my ankle still doesn't feel quite right from the injury (if you can call it that) i got on my birthday back in july. its still bigger than my other ankle and when i stretch it a certain way it hurts. so i decided that it was time to go get it checked out.
now, i know its monday morning and that lines and/or call wait times at doctors' offices are long so i went into my call to the doctor expecting to wait. i got a busy signal for a good 20 minutes or so and the answering service finally picked up and put me on hold. eventually (20-30 minutes) i got to talk to a human who informed me that she couldn't make an appointment for me until i talked to a nurse, so she transferred me and i waited some more until the i was on hold so long the doctor's line kicked me off. i called back and got on hold again.
by the time a nurse actually answered the phone, i had been on hold for a total of 75 minutes in addition to the 20-30 it initially took me to get into the machine answered part of the system. my conversation with the nurse lasted less than 5 minutes and that included her looking to see what appointments my doctor had available. i know that one has to be patient, but putting a patient on hold for 75 minutes just to get an appointment seems a tad excessive. oh monday.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Namaskar Y'all
the title was the greeting in an email sent out to the ut yoga club list today. oh texas.
this weekend is off to a fantastically unproductive start, and it doesn't look like its going to be getting better anytime soon. last night i headed down to san antonio for church fun at the temple. afterwards we went out to eat at a restaurant called bj's which had a draught rootbeer made with cane sugar...it was awesome. eventually the waiter just started bringing pitchers to the table. yum!
tonight is the fall german haus party. we just got back from shopping at buffalo exchange for fun party outfits. last fall several of us were decked out in little black dresses, but this fall is going to be a lot more casual. pictures from the shenanigans will be up tomorrow.
this weekend is off to a fantastically unproductive start, and it doesn't look like its going to be getting better anytime soon. last night i headed down to san antonio for church fun at the temple. afterwards we went out to eat at a restaurant called bj's which had a draught rootbeer made with cane sugar...it was awesome. eventually the waiter just started bringing pitchers to the table. yum!
tonight is the fall german haus party. we just got back from shopping at buffalo exchange for fun party outfits. last fall several of us were decked out in little black dresses, but this fall is going to be a lot more casual. pictures from the shenanigans will be up tomorrow.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
hello autumn
it has been a very busy last week and a half. i got the next draft of my dissertation proposal turned in, watched football, did a problem set, had church fun, gave a talk on my dissertation proposal, got the reviewer comments back on paper, baked an apple pie, visited my friends michelle and michael in the hospital and met leah madison garel, officially the youngest and smallest person i have ever met (5lbs. 150z., she was 24 hours old when i was holding her...congrats michelle and michael!). i've been swimming, biking and running, and on monday jack (my housemate who came to leadville with me) and i started p90x. my body is sore and tired, but my ability to focus is better than it has been in a long while. life is pretty amazing.
as you may or may not have remembered, yesterday was the fall equinox, meaning that the days and nights were the same length. it was also the first day of fall, and that was pretty evident in the temperatures here in austin. it felt like someone had turned on the "fall" switch because it was cold and rainy all day in contrast to the sun and warmth we'd had the day prior. today, i put on a long sleeve shirt AND my rain jacket over my tshirt to walk to my office, and i wasn't even sweating.
i heard a talk two sundays ago about how much we as a society use electronic media. at the end of the talk the speaker challenged us to see if we could "go without" for seven days. i knew i had to check my email for work, but i figured i could still see what i could do. i turned the music off. i turned the instant messenger off in gmail and facebook. i stopped checking my email (and facebook) as frequently. i stopped surfing the internet as frequently. and you know, a funny thing happened. i started being more productive. i felt like i could concentrate more. i felt like i had more time to get stuff done. i think i'm going to keep trying this experiment for a bit.
as you may or may not have remembered, yesterday was the fall equinox, meaning that the days and nights were the same length. it was also the first day of fall, and that was pretty evident in the temperatures here in austin. it felt like someone had turned on the "fall" switch because it was cold and rainy all day in contrast to the sun and warmth we'd had the day prior. today, i put on a long sleeve shirt AND my rain jacket over my tshirt to walk to my office, and i wasn't even sweating.
i heard a talk two sundays ago about how much we as a society use electronic media. at the end of the talk the speaker challenged us to see if we could "go without" for seven days. i knew i had to check my email for work, but i figured i could still see what i could do. i turned the music off. i turned the instant messenger off in gmail and facebook. i stopped checking my email (and facebook) as frequently. i stopped surfing the internet as frequently. and you know, a funny thing happened. i started being more productive. i felt like i could concentrate more. i felt like i had more time to get stuff done. i think i'm going to keep trying this experiment for a bit.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
the d-haus rat
i was making bread this morning (domestic, i know, but delicious!), when my housemate hilda informs my other housemate johannes not to step out of the kitchen because there's a large roach. instead of killing it, she lets it run into the kitchen. johannes watches the thing start to scurry across the kitchen but makes no move to kill it, so i walk over and smack the thing a few times with my handy rubbah slippah (locals, of course) until its rather dead.
in spring of 2009, my housemates and i noticed that we had acquired a new member to our coop. he wasn't voted in and honestly, no one wanted him there. but he just wouldn't go away. we named him reggie. he was our house rat (he might have been a mouse, but i digress).
we weren't very nice to reggie. we tried to kill him using a variety of different methods. eventually, reggie did die though. someone buried him in the back yard. i'm sure some nice things were said at the funeral, but i didn't attend, so i can't say for sure.
well, apparently reggie had a girlfriend. she has recently started frequenting our kitchen, and i must say, she is rather bold. she bolts across along the wall between the refrigerators allowing house members to see her regularly. we haven't been very nice to her either. in fact, we're trying our darnedest to kill her too.
i was sitting in the tv room working on my dissertation proposal this afternoon (actually making progress!) when katherine pokes her head in and informs me that there's a large animal in the kitchen. i ask if its beauty our house cat. she says no, so i get up to go see what it is, listening to what she's describing. while i'm looking for it she sees it run again, describes where, and i respond with a, oh, that's just the house rat. she's been running around a lot lately. apparently katherine hadn't seen her.
i got back to working on my proposal and am interrupted a second time when merih, one of our house managers, comes running into the room shrieking. this makes me a tad concerned that she's being chased by a vampire (afterall, the sun is not out), but it turns out that she too has just seen the ratmouse for the first time.
there is a point to these roach and mouse stories and its not just that i live like a college student. rather i realized today that in my old age, i have become my mother. when i was little (basically until i went to college) and would see the occasional spider in the house, i would start screaming and calling for my mom. mom would come, sigh, remind me that it was *only* a spider and then take care of the problem.
well, now i'm getting a taste of my own medicine because my housemates see roaches or rats and they come to me. i'm not the house manager. i'm a vegetarian who recently became vegan (its an experiment, i'm not sure how long it will last), and i don't have any idea how one should go about killing a rat. apparently though i give off the idea of knowing things, so now i am learning.
i suggested we go get sticky traps (don't worry, i did call my mom first to find out if she had experience with this sort of thing...fortunately for her, she didn't). i don't care if they (the sticky traps) are not humane (sorry). rats in the kitchen are gross and the other traps haven't worked. so merih and i went to the store to pick a few up. then, because merih didn't want to go anywhere near where said rodent had been, i put the traps down.
i was very proud of myself for doing this. i'm grateful i had good role model. thanks mom for teaching me to be resourceful...though i'm not sure i'd mention my apparent aptitude for killing critters to your friends.
in spring of 2009, my housemates and i noticed that we had acquired a new member to our coop. he wasn't voted in and honestly, no one wanted him there. but he just wouldn't go away. we named him reggie. he was our house rat (he might have been a mouse, but i digress).
we weren't very nice to reggie. we tried to kill him using a variety of different methods. eventually, reggie did die though. someone buried him in the back yard. i'm sure some nice things were said at the funeral, but i didn't attend, so i can't say for sure.
well, apparently reggie had a girlfriend. she has recently started frequenting our kitchen, and i must say, she is rather bold. she bolts across along the wall between the refrigerators allowing house members to see her regularly. we haven't been very nice to her either. in fact, we're trying our darnedest to kill her too.
i was sitting in the tv room working on my dissertation proposal this afternoon (actually making progress!) when katherine pokes her head in and informs me that there's a large animal in the kitchen. i ask if its beauty our house cat. she says no, so i get up to go see what it is, listening to what she's describing. while i'm looking for it she sees it run again, describes where, and i respond with a, oh, that's just the house rat. she's been running around a lot lately. apparently katherine hadn't seen her.
i got back to working on my proposal and am interrupted a second time when merih, one of our house managers, comes running into the room shrieking. this makes me a tad concerned that she's being chased by a vampire (afterall, the sun is not out), but it turns out that she too has just seen the ratmouse for the first time.
there is a point to these roach and mouse stories and its not just that i live like a college student. rather i realized today that in my old age, i have become my mother. when i was little (basically until i went to college) and would see the occasional spider in the house, i would start screaming and calling for my mom. mom would come, sigh, remind me that it was *only* a spider and then take care of the problem.
well, now i'm getting a taste of my own medicine because my housemates see roaches or rats and they come to me. i'm not the house manager. i'm a vegetarian who recently became vegan (its an experiment, i'm not sure how long it will last), and i don't have any idea how one should go about killing a rat. apparently though i give off the idea of knowing things, so now i am learning.
i suggested we go get sticky traps (don't worry, i did call my mom first to find out if she had experience with this sort of thing...fortunately for her, she didn't). i don't care if they (the sticky traps) are not humane (sorry). rats in the kitchen are gross and the other traps haven't worked. so merih and i went to the store to pick a few up. then, because merih didn't want to go anywhere near where said rodent had been, i put the traps down.
i was very proud of myself for doing this. i'm grateful i had good role model. thanks mom for teaching me to be resourceful...though i'm not sure i'd mention my apparent aptitude for killing critters to your friends.
Friday, September 11, 2009
on endurance running
The opportunity to complete the mileage is simply the venue through which we may grow in spirit and strength.
~Rick Gastelum
~Rick Gastelum
Thursday, September 10, 2009
masters
i realized recently that the last year has involved a lot of me getting back into the habit of doing things that i really enjoy which, for whatever reason (namely lack of hours in the day), i stopped doing when i moved to texas. this morning my alarm clock went off at 4:45a. i layed there for a few minutes knowing that i should get up, but thoroughly enjoying the warmth of my blankets in my rather chilly room. i finally got up and after getting dressed and applying contacts, i hopped on my trainer and commenced riding for an hour. it was too early to read and i hadn't charged my ipod, so i just thought. the more i rode, the more i started to wake up.
after an hour, i put on my bathing suit and running shoes and ran over to the texas swim center to join michelle for swim practice. it was an internal struggle to stop after ~2 miles and not keep going just to get in an even 4000yds. after swim practice, i put my running shoes on and ran back to the house.
its pretty incredible how you can train your body to go long distances and that it remembers how to do it even if you haven't done something in awhile. when i got back on the bike last week, my legs just started spinning at ~90rpm. i don't even have to think about it anymore. swimming is the same thing.
the training lesson i learned this week was that doing anything after getting off the bike seems to help my hip stay loose. tuesday i went right to yoga for 75 minutes after riding and today i ran to swim practice.
on a school related note, my professor informed us today that thus far in class (two weeks?) we'd covered an entire semester of undergraduate dynamics. as i never took undergrad dynamics, i smiled. this is going to be a tough class. in the meantime, if you ever need to do dynamics calculations on bicycles, robots, the art at the porter square t-station or airplanes taking off of ships, i should be able to help.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
facebook, lightning and rainbows
one of my labmates found an interesting article in the wall street journal about facebook.
on a completely unrelated note, i've been getting up earlier and earlier recently (on purpose). this morning, i hit the road for a run at about 6:15a (after sleeping an extra 25 minutes) and was greeted with a lightning storm. there was no rain or thunder though, just lightning. with the storm were lots of clouds, so when the sun finally decided to come out, the whole sky turned fun shades of orange and pink. it reminded me why i like getting up early. an hour or so into my run, i got to see a rainbow too. i haven't seen too many of those here in texas, but it was an added bonus to an already beautiful morning.
on a completely unrelated note, i've been getting up earlier and earlier recently (on purpose). this morning, i hit the road for a run at about 6:15a (after sleeping an extra 25 minutes) and was greeted with a lightning storm. there was no rain or thunder though, just lightning. with the storm were lots of clouds, so when the sun finally decided to come out, the whole sky turned fun shades of orange and pink. it reminded me why i like getting up early. an hour or so into my run, i got to see a rainbow too. i haven't seen too many of those here in texas, but it was an added bonus to an already beautiful morning.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
ibuprofen
there's been a lot of "noise" in the ultrarunning arena lately about the use of ibuprofen. the young man who won where's waldo 100k this year was hospitalized after taking ibuprofen after his race and having acute renal failure.
one of the members of my trail running club just posted this link to our mailing list. it has an excerpt from an article a doctor wrote about the use of ibuprofen during western states 100. basically, they found increased indicators of inflammation in the people who had taken ibuprofen (most people take ibuprofen to REDUCE inflamation). the ibuprofen didn't help with muscle damage or muscle soreness. the result: people who didn't take it were just as well off as the people who did.
my concern with all this is that problems can arise even if you're not taking large doses of ibuprofen and especially if you're already dehydrated. its kind of crazy how little we (as a society) know about a drug that we (the sports community) jokingly refer to as "vitamin i."
one of the members of my trail running club just posted this link to our mailing list. it has an excerpt from an article a doctor wrote about the use of ibuprofen during western states 100. basically, they found increased indicators of inflammation in the people who had taken ibuprofen (most people take ibuprofen to REDUCE inflamation). the ibuprofen didn't help with muscle damage or muscle soreness. the result: people who didn't take it were just as well off as the people who did.
my concern with all this is that problems can arise even if you're not taking large doses of ibuprofen and especially if you're already dehydrated. its kind of crazy how little we (as a society) know about a drug that we (the sports community) jokingly refer to as "vitamin i."
Friday, September 4, 2009
bust a cap
yesterday morning, a little voice told me to put an extra swim cap in my backpack. i didn't listen. so of course, i got to the pool and it ripped when i tried to put it on. i put on a headband instead and then went for my swim. i suddenly felt very grateful for my short hair.
school is off to a good start. things are busy already. lecturing for my advisor the first day of class went well. i get to give a guest lecture in another class on running biomechanics in a couple weeks. i'm pretty excited for it.
my only cause for concern at the moment is my hip. i mentioned in my race report that my hip flexor froze up at about 55 miles. well, that hurt for two days, getting dramatically better after about 24 hours. when i started running again last week, it didn't bother me at all. well, this week i got back on the bike. even 20 minutes on my trainer will make that poor hip flexor tender when i walk. an hour on the trainer makes it sore when i walk for the better part of the day. if i run, however, it doesn't bother me at all. go figure.
i'm excited for the next month or so. i don't really have any single reason why. there's just a lot going on in all aspects of life.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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