Highs & Lows

Things have been up & down for the last week. Last Tuesday when we got to St. John's School, we found out they were closed for spring break, so instead of running the bleachers at the stadium, we skipped across the street to Blanco's & worked out our arms by lifting a few beers to our mouths. Afterwards, Adrienne & I went to Chuy's for dinner with my mentee Carmen. It was oh so yummy, but I must admit that I felt bad for not working out.

I decided against the Blue Bell fun run & chose to run with the team at the park in order to get a good, solid workout. However, I made the mistake of stretching with the group (I blame the fact that we were being videotaped & I didn't want to look lazy on film). We were supposed to run for 2 hours but within just a few minutes, my IT Band completely seized up on me. I tried to "run through the pain" but I knew it wasn't gonna happen. I slowed down to a stroll & finished one measly loop around the park before I stopped. I met up with 2 of my coaches & told them what happened & they walked me back to the parking lot. We ended up going to Starbuck's for coffee/hot chocolate & went back to the park to wait for everyone to finish.

After practice we had a nutrition clinic given by a dietician. I'd heard this woman talk before but it was still pretty interesting. I'm never going to look at chips & salsa at Pappasito's the same again! (30 grams of fat in 20 chips?!?! I don't even want to know what's in a whole basket!) I know my diet is no where near what it should be so I got some advice as to what I should be doing to get the proper amounts of protein (I'm a vegetarian) & ended up buying a bunch of stuff at Whole Foods & Central Market later in the weekend. So far, my diet this week has been much better. So that's good.

I rested my leg all weekend & felt much better by the time I got to practice Tuesday night. We did stretches, walking lunges, skipping, & high kicks to "warm up", then we ran the bleachers & did whips & chains (where we walk in a line & the person at the end sprints to the front of the line). It was a tough workout, but I made it through & was once again pleased with how I handled it all. The only muscles bothering me today are my calves & even that's not too bad. However, I wish that was the only pain I was experiencing right now.

I went to the dentist today to have 2 fillings drilled & filled & ended up having that done, as well as having a wisdom tooth pulled. I was fine during the drilling but freaked the F out when he started pulling my tooth. I wasn't completely numb. The dr. kept saying it was just pressure I was feeling but I immediately made him stop & explained that it most definitely was NOT just pressure. It was PAIN. He poked around a little & sure enough saw that I wasn't totally numb on the inside so he shot me up with a TON of novacaine. The actually pulling of the tooth wasn't bad at all, but I was already in full panic attack mode & I wasn't able to calm myself down until about 5-10 minutes after he was done. The novacaine has worn off now & I feel like I've been punched in the jaw. I am thanking my lucky stars for my good friend, Mr. Vicodin.

I'll be in pain for the next few days but hopefully I'll be ok by Saturday. I've decided to be a good girl & actually run on my birthday. We're supposed to do 14 miles, but I doubt I'll do that many. I figure maybe I'll do 10 or 12. We'll see how I feel. I want to be able to be bright-eyed & bushy tailed for my party later that night. (Jeebus! I can't believe I'm going to be 35 in 3 days!!! How the hell did this happen?)

I got the final approval from UT to have my bake sale next week in the lobby of the medical school where I work. I've already enlisted the help of all my wonderful baking co-workers & should have some really great stuff to sell. Last year I made $450 & I'd like to beat that by at least $50. I'm hoping the raffle ticket sales will help me with that. I just wish I was able to take off last Friday & get more prizes to raffle off, but I think it'll be ok.

Anne & I are finalizing everything for our car wash fundraiser on May 6. Our honored patient, Jonathan & his friends & fellow cancer patients are all going to help out. Jonathan even got air time on the Q Morning Zoo radio station. AWESOME! Hopefully that will bring in lots of people. *crosses fingers*

Things are also coming together for our big crawfish boil at Pub Fiction on May 13. The girls are meeting with the manager of Pub Fiction tonight to go over the plan (Mr. Vicodin is keeping me from driving there to participate in the meeting). It looks like most of the food will be donated & Pub Fiction is donating the beer! WOO-HOO!! One of the other girls is also working with the people from Coca-Cola to see if they would be willing to donate sodas for the non-beer drinkers. Pub Fiction is also going to advertise our event on their website & will email everyone on their mailing list, too. I really feel good about this event. I think it'll be a big success.

So in all, there have been more highs than lows, at least in the fundraising department.