Exercising disasters.

I've had a few in my life and I've been meaning to document them for some time. And, so, here they are in chronological order.

This first occasion happened probably after my junior year of college. I believe it was spring and I was back from BYU. So, I'm running in my neighborhood and am feeling anxious to the point of complete desperation. I have to use the bathroom so badly. I probably hadn't been running consistently and my body wasn't liking it. I'm nowhere near my home and absolutely have to get on a toilet. The only home I can think of to stop is the Scalia's. So, it's Saturday morning and I knock on their door. Of note is the fact that I haven't seen or talked to Meg since Senior year of high school, and even that year or all of high school we didn't talk a ton. Though, of course I did grow up with her, and our parents somewhat keep tabs on each other. So, there I am knocking on the door, and who answers it? You guessed it. Justice Antonin Scalia in his bathrobe. He doesn't know who I am, of course, and I try and mumble out some sort of explanation. His wife appears behind him, recognizes me, and ushers me in. So, I rush to use the restroom. Luckily, I'm ushered to the restroom off the kitchen on the main floor, and not the restroom off the Justice's office, which we frequently used when I was over playing. It was an incredibly embarrassing experience needless to say, and of course the duration of my stay in the bathroom was not short. It was nice Meg happened to be home from Amherst, so I could catch up with her a bit, and not feel so much like a complete idiot.

Has anybody ever fallen off a treadmill? I have. It happened about 4 years ago. I was running at the gym and I think I wasn't feeling well and tired, but I was forcing myself to do it anyways. Is that common in marriage? So, when I fell/tripped, I was pushed back and rammed into the wall which is right behind the treadmill. The gym where I worked out, while anybody can work out in independently, is used mostly for sessions with personal trainers. All the trainers came a running, because when I hit the wall it was loud. I was very embarrassed needless to say; however, I don't think I realized that it's an uncommon thing. People don't just fall off of treadmills. I kind of thought they were overreacting. I totally got a burn on my thigh because of it though, and I think I even still have a scar. Of course, I got back on the treadmill after it happened. Can't get deterred from my workout!

I am a good rollarbladder and I love it; however, I've had some scary situations surrounding this activity. I really just need to be safe and actually wear some protective gear, but of course I don't. About 2 years ago, it was right after Christmas and I was home for winter break from Vegas. I went rollarblading in the neighborhood. They were new rollarblades and I was trying them out on my regular route, which includes the very steep hill in front of the Scalia's home. Since they were new rollarblades I was being extra cautious at the top of the hill. I remember thinking as I proceeded down that they felt just fine and not much different than my old pair. I let off the brake a little bit. Bad idea. I got going too fast, and totally fell hard, and skidded. It's not too often that a grown person will feel fear, but I remember as I fell I was scared because I knew it was going to be bad, and I had been training hard for a 1/2 marathon, which I was scheduled to run in less than a week in Phoenix. It was, but not as bad as I thought. I immediately pulled apart my already torn pants to reveal a very badly scraped knee. It hurt for a week or more, but I still was able to run the marathon. I even got myself home somehow immediately after.

I've had another near death (this more recent one, I really thought it approached death) experience with rollarblading. I went down a different hill in our neighborhood (the one leading to the Johnson's) and was holding my legs steady, was applying the brake, but was still going too fast; so I thought I'd start to transfer my weight between legs, so I was actually skating. Bad idea. I was able to hold in my core though, and I didn't die. I feared for my life though. There's nowhere to rollarblade here that is easily accessible. I miss Vegas. Vegas neighborhoods are all new and don't have hills. There are just gradual inclines, so you get your uphill workout in.

This last experience doesn't involve me, but I'm going to share it, and I don't think the person will mind too much. So, I hear about this from a family friend who I actually stay with when I am in Phoenix for my 1/2 marathon. She tells me how she ALWAYS has a really difficult time with needing to use the bathroom when she runs. I didn't understand the severity until she explains what happened the last time she ran a marathon. What's funny to me is that this doesn't make her not run. She continues to do it, because she's just that kind of amazing person, who won't let little things get in the way of being happy and accomplishing amazing things. So, she's in the last 5 (?) miles of her marathon and she starts needing a restroom desperately. I ask her what she does and assume she'll say she had to stop at a portable. No. She doesn't. Does she stop running and walk the rest of the way? No. She keeps running! She had trained so hard, and she doesn't want to influence her time! And the story goes like this...Probably at about the last mile she just can't hold it anymore and she just goes. It's coming. She's running. It's still coming. She crosses the finish line. It's still coming. We aren't talking pee people. Her husband and kids meet her at the finish line. It's running down her legs. Her husband takes one look at her and takes her heat absorbsion thing and she finds a restroom. I couldn't believe the story. What a woman!

On another occasion I went rollarbladding in the middle of the day in late August in Vegas. I thought it had been getting a little cooler at that point in the summer! It wasn't. I think I nearly died of heat stroke. I don't think I've ever felt so sick in my life. I was alone, in the middle of new roads with construction, which were the most western roads in the valley. Almost no cars were passing, and the cars that did, didn't seem to think a girl sitting on the side of the road could be dying.

And that's it. Not incredibly exciting, but maybe they were entertaining. My workouts these days are including the treadmill (I've just been walking at a 4.5 on a 3.0 incline for 30 minutes), the elliptical for 30 minutes, push-ups, sit-ups, stretching, yoga twice a week, runs down to the river on some days, and some independent cross-training. I somewhat miss my classes at 24-hour, but doing it on your own works fine too.

Cutest girl in the world?


I think so.

An update.

I miss blogging. The bottom line is just that I have nothing to blog about. I take that back. I actually have a pretty good list, but the topics require effort to put together, and I just haven't felt like putting forth any. I also (as you know) am not a picture taker, and reading blogs without pictures is just not entertaining (I've been told by some). Though, I think I prefer blogs with few pictures.

So, an update is in order. My thesis has passed! I am officially DONE with my master's degree and have an M. Ed. (master's in education) with a reading emphasis. I enjoyed my program, particularly the educational psychology classes, my final educational research class, and my curriculum development course (the one where I wrote the bulk of my thesis).

I'm so glad to be done and realize though I may go back to school at some point, I am absolutely done for the time being.

I'm living in D.C. and feel really good about it for the time being. It's great to be near my sister and her family. When they moved back from London (a year ago now) they bought a home in McLean (near Chesterbrook). It's fun to be able to stop by and see them whenever I want, and read the kids a story before bed, and hang out. I just may have been the happiest I've been in a long time a couple days ago when reading a book with Juliette lying on one side of me and Sam on the other. Little Sam kept cuddling closer and closer to me as I was reading. Love him.

The other night my sister was venting to me about some family stuff. Nothing that big, but I'll admit, I liked it. My sister and I have always had a okay/good relationship, but I've never felt like we've been particularly friends. She's five years older than I, got married right when she got back from her mission, had her first baby right after graduating from college, had 4 kids quickly. We've just always (and still are) been in very different stages of our lives, and she's been really busy with her family. As I've mentioned before (I think), it's hard to be left alone at the end of a family; when everybody else has moved on and formed their own families and the family of origin (to a great extent) has been dispersed. I don't like it and don't think it's okay for this to happen, but I guess I realize the necessity of it. So, my sister says to me that she doesn't think we (us siblings) do a very good job communicating with one another. This was said because we're trying to figure out plans for a family reunion (of sorts) in August, and I guess plane tickets were bought and now there's some question as to how committed everyone is to it. And my sister is frustrated because it's her family who went ahead and bought tickets. The thing that's, of course, funny about this, is that I'm not involved. Because who am I? I'm just a sole person who really bears no significance on the whole time and place of the family reunion. Last year, after all, I was completely omitted from the family reuion. It's okay. I could handle it. Though, I think I did cry about it at one point. Basically, my family had a family reunion without me. I had to teach through the summer, and I guess there was only one time to do it; so they did it without me.

I apologize for the rambling. But, I guess my point is this. I agree with Steph. We don't communicate with each other as much as we should, but I really love my siblings, and feel really blessed to be related to them, because they are all amazing people. And I actually feel really close to them right now. Spence and I have always been close, though of course, I've been frustrated with him many a time. And I'm glad to be living near Steph and becoming closer with her. It's not like we ever talked on the phone when I was at school. That was both of our faults. We probably just aren't great phone talkers (to each other at least).

And the last thing of import for my update is the following...I'm okay with not living in New York. I've decided that people in NYC maybe try too hard to be cool and trendy/"hipster." And I'm just not okay with that.