Whew! What a Feat

I recently have been attempting 360s on my snowboard. Some go okay (I get about 300 degrees and spin the rest on the ground), but most end up with me in a pile on the ground. And this isn't soft snow I'm falling on. This is hard-packed landings off real jumps. So anyway, this past weekend I took a particularly hard fall, straight onto my hip, and the pain is lingering a bit longer than I would like. I must have really bruised myself good because anytime I sit down I get stiff, and standing up (without pain or soreness) is surprisingly challenging. Then today I noticed that the more I was up and walking around, the better my hip/butt area felt. So when I got off work at 2:30, I decided to go for a hike. Plus it didn't hurt that it was a GORGEOUS day.

I decided I would go to Manitou Springs and climb the Incline. This is a 1.02 mi. hike, STRAIGHT UP! No switch-backs to lessen the grade, just straight up. The Incline is actually the roadbed to the former Mount Manitou Scenic Incline Railway — a cable car that took people up the eastern face of Rocky Mountain to about 8,600' before shutting down in 1990. In its place now are thousands of steps (literally - I counted) that lead to the summit destination in which the old railway used to go. During the course of the hike, you gain 2,011 verticle feet of elevation, and the average grade is 41%. The steepest grade is 68%, and there are actually 2,723 literal steps that lead to the top (I told you I counted). Those actual steps are steps-up, not paces taken between a few of the steps. If you count paces taken to reach the summit there would be quite a few more. If those statistics sound scary, also take into acount that these steps are made of either railroad ties held in place by rebar or t-posts (used for fences), rocks, or plastic or aluminum drain tile, all of which is covered by loose gravel (and there are no railings). Take a look at some pictures I found of the Incline online:


This is just a little graph that illustrates the rise in elevation and grades of the hike.


The line apparent in the mountain in these two pictures is the Incline. Pretty vertical!



A view of the Incline as you hike it. Here you can see the railroad ties and drain tile that create the steps to the top. It's steep!


Two views looking back down the Incline. It was kind of scary! I only slipped twice though, and only one of those slips took me all the way to the ground. (Loose gravel and snow/ice aren't good for traction.)

Two more views as you would see hiking up the incline.

It was intense! I was breathing so hard, and multiple times during the hike up I felt like I was going to throw up my heart. It was pounding so hard it felt like it was in my throat and ready to pop right out. But boy was I happy when I made it to the top. That felt like quite the accomplishment. If I could do that two times a week, I would be able to hike all sorts of mountains without hardly breaking a sweat! Not to mention I would have a pretty killer backside and legs. I may just have to think about making this a regular thing. I'd also like to time myself next time. I think I made it in a little under an hour, but some people can do it in less than a half an hour. Those must have been the people flying past me on the way up. O well, it was only my first time, and I'm pretty proud of myself. I bet I'll be feeling it in the morning. My legs were so exhausted as I hiked back down they were shaking uncontrollably the couple times I stopped to get out of another hikers way. My legs usually shake or tremor (or whatever you want to call it) after a long day of skiing (not so much snowboarding), but never have they been that bad. This was a workout like no other!!

Daily Happenings and Thoughts

One of the strangest things happened to me this evening as I was leaving the hospital. I had just finished working out and was slowly making my way to my car towards the very back of the parking lot. Then, just as I sat down a guy about my age walked up to my window and motioned for me to roll down the window. I was a little taken aback by this as I had no idea who this person was, and it was dark and mostly deserted out. Nevertheless, I rolled my window down slightly so he could ask me whatever was on his mind. And this is what he said (or the gist of it): Hey, um I just got out of the ER. I was in there because of one of my testicles, and I just moved to Colorado a few days ago. The bus doesn't come for like another hour and I don't know how to get home. Do you think you could give me a ride? I need to go to 2340 (or something) Pike's Peak Ave. I don't even know where that is from here. I could give you money or whatever, but do you think you could help me out?

After staring at him dumbfounded for just a second, trying to digest the fact that a complete stranger had just told me he was in the ER because of one of his testicles and then hoped to get a ride from me, I responded: Umm, I can't. I'm really sorry, but I just....

Then he interrupted me to say: Yeah I understand that's ok. Could you at least tell me where a transfer station is?

Now, maybe I should know this, but I don't even know what a transfer station is. I know what a bus station is, and I even know where one is in Colorado Springs, but a transfer station? Is that something different? If you know the answer to this and could help me out, I'd appreciate it.
Anyway, a second or two later he wandered off to the next lone lady in her car. If he were really smart, he'd probably start looking for guys in their cars if he hopes to get a ride home. I hope he got there somehow. And I hope the ER fixed him up.


Now for my random thoughts for the day:

1. I really dislike having to pay to do my laundry for two reasons: A) it's expensive, and B) I never seem to have quarters handy when I want to do my laundry. And there is no convenient place to get a roll of quarters anywhere near my apartment. Ugg, the last thing I want to deal with at the end of a long day is figuring out where I can get quarters just so I can do the unpleasant task of washing my dirty clothes.

2. I've decided I don't like working in a hospital, and here's why: A) There is a lot of unnecessary double charting. Even though the entire hospital system has converted to computer charting, the doctors don't like to use the computer charting so we have to chart in the hard charts as well as the computer charts. It's extremely unnecessary and a waste of everyone's time, except the doctors. This also means that most of my day is spent hunting down charts, writing in charts, or sitting at a computer, and not so much with the patients. I like more personal interaction than what is typical in the hospital setting. B) The doctor's notes in those charts I spend most of my day with are impossible to read. So the only reason we still have the hard charts are because that is what the doctors prefer, but we can't read their writing most of the time anyway. It works well. C) There are a lot of really depressing cases of people that are young and really sick because they've treated their body so poorly most of their life. I get upset reading histories on patients, and most of the time there is nothing we (in nutrition services) can do to help. Nutrition is mostly a preventative measure and these people need medical attention. Other times, there are really old patients in the hospital who are sort of sick, but who would also be able to be discharged if they just ate enough to have the strength to leave. However, often at this stage they just want to give up. They flat out say they want to die and they just quit eating. There is nothing we can do to force them to eat, and it's hard to sit back and just watch them wither away. A lot of times the family of the patient isn't ready for their loved one to die either, so dealing with them is even harder. It's just sad all around. D) A lot of the patients are super nice and sweet and so appreciative of all we are doing to help them get better, and I get really attached. I have a huge soft spot for elderly people. Then, seemingly out of the blue, they'll get really sick and begin suffering, or they'll die. Again, this is just something that I don't handle well. It's sad, and I leave at the end of the day feeling depressed and torn down. In general, the hospital is not an atmosphere I enjoy. End of story.

Sorry if that last chunk of random thoughts came across bitter. I'm tired and burnt out from the hospital scene already. Spring break can't come quick enough.

Movin' to Town

I'm headed to Denver to help my best friend move into her new apartment!! Finally we'll be closer than 14 hours apart. YAY!

Addendum

So most of today has come and gone, and sure enough I had another unexpected event. This time, both good and bad. When I went to pick up my employee health screen, lab reports, and vaccination forms, the kind lady reminded me that I had never returned for the second dose of my MMR vaccination, so she offered to give it to me. Lucky me! The bad - it was a shot! And it burns. The good - it's done and over with, and hopefully I won't get the measles, mumps, or rubella! I also felt the need to give myself a treat for putting up with a shot (you know, like you would do with a toddler), so I enjoyed a nice piece of banana cake. Mmmm. It was good.

Let Me Edit That...

I should make a clarification about the title of my previous post. Everything is not right in the world. Everything seems right in my own little world. There...that's better. :o)

Everything is Right in the World

This past week went nothing as expected. And it wasn't in the fun, spontaneous, and exciting way. It was more the 'Oh no! That wasn't supposed to happen!' way. Let me tell you just what DID happen.

It all started last Saturday when I was determined to get the majority of my research presentation put together so I could get up to the mountains to snowboard Sunday. However, if you know me at all you would know that whenever I have a big task ahead of me, I have a hard time getting focused. So even though I started out on the right foot this day, it didn't last long...

I got up relatively early and went to the little shopping mall near my house with the intentions of going to the supermarket to price compare organic and conventional foods. When I got there though, instead of going to the supermarket I meandered over to the local thrift store to look for some fun and colorful dishes. And what do you know, I found some!! What made my finds even better was that they were all 50% off their already very low prices. So I stocked up on 3 plates, 2 bowls, and a vase. Extremely satisfied with my loot, I headed to my car to put it away, and then made my way into the market. And just my luck, the first thing I see when I walk in the store are bouquets of beautiful flowers! Of course I just had to get some for my new vase, not to mention it was a gorgeous day outside and I had Spring on the mind. Anyway, I finished up what I had to do at the market, as well as bought a few things that looked good and were on sale, (I was hungry! Never go to a grocery store hungry. You'll end up with a lot more than you need.), and then I headed home. Once I got there, I put away my groceries, washed my new dishes and put them away, and then started cleaning my apartment. I don't know if it was the warm weather and the thoughts of Spring, or maybe the fact that I didn't want to work on my research project, but whatever it was, I was like a mad woman! I was cleaning every nook and cranny, sorting through stacks of paper, hanging up pictures that had been sitting on my floor, and organizing everything I could get my hands on. Before I knew it 2.5 hours had gone by, at which time I also realized I still hadn't eaten. So I went to my fridge to grab a piece of fresh fruit, and when I opened the refrigerator door I was struck by what I saw. It was so colorful!! I think I had just about every color of the rainbow in my fridge in the form of fresh fruit. Of course when I saw this I decided I had to take some pictures of it, so I had a little photo shoot with my purchases of the day.

I really love flowers, especially yellow ones!(This is my little taste of Italy at home. Everything but the plant came back from Italy with my parents.)

By now it was about 5pm, and I decided it was finally time to sit down and get to work on my research. However, when I turned on my computer something prompted me to click the "updates ready to be installed" balloon that had been popping up for about the past 2 months. I think my reasoning was that I thought my computer's increasing lack of speed could be due to the fact that it needed updated, so I let it update. That turned out to be a REALLY bad idea. Something happened during my computer's attempt to update, and it forced me to do a "system recovery" which basically resulted in my computer going back to it's original 'fresh out-of-the box" state. I lost all my settings, all my programs, all my documents, all my pictures, all my music...you get the idea. Fortunately I knew where to recover my pictures and documents, and most of my music, but I had to completely reinstall my printer and every program. The problem was, I couldn't re-install my programs because the CDs needed to do so were at my parent's house in Illinois, who I should mention were in Wisconsin for the weekend (and I am in Colorado). So I was in QUITE the predicament. I now had no Power Point or Microsoft Word to work on my research, which I had already put off most of the day. Needless to say, I wasn't going to be going snowboarding the next day. Instead, I spent over 12 hours in a mostly deserted basement library, sitting in front of a computer. Did I mention this was also Super Bowl Sunday? Bad planning on my part! I missed the whole game; commercials, half time, and all. Hope it was a good one.

The next two days went relatively smoothly, even though I spent about 5 hours after work each evening back in that same depressing library. Then Wednesday came, and it was time to give my research presentation. I was set up, all ready to go, just waiting for my director to come with the projection machine. When she got there we immediately started setting that up and connecting it to the computer. Long story short, about 40 minutes later we were still trying to set it up! There was something wrong with the cable, and the machine couldn't detect the computer input. Technical difficulties!! This is why I don't work with computers on a daily basis (Actually, I guess I do, but not by choice; it's just that everything is electronic these days - including medical charts!). Computers just give me a headache and upset me more often then not. We finally gave up, including the tech guy, and I gave my presentation sans Power Point. It was a good thing I had my slides printed out as handouts. Otherwise I would have really been in a pickle. Besides the minor glitch in electronics, my presentation went really well, and I think the audience even enjoyed it. After that, it seems that all my unpleasant surprises went away. Why is that? Did it look like I didn't have enough stress in my life? Maybe God just wanted to throw a couple extra challenges in there for me to see how I would fare. I don't know, but either way I got through it relatively unscathed.

Since then, the only unexpected happenings in the past two days have been good and happy events that seem to have put my world back together. After days of struggling to get my anti-virus protection re-installed on my computer, I called Comcast, and they connected me to McAfee, who helped me resolve my problems. My kitchen sink, which has been clogged since early December, finally came unclogged tonight with a quick plunge of the drain. (My dad is so smart! I was forgetting to plug the second drain when I plunged the first. Whoops!) I got my plates and registration for my car switched over to Colorado today. (It's official! I'm a Colorado resident.) AND, I learned how to make truffles at work - time I thought would be spent droning through medical charts and sitting through boring discharge rounds. It actually turned out to be a pretty good week, despite a few set backs early on.

(Please don't mind the dirtiness of my car. I meant to wash it on Saturday along with everything else I did in an attempt to put off my research project, but then I forgot to stop on my way home from the market.)

Check out the new plate!So dirty! Eek!

On a completely different note, tonight I had a deliciously random dinner - a plate full of steamed vegetables, a peanut butter and banana sandwich (if you've never made one of these, I highly recommend you try it. It's especially good with a little drizzle of honey), and a glass of chocolate milk made with calcium enriched chocolate syrup (gotta be good to my bones).

It's so colorful! I love when a plate of food is this colorful!
One thing that slightly concerns me about my meal though is the bread of my sandwich. I bought a loaf of reduced-calorie bread (45 kcals per slice - this is not natural people, and I have proof) a little less than 3 months ago, just before Thanksgiving. This is the same loaf of bread that I used tonight for my sandwich. 3 MONTHS!! It still hasn't molded and the only change I've noticed is a slight drying out and hardening around the edges. I mean seriously, what are they putting in this stuff that gives it a shelf life of 3 months?? It's bread! Whatever it is, I'm not sure I want it in my body, so that may be the last of my reduced-calorie bread purchases. I should also probably throw the rest away, and if something happens to me overnight, now you'll know why.

It's just been a full week of random and unexpected events, and I can't wait to see what's in store for me tomorrow! Hopefully it's something good!