into the light

I'm FINALLY in the home stretch. I can almost smell the Thanksgiving dinner cooking in the oven, I can almost listen to Christmas music again, the light at the end of the tunnel is slowly getting closer and brighter. This is super good, because lately I've been in a bit of a slump. Me and my Texas bones wimped out at the first sign of cold weather and I haven't been on my bike since about the 1st of October (I know, lame). I'm trying to change this- trying to coax myself that once I actually get riding that it won't see so cold (so far no luck though). Other than that it seemed like school worked seemed to implode in 3 week period- it was just one thing after another after another. And all I really want to do is go home. But enough of that, onto the good stuff.

I've been on quite a few adventures recently, one including driving 1,000 miles in 2.5 days. I know, pretty remarkable. My roommates and I decided last minute to make a little trip up to Chicago, for almost 3 days. I also celebrated Halloween, college kid style. What exactly is college kid style--good question. haha. Halloween is my least favorite of the holidays, so I just kinda go along with whatever the plans are and roll with it.

I finished my multiple client rotation, and I have to say that from this past year this was probably the rotation I enjoyed the most. I know that's not really fair because I have probably said that about every rotation, but hindsight is 20/20. I've learned that with each new rotation I realize things that I loved and the things I didn't love so much. But this rotation was very different from my others, in that I really felt like the whole family was involved with the care, it was a much more friendly atmosphere. This is somewhat ironic, consider an oncology floor can be one of the most depressing places in the hospital. However, the nurses on this floor did an excellent job of making it a not so scary place. That's what really made the difference, the nurses.

I hope that I will become that kind of nurse one day, that I can make the scary parts of life seem much more bearable.

Jill came tumbling after

What a week it has been!

First, I finished my first bike race! It was quite the challenge to- 27 miles, which really wasn't that bad. The bad part was the hills! I haven't really ridden hills before--Texas is about as flat as a pancake, and boy was it tough! But I survived, and did the 27 miles in about a hour and 45 minutes--which is about what I expected! Now that I've got that under my belt, I've decided to tackle 58 miles (flat miles) in a race on June 27th! So I've slowly been working up my miles for that, but I've still got work to do.

Second- boy oh boy did I take quite the tumble today. It was truly quite the accident. I was riding with one of my friends and my tire got stuck in a crack in the cement, and down I went. Now, we were going about 20-22 miles/hour so I went down pretty hard. Luckily I broke no bones, like my mom did last week- I just scraped myself up pretty badly and COMPLETELY ripped both my front tire and the inner tube.

So my first big fall, got that one under my belt now too. Good news is my bike is okay, and I am okay, and if my tire was repairable I probably would have gotten right back on my bike and kept on riding.

What is really funny (in a morbid kind of way) is that exactly one week ago my Mom fell off of her bike and severely broke her arm. Now hers was a little bit different circumstance, but she called my dad to come pick her up (who was freaking out) then exactly one week later I fall and call my dad to come pick me up (who was freaking out even more). So now he's decided he's just not cut out for this sort of thing, we're going to give him a heart attack if he keeps on getting these sort of calls. So from now on if I fall, which will happen, I think I'm going to call my brother and save my father some anxiety.

Luck was on my side today, I know it could have been much, much worse. So I'm going to count my lucky stars and hope that if I fall again I can only be so lucky.

sit back and enjoy the ride

I'm sort of an ambitious person. At least in the sense of physical fitness. I have found that I always need a challenge, I always need something to work for, and not in the easy "I want to look better in a bathing-suit kind-of way." No, I need a challenge, I need something to work for. So, this past semester I decided that I wanted to take up cycling.

Now, this isn't a totally new concept for me, my main workout throughout college has been riding the stationary bike in the gym. But my competitive nature crept through and just riding the bike wasn't enough, I needed to be riding it for a reason, a purpose. I then decided to do some research and concluded that I didn't just want to ride, I wanted to race, and not just any race, I wanted to do a 100 mile race (called a century ride).

I had a slight problem however, or a few problems- at the time I decided I wanted to do this century ride it was the middle of the winter in Omaha (meaning a good foot of snow on the ground) which actually wasn't that big as my next problem: I didn't own a bike. But, nonetheless I decided that this should be my goal for the year- finish a century ride. So I started training, riding the little stationary bike and I slowly got more and more excited because for the first time since I had to stop playing basketball I had found something that I genuinely enjoyed doing.

And then finals happened, and I got out of my routine, working out got put on hold as I tried to complete my then current goal (to finish the year strong), which I did! (2 B+ and 1 A!!) but then I came home and sumer started and I found that I didn't really enjoy the stationary bike anymore. Perhaps because I no longer had notes to study and pass the time as I rode, but whatever the reason I found myself avoiding the bike, or even the gym altogether so I wouldn't have to sit there and ride. Then I got to talking with my mom, and we decided that this century was something that we really wanted to do, and if we were going to get serious about it we needed some road bikes. So we went our local bike store, took the plunge, and got serious.

So for the past 2ish weeks my life has consisted of early evening bike rides and LOTS of sleeping (who knew 20 miles could make you so tired!) Nonetheless I am slowly getting there, learning little by little everything I need to survive my first century (I already have stories!).

In short, since I don't have nursing school to talk about for the next 3 months, I figured I would switch over to my adventures (and failures) of cycling. Tomorrow I am waking up bright and early to try and go 25 miles (and still be breathing when I'm done) so ready or not, here I go!

And here's a lovely picture of me trying to figure out clip-less pedals (excuse the hair)

--this was after I fell over after FINALLY clipping both feet in