A Hard Day's Night

A summary of the work week from hell:

Sunday - 10 hrs
Monday - 10 hrs
Tuesday - 18 hrs (look at that! I worked a whole "week" in one day!)
Wednesday - 10 hrs
Thursday - a normal 8 hours

And, I'm only part time. But no, it was a great experience, and due to a turn of events, our project will continue for a few weeks. I learned a lot; I had a running list of things that I wanted to write about in head but I think it's disappeared due to lack of sleep.

I have never worked so hard at a job before... or for so long. I discovered my prison bitch name (Bruce); we watched boohbah on the cove wall (thanks to a dooce entry I sent to will); I discovered that boys will not read, even when told when and where to do so; I really don't like complainer moochers (this we already knew); Elise's chiming clock SUCKS (it's reallly long and I definitely remember the 4 am chime but not the 3, 5 or 6am ones); I probably have eaten enough junk and crap the past week to ruin any working out I have done in my life ever; my stomach does not handle a lot of coffee well; I ATE LUNCH WITH AN ASTRONAUT!!!! (Don Pettit), Space is kinda cool, but NASA still sucks (organizationally, anyway); being at work for 18 hours straight makes me very giggly; I can understand why people say "I need a beer" at the end of a hard day; and the list goes on...

One great thing that happened was that I was getting the usual questionare from Doc regarding grad school and Dr. Kirby walked up and began singing my praises. That made my day! Hopefully that was my ticket into the program, because I'm really enjoying the experience.

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on all of this as my brain begins to turn back on (which it will do hopefully before my mse take home test is due tomorrow).

The Tip of the Iceberg

I worked today. On a Sunday. From 9-5. And that's only the beginning. Hopefully I will be superly organized and productive this next week.... because I have no other option. Dr. Kirby has already written emails to have me excused from class Tuesday-Thursday.

So... this week
Monday: @work at 830am. Lcc 920-1030. Work like a mad woman. THEY (NASA) arrive at 3pm. Hopefully home by 7 for a bike ride.

Tuesday: @work at 7am. Work like a mad woman... until Wednesday?

Wednesday: @work.... sometime... all day? Hopefully won't work too late

Thursday: @work... probably a somewhat late night... at some point must do my MSE test

Friday: DAY OFF!!

I guess it's good that John L. is out of town because now I'm not tempted to stay up til 3am chatting with him. Will told me that he doesn't want to hear of any "not-sleeping" this week. I guess I agree. I'm sad that it'll be such a crazy week because that means all sort of unhealthy things... lack of sleep, bad food, tons of caffeine, no time for workouts.

However, Friday I am planning on going on that elusive 60 mile ride that I've been attempting for weeks. :-p

As Michelle says... Tag, I'm it.

My Fortune

From Dinner tonight...

"The person you are thinking of is also thinking of you."

Hmm....

Oh...

"This is the start of something good, don't you agree?"

~Gavin DeGraw

Let the madness begin!

Well, this is the start of the craziness at work. I feel so behind already. I need to hurry and learn my techs tonight. Tomorrow hopefully won't be too late, but after Sunday I'll basically be out of commission for a few days.

On top of the work thing, I have an lcc paper due monday and an MSE take-home test to do sometime this week. Hopefully I'll get the MSE test done by Monday morning cause after that I won't even be going to class. :-p

When I got home today I was very motivated to get my work done, but now it has left and I'm back in a funk. I understand my funk... but I don't want to be in it. My new cycling friend said something very wise today...

"Life is Completely Random yet Everything Happens for a Reason"

So... is my situation random? Did I not put myself in it and keep pushing it? I did enter into it with the best intentions, and now I am confused. I never thought that I could be having thoughts like these. Perhaps nothing is really going on and I've just surprised myself by even thinking the things I have been...

At the same time, half of the things are completely irrational. Could be that this "situation" doesn't even exist. And I must be crazy. Maybe this is another character test... haven't I grown enough this year already?!?!

Now that I've completely confused everyone... time to be productive!

The Best Ride Ever!

Well, definitely top 3 anyway. Today I met up with a new guy from Tech to ride around Dunwoody. We started doing one of the loops that I usually do. And then we kept going... and going... until 2 hours later we had covered 26 miles of hilly terrain. I'm not sure about him, but that's the longest hilly ride I've ever done.

I had such a great time. I didn't realize what a difference good company makes! He's a really cool guy and I'm looking forward to doing some more riding with him. Bad thing is I am definitely slower than him... and will be even more so (or... he will be much faster) when he gets his nice bike. What is it with boys getting nice bikes and leaving me behind? :-p

I realized how much I love meeting and getting to know new people. Maybe it's from the absence of so many people (summer, graduation, other reasons). But, as usual, when I meet new people I get superly excited about them. Let's hope this time things go better than some others. :-p

Anyway, that bike ride came just in time. After all the trouble I've been having, a super fun day was exactly what I needed. Amazing how what we need is always there, huh? :-)

Confusion/Weirdness

I have no idea where the fascination comes from or why I am so intrigued. This has happened twice before... except for some reason this time it's different. But, my thoughts are completely illogical...

Who knows, maybe I'm just at the bottom of one of those "waves" that they talk about in Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus (yep, another self-help book. it was very useful during the breakups).

I can't really elaborate because 1)I'm not really sure if I understand it myself, 2) I don't want people who I care about who read this to get the wrong idea and 3) I don't want the people who read this who I don't trust to know details about my life.

I guess time will tell...

There has also been weirdness on my bike. Today's ride was infinitely better than the past two but I am still not completely comfortable. I hate that next week will be really busy at work... that means I won't get to ride every day. Not that I do right now anyway... :-p But next week I won't even have the option.

(Chiropractic) Healing

I took the week off from my bike because of my back. Tuesday I was riding and my right side started to cramp up so badly that I had to come home earlier than I planned. Yesterday I visited the chiropractor. It was a different experience than my previous with chiropractic care. My last chiropractor was extremely expensive, never saw the end of care, and believed that an adjustment could fix everything (to the point that her daughter had a stroke and is now disabled due to lack of medical care).

Yesterday I went to Regina's chiropractor. She had told me that it was a different experience. I told him what had been bothering me, got on the table and he started to "assess" what was going on. He would tell me to resist him, then ask me a question or tell me to think of something, then repeat the resisting thing. The connection between mental and physical is amazing. When I was weak about something, he would tell me to close my eyes, look to a side, breathe out, and think of something weird like "love plus 10." I'm not sure if I really understood, but it made me able to resist him. Anyway, he adjusted my neck, my right shoulder and the right side of my back. I guess I'll see tomorrow on the bike how it feels.

He said I had been under pro-longed stress. No, really? And I realized that I have a lot of frustration associated with the past and with my injuries/health. I realized throughout the rest of the day how much I have held in and how much resentment goes along with it. I guess I need to work on that. Maybe I should look into therapy. I'm going back next Saturday... at least he can help me with my back.

I really liked that he believes strongly the connection between mental and physical health. He also spoke of excercise and eating/living a healthy lifestyle. I completely agree.

I'm excited about being able to work out this week. I am currently icing my right leg, which has also been bothering me for the past few weeks. I'm not sure how I managed to get shin splints... one of the reasons I love cycling is that it is low impact!

This weekend was good. Dr. Kirby sent us all home early Friday. I'm anticipating a superly busy next few weeks. Will and I went swimming, then out to dinner. Saturday we went to the pool also and today I played outside for a long time with Alden and Kaya. I love being outside.

Here's hoping I have a new cycling buddy soon!

A few of my favorite things...

My favorite kids


My favorite guy...


My favorite cyclists...

Frustration

Saturday was by far the worst bike ride I have ever been on. I don't mind a strenous or challenging ride. Those are not the things that make a ride bad. I have been have problems with my shoes recently and just overall comfort on my bike and Saturday was just awful. I was really disappointed because it was warm and rainy and I love riding in the rain. Will tried to help me assess my form and guided me through some pedaling drills but that didn't provide any answers to my right foot problem. Then, he made a comment about how my seat was positioned. I changed it and haven't been comfortable since.

I hate being so frustrated with it because I really do enjoy riding. I discovered that it is my quiet time. My time to myself when no one else is around and I can be immersed in my thoughts... or not, depending on how I feel (except when I'm riding with Will... in which case it's an enjoy the view sort of ride).

I have a list of ideas as to what is going on, so hopefully I will get to the bottom of things soon. I hope that the discomfort doesn't deter me from my "stepping it up" goals.

Today's ride was cut short by cramping in my back. Saturday's visit to the Chiropractor won't arrive soon enough.

Making a Difference

God's timing is always interesting... sometimes funny, sometimes not. Today Will broke his bike (the frame). Interesting after our weekend trip to the bike store and my trying to convince him to consider buying a new bike. Apparently God agrees with me :-p

Now for the deep stuff...

Perhaps it comes from my background, but I have always, always been really sensitive about poverty around the world and contributing to society (by either donating time, money or both). As compared to the life I would have led in Brazil, I am extremely extremely blessed. It's very easy to forget that. Now, I always have this soft spot because those are my roots. Many people rarely ever see outside the United States, and if they do get to travel it is often to first world countries. I remember how affected I was upon returning from my mission trip in Jamaica. The feelings are difficult. They can range from guilt to confusion (why was I fortunate enough to be born where I was) to even anger (why aren't we doing more).

Tonight I was watching Primetime Live on Brad Pitt with my mom. He spoke of his travels to Africa and all the problems there ( Aids epidemic, lack of food and education, lack of medicine). As the richest nation in the world, the United States is one of the stingiest donators. And, frankly, there is no excuse for that. The campaign he is supporting is trying to change the state of Africa within our lifetimes. I feel there is no excuse not to.

It seems so daunting. There are so many causes... from aids to cancer to poverty to rebel fighters in countries across the world to women who still don't have rights to saving the environment. How do you choose one? How do you know you'll make a difference? How can one person make a significant difference? Sure I donate my blood. Sure I raised some money for Ovarian Cancer. Sure I donated my time to orphans in Jamaica. Those deeds are barely the tip of the iceberg.

What makes me so sad is that so many people (and so many politicians) choose to ignore what is going on in the world. Who cares if you ruin a wildlife reserve? Who cares if we don't donate more, the US isn't responsible for the rest of the world, we have our own problems here.

I wish I could reach all those people somehow and give them perspective. The government here, though not without its (increasing) amount of problems, doesn't persecute you. You have food and a place to sleep. Many of us have educations. And our families. A good chance at survival. Safety, security, comfort. Here, people have the luxury of not taking their prescribed medicines. Other places, they struggle all their lives for a teaspoonful of cough syrup. We complain about gas prices and commute times. I wish everyone would just band together to make a difference. I know it is difficult to choose where to start but the point is to start.

A Selfish Thought

This week is the blood drive at Tech. I like to donate as frequently as possible, but this time I've decided not to (shocking, I know!) The reason is because donating takes me out of the working out loop for awhile or keeps me from doing any vigorous excercise. This time I've decided to make excercising my priority and skip the drive. Is that really selfish? With a 60 mile ride planned for Sunday, I don't think I can afford to be missing any blood.

In other news the bond on one of my broken teeth fell off yesterday while I was brushing my teeth (and I wasn't even brushing that particular tooth at the time!) That makes me really irritated. My appointment with the dentist is next Thursday, but hopefully I can go sooner.

So Atlanta seems to have settled into the pattern of afternoon thunderstorms that I remember from every time I had a 4-6pm flight schedule (J. Scott argued that no such thing exists, but I guess this week proves me right). Which kinda stinks, because it makes riding difficult (riding in the rain = lots of fun; riding in hail = i don't even want to try it). So, I'm waiting for the current storm to clear out a little so I can go out.

Yesterday I stayed on campus after work. The plan was for Will to fix my bike and then we would go to the Silver Comet so he could check my form (I am having serious trouble with my right shoe :-p) Well, it took longer to fix than we thought (although, it's back to shifting how it was before but we've determined that there is a fundamental problem with my left shifter) and then there was a huge storm over the silver comet, so it ended up being a rest day for both of us. I like those.

Ok, it's just about stopped thundering so off I go!

Ah the Weekend

Shortly after I wrote my last post I went downstairs where I found a fortune that someone had left out from our Chinese food. It says "Education is a process of living, not a preparation for future living." Hmmm. I think someone is trying to tell me something.

Fortunately the rain stopped this weekend. That was exciting. Friday I was going to go to work for just a little bit after which I would head out for my afternoon of children, but I woke up so tired that I imed Mike (my carpool buddy) and asked if I could bail (turns out he was excited... he wanted to go back to sleep. My body just said no that morning (I try to be good about listening to it). My allergies/sinusitis had been acting up all week so I took majorly strong medicine the night before, PLUS I was recovering from a pretty difficult workout (my toughest workout day) so I decided a little extra sleep would be a good idea. No kidding! I slept for another 3 hours :-p

I cleaned a little then headed out to take Riley swimming. The weather was bad, of course, so we ended up hanging out here at my house for a little (she was fascinated with all the cats and by blowing bubbles). She scared me though... she didn't wait like I asked her to and took a fall off the top step outside... I thought I was going to have to make a trip to the hospital! Fortunately she was ok.

Alden and Kaya came over afterward. I played with them outside, fed the dinner, gave them a bath and stuck them in bed to watch Pirates of the Caribbean with my dad. Afterwards Will and I went out to dinner and came back for a long night's sleep.

Saturday was messed up. First we went to go play at the new Performance Bike store that opened in Dunwoody. I convinced will to try one of the carbon bikes they had in stock to see if it was all that he thought it would be (it was). Hopefully I will be able to convince him to get one soon. But, it was fun to play at the bike store for awhile. I was looking forward to going to Locomotion in the Garden
with him after his Engine Design stuff but he got held up with it. So, I hung out with John for a little, then we went out to dinner. Then was the fun part! We met up with Alex and Brian at Startime in Roswell and played for a few hours! We played Mini Golf and basketball and other games. Good times.

This morning Will and I got up at the butt crack of dawn to go to the Silver Comet. We rode for about 3 hours then came back here and spent the rest of the day napping and playing with the kids (pictures also to come sometime). Now I have to somehow motivate myself to do my MSE take home test.

The point of recapping everything was to say... that weekends are so much better than weekdays. But, Will says we wouldn't know hot if we didn't have cold to compare it with, which I think is a good point. I had a lot of fun with him this weekend. We talked about a lot of stuff. We revisited some of the events from this past semester and we also talked politics. It was fun :-) I especially enjoyed playing in the bike store. And riding. Oh well, here comes another week... my goal for this week: ride my bike a lot! (even though my shoes suck!)