Treadmill fires

I'm at week 7 of the Great Ligament Tear of 2009. Been going to the gym every day since I came up to visit my parents (not much else to do around here, and particularly since I'm not allowed to run, I have no other choice but to visit the gym).

Today, willing to endure the boredom of the elliptical and the bike no more, I got on the treadmill to walk. (Last week I went to a 'Bosu Ball' class, which was basically step aerobics on one of those bouncy half-balls. Really? Really?!! I wanted to poke my eyes - or more accurately, the eyes of the stupid perky instructor - out).

But when you put a runner on a treadmill to "walk"? It's really, really hard not to want to run. About 5 minutes in there was a giant spark and huge flames shot out of the lighting fixture. Fortunately the roof is metal, otherwise the whole thing would've gone up in flames (which would've been very funny material for many people's New Years' resolutions, but horrible for the facility and the many elderly people who also go to PT and OT there). Three of us noticed this, and the two of us who were women hopped off and ran to the front desk to tell them what had happened. They didn't believe us (this nice woman is the mother of a high school friend, but if someone tells you that flames were shooting out of a lighting fixture in a packed gym, with three witnesses to prove it, it might behoove you to at least APPEAR concerned).

She called over some dude, who came back to where we were and proceeded to talk to the one guy on the treadmills about it -- not either of us who reported it (but I will save that for another time). They shut off the breaker, got out the lift, sent some poor lady up into the sky, where she unplugged it.

Way too anticlimatic for me. I lasted only 5 more minutes on the treadmill and hung it up. At least when I am back in NC I can swim (the "cold" pool here is 85 which makes me feel like I am suffocating).

Happy New Year, to my 3-4 remaining readers! (1 of whom I will see this weekend!)

Ankle Update

I'm too tired to write witty headlines. But yesterday I went back to Student Health (I wish I were getting "frequent visitor" points, as I've been there almost once a week for the past month). My ankle is still not healed, and though I can almost wear "normal" (read: not Dansko) shoes without pain, it's still swollen, and hurts to the touch. Which means it is not normal.

I saw the doc who saw me the day I fell last month - not the "compare this to having a baby" doctor, but his supervisor - and he promptly ordered an x-ray. Off I trudged to the hospital upstairs -- ooh, just where I want to be at 4:30 pm on a rainy afternoon -- but fortunately I didn't have to wait too long. They took a few films, and I went back downstairs; the doc didn't see anything visible himself, but he said he would wait for the radiologists to read it overnight to confirm. And, lucky me, he noted that if it's the ligament, that wouldn't show up on the x-rays anyway.

So. No running, but ok to get in the pool and on the bike and the elliptical. So wishing I hadn't sold my trainer when I left SF! I have to go back in January, and I'm assuming then it's off to PT. Good times.

At least there wasn't a bone sticking out, and at least I'm now immune to the Swine Flu! This is giving me quite a swagger around school, where more and more classmates are now falling ill -- including a teammate, who now that she's afflicted admitted "I thought you were KIDDING about having it!"

Seven days to go...5:01 pm Tuesday 12/15 and I am d-o-n-e. Well, d-o-n-e til Jan 21.

Oink, Oink

Proud owner of 10 Tamiflu capsules. Guaranteed to cure the swine flu. Except for those 4 people at Duke who apparently just died, because it didn't. Hmm.

Ok, God, I get it

Really, body? Really?

I've been hemming and hawing over what to do about this weekend, and nervous about how I would know if or when to stop. I want to run, but I was really worried about doing permanent damage to my ankle. I can walk, and I've been running in the water and stationary biking. I know it's not fully healed, but I don't know the difference between "sort of" pain and "never run again" pain.

So apparently God and my body have conspired to take care of that, because last night I spiked a fever of 102, with a throat so sore I cannot swallow.

And now I am not going anywhere, including to school, where I am missing my Corporate Finance exam that is due to begin in 18 minutes (wish this were an excuse to get out of it....alas, it is not!). I just want that to be over with, so delaying it is not helping!

So, my $260 in sunk costs for plane ticket and entry are just that. Sunk.

Not a post I would like to write...

Today I was due for my last 20 miler before Philly. I showed up at Duke Forest, hoping for some of my usual comrades (though knowing a good deal of them are running OBX tomorrow). There? No one. My friend Lizzie helped me out a few weeks ago, coming to join me for the middle hour of my three-hour run. Now Lizzie is on a cross-country job interview swing. So grumbling, off I set, alone. I figured I would take it an hour at a time, and think no further ahead that that. It was freezing (35 when I began) but bright, sunny, and a nice day.

I ran up to the WaDuke trail, and midway around I ran into my friend Nicole, who had shown up late and began running backwards, hoping she'd run into someone. She is also running Philly, so turned around and ran with me. We ran about 10 minutes more and I bit it - full on, ankle twist, big crack/snap, leg buckle beneath me, other hand reaching out to try to break the fall. (As a result I have a lovely, lovely, bit of trail rash on my knee and shin, and on my palm). I screamed some obscenities about how much it hurt, and then "I just bought my plane ticket!" Seriously, if I was gonna fall could it not have been BEFORE dropping the cash I don't have for my plane ticket?

A nice lady offered to let me come to her house, but I said I was fine. We walked a bit more and then resumed running. Near the end of the loop, before getting back on the road, I started to fall again, but stopped and walked. Averted. We ran down 751 back towards the cars (I'd decided to go to my car, de-shoe, and re-assess) and with no warning, my entire leg crumpled and I bit it. Straight on the asphalt. At this point I "surrendered" - obviously my body needed to stop. Nicole ran back to her car and then came back to retrieve me.

Never spent much time looking at my ankles, but those 15 minutes I spent waiting revealed a few things: namely, ankles are ugly, and I don't shave very carefully around my ankles.

She returned, drove me back to my car, and resumed her run. I was in enough pain to realize I should probably have it looked at, so I went to get some coffee (15 minutes spent waiting post-run in 35-degrees also = chilled) and drove myself to Student Health. Upside? 9:45 on a Saturday means NO ONE is in Student Health. I had 2 doctors and 2 nurses at my service. Doctor 1 got a second opinion from Doctor 2. They decided it "doesn't seem broken" but I can't get an x-ray because it's Saturday (? WTF) and the only way to get one would be to go to Duke Hospital (not happening). (Doctor 1 also asked me to compare it to the pain of having a baby. When I pointed out that I have not actually yet HAD a baby, he asked me to compare it to what I thought that might feel like. Um, really? I hope it will feel like drugged-out bliss, which is very much not how I felt). So, right now we're going with bad sprain and I am home with it elevated, wrapped, and iced every hour. Had I not heard that "crack" I would not be so nervous!

Several things annoy me:
- I have been running on those damn trails all fall. Really, body? You wanna fall 2 weeks out from the marathon, after I've bought the damn plane ticket? Thanks.
- My skid on said trail resulted in some road rash, yes, but more upsettingly, a hole in my very nice, still relatively new, Sugoi capri tights. Not happy am I.

Fortunately I have lovely friends who have taken over the outsourcing of my dog walking. Which is something.

Think good thoughts!!!

Alright already

I think one post a month is perfectly acceptable. Except that in Fuqua-time, a month is the equivalent to about 3 years.

- I got sick the day before Campout began, so I ended up bailing about 10 hours into it. 3:30 a.m. drive home from school? No traffic. I love how I survived 3 months in NYC without ever getting sick, and get got the crud within a week of returning to class.

- The upside was I got to actually SEE my parents, who came down to take care of the bird dog. I went back on Saturday for a few hours and learned just - how- horrible I am at Corn Hole (like really, I can't even describe...I got cheers if I even got the bag NEAR the board).

- I quit Admissions Fellows. Four days later, I un-quit. Fuqua changed their interview policy this year so I will probably be begging for hours. In two weeks I've worked two hours. At this rate I might be able to buy one pair of shoes by the end of the year.

- I got an offer for Amex (yay!) but I am not sure if I will take it (boo). You know, cause why take a job with a Fortune 100 company in the middle of a recession if you can have no job and be out on the street instead?

- I missed two weeks of long runs. The first, for Campout (see above). The second was the very next weekend, for Admissions Fellows Training (also above). While I'd hoped I might motivate and do my long run on my own the day afterwards, AF training was followed by 108 sun salutations at Carborro Yoga Co. Awesome in theory, and even in practice. After? Not awesome. My hamstrings hurt for 4 days. There was no running.

- Last week I returned to Godiva and ran 12. Big mental victory. Slooowww on very, very hilly trails. But I ran with 4 gals I'd never met so it made the time go by much quicker.

- Today I ran 15 (take that, Sherlock) and while I hurt a lot at the end, I am so psyched I made it. I am still a bit behind where I "ought" to be (a girl I ran with today is running Atlanta, and ran 17, and it's 4 days after mine) but I will get there. I also got to espouse some tips on marathon nutrition, and carrying Endurolytes so they don't melt.

- Two weeks left of class, then finals, and then fall break. Fortunately I only have one final this term. I am staying put for fall break, which I am really happy about. Looking forward to sleeping, running, hanging with Turkey, and working on my mentored study (which I have been woefully neglecting).

Alrighty then. There's a post.

Awww....

I completely forgot that school? Actually sucks.

As in, sucks all the life out of you and all the time out of your life.

I have been back for TWO DAYS and I am 10 feet under water. How this is possible I am not entirely certain, but I think it has something to do with volunteering to do too much crap and not saying no often enough.

But I am dropping out of admissions as soon as I find the courage to tell them so that will be one less thing to worry about.

I'm taking Marketing Strategy, a Mentored Study in Entrepreneurship with a cool local start-up called BrainFlips, and Marketing Communication. The last should be highly entertaining as my entire summer project was developing a branding and communication strategy....guess now I'll find out if I did it correctly.

Campout is this weekend so I'll be playing "Act like a 17-year old" in a parking lot in an attempt to get in the lottery for basketball tickets, while my parents come down to hang out with their granddog. (I am hoping they will also clean my apartment, cook and freeze a lot of meals, and do my reading for me, but somehow I don't think that will happen.) A girl can dream!

Old Hammer Gel? Gross.

And I found this out because I ran double-digits for only the second time since April 2008. I was all nervous last night (ha! really!!) and didn't sleep too well. Did I need endurolytes? If I bring them where do they go? Do I need gel to run 10 miles? What if I get lost? What if I can't finish?

I found all of this hilarious.

This week I joined the Carolina Godiva Track Club, which is a local group. (I ran with them once last summer, and then school started). They have a fall training program, which began back in July, but they let me join anyway. I just didn't fill out the part that said "weekly mileage base."

So today at 7:30 I trudged out the door (remembered - and located - the Body Glide, check) and drove to school to meet the group. There were people doing things all the way from 8 miles to 16. I had already decided 10 seemed like a fair number (given that my "long run" last weekend was 6 miles) and set off.

And immediately remembered I am one competitive bi-atch.

It was awesome.

Sure, near the end, my body had caught on to what I was doing, and was not too happy about it, but for about 75 of those 90 minutes, I was having a blast on the trails of Duke Forest, cursing the humidity and sweating like a banshee.

Yeah.

So much for that idea

Ok clamoring fans...I did not update this stupid thing all summer like I thought I would. I was too busy walking all over the place and enjoying NYC! Sadly the only celebrities I saw all summer were Whitney Port (the Hills...on the first day I moved to Chelsea) and Dr. Phil. I am sure I passed some others, but I never noticed. C'est la vie.

I did soak up all of NYC living, and had a great time. As anyone who saw Ritu's and my apartment can attest, we were living in fantasy NYC. Our apartment was giant, and subsidized (let's hear it for the Episcopals!), and gorgeous.


Chelsea was amazing, and I joined the beautiful gym at Equinox only 3 blocks away. Lots of friends visited, from Stanford colleagues to SF roomies to my brother to Turkey dog (and her chaperones). I also got to hang with the original Hezza and her fabulous husband and their new bebe.


One of the best things about my internship (besides the regular paycheck and subsidized cafeteria) was that my Amex id gave me free admission to just about any museum in NYC. I made certain to take advantage of this and visited a million museums - some I'd been to before, others I hadn't. Because I don't have much to say, I will list them:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (been there tons before, went there 3x this summer)
- Museum of Modern Art (hadn't been since high school)
- The Cloisters (LOVE! Fabulous! Thank you, amazing Rockefeller family!)
- The Frick (Eh. Glad it was free.)
- The Whitney (my college art museum is bigger than this)
- The Guggenheim
- International Center for Photography
- Rubin Museum of Art (Himalayan art, kinda cool)

I am pretty sure there were some others, but I can't recall them now.

The most touristy thing I did all summer was the 3-hr Circle Line tour, which is a boat that sails all the way around Manhattan. Touristy, yes, but it was also kind of cool. My friends Megan and Dale joined me on the ride around the island.

The Amex building is the tallest one on the left with the pyramid on top...I worked on the 34th floor. The gaping hole to the right of it is where the North Tower of the WTC used to stand (and it was literally 2x as tall as my 51-story building...if you can imagine that!).

The Circle Line also likes to talk about how it was one of the first responders at the Miracle on the Hudson back in January...it was also one of the first responders at the crash of the helicopter and plane 2 weeks ago. Such a first responder, in fact, that when my friend Jonathan and I looked out at the Hudson (about 2 minutes after the crash) we actually thought it was the Circle Line boat that was sinking. But as the police and rescue copters/trucks/boats started to arrive, they sent the Circle Line away, and it soon became apparent that was not it at all.

Now I am back in Durham and settling into the life of an unemployed student on vacation. By which I mean: sleeping til 11, going to the gym, walking the dog, and going grocery shopping at 6 stores in 2 days to fill up my cabinets and refrigerator (hello, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Costco, SuperTarget, Kroger, and Harris Teeter! And no, the same thing can't be had at all of those stores! Welcome back to suburbia!). It's 95 degrees and humid outside, so I am also required to watch 4-5 hours of crap tv daily as well. Which means now it's time for Access Hollywood and a beer (because for all its charms, you can't get no stinkin' Fat Tire beer in NYC!).

Summer in the city...

I am on week 3 of my job in NYC, so I guess I could update for Ryan and Hez. And now there's more to say than "I am failing all my classes." I am feeling like quite the lil' city gal, wearing my running shoes and commuting on the subway and whatnot. I am still not completely sure what I am doing in my job, but I ask a lot of questions, am learning a lot, and am just going to have faith it will all work out.

In theory I will update this with all the fabulous things I am doing...in reality, we'll see. I am very happy to be working out more routinely, having joined the insanely expensive (justified only because my rent is actually cheap, and paid for by my internship) gym that is close to my house. Somehow I have gone out every night this week - which is truly remarkable when you consider I am a total homebody who does not actually even like going out!

This weekend I walked around a bunch - and took a 3 hour nap on Saturday. Sunday I ran for 45 minutes, went to the gym to lift, read the entire Sunday NY Times on the lawn, went to the MoMA and saw a photography exhibit, and met some of my fellow interns at the 79th Street Boat Basin Cafe.

Monday, met my friend Katie for (yet another) meal at the Shake Shack (still doesn't hold a candle to In-n-Out, but I did enjoy it more this time than the last). Walked around to Union Square, and then had cupcakes at Billy's (also better the second time than the first. Maybe I am too darn judgmental. Or maybe their chocolate cupcakes are just better than the Red Velvet (which I insist on calling "Red Devil")).

Tuesday, we had a work happy hour ("networking") for all of the interns in our group to meet the other hiring managers. Met some interesting people. Felt super grateful that I am totally at ease talking to strangers.

Tonight, meeting a Stanford friend who is in town for work at Fusion, and tomorrow, going to a Fuqua happy hour at a bar in the West Village. And then Friday, off to Boston for my cousin's graduation weekend!

Thank god I am actually finding the motivation to work out in the morning.... I should note the Food Network studios are right next door to the gym, so I am keeping my eye out for some Food celebrities like Ina or Giadia or ??? whoever is on those shows.

Turkey had a birthday

And I hate Decision Models. The end.

See Hez, Still Here

Doughman

TOTALLY doing this next year. http://www.doughman.org/
Would do it this year but will already be a working gal!

No posting

I wonder how long you have to go without posting for Blogger to take your blog down. Hmm. Since GoDaddy just charged me for another year of the domain name, I hope it's not anytime soon!

Facebook is stealing any of my 2-minute ramblings, but in a nutshell, I'm about done with term 3 of 4 of my first year of school. Each term speeds up, and I can't believe how fast it is going. I am successfully jaded, in that I no longer have a meltdown when I fail an exam. (failing, a bad thing; no meltdowns, a good thing).

A week from tomorrow I'm heading to Nicaragua for two weeks, and I am super excited. Sadly my Spanish is terrible, probably because I don't study... but I can talk a lot about cookies, running, and my dog "Pavo," all of which ought to be super useful when talking to the rural poor about remittances. Fortunately one of my teammates spent 2 years in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua, so he will make sure we don't collapse. "Nana" and "Grandpa" are heading down to pick up Turkey for the two weeks, and she's going to be (even more) spoiled rotten by the time she returns. I just hope she doesn't weigh 40 lbs!

As soon as we return, Term 4 begins (I at least get 2 days "off" -- the teams going to South Africa and India return the night before classes begin!). I'm taking Decision Models, Negotiation and Information Management. Only one of the professors is younger than me - and he's a Stanford guy so I will do my best to make sure he's giving. It is hard to believe that two months from now I will be done with my first year, and in 2 1/2 months, I'll be starting my internship in NYC (AND GETTING A PAYCHECK, THANK YOU SWEET JESUS!). Time flies!

No Beantown for MoMo

A good way to see who is still reading after a 2-month hiatus...a subject line like this! Truly, I think Facebook has taken a lot of my blog attention, since I can write a one-line status and be done with it. Oh, and there's the small matter that I have barely exercised since moving to Durham six months ago (so really the blog would just be me complaining about how hard it is and how I don't have any money and oh by the way I CHOSE THIS).

But it's 2009, and things are new.

First, we all know I got a dog! Woo!
Turkey is awesome and I am so, so happy to have her in my life. She is recovering from heartworm so we're still doing short walks. She's officially passing the 1-month mark tomorrow from her last treatment, but I've been advised to begin longer walks gradually (the worms break up into the bloodstream, so you're trying to avoid a worm-embolism and/or congestive heart failure). So we're working up to the mailbox, which roundtrip from my door takes about 10 minutes.

Second...I actually have some on-campus internship interviews! I am super excited and have a lot of prep to do in the next few weeks (two are next week, one the week following and the final I'm not sure). Of course the competition is stiff, but I'm stoked to have a shot.

Third. I am facing reality, and going to rip up the Boston entry form. I am so torn (heh) about doing this, but the reality is that I haven't been running very much. I could get in passable shape by April 20, but I'd love to run that stupid race in GOOD shape one of these days. And for now I need to focus on getting back into shape, and getting an internship for the summer. I am sort of "wasting" my entry, but I'm also not -- I used it last year, and I wouldn't be fast enough to requalify at Boston this year, so I'm already looking at another race later in the year. And I'm aging UP next month, so I get 5 extra minutes, yeah. And really, the most bitter is the reality that I have not had a paycheck since June 17 and everything I do or eat is a loan. So I have a hard time spending another $350 (minimum - $100 entry, $250 airfare) -- and that's with free housing -- when that's more than two months worth of groceries for me. I'd also miss classes during our last week before finals, and since our terms are only 6 weeks long (12 classes), this is pretty significant. So...no Boston for me this year. From what I hear, it will still be around next year.

Classes begin next week, 1/15. Technically over break I have been learning Spanish, reading about the bloody history of Nicaragua, beginning reading for operations, etc. And really, I have been getting caught up on bad tv (and good tv, let's hear it for LOST), and hanging out with my pooch. But there's still 8 days to go!