For your viewing pleasure...
I have very light scars on my feet and sides but they are continuing to fade!
Wednesday, October 01, 2014
Poisony Ivy
In August I went to Washington DC and Virgina for a wedding and for some photo shoots! I ended up staying with some wonderful friends and going out and playing with my cameras! At some point in one of these adventures in the woods, I somehow covered myself in Poison Ivy, It started out on my ankles, and then I spread secondary infections all over my body over the next month. It was really confusing at first because they thought I had chiggers... but then after I was examined by 4 separate doctors, they decided that no, I'm just super allergic to poison ivy. I have some light scars still (it's now December as I'm blogging this), but it's mostly all gone.
For your viewing pleasure...
It started with what looked like big bites, and very minor.
Then it got crazy itchy...
Then this happened.
Then it got weepy.
THEN IT TURNED INTO THIS.
Then, I somehow rubbed the oil on my seatbelt, and spread it across my chest too. It perfecty lined up with my seatbelt strap!
My legs finally started to heal!
And then one day I was scratching my side and realized that I can spread it some more! Where the back of my shirt rides up in the car and the seatbelt brushes against my back... then it spread across my torso!
It was really bad, obviously and I was on meds forever. (Like 6 weeks of prednisone)
I have very light scars on my feet and sides but they are continuing to fade!
For your viewing pleasure...
I have very light scars on my feet and sides but they are continuing to fade!
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Cosmos 7k Race Report (#12 of 14)
Race #12 of our 14 in 2014 Race Series. Time: 1:00:12
This race was all drama, and the course was definitely short, but I loved it. I flew back very early in the morning from a wedding in California, and because my flight was delayed, I had to drive straight from the airport 2.5-3 hours (no memory of how long it was anymore!) to Bend, Oregon. I was supposed to be able to go home to Eugene first, and then Sarah was supposed to drive, but my flight was so delayed I might not have made it. We decided to drive separately, and Sarah's boyfriend Mitch ended up driving her the two hours to Bend, dropping her off and going back home.
This was a night race, and all women. It was very cool. It was also extremely hilly, which drove me crazy. There's no way to PR if there's going to be that many elevation changes because I struggle to keep going just on the flat! The elevation changes were around 260 feet. That's alot! All of my splits were over 14 minutes. And according to my Garmin, the course was only 4 miles, instead of 4.25.
That said, this race came with FOUR mixed drinks, a commemorative glass, and a purple tech t-shirt, which is my favorite of all our race shirts. The party afterwards was very fun!
This race also had the best swag EVER. This is everything I brought home in my goodie bag or got at the after party. I would for sure do this again!
Like I said, this trip was full of drama though. In addition to the plane problem, and the separate cars and Sarah and Mitch running late, I ended up getting sick on the way home. We had a nice sit down dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Three Sisters and just about as soon as it was over I started panicking that I was going to throw up or "have to use the bathroom." We rushed to a gas station and I ended up both vomiting and having a quakey tummy. I was really car sick the whole way home too. It was gross. It was about this time I started having a sensitivity to tomatoes and raw tomatoes started making me throw up, almost instantly. It seems to have calmed down a bit now, but the last few months I have throw up each time I forgot and ate them- within like 5 minutes. I suspect it's some kind of an acid problem and I'm also having a ton of gas and belly aches from eating uncooked vegetables. I don't really understand where it's coming from but it seems to be getting better.
This race was all drama, and the course was definitely short, but I loved it. I flew back very early in the morning from a wedding in California, and because my flight was delayed, I had to drive straight from the airport 2.5-3 hours (no memory of how long it was anymore!) to Bend, Oregon. I was supposed to be able to go home to Eugene first, and then Sarah was supposed to drive, but my flight was so delayed I might not have made it. We decided to drive separately, and Sarah's boyfriend Mitch ended up driving her the two hours to Bend, dropping her off and going back home.
This was a night race, and all women. It was very cool. It was also extremely hilly, which drove me crazy. There's no way to PR if there's going to be that many elevation changes because I struggle to keep going just on the flat! The elevation changes were around 260 feet. That's alot! All of my splits were over 14 minutes. And according to my Garmin, the course was only 4 miles, instead of 4.25.
That said, this race came with FOUR mixed drinks, a commemorative glass, and a purple tech t-shirt, which is my favorite of all our race shirts. The party afterwards was very fun!
This race also had the best swag EVER. This is everything I brought home in my goodie bag or got at the after party. I would for sure do this again!
Like I said, this trip was full of drama though. In addition to the plane problem, and the separate cars and Sarah and Mitch running late, I ended up getting sick on the way home. We had a nice sit down dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Three Sisters and just about as soon as it was over I started panicking that I was going to throw up or "have to use the bathroom." We rushed to a gas station and I ended up both vomiting and having a quakey tummy. I was really car sick the whole way home too. It was gross. It was about this time I started having a sensitivity to tomatoes and raw tomatoes started making me throw up, almost instantly. It seems to have calmed down a bit now, but the last few months I have throw up each time I forgot and ate them- within like 5 minutes. I suspect it's some kind of an acid problem and I'm also having a ton of gas and belly aches from eating uncooked vegetables. I don't really understand where it's coming from but it seems to be getting better.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Stephanie's Las Vegas Dirty 30 Birthday Trip!
My friend Stephanie (who I have known since middle school) turned 30 in September! So, Stephanie, Joanna and Claudia and I met in Vegas for the weekend! Stewart's (aka Steph) mom had treated us to a very nice suite in the Venetian and then we just had to pay for our transportation and food. One night we went to the night club Tao, which was very fun and another night we did a nice dinner at a high end Italian restaurant. It was lovely! Stu and Jo picked me up at the airport after they drove in from Southern California, and then we headed for the strip! The day before we left I also took Jo out to Red Rock Canyon for an outdoor boudoir shoot, which was amazing. I loved the photos we took!
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Third Date with K.... Midnight BBQ
Last weekend I went out with a bunch of friends and ended up being their designated driver while they went bar hopping. One guy had stupidly given his car keys (their only way home ) to a friend so he could leave early. So I got sucked into babysitting everybody since I was sober and had a car. Don't get me wrong, it was fun , but also trouble. ( more on this later.) I ended up running into K in the bar, who had had way too much to drink and kept babbling about defending the honor of our cohort. (It was pretty funny.) This creepy guy, who looked like Channing Tatum, wouldn't leave me alone and kept trying to put his hands on my arm or my back. It was gross. I finally got up and told K the guy was bothering me and K got in his face and took care of it. At school on Monday, K spotted me sitting in our department office and we chatted for awhile about the weekend. He asked me to lunch but I didn't realize what he asked me before I was already saying I needed to meet with someone in the office. So he left... And when the program assistant came out to check on me, she was all raised eyebrows and winks about it. I blushed and denied everything, of course!
I had a pretty rough day today. I had a pretty rough week actually. As you may recall, I got poison ivy back on August 2nd when I was on the east coast. I turned out to be super allergic to the P.I., and was in and out of the doctor's office 4-5 times and had an endless supply of prescriptions. So far, it looks like my skin is going to scar. It's not bad, but I hope it keeps fading.
Anyway, the doctor put me on prednisone to help things along, and she put me on an extremely high dose, and an over 5 week regime. The prednisone actualy made me feel great. All of the body ache and arthritis symptoms I usually have totally went away. I PR'd at both the Eugene Marathon Race, and at the Scandia-Fest 5k as well. It really helped me get my body to a normal functioning level. I even started unpacking from my move- over a year ago. I cleaned and sorted laundry- it was amazing! I love prednisone!
Unfortunately however, prednisone is a steriod and there are consequences for taking it more than a few days. One of the consequences in panic attacks. Another consequence is your adrenal gland shutting down, or diminishing production levels. This messes with everything from your period (hello two week cycle) to really awful things like anxiety and depression. I started experiencing side effects so the doctor prescribed me Ativan to deal with the anxiety, which worked just fine. She also wanted me to wean off the steroids a little faster, and I did. But the problem with that was, weaning off too fast doesn't give your adrenal gland a chance to get back in the groove and it can trigger a depressive cycle, which is exactly what happened. I have found myself sobbing while running, crying in the grocery store, and experiencing full blown panic attacks at home, including staying up all night wracked with paranoia. It's been a party. And also like a very uncomfortable flashback to 4 years ago right after I found out the truth about Matt. (see sidebar). The cure is to bump up the prednisone for a day or two and go back to slowly weaning off. Which I am trying to do, but I am a bit of a forgetful person, so I typically recall I didn't take prednisone that day when I find myself yelling at the dog and crying while jogging past some cute little family on the logging trail. Pbbbbt.
Now that you're caught up to what's been going on, I bring you to today. I was having depressive symptoms from the prednisone/withdrawal and didn't want to eat or talk or do anything, but felt very lonely and just BLAH.
I just felt crappy today. I cried in Trader Joe's, I cried in PetSmart, I whined incessantly on my training run. It was poopy. I needed SOMETHING. My friends have not been the greatest about returning my texts and it was making me feel like a needy chick texting and getting no response. (And hurt my [wildly hormonal] feelings.)
So... around 10pm I texted K and said I was in need of cheering up and could we do anything sometime this week?
He answered right away and we quickly made plans for a "Midnight BBQ" tonight! I thought that was about the cutest thing I'd ever heard of. I brought a squash from my mom's garden and a bottle of wine my friends brought me back from Arkansas and drove over. He was coming from a friend's house where they had been watching the Oregon v. Washington game (we won 38-31 I think), and we walked to the grocery store together for a couple things before settling down to chopping, drizzling and BBQ'ing! K made penne pasta with grilled eggplant, red onions, yellow squash, and andiulli sausage. He was critical of his cooking but I thought it was great. We talked and drank and ate and had a lovely time. I felt so much better just to have company, and he is of course a great host! We also saw an R.O.U.S in his yard (Rodents of Unusual Size) and he talked me into going out there with a flashlight and trying to pet it. I was obviously unsuccessful, but had the pleasure of watching the giant 20 pound rat hop like a bunny across the grass, which I felt made it all worth it!
I left his house just before 3am, and he very nicely walked me to my car ( a good three blocks up hill), where we loitered around for a bit more talking. He was obviously tired, but we kept talking.. And I kept thinking in my head, JUST KISS ME ALREADY! But it didn't happen. So my mind circles back around to "We are friends," and "Stop thinking about your friend like that! It's weird!" And yet we had extended conversations, again, about dating, and what we are looking for, how lonely we are, and while going through photos of the students in our department he told me he found me attractive (I was so delighted I of course forget everything else we were talking about and can't regurgitate the conversation for you. My bad. I was busy blushing and coming up with a "cool" comeback to the compliment.)
(....Pretty sure my "cool" comeback was a smile and a thank you and a subject change like it was NBD).
I drove home with a HUGE smile on my face though, because I just felt so cheered up. It was nice to spend time with a "friend," one on one, and have a nice conversation and just be taken care of. I tried to sit outside with him while he was cooking (at 1am...) and he didn't want my butt to get cold on the concrete so he ran and got me a chair- and then sat on the concrete himself. My drink rarely got to empty because he kept it full and paid attention to my needs! He walked me to my car without prompting (unlike the idiots in my cohort), sent me home with one of his precious glass jar water bottles, and was overall, just NICE. I like him. I just wish I understood it. I don't really have friendships with men so I have no idea how this is supposed to go.
Ideas?
I had a pretty rough day today. I had a pretty rough week actually. As you may recall, I got poison ivy back on August 2nd when I was on the east coast. I turned out to be super allergic to the P.I., and was in and out of the doctor's office 4-5 times and had an endless supply of prescriptions. So far, it looks like my skin is going to scar. It's not bad, but I hope it keeps fading.
Anyway, the doctor put me on prednisone to help things along, and she put me on an extremely high dose, and an over 5 week regime. The prednisone actualy made me feel great. All of the body ache and arthritis symptoms I usually have totally went away. I PR'd at both the Eugene Marathon Race, and at the Scandia-Fest 5k as well. It really helped me get my body to a normal functioning level. I even started unpacking from my move- over a year ago. I cleaned and sorted laundry- it was amazing! I love prednisone!
Unfortunately however, prednisone is a steriod and there are consequences for taking it more than a few days. One of the consequences in panic attacks. Another consequence is your adrenal gland shutting down, or diminishing production levels. This messes with everything from your period (hello two week cycle) to really awful things like anxiety and depression. I started experiencing side effects so the doctor prescribed me Ativan to deal with the anxiety, which worked just fine. She also wanted me to wean off the steroids a little faster, and I did. But the problem with that was, weaning off too fast doesn't give your adrenal gland a chance to get back in the groove and it can trigger a depressive cycle, which is exactly what happened. I have found myself sobbing while running, crying in the grocery store, and experiencing full blown panic attacks at home, including staying up all night wracked with paranoia. It's been a party. And also like a very uncomfortable flashback to 4 years ago right after I found out the truth about Matt. (see sidebar). The cure is to bump up the prednisone for a day or two and go back to slowly weaning off. Which I am trying to do, but I am a bit of a forgetful person, so I typically recall I didn't take prednisone that day when I find myself yelling at the dog and crying while jogging past some cute little family on the logging trail. Pbbbbt.
Now that you're caught up to what's been going on, I bring you to today. I was having depressive symptoms from the prednisone/withdrawal and didn't want to eat or talk or do anything, but felt very lonely and just BLAH.
I just felt crappy today. I cried in Trader Joe's, I cried in PetSmart, I whined incessantly on my training run. It was poopy. I needed SOMETHING. My friends have not been the greatest about returning my texts and it was making me feel like a needy chick texting and getting no response. (And hurt my [wildly hormonal] feelings.)
So... around 10pm I texted K and said I was in need of cheering up and could we do anything sometime this week?
He answered right away and we quickly made plans for a "Midnight BBQ" tonight! I thought that was about the cutest thing I'd ever heard of. I brought a squash from my mom's garden and a bottle of wine my friends brought me back from Arkansas and drove over. He was coming from a friend's house where they had been watching the Oregon v. Washington game (we won 38-31 I think), and we walked to the grocery store together for a couple things before settling down to chopping, drizzling and BBQ'ing! K made penne pasta with grilled eggplant, red onions, yellow squash, and andiulli sausage. He was critical of his cooking but I thought it was great. We talked and drank and ate and had a lovely time. I felt so much better just to have company, and he is of course a great host! We also saw an R.O.U.S in his yard (Rodents of Unusual Size) and he talked me into going out there with a flashlight and trying to pet it. I was obviously unsuccessful, but had the pleasure of watching the giant 20 pound rat hop like a bunny across the grass, which I felt made it all worth it!
I left his house just before 3am, and he very nicely walked me to my car ( a good three blocks up hill), where we loitered around for a bit more talking. He was obviously tired, but we kept talking.. And I kept thinking in my head, JUST KISS ME ALREADY! But it didn't happen. So my mind circles back around to "We are friends," and "Stop thinking about your friend like that! It's weird!" And yet we had extended conversations, again, about dating, and what we are looking for, how lonely we are, and while going through photos of the students in our department he told me he found me attractive (I was so delighted I of course forget everything else we were talking about and can't regurgitate the conversation for you. My bad. I was busy blushing and coming up with a "cool" comeback to the compliment.)
(....Pretty sure my "cool" comeback was a smile and a thank you and a subject change like it was NBD).
I drove home with a HUGE smile on my face though, because I just felt so cheered up. It was nice to spend time with a "friend," one on one, and have a nice conversation and just be taken care of. I tried to sit outside with him while he was cooking (at 1am...) and he didn't want my butt to get cold on the concrete so he ran and got me a chair- and then sat on the concrete himself. My drink rarely got to empty because he kept it full and paid attention to my needs! He walked me to my car without prompting (unlike the idiots in my cohort), sent me home with one of his precious glass jar water bottles, and was overall, just NICE. I like him. I just wish I understood it. I don't really have friendships with men so I have no idea how this is supposed to go.
Ideas?
Monday, September 15, 2014
University of Oregon v. South Dakota Football Game
first game of the season! My friend Corrie and I went to the game together. I was supposed to go with my friend Skylar too (it was both Corrie and Skylar's first games ever!) but Skylar's dog had an emergency and she ended up in the hospital. Skylar was getting ready to go, and then all of a sudden her dog started screaming and wouldn't move her body. Skylar called me crying saying she thought the dog was paralyzed and was on the way to the ER. They're not exactly sure what happened but puppy is on all kinds of medication. She's a dauchsund, so there's a lot of potential spinal injuries or degenerative issues that culd be at play. Unfortunately, Skylar didn't make it to the game, so that was a huge bummer.
Corrie and I ended up turning around (we were almost to Skylar's when we got the call about the change in plans) and going back to Corrie's, since it is walking distance from the stadium. We got chips and guacamole and salsa and a bottle of "Light Grape" and kicked back until it was time to head on over! We also got these great Roasted Garlic & Sea Salt ruffled potato chips ( think they were Lay's brand, so technically I think they call them "wavy.") which were AMAZING. We ate the entire family size bag. It was awful. LOL
At the grocery store, we absolutely could not find fresh Pico de Gallo, and it was just driving me crazy. How could Safeway not have fresh salsa/ I buy it all the time! Corrie finally pointed out this particular Safeway caters to a very particular type of shopper: Alcoholic Undergrads.
Have you ever seen so much alcohol spread all over the freaking FLOOR?!
After Safeway and the tailgate for two at Corrie's apartment, we headed on over to the game, which was about a .6 mile walk.
On the way over , we also found an unopened can of PBR sitting on top of a bridge. After a quick debate, we figured the risk of herpes was pretty low and it got chugged.
Go Corrie! LOL
The game was lots of fun and we managed to find some law students to sit with too. I really love going to a Pac 12 school and the free football tickets can't be beat!
Corrie and I ended up turning around (we were almost to Skylar's when we got the call about the change in plans) and going back to Corrie's, since it is walking distance from the stadium. We got chips and guacamole and salsa and a bottle of "Light Grape" and kicked back until it was time to head on over! We also got these great Roasted Garlic & Sea Salt ruffled potato chips ( think they were Lay's brand, so technically I think they call them "wavy.") which were AMAZING. We ate the entire family size bag. It was awful. LOL
At the grocery store, we absolutely could not find fresh Pico de Gallo, and it was just driving me crazy. How could Safeway not have fresh salsa/ I buy it all the time! Corrie finally pointed out this particular Safeway caters to a very particular type of shopper: Alcoholic Undergrads.
Have you ever seen so much alcohol spread all over the freaking FLOOR?!
After Safeway and the tailgate for two at Corrie's apartment, we headed on over to the game, which was about a .6 mile walk.
On the way over , we also found an unopened can of PBR sitting on top of a bridge. After a quick debate, we figured the risk of herpes was pretty low and it got chugged.
Go Corrie! LOL
The game was lots of fun and we managed to find some law students to sit with too. I really love going to a Pac 12 school and the free football tickets can't be beat!
Go ducks!
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Mount Angel Oktoberfest 5k Race Report (#11 of 14)
Race #11 of our 14 in 2014 Race Series. Time: 41:55
So I'm quite a bit behind on blogging my races from this year, so I'm trying to catch up! It's hard to remember how this went when I blog so far after the fact so I need to not do that in the future!
In September, Sarah and I did the Oktoberfest 5k in Mount Angel. Mount Angel has a HUGE festival and over 300,000 people come into this germanic village that has a population of like 100 or something. It's sort of wild. I remember this being a good race, with a flat course and good weather. Afterwards we got our free beers that came with our race bibs! I just remember it was really warm, and being tired and the beer being really, really refreshing, which is not typically how I feel about beer! It was very cold though and it felt good! Then we ran around sampling food and checking out the festival. We sampled lots of different things. It was a good adventure!
Sarah also forgot her IS (of course, because she always does!) and I had to sneak her into one of the food tents. She went through the line like a minor, while I got ID'd and hand stamped. I realized I could re-stamp her hand with my wet stamp so I can over to her and pressed the backs of our hands together and transferred my stamp to her hand so we could both get in and have lunch together. I was pretty proud of my sneakiness there!
We decided to bring home Charlie Brown the leftover sausage we got... so Sarah tied it up with her heart rate monitor! LOL
So I'm quite a bit behind on blogging my races from this year, so I'm trying to catch up! It's hard to remember how this went when I blog so far after the fact so I need to not do that in the future!
In September, Sarah and I did the Oktoberfest 5k in Mount Angel. Mount Angel has a HUGE festival and over 300,000 people come into this germanic village that has a population of like 100 or something. It's sort of wild. I remember this being a good race, with a flat course and good weather. Afterwards we got our free beers that came with our race bibs! I just remember it was really warm, and being tired and the beer being really, really refreshing, which is not typically how I feel about beer! It was very cold though and it felt good! Then we ran around sampling food and checking out the festival. We sampled lots of different things. It was a good adventure!
Sarah also forgot her IS (of course, because she always does!) and I had to sneak her into one of the food tents. She went through the line like a minor, while I got ID'd and hand stamped. I realized I could re-stamp her hand with my wet stamp so I can over to her and pressed the backs of our hands together and transferred my stamp to her hand so we could both get in and have lunch together. I was pretty proud of my sneakiness there!
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