maiden's now extra winter boot and bag of papers to her car, the fair maiden had to get her prescriptions filled. This only happened after she parked her car, got out, and realized that she was parked right next to the drainage hole for the parking lot. Which, like all drainage holes, had a lid that was lower than the lot because the parking lot has been paved over since it had been set in place. Thus, trying to gimp around on new crutches did not start off well.
Day two: All of the maiden's young pupils are concerned for her safety. Many other young, inquisitive minds inquired as well. Thus, the maiden regaled them with tales of dangerous fights with a massive alligator, who unfortunately, won the brutal battle.
Day three: Even though the maiden is able to remove the boot contraption temporarily, her leg itches horribly! This causes the maiden to believe that it is purely psychological, as her legs almost never itch. And this is happening deep down within the boot, where no man made materials within her possession can reach. (It should be noted that at the time of this writing, the fair maiden came up with an idea to reach that itch halfway down her calf, and just as quickly tried it and failed miserably).
Day four: After dealing with insurance issues (enough to go into a completely different tangent!) the fair maiden managed to track down her primary physician (he had moved since the last time she visited his walk-in clinic) to get an appointment scheduled in order to get an orthopedic follow up that the urgent care doctor recommended.
I recently ran into an old friend while camping who told me I needed to update my blog, which has gotten me motivated to get it going again! (Thanks, T!)
I never intended to stop writing the blog, but unfortunately, life got in the way. That shiesty little sucker....
Grad school and work kept me beyond busy for the rest of the school year. I wasn't making it to the gym as often as I wanted to be (only 1-2 times a week) because I was staying up too late trying to stay on top of all of the homework!
In July I completed the color run. Turns out, the girls that I was doing this with hadn't been doing much training either, so we wound up walking most of the course. It was SO much fun, but it did take me at least three days to get all of the dye out of my hairline and off of my skin! I definitely plan on doing it again next summer, time to start training for next year's color run!
I recently went tent camping for the first time on my own for two nights. I went up to Ludington (my home away from home) and I even managed to get a site in the State Park. The weather was good, it rained a bit my first night, but the weather during the days was absolutely beautiful. My parents also came up to Ludington during that time, but they stayed at a hotel. Chumps.
We went out to the beach the second day. We tried to just lay out up in the dunes, but the black flies would not stop biting our legs! I had several places that I wound up bleeding from because of those stupid little buggers!
After a bit, I decided to go for it and stick my toes in the lake. After running in and out a couple times, and standing next to the water with my dad for about five minutes, I finally decided to go in (almost!) all the way. I wound up going in about waist deep and then dropping down until it got to my shoulders.
That. Water. Was. COLD.
Not just cold, but more like, you-don't-go-completely-under-because-it-will-take-your-breath-away-and-you'll-gasp-for-air-and-instead-take-in-water-and-you'll-wind-up-drowning-because-it's-too-cold-for-someone-to-go-in-and-save-you cold.
It didn't take long for my toes to go numb. I didn't even last 5 minutes before I was losing all feeling in my extremities.
Thankfully the sand and sun were warm!
While coming back from Ludington, I made a stop in Clare at Cops & Doughnuts. Awesome little bakery that I have wanted to go to ever since I first heard about it on the news several years ago. My parents have been there a few times (without me, I might add) but I had yet to go. Decided on this trip that I was finally going to stop in. It is a really neat place, with a neat back story. If you ever get the chance, you definitely need to stop by and pay them a visit!
It is 2 for 1 weekend here at This Bridge Won't Burn! Due to last weekend's MASSIVE assignment, and the way this past week has gone, I am posting for TWO, count 'em, TWO weeks of blogs in one weekend!
You lucky ducks, you...
Ahhh, Monday. You are one day I look forward to least of all. It's not your fault, I don't imagine you asked to be the most loathed day of the week, yet here you are again. I wound up staying up too late on Sunday, watching the Oscars. In all reality, the only reason I stayed up was to watch Idina Menzel perform "Let it Go". Naturally, she wasn't on until well after 11. I participated in many the facebook discussions about the outfits, the winners, the performances, the selfie that broke twitter, and Travolta slaughtering poor Idina's name. Slate.com has created a "Travoltify Your Name" generator. It's kind of awesome.
So naturally, I didn't make my workout on Monday.
I would like to interject what is probably the BEST video I have seen from the red carpet. Kevin Spacey is interviewed by BuzzFeed, and the interviewer asks him the types of questions that the female celebrities are often asked. His responses are hilarious. I will warn you, he does drop the f-bomb twice at the end of the video (it is bleeped out), but it just cracks me up none the less. Probably because of his reaction at the end.
Tuesday came around, trying to make up for Monday's shenanigans. I went to the gym and had a pretty typical day. Nothing too extraordinary happening today. Even though it's Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras, it was a pretty typical day. I've hand a punzcki once, maybe twice in my life. I've never been overly impressed by them, and I can find several other things that I like a lot better that I'd be willing to maw down on to get the calories that I'd get from a punzcki. I figure, if I'm going to eat that many calories in one sitting, it better be something that makes it completely worth it. And I just don't feel that way about punzcki. Met up with my parents for dinner. We had tried to do dinner at the local steakhouse a few weeks ago, but we didn't consider the fact that it was a weekend, and that's the only decent restaurant in town. So we went tonight instead. I wound up getting a burger. I know, I know, who gets a burger at a steakhouse? Apparently this girl!
And then came Wednesday. This isn't just any Wednesday, this one's Ash Wednesday. The kick-off to Lent. I didn't make it to mass, because I finished my dinner after 7, and then thought to look at what time mass started. It started at 7... so I was ash-less this year. I decided this year that I am giving up social media (such as facebook, instagram, twitter, and pinterest [which I know isn't really "social media", but it is so tempting to look at and waste time on!]) and tv. So today started my absence from most technology.
It is HARD!
I actually clicked on both facebook and pinterest in my firefox browser Wednesday night. I exited the browser before the pages could fully load. I listened to probably a good 5 chapters in "Allegiant" before finally going to bed.
Thursday was another morning meeting, so no workout. I had to fight the temptation several times to not check out what was happening on facebook, especially when I was getting the notifications on my phone.
I swear, I NEVER get this many notifications from facebook in one day. I blame you people, who claim to be my friends but are sending me links, and messages, and tagging me in posts. You can't even let me make it two days?! You. Are. Jerks. (but I love you anyways).
Friday, I made it to the gym. Today is parent teacher conference day, so that makes it a short day for the kids, but a l-o-n-g day for us! After I got home, I had some dinner and jumped on the computer to do my discussion homework for school. While I was sitting in the silence, debating curriculum and standardized testing, I kept hearing a noise.
At first, I thought it was my blinds moving a bit. I should have known better.
I quickly realized that I was hearing mice scurrying in the walls of my apartment. I hate hearing them, because I worry that they'll somehow figure out a way into my apartment. These buildings are a bit older, and you never know if everything is as sealed as it should be. I decided the best thing to do was to share my misery, so I turned the volume up on my phone, and recorded a video of my wall so you can hear the mice running around, and I sent it via snapchat to my cousin with a description.
I feel that this was a productive use of 2 minutes of my time.
Saturday I got up and made my workout. Then came back and crashed for a couple of hours. Got around and did some things in the apartment that have needed to be done. Decided to go see Frozen, since it's still playing in Flint. Got cleaned up, dried my hair, and then laid down for a nap for a little bit. Wound up waking up 2 hours later - an hour and a half after my alarm was supposed to go off! Apparently my body decided that I was going to get accustomed to the time change in its own way! Got around and made it to Frozen just as the previews were starting.
**I realize that I am nearly a week behind in posting this blog. I meant to get it last weekend, but with my project for school (read below) I just didn't have time to get to it on Sunday. And throughout the week, I couldn't seem to find a chance or focus before now.**
I have to admit, last week was just an off week for me. I didn't make it to the gym as many times as I would have liked. I don't think I am ever going to get accustomed to 4 AM workouts...
Monday, I wound up sleeping in. I wound up not getting to bed until late on Sunday, so I over slept on Monday. Don't get me wrong, the extra bit of sleep was nice to have, I just wish I had been able to get myself up and moving like I wanted!
Tuesday I was up and at the gym. I'm not sure which is better to walk/run to, my workout mix of songs, or the final book in the Divergent trilogy (Allegiant) on the Audible app on my phone. I've been listening to the book on the days where I don't plan on doing as much running because my ankle is bothering me or whatever. The music I find tends to be a better motivator for the running, because I have fast paced music saved for my workouts. Eventually I'll get around to posting the list of songs. I'm always happy to take suggestions, as my current list gets me through about 2-3 workouts before starting over again.
Wednesday and Thursday were rest days, because I usually have morning meetings. But both of those meetings were cancelled or rescheduled. I still slept in, just for the pure ability to do so. Even though I missed Monday, and I should have used one of them as a make up day!
I had an appointment Friday, so I took the day off from work. I wound up staying up late on Thursday in an attempt to complete my homework, so I could actually have a weekend.
I should have known better.
So I didn't make my workout on Friday, because I slept in. Then I was up late on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to crank through my Capstone A project so that I could submit it on time (on Sunday).
I'm wondering at what point in my academic career I will realize that procrastination is NOT a good idea?!
Some of you know, when I was at Siena, I had a public speaking class. One of the speeches we had to give was a "how to" speech. I spent a lot of time trying to come up with something that would be fresh and fun, because a lot of people had done things like, "How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich" or "How to Tie Your Shoes". These were meant to be easy speeches, but I wanted something that hadn't been done before.
I'm pretty sure you can guess as to where this sucker is going...
At what wasn't quite the last minute, I came up with probably THE MOST brilliant idea ever. I was going to give a speech on how to properly procrastinate. I'm pretty sure that this was literally the best speech I have ever given in my nearly 30 years on this planet. I could give a speech on this topic like a professional. I had a flow chart for my visual (and not just any flowchart, this bad boy had PIZZAZZ); I had a breakdown of the time frame in which everything happens before a large assignment is due; and I even made a point of starting off my speech by putting up my flow chart and then telling the class that I figured it was pretty obvious as to what my speech was about, but I had unfortunately procrastinated so much that the flowchart was the only thing I got done. Among the slightly nervous, maybe even unbelieving laughter of my classmates sat my professor who's jaw practically hit the floor.
Again, I have to say, the best speech I've ever given, because you just can't make that up.
Monday: Had the day off of work, drove down to my parents' house and spent some time with them and my sister. Was going to do dinner with my mom and sister, but the snow really started coming down. I wound up driving back to my place in near white-out conditions. Took back roads instead of the expressway, wound up losing control of my car at one point and started spinning into the oncoming lane.I was able to correct it, but not until I spun back to the right and then to the left one more time before getting my car straightened out!
I discovered last week that the screw driver I purchased to finish building my vanity was the biggest waste of $15 I've ever spent. I'm hoping to be able to take it back to the store and get my money back. My dad gave me his old screwdriver, and I was able to get my vanity finished tonight! Literally took me about 10 minutes to finish up. If only it hadn't taken me a week to get what I needed to finish it up!!
Tuesday I went in and worked out. I've still been taking it easy with the running, just because every once in awhile my ankle will still act up so I haven't been pushing it too hard. I'm hoping to get more of the running in next week! I've been alternating between listening to audio books on my phone and my workout mix on my iPod. I've been listening to the Divergent series, and I'm now on the third book, Allegiant. I really liked Divergent, and Insurgent (the second book) was also really good. So far, Allegiant has promise, although I think everyone I've talked to who has read it hates it. I'm holding off judgement until I finish it, but the way it's written is different, alternating between two main characters narrating. Normally, I don't mind that, but what bothers me is that it's COMPLETELY different from how the first two books were written. It kind of threw me at first, I'm still not 100% sure of how I feel about it.
One thing that I have discovered, listening to these books is that it's definitely not a good idea to listen to them before going to sleep. You also don't want to listen to them before going to bed after watching several episodes of The Walking Dead earlier in the day. Those two things do NOT mix in the sleeping mind!!
Thursday and Friday I didn't make it to the gym. Friday, I woke up and checked out facebook for a few minutes before getting up and getting ready for work. I found out that a teacher I had worked with while subbing in Swartz Creek had passed after being diagnosed with cancer a couple months ago. It absolutely breaks my heart that he has passed, but I take comfort in knowing that he's no longer in pain. He was a good man, and will be missed by all who knew him.
Friday after work I went out with a couple of friends that I used to work with. It was great seeing them and I definitely needed to have some good laughs with friends.
Today, I spent my day working on a final paper for my grad class. I was hoping to get it done early enough to get out and at least go for a short walk since the sun was shining all day. Unfortunately that didn't happen. My paper is nearly done, but I had to take a break on it since I'd been working on it all day. Normally one paper won't take an entire day, but this is the final paper for this class, so it's considerably longer and more in-depth. I'm planning on getting up pretty early tomorrow to get it done so that I can start working on my Capstone project - which is due soon. Right now grad school is pretty stressful, because my new class starts on Monday, so I'll have a couple of papers due next week as well. It's kind of frustrating having so many big things due within a short time span (final paper for one class, Capstone project, and two papers for my new class). I would have liked it if they would have put the Capstone part way through the second class so that it wasn't coming at the same time as several other things.
I have no social life. Grad school is my social life!
Well, this week has been fairly uneventful. My workouts were pretty routine, I thought by this point that 4 a.m. would be a bit easier to get up and get moving to. It's not.
I don't think anything will make me a morning person. No matter how hard I try, I just feel that 4 in the morning is a time that should not exist.
Ever.
Those of you that are morning people, I have a lot of respect for you! I don't know how you do it!
This weekend we had a 4 day weekend. It has been a beautiful thing! I had my unit plan and a paper due for class yesterday, so that took up a lot of my weekend. It was nice getting an extra day to work on it on Friday!
Here's a sneak peek of next weekend's blog: the vanity is done! :o) I'll wait to post pictures until next week.
