soopahviv.net/blog

January 11, 2010 / Monday

It's That Time Of Year

It seems every December/January, my body starts to fall apart. After a relatively hockey healthy 2009, I now find myself nursing various injuries. The list, as of today:

Right shoulder - This one makes me mad, because I reinjured it at pickup last week after I got past a player who then purposely tripped me to prevent me from scoring. Because, you know, he was afraid I'd score the game-winning goal for the pickup world championship.

Left knee - The inside of my left knee started aching for no reason in December. I got knocked over and fell funny on it in the first shift of yesterday's game and felt a tiny pop there. It doesn't bother me most of the time, but I think I'll resurrect the hinged knee brace as a precaution.

Left middle finger - The middle knuckle is bruised, swollen, and split wide open. This somehow happened as part of yesterday's first shift fall, and my finger gushed blood the rest of the game. Gosh, that was some landing!

Left ankle - The outer tendon on my left ankle was really angry last month. Tying my skates less tightly seems to be helping, but skate bite irritations take time to heal. Need to be careful with this one.

Only four items. Not too bad, given the state I was in this time last year. I'm somewhat concerned about the knee and shoulder, though. Those joints are serious business!

Come on, body. Have you looked at our hockey schedule? I need you to be healthy!

10:24 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (1)

September 07, 2009 / Monday

WTG, Knees!

50 miles, 3,000 feet of climbing, no NSAIDs, no knee pain. That deserves a blog post, not just a Tweet.

Also, I made it up Old La Honda in just under 30 minutes. That's a little over 2 minutes better than the last time I did it. Improvement. Huzzah!

07:15 PM | Injuries:Road| Comments (1)

August 22, 2009 / Saturday

Happy Little Friday Ride

My mountain biking schedule has been nonexistent this month. It's due in part to more hockey, more hiking, more gym, and a dumb thumb sprain. How dumb is my left thumb? I sprained it trying to take my sock off. I hooked my thumb in, pulled on the sock, and my thumb flipped backward.

Janky thumb. I has it. Add that to the list.

In any case, I made myself go for a short ride at Arastradero after yoga today. The first half of the ride hurt a lot, I think in part because I haven't ridden in a while, and in part because the yoga teacher kicked our butts. Things felt much easier after the first half hour.

Speaking of (not) easy, I still remember my first few rides at this park. I remember pushing my bike up steep hills! Now I laugh at those memories as I spin up those same hills (sometimes twice for extra exercise). I don't think that will ever get old.

Something I learned today: It's baby lizard season! There were little lizards scurrying all over the trails. Some of them were the size of my pinky finger. I always assumed Spring was the season for baby creatures, but apparently lizards like to do their hatching in the summer.

Toward the beginning of today's ride, I passed by a hill with a lone dead tree at top. I wanted to take a picture but I didn't know how to get up to the tree. Come to think of it, I always want to take a picture of this tree, decide that I'm not close enough for a good shot, and move on. Toward the end of the ride, I spotted a short steep singletrack off the fireroad I was zipping down, turned around, and rode up it. At the top, I found myself at the tree. The sun was low, the light was gorgeous, and I'm glad my phone has a camera.

It's not exactly professional quality, but it'll do. :)

12:46 AM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (1)

August 02, 2009 / Sunday

Janky Genes

On Saturday, I went hiking at Castle Rock State Park. It made me wish I still climbed. I would like to pick that up again someday, but for now, I don't have enough extra time or body parts. I have Cheddah's janky shoulder, Bluepoof's janky elbow, and deputyshorts's janky wrist. That must mean SoopahViv has janky genes. I hope it's not contagious.

Also, I wonder how many days it'll take for my shins to stop being sore.

02:05 PM | Hike:Injuries| Comments (0)

June 27, 2009 / Saturday

Spazzy Back Week 4

Friday marked 12 straight days of some sort of activity. That's quite a lot for my body after doing almost nothing for two weeks, but I figured I would rest the following week at my parents' place.

The back is still the first thing to feel sore when I get tired, but there is definite progress. I went to pickup again on Thursday and felt pretty good, although I was frustrated that I wasn't doing anything useful with the puck. I decided in the final shifts to try to hang on to the puck and got a few end-to-end runs in. That's better! I'm looking forward to rejoining my NCWHL team next weekend.

I think my body will benefit from a break next week. While I've enjoyed all the activity, I've had a fairly mediocre week in terms of performance. I want to push, but my muscles refuse. "Explode!" I say. "Meh," they reply.

We'll try this "Explode!" thing again next weekend.

09:10 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

June 21, 2009 / Sunday

Spazzy Back Week 3

Week 3 went a heck of a lot better than week 2. I kicked off last Monday with yoga, went mountain biking Tuesday and Wednesday, played pickup hockey Thursday, got my butt kicked at yoga on Friday, went mountain biking again on Saturday, and did a ~25 mile spin on the road bike on Sunday.

The back is continuing to heal. The injury still hurts if I push on it unflexed, and it's the first thing to feel sore or tight when I get tired, but given that I can ride and play mellow hockey again, I'm not complaining. Sideways range of motion has improved, but I still have a ways to go on that front.

I'd been afraid that my two weeks off would result in really sore muscles upon resumption of activity, but I've fared pretty well for the most part. (They were actually just fine until Friday yoga's slew of butt-busting Warrior and Chair poses.) Amusingly, the things that have gotten soft are my biking and hockey callouses. Those ached, fell off, and are now regenerating.

Can I just tell you how cool the Stevens Creek Trail is? I rode it in its entirety on Sunday, from near the Grant/El Camino intersection in Mountain View. It's beautifully paved, goes under El Camino, over 85, over Central, over Moffett, under 101, and all the way to Shoreline, which has its own set of nice multi-use trails. You can use it to get through all the hard-to-cross "walls" without having to worry about cars. What a great facility for pedestrians, skaters, and bikers. :)

And finally, one of my best moments last week: Sneezing without pain. Phew! And achoO!

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

08:00 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

June 15, 2009 / Monday

I Think My Back Is Mostly Back

I didn't kick off my ambitious plan this weekend as I'd hoped. I really wanted to, really needed to, but I simply didn't have time. I had a really good weekend, but by the end of it, I was falling apart mentally from lack of exercise. I'm really not kidding when I say that exercise keeps me sane. By 11 PM on Sunday night, I just wanted to curl into a little ball and cry.

To which Aaron said, "Get over it." I thought he was a big poopiehead at the time, but now that I've returned from yoga and regained some of my sanity, I realize that the sky was not really falling after all.

My original ambitious plan did not include yoga, mainly because yoga puts me into a lot of strange positions that I wasn't sure my back could handle. But since the ambitious plan was now out the window, I decided I needed to do *something*, even if it meant a whole bunch of Extended Child poses instead of whatever balancing pretzels the rest of the class was doing.

To my surprise, I did just fine. Yoga was exactly the mix of stretching and strenghtening my body needed, and the calm and focus my mind needed. I felt great right up until the end of class, when I curled into a tight little ball and rolled on my back. My injury is not ready for direct pressure yet. Ow!

On the upside, I can do a side plank again. This was not even remotely possible a few days ago. And all my stretching the first week must have paid off, because I was able to place my palms flat on the floor in a forward fold for the first time ever. Huzzah! \o/

So here's my revamped ambitious plan: yoga on Monday, mountain bike at Chabot on Tuesday, yoga or mountain bike at Water Dog on Wednesday, low-key pickup on Thursday, yoga if I can fit it into the schedule on Friday, rest or some sort of bike on Saturday, NCWHL on Sunday.

By the end of Sunday, I'll either feel like myself again, or have fallen apart from too much activity. Either way, I'll have achieved normalcy.

My Polar calendar looks so sad. With the exception of my little session on the spin bike, the last two weeks are empty. I've missed ~3 yoga classes, ~3 mountain bike rides, ~2 low-key pickups, 2 NCWHL games, 3 core training classes, and ~1 road bike ride.

Starting today, that will change. The bike rack goes back on the car tonight!

05:25 PM | Injuries:Yoga| Comments (2)

June 12, 2009 / Friday

Spazzy Back Week 2

Last week, I was really good about (heat-stretch-)ice several times a day. That diligence paid off last weekend, as it allowed me to heal enough to do a decent session on the spin bike.

This week has not gone nearly as well. I'd hoped to feel good enough for a road bike ride, but being back in the office has pretty much thrown my plans out the window. I've simply been too busy to heat-stretch-ice, go to the gym, or spend much time outside.

I suppose I made things even worse when I blew up my heat pack in the microwave on Tuesday. I finally bought another one today.

My back is better in some ways, worse in others. I haven't felt a spasm in days; that's really good news. It's pretty sore on the injured (right) side, though. I expect soreness when I push on the area where I landed, but the obliques on that side that are also giving me pain when I lean left. Seems like they've been working hard to compensate for my lower back. At least the injury has healed enough to allow me to support myself when I lean forward. Unfortuantely, I still have really limited range of motion when I lean left; there is simply no strength there.

Not being able to do my usual bazillion activities has triggered a bit of a shopping spree. In the last week, I've purchased a replacement bike helmet, a couple pairs of cycling shorts, a slew of silly T-shirts, and a mini square loaf pan. There's a 20% off event at Sports Basement tonight. I want to go. Someone please stop me.

I have an ambitious plan for the coming week: road bike this weekend, mountain bike at Chabot (untechnical dirt) on Tuesday, low-key pickup on Thursday, and NCWHL next Sunday.

I hope my back feels good enough for all that to happen. I'm really looking forward to feeling like myself again.

05:06 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

June 06, 2009 / Saturday

Hooray For Human Hamster Devices!

This morning, I rolled carefully got out of bed, stood up, and reached for my toes. A little voice in my head told me that might hurt, but I wanted to know how my back was, and I wanted to know right then.

This could have ended badly, but my lucky streak continued, and I made it all the way past my toes to the floor. My back felt tight, but there was no pain. Pretty good for first thing in the morning! Sometimes I can't even do that when I'm *not* injured.

I headed for the sink, where I was able to brush my teeth with my legs straight and my back arched over the basin. No more sumo squat! (I couldn't even sumo squat that the first two days.)

In the afternoon, I made good on my threat to go bore myself on a spin bike. This was made easier by some good tunes, and I was able to ride both in and out of the saddle. I followed up with lots of stretching, and was pleased that I'm finally able to do a Figure 4 stretch again.

I feel much more like myself. That, of course, led to a moment of carelessness in the evening, when I forgot to ease myself into a sitting position. My back immediately and quite loudly voiced its disapproval at the sudden change in position.

Okay, okay, sorry! No sudden sitting! We'll revisit that in a few days, when I forget again.

09:04 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

June 05, 2009 / Friday

Hello, Toes!

Yesterday afternoon, I felt good enough to make the switch from ice-ice-ice to heat-stretch-ice.

The heat makes a huge difference. Warming my back allows it to do just a wee bit more with a touch less pain.

Yesterday, I was able to walk my fingertips to my toes while in a seated forward fold.

This morning, I could grab the balls of my feet in this position.

Just now, I touched my fingertips to the floor in a standing forward fold.

That's not to say it was easy. I'm finally understanding what my yoga instructors mean when they tell us to walk our hands this way or that way to get into or out of a pose. By moving that slowly, and with the support of my hands if needed, I'm able to reach for positions that would otherwise send my back into spasms.

I'm able to go deeper into other stretches, too. This is important; I really don't want to lose flexibility and/or range of motion. I've worked hard on it these last few months!

I made it to the farmers market around lunchtime today for some fruits and veggies. I don't know how much diet affects healing, but I'm not taking any chances. Aside from a couple slices of lemon cheesecake and a couple bites of almost-Chocolate Thing (both totally worth it), I'm trying to stick to fruits, veggies, lean protein, and clean carbs.

Going out is still a bit of an adventure. Yes, I can walk, but I must do so slowly, and can't make any evasive maneuvers or sudden movements. Driving has been interesting, too. Did you know you need your lower back to stabilize your upper body through turns? Right turns hurt; I'm currently taking them very slowly.

I'm getting antsy, though. I'm not used to this many days in a row of zero activity. I'm contemplating bringing my bike shoes to the gym and hopping on a spin bike this weekend. Either that, or a recumbent. I hate exercise machines, but it's better than sitting on the couch all day. ANYTHING is better than sitting on the couch all day.

I can't wait until I can get back on the bikes/ice.

07:12 PM | Injuries| Comments (1)

June 04, 2009 / Thursday

I Should Buy A Lottery Ticket

It seems a bit strange for me to say this as I sit at home with a heat pack on my spazzy back, but you know what? I'm pretty lucky.

I know, what? I've been house-bound for most of the week. I needed a wheelchair to go see the doctor on Monday. How is that lucky?

I'm lucky because:

• I hurt only my back, and not my spine. Not my neck, either. Phew!
• I was able to ride my way out of the park. Having to walk would have sucked big time.
• I cracked my helmet, but my noggin survived unscathed. Good job, helmet!
• I didn't injure my kidney, even though I delivered myself the equivalent of a body weight from several-feet-in-the-air kidney punch.
• I didn't break any bones or tear any ligaments.
• I didn't need an airlift, an ambulance, surgery, or a hospital stay.
• I have health insurance to cover my doctor's visit and medication.
• I don't have to lift heavy things for a living.
• I have great friends who offered and gave much help.
• I have an awesome boyfriend who kept me fed, did my dishes, gave me rides, and diligently swooped objects into my hand as I helplessly reached for them. Made me feel like a Jedi! Minus the light saber.

I'm lucky because today I'm able to move around a notch or two faster than sloth's pace without tweaking my back. I'm still not anywhere close to healed, but there's definite progress. I even managed to do some general light stretching today.

I've been trying to get about 9 hours of sleep every night. Sleep heals like nothing else.

I'm trying hard to favor my back as little as possible when I do need to move around. I don't want to throw off other parts of me by compensating too much.

Also, I think I've mastered the sumo squat. It lets me get out of chairs and pick things up from the floor. It's a nice lower body workout, too, and probably all the exercise I'll be getting for a while.

Time for the ice pack.

07:39 PM | Injuries| Comments (3)

June 02, 2009 / Tuesday

I Think Mom Is Spying On Me

Yesterday, I paid a visit to the doctor for my back. While waiting in the exam room in a gown next to my wheelchair (!), my phone rang. It was mom. I debated whether to answer, since I didn't want her to know I was at the doctor.

Viv: Hi mom.
Mom: Hiii. What did you do this weekend?
Viv: Oh, I went on some bike rides.
Mom: Last weekend hockey, this weekend bike. Wah, I turned on the TV yesterday and saw people riding their bikes on mountaintops. They were flying everywhere. So dangerous. Made me so nervous, I couldn't change the channel. One wrong move and they'd fall to their deaths!
Viv: (That sounds totally cool.)
Mom: If they were my kids, I'd disown them! You know, they say that if you're not good to your body, you're not being good to your parents. When you hurt yourself, your parents worry!
Viv: ...
Mom: Don't go doing things like that. We're fragile. And getting injured is so inconvenient. You can't even do simple things when you're injured.
Viv: Uh-huh. (Boy is that clear to me this week!)
Mom: I hope you don't try to do tricks like that.
Viv: No, I don't.
Mom: It was some Red Bull thing.

What just happened?

Coincidentally, Aaron and I watched the same thing online the same day she saw it on TV. Check out these Red Bull Rampage videos. They're totally awesome.

Be careful, though. They might make you so nervous you won't be able to navigate away.

09:10 PM | Family:Injuries| Comments (0)

May 31, 2009 / Sunday

Odne

Odne [od-nee]
  -noun
  1. Endo, backward.
  2. An endo, backward.
  3. How I unexpectedly dismounted from my bike this morning.

Woke up early for a morning ride at Skeggs. The initial climb was a bit painful, but once my legs woke up, all was good. The trails felt a lot easier than they did the last two times I went there.

Then came the Methusulah creek crossing. That part went fine, but the entrance back onto the trail to continue west featured a very short but quite steep climb. I decided to see if I could ride up and over it. I got into a low gear, picked up some speed, and charged on up. I made it about 3/4 of the way, stalled, and because the trail was so steep, fell backward (and a little bit to the left). With my bike attached.

Let's take a moment to think about how far I fell. I started on my bike pointed uphill on a steep gradient. The front wheel lifted with me still on the bike, and, pivoting on the back wheel, I flipped over and landed on my back. I then did a backward somersault while my bike finished flipping over me, cracking my helmet in the process. My bike and I, we ended up in a little ditch.

Esther witnessed it all. She asked if I was okay and I said yes, because nothing was obviously broken, bleeding, or in immediate pain. But when I tried to get up, I felt a pain in my back, in the spot where I had initially hit the ground.

I sat back down, popped a couple naproxen, and hoped that the pain would subside. It didn't; standing was a challenge, to say the least.

Eventually, I figured out that if I pushed on a certain spot on my back, I could stand without too much pain. I made it up to my bike this way, then gave riding a try. (Thanks Esther for grabbing my sunglasses and picking up my bike!) Fortunately, it didn't hurt too much to ride as long as I leaned forward and used my arms to support my weight. Boy, was I relieved! Riding, even if slowly, is tons faster than pushing a bike.

I waited at Gate 8 (on the opposite side of the park from the car) for Aaron to come pick me up. At first, I just sat, but when I started getting cold, I hopped on the bike and rode around slowly to keep warm. As I rode around in little circles, I noticed a couple banana slugs by the side of the road. When I first saw them, they were three feet apart, both headed in the same direction. Each time I looked, they were a little closer together. It looked as if the slug in the rear was trying to catch up with the one up front. Ever. So. Slowly.

Twenty minutes later, the rear slug finally caught up, and it gently bumped the front slug with its antennae. The front slug tried to get away at first, but then it realized its pursuer was another slug. Slowly, ever so sluggily slowly, the front slug turned around and joined the rear slug in a slimy 69. Bow-chicka-bow-wow!

Did you know slugs have tongues? They use them to lick each other up and down their slimy slug bodies.

As for me, I'm stuck at home with my ice packs until my back heals, which gives me plenty of time to think about what I could have done, should have done, and will do next time. Right now, walking hurts. A lot. That said, I'm lucky I injured "only" my back and not my spine. Oh, and hooray for helmets! Mine really did its job; my head didn't feel a thing.

I'm looking forward to helmet shopping when I'm able to leave the house again. :)

01:34 PM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (4)

May 14, 2009 / Thursday

If Advil's Not Candy Then Why Do They Coat It With Sugar?

Sunday: Injure right shoulder slamming into boards.
Wednesday: Injure left shoulder falling off bridge.
Thursday: Wake up and think right shoulder is all better.
Thursday night: Go to pickup and realize I'm wrong. Really wrong.

No more hockey for me until Dallas next weekend. Just lots of rest and ibuprofen. I've created reminders for myself: 800 milligrams every 8 hours.

In the meantime, I plan to continue riding my bike(s). Gotta stay in shape for the tournament!

Maybe this will help all the other joints that are unhappy right now too: my right thumb, both wrists, right elbow, right foot/ankle, and that somewhat less pesky left shoulder.

I sure hope this does the trick. For all my bummedness about hockey after last Sunday's game, I do seem to be improving. At pickup today I found myself doing the following new things:

- Finally executing right crossovers without tripping over myself.
- Accelerating as I curl with really fast crossovers.
- Catching just-off-the-ice passes with that stick-chop motion.
- Pulling the puck toward my own net, then doing a quick 180 to shake my opponent.

I really don't want to lose that progress. Heal, body! Nao!

10:44 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (3)

May 13, 2009 / Wednesday

Unplanned Bridge Dismount

Got a fun ride in at Water Dog tonight with the Passion Trail WNW crew. We did a loop I've done once before, last season. This time, the uphills felt easier and I was able to ride down a couple sections of trail I opted to walk last time. I was feeling pretty good.

Good enough that when we reached the turn with the narrow-bridge-onto-a-car bypass, I chose the bypass. The problem was, I prepared for it all wrong.

The approach to the bridge is a pretty zippy slight downhill. The turn onto the bridge, however, is tight enough to require some slowing. The bridge itself is a slight uphill. Because I didn't know this going into it, and because the bridge appears out of nowhere after rounding a corner, I ended up on the bridge in way too high a gear. As I felt myself stalling, I realized I had no place to put a foot down; the bridge was too narrow.

Over I went, off the bridge and into a pile of dirt and leaves and sticks and random growth several feet below. Uffa!

My leg got pretty scraped up, but didn't hurt that much. The ride leader asked if I was okay. "I'm fine!" I said. "Are you sure?" he replied. I knew that some of the fineness was due to adrenaline, but I could also tell that nothing was seriously wrong. "I'm fine!" I repeated, dragged my bike back up and onto the trail, backtracked several feet, and rode over the bridge. \o/

Now, in some circles my attempt to ride over a bridge I'd just fallen off of would be considered an act of Darwin stupidity. In this circle, it earned me props and 30 points. I like these people!

Also:

More than one person in my group: Is there blood?
Me, looking at my too-freshly-scraped-to-bleed leg: No, but there will be.
Someone in my group a couple minutes later: We have blood!

Ironically, my worst injury of the night came as we rolled down the street on the way back from our ride. I always bunny-hop over all the manhole covers* on this stretch of road, and on one of the landings I somehow jarred my right ankle. It's not sprained, but it's somewhat unhappy with me.

As long as it doesn't bother me in the skate, I'm okay with that. It'll heal.

I had a big grin on my face as I drove home. Apparently, I think falling off bridges is funny.

* Why do I do this? Because:
  1. I can't sit still, and riding on pavement is too much like sitting still.
  2. My bike has boing, and I should make full use of it.

10:05 PM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (1)

May 10, 2009 / Sunday

Wanted: Mad Hockey Skills Mind Meld

Boo, we lost again. I'm not going to guess at why here, but I will say that I wish I were good enough to do something about it. I wish I were good enough to know that I could step it up and have some sort of impact on the outcome of the game. But I'm not. Not in Blue.

Most days, that's okay, because it means I'm surrounded by people I can learn from. But when I want to be able to make a difference and can't, it makes me feel useless. I hate feeling useless. It frustrates me. A lot.

Final score: 2-5.

The other thing that bothers me is the thought that perhaps I'm hindering my linemates instead of helping them.

I think I'm overthinking this. I'll stop now.

- - -

Update: 2009-05-12 @ 9:50 AM

I injured my right shoulder this game also, after catching an edge and slamming into the boards. It smarted a bit when it happened, and a lot when I woke up the next morning. Phoo.

09:37 PM | Injuries:NUTZ!| Comments (2)

April 19, 2009 / Sunday

Not Fremont Older!

Got a good long ride in at Skeggs with Aaron this afternoon. Two days of mountain biking in a row! It's the perfect park for a hot day; most of the trails there are in the shade.

Aaron just told me I can't call the park Skeggs, since we didn't park at Skeggs Point. Instead, we parked in a secret location near one of the gates. Where? I can't tell you; it's a secret!

The writeup of my last ride at this park came with a map of the trails we rode, but it took me way too long to mark up that map, so here's a list of the new-to-me trails from today: Tafoni, Resolution, El Corte de Madera Creek, North Leaf, and the recently reopened Giant Salamander. We basically covered a chunk of the park that we didn't ride on my first visit.

I quite enjoyed picking my way through some of the more technical downhills. Lots of anticipation, thinking, and balancing. Fun.

On the uphill, I made myself learn to ride up and/or over things I used to find too difficult. When it really burned, I just kept telling myself, "You can ride up anything. You can ride up anything." Way to take advantage of my easy suggestibility, me!

This marks two consecutive weekends of NSAID-free riding. My knees felt great until the final mile or two, about 2.5 hours into the ride. This time, the pain was in the outer portion of the left knee. I wonder how my knees decide which one should ache. Rock-paper-scissors?

10:45 PM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (0)

March 17, 2009 / Tuesday

How (Not) To Pedal

Okay, I'm really behind here. It's been a busy week.

Last Wednesday, I headed back to Integrate to do a bike fit with Jamii. I guess it was more like a bike re-fit, as I was fitted on both my road and mountain bikes when I bought them. Those fittings, however, were cursory. They measured knee angles and used the plumb-bob, but didn't really look at me, on the bike, riding it.

We started off with some further evaluation of how I move *off* the bike. Pretty much everything showed that my right hip area is tighter and weaker. It was pretty interesting to see how my body compensated for it, and is likely compensating for it all the time. (Things have been really interesting these last few days, because I've been compensating for an injured left quad and have been putting more weight on the right leg than it's used to.)

Then I hopped on the bike/trainer and did some riding. This was helpful, not because my bike was fitted wrong, but because I got some good tips and feedback about how I ride.

Tip 1: Hold my abs in tight so I have a strong base to push my legs from. All she really said at first was, "tighten your abs," and immediately my legs started spinning faster.

Tip 2: Hold my ankles firm, slightly pointed down. Again, this seemed to bring me more power and stability. I'd wondered about what I should be doing with my ankles for years. I've asked several people and never gotten a straight answer. I was happy to finally get one. (That said, there appear to be many philosophies about what exactly is the proper pedal stroke in terms of ankle angle. This one feels good so far, so I'm gonna give it a go.)

Tips 1 and 2 together had me pedaling stronger and smoother. I also felt a lot more connected to the bike. I was excited about going out on Saturday and trying this out on the road, especially since I'd just hit a new top average speed the previous weekend. Could I better that number again?

Of course, I then had to go and injure myself. No riding for me last Saturday.

I also learned a couple things.

Thing 1: My hips rock when I ride, which made itself obvious to me through bike wobble. It's not because my seat is too high, though. The left and right legs are at 30 and 25 degrees, respectively, at the bottom of the pedal stroke. This leads us to...

Thing 2: My legs are unequal lengths. But not by much. The right leg is shorter by half a centimeter, based on our measurements. We could move the right cleat forward a bit to compensate, but half a centimeter is really not that big a difference.

We didn't end up adjusting the bike fit. It looks to fit fine.

So the idea is, given that my hip area is so imbalanced right now in terms of flexibility and strength, we'll work on getting that back in whack. I'll also try to focus on keeping my hips still when I ride. When we get that fixed, we can see how my knees do on the bike, and go from there.

I'm okay with that plan. I think balancing out the hips will help me in hockey, too, where I definitely feel imbalanced trying to do certain things left and right. That, and knowing I'm not compensating all the time will be good for peace of mind.

10:24 AM | Bicycle:Injuries| Comments (1)

March 14, 2009 / Saturday

Ow, My KneeQuadThing

Gosh, that game sucked.

I'd been looking forward to finishing a long and stressful week with some Friday night hockey. What better way to clear my brain and get the blood flowing? I squeezed out a final bit of work at 8 PM and headed to the rink.

Warmups felt fine. I even found my right crossover again. (I think I was having trouble with them last Sunday because my right hip was really right.)

Then the game started. I felt fine at first, but soon I was completely winded. I think that was my body's way of saying, "You haven't been getting enough sleep these last few days." I don't do well on low sleep.

When I don't do well, I fall a lot. And when I fall a lot, I start hurting things. In particular, I tend to land in such a way that I bruise the tip of my quads on the ice.

First, I bruised my right quad. It smarted a bit, and I have a little bruise there now. It's annoying. That's okay.

Then, I bruised my left quad (although I got an assist out of the whole deal). It hurt. A lot. I couldn't straighten it, bend it, or put weight on it without pain. That wasn't okay, it's still not okay, and I don't know if it'll be okay tomorrow.

I spent the rest of the game (and there were half of it left at this point) looking at the clock, wondering when I could go home and ice. It took a long, long time for the clock to run down.

Final score: 2-5. Our last game is on Sunday. Will I be able to skate?

- - -

Update: 1:45 PM - The answer is no. Bummer.

11:38 AM | Icepacks:Injuries| Comments (0)

March 08, 2009 / Sunday

My Newly Discovered Right Crossover Has Disappeared

Another Sunday, another skills clinic. I had some major problems with my right crossovers today. I kept sliding out even though I was trying my hardest to counterbalance my upper body. I didn't understand why. It just seemed like I couldn't fold as much to the left as I could to the right.

And then it hit me. My unhappy right glutes and tight right hip. If I can't stretch them that way, it's likely that I can't bend that way when I'm trying to skate. That would explain a lot.

Now I'm *really* hoping it's something we can fix. Not having a right crossover is costing me on the ice. Lame.

Hah, literally!

I spent some time working on having a less sucky shot. It doesn't matter that my current shot is relatively functional; it wobbles and I've pretty much topped out on speed. My best shots have historically been forced; I'm simply going so fast and so short on time when I reach the puck that I load the stick and launch without thinking. My regular shot? I stand way too straight, I use way more arm than body, the puck starts way too far forward, and there is absolutely no stick flex.

So today, I worked on all of the above. I started with my knees bent, the puck behind my back leg, and the stick at an exaggerated angle cupped over the puck. As I shot, I focused on turning my body and really loading the stick.

My first shot was pathetic. The puck slid on the ice with a fraction of the power of my regular shot.

But I kept working at it, and toward the end of the session I started seeing some lift, less wobble, and more power. My regular shot is still better, but I at least feel that there's hope for me.

Gosh, so much to work on. I think I'm forgetting some of the things I learned at power skating camp. I tell myself to push my legs sideways, finish with the toes, and swing my arms front/back, but I don't feel myself doing it. Or maybe I am doing it more than I used to, and I'm just used to the feeling now? I can see myself in the glass wasting energy swinging my arms too far to the side. I also don't feel like I bring my feet back to center enough. Video evidence says I do, but I don't feel the blade touching down near center.

Hrm...

07:14 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

March 07, 2009 / Saturday

Push

After needing rescue on my ride a couple weeks ago, I decided I would aim for speed instead of distance on the road bike. I figured if I couldn't do long rides, I'd do short hard ones.

And so I've started to push* more. I pushed last Saturday against a killer headwind, and today to reach my fastest average speed yet: 17.1 MPH. Not being able to ride far is not all bad after all.

As I stretched afterward, the lack of flexibility in my right hip/glutes was really evident. I thought about what may have caused this, dug around my blog some, and realized I pulled this muscle last year during my Sea Otter race.

I wonder whether my current glutes unhappiness is due to this injury, or whether the injury was the result of riding hard on an already weakened muscle. Likely, it's both. In any case, I hope it's something we can fix.

* "Push" is figurative. It's more like "Spin". Hard.

07:10 PM | Injuries:Road| Comments (0)

March 04, 2009 / Wednesday

Integrate

After rescuing me and my bike a couple weekends ago, Aaron posted to MTBR in search of a sports physiologist recommendation for me. Al from Integrate Performance Fitness responded, and offered to do an eval for me at their studio.

When I talked to Al on the phone a few days later, I mentioned that I was also interested in seeing what their Athlete's Edge class was about. Since the eval was so we could look at how I move to try to spot muscle imbalances, we decided that I would do my eval at the class.

Today was the class. We did a circuit of pushups, rolling ball hamstring curls, one legged squats, squats with a medicine ball, squats with a pulley row, and gosh, did I forget a squat? There were also bridges, lunges, planks, and some leg in the air core work, all modified in some way to make us work harder and really get the burn going.

Burn it did, and now, only several hours after the session, the soreness is already setting in.

But much more interesting and useful are the following two findings:

(1) There's something not quite right with my right hip.

I'm not talking about the hip itself, but about the muscles in that area, which are totally out of whack. My balance and flexibility on the right side were noticeably worse than on the left. It flat out hurts to stretch it in certain ways.

(2) There's something not quite right with my hockey shot.

Okay, I knew this already. I've been working on it a bit in my oodles of spare ice time. (It sits right next to that giant oodle of free time in the corner there.) We looked at my shot because we wanted to see how it could be contributing to my hip imbalance. While looking at my shot, my dissatisfaction with its mechanics increased several-fold, and when I got home I went and watched a bunch of videos on what I *should* be doing. (Let me tell you, half of those videos are wrong, wrong, wrong.) I think my downstairs neighbors hate me now, after an evening of hockey stick on carpet sounds from above.

Need to find ice. Now.

Okay, back on topic. I don't know if the out of whack hip is causing my knee problems, but whether it is or not, I want to fix it.

Next Wednesday, I return with my bike, and will spend an hour or so working with Jamii to do an updated and more detailed fitting. They'll also get a chance to see what I'm doing when I'm on the bike. We'll go from there and see what I need to do to (a) get rid of my knee pain and (b) get my right hip back in whack.

I'm looking forward to it. They're fun to work with and seem to really know their stuff. I'll get scrutinized, a good workout, and, if things go well, happy knees.

Maybe I'll even get a better hockey shot.

08:17 PM | Bicycle:Hockey:Injuries| Comments (1)

February 21, 2009 / Saturday

Pancake Powered Pedaling Pain

Every time I head out on the road bike I wonder, "How many miles before one of my knees starts hurting?"

It's totally sad, but knee pain is what determines the length of almost all my road rides. When I ride alone, I plan the route so I can make it home riding gingerly. When Aaron's around, I try to go a little farther, and if the knees don't cooperate, he rescues me.

Today was a rescue day. Sigh.

The ride started off great. I felt good and was maintaining a respectable-for-me speed, cadence, and heartrate. After about 10 miles, I still felt good, but my right knee started feeling "tight". A few more miles out and a bit of climbing later, "tight" turned into full-on pain.

The ride was supposed to work like this: ride out, do a loop, ride back. The loop started at around mile 12, and before embarking on this loop, Aaron asked how my knee was and checked to see whether we should just ride back. Because I'm stupid, I told him that the knee felt tight but I didn't want to ride less than what I had set out to do.

Because I'm stupid, I ended up with a very unhappy right knee far enough from home that it would have done some serious damage to ride all the way back.

Because I'm stupid, I rode another bunch of miles to get back to an area I didn't mind waiting in while Aaron rode home and came back with the car to rescue me.

Rescue me he did, and he even brought me snacks from home. Yay. :)

I was pretty bummed after the ride. I can work on speed. I can work on strength. I can work on skill. But I'm not sure what to do about knee pain. Even when I was riding on a regular basis, the farthest I've ever gone without pain is 50 miles, and that happened only once.

I tried to take a glass half full view of it: If I'm limited by how far I can ride, I should shift my focus to how hard I can ride. Instead of spending hours on the bike, I can ride for an hour. A fast, steep, pavement-pounding hour.

Sure I can. But I don't like that this is a compromise for a limitation I'd rather fix.

The second half of the ride was rough. Since my knee was hurting, I had to ride lightly, which caused my body to cool down. Soon, I wasn't generating enough heat to keep myself warm. By the time I got home, all I wanted to do was take a nap, then mope around for the rest of the day.

Fortunately, Aaron talked me out of moping. He told me to go to GHATD and see my friends. I'm really glad he did that. I feel tons better.

I learned a couple things today:

1. If I draft on a slight downhill, I can go faster than the person pedaling in front of me without even moving my feet. I would not have believed that if I hadn't experienced it myself. Aerodynamics FTW!

2. The pain in my knee is definitely coming from the outside. When I'm riding, it's hard to tell, but after some pushing, I found a sore spot toward the outside. It's still sore when I walk hours later, in that same spot. I am self-diagnosing it as an ITB issue.

Oh, and I do have a bit of good news to report: My right hamstring felt great. No tightness whatsoever. Hooray again for yoga.

As for the pancakes, they were tasty, and had blueberries in them. Yum.

11:22 PM | Injuries:Road| Comments (0)

January 23, 2009 / Friday

Burninating Las Vegas 2009 / Game 2: Phoenix WHOA Smokin' Aces

"I'm gonna go check on Chris," Liz said, "She locked her gear in the car."

For those of you who missed this little detail from the previous post, Chris is our goalie. It's kind of hard to play a hockey game without a goalie.

Fortunately, the rink was running behind schedule, and AAA got there just in time to liberate her gear for our game. PHEW.

We played some version of this team last year. This year, they look to have gained more skaters, skills, and organization. They were better, but fortunately, we played better too, as our tournament gelling continued.

Sharon scored first, putting us up 1-0. They answered, and then Murty scored on a breakaway. She made it look good, waiting for the goalie to commit and then sending one across her body into the far corner of the net. Murty had a great game, taking it down the ice several times.

The other team scored again, and we finished regulation tied 2-2. Overtime!

I had not been having a good game. Sometime early in the 2nd period, I totally ran out of gas. I was so tired I couldn't move my arms fast enough to do what I wanted to with the puck. Still, this was overtime. First to score wins. I knew everyone would be playing harder, and I really didn't want this neverending-to-me game's worth of effort to go to waste.

The puck dropped. Stuff I can't remember happened, and then Lucinda sent me a pass up the neutral zone. I brought it in, and for the second time ever in a game (I think), took it around the D one handed on my backhand. I had to; she was big, and big players have long sticks.

I turned back in toward the net, squared up a forehand, and shot it as hard as I could. I watched the back of the net, waited, and saw the puck hit.

First came the everyone-on-the-ice hug. I let out a huge "YEAHHHHH!!!" from the huddle, and then the rest of the team piled in. I don't think I've ever been in the middle of a giant huddle before. I ended up just lying there by the end of it. Wow. Awesome.

Final score: 3-2. Jodi found a little red puppy in her bag when we returned to the locker room. We named him Hugs, but I'm not sure I remembered to tell her that. Woops!

After the game, I saw the Polar Cats goalie. We're not playing them this year, but it was good to chat with her and meet her wee little one. We had a big team lunch at the Fiesta buffet, and returned to cheer on the Dolphins. My throat, it hurts from cheering. Eee-ee-eee!

Injuries: The groin is more strained than before, but still functional. I also blocked a puck with my left forearm, realizing upon impact that I am not a goalie and therefore should not be blocking pucks with my arm. Too late. Fortunately, I had brought my ice bag from Colorado with me (Thanks again, Jami's mom!). I iced it some, then gave the bag to Becky when I found out her shoulder was injured. Shoulders, way more important than forearms.

Improvement: I've been trying for well over a year to do a quick, sharp, 180 degree turn with the puck on my forehand. I could do it on the backhand side, but couldn't figure out how to get the stick and puck positioned quite right on the forehand side. During today's warmups, I finally figured it out. (Sorry Chris for not warming you up; I was having a Eureka! moment.)

Remember this picture from last weekend? I've been studying it, along with another picture of me turning the other way. They looked okay, but not great. What was missing? What did I need for those shots to be great? I needed to bend my knees more and increase the distance between my feet. I've known this, but haven't been able to make my body commit to doing it.

Well today, I finally did it. I bent my knees, spread those feet out, and swung easy 180s with the puck on my forehand. The backhand 180 is faster now, too. Hallelujah!

What made it finally click? Putting the 180 and the footwork together. I needed the legs and feet in the proper position so my upper body could get into the proper position so I could hold the stick in such a way that I could control the puck through the turn. (Boy, that's a mouthful.) On the flip side, I needed my upper body in the proper position to allow me to turn in that stance without falling over.

Now, to do it in a game. :)

11:56 PM | Burninators:Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

Burninating Las Vegas 2009 / Game 1: Houston Harpies

The Harpies! I remember this team from 2005, when they cheered for us as we ate up their ice time in our 2OT + shuuutout semifinal against that Alaska team with the really good and big and nice half-visor-wearing skater. They've always played one division up or down from us, but this year we're in the same one. Hello, Harpies!

Wow, this is our 5th year here. That's a long time.

We showed up at the rink early to cheer on the Blacklist, who, amusingly, had printed out BINGO cards for their fans. I particularly enjoyed the freebie square in the middle: Marci - Someone Bounces. They played well, and easily defeated the other team 5-0.

Next up, our game! I'd been worried about how we'd do at this tournament after our scrimmage against the Dolphins, but we were better about moving our feet this game, and came away with a 2-1 win. Phew!

Chris, playing her first tournament game in net with us while Cara heals up, did awesome. We're really fortunate to have her.

Me, I need to learn to be more patient. I've known this for years now, and still haven't managed to get past the "Aaaaah!!!" in my head. I look at players with patience and composure and I think, "I want to be like that."

I'm not like that yet, as evidenced by two breakaways this game that should have ended in goals. The first one should have been easy. The goalie came out too far, and all I needed to do was glide around her and slide the puck in. Instead, I shot way too early, right into her. Lesson learned: Slow down as you approach the net so you have time to take a good look and pick your shot.

The second one was a bit better, as I at least remembered to pull a deke. I approached on my forehand, got her to go down, and tried to lift a backhand over her. The puck lifted... right into the post. Why? Because I was going too fast. Another lesson learned: Slow down so you're not almost past the net already when you shoot.

Speaking of hard parts of the goal, I did have a moment of patience on a rebound in front of the net in the 2nd period. I got the puck, saw that there was a pile of people in front of the net, and decided to lob the puck over them. Lob the puck I did, and we all thought it was going to go in, until it hit the crossbar. Fortunately, Ellen and Lucinda were there for the rebound and subsequent rebound, and Lucinda won the final battle, pushing the puck into the net for our first goal.

Later in the game, before a faceoff in the other team's zone. I heard some crazy cheering from the stands. It was Jami, Mel, and perhaps a few others (It sounded loud enough to have been several people.) telling me to score. Funny gals. But whaddaya know, I got the puck, curled in, waited (Yes, waited!) for an opening, shot, and watched the puck slide in behind the goalie. ZOMG, this patience thing works! I really should do it more often.

One more game moment for me. As I was taking the puck around the boards on my backhand, the blade of my stick slid into a slot in the side of the door. The blade bent backward, recoiled, and ripped the stick out of my hand, launching it several feet away. My glove went with it, and launched even farther. I lost the puck, but that's okay. My stick's okay, and the resulting bruise on my finger is far preferable to getting speared.

Let's see, what else? I felt my right groin twinge during a shift in the 2nd period, and found that I'd also angered my right glute later that night. I rolled a lot on the ball afterward. (Thanks for letting me borrow it, April!) I hope it'll be okay for the rest of this weekend's games.

After the game, Jennie found a little Care Bear figurine in her bag. We couldn't remember its name, but the magical internet has jogged my memory: Love-A-Lot. :)

09:07 AM | Burninators:Injuries| Comments (1)

January 17, 2009 / Saturday

MLK 2009: Day 1

Once again, I got to join the Tremors for the MLK Girls'/Women's Invitational tournament. I like playing with this team. Hard work and great attitudes abound.

Game 1: San Jose Lady Sharks C

This year's Lady Sharks, nothing like last year's Lady Sharks. They've seriously upgraded their roster (and done away with the B team), and are stacked with strong players. That was pretty evident from the fact that players whom I'm used to seeing shine just blended in with everyone else.

We gave it our best, skated hard, and never gave up. The Sharks scored 3 in the 1st, 2 in the 2nd, and 1 in the 3rd. I'd like to think it's because we started to gel as a team over the course of the game, but who knows. (This exact group has never played together as a team.) Final score: 0-6.

Being on the ice against so many players this good forced me to quite literally dig deeper. Late in the game, as I was on the forecheck, I had to swing from one side to another quickly to keep up with their D. I felt my skates carving, almost crunching, into the ice at a speed and angle I'd never felt before. That was totally awesome. It gave me a taste of what I *can* do, if I push myself to skate that hard all the time.

After the game, Amy, who faced a barrage of shots all game, got the Tremors dino. Gina, ever speedy and ever smiley, got a tournament towel. Well deserved.

Game 2: Team Abby

We felt we had a chance against this team. Like us, they exist for fun, not Nationals. They are, however, solidly Blue, while we are solidly Maroon with a sprinkling of Blue players.

As with the last game, we worked hard every shift, continued to gel as a team, and it paid off. Granted, it required an amazing performance by our goalie, but in the end, we came out one goal ahead. Yeah!

I scored our first goal from a crazy angle to the side of the net. I had the puck from a rebound, my linemates were tied up, and I saw a small gap between the goalie and the post. I shot, and amusingly, the puck found a different gap and bounced in. Whatever, it's a goal! I'll take it!

I deflected a pass later that period, took off on a breakaway, pulled a deke to my backhand (I remembered to deke! And I trusted my backhand enough to deke that way! Yeah!), and "Argh!"ed as the puck bounced off the far post and trickled just a few inches in front of the goal line. Argh again! And again! Argh! Maybe I should just shoot a forehand like everyone expects me to next time.

They tied it up 1-1 in the 3rd period. Every shift after that, "Let's go score." Hrm, does that mean we want to score less under other circumstances? That can't be right.

Late in the 3rd, Lucinda sent a pass up the boards ahead of me. I saw the puck slide down the ice and another player coming in for it from an angle. I wanted this thing. I absolutely was not going to let her get to it first. Then came the yell. I don't make a conscious decision to do it, but I yell at the top of my lungs when I'm skating as hard as I possibly can. I swear, it's like NOS. I got there first.

I sent a pass to the high slot, and Lucinda was there, wide open. She put the puck neatly into the back of the net. More yelling. YEAH! That was friggin' awesome. Final score: 2-1.

Lucinda, our glorious game winner, came away with the dino. Amy, who stood on her head for us and kept us in this thing, got this game's tournament towel. Once again, well deserved. :)

Ankle Tendon Update

My ankle inserts *still* have not arrived. Are they lost? I sure hope not.

I made a lot of changes to my skate setup for this weekend's game. Instead of two Bunga layers, I cut the second layer into two pieces, folded each of those two pieces in half, and stuck them to the first layer such that I have a small channel for the tendon with lots of padding on either side. I've also switched to wearing my shin guards over my skates so the tongue doesn't bend forward and create a ridge, which is what's been digging into me.

The result? Much less pain. I still feel some discomfort, but I can skate without wincing, and the inflammation doesn't seem to be increasing much. Oh GOOD.

11:51 PM | Injuries:Tremors| Comments (4)

January 13, 2009 / Tuesday

Fly Higher, Puck!

If I were good, I mean, really good, I'd have scored a couple goals tonight.

That's not to say I'm bad. Well, I guess good and bad are relative. In any case, I could definitely stand to be better, say, for example, when I have the puck on my stick and I can see net. The next logical place for that puck is in the net, not 6 inches below said seen portion of the net, hitting the goalie.

Missed chances aside, insert all the usual words about fun and learning and advice here.

We outshot the other team tonight, 30-20. Final score: 2-3. What's up with that?

I spoke with a couple teammates on the bench about the killer lace bite on both my front ankle tendons. (This conversation began with, "You have new skates." My new skates, they are shiny, have very yellow laces, and draw that comment a lot.) There are a bunch of things I can try, but I was dismayed to hear that it will likely take months to heal. That said, it didn't come as a surprise; I've actually considered taking February off from hockey, given all the tendon-inflaming tournaments I have scheduled for January.

When are those ankle inserts I ordered going to get here? I could really use them this weekend and next.

11:21 PM | Icepacks:Injuries| Comments (0)

January 11, 2009 / Sunday

It's Good To Be Back

After three weeks off, my NCWHL games have resumed.

I really enjoyed being out there, learning from everyone (it's downright fun to watch some of the plays people make on the ice), and getting the usual dose of advice from my teammates. I've missed that these last few weeks. Other ice time is great for keeping in hockey shape, but I've come to value the knowledge I gain from each Blue game. (Putting that knowledge to use at the right time is another story entirely.)

This week, the left front ankle tendon is killing me. Ow, ow, ow.

I got a couple assists. One of them was even on purpose. ;)

Final score: 4-6. I asked for the white scoresheet and rosters afterward and the scorekeeper (whom I've never met) told me no, she had to send them in an envelope. I'm glad she won't just hand those over to anyone!

06:56 PM | Icepacks:Injuries| Comments (1)

January 04, 2009 / Sunday

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em 3-On-3

Played in the Logitech 3-on-3 today with Liz, Andrea, Sharon, and Chris. In exchange for doing the registration, I got team naming rights. Out of the silly name bag came Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. :)

Once again, there was only one women's division, which meant quite the assortment of skill levels. We fell about midpack. Not so bad.

We played our first game against the Xmas Leftovers. Fun team with good folks. I spent most of the game working on passing, purposely scored the first one because I wanted us to have at least one goal to start, purposely scored another in the third because I hadn't scored in a while, and put in another two in the course of good team plays. Final score: 17-3. Crap, we didn't intend for that large a goal difference. Sorry. :(

Our second game was against Team Tang, and honestly, we thought we were going to get killed. Come to think of it, that would have been pretty karma-appropriate. Thankfully, they were nice to us, and we had a challenging yet fun game. How did I know they were being nice? Because toward the end of the game, one of them skated through us with the puck and scored two or three in quick succession. (Insurance goals? Boredom goals?) She made it look easy. I scored three this game, including a roofer through traffic (Whoa, did I really?) and one where I took it in and managed to poke it between the goalie's legs with my backhand while turning away. Final score: 5-8. Thanks for not killing us. I feel a bit undeserving, but very appreciative.

Game three was against Dirty Deeds. They had Nora in net, and she was very much on. She stopped shot after shot after shot. It wasn't until the third period that I figured out how to beat her: approach left (but not too far left), wait for her to drop, shoot right. I finally got two in that way. Final score: 4-1. Total wall.

That was fun. :)

I tried out extra bunga padding over my front right ankle tendon. It helps a bit, but there's still some pain. Oh, and my left front ankle tendon started acting up tonight. Great.

I ordered these ankle inserts a couple days ago. I hope they take care of the problem.

11:30 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (2)

December 28, 2008 / Sunday

Accident Magnet

"Don't get injured, Viv."

I lost count of the number of times I heard that before pickup last night.

Pickup is usually fairly safe. Sure, there are some big speedy guys out there, but for the most part, they're not super aggro and they try not to flatten us smaller skaters.

Yeah, I tumbled a few times on the ice. No big deal.

The bench, however, now that's a dangerous place.

An errant puck came off a big stick toward the glass above our heads. I saw it flying over the boards, over our heads, and toward a spot on the glass a few feet above our heads to my left. I figured it'd bounce off the glass and over more of our heads.

Instead, it hit and went straight for the top of my ear.

It HURT. I've never felt anything sting that badly. I actually thought my ear was split open and bleeding. People gathered around to ask if I was okay. I didn't answer, 'cause I didn't know, and it hurt too much to talk.

Finally, I asked, "Is my ear intact?"

Thankfully, it was. It continued to sting and burn, and was hot for the rest of the night, but, thankfully again, nothing more. The slight swelling from last night has subsided. It's sore, but I'll take sore over cauliflower any day. Phew.

No concussion, either. Phew again.

Andrea suggested we wrap me in bubble wrap. I think that's a great idea.

In other news, my new Bunga pads work great for my outer left ankle tendon. I still need to find a way to placate the front right one.

11:06 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (3)

December 22, 2008 / Monday

Not FAIL!

Two days late with the post-game post. I can feel the earth slowing. I blame work!

On the upside, at least I wasn't too busy to play. Good thing, too, because we won! Finally! Our second win of the season. It feels weird. LOL.

Oh, and I scored! That is cause for a huzzah, even if it might have been because the goalie was hungover.

Huzzah!

I don't really remember much else. Final score: 3-2.

The Ramune marble dent in my skate tongue helped a lot with the bump on my foot. My ankle issues are still there, though. I have a swollen outer left ankle tendon and an even more swollen front right ankle tendon. I think it's time to invest in some serious Bunga padding.

Ooh, and McJedi gave me a blue Mario mushroom after the game:

Thanks, McJedi! :-D

10:53 PM | Icepacks:Injuries| Comments (0)

December 16, 2008 / Tuesday

Please To Be Fitting Now, Skates

Good news: I played a game tonight and didn't collide with anyone or anything. The head is good!

Bad news: I blocked the shot of a player with a really hard shot. That was stupid. A little voice in my head told me not to do it, I did it anyway, and now I have a bruise on my foot. It hurts a bit to walk, but nothing's visibly swollen. We'll see how it feels in a few days.

Goodish news: I managed not to irritate the front tendon on my right ankle too much. I still feel uneasy about it, though. It's still healing from a week and a half ago.

More bad news: My new skates still hurt my left foot and ankle. It pushes like mad on the bump I have on top of my left foot and continues to dig into the outside of my left ankle, although a bit less than before.

I'm going to spend this week sitting on the couch bending my skates to try to soften them up, and if it still makes me hurt, I might just sell these and go back to my old skates until something different comes out.

But then, my old skates made my ankle joints ache, which was why I wanted to get new ones in the first place.

Why is it so hard to find a skate that fits?

All I know is, I should not be coming off the ice thinking that I need to give my feet and ankles a few days to heal before I skate again.

Back to good news: I played center for a period and I felt pretty comfortable there.

And some baddish news: We lost, despite outshooting the other team 31-21. Final score: 2-5.

- - -

Update: December 17, 2008 @ 1:15 PM

The pain in my foot was coming not from the bruise, but rather from the middle of my foot when I tried to put weight on it at a certain angle, so I went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't fractured. According to the X-rays, it's not. Phew!

10:59 PM | Icepacks:Injuries| Comments (4)

December 08, 2008 / Monday

Oof, My Head

I feel like I skated into a wall last night. I guess I sort of did, given the size difference between me and the player I collided with.

There was a loose puck in the middle of the other team's zone. It was so wide open that everything seemed to go into slow motion. I went for it, and one of the D on the other team did also. We got there at the same time, and as we reached for the puck, collided with each other head-first. Definitely not what either of us had planned. Oof.

When I got to the bench, I watched for my usual sign of concussion: inexplicable tears. No tears. I counted the number of fingers on my hand. Five. (Yes, including the thumb!) That's good, right?

The next couple of shifts, I couldn't tell if things looked funny/wobbly/off balance or if I was just being hyperaware and overanalyzing everything. After a while, I stopped thinking about it and things seemed normal again.

I noticed toward the end of the game that my right temple ached a bit. I almost never get headaches; that wasn't a good sign.

Right after the game, I felt fine. I talked to a goodly number of folks, then headed home. I kept doing little checks to see how I felt. My head hurt a wee bit, and the world still didn't look quite right. That, and I wasn't ravenously hungry. I could tell I needed food, but my trusty appetite was telling me "Blech!".

Well, boo. This is my first concussion in years. I'm glad it doesn't feel super serious, but regardless, concussions are serious business.

I hope the other player is okay.

Final score: 1-5. I pulled that up from memory, then doubled checked against the scoresheet. I remembered correctly. Phew!

- - -

I almost forgot to write about this. I'm a tad focused on how my brain feels today.

During the game yesterday, one of my teammates told me to do something on the ice, and after that shift, we discussed it on the bench. Today, as I was thinking about hockey (gee, what a surprise) and visualizing how I would handle a certain situation, I remembered what she said, visualized differently, and saw more options than I would have had otherwise. Huh, how about that?

01:49 PM | Icepacks:Injuries| Comments (1)

November 14, 2008 / Friday

Who Do I Play For? Team OCD.

Okay, I can't do it. I've documented every scorekept game I've ever played, and I have this really uneasy feeling that if I stop, the earth will come to a grinding halt and we'll all be hurled into space.

I wonder what my doctor would have to say about that.

I felt slightly more comfortable this game than I did the last game, although I'm still not where I think I was at the end of last season. Still, I think there was improvement, and that's a good thing.

Even though this was the first game we won (and not until the final minute of the game), my captains this season have been really positive and encouraging. I think it helps a lot for the new-to-Blue skaters, and it certainly helps me too. There's such an experience gap between me and the college coached / more veteran skaters in the division that I wonder if I'll ever stop feeling like one of the n00bs.

The beginning of this season marked 6 1/2 years since I started playing hockey. Subtract injury and travel time, and that leaves me with 6 years of playing approximately 1.5 times a week. I wonder how many games that comes to. Oh yeah, they're all documented in this blog.

I'm fighting the urge to tally them.

I've had my new skates for about a month now. They're similar to my old skates, although I like certain things about my old skates better. The new skates dig into the side of my left ankle. I forgot to put a Band-Aid over the spot for last night's game and undid all the healing I'd done these last few weeks. Hello, new old hole! Actually, it's not really a hole; it seems my ankle has developed some scar tissue in the location of the old hole, so there was no bloody mess. Just skinless pain. Paaain! It was particularly bad when it struck mid-stride because I reflexively pulled back. I bet I looked gimpy out there in the final period of last night's game.

Oh, and I found myself strangely unable to do right crossovers when I stepped on the ice last night. I've always had trouble with my right outer edge. I used to think it was my skates, but now, three pairs of skates later, I realize it's me. For some reason, when I try to use my right outer edge, it catches and tries to toss me forward. Left outer edge feels fine. I couldn't make it catch even if I tried. What gives? I think I need a one-on-one skating coach for this one.

Final score: 2-1. Hooray, we finally won!

Hooray also, the earth will continue spinning!

11:51 PM | Icepacks:Injuries| Comments (0)

November 08, 2008 / Saturday

Iontophoresis

I've been making good progress on forearm exercises, to the point where my achy right forearm is now stronger than my healthy left forearm. It's strange to see my left arm fail trying to lift n pounds with no pain and my right arm succeed at lifting n+x pounds with moderate pain. I understand why, yet it still makes no sense.

Every bi-weekly visit with my physical therapist brings the same questions: "How do I feel?" and "What is my goal?" I've felt better with each visit, and yet I don't know how to reach my goal of being pain free and able to play tennis again without reinjuring myself.

For the last few visits, we've used ultrasound on my forearm. I can only assume that it's helped.

This week, we tried something different. She brought cortisone up for consideration, and we decided my arm didn't hurt enough to warrant an injection. She did, however, ask if I wanted to try topical cortisone. That sounded reasonable, so I said yes, and she ran off to get some.

She came back with electrodes! She put some cortisone gel on one of the pads, stuck it on my forearm, then stuck the other pad on my upper arm. "This might sting a little," she said as she turned the power on.

The electrodes, they tingled! I sat for 20 minutes as cortisone was pushed into my forearm. What a cool way to deliver drugs. I like the name, too: iontophoresis.

When we took the electrodes off, she examined my forearm. It looked bubbly. I couldn't tell if that was my skin or the cortisone gel. "Oh good," my PT said, "you didn't blister much." Blister? I guess some people blister pretty badly at the delivery site. Me, I kind of liked the tingle. Bzzt!

Part of my forearm treatment homework is to swing a tennis racquet. (No ball yet, unfortunately.) I can do this now without too much pain. Volleys are still difficult, as the abrupt stop puts a lot of torque on my forearm, but it hurts a heck of a lot less than it did a few weeks ago. Progress! Yes!

02:25 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

October 27, 2008 / Monday

Wrong Side, Wrist!

I thought I was feeling pretty good today, until I went to the gym. There, I felt pain in my:

- right glute
- right shoulder
- right tricep
- right bicep
- right forearm
-...
- left wrist

Nothing major, just felt off. Lifted a little less than usual. What's up, left wrist? I think it's unhappy from too much hockey in Colorado. The fix is probably to rest it, but I'm finally excited about hockey again and wanting to get more ice time. Maybe it's time to throw the wrist wraps back into my hockey bag.

05:18 PM | Gym:Injuries| Comments (0)

October 26, 2008 / Sunday

More Injury Update Than Game Report

I wasn't going to write a post for tonight's game. It's my first game of the season with this team and I figured it was time to grow up, get over my OCD, and stop documenting every single game I play. But then I realized I have injuries to keep track of, so here I am, writing about tonight's game. It's Blue season 3, game 3. I missed the first two sneezing and playing hockey at altitude, respectively.

To start, there's the new skate rubbing into the outside of my left ankle injury. It started rubbing at last Saturday morning's game in Colorado, and has developed into quite the hole. At pickup on Tuesday, I stuck this nice industrial strength fabric oval from the first aid cabinet at work on it, and that seemed to do a good job against the abrasion. Today, I used a flimsy clear Band-Aid square from my home medicine cabinet, which slipped off right away and left me with an even gianter hole than I had before, along with a bloody mess. Tomorrow, I raid the work first aid cabinet for more industrial strength ovals.

The new skate is stiff, which does not bode well for my bony feet, especially the big bump I have on top of my left foot. (There's a bump on my right foot too, but it's smaller because I'm unevenly bumped.) It hurts quite a bit to tighten the skate over the bump. I'm thinking some strategically placed Bunga Pad (which I forgot to bring to the rink today) just in front of the bump will keep the tongue from pushing down too hard on it. That, or I could learn to skate without cinching my laces down like my life depended on it. I bet if you were to take my skates and dangle me upside down, shake a few times, and then spin me like a carnival ride, I would not fall out of them. My feet probably won't even shift.

I didn't talk about this as part of my Pucktoberfest post, but in the first game I landed hard on my the inside of left knee with my legs bent, which created a painful (to push on and to skate with) and nasty looking bruise at the tip of my quad. In the second game, I landed hard on the exact same spot. I spent the rest of the weekend icing it, which must have helped, because for the first time ever, I had a bruise clear up in a week. A giant nasty one, at that!

And then today, I tripped over a stick and landed on that same spot. Dang it! Currently icing. And dang it some more!

Since I'm writing about the game, I'll write about the outcome. Scoring, by period: 0-3, 3-0, 0-1. Final score: 3-4. Dang it again! Still, fun, and challenging. I've been off for so long I'd forgotten what the pace was like.

I have two teammates this season who will yell at me on the ice and tell me what I should be doing on the bench afterward. While it's never easy to hear that you weren't doing something right, I'm thrilled that they're willing to say something about it. Keep talking to me; I'll learn eventually. And, if I ever forget to say it, thank you.

As for the hamstring, which I first truly injured after a hockey clinic more than two months ago, I've been stretching and doing foam roller massages several times a week, which seems to help a ton. I've been able to skate twice this week without the giant neoprene sleeve, and it's feeling pretty good. Keeping my fingers crossed...

07:36 PM | Icepacks:Injuries| Comments (0)

September 24, 2008 / Wednesday

That About Covers Everything... How Long Will Repairs Take?

This morning, I had the final two appointments in my first round of referral visits for my various pains.

I kicked things off with a visit to Physical Therapy for my achy forearm. "Classic tennis elbow," my new therapist declared. Oh good; I'd been afraid I might have "we've never seen this before tennis elbow", which I reckon is much less treatable.

We did some crazy rainbow luggage strap around the therapist and my forearm bending, unbending, bending, unbending my elbow massage thing, which left arm red but temporarily pain free. Magic! How do I get that in a little machine for my living room?

Next came ultrasound treatment, an eccentric exercise to do on my own, and a little taping workshop. We scheduled a follow-up appointment and I was sent on my merry way.

I zipped home for an hour, then zipped on back for my visit with Sports Medicine. This doctor had kind of a strange demeanor. I think that means he's either really smart, or really strange. I told him about my forearm, hamstring, glute, and tricep. He checked most of it out and told me I wasn't falling apart.

He also told me I'm getting old. Those weren't his exact words, but I'm pretty sure that's what he meant. His exact words were, "You used to be able to use your sports as conditioning, but now you need to condition to keep playing those sports." See. Old.

He showed me some Pilates-type exercises for the hamstring and glute, but stopped short of telling me to go to Pilates. Rather, he told me to go find a trainer that could tailor some non-weight room exercises to me based on the activities I do and the muscles I'm having trouble with. The thinking is my weight training routine isn't strengthening what I need. I like the idea of doing something new, but I'm not sure where to find a good trainer with a sports focus that doesn't use traditional weight room equipment. Certainly not at 24hF.

I got an additional referral back to PT for my hamstring and glute. Perhaps I'll learn some new lower body and core exercises on my next visit.

I'm digging Kaiser's everything under one roof, doctors all talking to each other over the network model. I suppose I'm also pleased because all my appointments are at their shiny new facility... now with valet service! Or have they had that for a while now? I only noticed it this morning.

Still, I have a bit of a back of my mind worry that it's all chirpy birds and fluffy clouds (too much Twitter?) until I need something big done there. I hope never to find out.

And now, a wrap-up of my first round of referral visits: one funny insole, one eccentric exercise, and one strange sports medicine doctor. What will round two bring?

10:07 AM | Injuries| Comments (6)

September 20, 2008 / Saturday

Ho-Hum

Went for a mountain bike ride at Monte Bello today. No big writeup; just some thoughts:

- There's a lot of pavement between parking on Stevens Canyon Road and where the dirt starts.
- The dirt trail in from that entrance is boring and fun at the same time. Huh?
- It's a bad idea to go mountain biking when you're not feeling quite with it.
- Table Mountain would be a nice out and back on a more "with it" day.
- My legs have some new red, black, and blue decorations. Nothing serious; just call me ripe fruit.
- Hamstring hurt a bit. When is this thing going to heal?

Monte Bello, I'll be back. And next time will be better.

06:49 PM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (0)

September 08, 2008 / Monday

Doctor, Doctor, Everything Hurts!

I saw my doctor today about:

- My months-long tennis elbow.
- My months-long aching foot.
- My unhappy hamstring, and other unhappy hamstring.
- My unhappy right triceps that says hello every time I return from a break from exercise.

I wasn't sure what I'd get out of this visit, but I felt a need to see my doctor. I was worried that there was something really wrong with me, as my arm and foot aren't healing (my knees still hurt when I ride too far on the bike, but I've given up hope on that one) and I'm getting other injuries piled on top of that. That said, I didn't expect one answer to explain all my ailments. If that's what I want, I think I have a better shot of finding out from an acupuncturist or Chinese herbalist.

Since I don't want to abandon anything without giving it fair shake, I will stick with western medicine for a bit longer to see what it can do for me. After a couple X-rays of my right forearm, I left with an appointment with a podiatrist, an appointment with a physical therapist, and a promise of a call from the sports medicine department to schedule a consult. I'm starting to think I was a little too optimistic last December when I allocated FSA funds for this year. Those $15 dollar co-pays are going to add up fast.

As for the right hamstring (the left one feels fine now), I was told that it might not actually be a problem with my hamstring. It's a little off-center toward the inside of my leg, which may mean it's an adductor issue. In any case, it's healing, so we're going to leave it alone for now and assume that it will heal all the way with my regimen of stretching and icing.

And my triceps? Today's thinking is that I have an imbalance in triceps head strengths. (I keep forgetting that it's a muscle group.) My doctor asked what exercises I do to work my triceps, so I gave her a list: dips, overhead extensions, downward cable pulls, and some indirect work through chest and overhead presses. She suggested that I start doing kickbacks also. Darnit, I hate kickbacks! (If I didn't, I would be doing them!) But if that will make my triceps feel better, I'm willing to give it a go.

So there you go. I have more exercises to do, more stretching to do, and more appointments to go to, which will likely give me even more exercises and stretching to do. Let's hope it works.

06:01 PM | Injuries| Comments (5)

August 29, 2008 / Friday

Coors Cup 2008 Game 1: Chillin'

Arrived at the Toyota Sports Center for game one of the 2008 Coors Cup tournament. This place is pretty nice. We went upstairs, signed in, and were handed a fabulous schwag bag containing (and this list is not complete) a Roxy dog leash, a strip of Durex condoms, two bottles of lube, an ID Glide branded water bottle, Propel powder, pink hockey tape, an LA Kings cap, and a Coors Cup 2008 trucker cap. We also got tournament shirts and a fluorescent green rubber bracelet from Ice Magazine that says "PLAY LIKE A GIRL". Sweet! I was liking this tournament already.

And now, the game. We weren't sure what to expect; if you haven't played a tournament before you really don't know what the level of play is, no matter what adjectives or labels are used to describe it. Fortunately, our two teams were fairly evenly matched. Most importantly, it was a friendly game. The Chill, well, they're pretty chill. I always say hello to my opposing wing before the first puck drop, and their response is often a good predictor of the game to come. I got a stick tap and a glove bump from this one. Hoorays.

We scored a couple early, one from Kim and another from a pass that bounced off my skate. The second one, definitely a fluke. After that, their goalie warmed up or something, because she then turned away the rest of our shots. Final score: 2-0. Way to go, Burninators!

The hamstring held up (I wrapped it up tight), but the right glute is unhappy again. Not sure how to wrap that one. Do they make such a thing as butt wrap?

Next game is tomorrow at 9:15 in the morning. Gotta clean up and go to sleep now!

10:46 PM | Burninators:Injuries| Comments (2)

August 25, 2008 / Monday

Friday Night At Vallco

I missed a couple Blue/Maroon clinics while away last month, and decided to crash the Maroon/Red clinic this month to make up for it. On the way there, however, I realized that I had no idea where the rink entrance was at Vallco.

I wondered who I should call, but then I realized it'd be more efficient to put out a broadcast on Twitter. That did the trick; I got a few responses within minutes. I don't think I'd have managed to find the inconspicuous rink entrance otherwise. Thank you thank you, Twitterpeeps!

It was really nice to be on the ice with some of the folks from Maroon again. I've really missed skating with them. I felt right at home, although I did find it amusing/weird that the three assistant coaches at the clinic were Blue skaters. (From my team this summer, no less!) It really served to highlight how much of a n00b I still am in that division. Not that I didn't know it already. I'm not there 'cause I'm awesome; I'm there because several someones were kind enough to give me a chance.

We did some skating, some passing, some drills with more passing, some shooting. We also did a drill where we forwards practiced 1-on-1s against the defense. I had a couple runs against other skaters in the clinic, and then a run against one of my Lollerskate teammates. She totally schooled me, and when I got back in line one of my other teammates came up and said, "Don't let her do that to you!" My final run (against one of the other skaters) went much better, and for the first time, I tried to drive wide to my backhand with only my top hand on the stick while holding off the D with my other hand. It wasn't perfect, but I managed not to lose the puck and even curled back to center in time to get a shot on net. I'll have to remember to practice that one some more.

I also remembered to thank one of my teammates for her season's worth of advice this summer. I've gotten good advice from various players this season, but this teammate has had words of wisdom for me game after game. Much appreciation from me on that front.

Afterward, I drove... and drove... and drove in search of the mall exit. I eventually found my way out onto Stevens Creek, after driving around almost the entire mall. It wasn't the street I was looking for, but it was good enough to get me home.

The clinic left my body a lot worse for wear. The shooting drills wrecked my forearm (I've been battling tennis elbow for months) and I somehow managed to pull my right hamstring. The hamstring was especially troubling, as I had a 3-on-3 tournament scheduled for Sunday and a Burninators tournament the following weekend.

In the end, I decided against playing the 3-on-3. After a ridiculous number of phone calls, we were fortunate enough to replace (or, rather, upgrade) me with Shannon.

On Monday, I bought a big thigh wrap for my hamstring, a non-bulky elbow wrap for my forearm, and an ice pack for the freezer at work. I'll rest and ice and stretch as much as I can this week, then wrap myself up and Burninate away.

01:52 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (2)

July 08, 2008 / Tuesday

Please To Be Reoxygenating Now, Me

A couple weeks ago, I scheduled a doctor's appointment for today to have several of my (weeks and months long) nagging injuries looked at. Last week, most of those injuries magically healed and the worst one got a lot better. I went to my appointment anyway to make sure I was okay, and figured I'd ask about my feeling of general blech since last Wednesday.

She checked out all the injuries I told her about and was pleased that most of them are gone now. She paid my left foot some extra attention and after hearing me describe all the things that did and didn't make it hurt told me that I probably had a stress fracture. A stress fracture! Yucks. I'm supposed to stretch more before I exercise. Apparently, I don't do it enough. Oh wait, I don't do it at all. D'oh. She gave me some tips on how to manage the tennis elbow, also.

I asked about my lingering nausea and elevated heart rate (resting at 75 right now instead of 60) and she told me that the effects of altitude sickness could last up to a couple weeks. So, one more week of this? I wonder how I'll do on my flights this weekend. I hear they pressurize to the equivalent of only 8,000 feet on long hauls.

Despite still feeling blech, I'm satisfied to have something of an explanation for the blechness, and for that stupid foot. I limped for days on that thing last month! Glad it's (mostly) happy again.

[ Next day update: Tennis elbow is worsening again. I think it was just behaving for the doctor. ]

11:46 AM | Injuries| Comments (2)

April 26, 2008 / Saturday

Consolation Ride

I pulled my glute during last Friday's race, and it still hasn't healed. Sadly, this weekend is Coe Backcountry Weekend, when they open up a park entrance that gives easier access to parts of the (very large) park we can't normally reach without considerable effort. I'd been planning to ride there today; I had applied for and obtained a pass weeks ago. But with my leg still hurting and trails at the park described as "steep to very steep to ridiculously steep," I realized there was no way I could ride there without injuring myself further.

Not riding is sucky in itself, but this was extra sucky because they open the Backcountry entrance only one weekend a year, and Coe is on the list of parks slated for closure. (*shakes fist at Arnold*) Way to go, fragile me.

To ease the suckiness (and to not feel like a lazy lardball on such a beautiful day), I decided to go for an easy road ride. I chose a fairly flat route and headed out. I was originally going to ride 15-20 miles just to keep my knees loose, but I didn't want to get off the bike so I ended up riding 30. Boy, was it hard riding easy. I don't want to ride easy! I want to push and zoom and mash and go go go go go! There was a little pain in the injured glute here and there, but for the most part I think I managed to get some exercise without doing too much extra damage.

The knees were a little tight the first 5 miles, but I didn't notice them at all for the rest of the ride. Once I heal up I'll start pushing for more distance again. I really want to do a century this season.

I remember when 30 miles used to be hard. I'm glad it's not anymore.

04:35 PM | Injuries:Road| Comments (0)

December 04, 2007 / Tuesday

Today Ain't Bad

I wouldn't say I'm back to 100%, but I feel tons better today. Maybe I just needed to be a lardass for a day to let my body rest.

Left hand still hurts, but less so than yesterday, although I'm sure it'll scream at me after hockey tomorrow.

11:52 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

December 03, 2007 / Monday

Oof

Everything hurts. No ultimate, no climbing, no tennis. I don't think I could even manage to swim today.

Blah. I hate being sedentary.

02:52 PM | Injuries| Comments (3)

December 02, 2007 / Sunday

I Don't Know Me

I looked at the scoresheet after my game today and saw a number I didn't recognize.

Who's number 27?
*checks roster*
Oh, that's me.

It's bad enough that I don't know what my number is, but the fact that I'm the statistician and I know plenty of other players' numbers in means that I don't show up on the scoresheets very much. Plus, my not expecting to show up on the scoresheet means I probably didn't deserve credit for the assist. Sigh.

That said, I'm still happy to take the point. :)

Final score: 5-7. Left thumb and forefinger hurt lots now. Suck.

09:30 PM | Blue Timber:Injuries| Comments (5)

December 01, 2007 / Saturday

Ow, My Thumb

The butt has healed, but my left thumb hurts. It's been sore for the last week or two, and hockey seems to aggravate it. Why so many injuries? Am I overtraining? Not eating well enough? Too much pie and ice cream? Oh, I know what it is: genetics. I think I'm just not built to keep up with me. I'm not a big believer in fate, but it's kind of hard to get around that one, isn't it?

[ Update: The sore thumb has turned into a sore/numb/weak hand. What's going on? Sigh. ]

11:53 AM | Injuries| Comments (9)

November 26, 2007 / Monday

Ow, My Butt, And Other Blah Blah

This is pretty lame: I pulled a muscle in my butt on Thanksgiving. I don't recall how exactly I hurt it (I can only assume that it happened during my Mt. Hamilton cheat ride), but it's been slow to heal. No ultimate, no climbing. Boo.

I did, however, decide that my butt was in good enough condition for a visit to the gym. I was immediately proven wrong by an unhappy twinge as I lightly trotted after the basketball during warmups. It made for an interesting session, as today was lower body day, and half the exercises I usually do involve the glutes in one way or another.

I adjusted by lifting lighter weights at slower reps. A five count up, and five more down. It was kind of nice to change things up some; going slow really made me focus on form.

Afterward, I hopped in the pool for a few laps. I shared a lane with a lady doing water aerobics, and we chatted briefly before I left. I'd noticed that she was able to assume a sitting position and keep her entire head out of the water with almost no effort. I asked her how she did it. "I have big boobs," she said, "and they make great flotation devices." Well, that explains a lot!

Finally, I would like to proclaim my extreme dislike for all the women who gab gab GAB on their cell phones in the locker room about he said she said inanity! Today's gabber liked to repeat herself. "Like, OHMIGOD, I was SO LIVID! I was SO MAD! Ugh, I was LIVID!" Livid? I'll show you livid! *smack*

[ Update: Forgot to mention, basketball was awesome; everything went swish! Swimming didn't suck either; I managed to breathe every three strokes, right, left, right, left, and so on... at least until I screwed up, glugged, and had to start over. ]

05:39 PM | Gym:Injuries:Water| Comments (3)

August 25, 2007 / Saturday

Downhill Ass Kicking

Aaron, Ted, Wayne, and I went downhill mountain biking at Northstar today.

I will sum up the day in three words: dirt, rocks, pain

Dirt, as in, loose dirt galore. Dirt, also as in, all over us, after quite a few ungraceful dismounts from our bikes. At the end of the day, that dirt was all over the inside of our cars. That's what happens when you rolling in the stuff.

Rocks, as in, all over every trail. Rocks, also as in, scraping us after those ungraceful dismounts from our bikes. At the end of the day, however, I'd learned to ride both over and around them. In the morning, they were challenging, but by the end of the afternoon, they were fun.

Pain, as in, bumps and bruises from our various ungraceful dismounts. Pain, also as in, cuts and scrapes from the aforementioned rocks. In time, however, we'll all heal. Even our bruised egos.

Still, I had fun. It's hard not to have fun on two wheels. Plus, because these conditions were so foreign to me, I learned a lot over the course of the day. I'm now much better able to handle rock-littered descents. Not that I've all of a sudden become an expert, but I've definitely gained a point or two in the rocky downhill skill and comfort departments.

I won't go into everyone's unplanned dismounts (honestly, there were too many to count), but here were mine:

(1) A short section at the top of a black diamond run that consisted of several dips and jumps strung together. I got a little overconfident, took the thing at full speed, and ran myself into a bush. The bush retaliated by puncturing my thigh with a thick branch. I rode this section later in the day a little more cautiously, scrubbing off some speed after each bump, and completed it without issue.

(2) A two log, two foot drop on another black diamond run (the only other section of black diamond I rode the entire day). I saw a log, saw a drop, figured I could ride it, realized too late that there was a second log, dropped off them going just a little too slow, and ended up with my weight forward on the landing. Because the dirt was loose, my front wheel dug and I went over my handlebars. I picked myself up and considered doing it again, properly, but I was hurting quite a bit, and decided to just continue on.

At lunch, one of my bumps from the endo bothered me so much that I had trouble throwing my leg over my bike seat. I returned to the car and popped a few ibuprofen. That did the trick; I was able to get in a pretty good afternoon once it kicked in.

When I count all my injuries from today, I'm tempted to bring back my sidebar list.

Bump count: a big bump just below my left hip, a bump on my left thigh, two bumps on my right thigh, and a bump on my left shin.

Scrape total, in order of severity: left elbow, right thigh, left shoulder, right elbow.

Most worrisome is the bump below my left hip. It reminds me of the grapefruit, pre-grapefruit. If I land on it again, will it explode into a ball of painful faux fruitiness? I considered skipping tomorrow's hockey game, but it's the last game of the season, and I don't want to miss it.

Stupid? Yes, but did anyone actually think I would choose not to play?

- - -

I just remembered that I got the pre-grapefruit bump at Northstar. In fact, that's the last time I was there, and I went splat just before lunch, just like this time. I think should stick with Kirkwood from now on.

My archives tell me that two weeks passed between the pre-grapefruit incident and the grapefruit incident, which means if the bruise below my hip is as bad as I think I won't be in the clear for a while. Good thing we're between hockey seasons.

10:35 PM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (0)

August 02, 2007 / Thursday

Angry Supervillain

I'm a lot stronger when I'm mad. Teres major pull be damned.

03:40 PM | Gym:Injuries| Comments (4)

July 30, 2007 / Monday

The Tricep Is Fine

Maybe I pulled the teres major?

In any case, it hurts, and it makes putting my car into reverse a pain. Literally.

07:38 PM | Injuries| Comments (1)

July 28, 2007 / Saturday

White List?

The Burninators were supposed to scrimmage against Black List today, but for some reason the other team showed up in white, which confused me a bit. Also confusing was the Black List roster, which seems to have undergone something of an upgrade since I last saw them play in Vegas. At first, I had a bit of Piggy déjà vu, but it's no big deal; it's better for us to practice against stronger teams anyhow.

The game was scoreless into the second period, when I tried to take the puck in, had it poked away from me, and watched as the other team took it into our end and scored. That REALLY pissed me off, because I felt I should have hung on to the puck. But I didn't. Rarr.

That got me really riled up. I immediately skated faster, played harder, and retweaked my right tricep, which was still healing from last night's game. At that moment, I didn't care. I got my chance at redemption toward the end of the shift, when Lucinda sent me yet another beautiful clearing pass. I skated my ass off, took a shot, and as I slid into the boards I watched the puck trickle in. "YEAH! YEAH!!" I shouted, "FUCK YEAH!!!" I didn't say it to be rude; I was simply excited (and relieved) about having just made up for my puck gaffe moments earlier.

We put in a couple more, and they put in three more. Final score: 3-4. I really wanted to win, and tried hard to score again, but just couldn't get the puck past the goalie. I even had my shot back today; I tried to sneak several shots by Amy along the post, and she stopped every one of them. Good for her. Boo for me.

Writing this has settled me down some. I was fairly perturbed about not being able to push that extra little bit for a win today, but oh well. There's always next time.

07:20 PM | Burninators:Injuries| Comments (5)

It's Good To Be Back... Again

What a screwy season it's been for me. Played my first Maroon 5 game since June last night, and only because I scheduled my flights to get me back in time for it.

Food poisoning and 2 mostly sedentary weeks in North Carolina, have taken a toll on my body. While I was fortunate enough not to pull any muscles in my legs, my triceps did not fare so well. I knew something was wrong even before the game, when they hurt during a light and truncated game of air hockey. During the game, the right one failed altogether. I tried to load my stick for a shot, and as I pushed on the shaft, I felt a twinge in my right tricep. After that, I was pretty much done shooting.

Not that any of my shots were going on net, anyway. It seems my accuracy is the first thing to go when I'm out of practice. All my shots went wide... even the three I took on the open net toward the end of the game. Sigh.

Fortunately, we didn't need any extra goals. Whitney, Leslie, and Ellaine each put one in, and Amy totally stood on her head for us in net. Final score: 3-0.

*grins*

03:06 PM | Injuries:Maroon 5| Comments (0)

June 25, 2007 / Monday

There's A Muscle There?

Whatever muscle it is that runs from just under my tongue down the front of my neck, I just pulled it. It seriously feels injured. I don't even remember what I was doing. I think I was stretching, or yawning, or stretch yawning, or something.

Waah, it hurrrts. Make it stop. :(

02:11 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

April 13, 2007 / Friday

More Knee Exercises

Paid a visit to the physical therapist today and got reconfirmed with Patellofemoral Syndrome and kneecap tracking problems. I was given a new set of exercises to do and sent on my way. I guess that's all I really expected from PT. I know it's not magic, and my goal was to get some instruction on what to do to get better.

While I was there, I had my knees thoroughly pushed, pulled, and twisted. No stability issues. That's good news.

So the glass half empty view is I have weak VMOs (Vastus Medialis Obliques) that fail to keep my kneecap aligned when I straighten my leg. The glass half full view is that my other leg muscles are SO STRONG that they're overpowering the poor little VMOs. Hooah!

Either way, I'll be doing exercises to try to isolate and strengthen the VMOs. I hope this takes care of the cycling pain, but even if it doesn't, I'll at least have balanced out my leg muscles a bit.

On my way back to work, I counted up all the things I've had PT for: left ankle (basketball), both shoulders (goalie), right wrist (slapshot), middle of my back (mountain biking), and now my knees (cycling). Hooray for health insurance.

11:25 AM | Injuries| Comments (3)

April 04, 2007 / Wednesday

This Kneecap Thing Boggles My Mind

After almost a month wait, I finally had my appointment with the sports medicine doctor (actually, physician assistant, but for simplicity let's just say doctor) today. She wiggled my knees and kneecaps around, ordered an X-ray of my kneecaps, and referred me to a month of physical therapy. Unfortunately for me, the next available PT appointment is in mid-May. She told me to call and ask for a cancellation spot instead. I'm starting to understand everyone's complaints about the Kaiser wait.

She says that my knee caps rotate outward when I extend my leg, which they're not supposed to do. I was told to continue taking it easy on the bikes for another month (surprise surprise), then start to increase mileage and intensity. Schedulewise, this is supposed to overlap with PT, if I can get an appointment sometime reasonably soon.

In the meantime, she gave me an exercise to do. While seated, I'm supposed to extend my leg, push with my thumb on the inside tip of the quadricep muscle near the top of the kneecap, flex that tiny part of the muscle, hold for 10 seconds, and repeat 9 more times. I'm told this part of the quadriceps helps keep my kneecap from rotating to the outside, and that most other leg exercises work muscles and parts of muscles that do the opposite. Overall strengthening of my legs might actually be bad for my knees. What? Huh?

I did a few of them at the gym today and had a good chuckle when I realized what they reminded me of. Let's just say we can boil that whole sequence above down to three words: sit and squeeze.

Bet you didn't expect that in a post about knees.

05:39 PM | Injuries| Comments (4)

March 31, 2007 / Saturday

ARP Again

Headed back to Alum Rock Park for a solo ride. My legs were tired from Friday night hockey and lard ball training week, but I managed to make it up both the switchbacks and to Eagle Rock without stopping on the climbs. My legs were killing me, though. By the time I reached the picnic table bench at the top of the switchbacks my quads were screaming.

I was happy to see progress on the short steep minihill leading up to Eagle Rock. The only time I've tried to climb that was on my first day almost a year ago, when I pretty much had to push my bike up after I lost traction and momentum near the bottom. Today, I got into the right gear (Granny gear!) at the right time (early!), properly balanced my weight over both tires for traction, and pedaled fast enough to maintain momentum yet slow enough not to spin my wheel. Piece of cake! ;)

What was not a piece of cake, however, was this one pesky turn on the switchback descent. It hadn't given me any trouble in the past, but today it did. Today, I think I simply overthought the turn. I tried to ride back up it, then down again, and had to step out both times. Some days you're just off, I guess. No worries, I'll be back.

The right knee felt a little stiff after about 5 miles, but I couldn't identify any true pain. Better than last time, so no complaints there!

04:05 PM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (0)

March 30, 2007 / Friday

Friday Night Ice

Woohoo, I got to sub in tonight's Maroon game. I was feeling like ass from a week of sitting in a training room all day eating donuts and Oreos, so it was good to hop on the ice and get moving again. I continued my week of bad eating with some pre-game Doritos, which, as usual, hurt my stomach but resulted in a not-too-shabby breakaway goal. What can I say? They're magic.

We played against SharoN's team, and the two of us spent a good part of the game fighting for the puck. I always find this matchup really fun. We compare well in speed and style of play, and she's a few steps ahead of me in skill, positioning, poise, and patience. This creates an excellent challenge and learning opportunity for me, even when I'm on the other bench. I watch and learn, and am reminded of what I should work on when I'm out on the ice. As I told her after the game, playing against her makes me play better. I feel lucky to have someone I can learn from out there.

In sucky news, I fell forward with my left arm straight out (I was probably reaching for the puck) and reinjured my left shoulder. It's the same injury I had from repeatedly diving to cover the puck as goalie a few years back. Having now established that I can't avoid this injury simply by staying out of net, I might as well suit up again.

That way, my right shoulder can join in on the pain. I'm all for equal shoulder opportunity.

11:03 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (4)

March 24, 2007 / Saturday

First Dirt Ride Of The Season

Mountain biking season is here! Met up with Lucinda for my first dirt ride of the season and her first dirt ride ever. Drove over to Alum Rock Park, where I learned to ride last April. Warmed up on the not so steep partly paved mellow trail (sorry, no map or trail names), then headed up to the switchbacks.

I was pleased that the trails all felt much easier than they did the first time I rode here. Noticable progress, whoO!

On our way up to the switchback, we came upon a snake sunning itself on the singletrack. I suppose if I'd been descending I'd have tried to hop over it, but since I was climbing that wasn't an option. I stopped, eeked (Snake! A snake! Oh, it's a snake!), and stared. It stuck its tongue out at me a few times and slowly backed away into the grass. Phew. (Badgers badger badgers...)

Lucinda did great, riding her way to the top to enjoy the picnic table bench, tree shade, and view. I remembered being totally beat by the time I made it up there on my first day, but she didn't seem all that fazed by the climb. Cool. :)

My right knee started to hurt a little toward the end of the ride. My repeated bounce bounce bouncing probably didn't help much, but then, gratuitous bouncing is part of what makes mountain biking so fun.

When do I get to ride again? I wonder how my knees feel about tomorrow.

*bounce*

05:21 PM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (2)

March 22, 2007 / Thursday

My Office Looks Better With A Bike In It

Pedaled into today without any major knee discomfort. Dunno what the minor ache on the inside of my right knee is (why does the pain keep moving around?), but I'm not limping so hooray.

I took it easy on my ride in, but still came close to my mountain bike commute time and speed record. Hello, mechanical advantage!*

I can't believe it's been over 6 months since I last pedaled into work. Welcome back, DST!

* I'm told that "mechanical advantage" isn't the proper term for what I'm trying to say, but the person who told me that will only tell me that it's wrong and won't offer any alternatives. :( I suspect the "more speed for less effort" phenomenon is due to some combination of weight, friction, and gearing, so until someone who does know the proper term for what I'm trying to say pipes up, I'm going to rephrase "Hello, mechanical advantage!" to "Thank you, physics!"

10:31 AM | Injuries:Road| Comments (2)

March 17, 2007 / Saturday

Exit Srategy

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I decided to celebrate by taking the Lucky Charms jersey out for a ride. My hamstrings have been feeling much better since I started stretching them several times a week, so I figured I'd plan a route that allowed me to ride farther than last week if I felt good, but not get stuck too far from home if my knees started to hurt.

The route: 3.7 miles out on Fremont and back, a left on Wolfe, a right on Central, then a right on Bowers to head back toward home on some mellow residential streets. Total distance: 15.7 miles.

Despite the lack of saddle time, I'm still making some progress on the road biking technique front. I don't have to remind myself as often to bend my arms now, and standing up to sprint (usually for or from traffic lights) feels stable and natural. That pleases me greatly.

And now, the much awaited knee update.

The left knee is okay. Hooray!

The right knee is mostly okay, at least compared to how bad it could be. (The left knee pain from 3 weeks ago is still very fresh in my mind.) It feels better than it did after my shorter ride last week, so I'm not too displeased. I started off pedaling fast and light, feeling (or perhaps imagining) some mild discomfort on the inside of my right knee. After warming up, my knees felt good, so I pushed it a little around mile 7. That may have resulted in my overdoing it a bit, as my right knee then started hurting around mile 11, which, as it turned out, was the farthest head-for-home point on my entire route today. I'm not quite sure what to say about that relative to my now seemingly failed ride route exit strategy. In any case, the knee is sore, but I was able to limp instead of hobble up the steps to my apartment. Took some ibuprofen, stretched, grabbed a couple ice packs and settled in to write this post.

To follow up from last week, the doctor did give me a referral to sports medicine, who was supposed to call me, but I have no idea when that's going to happen. I guess I'll give them a call Monday instead.

03:36 PM | Injuries:Road| Comments (0)

March 10, 2007 / Saturday

Finishing What I Started

After staying off the pedal bikes (as oppposed to the vroom bike) for two weeks, I could no longer bear to sit and watch the beautiful weather pass me by. I geared up, stretched, hopped on the road bike, and went for a short ride. I followed the same route as before, choosing this time to turn around at Main St. in Los Altos, where I had to stop and wait for a lift home two weeks ago. Today, I was able to ride there and back without needing rescue. Hoorays.

The ride was a paltry 12.5 miles, but it felt good to be out there again. I passed about 10 people and got passed by 1. That ratio seems strangely high, but I guess I shouldn't complain. The one guy who passed me was all decked out like a hardcore cyclist atop an S-Works Tarmac, and I suppose I would have wondered what was wrong with him if he hadn't zoomed away.

Someone liked my Lucky Charms jersey. Hoorays again.

And now, the knee update. I know you're all on the edge of your seats.

First, the good news. My left knee feels fine.

Now, the sucky news. The back of my right knee felt tight from the very beginning, much like it did in the middle of my last ride. After about 6 miles, it started hurting in the same way my left knee was hurting (except that it was 20 miles before my left knee would start to hurt). When I turned around at Main St. I definitely noticed the pain. I was halfway out, though, and the pain wasn't unbearable, so I continued toward home. I made it, hobbled only a little up the stairs to my apartment, stretched, took some ibuprofen, e-mailed the doctor who promised me a sports medicine referral, and iced.

The pain is relatively mild and nowhere near debilitating like what I had last time, but geez, WTF, KNEES? I REST YOU, I ICE YOU, I STRENGTHEN YOU, I STRETCH YOU. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? THIS IS CYCLING, NOT RUNNING! WHAT PART OF "LOW IMPACT" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? DO YOU WANT ME TO TAKE UP RUNNING? HUH? HOW DO YOU THINK YOU'D LIKE THAT? LET'S GO, YA PUNKS!

Okay, I'm done now. I just had to get that out.

03:39 PM | Injuries:Road| Comments (0)

March 08, 2007 / Thursday

Something Like Denial

Every time I see a cyclist ride by I find myself silently wondering at him, "Why don't your knees hurt?"

I really want to ride, but I'm a little scared to get on my bike. What if my knee starts hurting like it did the last time I rode? What if I can't even make it 4 miles to work without pain? I don't want to know if the answer is yes.

11:52 PM | Bicycle:Injuries| Comments (0)

March 04, 2007 / Sunday

Bye Bye Knee Pain

One of the frustrating things about my knee hurting when I cycle is that the pain begins long before I start feeling tired. A week of sitting on my ass eating junk food, however, has left my knees rested and me feeling like crap. So here's the plan: I continue to sit on my ass and eat junk food so that the next time I ride I'll tire and quit after a few miles. The knees won't have to work so hard and voila... no more knee pain!

I am a genius.

10:39 PM | Injuries| Comments (2)

March 01, 2007 / Thursday

Mostly Happy Knees

Today, I can walk, climb/descend stairs, and drive without much knee discomfort. It's time to go cycling!

Just kidding.

Sorta.

10:27 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

February 28, 2007 / Wednesday

Riddick And Cheesecake

Because I'm off from school this week, and because I have to rest my knees until they stop hurting, I played couch potato last night. I went home, threw on some sweats, and watched the entire Riddick Trilogy while dining on Bailey's Cheesecake Bars.

This couch potato thing doesn't suck.

11:10 AM | Food:Injuries| Comments (6)

February 27, 2007 / Tuesday

Stretching And Rolling

I've noticed that my hamstrings have felt tight the last few weeks. Research on my knee pain leads me to believe that their lack of flexibility may be contributing to the problem. I'm finally getting off my ass and making time to stretch them every day. Oh, the pain! Stretching usually feels good, but for some reason the hamstring stretch has always registered as pain.

Less pain than in the knees, though.

The other benefit of daily stretching is it reminds me to use my foam roller. My hockey and biking injured back (2 different overlapping injuries) has been acting up lately. I hope some time on the roller will help loosen things up. Otherwise, I'll have to start looking for a good chiropractor.

08:20 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

Injuries, Now A Category

I finally got around to creating a blog category for my injuries. After hours of curation, I think I have most injury-related posts categorized as such. The tally: 146 posts.

Perhaps I should have created subcategories.

01:17 PM | Blog/Website:Injuries| Comments (2)

February 26, 2007 / Monday

Behave, Knees, Behave!

I woke up this morning with mildly sore left and right knees. I drove into work, and by the time I made it to the office, my right knee had worsened. I limped to my desk and took some ibuprofen.

I called Kaiser, told them that one of my knees hurt so badly over the weekend that I couldn't stand, and that my current knee pain was interfering with driving and walking. They sent an urgent note to my doctor, and I got an appointment with a backup doctor for the end of the day. Pretty good turnaround. I'm pleased.

The backup doctor was nice, but not very thorough, I felt. I'd gone through the trouble of documenting every knee-aggravating activity this year (along with other activities and motions that don't bother my knees), along with the types and locations of pain. He did a cursory check of my knees, listened a little to what I had to say, ordered some X-rays, and told me I had Patellofemoral Syndrome. That didn't explain the pain I had along the ITB of the left knee, but he did say he would refer me to sports medicine if the symptoms didn't go away after a week, so fine.

Until then, I'm supposed to rest and go shopping for knee braces with patella holes. Then, when my knees feel better, stretch and slowly ramp up on bike mileage and ride every other day or so. (Go figure, he said 30 miles once a week was not a good idea.) I guess I need the weather to clear so I can start riding to work. At least it stays light late enough for me to ride home without bike lights now.

Blow away, rain clouds, blow away!

But not before my knees feel good enough to ride to work and back.

08:38 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

February 25, 2007 / Sunday

Neck and Knee Check

Progress! My neck is less sore today than it was the day after the last time I went for a not quite a metric half century ride.

My knee felt terrible for the rest of yesterday. I could barely drive, it hurt so much to step on the clutch. When I got out of the car my knee hurt so badly I couldn't even put weight on it to stand, let alone walk 30 feet to the front door.

Last night: ibuprofen, Celebrex, ice, and rest. My knee feels mostly okay this morning, although the real test is coming up. Go karting (my body aches in anticipation of the aftermath), hockey, and more hockey this afternoon.

I'll be keeping the ibuprofen handy today.

10:21 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

February 24, 2007 / Saturday

Foiled Again

I was hoping I'd get to title this post "Metric Half Century Plus", but it was not to be. :(

I can't complain too much, though. At least I snuck a ride in before the rain returns. It was nippy out, but that made for an opportunity to wear my new tights and full-fingered gloves. Still love them. Superb temperature control.

Superb. I love using marketing clichés. They make me laugh.

The plan was to ride just over 34 miles. Leaving from my house, we'd take Sunnyvale-Saratoga to Fremont to Foothill/Junipero Serra, do a counterclockwise loop on Sand Hill/Portola/Alpine, return to Foothill, and head back. I popped a couple Advil before the ride to try to head off any mild knee discomfort or inflammation. Like last time, my knee felt fine for about the first 20 miles.

Aaron had mapped out the route for me the night before, which included information on where the climbs would be. For some reason, I think that anything Aaron climbs on his bike is bound to be ridiculous, so when he said that the biggest climb of the ride was on Sand Hill Road, I fully expected to get my ass kicked there. As it turned out, it wasn't so bad. I managed to ride that, plus all the other hills today, without using the little chain ring. (No, I didn't power up on the big ring; I ride a triple.) Cool.

So, the dreaded mile 20. This seems to be my distance limit on the road bike. Actually, even before I hit the 20th mile I started feeling some level of knee discomfort, but at around 20 miles my knee pretty much had my full attention. The problem was, when it started hurting, I was approximately halfway into my ride. Turning around wouldn't have helped much, so I continued on.

After mile 20, my knee felt worse and worse. My pedalling slowed, and with it my speed and heart rate. It's pretty interesting to see everything on the graph drop toward the end. Eventually, I couldn't pedal standing, had trouble at stoplights (whether balancing on both pedals or clipped out of either side, both legs have to be straight), and couldn't sprint away when lights turned green. Aaron asked several times if I wanted to stop and have him return with the car, but I declined. I wanted my metric half century, dammit!

As we approached downtown Los Altos, I asked how many miles we had left. "About 10," I was told. Given my slowing pace, the amount of pain in my knee, its rapidly deteriorating condition, and a pestering little voice in my head (previously Aaron's voice next to my head) blathering something about further damage, I knew 10 miles was farther than I could ride. I was fewer than 3 miles from the elusive metric half century, but I had to stop. I accepted Aaron's offer to pick me up with the car and ended my ride on Main St. Total distance ridden: 28.5 miles.

I scoped out Main St. for some restaurants to try in the future, noted a crêperie and a pot pie place, and stopped at Posh Bagel for a coffee, where I had a nice chat with some random customer about my bike. Then I headed out to wait for Aaron. During that time, I did some pushing on my knee and discovered a sore spot along a tendon on the outside. (We suspect it's an ITB issue.) Finally, something concrete. It sure is easier to localize pain by reproducing it in a controlled setting than to try to figure out where it's coming from when the entire area is screaming.

Anyway, Aaron arrived, we loaded my bike into the car, and, because we now had a way of carrying stuff, stopped at Andronico's (I didn't know there was one so close to me until last night!) to trade a paycheck for some yumminess on the way back. :-* to Aaron for riding extra slow, stopping so many times for me to catch up, and picking me up when my knee broke down.

09:14 PM | Injuries:Road| Comments (2)

February 17, 2007 / Saturday

First Ride On The Allez

"We are doing a metric half century tomorrow," Aaron said, and it was decided. How could I turn down a ride that I could complete in 31 miles, yet still refer to with a slightly modified but still half-badass sounding form of "century"?

As half-badass as I'd like to believe it was, the ride was actually quite gentle. We rode the Coyote Creek Trail so I could get to know my new bike without the distraction and dangers of automobile traffic. There was virtually no climbing, and the weather couldn't have been better.

The verdict: I likes. As expected, it feels lighter, faster, stiffer, and more responsive. I don't ever want to road ride on my mountain bike again, unless it's to boing around on stuff.

I did note that I'm not trusting the bike and myself enough in corners. I think I'm still trying to get over my parking lot lowside from last April. I often notice myself feeling apprehensive in corners on all my bikes, including the motorcycle. Can someone please come and zap away the little part of my brain holding that memory? And while they're at it, please zap the resulting scar tissue on my right knee, too.

After last week's ride into work from Bugformance, I'd been worried about how my knee would fare. To my surprise, it felt great. Hooray, I thought, the mysterious cycling and scuba pain is gone! Around mile 20, however, I realized I'd thought too soon. The pain got a little worse on the way back to the car, but fortunately it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it did last week. I guess it's time to get to know my new doctor.

We ended up riding a total of 27.2 miles. I had trouble getting a speed reading with my Polar components setup, but fortunately I can borrow distance and average speed data from Aaron's bike computer.

In the end, no metric half century. Perhaps next time, if my knee cooperates. Maybe even a standard half century, if the terrain isn't too steep. Flat ground is so effortless on a road bike.

That probably just means I'm not riding hard enough. ;)

10:21 PM | Injuries:Road| Comments (2)

February 07, 2007 / Wednesday

Everything Is An Excuse To Buy Gear

My car is due for its 80,000 mile service. There's a VW stealership just down the street from where I live, but because of its reputation, my general distrust of stealerships, and the fact that they scratched my then-perfect hood when I took my car there for a factory recall a few years back, I decided to go somewhere else. My first choice was to take it to Wolfgang, whose shop was across the street from said stealership. Unfortunately, Wolfgang seems to have disappeared over the last year. After some time on the local forums, I decided on Bugformance in San Jose. One small problem: Bugformance is 13 miles away from work. The solution? My boingy bicycle! I was happy to have an excuse to ride (It's been far too cold and early evening dark and sometimes rainy lately, waah.), and also to shop for cold weather cycling gear.

This morning, I dropped my car off and tested out my new gear. The verdict? <3! The Sugoi tights rule. They fit perfectly, are super soft on the inside, and block enough wind to keep me warm while letting enough through to keep me from overheating. I also got new full-fingered gloves, which turned out to be lightly water resistant when the sky sprinkled on me. Okay, that sounds kind of gross. It wasn't yellow, okay?

Technically, I also got to try out some new socks that I bought a couple months ago. I like them, but not any more than my regular socks. What's so special about Coolmax? I can't tell the difference.

Some bad news: My left knee is killing me. After about 6 miles I started feeling pain in my knee, which got worse as I continued to ride. It's the same pain that I felt after diving on my trip last month. At least now I know it wasn't nitrogen bubbles, but what's wrong with my knee? Sadness.

12:33 PM | Bicycle:GTI:Injuries| Comments (7)

January 22, 2007 / Monday

Caribbean Sailing Trip

Some of you knew I was disappearing for this trip, and most of you didn't. In any case, I'm back. Here's the writeup. I must warn you, it's long.

The Nutshell

10 days of sailing in the Leeward Islands on a 41.5 foot catamaran with 8 people total: me, Aaron, Captain Chris, Rosie, Roberta, Randi, Brad, and Gage.

Islands: St. Martin (or Sint Maarten, if you prefer Dutch), St. Barthelemy (St. Barths), St. Christopher (St. Kitts), Nevis, St. Eustatius (Statia), and Anguilla. Kind of in that order.

Pictures soon, I hope. Depends on how much time I have.

[ Update: Pictures are up! I'll try to link some from various parts of this post later on. ]

[ Update: Individual picture links are in too. ]

Sunday 1/7 to Monday 1/8 - Off to St. Martin!

My aunt dropped Aaron and me off at SFO on Sunday night and we caught a redeye to MIA. Despite the flight's being delayed a couple hours, we still had a 3-4 hour layover in Miami. We walked around the terminal in search of breakfast. "I love the East Coast!" I declared, as we came up on a Dunkin Donuts and an Au Bon Pain. I had the requisite Dunkies coffee (with cream and sugah), which, as expected, was weak but tasty, and a disappointing croissant at Au Bon Pain.

Then it was off to the security line. I bristled at the useless TSA liquids rules, put my 0.066 ounce bottle of eye drops into a much too large plastic baggie, and took a picture of its ridiculousness in front of their 3-1-1 sign. I fought the urge to write "Kip Hawley is an Idiot" on the bag and contemplated bringing through a future security checkpoint a quart-sized zip-top bag stuffed full of 3 ounce containers of the ever-disturbingly green Diet Mountain Dew.

Got lost reading magazines on the plane. At one point I looked up and had a moment of, "Eeek! Where am I going? I'm going to be on a boat? In the water? Ack!" Then I realized I was being dumb and got over it.

Landed at SXM and took a taxi to our hotel in Marigot. For some reason I expected the island to be more modern and resortey clean. Checked into the hotel, settled a bit, and headed out to explore Marigot. Snacked on a croissant, had an Orangina Light (I wish we had that back home), and found a shot glass for Becky's collection.

Being on a boat required soft luggage, and since I did a crappy job of packing my snorkel, I found myself in search of superglue once I reached the islands. I got a little tube of it for a ridiculous amount of money, brought it back to the hotel, started to screw the top into the tube, and promptly got superglue all over my hand. I rubbed off as much of it as I could, but I had random superglue bits on my fingers for the next few days. I did fix the snorkel, though.

We met up with Chris and Rosie for dinner at Tropicana. I ordered a duck entree that sounded promising but proved to be a little too gamey for me. The staff was quite entertaining, however, and definitely created an enjoyable dining atmosphere. During dinner, we spied bottles of what appeared to be an unmarked house brew. People at various tables around us were sipping it. Rosie asked our server what it was, but he wouldn't tell her. This upset her greatly, and she threatened to boycott dessert. Fortunately, she reconsidered, and we later found out that it was a fruity house rum that every table gets at the end of the meal. (As it turns out, this is a fairly common thing at French restaurants in the area.) We got ours after dessert, and even purchased a bottle for the boat.

Tuesday 1/9 - More St. Martin & Boarding the Boat

In Marigot, everyone seems to know everyone else, and when someone in a car sees someone they know, they honk their horn to say hello. There are also a lot of very loud scooters, dirtbikes, and 4x4s zipping with and around the cars. All this makes for a very loud street, which our hotel room happened to face. Once the sun came up, the noise started. As if that wasn't enough, a car alarm malfunctioned in the parking lot below and refused to turn off, despite what sounded like repeated attempts to make it do so.

One thing I did like about the streets of Marigot was the abundance of wheelies. Bicycles and motorcycles would roll down the street with their front wheel high in the air. Back home, doing a wheelie down the street is stupid and reckless. In Marigot, it seemed almost uncool not to do one.

We walked along the water and had galettes for brunch at Deli Spoon Crêperie. I saw Fort St. Louis uphill from us, but we were too short on time to visit it. We passed by the open air market and Aaron bought a bottle of tasty local hot sauce. A couple blocks later, we came across a woman just off the sidewalk churning fresh coconut ice cream. I had to try it, and was glad that I did! It was quite tasty. My only regret is that I didn't take a picture of her and her little ice cream setup.

We checked out of the hotel and stood on the street to hail a cab. A random guy with no taxi identification pulled up and asked if we needed a taxi. We did, and he did a fine job of taking us to Oyster Pond, giving us touristy island info along the way. The taxi drivers on the islands we visited, officially licensed or not, were all pretty friendly.

Sat through part of the boat briefing with Chris and Rosie, dropped off our bags, and headed for Maho Beach, situated at the landing approach end of the runway at SXM. The planes there have to fly super low over the beach to hit the runway, and it makes for quite a sight. I love planes, and had had this on my list for weeks. We got there a little late to watch the heavy jets land, but saw a few decent small plane landings and a couple larger jets take off. I went up to the fence and hung on in the jet blast.

Taxied back to Oyster Pond, met up with everyone on the boat, tried a Carib (meh), and had some fish and chips at Dinghy Dock, a bar/restaurant at the marina. Afterward, we hung out at karaoke, where Chris busted out a fine rendition of Johnny Be Good. Learned how to play Risk, went to bed at 2AM.

Wednesday 1/10 - Off to St. Barths!

We motored from St. Martin to St. Barths early in the morning. I slept through it all, and had a really amusing dream doing so. I was on an elevator and needed to go down to the first floor. As the elevator was about to come to a close, I jumped up. I kept rising, slowly, until my head finally hit the ceiling with a soft "Doof!". I then came back down, also slowly, until I bounced off the floor with a "Boing!" Up and down I went, over and over. "Doof!" "Boing!" "Doof!" "Boing!" So amusing.

Got up when we reached Gustavia Harbor. Looked out the window and couldn't believe how blue the water was. Had a fruit salad and toast breakfast on the boat, then dinghied into town, walked around and got some food. Had a cheeseburger and a mango colada at Café de l'Oublie, then some more coconut ice cream at a place at the corner of the marina by one of the dinghy docks. The woman there was very nice, helping me out with my French when I asked her how to say certain things. We walked to Shell Beach and hung out for about half and hour.

Dinghied back to the boat, cleaned up, played cards using Risk armies as chips. Tried to inflate our somewhat soft dinghy and found that the pump that came with the boat had the wrong fitting. D'oh.

Cleaned up and went back into town in our now even softer dinghy. Had dinner at Eddy's. I ordered a sashimi dish, which turned out to be tuna done four different ways: raw, seared, raw in some sort of sauce, and poki. It came with a side of wasabi ice cream, which I passed around the table. Interesting stuff.

Had drinks at The Strand after dinner, then headed downstairs to Casa Nikki. It was a little quiet when we first arrived, but more people arrived and the club came to life. Hung out some at our table, danced some, and headed back.

Chris has a tip for everyone. "Never pee to windward."

A few of the guys geeked out on deck until 4:30. Chris couldn't sleep because he'd had too much Red Bull and vodka, but I don't think Gage and Aaron had an excuse. Crazies.

I'm liking all the French practice I'm getting here. This is the first time I've gotten to put my mostly wasted 6 1/2 years of French class to use.

Thursday 1/11 - Touring St. Barths

My camera got splashed with some seawater at Maho Beach on Tuesday, and the LCD display is slowly being eaten away. D'oh.

Woke up, had more fruit salad (We had to eat the perishables aboard the boat first.), and dinghied into town. Once there, we tried to locate scooters for rent. Unfortunately, we got a bit of a late start, and couldn't find enough available for our group. After trying three different shops, we ended up with one scooter (Chris and Rosie), one 4x4 quad (me and Aaron), and one car (Gage, Brad, Randi, and Roberta) for our group. I got to use more of my French; the scooter shop owners don't seem to speak much English here.

I got to drive the quad. I'd never driven one before, and I was disappointed by how it handled. Plus, it was underpowered, which didn't help matters much. I'll take something with 2 wheels over a quad any day.

Chris led us to the roundabout near the St. Barths airport and kept riding in circles (with the car and quad in tow) until people started honking because we were holding up traffic. I was sick of trying to turn the quad and started yelling and cussing at him. Eventually he tired of his little roundabout game and continued on.

We returned to the roundabout and pulled off the road to watch the planes land. There's a steep drop after the roundabout to the airport runway, so it made for some nice up close shots of planes on their approach, even though there were no heavy jets landing there.

Continued on in search of lunch, got lost, did a half island loop, and eventually ended up in St. Jean. I had the Le Piment panini at Le Piment, along with a frosty drink, which I suspect was probably a virgin pina colada. I don't remember now.

Did some shopping after lunch, then headed over to Governor's Beach to do some snorkeling. The water was great, but the snorkeling was boring. We left the beach at around 5 PM to go return our vehicles. I was still wet from the water, so I hopped on the quad in my bikini. I'm sure that was an amusing sight, since I had a gigantic dirtbiking helmet on, too. Returned the vehicles and dinghied back to the boat.

Earlier in the day, we noticed a catamaran nearby dragging anchor. A couple in a boat just behind ours noticed too and went to check it out. We struck up a conversation with them as they passed by, and saw them again on the island that afternoon. We later borrowed their dinghy pump, and invited them over for some drinks in the evening. They're exploring the world on their boat, and have their own website and satellite radio broadcast. Very cool.

I had some Red Stripe and a few sips of a mojito while they were on the boat, and ended up falling asleep until dinner time. On their recommendation, we had dinner at La Saladerie. I can't remember what I ordered, but I think it was decent. Headed back to the boat and went to sleep for the night.

Friday 1/12 - Off to St. Kitts!

We left St. Barths early the next morning and headed for St. Kitts. There were 6-8 foot swells, which made for a pretty rough ride. Initially I stayed in bed, but all the banging was making me antsy, so I got out of bed and headed up on deck. Bad idea. I got seasick in a matter of minutes, threw up, had some saltines and water, gave up, and went back to bed. That was clearly the option I should have stayed with in the first place. My stomach settled and I slept like a baby until our arrival at St. Kitts.

We docked in Basseterre and had salad and sandwiches for lunch. I spent some time writing down notes from the last couple days. Played a couple hands of gin, then explored the area near the marina with Roberta. Came back and declared that St. Kitts was a shithole. As it turns out, it wasn't really that bad, but wandering around a not-so-wonderful part of town in the dark after two sunny days in St. Barths just didn't seem all that great to me.

Returned to the marina and found a free standing 4-star bathroom facility. I swear, it was probably the nicest building on this part of the island. How strange!

I was a little disappointed that this wasn't a French speaking island. Yes, I know that sentence reads funny.

Returned to the boat, cleaned up, and went to dinner at Ballyhoo. I had some vegetarian stuffed pepper dish that was fairly decent. Mainly, I was hurting for vegetables. Kind of strange to hear me say that, even though I've been a veggie eater for a while now. I still find myself wondering what happened to my mom's "Little Meat Monster". But I digress...

Returned to the boat again and went to bed. Woke up in the middle of the night to loud sounds of someone puking... and puking... and puking. Found out the next day that that was Gage puking off the back of the boat.

Saturday 1/13 - Touring St. Kitts

Got up and had omlettes for breakfast. We toured the island with a (taxi?) driver named Percy. He gave us island history, talked about the former sugar industry, and stopped at various points of interest for us to take pictures. At one stop, there was a lady selling drinks and trinkets at a stand. She had some cool bracelets and I bought one before we continued on. We stopped at Romney Manor, where we got to see a batik demo and purchase various touristy items. I got myself a turquoise triangular batik bandana. Good for hiding messy boat hair.

Side note on batik: I think I did this sketching and waxing and dying thing in high school. I batiked myself the Primus guy on the cover of the Miscellaneous Debris album. It hung in my room for years.

We continued on to the Brimstone Hill Fort. It's fun to explore old forts. We took lots of great pictures there.

On the way back, we passed by the island Carib plant, drove by the black sand (ash) beach, purchased a couple of roadside coconuts through the window, and stopped to purchase some sugar cane and take pictures of, uh, rocks and water.

Got back to the boat, paid our fees, filled up on water, got some ice, and headed off to Ballast Bay, also at St. Kitts. We anchored for the night, snacked, and the guys played with the grill and made dinner. Steak and chicken. Tasty, and, despite a crazy windy rainstorm, made possible by Brad, who got soaked from head to toe manning the grill. Props to Brad for braving the elements to feed us!

After dinner, played some swaying boat Jenga and a few rounds of various card games, again using Risk army chips. Got ready for bed, noticed that it was dark and clear out, and spent some time stargazing. I never knew that the middle star in Orion's sword was actually a nebula. Hooray for binoculars and Aaron's random astronomy knowledge!

I realized today that I forgot to get Becky a shot glass from St. Barths. I looked for one at St. Kitts, but didn't find any. I also tried to find a tile for Lew, but all the ones they had at Brimstone Hill Fort were ugly. Siiigh.

Sunday 1/14 - Biking Nevis

Motored over to Nevis in the morning and anchored (Or moored, I'm not sure which.) in Tamarind Bay. Had some eggs, bacon, and potatoes, then dinghied to shore and walked to the bike rental place.

Brad, Randi, Roberta, Aaron, and I all rented bicycles (Aaron and I had Trek 4300s, not sure what the others had.). Gage had work to do and Chris and Rosie decided to just chill at the beach. Brad, Randi, and Roberta rode to the Four Seasons for the afternoon while Aaron and I set off to ride around (Literally. There's a road that circles the perimeter.) the island.

Reggie the ridiculously in shape bike shop guy had told us about the hills on our route ahead of time, but climbing in the humid air on unfamiliar bikes proved to be quite difficult. Or original plan had been to stop at every ice cream place on the loop, but since it was Sunday we found only one open shop. My flavor? Coconut, of course!

After making it about halfway around the island, we had reached the highest point, and got to tuck and zip back down the curvy roads. So much fun. We rode through Charleston, which had many shops, all of which were closed. Even the touristy gift shop was closed, which made me sad because it meant yet another island sans shot glass. We came across Brad, Randi, and Roberta farther down at a fruit shack. Aaron got more ice cream while I bounced around on the bike in the "parking lot".

We returned to the rental shop and I continued to play around with stoppies and track stands. It'd been a while since I'd been on a bike (It's been cold back home!) so I didn't want to get off. Reggie understood, and didn't seem to mind. Finally, I handed the bike over and met up with everyone at the bar.

A few notes from the ride that I didn't manage to work into the paragraphs above...

There were goats along the side of the road all over the island. I meh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-ed at them all in an attempt to get them to meh-eh-eh back. It actually worked a few times. Success! Huzzah!

We saw the ocean quite a few times riding the perimiter road. After a while the beautiful blue water ocean view started to get old. Yawwwn. ;)

I was running low on cash so I went to an ATM in Charleston. I requested 300 EC and it was smart enough to give me 100 + 100 + 50 + 20 + 20 + 5 + 5. Why don't our ATMs do that?

We returned to the boat, I did some dishes, cleaned up, sat down to take notes on the day, and received a dark chocolate bribe from Chris to not blog anything bad about him. He sure knows how to pick a bribe!

Earlier in the day, Aaron cut into one of the two coconuts he bought from St. Kitts. The juice wasn't coconutty and there was barely any meat. Maybe it was a baby coconut?

Helped cut veggies for dinner (tasty burgers and salad). Ate, chatted, took some more notes, and went to sleep.

Monday 1/15 - Off to Statia for Some Diving!

Sailed to Statia in the morning. The seas were rough, so I elected to stay in bed. Better than barfing!

We arrived around late morning and planned to dive in the afternoon. Since I got seasick the last time I dived, I prepared by filling my stomach with fruit and ginger ale.

We met the dive shop folks at the dinghy dock, got geared up, and headed out for Double Wreck. My first boat dive! I rolled off the side and loved every millisecond of the entry. The water was warm (82 degrees at 60 feet down) and clear (approximately 70 foot visibility). We saw lots of sealife, and I got to pet a couple large stingrays. They're so soft and smooth!

We ascended to our safety stop, and after hanging out with the group for a minute or so, I slowly floated away from them to the surface. I'd been having some trouble descending toward the end of the dive, and I guess I finally used up enough air to become positively buoyant. I shrugged at the divemaster, he shrugged back, and I swam toward the boat.

A couple hours later, my left knee started to hurt, and not in the somewhat injured MCL spot on the inside. I don't know what an arthritic joint feels like, but I would guess that that's how my knee felt. I couldn't think of anything I'd done that might injure it, so I worried that it was nitrogen bubbles. The knee pain increased into the night, but otherwise I felt fine.

We had dinner at Kings Well, a quaint German hotel and reservation-only restaurant run by an older couple. We radioed them in the afternoon and they ran a menu down to the dive shop so we could order in advance. We had fun with the self-serve bar and the many pets they kept, including a Great (Big) Dane named Sam. We had some super yummy super rummy chocolate rum cake à la mode for dessert.

One thing I haven't talked about are the boat heads. There's a toilet, and it has a pump. It takes very little (two single-ply sheets) to no toilet paper. Using the boat head is not a joy, so whenever I was onshore I tried to use public toilets with real plumbing instead. The problem was, I kept finding myself in stalls with two remaining sheets of toilet paper. Better than none, I suppose, but I was convinced that the toilet paper gods were doing it for a laugh. Yeah, very funny.

Tuesday 1/16 - More Diving & Simpson Bay

Most of the boat got up for an 8:30 morning dive. Since I was worried about my knee (and its implications), I decided to skip it. Chris came back to the boat around 10. He told us about their first dive, a 90 foot wreck dive that sounded like a lot of fun, and said that they were going to go on a second, more shallow dive in a little while. We got up to go join them.

The dive was to 55 feet, at Hangover Reef. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed the backward roll entry. I remembered to give Aaron my cheapie underwater camera, and he took pictures throughout the dive.

My knee was feeling somewhat okay when I woke up, but it hurt a lot more after I got out of the water. In any case, I survived, so phew, and hooray.

We then sailed for St. Martin to dock at Simpson Bay for the night. The seas were pretty rough, but I tried to stay awake anyhow. I was okay for a while standing on deck and looking forward, but since it was a several hour journey, I eventually sat down. Soon, I felt sick, so I lay down on the bench just inside and snoozed until we got there.

There's a drawbridge that controls traffic into and out of Simpson Bay. It opens at specific times during the day, and tourists line up to watch. We arrived just before the 5:30 PM bridge opening and sailed through as people waved and took pictures. Amusing.

Got to take a real shower at the marina. Totally refreshing.

After wandering the streets of Simpson Bay for a decent place to eat, we wound up back at the marina and ate at Jimbo's. I had half a mango margarita, a disappointing shredded chicken chimichanga with too-dry rice and beans, and a salad destroyed by hot sauce that Aaron had declared to be salad dressing. At least I got to eat his salad instead.

The boat was a short walk from Jimbo's. When we returned, I laid my margarita lightweight self down on the bed and didn't wake up until 4 AM. Woops.

Wednesday 1/17 - Off to Anguilla!

As per usual, we had some crazy bursts of wind and rain overnight. I like how short the "storms" are here. It's dry, it's pouring, it's dry again. It's calm, it's howling, it's calm again.

Woke up, took a taxi to Marigot to pick up some croissants and beignets. Returned to Simpson Bay, picked up some sodas, and got on the boat in time to head out for the 11 AM drawbridge opening.

Brad, Randi, and Gage decided the night before that boat living was not for them, so they hoped off the boat to find a cushy hotel for the rest of their vacation. Chris had to run around all morning to get the paperwork in order, and at some point ran into a pole and chipped his tooth. Poor Chris.

With fewer people on the boat and calmer seas, I got to help and become honorary boat crew. I learned how to use the winch and worked one of the jib sheets. I got a much better understanding of how the jib and sail are controlled, and what all those lines are for. For the first time, I made it from one island to another without without feeling sick or having to sleep. I finally got to see the flying fish along the side of the boat as we sailed.

Aaron would like me to note that he saw a dolphin along the side of the boat yesterday, and that even though I didn't see it I should write down that he did.

Made it to Anguilla and anchored in Road Bay. As we waited for Chris to clear us through customs, we saw schools of fish of various sizes jumping out of the water. Big fish in pursuit of little fish, perhaps? We also saw a turtle surface and poke its head out of the water a few times. So cute!

Knee update: It felt okay in the morning and I was very happy, to the extent that I took a huge leap off the boat and landed on it. It hurt a bit as I continued to walk on it, but I took a couple Advil and felt better. I think it'll be fine for hockey next weekend. Phew!

Camera update: The LCD screen is unusable now. I should find another camera so I can take a picture of the damage.

Boat update: It feels roomy with only five people.

Dinghied to shore and walked around looking for a place to eat. There were restaurants, but most of them looked to be closed. We found two open ones, one of which was an English place called Ripples. Service was ass-slow, and their Beer and Guinness Pie was only okay. Oh well, what can you do? At least they were open!

Thursday 1/18 - Prickly Pear Cay

Woke up, went into the kitchen, and found Chris making omlettes. We ate and sailed to Prickly Pear. Aaron was at the helm, and did a good job of dodging the many crab pots along the way. We anchored on the leeward side of the island, then dinghied to the other side. The ride through the channel between the eastern and western cays was rough and scared me a bit, as I'm pretty sure I would have been in a world of trouble had I ended up in the water there.

We lay out on the beach sipping frosty drinks (their pina colada was tasty!). This may have been the first time I've ever enjoyed the sand, and simply lying on a beach doing nothing. Well, okay, I wasn't really doing nothing. I was making shapes out of the clouds overhead. The best one: a Care Bear shaking its fluffy ass at all of us below.

After a little while, I made Aaron be my snorkeling buddy and we spent some time swimming around checking out reef and fishes. My favorite was the one that looked like Dori from Finding Nemo. Blue fish are so pretty!

We decided that it'd be better to lighten the load on the dinghy for the ride back to the boat, so Aaron and I walked over to the other side of the cay and snorkeled back. On the way we saw a bunch of huge black sea urchins. I'd never seen them before, so my first thought was "Underwater mines!" followed by "Exploding Death Stars!"

Back on the boat, I sat on deck near the bow to take some notes on the day. Someone called for me from inside, and as I walked back toward the stern I slipped and banged the front of my lower shin against a slightly open bathroom hatch. OW! It hurt for a while, and developed into a nice little bump shortly after.

Had some squishy pizza for lunch, thanks to our underpowered boat oven.

We motored back toward Anguilla. Along the way, Chris grabbed a seat cushion and a bottle of water, jumped overboard, and grinned as we motored away. "MAN OVERBOARD!" we yelled, to which Rosie (who was fulfilling some requirements for her bareboat charter class on this trip) sighed, "Oh, dammit." We swung around a couple times, picked Chris up, and continued on.

Finally able to take notes while the boat is in motion. WoohoO!

After anchoring at Crocus Bay, we cleaned up, dinghied to the rocky shore, and walked up a steep hill into town. Chris had promised us piles of amazingly tasty and cheap roadside barbeque. As it turns out, that doesn't happen on Thursdays. We ended up eating at a fancy restaurant (Koal Keel) in our roadside barbeque clothes. Not quite what we had in mind for dinner, but tasty nonetheless. I had a northern Indian butter chicken entree and an apple pastry dessert with ice cream. Rosie ordered a shrimp dish that was simply amazing, even to a non shrimp lover like me. We got a little tour at the end of the meal, headed back to the boat, and went to bed.

Friday 1/19 - More Snorkeling & Grand Case

Chris (and Rosie?) got up early to motor us a few football fields over to a mooring buoy in Little Bay. We got up a couple hours later, ate breakfast, cut up some leftover chicken chum, and dinghied over toward shallower waters for some snorkeling.

I got to backward roll off the dingy. It pleased me greatly.

Saw more fish and exploding Death Star sea urchins. It was cool to watch the fish come by and eat the chicken. Aaron put another roll of 800 speed film into my underwater camera and took some more pictures.

We returned to the boat and left at noon for Grand Case, St. Martin. The seas felt a little rough, so I ate some Saltines. I continued to feel sick, so I lay down on the bench and fell asleep.

I woke up as we neared Grand Case. I munched on some pretzels and took some notes.

For the first time this trip, we had an entirely overcast day. Yuck!

I realized that I left Anguilla without a shot glass. I didn't come across any. Oh well.

We cleaned up and dinghied into shore. We did some shopping, then had dinner at a nice French restaurant called Le Pressoir. For my appetizer I had lobster ravioli in an amazing passionfruit sauce. I would have been perfectly happy to have had more of that for my entree. There was a sweeter, tangier passionfruit sauce in my dessert also. This was definitely my favorite restaurant out of all the ones we visited on this trip.

We found out that it was the hostess/waitress's birthday, so we sang her happy birthday. Probably a little out of place for a fine French restaurant, but it was fun, and she seemed to be pleasantly surprised.

Saturday 1/20 - Returning the Boat

Headed from Grand Case back to Oyster Pond in the morning. Rosie still had an MOB to do under sail, so we tied a couple fenders together and tossed them into the ocean. "MAN OVERBOARD!" we yelled. "Oh, dammit," she sighed again. I got to work the boat hook this time around, and managed to pinch a chunk of my right forearm off extending it. Good job, me.

Got back to Oyster Pond around 11. Finished packing, cleaned up the boat a bit, and grabbed a quick lunch at the Dinghy Dock. I wanted one last island pina colada, but their blender was broken. That's just not right! No Caribbean bar should be frosty drinkless! Gah!

Taxipooled a ride back to the airport. Taxipools seem to be common practice on this island.

Saw Gage, Brad, and Randi at SXM. Caught up a bit on their adventures over the last couple days. Sounds like they had a nice time relaxing, drinking, meeting new people, and jet skiing.

Spent half an hour wondering where Aaron was after he disappeared while going through the security line. My first thought was, "Oh no! They've taken him to a special examination room!" As it turns out, he'd left the bottle of tasty local hot sauce in one of his carry-ons and had gone back to check it in.

Got on the plane and took some notes between SXM and MIA. Checked into our hotel in Miami, discovered that my phone had wiped itself clean over the last day or two, ughed at the possibility that I'd lost my list of logins for good, shook it off, went to dinner at Bennigans, went back to the hotel, called my parents, and went to sleep.

A few things I noticed once I returned to the US...

The taxi drivers here are rude as hell.

The people are rude too, for the most part. Everyone's posturing. On the islands, everyone was friendly, everyone was cool, everyone seemed at ease with themselves. In the US, it seems like everyone's trying to be some stereotypical kind of cool. I found that to be totally uncool. Blech.

The people here are really fat, too. I mean, REALLY fat. What's wrong with us?

Sunday 1/21 - Back Home

Woke up around 5 AM (That's 2 AM California time, yuck!) and hopped on a shuttle to the airport. As I passed through security for the fourth time this trip, I was irked by the fact that I had gone through undetected with liquids tucked in my carry-on every time. Security, my ass. I truly believe that all the hoops we now have to jump through for the TSA do absolutely nothing to make us any safer in the air.

The flight back to SFO was largely uneventful. I polished off a few magazines. It was nice to do some leisure reading. I miss all the magazine time I used to have when I travelled for work. On the other hand, I quite enjoy my more stable schedule now.

Aaron's mom picked us up at the airport and whisked us back to the South Bay. We lunched, then I went home and got ready for hockey. It was a great way to get me off my lazy vacationing ass, and a wonderful finish to a wonderful two weeks.

09:56 PM | Injuries:Trips| Comments (4)

December 24, 2006 / Sunday

Agh, The Knee

I think I tweaked my left MCL yesterday. I was playing in the Logitech 3-on-3 tournament, was tired enough by game 4 that I couldn't skate properly, fell funny with my left leg in a butterfly-like bend (which is very not okay if you're not in goalie gear), and felt a small pop on the inside of my knee. I registered it at the time, but because it didn't hurt I continued to play. Last night, my entire left knee felt mildly sore. Today, only the spot of the pop is sore, but I definitely feel it when I bend my leg.

On the upside, I can now look at my just-begun 4 week hockey hiatus as an opportunity to heal.

12:50 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (2)

November 15, 2006 / Wednesday

Last Bill, I Hope

Received another medical bill this week from my Burning Man ER adventure. This one's for the doctor with the magic numbing eye drops.

Those eye drops were worth every penny.

01:18 AM | Injuries:Trips| Comments (1)

November 13, 2006 / Monday

Too Much Time Off

Two weeks off isn't bad just because of conditioning. I fall more the next game, too. Today's inventory of pains:

- sore legs
- sore hip flexors
- sore upper traps
- bruised tip of left hip
- bruised side of left knee
- pulled abs

Ow. Waah. Ow.

10:50 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

September 06, 2006 / Wednesday

Steyeroids

Went to the opthamologist today to have my eye looked at. I noticed something strange on the way there. My vision through the left eye is actually blurrier with my glasses on than without. What the hell? Did I self correct my myopia or something?

Turns out I didn't. The doctor says it's probably because the scarring (!) on my cornea during the healing process is distoring the light. I won't know what my final (possibly new) prescription is going to be for a while.

Did he say scarring?! Fortunately, he also said that it should heal completely. Unfortunately, he expects that healing to take a month or two.

Holy crapoly, that's a long time! Especially for someone as impatient as I am.

The doctor then offered me an alternative: I could put steriod drops in my eye to reduce the healing time to a few weeks. I asked him what the tradeoff was. "It could increase the pressure in your eye," he replied, "so you'd have to come back for a follow-up visit in a couple weeks." I decided the time savings was worth the risk, so I opted for the eye drops.

Hooah, my eye is on steriods! And if that wasn't exciting enough, those steriods might make it asplode!

In other news, I'm cleared to wear contacts again. I'm not sure how much good that's going to do, though. My left eye is sort of in limbo right now. Things are blurry either way. I guess I'll just leave it 'roided up and nekkid.

04:47 PM | Injuries| Comments (3)

Eye Want My I Back

Walking around with glasses and half blurred vision really puts a crimp in my style. Me, wear glasses? That's so not my ready-for-anything self. I can't wait 'til my eye heals.

02:11 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

September 05, 2006 / Tuesday

Burning Man 2006

Finally, my pictures are sorted, edited, loaded, and captioned. Now for the blog post.

Burning Man was awesome. It wasn't as surreal as I expected it to be, but it was definitely different. No place like it on earth. I'm very glad that I finally got to go. That, despite the fact that I landed myself in the ER. You'll read about that later.

The weather this week was beautiful. A dust storm rolled in when we first arrived, but it died down once we set up camp and stayed calm the rest of the time we were there. The temperatures were mild, too. It was neither too hot during the day nor too cold at night. I really lucked out weather-wise.

Wednesday

We left the Bay Area a little after 7 AM. We drove out to Susanville, where we stopped for ice, lunch, and little hair tie things for my new 'do. We then set out on a dirt road toward Gerlach.

Many dusty dirt miles later, we made a stop at Planet X Pottery, where we discovered that the dirt road had given us a flat tire. We changed the tire, bought some pottery, and continued on.

Finally, Black Rock City came into sight. I bounced in my seat a few times as we waited in line to get in. Just as we passed the greeters, a dust storm came in. We donned our goggles and set up camp. The wind died down, we ate dinner, and Aaron took a nap. I hopped on my bike and headed out to explore.

I rode along the Esplanade until 10:00 and headed out to a big bright structure way out on the playa that turned out to be Uchronia, a.k.a. the Belgian Waffle. I can't believe they built that thing free-form! It was pretty damned impressive. The music and lights drew tons of people in. Too bad I wasn't there to watch them burn it down. I trust it was spectactular.

[ Update: Looks like they have a website for the structure. Awesome. ]

I rode some more and came across Conexus Cathedral. Totally pretty lit up at night. Actually, it's really pretty in the daytime, too.

I rode up to the Man and got a nice picture of him with the base lit up. It took me forever to get there because I kept getting distracted by fireballs in the distance. I'd ride toward the man, see a fireball, and change course for the fireball. Mmm... fiiire.

After a couple hours, I headed back to camp to see if Aaron was done napping yet. We headed out again a bit later. To my delight, Dance Dance Immolation was up and running! I wanted to sign up for a round, but unfortuantely the line was too long. That reminds me, if anyone out there has a fire suit and a gigantic flamethrower and would like to test out that combo on someone, I'd like to volunteer.

We wandered some more and checked out more camps and playa art. I made a couple videos of the Big Round Cubatron. I want one of those in my backyard.

Oh, wait, I don't have a backyard. Never mind.

Thursday

Thursday started with a bike race on the playa at 10:30. I rode around in circles for fun, and got a nifty spoke bracelet out of it. It's purdy.

After regrouping at camp, I headed over to play horseshoes with our neighbors. I'd never played before, so I was excited to learn. I even threw a couple ringers! WoohoO!

After horseshoes, we walked another half block to the Titty-Totter of Death. I don't think any teeter-totter ride is ever going to top that one. Well, except for the spinning teeter-totter I came across on the Esplanade later that night, which teetered up and down while it spun in a circle. I wanted to ride it, but, siiigh, the line was too long.

Out on the playa, we discovered the Sunflower, a parabolic solar cooker. After using it to instantly sear through sheets of paper, Aaron put Jack-Jack on the end of the stick and roasted him.

After a quick Penguini photo shoot, we rode out to the Starry Bamboo Mandala. I really wanted to climb it, but I didn't want to fall off and wind up in the ER. I didn't know then that I'd wind up there anyway. Oh well.

We headed back toward the camp and came across a giant version of Operation, complete with forceps that really shock you. I've gotta get one of those for my living room. Bzzz!

Then it was off to watch some Kosho. It looked fun, but I'd never been on a trampoline in my life and I didn't want to break my back trying to jump between the two they had set up. Fortunately for me, I later found a free trampoline at a different camp, where a random guy named Corey taught me a few moves. Huzzah!

After dinner, Aaron fell asleep and wouldn't get up, so I went out and played on my own. I watched the much heralded return of the Megavolt truck and enjoyed a performance by the Mistress.

Then it was off to the Thunderdome, where my patience earned me a front row view and I got to watch people fly into and beat the shit out of each other with padded bat things whilst suspended from the dome structure. I was mesmerized and didn't want to leave, but I realized the people behind me wanted to get a view, too, so I rotated myself out to let them have a turn.

I watched some more Dance Dance Immolation and headed over to the Opulent Temple camp, where I danced my little dance and spun my glowsticks to my heart's content. It's been years since I've spun, and I've missed it.

Friday

On Friday I did something else that I haven't done in years: I swung on a swing. I got Aaron to give me a few pushes, and I got high enough to actually feel a little scared. I miss that feeling. Got some great pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it. My Friday outfit was NSFW, and, therefore, NSF my Flickr account.

After the swing we returned to the pyramid I had attempted to climb the day before. I was determined to get to the top, and this time I made it. That felt really good.

Later in the afternoon I went to a sock poi workshop and learned a few moves. I also hit myself repeatedly with my tennis ball socks. Glad I didn't bruise.

Some more wandering led us to a human powered swingy-go-round. I hopped on and made a video.

Wander, wander, dinner, a beautiful sunset, then s'mores. And then began my night that ended in the ER.

But before I go into my ER adventure, I must talk about my day-of-random-butt-pictures. You see, on Thursday I put my little purple huggy shorts on, sprayed on sunblock, and spent the day out in the sun not realizing that my little purple huggy shorts had then proceeded to ride up a good six inches, exposing a nice chunk of unprotected skin on each cheek. On Friday I was left with a very red band across my butt, and a choice between covering up the sunburn with potentially chafing shorts or letting it air out with a healthy coat of sunscreen. I chose the latter, and spent the day running around in goggles and a pair of thongs. This led to many comments about and requests for pictures of my crazy butt sunburn, which I obliged because, well, if I really cared all that much I wouldn't be running around in a pair of thongs. In any case, the very red butt also led to an amusing moment in the afternoon when, after just having ridden past and been flogged in the behind by a couple of self-appointed street flogger male hussies, I heard them exclaim in the best lisp ever, "OH MY GOD HER ASS IS ALREADY RED! SWEETIE YOU DESERVE AN AWARRRD!" Yes, yes I do.

And now, the section you've all been waiting for.

My Trip To Reno: The ER Adventure!

It all started with a little container of Oxy Daily Cleansing Pads.

I carried it in a big Ziploc bag with my other toiletries. I know I had the lid on tightly, but perhaps because of the temperature changes during the day, it leaked all over the contents of the bag. Then, thanks to evaporation, it concentrated.

Friday morning, I brushed my teeth, wiped my face, and, with salicylic acid from the Oxy pads everywhere, put my left contact lens in. I felt it burn my eye immediately. My eye watered a lot. Then everything looked to have a haze over it. I took the contact lens out and rinsed it. I irrigated my eye. Everything still looked hazy.

My eye didn't hurt, so I hoped that the haziness would fade over the course of the day. I cleaned off the contact lens some more, put it back in, and headed out for the day.

When we returned to camp a few hours later, I noticed that things were hazier than before. Also, my eye was starting to feel a little irritated.

We headed out for s'mores. My eye felt worse and worse. After s'mores we rode to one of the side medical tents. I told the medics there what had happened, but I don't think the lady in charge listened. She simply irrigated my eye, patched it up, and sent me on my way.

Over the next two hours the irritation in my left eye got so bad that every time I tried to move my right eye it triggered both eyes to shut. I could barely see well enough to walk. We headed for the center medical tent. After I explained what had happened they took me to the trailer in back, where they administered some numbing drops and dye so they could examine the cornea.

The doctor shined a special light in my eye. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, "I'll be right back." He returned shortly with two other doctors. "Are you ready?" he asked them. He shined the light in my eye again. Silence. Finally, one of the doctors said, "I have an eye specialist friend at a camp one block from here. He's offered to help with any eye emergencies. Let me go find him."

Ten minutes later the doctors returned. The eye specialist friend was not with them. Turns out he was a little too sloshed to be of use. They decided to send me to the ER. In Reno. Over two hours away.

By the end of what felt like a very long ambulance ride to Reno, my left eye had swollen shut, and thanks to that crazy powerful irritated eye reflex I was equally unable to open my right eye. They had to take me to my room by wheelchair. I sat on the bed with my eyes shut and answered a bunch of random voices as they took my stats and info.

Finally, the doctor came in and put some more magical numbing drops into my eye. He took a look at my cornea, declared that I had a chemical burn in the shape of a contact lens, gave me a tube of erythromycin, wrote me a prescription for Vicodin, and told me to follow up with an opthamologist when I got back to the Bay Area. Then he told me to get some sleep before my discharge in the morning.

Saturday morning came. The nice night shift ER people left and the mean day shift ER people arrived. They kicked me out into the lobby. Okay, now what?

Back in the medical tent, the staff had said that there was a bus I could take back from Reno for $40. I asked where to find it and they assured me that all the ERs would be able to direct me to said bus. I asked the people in the ER. They had never heard of it. I called all the other ERs in Reno. None of them had heard of it either. Oh. Great.

I called Greyhound. They had a station in Reno and I asked whether they had any buses headed toward Gerlach. They didn't even have Gerlach in their system.

I called Enterprise. A one day rental would cost about $60. Not bad, except that I could barely keep one eye open. That certainly wasn't going to work.

Finally, I called a cab. It cost me $370 to get back to camp, but at least I made it. And at least I could pay for it.

Just before noon I was back at the entrance to Black Rock City. I picked up my bike at the medical tent and rode back to camp. Aaron had spent the morning there waiting for me. I gave him a hug and, well, I don't remember, actually. I was pretty emotionally spent by then. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. There was too much going on in my head. I was really happy to see Aaron, I was worried about my eye, I felt like I wanted to cry, and on top of that a little voice in my head kept telling me, "Don't you dare fucking cry! Only the weak break down and cry. Suck it up and deal with it."

In any case, I rested my eyes at camp all afternoon. Aaron hung around and kept me company. When night came, I got dressed, headed out, and squinted my way through the burn. Let me tell you, the night playa looks way trippy when your vision's screwed up. Who needs drugs when you can just burn your eye out instead?

Saturday Night

After an afternoon of resting my eye, we headed out to the Man just before 9 for the burn. The Man raised his arms and fire dancers surrounded him. They put on a show that I didn't get to see much of because, well, I'm short.

At some point, the fireworks started, then the fire. It took a long time for the Man to burn, and even longer for him to fall. Actually, he sort of fell to his knees or torso and sat there for a long while before he finally fell the rest of the way.

And then it was time for the big party, which I couldn't see much of because, well, my left eye was screwed up and messing with my overall vision. We wandered a bit through the people and artcars, the lights and the music. It was still early when we returned to camp. I couldn't really stand much more of it with my eye hurting.

I'm kind of bummed that I (and, because he stayed with me, Aaron) missed so much of the big night, but really, it ain't so bad. I finally made it to Burning Man and I had a great time right up until I burned out my eye. The eye looks like it will heal, and hey, at least I had health insurance and the means to get myself back to the playa from Reno. Relative to a lot of other possible outcomes, I can consider myself lucky.

Sunday

We got up early Sunday and made it out of there traffic free. Aaron drove the entire way back while I kept my eyes shut and nodded in and out of sleep. We got home, cleaned up, ate dinner, went to bed, and slept 13 hours straight. Well, at least I did. It helped the eye a lot. More sleep = more healing.

Speaking of which, it's time for bed.

[ Update: Photos on Flickr. Videos on Putfile. ]

11:52 PM | Injuries:Trips| Comments (8)

August 27, 2006 / Sunday

Too Much Hockey

Ow, everything hurts. The mysterious pain in my left wrist has returned. My right hand is sore, as are my glutes, hip flexors, and upper traps. I have bruises on the top of my left forearm and the bottom of my right forearm. Most annoying is that my left shoulder blade hurts when I turn my head. Ow, ow, and ow.

Waah.

11:13 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

August 26, 2006 / Saturday

Whoo, Good Finish!

After a season of playing-hard-but-not-winning-much, the Cookie Monsters pulled off a fine win to close out the season. Finally! Hooray!

The timing of our goals ruled. We scored on the first shift of each period. Great way to open. And open. And open again. :)

2 games into my decision to play all out every shift, I got to see results. The puck glided toward me at the opening faceoff, and I skated it in for a shot. The shot sailed wide, but one of my teammates picked it up and sent it to the front of the crease, where I was waiting. Goal! Yeah! Less than half a minute into the game. Wahoo!

Final score: 4-1. One from the opening faceoff, two more from me-to-Gina-to-Christy plays at the beginning of the 2nd and 3rd periods, and one from Liz busting through three defenders to get the puck to Elissa for the finish.

The game was not without pain, though. For one thing, the outside of my left ankle is still disagreeing with my skates. I got into a tangle with a player on the other team in the 2nd period and wound up with the inside of my elbow pad imprinted on my forearm. In the 3rd period, I skated for the puck, forgot to stop, ran out of rink, and landed really, really hard on my right knee, which is stilllll healing from (1) the parking lot incident and (2) falling out of bed four months ago. It's now swollen again, stings when I touch it, and bears an imprint of the inside of my shinguards. Also in the 3rd, I blocked one of Nancy's shots with my skate. What was I thinking? That's what goalie pads are for!

Despite the injuries, I'm quite happy with the results. Plus, I scored 4 minty brownie corners (thanks Malinda!) and a personalized Cookie Monster towel (thanks Shosh!) afterward. Whoo.

It's been fun, Cookie Monsters.

01:16 AM | Cookie Monsters:Injuries| Comments (0)

July 11, 2006 / Tuesday

Learning to Breathe

Literally, I need to learn to breathe. It has nothing to do with that fluffy breathing stuff for stress, relaxation, downtime, or lack thereof. I'm just plain old breathing the wrong way.

It's that thing you always hear about breathing with your diaphragm. I didn't realize I wasn't doing it until physical therapy today, when we tried to work on getting my rib to stop hurting so we could work on my back again. We spent most of the session working on the rib, which oh so conveniently happens to be the one connected to my unhappy vertebra.

In any case, when I breathe with my diaphragm, I can take a full breath without pain. So that's my PT homework for the week: to practice breathing.

It sounds kind of silly, but if it'll let me play hockey without gasping painful half-lungfuls of air, I'm all for it.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

05:22 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

May 30, 2006 / Tuesday

Grant Ranch

Went riding with Aaron at Grant Ranch yesterday. I got my ass kicked. Ow, my ass. No, actually, "Ow, my back," as you'll find out shortly.

There were only two types of ass kickings, so it's pretty easy to cover them all here. Ass kickings numbers 1, 2, 3, 5... n occurred on the many too-steep-for-me hills we had to climb. I lost count of how many times I had to dismount and push my bike. I guess part of it was that my legs felt tired the entire ride. Some days your body just isn't ready to ride, I suppose. No biggie; the uphill push is a great calf workout.

And now, for ass kicking number 4 (approximately). It came a little after mile 4. After all that climbing, we were rewarded with a downhill. A very steep and rocky downhill. There was even a warning sign posted at the top. The descent was split into alternating sections of steepness and eek steepness. I made it down every section but the last. Halfway down the final chunk of eek steepness, I tried to slow, lost traction on the rear wheel, and as the back of the bike came around to my right, did a flying diagonal endo. I caught some decent eek steepness downhill air and landed completely on my back on the edge of a rough rock path at the bottom of the hill. Upon landing, I rolled right about a quarter revolution, and then my bike landed on me. I'm discovering that one of the features of clipless pedals is that when I flip, my bike flips too.

My first reaction was to try to kick my bike off of me. Then I realized I couldn't breathe. I kicked some more, then gave up, because I was more concerned about trying to breathe again. You know what they say about getting the wind knocked out of you? I finally understand now. Before this crash, I'd only had the wind knocked out of me for a couple seconds. This must have lasted at least 15, and I consider that a conservative estimate. I remember laying there, making funny noises trying to breathe, stopping, thinking to myself, "Try again, your breathe will come back soon." Trying again, and again, then thinking, "I sure hope my breath comes back before I run out of oxygen."

At some point, Aaron ran back and pulled my bike off me. I knew he was looking at me to see if I was okay, and I knew that he had no idea I couldn't breathe, so I mustered what little air I had left in my lungs and managed to say, "Wind!" A few more seconds passed, and finally my diaphragm stopped spasming and I could breathe again.

As with all my crashes, I wish I had this on video. I need a little camcorder angel over my shoulder to record all the stuff I do to myself. The first person perspective sure is exciting, but what does it look like from the outside?

And now, the damage. I'd like to start by saying I was damned lucky that I landed on my back, because my hydration back took the brunt of the impact. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't been wearing it. My upper back is sore just behind the ribcage, but nothing seems broken. My lower back/hip area (including the infamous grapefruit!) is covered in scratches, bumps, and bruises, but again, nothing seems broken. I also banged and scratched up my right shoulder, arm, elbow, and knee, but those are fairly superficial. Finally, I have whiplash, but it's mild compared to the ones I used to get snowboarding. I'm actually surprised the damage was so light, given the speed and the terrain.

I also bent the front brake rotor on my bike. It was due to go into the shop for its 1 month tuneup anyway. Good timing, eh?

Anyway, I got up, gave myself some time to make sure everything was okay, and we continued on for another 6 miles. We rode through a fun little jagged rocky creek area right after the crash. I was all proud of myself because I made it through without having to put my foot down. I clipped a foot out at one point, but was able to clip it back in a few feet later. Yeah!

More ass kicking climbs, beautiful views, and fun downhills. By the end of the ride we'd ridden more than 10 miles. My longest ride yet, by far! And the speedometer tells me I reached over 33 MPH at some point. Cool.

After the ride, we drove up Mt. Hamilton to the Lick Observatory. By the time we got there it was closed, so we parked and went up the steps. It was kind of nice that it was closed, actually, because there was no one else up there. A great finish to the afternoon. :)

10:31 AM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (4)

May 04, 2006 / Thursday

Ow, My Knee

Remember how I hurt my knee falling off my bike in a parking lot?

I reinjured it yesterday falling out of bed.

Immediately afterward, the area below the knee cap swelled two or three times as much as it did after the initial injury. And it hurt. A lot. I couldn't move for a good half minute. It stung, it was swelling so fast. And then I couldn't bend my knee because it was too swollen.

Ice packs and ibuprofen are my friend.

Sadly, I don't even have a good story about why I fell out of bed. I was home, by myself, felt tired, decided to take a nap before badminton, woke up, saw that it was late, tried to get up quickly while still groggy, got caught in my sheets, then by gravity, and landed on my injured knee.

I almost never take naps. Now I know why. It's dangerous.

And we didn't get to play badminton. :(

10:50 AM | Injuries| Comments (1)

April 28, 2006 / Friday

My New Bike

Say hello.

You were expecting something with a motor, perhaps? Not yet.

After weeks of test riding, a decision to go from hardtail to full suspension, and a major spending limit readjustment, I decided on a Giant Anthem 2.

It's red, you say. Yes, it's true. I bought a red bike. But you see, it felt so good on the test ride that I couldn't NOT buy the bike. Besides, it's a shiny anodized red, which looks a heck of a lot better to me than the comparitively dull red of the Trek 8000, which, by the way, was the bike that started the whole "I don't want a red bike" thing. The Trek 8000 actually felt really good, but it didn't pass the prettiness test.

I ordered the Anthem last week. It came in Tuesday, and was ready for pickup yesterday. I was totally excited. We did a basic setup for me and I headed out for my first spin on the bike in the parking lot. Everything felt great, so I decided to push it a little.

I turned, I turned a little faster, I turned a little harder... and then I lowsided. It was really weird. One moment I was turning, and the next moment the wheels just slid out from under me. Did I hit an oil slick on the pavement, or was I really turning that hard? In retrospect, I should have checked the parking lot for oil. Oh well.

The damage was light. I put a few scratches on the bike, but hey, it's a mountain bike, and that would have happened sooner or later. I wound up with a huge bruise/bump on my right knee, a few smaller bruises on both legs, a small bruise on my right hip, and a scrape on my left elbow. Nothing that won't heal, and, more importantly, nothing that restricts activity.

At hockey a few hours later, I thought about how I lean into my turns, and that perhaps I was expecting the same sort of grip from my tires. I have to remember that rubber does not dig like skate blades do. Sure, I've lowsided on the ice, but it takes a lot more lean to do it on skates than it does on wheels.

I rode the bike into work today, and I'll be taking it out on a real ride this weekend. I can't wait!

10:21 AM | Injuries:Mountain| Comments (3)

March 21, 2006 / Tuesday

Ow, My Groin

I strained my right groin during Sunday's Maroon placement session, and it's not healing.

Waah.

That is all.

02:30 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (1)

October 08, 2005 / Saturday

Team Ingrid Game 3: Boo, I Missed Game 2

Still no team name. None that I really like, at least. Screw it, I'll just call it Team Ingrid here for the rest of the season.

Either that, or Qapla'!. Qapla'!

We won! Final score: 3-2. The Ballerina Pimp made some sweet saves in net for us tonight. Woot!

I played D. If I play it fairly often I'm okay with it, but if I haven't played in a while I hate it. I don't mind the messing with people part, but I definitely hate skating the puck behind the net. I think it has something to do with the fact that I hate being chased. It has nothing to do with hockey and everything to do with me.

Three goals against Tami. That doesn't suck. Go Team Ingrid!

Not much to say for myself, except that my spine and neck got rearranged. I broke my own rule and tangled with Mary. It was either that or give her a clear path to the net.

Legs are sore. I am so out of shape. Moo.

Moopla'!

02:23 AM | Injuries:Team Ingrid| Comments (2)

September 27, 2005 / Tuesday

I Hope I Don't Jinx Myself

I think my left shoulder has healed. :)

And now, a moment of waah: Maybe it just feels healed relative to my right shoulder.

11:00 PM | Injuries| Comments (5)

September 11, 2005 / Sunday

Hockey Kicked My Butt

I suppose I should have known that skating a Maroon conditioning/placement session after a three week hiatus from anything even remotely resembling exercise was a bad idea.

Not that I shouldn't have gone, but perhaps I should have attended a public skate or a clinic before this weekend.

The end result, a groin flareup! It sounds funnier than it feels.

I thought I was done with that injury. As if my shoulder wasn't enough to deal with.

Waah, my shoulder. Look at me, I'm Rob from TUF2.

Yeah, okay, maybe one of you understood that last sentence.

06:38 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (4)

August 17, 2005 / Wednesday

Sleep Is Dangerous

My right shoulder was slowly healing, but I managed to reinjure it last night... while sleeping.

Lame!

03:51 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

August 07, 2005 / Sunday

Another Goalie Injury?!

Played in net again this afternoon. Got better results: a win! Finished the game 2-1 (15 shots on my net). WahoO!

But wait, there's more! I made a crazy diving weak side save today, a mirror image of goal 2 from Friday night. I've been working on it in my head the last two days. See, it's good to remember every goal that goes in on your watch!

I did, however, give up a goal similar to goal 1 from Friday night. Someone had a breakaway, shot, and I blocked the puck. Once again, I gave up a rebound to my right, but this time I could at least reach over to prevent a direct goal from the rebound. The shooter did manage to poke the puck, though, and it slid over to the other side of the crease. I tried my darndest to reach it with the butt end of my stick, but I was a couple inches short, and a player from the opposing team finally came and knocked it in.

To add insult to injury (or perhaps we should say, injury to insult), I tweaked my right shoulder trying to reach the puck. It hurts. A lot. It hurts to drive. Shifting into 5th and 6th gear is really difficult.

I guess this means tennish is on hold once again.

:(

10:55 PM | Injuries:Red: S2005| Comments (0)

I Mish Tennish

Played a little tennis today with the aid of a wrist wrap. Did all right. Boy am I rusty! I miss it, though. I want to play more.

More!

12:40 AM | Injuries| Comments (7)

July 29, 2005 / Friday

Forget Tennis

I practice swung a *really* light tennis racquet this afternoon, and transitioning from backswing to forward swing hurt my wrist. A lot. Siiigh.

11:36 PM | Injuries| Comments (5)

June 29, 2005 / Wednesday

At Least I Could Walk

Heard from Howitzer today that his teammate had to be carried off the ice for a groin pull this past weekend. With that in mind, sitting out for 3 weeks* doesn't seem long at all.

Oh, right, I was taking time off for my concussion.

*I hope it amounts to only 3 weeks. I'll find out at public skate tomorrow.

11:57 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (4)

June 27, 2005 / Monday

Ow, My Wrists

2 weeks of ibuprofen and not doing much --> happy wrists
1 session of upper body weight training --> aching wrists

:(

03:13 PM | Injuries| Comments (4)

June 20, 2005 / Monday

I'm A Weakling

But at least I made it back to the gym.

The SM24hF has new equipment! I really miss going there. DC, Pac, and Ocean suck by comparison.

Good news: my wrists feel a little better. Only minor pain in the right wrist during my bicep curls. I'm thinking I should get weight training gloves with wrist support.

Not so good news: my left shoulder feels weird. It doesn't hurt, but it's not happy. Boo.

If I'm sufficiently motivated I might try to do adductor-free LB tomorrow. We'll see.

01:41 PM | Gym:Injuries| Comments (4)

June 17, 2005 / Friday

6r01n Pu1Lz R d4 5uX

My hockey schedule for this weekend, originally:

Thursday: clinic (goalie)
Friday: clinic
Saturday: clinic
Saturday: Ice Oasis
Sunday: Le Snack

My hockey schedule for this weekend, in reality:

Thursday: cancelled
Friday: 45 minutes of clinic
Saturday: cancelled
Saturday: cancelled
Sunday: cancelled

I don't know how I did it, but I pulled a groin muscle in the first period of last weekend's Le Snack game. I played hard on it the rest of the game, and spent the first half of this week limping. I thought I'd healed enough to skate 80% on it at the clinic tonight, but after a few drills I was hurting. A lot.

All I can do now is rest and hope to be back in action for next weekend.

At least I was able to dislodge an ice pack from the iceberg that is my freezer.

Yes, I'm icing my groin. Yes, that's pretty funny.

11:48 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (6)

June 15, 2005 / Wednesday

Concussion Confirmation

Confirmation 1: Crying on the bench, but not really crying.

Confirmation 2: I've had one heck of a week at work, and it's not even half over! Everything throws me off. If you ask me a question, I get flustered, and my face turns beet red because I'm flustered. Now, I know it's not hard to get my face to turn red, but I'm talking Rudolph's Red Nose red. Of course, since I can't just say, "Sorry, my brain is broken this week, can you ask me next week?" I have to just ignore the fact that my head feels like it's about to ignite and answer the question.

Confirmation 3: My awesome boss announced on Monday morning that she's leaving the company (that's as much detail as you're ever going to hear from me here about work). When I talked to her about it that afternoon, I found myself sitting there, crying, wondering why I was being so emotional over something that I would normally handle with absolute calm. I was still calm enough to continue talking, but I couldn't stop the tears. My boss had to get me Kleenex from across the hall.

Hello, brain? Can you hear me? Are you done being pissed off at me for bruising you yet? Can you please fix yourself now?

09:59 AM | Injuries| Comments (10)

June 12, 2005 / Sunday

Le Snack Game 6: Brownies!

Um, I mean, Ice Chex!

*munches on brownie*

Played another super fun Le Snack game tonight. Everyone played *so* well. It was great to watch our team playing hard, skating fast, and having a good time.

We did have more penalties than usual. A couple trips and a hooking, maybe? I think our average this season is <1 per game, so tonight's count was not very Snacklike. Maybe it's 'cause we were all playing hard.

Penalties aside, playing hard paid off. We won!

Final score: 2-1. Malinda scored! Woot! I got an assist on it! Woot again! Lindsay scored our other goal, surprise surprise. ;)

I learned a couple things tonight.

Thing 1: Just keep skaaating. I've long known that I need to keep skating, and skating hard, to catch someone in front of me, but for some reason I've always slowed down as the distance between us decreased, resulting in my never catching them. I'm finally learning to consciously tell myself to keep skating during such chases, and, imagine that, it actually works! Watching it finally start to work is a great incentive to skate even harder, so I can someday see it work realy well (I hope!).

Thing 2: Stay away from Mary. Late in the 3rd period, a puck scooted loose to the edge of the rink. Mary and I went after it. As I was skating to the puck, I thought, "Mary's not going to back off, and I will arrive at the puck a split second before she does, so either I can back off, or I can brace for impact." I wasn't about to back off, even though I know Mary can send me across the ice. Unfortunately, she sent me straight into the boards, and I found myself lying there on my back, dazed and with the wind totally knocked out of me. I realized I was right next to my bench, so I somehow made myself get up and hop off. My head didn't hit anything, but I think I got a concussion via whiplash. My neck is starting to get sore. Ugh!

Le Snack of the night: brownies, separated into center and edge pieces and labeled as such. Awesome.

Before the game, Lorel gave me a maroon bandana, and that's why I got my first point of the season tonight. Thanks, Lorel!

10:46 PM | Injuries:Le Snack| Comments (2)

May 11, 2005 / Wednesday

Worse, Not Better

Practice last night appears to have aggravated my left wrist injury. I've lost range of motion. Ack!
To the medicine Advil cabinet!

11:02 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (4)

May 08, 2005 / Sunday

Logitech Hockey Is Mild By Comparison

My chin hurts. It's bruised, but not enough to see.
My forehead hurts. It's also bruised, but not enough to see.

They both hurt right where my head meets my helmet, which, on more than one occasion, met the elbows of various Colorado players this weekend.

I have whiplash, too.
Waah.

- - -

Took a shower just now and noticed a bruise on my shin (yes, my shin, which is covered by shinguard plastic) in the shape of a stick, right where I was slashed by a NL(W) player yesterday for no reason other than the fact that I happened to be nearby. I forgot to mention, slashing was apparently legal at all our games this weekend, but no one remembered to tell our team. I hate when that happens.

As for the NL(W) player who delivered that slash hard enough to give me a bruise *through* my shinguards, whatever, I scored on you guys.

Twice.

11:59 PM | Burninators:Injuries| Comments (16)

May 04, 2005 / Wednesday

Ow, My Other Wrist

My right wrist still hurts, but my left wrist now kills. *#(&^(*@!!!

01:11 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (5)

Ow, My Forearm

I can't twist my left wrist either way, and it hurts to drive. Waah.

09:34 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

April 06, 2005 / Wednesday

I Sure Hope These Shoulder Exercises Work

Had my last PT session today. Am I all healed up? No, but that's all my HMO will cover. In any case, I think I got some good shoulder exercises out of it. I'll keep doing those, as they seem to have strenghtened my shoulder enough for me to stop tweaking it in net. On the other hand, my shoulder is now mysteriously sore all the time, but I'll take that over feeling like something's hurt whenever I try to make a save.

As for the wrist, well, we don't quite know what's wrong with it. They suggested I have an MRI. I'll have to go to the doctor again and see what they have to say.

In related news, my parents found out about my aching joints, and, to my amazement, my mom has mostly left me alone while my dad has been nagging me nonstop about it. Every time I talk to him he tells me I should take a month or two off from hockey. I tell him I will if I can't get it to improve with PT and whatnot, but he just keeps repeating the same thing: I should take a month or two off from hockey. The worst part is, unlike my mom or my aunt, whatever I say in rebuttal doesn't ever reach his brain. It's not even a case of in one ear out the other; it's more like, la la la I'm not receiving soundwaves on this topic. Aurrrgh.

05:12 PM | Injuries| Comments (2)

March 31, 2005 / Thursday

Ow, My Shoulder

My shoulder was sore at tonight's hockey clinic. It's never been sore skating out before. Is that normal? Is it supposed to get worse before it gets better? I don't know if "worse" is the right term for it. I don't tweak it as often these days, but it's just always kind of sore.

More patience, more ice.

11:52 PM | Injuries| Comments (10)

March 22, 2005 / Tuesday

Bad Shoulder, Bad!

I *thought* my shoulder was getting better, but then I majorly retweaked it today, not while playing goalie, but while loading my goalie gear into my car. Sheesh!

11:32 AM | Injuries| Comments (12)

March 20, 2005 / Sunday

Christmas Tree Goalie:Alllmost!

Played in net for the GMP today. I had a decent game, the usual close calls, and alllmost a shutout.

Alllmost!

Final score: 2-1. They scored on me with a minute an a half left in the game (I think). Bah!

It was a beauty of a shot, though. Paula, while falling, flipped a backhand over my head.

Afterward, the Ballerina Pimp, who was reffing the game, came over and said, "You shouldn't have gone down!"

Siiigh! Next time!

I wanted a shutout, dammit!

Shoulder update: I tweaked my left shoulder only twice today, and they were both minor tweaks that didn't hurt after the play ended. I'm hoping this means I'm making progress with my PT exercises. I'll get to test it out again on Tuesday...

08:11 PM | Christmas Tree:Injuries| Comments (0)

March 15, 2005 / Tuesday

Ow, Hockey Hurts

Got to sub for the Dogfish tonight. Thanks Liz for having me, and, uh, sorry for falling all over the place.

What a mess! Me, that is. Here is, in order, all the things that went wrong for me tonight:

• I had my skates sharpened, and boy were they sharp! A different guy at my usual shop did them this time, and apparently 3/8" is not merely a machine thing. I fell alllll night.
• I tangled in the corner with Ellaine early in the game, and hit the side of my head on the boards going down. Hard. I had a headache for the rest of the night.
• I rammed the bottom on my forearm into the top of the boards, right in that little spot between the elbow pads and the gloves. I have a fatty bump/bruise developing there right now. Come to think of it, I should put some ice on that...
• I fell while diving for a puck in front of the net, and somehow landed on the bottom of my quad that turns into that fleshy part of the knee, and for some reason there was no shinguard there, and it hit the ice, and I could barely skate back to the bench. Fortunately, it was muscle and not ligament, but I limped around the rest of the night.
• To top it all off, I somehow managed to take down half the skaters on the ice in final seconds of the game.

On the upside, there were some great folks out on the ice tonight. I hurt, but I had fun. :)

11:31 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

Invest In Ice Pack Stock!

At the moment, I'm sportin' 3 of them.
One for my right wrist, per PT orders.
One for my left shoulder, also per PT orders.
One for my newly injured left knee.
I think I've set a new personal record.

11:29 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

March 09, 2005 / Wednesday

Okay, I Give! PT It Is!

I've been putting off scheduling physical therapy for a month. It's been busy at work and I don't want to take time out of my weekdays (gym lunches are gone now, too), but my left shoulder is killing me after my 3-goalie-ice-slot weekend. So, today, I made an appointment with these guys. I'm quite looking forward to it, actually. They're not one of those office workers and old people shops, so I'm hopeful that they'll know how to fix me up.

09:26 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

March 08, 2005 / Tuesday

Ow, My Wrist

I think I just aggravated my wrist injury proving to Vinny that I can split an apple with my hands.

But I did it, so whoO!

- - -

And here's proof! You can tell it's me 'cause it's got a round head and spikey hair.

Thanks Big V for documenting.

04:02 PM | Injuries| Comments (20)

March 01, 2005 / Tuesday

Whiplash! Duh!

My neck has been killing me the last few days. At first I thought it was stress, or bad computer ergonomics, or a malfunctioning memory foam pillow, but it just occurred to me that it's probably whiplash from my Logitech game on Saturday night.

I heart Advil.

05:00 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (2)

February 24, 2005 / Thursday

Ow, And Woop?

Went to the Belmont Thursday night clinic. A couple skatey things to note:

Thing 1: I could not do *anything* on my outer edges because every time I tried the tendon running along the outside of my leg into my ankle would hurrrt like it was gonna cramp. Dunno what's going on. Bah.

Thing 2: I *think* I've managed to successfully convert my skiblade left turn into a hockey left turn. I'll have to try it some more when my legs aren't on the verge of cramping to make sure.

Skating aside, I saw a woman come off the ice at the public skate session just before the clinic. She had hockey skates on, so I went over and asked if she played. A few exchanges later, I figured out that she was Kim, Andrea's friend. It was random, but, well, not, I suppose. Anyhow, it was cool to meet her. I figured since she's probably only ever seen my name in blog links, I introduced myself as SoopahViv. That's a first! Hee.

11:08 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (2)

February 21, 2005 / Monday

Puck Puck Goose! Game 11: Stanley Cupcakes

Whoo, cupcakes! No, wait, brownies! Mmm... brownies. Yum.

Liz got to sub for my team today. It was fun having her on the ice with us. She played D, but took the puck in a couple times. Good stuff!

Final score: 5-1. The score really doesn't reflect the game very well. We got some scrappy goals by crowding the net.

5 goals, and I didn't get a single one. I did manage to destroy my left wrist trying, though. I cut off a Cupcakes pass, squeezed the puck through two defenders at the blue line, and headed for the goalie. The next thing I knew, I was sliding on the ice with my left wrist curled under my body. I wound up sliding into the goalie, or some part of the goalie, and took out her stick. Then I got up and saw the puck just sitting there in one of the faceoff circles. I went for it, but I saw my center going for it too, and since she had the forehand shot, I backed off. She took it, shot, and scored. All that, but no assist. Drat!

Thanks, Andrea, for bringing me Advil. :-)

So yeah, the left wrist is, hrmm, I dunno, sprained? It's not swollen. It just hurts. A lot. It feels like I stretched, maybe tore, the tendons on top.

Great. I have two bad wrists now. Driving was interesting. I'd started to drive with mainly my left hand in an effort to give my right wrist a rest. So much for that!

I had a breakaway at the end of the 1st period, but no one told me that the period was ending, and I had no clue, so the buzzer sounded just as I was about to take my shot. I was not happy about that one. I screamed at the top of my lungs, "COME ON, VIV! WATCH THE FUCKING CLOCK!" I skated back toward the bench, threw my stick down on the ice, and flopped down. Bah!

Me, throw a fit? That's kinda funny.

Anyway, a fun game, and a yummy post-game brownie. Woop!

12:21 AM | Injuries:Puck Puck Goose!| Comments (4)

February 13, 2005 / Sunday

Christmas Tree Goalie: Shhh! Don't Say It!

Huzzah! Got me another shutout, but only because the goalpost helped me out. Played in net for the GMP tonight against Andrea's team. The first couple of periods went well; my team was aggressive and really good about going after opponents with the puck. The third period was a bit of a challenge. I'm guessing it was because the team was tired, but all of a sudden all my D decided to insert themselves between me and the puck, leaving me unable to see the incoming shot from what was in many cases a wide open shooter. Shift after shift, shot after shot, I yelled, "Don't screen me!" but it didn't seem to have much of an effect. Finally, late in the third period, AndreaTan, a.k.a. Secret Weapon, got the puck toward the back corner of our zone, with all the time in the world and no one going after her. Between us were 4 or 5 skaters: 2 or 3 from her team and 2 from my team, all looking at her for... I dunno what! I was screaming for my skaters to mooove. I shifted right to try to see the puck. AndreaTan shot toward our collective left (collective right, if you're AndreaTan). The puck lifted, flew, pinged off the bottom of the far goalpost, flipped up 3 feet in the air, and landed in my glove.

Phew!

Final score: 1-0.

As usual, I retweaked my left shoulder. The wrist ain't happy either, but what else is new?

10:51 PM | Christmas Tree:Injuries| Comments (2)

Thrifty Wrist

You know that Visa commercial where George Steinbrenner's hand is in a cast 'cause he's been signing too many checks? That's kinda how I feel. My wrist hurts when I try to write -- and the only time I really write is to sign checks and credit card bills.

Maybe my wrist is trying to tell me something.

12:19 PM | Injuries| Comments (2)

February 11, 2005 / Friday

Fix It! Fix It! Fix It! Ow... !

Went to the doctor today for a long-overdue appointment to look at my aching wrist and shoulder. I went in hoping for a physical therapy referral, but not expecting much more than a recommendation to rest for 6 weeks.

I called a good 10+ days ago for an appointment. They had nothing until April (!) with my doctor, but they squeezed me in today with some other doctor. A 3rd doctor ended up seeing me.

The result: a recommendation for a wrist splint to immobilize my wrist whenever possible, a writeup for an x-ray to make sure nothing's really wrong, and a referral for physical therapy so I can learn to strenghten my shoulder.

I asked if I could still play hockey, expecting to hear the "6 weeks of rest" answer that I would likely "forget". Instead, the doctor gave me this "yeah right you're gonna play anyway" look and told me to use my best judgement. Heh.

She said to take ibuprofen. I asked if it was bad to be constantly taking the stuff. "Eh," she replied, "it's not the end of the world. And if that doesn't work, come back and I'll shoot you with some steroids." I eeked. She responded with, "That's not so bad either."

Wow. I like her. She's the first doctor I've encountered who not only understands my hockey fanatic mentality, but is willing to do what she can to let me continue to play.

One somewhat disturbing thing: apparently my clavicles aren't even, and they're uneven enough that she wants an x-ray to make sure I wasn't injured as a kid and/or congenitally defective. She mentioned something about maybe having an extra rib. I was too concerned about being imbalanced to really process it.

Imbalance! Nooo!

Anyway, I'll be walking around with a wrist splint for the next few weeks. If you don't see me wearing it, smack me.

11:42 PM | Injuries| Comments (4)

February 08, 2005 / Tuesday

Ow, My Neck

I think I somehow managed to strain the back of my neck playing a game on my phone.

WTF?!

09:35 AM | Injuries| Comments (6)

January 30, 2005 / Sunday

Bruises Galore

Last week at yoga I noticed that my right leg looked like a mess: I had a huge purple bruise just above the inside of my knee from taking a puck (in that one unpadded spot, go figure) a few days prior and a greenish one on my shin from a fight (which I lost) with my bathtub.

I now have 3 times as many bruises below my knees. I've been playing D all tournament. No one told me that was part of the job description!

I suppose it's worth it if it keeps the puck from getting to the net.

Me sport pretty legs. Not. Good thing my swimsuit photo shoot's not for another 2 weeks. ;-)

06:42 AM | Burninators:Hockey:Injuries| Comments (8)

January 19, 2005 / Wednesday

Ow, I Hurt More Than I Thought I Did

I'm skipping yoga today. I woke up this morning and realized that I had more than just a tweaked shoulder and wrist. I also managed to pull an ab and a groin muscle on hockey hockey Sunday, and neither of those have healed yet. Siiigh.

12:47 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (2)

January 18, 2005 / Tuesday

A Cure For My Shoulder Woes?

I mentioned yesterday that I kept retweaking my left shoulder reaching out to cover the puck, and Elissa was able to tell me exactly where it hurt *in* my shoulder just from my describing the motion. She gave me a few PT hand-me-down tips on exercises I should and shouldn't do. I'll give 'em a go these next few weeks and see if they help. This means no military presses for a while. Darnit, I was just starting to push 30 on those. It seems every time I approach 30, something happens and I have to take a break. Boo!

On the other hand, if trading militaries for other exercises for a while will help with the shoulder pain, I'm more than willing to try.

Now, does anyone know what's wrong with my right wrist? Aside from my jarring it every week practicing slapshots, that is.

Speaking of slapshots, I attempted one (and only one) at the Sunday skills clinic, and it launched. 100% success rate for the day! WhoO!

Never mind that it pinged off the post and out.

12:18 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (6)

January 14, 2005 / Friday

My Wrist Hurts, But It Was Worth It

Went to the Thursday night clinic today. Redestroyed my right wrist, but I managed to launch 2 or 3 slapshots in a row... and they all pinged off the same spot on the crossbar. Niiice.

I swear, I did! I have witnesses!

12:08 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

January 11, 2005 / Tuesday

Christmas Tree Goalie: Tuesday, Ugh!

I ugh for Tuesday night NCWHL slots. The whole rink is overrun by grade school boys from the practice just before us. There's no place to change, the kids are loud, stinky, immature, and really rile on my nerves. As I told Liz earlier tonight, it makes me not want anything more than a dog.

No, really. As I told Wendy, I fucking hate Tuesdays (at the rink). Sorry Wendy for the cursing.

So there. I don't want kids. Ever.

Anyway, the game was great. I played well, Liz played well, the skaters all played well. Fun was had by all. Well, all that I spoke with afterward, at least. :)

Something for me to work on: I gotta stop giving up fatty rebounds. I told myself earlier in the game to quit doing it or it'd burn me, and what did I do later? I gave one up and got burned.

S'okay. Burn and learn.

Final score: 2-1. My team saved my ass by scoring in the last minute of the game. Thank you, team!

That said, my highlight of the game was getting to watch all the badass saves Liz made in the other net. I had the best seat in the house!

As an added bonus, Wendy gave me a spillproof cup to help with my drinking problem. :) Thanks Wendy!

- - -

Tweaked my left shoulder *again*. I lift my weights and work my rotator cuffs, but reaching out to cover the puck tweaks that shoulder every time. Dammit!

11:01 PM | Christmas Tree:Injuries| Comments (0)

January 07, 2005 / Friday

No Tea For Me

Just now, I wanted tea. I went to the kitchen, and green teabag box was empty. I walked over to the tea cabinet for a refill. I opened the cabinet door, tried to look up, and, well, couldn't. Turns out I can't tilt my head back today.

I suppose that's still better than regular whiplash, which leaves me unable to lift my head off my pillow.

Besides, the head divot in the snow picture cracks me up.

03:01 PM | Injuries:Snow| Comments (0)

January 04, 2005 / Tuesday

Christmas Tree Goalie Practice: Ow, My Knees

Went to goalie practice tonight. Wore my new wrist brace, since my stick wrist has been totally killing me. No pain during practice, so I'm guessing it helps.

Practiced more butterflying, and scooting on one knee when down. Took horseshoe drill shots for what seemed like forever... and then some. Was tired, but didn't at any point feel like I was going to pass out. All right!

I think I need to buy hinged knee braces for this butterflying stuff, though. That, and figure out how to cushion my knees better. Dropping on the ice hurts, even through my knee brace, sweatpants, knee protectors, and goalie pad flaps. I'm gonna have a nice fatty bruise on my right knee tomorrow from all the butterfly dropping tonight.

I got a good workout, learned some new tricks, and got better (I think). Went for a bite to eat with some friends afterward. All in all, a pretty darned decent evening.

11:35 PM | Christmas Tree:Injuries| Comments (6)

December 20, 2004 / Monday

Fragility Genes

SoopahViv: i'm hurtin today
Liz2D2: yeah me too
Liz2D2: prolly not as much as you though
Liz2D2: oh fragile one

So ridiculously true. In addition to the hipback and right wrist, I have fatty bruises near my wrists and ankles... from my gear! Holy fragileness!

11:07 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (5)

So This Is What The Late 20s Are Like, Eh?

My tweaked hipback is more tweaked than I thought. I couldn't carry my backpack over my right shoulder to walk up the stairs today. Granted, it had a laptop rock inside, but that's not all that heavy.

My right wrist isn't getting any better, either. It hurt so much this morning that I couldn't *lift* my backpack to sling over my right shoulder.

The solution? Advil! Unfortunately, I couldn't push hard enough to open the bottle. Stupid wrist.

10:04 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (8)

November 09, 2004 / Tuesday

Concussion Scariness

At Andrea's suggestion (after scolding me for playing Sunday) I read a few articles on brain concussions. Here is a particularly good one. Reading it makes my head hurt.

Applicable phrases (stuff that happens to me):

• Inappropriate emotional reaction
• Player displays clumsiness
• Headache
• Balance problems or dizziness
• Feeling "foggy" or "not sharp"

Applicable sections (you'll have to go read them):

• Impact
• Violent trauma
• What is second impact syndrome?
• What about susceptibility to future concussions?

What does all this mean? It means the next time I even *think* I have a concussion, however mild, I need to get off and stay off the ice for the rest of the game. That second impact stuff is scary, and, because my balance always goes when I knock my head, a very real danger for me. I think it also means I need to buy a newer cooler helmet.

It's extra scary in light of what happened to this poor kid.

01:11 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (6)

November 05, 2004 / Friday

Kendra's Team (a.k.a. Loose Collection Of Remaing Skaters From The Team Formerly Known As The Puck Gobblers)

Ow, my head. It seems every time I play at game at Oakland I get a concussion. Tonight's game wasn't co-ed, but the outcome was no different. Darnit.

Kendra got a bunch of people together (a "team") to play against the Seals B team (a TEAM). We lost, 1-6, but, taking that last sentence into consideration, that's not so bad. Actually, we were holding our own until the 2nd period. We entered the 3rd down only 0-2.

So about my head. I was playing D tonight. A third of the way through the 2nd, the puck came deep into our zone. I raced a Seal for the puck. I got there first (whoa!). The aforementioned Seal tripped and rammed me into the boards. "FUCK, DUDE!" I shouted, very unhappy 'cause I could feel my neck whip all the way through my brain (a.k.a. mini concussion). I then heard, "Oh, Viv, I tripped! I'm so sorry!" I realized it was Elissa, and, well, I know she didn't mean to smoosh me, so I told her it was okay and finished off my shift.

The first thing to go when I get a concussion is balance. A mini concussion always sets me up for a big one. That came on my next shift.

Next shift, I did a great job on D, getting between my player and the goal, and tying her up just as the puck slid under her stick. There was a 4 player scramble for the puck. Someone's stick got behind my left foot and moved forward. I fell backward. Hard. I hit the back of my head on the ice. Hard. I think it bounced again. Fairly hard.

All I remember is, I hit and I knew that I was not getting back up for a while. All my brain could do was wait, much less figure out how to talk to my body again. I didn't feel right. I breathed kind of funny. I just lay still, eyes shut, trying to breathe. I heard the whistle blow. I eventually figured out how to open my eyes, and saw teammates gathered around me. Hello, teammates. Thanks for helping me off the ice.

The Seals graciously tapped for me. I realized later that I knew half of them. Funny, it's hard to recognize people when they wear a different uniform!

Anyway, I skated hard, and played an okay half game. A couple Seals came by afterward to see how I was and to tell me I'd gotten better since the last time they saw me. Thanks, you guys, that's always good to hear.

10:30 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

October 21, 2004 / Thursday

Seriously Lame

I was good today. I was all set to go to the Thursday night hockey clinic. I really was going to go. I headed south after work. I ran some errands and decided to get my long overdue LB workout in beforehand.

And then, of course, I pulled something during my workout. It's not serious, but I have a practice and a game this Sunday, and I figured skating on my fresh hamstring pull, however minor, was probably not a good idea.

So, no hockey for me tonight. It feels like it's been a long time since I've skated out. 2 weeks, maybe? Wow.

I had dinner instead. At least the burrito was good.

08:55 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (2)

August 17, 2004 / Tuesday

Last Ice Before I Lose My Teeth

Stepped on the ice for the last time before I go under on Thursday. Played my second ever Green goalie game tonight. Let in a couple of goals by pulling some newbie netminder crap, but fortunately no more than that.

Final score: 3-2. I won in net! I won in net!

I won, but only because Secret Weapon came up BIG and scored two goals tonight, all while playing D. Yes, D! The second one was a total Secret Weapon shot, too. It was hard enough that even though it hit the other goalie's stick it still went in.

Anyway, I gave up a five hole breakaway shot to Jena (good going, Jena!) and then a wraparound on my left. I almost gave up a wraparound on my right earlier in the game. Need to promote that to the top of my list of things to work on. Gotta learn to seal up that area next to the post!

Finally got to try out my new goalie gear. I love the skates. I can stand straight and even lean back a little withough falling over! The catcher and blocker rock; they're way comfy. The helmet was okay... I have less visibility in my goalie helmet than I'm used to. I'll adjust over time.

I retweaked my knee, my shoulder is still mysteriously sore, and for some reason my neck was aching and stiff the whole time, but I survived, and my body will soon get a nice long break from hockey to heal.

- - -

I always drive a bit like Speed Racer after hockey, so of course I zipped around the curves near Lake Merced and raced cars at each stoplight down Sunset. My accomplishment of the night: soundly beating an RX-8 off the line. There's something really satisfying about beating a lighter, more powerful, more expensive car. Ha! Take that! Pow!

11:28 PM | Christmas Tree:Injuries:Vroom!:Wisdom Teeth| Comments (0)

What's Up With My Shoulder?

I woke up with a sore right shoulder today. I haven't worked it in days. What's going on? Maybe it doesn't want to play goalie tonight.

Nothing a little Advil and Icy Hot can't take care of.

11:24 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

July 29, 2004 / Thursday

Phew!

Finally, done with skating camp! Know what this means?

It means I skate 1 MPH faster than I did Sunday night (when I had fresh legs).
It means I'll get to rest my tired hip flexors.
It means I'll get to heal my sore knee.
It means I'll get to go to the gym again and work my upper body.
It means I might actually go to bed at a decent hour tomorrow night.
It means I'll have to do my 35,000 mile oil change in the next week or so.
It means I have a lot to work on over the next few weeks (or months).
It means no more trips to San Jose for a while (stop laughing, you!).

Teddio and the Monkey stopped by Logitech after their game at Rollin' Ice. It was good to see them, and we went out for some post hockey grub. I got to have tendon and tripe at this homey little place in Santa Clara (?) with some Cantonese speaking dude. Cool.

In knee news, I was pushing on the side of my injured knee with my hand earlier to compare with the uninjured one. There's this ligament (?) in there that moves around. It isn't particularly painful, but it can't be good.

I'll see how it does after resting the next few days. The good news is, I can still skate on it with the hinged brace.

12:35 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

July 26, 2004 / Monday

Hooray For Knee Braces!

I spent the entire day limping around with a sore knee, and, because I'm a hockey nut, decided to go to my power skating camps regardless. But first, I needed a knee brace. I knew my neoprene ones weren't going to cut it. I needed something with hinges!

$48.70 later, I had a knee brace with hinges. It worked beautifully. It hurt less to skate than to walk.

Anyway, power skating camp was great. I felt faster by the end of the night (and there are three more nights to go). They clocked me from goal line to blue line. 14.0 mph. Not sure if that's good or bad, but I'll get clocked again on Wednesday.

Someone from Red Division was also there. She looked bummed when she saw me. She said she was there to learn how to outskate me, and apparently I thwarted her plans.

Know what I have to say to that? Nah nah! Plbplbpblbplbt!

12:40 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

July 24, 2004 / Saturday

Insane Puck Posse Game 12: Red Inferno

What a game! Our team had 46 shots on goal today. 46! The other goalie, however, came up biiig. She let only 2 of those through.

Final score: 2-3. At least we had to go into overtime.

I can't say it wasn't exciting. We tied it up with 12.7 seconds left on the clock. We pulled the goalie, threw me in, wound up with a series of faceoffs in the other team's zone, and on the third one, Julie's faceoff win back to me made it into the net. Holy moly! That shot felt like pure luck. It pinged off the middle of the left post. Phew!

And then, Terry had to go and complete her hat trick in OT. Siiigh.

If only I'd had an extra period. I wound up with two for the night.

We lost, but we played well. This was one of those games where the goalies made a huge difference. Not sure what else to say to that. Mary (a.k.a. the brick wall in front of the net tonight) pulled some amazing moves. Some of them, unfortunately, were on me. On the upside, I'll remember those well, and will be sure to try them when I find myself on the receiving end of shots in the future.

I tweaked my knee today. Just in time for the power skating camp. Great.

11:51 PM | Injuries:Insane Puck Posse| Comments (0)

July 08, 2004 / Thursday

Not Quite A Grapefruit... Cherry Pit, Maybe?

The forearm bruise from my stint as Green practice goalie has almost cleared now. Unfortunately, the muscle on my forearm still hurts from time to time, particularly when I type. Yesterday I noticed that there's a little painful knot in the spot where the puck hit. It reminds me of the grapefruit on my butt, except that this one is little, about the size of a small cherry pit. I've been kneading on it all morning to try to break up the scar tissue, but all it seems to do is make my forearm hurt. Have I inflicted upon myself yet another fruit-related mass of scar tissue? Aurgh!

Here's something I just discovered: if I push on the cherry pit hard with that muscle fully extended, I get shooting pains down the muscle fiber that extend into my hand.

That can't be good.

10:37 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

June 27, 2004 / Sunday

Damned Forearm Bruise!

Okay, I can still ride my bike, but I can't stick handle without my left forearm. Can we say "control hand"? Stupid puck. This had better heal by gametime Tuesday!

Now that I really think about it, it kind of hurts to type, too.

11:59 PM | Goalie:Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

May 28, 2004 / Friday

Ow, My Butt

My hockey injuries never end! At the clinic tonight I was doing an all-out 90 degree forward to backward transition. I caught an edge, went flying, and landed on my butt. The grapefruit is fine, but the muscle just below the grapefruit hurts like you wouldn't believe. I bet it's bruised. I'm afraid to look.

It's bad enough that I had trouble skating the rest of the night.

Must heal before Monday night!

12:13 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

April 27, 2004 / Tuesday

Insane Puck Posse Game 2: Scarlet Fever

First off, I'd like to say, that's a damned fine team you picked, Cap'n Heather! Your D is a force to reckon with.

Why do I say this? Well, the other team had no goalie tonight. No goalie, you (the reader) say, wow, that must mean IPP scored a lot of goals!

Well, no, unless 3 is a lot. Sure, we won, 3-0, but against a goalie gearless skater covering the net? Pfft!

Why else do I say this? Because every time I took the puck into the other team's zone there was no one open that I could pass to. Every pass either got deflected or just slid right by the intended teammate because she was tied up. Every pass. Damn.

Andrea was kind enough to sub for us tonight. She contributed a very nice goal in the 3rd period. Go Andrea!

I contributed no goals. Early in the 2nd period I had a, uh, little run-in with an opposing player. I ended up on my knees with my head in some big player's stomach, her full body weight bearing down on me. I thought my head was going to snap off. I wound up facing the end of the rink, kneeling or sitting, I don't know. I pulled my helmet back on straight and got up. I skated two steps and must have fallen backward, because I somehow found myself on my butt. Fortunately I was only a few paces from the bench, so I crawled over and got off.

Before my little near-head removal incident I was having a good speedy game and was doing a good job taking the puck into the other team's zone. After that, I kept skating in aimless circles, running into people, and every time I tried to pick up speed I'd lose my footing and go down.

Whiplash? Mini concussion? I had a bit of trouble judging vehicle speeds on my way home. That, and I missed my 380 exit and had to circle back. The head hurts a bit, as does the neck. I suppose I should be glad my neck's not broken. Maybe I'll go visit a chiropractor later this week.

11:21 PM | Injuries:Insane Puck Posse| Comments (0)

April 14, 2004 / Wednesday

Can't Lift, Can't Ride

My shoulder hurts. I can't go to the gym (in theory). That means I should ride my motorcycle to work, since the only reason I don't is because it's a pain to take it to the gym. Well, I can't ride my motorcycle because my shoulder hurts. That sucks.

09:31 AM | Injuries:Motorcycle| Comments (0)

A-Team II Preseason Game 1: ReHabs

I had fun tonight. We lost, but it was a close game. Final score: 1-2. Not too shabby. I had a couple shots on goal, but no points came of them. Annette scored our lone goal. She's on my Red team this season. Coooool.

It took me a couple shifts or so to readjust to playing co-ed hockey. It's definitely faster than playing in Red Division, and there's a lot more pushing and shoving and running into people. Fortunately it didn't take me too long to find my pushing and shoving legs and stay upright... for the most part.

Ironically, my only injury came from a self-induced slide. In an effort to keep the puck in the zone I dove sideways, stick out. My shoulder didn't like that. Even worse, the puck glided right past the tip of my stick by about two inches. Not worth it, man! This screws up the rotator cuff day I had planned for tomorrow, too. Boo.

My highlight of the game came in the 3rd period, when the other team was attacking and I found myself playing D. I turned and skated backward, picking up speed, and hallelujah, I finally did my first ever backward crossover in a game! Even better, it was intentional, and sooo smoooooth! I was, and still am, very excited about it.

I will now take my sore shoulder and backward crossover excitement and go to bed. Good night!

12:39 AM | A-Team II:Injuries| Comments (0)

March 28, 2004 / Sunday

Ow, My Neck

I gave myself whiplash tumbling down the mountain yesterday morning.

I've missed that feeling.

08:53 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

March 25, 2004 / Thursday

Ow, My Wrist

Typing and mousing are not very good ways to heal a tweaked wrist.

09:58 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

March 24, 2004 / Wednesday

Hoo-OW!

My little motorcycle flop is screwing up my weight training routine. I tried to do my usual UB exercises at the gym just now and couldn't. No military presses 'cause my right shoulder's messed up. I could do my flys and rows and reverse flys, but I had to do them at 80% weight 'cause, well, everything ties into the shoulder, doesn't it? Then on to biceps. I tried to use the shoulder-friendly bicep machine, but I tweaked my left wrist during my flop, too, and my wrist didn't like the machine. I tried to do wrist-friendly free standing W-barbell curls, but my shoulder didn't like supporting that kind of weight. I finally settled on W-barbell preacher curls at, you guess it, 80% weight. I was thoroughly screwed up by the end of my session. I did some lazy tricep sets and headed back to work.

Next up is rotator cuff day. I have a feeling I'll be skipping that this week.

01:53 PM | Gym:Injuries| Comments (0)

March 20, 2004 / Saturday

This Flopsie Thing Ain't So Funny Anymore

Doggammit, I flopped my bike over again. Brakes plus gravel, bad. Helmets and padding and somewhat pavement-resistant gear, good. Broken rear set, bad. Headache from hitting head on ground, bad. Sore shoulder, bad. Bruised hip, bad. Sprained right pinky, bad. Fortunately, I don't need my right pinky for hockey.

More later. Time for bed.

10:40 PM | Flopsie:Injuries| Comments (0)

February 27, 2004 / Friday

Stupid Knee. Stupid Me.

Note to self: If you keep picking at that continuously reforming knee-surgery-on-a-rock scar, you will eventually break through the skin and it will start bleeding. Again. Like you just made it do. Again.

02:34 PM | Injuries:PSA/NTS| Comments (0)

February 04, 2004 / Wednesday

Ow, My Neck

My neck is sore. I think it's from my little collision during last night's game.

I was wondering when the whiplash was gonna set in.

11:05 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

February 03, 2004 / Tuesday

Crash Test Barbies Game 12

I have some bad news, and I have some good news. For fun, and for intrapost variety, I will alternate the bad news and the good news.

Bad news: All three of our centers got sick and couldn't play.

Good news: We had some great subs tonight. You know who you are!

Other bad news: I think I might have another mild concussion.

The accompanying good news: You should have seen the other player. I got up and skated away. She tried, and, well, didn't. Okay, that sounds harsh, and I'm usually very friendly with and caring about everyone on the ice, including my opponents, but I've spent plenty of goodwill energy on her in the past, with no return, so screw that. Hell, she borrowed my jersey once, and proceeded to push me around and talk trash. I asked her if she was okay after our collision today, and she just ignored me. I'm giving up on her. Those are the last kind words she will ever get from me.

I got a couple cuts and a good bump on my chin from my helmet getting pushed up in the collision. I feel all badass and stuff.

More bad news. We lost. Final score: 1-5.

The good news in that score: I scored the lone goal. It was pretty, too! I took it through lots of D, tried to draw the goalie across the net, and got the puck up above the goalie's near shoulder. Props to the four goalies I talked to after game 10 for the advice.

Visualization, man. I've been trying to get back to that. I used to do it in Green division and it worked beautifully. It's my new project. When I'm not on the ice and have a few spare brain cycles, I picture myself with the puck. What do I do with it? How do I get around my opponents? How do I take it down the ice? How do I get it into the net? That, and I tell myself I've got moves. Whether I really have moves I don't know, but if I don't at least convince myself that I do I won't ever try to make them in a game.

It must have worked. It got my team a goal. It got me some props from the other team, too. That's always super nice, to know that you played well enough to get noticed by your opponent.

And if that doesn't work, you can always bang helmets with someone really loudly.

Being the attentionmonger that I am, I made sure to do both.

10:18 PM | Crash Test Barbies:Injuries| Comments (0)

January 27, 2004 / Tuesday

Did Anyone Find Some Marbles After The Game?

Wow, this concussion thing is a little more serious than I thought. I was trying to make myself some eggs just now, and instead of separating the egg whites into the bowl and dumping the yolks into the sink, I kept trying to separate the eggs into the sink. I knew full well what I was supposed to do, but egg after egg I watched myself do the exact opposite.

I'm a little afraid to turn on the stove.

Note to self: Turn off the stove before you go to bed!

11:02 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

Crash Test Barbies Game 11

0-2... 3-2...

Final score: 3-5. Siiigh...

We didn't totally suck again. I had fun again. We lost again. It's a bit of a bummer, but that's okay. I still think my team is rad. I'd rather play with people I like and lose than play with people I don't like and win. Wow, did I just say that? I'd trade winning for something else? I must be getting old.

I got me a goal tonight. Lori and Doris kept the puck from getting out of the other team's zone, and Doris managed to flick the puck out toward the center. I was cycling laterally toward them, and picked up the puck. I got past two defenders on my way to the goal, and got a backhand shot in between the goalie's legs. Not too shabby!

I got me a good jarring tonight, too. I wound up with a stick between my legs, and went down hard on the grapefruit. Fortunately, the grapefruit didn't rupture and bleed its way back to full size, but unfortunately for my head the impact made its way up my spine and rung me good. Felt like I'd hit the ice with my head instead of my ass! That's what I get for not wearing my mouthguard. That thing's been bothering me lately. Didn't wear it 'cause I didn't want to throw up my pudding.

Now that I'm sitting here typing, I notice that my head hurts a little, and everything seems to tilt a bit to the right. A concussion from falling on my ass?! How lame!

10:24 PM | Crash Test Barbies:Injuries| Comments (0)

January 19, 2004 / Monday

Swish!

Back from 3 days on the mountain! I switched back to snowboarding today. Was able to go a lot faster than I did on skis yesterday, which was great, but also bad because I went flying and whacked my head on the ground. It hasn't snowed much up there recently and it felt like hitting pavement (or ice, which I guess I've hit a lot more with my head). Hooray for helmets!

Unfortunately, helmets do nothing for my neck. I gave myself whiplash during my tumble on Saturday, and will probably wake up with some additional whiplash tomorrow morning. Hooray for Advil!

Almost forgot to mention that the Cal band was at Kirkwood yesterday. It was awesome to see them on the slopes with their instruments, playing the Cal fight song on their way down the mountain.

Back in SF now, and very very tired! Good thing it's a short week!

09:32 PM | Injuries:Snow| Comments (0)

December 27, 2003 / Saturday

Damned Wrist

I think my little bike incident reaggravated my hockey wrist injury. Booo.

02:06 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

December 26, 2003 / Friday

Ow

Okay, now I hurt a little. Nothing major, and nothing broken, but my wrist and shoulder hurt some. I think it's from being jarred.

10:36 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

December 03, 2003 / Wednesday

Bones Intact! (I Think)

No word from my doctor so I think my x-rays came back negative. No bones to displace means I'll feel better about pretending like my 6 week ban on activity applies only to running.

Next week I'll try to hit up a public skate session to see how my foot feels.

10:52 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

December 02, 2003 / Tuesday

What About Hockey?

D: 6 weeks rest. I'll write up some x-rays for you.
V: How did I know you were gonna say that?

Notice I purposely didn't mention hockey.

D: What about hockey?
V: Uh... I haven't skated since I hurt my foot.
D: No hockey!
V: But my skate holds everything in place!
D: No snowboarding, either.
V: No snowboarding?! What about skiing? The boot's stiffer.
D: I think you know what the answer is to that one.
V: Yeah, I know... *pout*
D: I just want to make sure your foot will last 'til you're 60!

So I hobble out of the doctor's office and over to the radiology department. What was that she said? No running for six weeks? Stiffer boots are okay because they're like casts?

I'll find out by tonight if it's fractured.

01:20 PM | Hockey:Injuries:Snow| Comments (0)

December 01, 2003 / Monday

Ow

My foot. It still hurts.

I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow. I've been through this drill before, several times. It'll probably go something like this:

D: Just like last time. X-Rays and six weeks rest.
V: Rest from what? Everything?
D: Everything.
V: Even hockey?!
D: No hockey.
V: But my skate will hold my foot and ankle in place!
D: No hockey! Do you want your foot to heal or not?
V: Okaaay... *pout*

Afterward, I remove from my memory all references to hockey in the above conversation and proceed with my six week break from running.

If snowboarding comes up anywhere in that conversation, a similar form of memory loss will also occur.

10:11 PM | Hockey:Injuries:Snow| Comments (0)

Foot Creak

My injured foot is creaking. WTF?! Does it need oil?

11:51 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

November 30, 2003 / Sunday

My Foot

It hurts. A lot.

The ankle too.

05:26 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

November 27, 2003 / Thursday

Oh, But Not Without Injury

I am so ridiculously fragile. The 10k injury list is in. One sore right shoulder and one aching left foot. The shoulder injury I don't quite get, but it feels like there are unhappy tendons or ligaments in there it hurt a lot in the car just after the race, but seems to be a little better now. The foot didn't bother me until after my shower. I think it's from running off camber along the water. I had the same injury on my right foot a few months ago from running off camber around Lake Merced. It took six weeks to heal.

Six weeks?! Good thing hockey happens in a stiff skate.

01:36 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

November 17, 2003 / Monday

Owwie

I tweaked my bum wrist again last night. Collided with the speedy one on the other team and my wrist got caught in the middle. I've thought about putting a brace on it before getting on the ice, but that's my control hand and I kind of need it for my shot (so what if it's to shoot straight into the goalie every time?).

Speaking of shooting, I finally got one past Elaine yesterday. Nothing like finding an opposing goalie's weakness by having her sub for your team and then shooting on her during warmups. Stick side high. Actually, I got one past her stick side low a couple weeks back, too. Can't wait to try it next Sunday. I hope I get to play left wing again.

11:05 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

October 29, 2003 / Wednesday

Back from my run. Did

Back from my run. Did the Cheater's Loop again. Heh, I've turned that into a semi-official name now. My three foot and ankle ailments didn't ail me, which was great, but my left knee and right hip flexor did. At least I didn't have side stitches the whole way like I did the last time I ran. Ooh, time for some Advil. Later, everyone.

08:20 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

August 08, 2003 / Friday

I hate being injured. I

I hate being injured. I also hate feeling fat. When I'm injured I inevitably feel fat because I can't do anything. That and I'm bummed about being injured so I eat more. So I wind up injured and fat. That makes me grumpy.

Rarr.

Stupid ankle.

11:09 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

August 06, 2003 / Wednesday

Stupid ankle.

Stupid ankle.

11:59 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

Stupid ankle.

Stupid ankle.

01:46 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

August 05, 2003 / Tuesday

This ankle thing is starting

This ankle thing is starting to sink in, and it's making me sad.  

11:32 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

August 04, 2003 / Monday

Aie! The ankle is 3

Aie! The ankle is 3 times as swollen as it was yesterday... and it's turning purple! Perhaps I need to elevate more. The swelling has spread to the other side of the ankle, and there's blood pooling toward the bottom of my foot.

The Cold Pack fairy's been zoinking me all day. Cool.

04:46 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

Gimpy

So I have a new nickname now. I'm Gimpy. I have to say, it's fitting given the ankle wrap and the knee gauze and the horrible hobble I'm sporting today.

I did have a soy latte from Tully's presented to me as I got out of the shower, though. Gimpy life doesn't completely suck (not to be confused with completely doesn't suck).

Meecrob!  

09:04 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

August 03, 2003 / Sunday

It stung so much to

It stung so much to clean out my knee that my forehead tingled.

10:21 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

Big Sur & Sykes Hot Springs

Hi. It's Sunday. Back from my trip. I sprained my ankle. Dammit.

Ten minutes after my last blog post I hopped in my car and drove home. Doug came by, I hopped in his car, and we drove down to Monterey.

Had a soy latte on the way down.

Got to Monterey, checked in at the Monterey Plaza Hotel, got really hungry, ate some $5 hotel snack bar Pringles, waited a little while longer, and then went to dinner with the some folkses at the Sardine Factory.

Had lots of yummy food for dinner.

The next day, Doug woke up and said, "I left my boots at home." Home? Home, as in 118 miles away? Yup. I wasn't about to have him hike without boots (hiking, sure, but with a backpack?) so I offered to go get them while he did his presentation thing (which is why we were in Monterey in the first place). Off I went.

I got to honk at an ex-coworker on 101 so the trip was worth it.

Got boots, drove back to Monterey, picked up Doug, drove to Big Sur, got our permit, and hiked in. Found an awesome spot next to a stream with a mini waterfall nearby. Set up camp and started dinner.

Pasta Roni is great when you're in the woods.

The next morning, we hiked another 5 or so miles to Sykes Hot Springs. It was definitely worth the hike. Unfortunately, everyone there while we were there seemed to want clothes. A bit of a bummer. I would much rather have just stripped and jumped in. What's with people wanting to wear clothes all the time, anyway?

We should just all prance around naked.

Soaked until I was woozy from the heat, ate lunch, and headed back. I managed to bruise the inside of my left foot crossing the river. No biggie. I bruise easily, as those of you who know me well will attest to. Got back to camp, wrote a little in my journal while Doug took a nap, and started dinner.

Had burritos. They were fun.

Sunday morning. We woke up, we packed up, we started heading back. 2 or 3 miles into our hike, I managed to sprain my right ankle. I cut a big gash in my left knee in the process. Doug helped me clean and patch up my knee (shenks), I tightened my boot up more, and finished the hike out.

Man, I was dirrrty!

Drove up Highway 1 and stoped at Duarte's Tavern in Pescadero for a bowl of Cream of Artichoke / Cream of Green Chile soup, some awesome bread, a sandwich, some fries, and a slice of olallieberry pie. The lady who seated us (we think she's either very senior or has some sort of ownership power there) was super nice when she saw that I was hobbling (I was not walking very easily at this point). She asked me which ankle I had injured, put us in a corner booth so I could elevate my foot, and came back with a bag of ice for me... all before I could ask!

The food was most excellent, by the way.

Drove back here (my place) after Duarte's. I'm gonna go clean up and take some Advil now. Bye.

06:15 PM | Food:Hike:Injuries:Trips| Comments (0)

July 12, 2003 / Saturday

R-E2R vs. Anna Nicole Smith

So my annoying wrist injury from a few weeks back that I hurt playing hockey and that gets reaggravated everytime I play hockey kinda hurts.

I guess that would make sense, huh?

Excuse me...

Had to kill a 6-legged spider just now. 2 on the left, 4 on the right. It was a Daddy Longlegs. Keyword was, since it's more of a Daddy Squishedlegs now. Heheh.

I keep on mixing up farther and further when I speak. It's starting to bug the crap out of me. The worst part is, I don't realize it until Doug points it out. Amazingly, I think he may be a bigger grammar Nazi than I am. Ooh, there's another one. Notice I said "than I" instead of "than me". More on that later.

Damn, I'm getting sidetracked. Okay, back to hockey.

We suffered our first loss this season: 0-5. Ouch!

Yeah, we got our asses whupped, but it was fun. I really like the players on the team we played tonight. Too bad we don't get to play them much this season. Screwy schedule. Bummer.

After our ass whupping we all went over to City Beach for beer and billiards. That place is like a club on Friday and Saturday nights. Cover charge and booty ho's and everything. Listening to the conversations in the women's restroom made me feel like I was at a club. "Like, oh my God! I haven't seen you in so long! And I mean, I like you! You just have this aura around you. I'm just like, 'Oh my god, is that Jennifer? It is!' Blah blah blah blah blah..." Blech!

At City Beach I got to meet the player whom I had some on-ice issues with back in early June. She's actually pretty darned cool in person. You know how some people turn into total monsters when they get behind the wheel of a car? It's kinda like that, I think.

Garlic fries. Yum.

It's late. I'm tired. I need to spray No B.O. all over my gear and hang it up and take a shower and go to bed. Big car day tomorrow. It's gonna be happy inside and out and have new badass bumper lights. Whoo.

01:31 AM | Anna Nicole Smith:Injuries| Comments (0)

June 17, 2003 / Tuesday

Wasted Ice

I had to pass up 2 opportunities to play hockey tonight. Free ice time! Free game time! My choice of teams and leagues! What a waste. Stupid neck.

01:29 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

My neck still hurts.

My neck still hurts.

11:04 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

June 16, 2003 / Monday

Ow, my neck.

Ow, my neck.

11:06 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

June 15, 2003 / Sunday

Gulag vs. Earthquakes.2 @ Oakland Ice Arena

Got to sub for the Earthquakes again. We lost. I don't remember the score. Why don't I remember the score? Because I got cross checked and landed on my head. Well actually, I landed on my butt before I landed on my head.

No, wait, so the order of events was, I got crosschecked by someone a foot taller than I am, I landed on my butt, I thought, "Oh shit, the grapefruit!", then thought, "Wow, great padding in these new hockey pants!", then banged the back of my head on the ice (which, by the way, is really damned hard), then thought, "Oh no, that's gonna linger for a bit," then heard the ref blow the whistle for a penalty.

The best part was when I got back to the bench and I wanted to tell the other players on D to cycle and cover for me so I could sit out... and I couldn't. I knew what I wanted to say and my mouth just wasn't forming the words. That kinda sucked.

Fortunately, the goalie was a doctor and our other left D a nurse. Neato.

Prior to the cross check, I managed to twist my left wrist in a mad dash for the puck along the boards. I also managed to get a case of side whiplash during a shift where it felt like I battled all five of their skaters in front of the net in a span of two minutes.

I'm told they won't make me play defense next time.

I hope not! Not against this team, at least.

Ow.

08:25 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

June 05, 2003 / Thursday

Quote of the Day

What'd you hurt this time?

That's how my doctor greets me now. Aie.

11:28 AM | Injuries:Quote| Comments (0)

March 26, 2003 / Wednesday

Phrase of the Day

fireball in my butt

What the now-grapefruit felt like when it was forming Sunday morning.

10:40 AM | Injuries:Phrase| Comments (0)

Yay! I can wear jeans

Yay! I can wear jeans over the grapefruit-sized protrusion again!

Baggy ones, at least. It's time to get that skater look going.

09:22 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

March 25, 2003 / Tuesday

Thingamabobbers of the Night

buttock contusion

The little injury of mine that's got me sidelined for the next 3 months.

intramuscular hematoma

The pocket of blood somewhere deep in the muscle that's responsible for the grapefruit-sized protrusion coming out of my butt.

11:37 PM | Injuries:Thingamabobber| Comments (0)

Butt Injury Update

I had yet another appointment for my butt today. This is my third doctor in less than a week. I finally made it past the general practitioners and into the orthopedist's office. Same routine. Pants off, gown on, opening in the back. Say hello to the doctor, turn around, hands on the table, relax and get ready for the butt raping, er, I mean, examination of the horrifically unnatural grapefruit-sized lump on the right buttcheek. Doctor's hand now on pseudo-grapefruit, feeling, pushing, uh-oh, here it comes, YEOW! Okay okay, I hurt, see, I'm injured, okay? Sheesh!

Anyway, today's verdict: No sports for 3 months. 3 months?! Nooooo!

03:02 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

Yes, Of Course, The Oregon Trip!

I meant to write about my trip to Oregon when I got back yesterday, but didn't have time. Now a whole day has elapsed and I don't feel like writing about it any more because it feels like old news and who wants to write about old news?

Okay, I'll suck it up and try my bestest.

The drive up was nice. It's great to go on a road trip with someone you get along with but don't know too much about because there's lots of time to talk. Drive drive, talk talk. Somewhere along the way I pulled into a Chevron and they had... no gas. Empty! The entire station was empty! Strange.

So we got to the resort, and as we approached we saw the rink we'd be playing in over to our right. We pulled off the drive to check out the rink, and the next thing you know we were out there skating. All before we even checked in. Funny.

Saturday night, dinner with some of the players from the Oregon team. Nice folks. Yummy super rare prime rib. I think it mooed at me.

Sunday morning, 9 AM skills clinic. We did this one tug-of-war drill and I dug my skate in so hard I lost my edge and went flying... right on top of my snowboarding injury from two weeks ago. It hurt a lot for a little bit but I got up and finished the drill. Then, 10 minutes later, the muscle started filling with blood and the next thing I knew I couldn't bend my leg enough even to walk. I spent the next hour on my stomach with an ice pack on top of my bare butt, which at that point had a grapefruit-sized bump protruding from it.

So much for the game Sunday night. I got to cheer and help coach from the bench, so at least I was close to the action. Damn it was cold! I froze my ass off, grapefruit protrusion and all. 'Twas fun, nonetheless, and lucky for us, we won, 6-5.

The swelling went down enough for me to drive home on Monday. I saw a doctor yesterday afternoon, and now I'm off to see another one. Catch y'all later. Happy Tuesday.

09:42 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

March 08, 2003 / Saturday

Ow, My Ass

Hey everyone, I'm back from Tahoe. I've got a big-ass bruise on, well, my ass. Lemme tell ya, that ice they hide under the thin sheet of snow on the mountain is hard. If you don't believe me try dropping your ass on it from a few feet in the air.

In happier news, I bought a larger MMC and my mp3 player accepted it without too much of a fight. Hooray for more memory!

The bruise on my ass is so big I want to take a picture of it and post it here so you can see too.

Would that be considered porn?

Could I charge money for it?

How much would you pay for a shot of my ass?

Um, anyway, I have sort of a conversation of the day for you. It starts off with me kind of ripping on people who are ripping on the French over this whole Iraq thing.

- If it weren't for the U.S. the French would be speaking German?
- Well if it weren't for the French we'd all be British!
- And if it weren't for blacks there'd be no cotton.
- And we'd all be wearing polyester!

11:12 PM | Conversation:Injuries:Snow| Comments (0)

March 04, 2003 / Tuesday

Santa's Li.t.t.le Helpers (remove the .'s) Game 9

I think I have a bit of a concussion. Roh.

More on that later. The rest of the game, yes, um, we lost. 3-6, I think. Okay, that's all I have to say about the rest of the game.

More about my head. How come no one told me that if I fall backward I'm supposed to tuck my chin? It doesn't help to tell me that in the locker room after the game. Is it considered common sense? Have I no common sense?

Anyway, I got knocked backward and whacked the back of my head on the ice. I got right back up and thought I was okay. I got off the ice at the end of my shift and still thought I was okay. Then when I was first in line to get back on the ice I just zoned out. My teammate was standing there hollering at me to get on the ice and I was just standing there staring at some uninteresting part of the rink. What? Huh? There's a game going on? My head kinda hurts. Roh.

Things seem okay for the most part. At least the room's not spinning; it only ebbs a bit here and there. Damned head, quit hurting. It's not really all that bad but it annoys the crap out of me since I'm not headache prone. I think the last time I had a headache it was from my car accident back in October.

Dammit, I think that means I bruised my brain again.

12:09 AM | Injuries:Santa's Little Helpers| Comments (0)

February 11, 2003 / Tuesday

Santa's Li.t.t.le Helpers (remove the .'s) Game 6

Erf. I got flattened last night. I have a big ole bruise on my left bicep to show for it. My neck hurts today, too, but that might be from working or sleeping on it funny.

It was cool, though, I drew ooh-that-had-to-hurt ooh's from both benches. Too bad I didn't draw a penalty too. Not that it would have mattered anyway. I think we lost 4-9 in the end.

Our rent-a-goalie sucked. He scored one of their goals for them. WTF?! He let two through in the first minute and kept going down unnecessarily. And when he didn't go down, the puck would trickle in between his skates. He didn't deserve to be wearing all of his fancy goalie gear.

Stupid goalie. I bet he contaminates cubes during the week, too. Rarr.

11:48 AM | Injuries:Santa's Little Helpers| Comments (0)

February 04, 2003 / Tuesday

Hip? Pelvis? One More Try...

This time I have help from dictionary.com:

Hip: The laterally projecting prominence of the pelvis or pelvic region from the waist to the thigh.

So that bony part of the laterally projecting prominence, the hip part of the pelvis, that's what I bruised. And in case you're wondering, the crotch part of my pelvis is doing just fine.

03:14 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

Santa's Li.t.t.le Helpers (remove the .'s) Game 5

Well, I have some good news, some bad news, and some amusing news. I also have some side news, now that I think about it. I'll present them in that order.

Good news: We won! Final score: 5-4. I got me two whole goals, one where I took it in myself with some excellent pass support from my patience mentor / zen guru teammate, and one where I got the most beautifulest pass from my favoritest center in the whole wide world. Top shelf... both shots! I think I finally figured out how to shoot.

Bad news: I spent a lot of time horizontal on the ice. I managed to bruise my right pelvis, and I think I pulled every muscle on my right side from the bruise through my neck in that same fall. It was for a good cause, though, and in the end I earned "second goalie" status for the game. A couple Advil and a bit of Flexall and I'm all set to heal up for Friday.

Amusing news: I think our goalie was sipping beer through his water bottle all evening. He was lumbering around insisting on hugging each and every one of his "girls" before and after the game, and they weren't just hugs, they were hugs. That's not even the amusing part. The amusing part came in the locker room when I was checking out the bruise on my pelvis. I heard him say, "Aww, you hurt yourself. Here, let me kiss it all better." The next thing I knew there he was, planting a kiss on my bruised pelvis. One of my teammates then mentioned that she had blocked a puck high up on her inner thigh, which led to a very hopeful request from said drunk goalie to examine the area.

Side news: I got my first roughing penalty tonight. Roughing, ha! I got called because the person I collided with happened to be half my size. Usually they're twice my size, and I don't go flying. Learn to brace yourself, little one! Sheesh!

Anyway, we won. I had two pretty goals, a few great saves, and a kiss on my pelvis from our drunk goalie. I gotta say, I can't ask for much more than that in a night of hockey. Whoo.

12:10 AM | Injuries:Santa's Little Helpers| Comments (0)

October 28, 2002 / Monday

Got my first chiropractic adjustment

Got my first chiropractic adjustment this morning. I didn't know my spine could crack that much! Kinda violent, actually. Anyway, after hearing (and feeling) the loudest crackliest cracks I've ever heard (or felt) in my neck, I recovered from the initial shock and all of a sudden realized my neck was... smooth. Smooth like well-oiled joint smooth. Smooth like I've-got-so-much-flow smooth. Smooth like Michael Jackson moonwalk smooth. Makes me wanna put some music on and groove to it... all smooth and stuff. Heh.

11:02 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

October 24, 2002 / Thursday

Ow, my head. There's this

Ow, my head. There's this dull pain that's always there. It's annoying. Feels kinda pressurized in there or something too. I'm afraid if I think too hard my head might blow up. Kapow.

Ow, my back. If I sit a certain way for more than a minute I start to feel it in my lower back muscles. I thought I was supposed to have a strong back? I guess it's no match for a speeding car. Damn.

I think I lost some range of motion in my neck, too. I can tell when I try to turn my head to back up the car. The car, not my car. Huh.

12:53 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

October 22, 2002 / Tuesday

My Brain Is Bruised?!

I'm tired. I'm so tired I don't even want to blog. What's wrong with me?

Actually, I know what's wrong with me. My brain is bruised. So said the doctor today. Then he came back with a bunch of Celebrex samples. Arthritis medicine? They're anti-inflammatory, he said. I'm supposed to take arthritis medicine for my bruised brain. Strange. Is he saying my brain is old and senior citizen creaky?

So earlier today I made it to the shop where my now officially totalled car is being held. Brought my camera, too. Too bad I'm too tired to post the pictures. I can't think to edit image size. Damn. I can't think to javascript little pop-up windows for you, either. What's wrong with my brain? Oh yeah, it's bruised.

Blah.

11:59 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

October 21, 2002 / Monday

It's strange how you hurt

It's strange how you hurt more and more in the days after an accident. First my neck, then my back, now the top of my head. The top of my head? It's like a column of pain going up my spine and out through my head. Sucks 'cause I never get headaches.

I can't crack my neck anymore, either. My neck won't bend! Booooo...

01:22 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

October 20, 2002 / Sunday

Boo I Have No Car

I'm carless. It's strange. I keep wanting to go out, run errands, et cetera, et cetera, but then I realize I don't have a car to do it with. I want to buy a car charger for my new phone but I have no car to plug it into. Hrmm...  

Why am I carless? Because my car is currently sitting in a tow lot somewhere. Oh, and it's crunched. The back of it is, at least.

Ever drive by an accident on the freeway and think to yourself, "Gosh, I'm glad that's not my car"? Well, yesterday that was my car. The one with the trunk that was.

The good news is people seem to be okay for the most part, at least relative to my car. Nobody got crunched, hooray for that. My neck and spine hurt but hopefully it's nothing too serious. If I manage to find a way to Berkeley tomorrow I'll see what my doctor has to say.

The other piece of good news is that my hockey sticks survived the accident too. I had forgotten about them because I was too busy looking at my car and making sure people were okay. Then someone mentioned my sticks and I gasped and went over to check on them. I think that weirded out the other driver a bit. Heh.

So anyway, the CHP officer came, got me a tow truck, took down our info, and we were off. The tow truck people were cool. Very nice and upbeat in an offbeat kinda way. As I was emptying out my car in their yard the owner came over...

- Ooh! Cheez-Its! Hot and Spicy! Can I have some?
- Sure, go for it.
Grabs box, eats a bunch, offers some to Ted.
- Mmm! These are good!
Eats some more.
- Oh! These are hot! Do you have anything else?
- I've got Wheatables. Want some of those?
- Sure!
Grabs Wheatables, eats a bunch, offers some to Ted, walks off.

The next time I saw the box one of his employees was walking around eating from it. And then it disappeared completely.

Hrmm, I think I left a few things out. Let's see...

The Buddha: Just before we left, Wayney Thai asked me what the Buddha on my dashboard was for. The Buddha's not attached, you see, so if he stays in his spot it means things are good on the road. Well, he didn't stay in his spot. He was sitting in my seat after the big crunch. At least now I know my Buddha system works.

The sunglasses 1: We got hit so hard it popped a lens out of my sunglasses. I didn't even realize it for the first minute or two. Then I looked on the floor and lo and behold a sunglass lens! Yes, I was walking around with one lens for a bit. I think I was too shocked to realize it.

The sunglasses 2: Christina got her entire pair of sunglasses knocked off her head. They went flying into the front of the car.

The cell phone: Strangely my cell phone flew from the front seat to the back.

The game: We missed the Cal-UCLA football game because of the accident. Sorry, you guys. Thanks for sticking around and being cool about everything. Super duper extra double thanks (with cheese and no tomatoes) to Ted.

The other game: Giants in the World Series on TV instead. Not a bad consolation game. Plus, they won! WhoO!

Well, I guess I'll be car shopping soon. Darnit I had just finished paying off my car, too. So much for fun money. So much for savings money. Siiigh.

02:29 PM | GTI:Injuries| Comments (0)

October 07, 2002 / Monday

Da.b.b.ers (remove the .'s) Game 2

Well, my left wrist is in an ice pack and we lost 4 to 15, but I can't say I'm all that upset. Everyone on today's team was bigger than us. Well, maybe with the exception of the steer wrestler.

Oh, oh, losing wrist. Gotta lay off on that ice pack for a bit...

So anyway, they were stronger and taller. Speed counts for a lot in hockey. We played a good game, though. Or at least a good first half. The score was only 2-3 at the half. But then we got tired and our goalie got tired. Siiigh.

I got 3 points, though. 1 goal and 2 assists. Got some props from the teammates for it too. Yay. It's so nice to be recognized for doing something good.

I'll save my recognition ramble (a ramble not a rant!) for another post.

Anyhow, I realized something about my teammates' playing styles today. There's all of three of us who try to take the puck to the goal. Okay, maybe four. Everyone else hangs back and is too tentative about handling the puck. Handle you guys, handle! I'm gonna have to work on them over the next week. Start my e-mail campaign.

Tomorrow I start my e-mail campaign. Tonight I shower and work.

11:44 PM | Dabbers:Injuries| Comments (0)

The Monday Morning Report

Top o' the Monday mornin' to ya. I hope this new workweek finds you well. I'd like to take this opportunity to let everyone know that the base of my neck / middle-top of my back hurts like a mofo. From what? I don't know. All I know is I was lying there going, ow, ow, dammit I have hockey tonight and I'm missing half my rotational field of vision. Kinda hurts to support my head, actually. That's just gonna feel great when I put my helmet on.

In other news, my disa-rea-disa-reappearing DVD and CD-RW drives reappeared this morning. I guess my computer finally got sick of being nuked. I suspect it was the USB CompactFlash reader software. I'm so sick of disappearing drives. I lost my ThinkPad floppy a couple years ago. Then I fixed that and lost my RW capability. I hate computers.

Our company IT Nazi is being particularly loud and annoying today. I think maybe I'll walk over and smoosh him.

11:22 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

October 01, 2002 / Tuesday

Da.b.b.ers (remove the .'s) Game 1

My first ever co-ed hockey game. 3-on-3 at Hockey Workout. Smaller rink, no offsides, no icing, no power plays.

My team, Da.b.b.ers. We're named after the owner's dog's nickname. The dog's way cool. She chases pucks around and even chases them onto the ice once in a while. No, not during a game, of course!

We're the only all women team in the league. This means that if we win we get to taunt the other teams with the fact that they were beaten by a bunch of girls.

I'd say we're more grrrl than girl, though. And we're too nice to taunt.

If we weren't so nice we'da taunted tonight, cause WHOO! WE WON!

Final score, 21-13. It's amazing how many more shots get off in 3-on-3.

Yours truly contributed 6 goals and I think 3 assists. Wooha!

Yours truly hurts like hell. Basketball and hockey after a day of Red hockey is too much on my body. Damned frail genes. Thanks a lot, mom.

So let's see, what hurts on me? My already tweaked left knee, both hip flexors, both gluts, both quads, my left obliques, my shoulders, my shoulder blades, my right index finger, the muscley thing on my palm that controls my right thumb, my neck...

Hopefully The Last Short Asian Basketball Report Ever

My upper lip hurts, too. I got elbowed in the mouth at basketball. After a whole season of playing foul-free and picking fallen opponents up off the floor, I stopped being nice and started pushing and hacking. I was pissed! Players went down left and right and I just walked away. I even started picking up fouls. I even started arguing with the ref. What a strange way to finish the season.

But hooray, it's finished.

I feel bad, though. I've never flaked so badly on a commitment before. I missed half the games this season. That's not fair to my teammates. I should be much more responsible than that, dammit.

Ah, but what can I do now? Live and learn, I guess. Live and learn and use what I learn to do a better job of living.

12:47 AM | Dabbers:Injuries| Comments (0)

September 29, 2002 / Sunday

F.i.r.e.h.e.a.d.s. (remove the .'s) Game 1

Red is definitely more fun. Red is definitely faster. Red definitely hits harder.

S'okay. I hit back.

Do I go in chronological order or do I start with the highlights? Can you handle highlights without getting confused by the order? Does order matter? Nah. Let's go in order of what matters.

What matters is we won. 3-2. Hooah!

What matters is I scored on my first ever Red shift. Playing left wing. On a breakaway. On a backhand. With a ridiculous angle to the goal.

I no longer feel like I need to prove that I deserve to play in this division.

I do, however, feel like I need a chiropractor. I literally heard my neck crack in the third period. I also kinda hurt my tailbone the period before that, despite the tailbone protector in my hockey pants.

Oh but the tailbone was a fair trade. One of the other players got her head stuck under my left elbow. I went down on my tailbone, but she went down on her face... with my arm pushing straight down on her head. Kinda like a reverse one-armed ice hockey version of Jake the Snake's DDT. Cool man. Cool 'cause she got up and was okay. Wouldn't have been so cool otherwise. Wrestling's supposed to be fake, after all.

Let's see, I ran someone over from behind, then someone ran me over from behind. I guess it looked bad because she got a penalty for it. I guess mine didn't 'cause I got away scot free. Maybe the refs feel bad for me 'cause I'm little compared to everyone else.

I got some new gear for the new season. Actually, two new seasons start this week, but I'll talk more about that later. I'm loving my knee brace and my waxed skate laces and my girdle/pelvic protector. Yeah, I know you all wanted to know that I bought a pelvic protector. I'm sure the protectoe for my skates does wonders too. My skate toes are now all tough and waterproof and shiny and stuff. I've also got a mouthguard now, which I need to remold.

I should do that before tomorrow's game. That's my other league. 3-on-3 coed hockey every Monday. No more short Asian team basketball!

09:42 PM | Fireheads:Injuries| Comments (0)

September 24, 2002 / Tuesday

Ow my knee. It hurts

Ow my knee. It hurts less than my shoulders but it worries me more.

08:18 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

September 23, 2002 / Monday

Two Tylenol 3s and my

Two Tylenol 3s and my shoulders still don't feel any different. Isn't codeine supposed to knock me out and make me feel all good and stuff? Ibuprofen doesn't work, codeine doesn't work. Maybe it's time to try Vicodin.

10:29 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

What's going on? Nothing explains

What's going on? Nothing explains this kind of soreness. My shoulders hurt so much I'm walking around wincing. It's making me all hypochondriatic and stuff. No, I don't care if hypochondriatic isn't a real word. Deltoid dystrophy, that's what I think I have. I also don't care if there's no such thing as deltoid dystrophy. I have it, therefore it exists. Poopie!

08:31 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

I think my brain is

I think my brain is trying to go into sleep mode so I don't feel the pain in my shoulders. Interesting how it reacts that way. Dah! Shutdown! Shutdown!

02:01 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

Injuries And Cake

God, I hurt. Both of my shoulders hurt more than yesterday. When's that Advil going to kick in? They're more sore than any sore I've ever felt in my life. They're sore even when my arms are just hanging by my side. What if my shoulders are degenerating and I really am going to be gimpy armed for the rest of my life? God, that would suck.

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow. Ow!

Also, my left wrist is farked. It was farked yesterday, too, but today it's more farked than that, even. I can't face my palm toward my face. Sucks, man.

Also, my left knee is tweaked. I tweaked it in hockey yesterday. I could tell it was tweaked when I tweaked it, but it feels like it tweaked itself more over the course of the night. That sucks too.

No physical activity for me for at least half a week. That includes apartment stuff, so my dresser isn't gonna get built for another few days. No basketball tonight. The homies are really gonna hate me. I think tonight's the last game of the season. I've played maybe half of them. I'm such a flake. If I were them I'd be jumping for joy over the fact that I'm not playing next season.

Speaking of which, I need to write my flake-mail to the team about tonight's game...

FUCK my shoulders hurt! I just want to roll around on the floor and cry.

Waaaaah.  

In happier news, I made it into the office early today to a pot of fresh coffee, a huge bagel selection, and ooey gooey raspberry chocolate cake. That never happened when I was on my late schedule. It's amazing how much good stuff disappears into the bellies of the morning people around here.

In confusing news, I found out that the ooey gooey raspberry chocolate cake was not baked by our motherly ofice manager. No no, she said, it was baked by someone's girlfriend. And then she walked away and the name of that someone registered in my head and I almost fell out of my chair because I always thought he was gay. Maybe he's bi? Maybe it's a "girlfriend"? Maybe he's just overly Eurpoean?

In progressive news, I bought a replacement for the desk that broke during the big move on Saturday. I put it together last night and started setting up my computer area. It's gonna take up a whole wall. Yes, I'm proud of that, 'cause I'm a big geek.

Precious productive morning minutes are slipping away. Time to get to work!

10:13 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

September 22, 2002 / Sunday

Moving Notes

Hello from my only way to get online (short of a phone line but I'm a bandwidth snob these days). It's quiet here at the office. My eyes are fuzzy. Strange.

Anyway, I hurt. I think I strained my rear left deltoid moving yesterday. I woke up this morning (at 7, of course) and tried rolling over and in midroll got stuck because I hurt so much I didn't know what to do. I eventually managed to get myself to the tube of FlexAll in the bathroom. I slathered some on and went back to sleep. Yes, I went back to sleep. I don't care if my brain says I only need 5 hours of sleep! It's Sunday and I'm moved and my body needs the rest!

I learned a few things yesterday. They are as follows:

1. Beware of UHaul trucks. They're hazardous, barely functional pieces of doodie and in most cases the people driving them don't know how to, myself included.
2. I don't want to be a truck driver. Those things are no fun! I'd get all pissy and wind up running people over, and that wouldn't be very fun for them, either.
3. I don't want to be a mover. Moving is no fun! I have more bruises and scrapes on my arms and legs than I can count. Plus, I wake up the next morning unable to move my left arm. I have to play hockey today, dammit. My new teammates are gonna think I suck. They're gonna call me gimpy-arm, and that's gonna stick for the rest of the season. I just know it.

Traffic sucked yesterday and I made Ted way late to his brother's birthday dinner. Sorrrrry Ted. I also missed Christina's birthday dinner. Sorrrrry Christina.

We did manage to make it into the city afterwards, but the birthday dinner crew had already started to disperse. Buncha old geezers!

I confirmed my suspicion that I don't like bar hopping. In fact, I can't stand bar hopping. I don't drink, it's too loud for me to hear, it's too loud for me to be heard, and it's too loud for my brain. Bars stress me out majorly. Just thinking about the two from last night stresses me out. No more bars for me for the next year. Boo.

It's nice having my own place. I can't wait to get it all set up.  

Ooh ooh, let me say that one again...

It's nice having my own place. I can't wait to get it all set up.  

12:06 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

August 30, 2002 / Friday

Ice Wrestling

I hurt my knee wrestling my steer wrestler teammate in hockey. Ow.

11:41 PM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

July 30, 2002 / Tuesday

Lesson of the Day

Do not try to stop people twice your size who are running toward you at full speed because if your foot is planted when they come barging into your side your ankle will buckle.

It kinda sucks when that happens 'cause it like, hurts and stuff.

01:38 AM | Injuries:Lesson| Comments (0)

June 28, 2002 / Friday

I'm a Geezer

My body's falling apart! I'm not even a quarter of a century old and everything's already breaking. I went to tennis class yesterday, sporting two ankle braces and a left elbow brace. I felt great and played beautifully, save for the funny strained feeling in my right knee. Dunno where that one came from. After class I went back to my car and realized my right forearm was hurting. I think I strained it during the match. Then I got back to the office and whaddaya know, there's a bruise on the back of my right leg. A bruise from what? From nothing! Something in my leg just popped while I was playing! So then I went home and went to bed and when I woke up this morning my left elbow was stiff. And then I got in my car to drive to work and my left hip flexor started cramping. What's going on here?! This isn't supposed to start happening until I hit 40!

I've always said golf is an old person sport. Perhaps it's time to switch.

I'm doing better now. I put a heat pack on the elbow, some Flexall on the forearm, and popped a few of Advils for everything else.

11:24 AM | Injuries| Comments (0)

May 15, 2002 / Wednesday

Programmer Woes

My shoulder hurts. I haven't done anything but sit here and code the last two days. I think I injured my shoulder programming.

My back hurts too. I'm sitting in my chair wrong. I think I'm noticing it today because I'm so focused I'm not getting up every 20 minutes to go do something. I guess A.D.D. was a good thing for me to have.

My eyes are fuzzy. Damned laptop screen.

07:53 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

April 01, 2002 / Monday

Lesson of the Day

Do not challenge a baseball with your head. The baseball will win.

How do I know? The bruise on my face said so.

02:53 PM | Injuries:Lesson| Comments (0)

February 04, 2002 / Monday

I'm Now ½ Lower Primate

I just injured my left thumb throwing a football around in the parking lot so now that one is somewhat non-opposable too. So let's see, that's two half-opposable thumbs, which is kind of like one non-opposable thumb, which makes me ½ lower primate.

05:20 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

January 16, 2002 / Wednesday

Good News

I can still play Pump It Up. I played a round at D&B's earlier tonight and got 3 A's and an S. Kickass!

Bad News

It hurts my back to land when I jump! I think I'm somehow compensating for my busted spine with my other muscles.

Yes I Know, I Know

I'm going to the doctor on Wednesday and I'll get it checked out. I promise.

11:11 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

January 11, 2002 / Friday

Achille's Butt

Well, I almost killed myself in the shower this morning. I slipped and fell and landed my injured butt (okay, more like my tailbone / lower spine) along the top of the bathtub wall. It HURT! The fall itself wasn't all that bad. I got right back up and my first thought was, "Oh crap, no snowboarding Sunday." Okay, time to wash my hair.

But then I started getting dizzy. Just a bit at first but in about half a minute I was all wobbly on my feet. I crouched down so I wouldn't hit my head and then realized I felt nauseous. A little voice in my head said, "Geez Viv, how lame would it be if you drowned in the shower?" Shut up, little voice in my head! I don't want to die in the shower! The room seemed to slow down so I stood back up. Then all of a sudden everything started disappearing. It looked like I was seeing the world through Photoshop and someone was applying a universal black spray paint filter to my view. Was I about to pass out? I got out of the shower. If I passed out in there I'd probably drown and that would be laaaaame.

I sat for a bit and got back to normal. I did the most half-assed job ever of washing my hair and went about my not-so-merry-but-happy-not-to-have-drowned way.

My tailbone region has sort of become my Achille's Heel. Hit me there and I fall over. Thoonk! I've got me an Achille's Butt.

- - -

So I've figured out that it's the sacral region of my spine I fell on. After reading about what the underlying nerves there do I'm really glad I didn't fall harder. I can't imagine what life would be like without bowel, bladder, and booty movements. Blah!

Phew!

04:21 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

January 07, 2002 / Monday

Yet Another Tahoe Report

it's really around 1:30 AM but i'm not anywhere near an internet connection

Back from Tahoe again! I've got a majorly sore ass but I'm intact so I'm happy. And now, for the recap...

Go Little Civic Go!

Saturday morning we loaded 4 people, 4 skis, 2 snowboards, and gear into and onto and into my little white Civic. We made it to Sierra from Berkeley in a little over 2 hours. All that weight and I managed to average over 90 MPH going uphill the whole way. My poor car. It usually gets 300 miles per tank but after our 170 mile trip the gas light lit up. Well, at least we were there. Let's go boarding!

Progress on the Mountain

Just a couple notes on my day out on the mountain. One: I'm boarding better. I made it down a couple blue runs without stopping or falling. WhoO! Two: I'm falling better. Better as in more spectacular. I took a couple propelleresque tumbles most of you could only dream of doing. And I got my money's worth out of my helmet.

Brrr... rrr... rrr!

Back at the car. We got all packed up and ready to go and then noticed that the long line of cars waiting to leave wasn't moving... at all.

It was cold and snowy so I turned the engine on so we could get some heat. But then the gas light came on and we didn't want to get stranded so I turned it off. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

The cars hadn't budged.

Brrr! It was starting to get cold. Everyone else in the car went into hibernation mode and fell asleep. I stayed awake and watched for tail light movement. Nothing. It started to snow hard.

More ticking and tocking and ticking and tocking.

Jason and the Snow Brush

50 minutes later we started moving. Jason came outside to help me clear snow off the car. He grabbed the ice scraper / snow brush and said, "I've always wondered what this thing was for." I got back inside the car to wipe down the windows while Jason proceeded to make his way around the car with the brush... 3 times. He looked like he was having a blast with that thing! I have to say, that was the most thorough snow clearing job I've ever seen, and I've been doing it since I was 5!

Bumper Cars

Here we go! Traffic was moving, albeit at an agonizingly slow rate. As we approached a curve at 5 MPH the Dodge Durango in front of me tried to stop and started to skid out. For a moment I was amused, and then I realized that my car was doing the same thing. "Oh no oh no oh no... !" Happy smiley sleeping Wayne woke up just in time for... Thoonk! I had thoonked the rear bumper of the Durango. The Durango driver didn't seem to care, but I stopped and got out to make sure everything was okay. She saw me getting out of my car so she pulled over, hopped out, and said, "Nice slide!" Then we went our merry ways. It was like bumper cars out there!

Chicken?!

Got onto the main road, got fueled up, and headed for the lodge. Along the way, happy smiley Wayne blurted out, "Chicken!". What? Chicken? Lo and behold, we were passing by a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yes, chicken! Nowadays all they have left are KFC's, and you sure can't get chicken at those places. It's all mystery C meat. I wish I had had my camera so I could show you guys.

Cha-Ching!

After dinner we headed to Caesar's. I finally decided to gamble some, and by gamble I mean tables not slots. 20 minutes later I was up $55. I had started with $50 so I figured doubling was a good place to stop. Didn't want to get greedy and lose it all back. Gave the dealer 5 bucks and cashed out. I made up for the $50 bucks I spent on New Year's Eve trying to win a car so I could drive home. Not to shabby, eh?

On a similar note, I've decided to start a running total of my gambling winnings and losses. Once I get it going you should be able to find it along the margin on the right. Right now I'm down $3. I was messing around with a few slot machines after blackjack. Those things never pay off for me. But they're like video games so whatever. I lost the equivalent of 2 games of Pump. No biggie.

ZzzZzzZzz...

Bedtime. Wayne stop molesting me!

ZzzZzzZzz...

Just kidding.

There's No One Here!

Sunday afternoon. Nice weather and an empty mountain. Kickass!

How Not To Do A Jump

We went to the terrain park for a couple runs. I had been hopping bumps here and there so I was feeling like I wanted to tackle something a tad bigger. I was also hoping to improve upon my jumps last weekend at Boreal. So off we went!

Hop hop hop! Landed 'em!

Medium-sized jump. Landed!

Big ole jump coming up. I got some good speed up because I wanted lots of air. I don't know what possessed me to do it but I did it anyway. WhoO! Lots of air! But I didn't take off properly. My weight wasn't forward. As I started to come down I knew I was going to hit hard.

I just didn't know how hard.

Thud! I landed from somewhere way up in the air onto my ass and back. Rather, on the area where my ass meets my back, whatever you call it. Then I slid down the transition to the bottom. My board never hit the ground. Neither did my head. Didn't matter though. I hurt. I really really really hurt. Even my head was hurting I got jarred so hard. I hope never to fall like that again.

The lesson here? Well, I guess there are several. For one thing, always remember to keep your weight forward when jumping. For another, don't try to do dangerous things you're not good enough to do yet. Oh, and if you're learning to fly planes, don't try to fly way up high all by yourself unless you know how to land the thing.

House Special

We stopped at a Chinese restaurant in Davis on the way back. We ordered the House Special Mushu and got a big ole plate of eggy meat with 4 thin little wrappers. 4 wrappers later we still had a big ole plate of eggy meat left. So instead of House Special Mushu we were left with a plate of House Special. It was like having 2 dishes with one order. Ah Ted's aunt would say, "Ahhhhh... good vahyoo!"

Your Fortune... In Bed

When the bill came we all got fortune cookies. We read them to each other... the proper way, by adding "in bed" to the end of each fortune. Here's what we got:

Our first and last love is... self-love (in bed).

Yeah, duh. We got three of those.

A modest man never talks to himself (in bed).

This one took a bit of thought, but it also made sense. After all, if you're modest you wouldn't be sitting there saying to yourself, "Oh baby, you're so hot, you big hunk of blah blah blah blah blah..."

And finally, happy smiley Wayne got:

Versatility is one of your outstanding traits (in bed).

Happy smiley Wayne, no wonder you're so happy and smiley!

My Ass Hurts

My ass is killing me. I can't bend over to pick things up from the floor. It hurts to laugh and cough. I'm not looking forward to sneezing, which I'm sure will happen before my ass heals. It hurts to get up from chairs too. Owwie.

Whoo For Prescription Painkillers!

I got some 800 mg Ibuprofen and some Tylenol with codeine when I sprained my ankle last year. I took only a couple of them then so I've got a whole stash left. I took one of the Ibuprofens a few hours earlier. That stuff is great! I hope I heal before I run out.

That's All Folks!

And with that my Tahoe trip comes to an end. Pretty eventful for 2 days, don't you think? I'm at a cafe in North Beach now. The waiters are all Italian and they sing and dance while they serve you. But alas, it's late. Time for me to save and go home and post so you can all read this. I hope you had a good weekend and I hope your ass made it through without any major damage. Signing off from the Steps of Rome...

- Viv with the sore ass

11:37 AM | Injuries:Snow| Comments (0)

December 12, 2001 / Wednesday

TNGC

I managed to bruise my face on asphalt at hockey tonight.

At first I thought I'd scraped it so I'm actually pretty happy with just a bruise.

Whoo for my bruise, even if it is on my face.

- - -

Just got out of the shower. I discovered that I also managed to bruise both my arms and lose skin off my left shoulder.

Hockey is fun.

01:13 AM | Hockey:Injuries| Comments (0)

November 16, 2001 / Friday

I have frostbite on the

I have frostbite on the bottom of my foot. Owwie.

03:36 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

November 15, 2001 / Thursday

My arms are a mess.

My arms are a mess. Remember my bruise from the toilet seat cover last Friday? Well today I went to the gym and added 2 mini bruises on each forearm and 2 scratches (1 bleeding, 1 not) on my left upper arm. Then Nadsy came by and drew a line on my right upper arm. Then Teddio picked up a pen and drew a garring cheesy smiling basketball head (me) proclaiming "I love Bono!" just above the Nadsy line.

Anyone else want to come and add something?

04:49 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

October 03, 2001 / Wednesday

Injury Update

The gushing wound on my middle finger is all healed up. It was actually a much smaller cut than you probably think it is. I was just playing it up for pity.

I pulled a couple neck muscles yesterday. I'm not quite sure how I did it.

Hrmm...

02:55 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)

June 23, 2001 / Saturday

I've got a bum bum.

I've got a bum bum. No, that's not bum-bum, you baby talkers. A bum (adj.) bum (n.). It's highly annoying. Not only does this mean no biking, it also means no climbing, no steep hills, and no tennis. Plus it makes me feel old. Why do I keep pulling muscles? This bum bum thing bums me out.

12:19 PM | Injuries| Comments (0)