Still Snowing

It is still snowing up here in the mountains, and it's actually starting to stick! Yikes! I am gearing up for a longish indoor bike ride. I'm kind of relieved about it, there's no need for me to sit and debate whether to try riding outside, the snow made the decision for me. Somehow cold+wet up here feels ten times worse than cold+wet at sea level... although maybe I am just looking at the Bay Area winters and rains of my past through rose-colored glasses!

Separate matter: I found myself chuckling yesterday about the $4+ gas freakout. I shouldn't be laughing, it's a serious matter I know, but I was thinking about how it's not like gas prices suddenly doubled or something. We've crossed the $4 mark here in Incline many times already, although we have generally hovered right below it. But suddenly gas is 10 or 20 cents more, and it's freakout time... OMG I can't afford to drive down to Carson to swim, OMG I have to combine all possible errands for the month into one trip, OMG OMG OMG. My friends, family, and TV are all reacting the same way - everyone is.

I did read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I understand and agree with the concept and it certainly seems to apply here. $3.99 gas is annoying, $4.09 gas warrants revision of travel and vacation plans, slapping a "For Sale" sign on the Ford Expedition, and Freaking Out. (Seriously in the past week I have seen an exponential increase in the number of gas-guzzlers sporting for sale signs. I have also laughed at the commercials on TV advertising "deals" on Toyota Sequoias, Ford Turbo Truckmonsters, etc.)

For now, I am glad I have a fairly gas-efficient Honda Civic. But I am saving my pennies for an electric car.

Made In France

I am taking a break from trying to wrestle my new Michelin Pro2 Race Tires onto my race wheels... yes these are tires that I purchased on my own, even after my wrestling match from a month ago when I was trying to get my team-issue michelin's onto my team-issue-not-really-good-for-tri's race wheels.

"Made In France" is apparently code for "your fatass American crap will be too big for our svelte stuff" because ONCE AGAIN I can't get the f***ers onto the wheels, even though we are now talking about a different make and model wheelset from before.

I'm already practicing my eyelash-batting in the hopes of enlisting some strong male help. Either that or I am just going to return these and get some nice big 'merican tires.

Follow Up on last post

So, as you may have seen on Greg's blog, his foot xray came back negative for a fracture. This is good news, it means his foot is badly bruised but the sesamoid bone in there (apparently there are several sesamoids in the body?) is not broken. Current plan is for him to head to Charlottesville, VA next week, to stay at his parents' and to have access to a good orthopedic doctor in the area and to get swim stroke critiques from his dad and to generally HAVE FUN and MAKE ME JEALOUS. I love Charlottesville, it's where I went to college and lived for a couple of years after college and have a bunch of friends and rode a lot of ponies and was a radio superstar and fell in love with running and generally HAD FUN.

Lucky Greg!

I will stay here and play with Kitty and clean up the apartment and go to Wildflower all by my lonely little clueless self. And Greg is in big trubs because of the whole Wildflower Accommodations situation... Wildflower is famous for being the "woodstock" of triathlon, everyone goes to the park and camps for the race weekend and, according to video footage, they wear crazy outfits too.

I am not a camper. I do not camp. I spent a couple of months living out of a tent in Australia back in my youth and I had more than my fill. I do not camp. No freaking way. I especially do not camp and race at the same time. (Please note that an RV rental is not in my budget.) So ever since last year when Greg and I were discussing my race calendar for this year, I made sure he knew that I don't camp or sleep in cars and that the only way I'd do Wildflower is if I got to stay with him in the pro accommodations, which are cabins that are a 15 minute drive from the race.

Now of course I am all entered and ready for the race and my luxurious cabin has been whipped away from under me! Aack!

So I am going to get a hotel room in King City, 45 minutes away. Thankfully I have a friend who is racing and he is also not a camper, nor are a bunch of his racer friends, so I am not alone. Phew! Greg is still in trubs though. I will miss him, not just because of the cabin... I can't believe I am going to this big race without him. I was so looking forward to being there with him, supporting each other, and generally enjoying the sport we love together. I am crossing my fingers that he heals fast and is ready for a great race at Columbia... Although, if he is still injured, he can watch the race with my mom and help her figure out what on earth she is watching and when to cheer ;)! I guess there is always a bright side.

What Not To Do

Man I can't believe the weekend is nearly over. I need another one please, I am wrecked. And I didn't really do a ridiculous amount of training - I probably just made some stupid decisions (or stupid forgets, that's a little more accurate).

The weekdays this week were strategically splattered with some quality intensity work, along with attempted recovery. Intensity is pretty hard up here, and I've found that recovery is hard too. Back in Oakland, if I'd feel sluggish and crappy, I'd head out for an hour loop up Tunnel Road and down through Montclair or Claremont, and arrive back home feeling worlds better and ready for another loop or three. That just doesn't happen here, that refreshed feeling after a nice spin (neither the feeling NOR the spin - it's mostly just staring at the ride time begging for it to be over already). And there are certainly no "recovery runs". Recovery has to come in other forms I guess, namely sleep! And I made sure to get plenty of sleep this week.

So after a good but well-planned week, I planned to have a good and well-planned weekend too. Didn't get off to the best start. Yesterday Greg and I drove down to the pool in Carson for a long course workout, the pool opened at 10:30 according to the website. We made the mistake of not calling ahead (rationalization being that if we called at 10 to verify it was set up LCM they'd be closed anyway so why bother), and of course got there to find the pool teeming with teenagers and their parents and coaches and hormones. Woohoo swim meet taking over the whole pool... Greg threw his towel, it didn't make any noise or do any damage but that was all that was on hand to display Major Frustration. But after a long drive back up the mountain, we managed to get in a decent workout at our pool in Incline, so that was nice, though the workout we'd planned would have been so much better.

We got home around 1 p.m. and I was seeing stars. Actually more like this big fuzzy rectangle off to the left, in both eyes, regardless of whether my eyelids were closed or open. Thinking I was low in blood sugar, I ate a cookie or two, but that didn't help. Greg's dad informed me via telephone that it's a sign of dehydration, not eye cancer or cookie deprivation, and I realized that I'd had half a water bottle all day... including the hard 1.25 hr swim in a warm pool... crap. I had forgotten to drink! What a rookie maneuver! Ugh!

I downed a big bottle of electrolyte mix but I am guessing that was maybe too little too late, because my long run in the afternoon was the worst ever (partly because of my route choice and the 30 mph winds but I did really feel horrid), and my long ride today with friends down in Reno was the second worst of the past month or so. I knew at the start that it would be a long four hours, my legs and heart felt so tired, and the wind steadily built from 15 mph to a good 25 mph, so I struggled but toughed it out. And I reminded myself that if 2 weeks ago I could do four hours by myself on the Pacific Coast Highway on a brand new TT bike with only one bottle cage and starting the ride with the worst saddle sore I have had in months and riding into a 15 mph headwind for the whole first half of the ride, if I could do that, I could certainly deal with cold windy Reno. At least I had company and an irritant-free crotch area. Although it was a bit embarrassing, not ONLY did my companions have to wait for Courtenay the Snail at the tops of the climbs, they also had to wait at the bottoms of the descents!! Apparently I was the only one with contacts, they could all see fine down the long super windy descents, whereas I was left dizzy and trying for the life and safety of me to just stare at the white line and get down and out of the wind. Sheesh.

So, lesson being: hydrate! It will make your weekends funner! (I know I am just begging for a basewater comment once again...) Now I am warming up and hydrating with some herbal tea, hoping hoping hoping that I feel better by tomorrow. The Carson City pool is supposed to be set up long-course until 9 a.m., and I am determined to make my third effort at getting there the charm. Greg can't go though, he has to get his foot x-rayed. (Add'l source of stress this weekend. To Be Continued.)

Super Exciting Tuesday

So now that I finally filed my taxes and stopped pestering 5 separate people about "HELP I don't have/never got/can't find my w-2/1099/K-1!! Please help!!", life is back to normal. I'll probably find something else to freak out about soon, but for now I am enjoying some couch time with Kitty in front of some stupid show on VH1. We are waiting for the season finale of Real Housewives of New York City to come on at 9.

Anyhow, assuming I put everything into Turbo Tax correctly, for the first time in my life I am getting state and federal refunds! Yay! They are going directly into my newly-established "next visit to the dentist" fund. Every night when I floss, my heartbeat gets faster and I pull that thread around just hoping and hoping that I don't pull out some filling or something. I'm now hoping that having some allocated Dentist cash laying around will diminish my nightly stress a little bit.

In other news, and for those of you who read Greg's blog, this won't be a surprise, but anyway in other news we headed down to Carson City this morning to swim in the 50 meter pool. At first I was quite cranky because we left home late so we got there later than intended so I was inevitably going to be late for work. Also the pool was set up short course yards, not long course meters like I'd hoped, and the water was a warm 81 degrees compared to our own short course pool's 83 degrees, and the water tasted weird, and the only pull buoy they had was one of those teeny junior ones, so I pouted and wondered why the crap we got up at the unGODly hour of 7 a.m. and drove for almost 40 minutes for basically what we have at home.

BUT, by the end of the workout, I decided it was worth it! I don't really know the physiology of it all, but here at 6400' elevation I can't do much more than 100's or an occasional 150 in my main sets. It gets so hard to breathe that my form just falls apart. At Carson's 4800' though, 300's felt like a breeze. Which was a good thing, because very recently my "coaching team" (very loose term for who and what guides my training) pointed out that I have a 1.2 mile swim in 3 weeks and my longest main set thus far has been a mere 1500 yards. So I was instructed to hike that up by about 40% pronto! Being able to do 300's, 400's, and 500's at the Carson pool is thus awesome and very helpful.

Sorry if this is boring. I guess life's a bit boring at the moment, although I did get called a "Bitch!" today in the subject line of an email from some guy who responded to a job ad on craigslist a couple weeks ago, I made the stupid decision to email him back to ask for a resume in something other than Word Perfect format (who still uses that program anyway?!), he proceeded to email me almost daily about the job that I have no actual role in filling beyond passing resumes along, I chose to ignore his obnoxious and poorly-worded emails (stupidity gets one nowhere with me), and I guess he got pissed and emailed me to tell me I am a bitch.

I forwarded it to my boss. Think the guy'll get the job? I doubt it.

Found My Keys

In the top of the gym locker where they were last seen yesterday. Woohoo!!

Now I can use my car to drive to an electronics store to buy a new iPod shuffle charger to replace the one I stepped on and broke while I was tearing the apartment apart looking for my keys.

Thanks for all the good-luck wishes!

Lost My Keys

Last confirmed sighting in a gym locker last night... first noticed missing this morning when I was already 5 minutes late in leaving for work via Raley's to buy lunch. Thankfully my boss called me right around freakout time to say I should work from home since everyone is sick, so I didn't have to hitch-hike my way up the hill! (but I still managed to have a lame lunch)

Anyhow 3 hours later and they still haven't turned up. I have called the gym twice. They think I am dumb. They are probably right. Especially since I previously lost the spare key to my car, this was nearly a year ago now (and I have moved since then) so I have given up the hope of finding it. If this set of keys is lost and gone forever I am kind of screwed. And officially dumb.

This apartment is killing me, I am convinced it is possessed and that it has swallowed up a bunch of IMPORTANT stuff: a phone charger, a phone USB cable, new elastic laces for my sneakers, 2 or 3 cereal bowls, 5 socks, and now possibly my keys. Although, I am not convinced the gym actually checked for them so I will run there later and have an in-person look-see.

Doh

So, apparently Coach totally screwed up my training over the past week or so. Like royally f'ed up... last week was a rest week, but I didn't arrive at this week very refreshed, made it halfway through the week's workouts before falling apart yesterday and barely making it up and down the pool with fins on this morning.

Coach is in big trubs.

The thing is, Coach is actually Me. Clearly I am not the best coach in the whole world, ready to take an athlete to levels beyond her wildest dreams. I just fit into my own price range pretty well, and after 4 years of bike racing I figured I could bumble along on my own this year without being too much the worse for wear. Having a resident swim expert is helpful too!

But I am not firing myself. I think I just got a bit overenthusiastic with how good I was feeling (up until this week that is), and forgot that I can't train at 6,400' the same way I would at sea level. I think this is particularly true of a rest week, when I used to keep my intensity and just back off of the volume - for a cycle of two weeks on/one off at sea level, this worked well for me. I am thinking that was my primary mistake last week - I felt good so I ran and rode hard, just not for too long. But on Monday I felt sluggish, figured it was just because it was Monday, Tuesday sucked worse, Wednesday I muscled my way through a tough trainer workout, hoping my legs would come around even though the effort felt harder than it did a week and a half ago at the very end of my block, and that was pretty much my last gasp.

All just theorization of course. I am open to other analyses, for example "if you'd stop blogging about your cat/fish/mom/cleverness maybe your training would be more focused".

Now it's time for some hard-core relaxation (as if I had a choice! The SRM won't let me lie about the inefficacy of my legs, and the pool and treadmill are equally unforgiving). Maybe I'll even read a book (gasp!). Better to lose a few days now than a few weeks or months later on in the year...

Um Today's Tuesday

I was so stoked for my morning swim workout. So stoked that I got up at 6 A.M. (which I haven't done in MONTHS) and drove for 15 minutes, armed with my water bottle and a banana - interesting., still being stoked about the swim, I got to the Healdsburg Swim Center, stoked yet suspicious that I was apparently the only lap swimmer, went up to the locked door and read the sign about the M W F 6 am-1 pm lap swim and T TH 10 am-1 pm hours, started flipping out that there was no notification or explanation whatsoever about why the pool was for some reason CLOSED at 6:45 am on a Monday and stomped around and

then

remembered

Yesterday was Monday.


So workout is postponed to tomorrow morning, when I will again be stoked. I love swimming now! I wish I were swimming with Greg here instead of by myself but it is good for me to rely on my own motivation and energy instead of drawing off of his. And it is also great to feel like I can breathe and go faster and do longer sets all at the same time! Yay sea level!

Bananas - Interesting.

This was the subject line of an email I got from my mom this morning, which like most things my mom says and does, cracked me up. The email was a forward all about how bananas are great, which I already knew, but still: Ha! Bananas - Interesting.

Other news:

- Baby Thor is a bit sick. She caught a cold on the way home from Reno (i.e. she has 'ich'), I have not had to deal with a sick fish yet so I freaked out but when I talked to the fish store they said to put in 1 tbsp of salt per 10 gallons of water, and to jack the heater up to 86 degrees and it should go away in 5-7 days. The good news is she has a healthy appetite, and Sweetie and Pipsqueak are very healthy and happy looking.

- This Sunday and Monday, en route to my super awesome VAC training camp, to which I have been looking forward since like AUGUST, I will be stopping by the city to chill with friends, get my old dentist to make me a crown, and go SHOPPING! On a budget of approx. $10 of course, but that will definitely get me some cool paper at Flax and maybe some new shoelaces at Sports Basement and hopefully also a new nail polish to bring to camp. Woohoo party time for Court!

- The sun finally came out here! Temps are in the 40's for the first time since December, and I'm loving it. I still haven't ventured outside for any workouts, the roads are wet from all the snow melting and it's a rest week so I am O.K. with doing 1 hour rides and 30 minute runs indoors, and catching up on my Animal Planet. Polar bears - interesting.

- Tomorrow I am going to the car wash to make my bike sparkly.

And that's about it.

Neverending Dental Saga

I have been eating this semi-delicious bread lately that has lots of seeds and nuts in it. Whilst eating a sandwich the other day I felt an uncomfortable sensation in one of my teeth. Whilst flossing last night I noticed a crack across the top of one of my bottom molars which has previously been root-canaled and crowned.

As you can imagine: freakout commenced, replete with tears.

I brush my teeth multiple times a day with an electronic Oral B toothbrush. I replace the head on this toothbrush every 3 months like you are supposed to. I use super-flouridated toothpaste. I even FLOSS at least once a day. I don't eat candy or sweets, unless you count the occasional piece of dark chocolate or big sweetened americanized coffee concoction. I do everything right, right?

UGH I HATE MY TEETH. DOES ANYONE WANT TO TRADE. YOU CAN HAVE MY TEETH AND A YEAR'S WORTH OF HOMEMADE COOKIES AND TOOTHPASTE. I WILL EVEN THROW IN A BIG HEALTHY BLACK GOLDFISH TO SWEETEN THE DEAL.

Really I do hate them. I think there are at most like 2 teeth in my mouth that have not needed some sort of expensive dental work. It was for this reason I switched to HEED sports drink last year, it uses maltodextrin as a sweetener so it's better for your teeth, but our team was sponsored by a different product for races, I got sick of the taste of HEED, and I basically got lazy and miserly and started using whatever product was cheapest/free. I know that a crown doesn't just randomly break on its own because you are chewing something, there has to be weakness and decay in there already. So somehow something is messing everything up even though I spend approx. 10x more time than Greg on my dental hygiene, and guess who has no cavities in this family...

Anyhow I have an appointment with a dentist in Reno tomorrow, he also happens to be a triathlete. I am hoping that we will thus be kindred spirits and consequently a. he doesn't lecture me because I have heard it all before and b. he doesn't charge me an arm and a leg. Also, conveniently, the fish store is very close to the dentist and I called them and they said they'd very happily "rehome" Stupidhead for me!!

Humble Pie

The weather forecast is crap for the weekend here. Today was the only day with even a chance of sunshine and bike-rideable temperatures within any reasonable driving distance of Tahoe. Thusly, Greg and I shifted our training schedules around a bit and headed down to Colfax (about 20 miles from Auburn) today for this weekend's long ride.

The planned route took us from Colfax on Iowa Hill Road, which is a beautiful and very lightly travelled road that crosses the American River and then climbs and climbs and climbs up to the Forest Hill Divide, at which point I was going to turn onto Foresthill Divide Road (the nice remote end, opposite of what I did last week) until I hit 2 hours of ride time and then turn around and ride back the way I came. Elevation of this route was something like 2200' at start to 1000' at river to 2800' at Iowa Hill to 4500' at the divide and then 3200' at Foresthill. It was supposed to be a 4 hr ride.

I totally didn't make it. At first just usual "toughen up" sort of complaints were getting in my way - I was cold, the 2 miles of solid 15% uphill grade sucked, there was more and more snow and slush on the road the further I got, I was all by myself, I had forgotten my pain-numbing iPod, etc. I finally decided to call it quits and turn around at 3100' or so because the road was more than half covered with snow and ice. This was only an hour or so into the ride (and only 10 miles! ugh steep climbs!), so I was reluctant to make this call, but similar to a ride from last year, I had to tell my "you are not a quitter" self to shove it in the name of reason.

The way back was basically fine for a while, I rode hard whenever the road was mostly flat and decended carefully whenever there was slush, and made it to the start of the really steep part without being cold or miserable.

Now for the embarassing part... I couldn't deal with the 15% downhill. At all. I walked for half of it, maybe more. I got off my bike and took baby steps down the road, gingerly hugging the hillside as if I were on an actual cliff, sobbing and sniffling all over the place. One car passed me while I was walking, some lady who looked at me and waved - I can't figure out why she didn't stop for someone in obvious distress?! Anyhow after around 25 or 30 minutes I finally made it to the bottom. I think it took me less time to climb that thing!

I have had problems with steep descents that have sharp dropoffs in the past, but never this bad. I really expected to be able to ride down it but when the time came, no way. (Although, I have only attempted a 2 mile 15% mountainside decent in my nightmares, never in real life!) I guess I have diagnosed myself with vertigo: in these situations, I get so paralyzed with fear by what's in my field of vision that I just can't function. It's actually the reason why I sold my mountain bike, why I have never been all the way to the top of Mt. Tam, and why I was one of the few San Francisco cyclists who hated the Marin Headlands loop.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Anyhow, tomorrow it's back to my good friend, The Trainer!

Probably For the Best

Today was an "it's probably for the best" sort of day, for a couple of reasons. Meaning, initial freakouts were followed by slightly more mature and introspective "oh, right, phew" moments.

Reason one is fairly run-of-the-mill - today we got hit with 5 inches of wet snow and a lot of wind. The power was out at the gym, so the pool and treadmills were inaccessible for my 1 hr swim and 1 hr 20 run... Shortened to a 0 hr swim and a 30 min run outside on my new Yak Trax sneaker things. I intended to do the full run outside, but the winds were at nearly 30 mph with gusts of 60 in places, it was snowing, and while the Yak Trax definitely improved my traction, running in today's snow was like running in deep sand, so I switched over to the cleared pavement in the road, but then I felt like the functionality of my shoes was compromised by the Yak Trax, sorry for the run-on sentence about this run-of-the-mill running story but that's totally what happened. So anyhow with sore ankles, a windswept face, and cold feet, I headed home, leaving this week's long run for tomorrow. I didn't complete my planned hours for the week, but I don't mind the outcome: a little extra rest, and time to drag Greg down to the crazy looking beach and take photos! Can you believe this is Lake Tahoe? It looks like the Pacific Ocean! Maybe I should have tried to do my swim outside too...

Today I also learned that registering for a triathlon is distinctly NOT like registering for a bike race, and should not be approached lackadaisically. I never entered any bike race more than 2 or on rare occasions 3 weeks in advance, but this morning I decided to register for my intended first triathlon of the season, Oceanside 70.3, which is over 2 months away, and it's full! Freakout commenced, because my main goal for the 2008 season is to qualify for my Elite license (tri-speak for Professional, for all you non-geeks out there), and Oceanside is one of the Elite qualifiers.

I felt like such a retard, for a few minutes anyway. But it's actually definitely for the best. For one thing, with all this winter weather we are having, I don't know that I'll feel ready for a half-ironman at the end of March. For another thing, the 70.3 races are run by the Ironman Corporation. I don't really agree with the company's values or philosophies, so I am actually glad not to be giving them any of my money.

Anyhow here are the photos Greg and I snapped of each other at the windy beach during our freezing 30 second visit!

Breakdowns - what to do?!

I am not talking about my car breaking down, btw I am still not driving that thing until the snow goes away.

No, I am talking about mental breakdowns before/during/after/because of workouts. Cycling and running are going along swimmingly for me, but swimming is not. For some reason I have cried in the pool during every single workout over the past 2 weeks (the mere duration of this rules out PMS as a possible cause!). It's stupid because I know I am improving, my times are getting better and my stroke is feeling smoother and I generally know I have left my little November-December plateau behind.

So why do I keep freaking out?

Freakout Scenario #1: I gaze across the other lanes as I put on my cap and goggles, see people doing 50's twice as fast as I do, and I just stand there motionless then go back in the locker room and call one of 3 people and cry about how I suck and there are currently like 5 chicks in the pool who do not.

Freakout Scenario #2: I decide it's high time I learn flip turns/backstroke/butterfly kick/anything other than freestyle and my version of "breastroke". So I grab Greg, make him give me a demonstration, spend 2 minutes trying to imitate him, then just stand there motionless in the water trying to hold back tears of frustration at not being perfect, stubbing my toes on the wall, inhaling water, etc.

Freakout Scenario #3: I see a spider on the deck and start screaming and run into the locker room.

Freakouts have happened TOO MUCH recently. I think this is a sign that I need to change things up - go back to swimming in the afternoon, when there are usually only one or two other swimmers and they are pretty chill. And if I go after work, when I am not pressed for time, I will be more inclined to set aside time for skills practices rather than just cramming as much yardage in before work as possible. I'll go to the pool with a set plan of what I am going to do, rather than just going by what Greg is doing. And I'll stop and remember that I am a million times huger than a spider before I set the lifeguards into rescue-the-screamer mode.

Why

Why am I in tears while living in one of the most beautiful places in the world?

Why did I so readily leave my sweet setup in the Bay Area?

Job-seeking sucks. Especially when seeking a job with tons of asterisks, such as "need lots of time off so I can go race AND go on vacation", "need part-time hours so I can go train", "need to not be on my feet so I can recover", "need to not work for an idiot/bunch of idiots so I don't do and say things we all regret", "need to make enough money to pay the bills", etc.

Also, why did I not opt for the 3-day in-store repair for my Mac, instead choosing the up-to-3-week mail-in repair that cost $40 less?

And why is that when you go online to investigate the "Laptops for $799!" offer, you get directed to this "Customize Your New Laptop!" page that is like "Do you want Your New Laptop to work? Add $150!" and "Do you want to be able to see the screen on Your New Laptop? Add $200!"?!?!?!

Anyway I am still without a computer.

It's severely affecting my blogging, my proofreading, my job-applicationing, my e-baying, my whole freaking life. The frustrating thing is I have hardly even been able to channel my free time into my artwork, partly because I feel uninspired but largely because I used my laptop for my art projects, even the paintings. So basically I am just playing solitaire and watching dog shows and open water swimming on T.V. and (gasp) looking up information in Real Live Books rather than the internet.

Can I Run Too Please?!

Whoa. Moving is exhausting. We got here yesterday, "we" being me, Greg, the U-Haul full of more crap than I ever ever thought I could accumulate, and 2 living breathing swimming goldfish!!

I am approximately 17% finished with unpacking and attempting to dispose of a big chunk of my accumulated crap. Although sometimes pack-ratted stuff is fun - Greg happened upon an old journal of mine from my college years, and got a good 4 hours of entertainment out of it. Poor emotionally tormented little 20 year old Courtenay is good for lots of laughs now. And I finally located some weather-appropriate footwear! I'm wearing sneakers now, major improvement over the rainbows.

I'm applying for a job at the local Pet Network tomorrow. Wish me luck! I told my mom about it, she said "Well that sounds nice sweetie, as long as you don't come HOME with one of the PETS." But Greg and I kinda already picked one out.

As for the subject line: yesterday, when I was just as tired as I am today but a little more stressed since it was my first day here and I had no clue where anything was, I showed up at the local Rec. Center to swim and run. Remember, I was tired. Anyhow the lady at the front desk asked if she could help me because I walked in doing my best startled-deer impersonation and of course I burst into tears, mumbling about not having my proof of residency yet and not knowing where anything in this (admittedly NOT LARGE) town is and wanting to swim but feeling overwhelmed, blah blah blah, and the total sweetheart of a front desk lady, Barbara, came out and gave me a hug and said I should just go downstairs and swim and not worry about the fee for today, just go get in my swim and feel better.

Then I said "(sniffle sniffle) thank you (sniffle) can I run too please?"

Way to go Court, looking a gift horse in the mouth or whatever the saying is.

Greg says I am such a girl sometimes!

I say I blurt out the STUPIDEST things sometimes...

FREAKOUT is COMMENCING

We leave for Cancun on Friday.

I am fairly confident that I won't drown.

Other than that... It's anyone's guess as to how my "triathlon debut" (not entirely sure I want to build it up like that) goes. My main goal is that it goes well enough for me to want to buy a wetsuit and go gallivanting off to Silverman!