Saturday Ramblings

The initial results from my EMG look good. Both the "zapper" technician and the "jab me with a needle" technician said everything looked good, but I have a follow-up appointment with the doctor on Thursday. My running coach suggested eating more leafy greens because maybe it's because I'm low on magnesium. I figured what the heck, eating more spinach can't hurt so I made spinach and artichoke heart stuffed calzone for lunch today (which was super delish) and a spinach steak salad with a side of my infamous stir-fry broccoli for dinner. My body is probably saying right now, "Woah! What's up with this healthy stuff?" I found out that my dog likes broccoli too. I gave him a piece that I was chopping and he scarfed it down so I gave him all the broccoli bottoms that I wasn't going to use. He loves carrots, apples, peaches, pears, and now broccoli.

I "ran" this morning. We did a test run of the course for our race on the 19th and I ended up walking most of the last half. The heat and humidity kicked my butt and I also got lost because my group ran ahead (not that I blame them at all) and the rest of the slower runners didn't catch up to me. I finally found a lady running the first part of the loop the other way and she gave me her map so I could find my way to the finish line. I am so frustrated that I couldn't run 3.2 miles since I just did 4 miles a couple of weeks ago. My race is in two weeks. This is not good. I'm getting up early tomorrow morning to run 20 minutes just to get back into gear. I also haven't been able to run regularly between working late hours and volleyball on Thursdays. So, I'm just gonna have to suck it up and get used to the heat/humidity and keep plugging away. I do NOT want to walk on race day. Plus, I'm planning on jumping into the 8k program and I won't be able to do that race if I can't finish a 5k.

Bzzzzzzt!

Tomorrow's the 'big' day - my EMG. I kind of forgot all about it and remembered on my way out the door from work that I'll be in late tomorrow. At least my manager remembered! I've been so busy between Memorial day plans and working that I haven't had time to think about it let alone be nervous, which is a good thing. I have bigger things to think about tomorrow, like whether I'll actually get my proposal printed before 11pm. That would be nice.

We had a nice weekend in Ocean City for Memorial Day. We took off Friday (well, except for some pesky work stuff I had to deal with at home before we left) and headed over to Amber's house (Mike's co-worker) in Kent Island for a crab feast and BBQ. She knows how to throw a full-on party and it was a lot of fun, which was exactly what I needed. Mike went out on her husband's boat with a couple of other guys to go pick up a part for the boat and they ran out of gas. They made it back after bumming gas from someone. I think they managed to float over to someone's dock and beg. There aren't too many women who would jump on a boat without first checking to make sure they had gas, but I digress.

The OPA speedboat races were in town, which we didn't know ahead of time, so I got to see my first high-speed boat race. Wish I could say I actually saw it, but since it's out on the water it's hard to see the whole thing. I saw a bunch of cool boats go by really fast followed by a bunch of helicopters filming the whole thing. I would love to be on one of those things just to see how fast they go. That would be amazing.

We heard a great band at Sunset Marina Sunday night. They mostly played "chick" band stuff like Melissa Etheridge, Janis Joplin, Go Go's, Alanis, and more. Really good band right on the water overlooking the marina and all the big expensive yachts.

Family

My cousin, Hunter, was injured in a dirt bike accident on Sunday. He fractured his C7 vertebrae (the neck area), broke his ribs, and bruised his lungs. He is most certainly lucky to be alive. He has feeling in his legs and arms so thank God he is not paralyzed. I'm thinking about him, his wife, and his two young kids. I talked to Gina, his sister, this morning and she thinks he might be able to come home on Thursday. I am so relieved. It's so hard being this far from him. He's in Texas - like the majority of my cousins - and I can't go see him. However, Mike's going down next week on business so I may ask him to go visit in my place. What's also rough is Gina's going to Vegas this weekend for her son's birthday so she's stressing about getting ready for the trip and Hunter.

Saturday Run

I made it - four miles, baby! I haven't run in at least 2 weeks so I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to keep up, but I did. I walked a couple of times, but I kept up with the group (until the last bit). I had some minor issues: my back's been bothering me and my new water belt kept jiggling around until I moved it to the back and cinched it up. It started raining just as we started to run and apparently some of the ladies in the other groups left - wimps. We are runners: we run in rain, snow, wind, heat, and whatever else mother nature throws at us! Luckily, it stopped raining somewhere along the way and the temperature stayed cool. It turned out to be a perfect running day.

After Prom was last night (at my HS) so I helped out for a couple of hours. Blair and I were nominated to get ice so we found ice machines in the locker rooms. We both commented on being in the locker rooms - I'd never been in a boy's locker room before (must say, the girl's locker room smelled better!) The best part was finding the ice machine in the boy's bathroom, next to the urinals. Ewww - that is just not right! My favorite part about After Prom is seeing how little has changed at my HS since I graduated. It's like taking a trip back in time with the hideous gold and green paint all over the place. After we got all the ice back inside the gym and the soda station ready to go, I left around 12:30am so I could get up get up for my run today.

Electric Avenue

Today I saw a neurologist in an attempt to figure out why I wake up at night with cramps in my calves and feet. He thinks it might be related to my back problems (from nearly 5 years ago) so he ordered up an MRI (Monday) and an EMG (June 3). He explained the EMG as a test where they will strap a bunch of electrodes to my leg and zap me with volts of electricity. Part two involves sticking a bunch of needles in my legs. FUN. Mike volunteered to give me the test just so he could zap me. I may have to take my last ativan to get through it!

Calm after the Storm

If you haven't seen me around much in the last few weeks, it's because I've been working like a dog. I haven't run, played volleyball, worked out...nada. My proposal was delivered on Tuesday (with a WHOLE bunch of issues. Try burning a CD with the cost volume in a parking lot. FUN). Anyway, I worked out yesterday with Ludmilla, my trainer. We focused on stretching (which I so "sorely" needed-HA!) but I also lifted some weights - chest press, squats, dead lifts, and more just to get me back into working out again. I play volleyball tonight and hopefully we won't have any issues (I was ready to put a beat-down on my captain last time I played!) I'm supposed to run tonight, but I'll do that tomorrow so I don't wear myself out before vball - but I'll be running on Saturday for sure.

I have an appointment with a neurologist tomorrow to hopefully help me figure out why I keep getting nasty charlie horses in my calves and foot cramps. I think one of the nasty chemo drugs (vincristine is my bet) left some lingering damage and I just want to know what is going on. It's worse when it's cold outside, but I have a feeling that's what caused me to tear my calf muscle last fall. My calf cramped up all the way home from work, I went straight to volleyball without warming up or stretching, and WHAM! tore my calf muscle. I have charlie horses several times a night that just wake me up out of a dead sleep. Last time I was at NIH, my electrolytes and potassium counts were normal -which is what everyone says. I just hope I found out something tomorrow.

Today I drove to Annapolis to renew our boat registration...only to find out that we had already renewed it and it wasn't expired. At least it's finally gorgeous weather here - 80 degrees and sunny! I picked up new stickers for the boat so now we are all set to take it out. Except it's Mike's turn to work like a dog. Anyone know how to hook up a boat to the truck and haul it to the Potomac? ;)

Running with My Peeps

After a long couple of days at work, it was nice to hit the trail and go running with my "girls" in my running group. We ran for 35 minutes and with the heat and humidity, it was difficult at times to remain motivated but I stuck with it and I'm so glad I did. It's only going to get more hot and more humid as the days go on, so I need to suck it up now and deal! My running coach broke up with her boyfriend over the weekend so we heard all the juicy details during the run, which helped distract me. I'm having a good time running with some women who are 10 or more years younger than me...and I'm keeping up just fine!

This weekend is Mother's Day and I've already started "sending" out the invites to my family for a BBQ over here. We didn't communicate very well over Easter and some people didn't know we had moved our plans from PF Changs to Carrabbas. I felt bad and decided that we'll just have everyone over here. We did a trial-run last weekend by having our friends, Andy, SK, and Casey over for bacon and cheese-stuffed burgers and dogs so we'll probably stick with the same tried-and-true menu. Last weekend was supposed to be our inaugural run with the boat, but we realized too late that the boat registration had expired in December so until we get that taken care of, there will be no boat rides on the Potomac.