Last Saturday, we celebrated my niece's 1st birthday and I cooked. I never cook. I don't make things. I can't draw, knit, sculpt nothing. It took me two weeks to prepare, with one day of prepping and one day of cooking, but when all was said and done I managaed to make two pan's of cheesy potato casserole (one without onions for my brother and sister-in-law) and 3lbs. worth of mussels in garlic and beer. I was extremely gluttonous and only slightly guilty. The food was a hit with no leftovers to be had. I made sure to get my niece two loud toys so her parents wouldn't forget her and she completely inspired me to get my own "smash" cake for whatever thrity-something birthday I have coming up in September.
Sunday, A broached the idea of selling my road bike. I had been kicking the idea around for the last year and a half, but being the type of person that has an emotional attachment to certain objects in my life I had not seriously done anything about it. A convinced me it would go to a good home and I could get a decent price and within four hours it was cleaned-up, test ridden and sold! Gone was my trusty red and black Trek 1200 that had carried me over thousands of miles, that had taken me 50+ mph once down a hill out by River Road and had only ever flatted on me one time in three years. It went to a good home and I hoped it's new rider would enjoy it as much as I had. The upside to all this was it got me a few bucks to get through these unemployed weeks until the dough starts rolling in from my new job.
Monday with all the crappy weather I was dreading the drive to South Pointe for my phsycial and physical capabilites test only to discover the power was out in some areas of the buildings and only half of my appointments would be completed. I was a little bummed. It had to be the physical capabilities test that would require me maxing out all 4 of my appendages in less than 45 minutes. I was told I would have to come back Tuesday following the same protocols, eat well, sleep well and avoid strenuous activity. This was messing up my running and boot camp. I peed in a cup in a pitch black bathroom, managing to avoid peeing on my hand and sacrificed three tubes worth of blood. I only ran 7 miles after and opted to skip boot camp once the weather became sketchy around 3pm.
Tuesday I traveled down to the main campus to turn in my new hire paperwork, get my ID badge and parking assignment. I originally was assigned the same parking deck as when I precepted down there, but switched to a surface lot to save $15 a month on parking, so now they only dock my paycheck $45/month (GEEZ, no wonder I make what I make -- they are gonna take most of it back in gas and parking!!). It was really quick and I went directly back to South Pointe thinking maybe I could get in an hour early, but no such luck. They checked me in and left me sitting in the lobby for an hour. My appointment was at 2:30pm. They called me back at 2:40pm. The max test required I be strapped into a seat tighter than the Dragster at Cedar Point. The straps criss-crossed my chest and after writhing, left and right, pretty much foaming at the mouth and grunting like a pissed off wild hog I had two thoughts.
1. If I had breast implants and did this test I bet I would have popped one if not both it was so tight
2. My shoulders were gonna be wrecked for days (I had hickey looking marks on both traps and they are still sore 3 days later).
The test was new as of this year and to fail would result in my job offer being rescinded. It was supposedly being used as an indicator for worker's comp and injuries, but it seemed flawed to me. How does my max strength determine if I know how to lift appropriately? Needless to say, it sounded like I had put the best numbers up at their facility by a female thus far when the administrator stated "Wow! I think these are the highest I have seen so far. She's set the bar for the girls." I left sore but happy knowing if I didn't pass that test nobody would.
Wednesday I ran down by my old high school and silently cursed all the high school drivers going by on their phones. Damn kids!!! And then it occurred to me -- I had been out of high school for 15 years (that was an unpleasant thought). I looped back down the all-purpose path and back home for an exhilirating 12 miler. Thinking back and looking outside now, I debate banging my head on the wall for not just making that my long run day as the weather was perfect for me and today is...well, less than ideal. Boot camp that night was rough. I had a really hard time doing anything that required my shoulders. I looked forward to the deadlift station, for once.
Thursday, I had set-up a reunion at Ray's for my classmates. I figured about 10 people were coming as I had not received that many unofficial RSVP's, but a little after 4:00 pm, person after person trickled in. It was amazing! The majority of my class and even one of my teacher's had made it out. I had meant to be home by 7:00 pm, but with so many great stories and an unending amount of ridiculous jokes and laughs it took me until 7:30 pm to muster the will power to say good-bye to them and head home.
Now, today I have spent a large amount of the day re-hashing the wonderful week I had and posting pics and thank-you's, watching some old show called "Moonlight" on the SyFy channel and periodically looking out the window to see if I am ready to brave the snow for my run. I will probably just hit the treadmill and keep watching TV before I possibly venture out to Bike Authority to spend time with another group of amazing people that have shared their friendship with me over the years.
1 comment:
Couldn't make it out to the meeting tonight--was hoping to tell you in person CONGRATULATIONS Nurse HEIER! :) You deserve it! Hope to see you soon!
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