Ladybug Studio

Another medical mystery…

Why do so many weird things happen to me? Can't I ever have just a garden variety common cold, broken bone or something? (not that I want a broken bone, that was just a bad example) So yesterday I went to my dentist for a filling on one of my upper teeth, toward the back on my right side. Just a silver filling, nothing fancy, not even a cavity, just a wee spot that could eventually become trouble.

My appointment was at the end of the day, and when I got home I noticed that my face had become really swollen on the right side and was hot to the touch. How strange? I immediately called Ann to see what she suggested. She told me to call my dentist right away. So I did, and he wasn't overly concerned, suggesting two possible causes: 1) the quantity of anesthesia used (not very likely) or 2) that the needle had hit a vein or an artery (more likely). I do remember that while he was injecting me there was a moment of pain, despite the numbing agent that was swabbed onto my gums.

I iced the area on and off while watching TV, then took a couple of ibuprofen. Because of the new filling, I didn't want to eat anything too hard or crunchy, so Tom and I drove thru Taco Bell and I got an order of Pintos & Cheese. Nice and soft, right? The choice might not have been the best because half of my lips were still numb and I couldn't close my lips over the spoon, which was rather messy. So I put the spoon into my mouth, turned it upside down and scraped the beans onto my tongue. I treated myself to a bowl of Self Pity ice cream, which strangely was not as troublesome to eat. Go figure.

My face was still swollen this morning. And quite painful to touch. I had a heck of a time washing my face and moisturizing and didn't even consider trying to put on makeup. I couldn't open my mouth very wide either so breakfast was difficult and time consuming. It has gotten better throughout the day. The swelling has gone down some, though still very painful.

This too shall pass…

Yes, a rainout…

Tennis was canceled yesterday, so I was on my own regarding some sort of fitness and calorie burning activity. I went to the Fitness Center (FC), figuring I could use a cardio machine and be able to get home sooner than if I went to the afternoon CrossFit class.

Let me mention that I have never like the FC. I don't know what it is, but I feel so uncomfortable there. So it was no surprise when things did not go well yesterday. When I walked in I saw a sign on the classroom door announcing that there would be a Hardcore class at 4:30. Hardcore is basically an abs class. That sounded like a good idea, so I went into the room with about 10 minutes to burn. There were a good number of people already in the room, doing their own exercising. I was sort of at a loss, but then decided to do as much of the CrossFit warmup as I could. I did the Samson Stretch, walking lunges and overhead squats, but couldn't do much else without specific equipment. Finally the instructor arrived and we proceeded to torture ourselves under her instruction.

After class, I hung out in the classroom and practiced my jump roping. I could still do it, but only managed to string about 20 jumps together at a time before getting tangled up in the rope. From there I went to the cardio machine area and scoped out my options. All of the ellipticals were taken and the exercise bikes suck, so I chose a treadmill and got started. After a five minute brisk walk, I increased the speed to a slow run. I somehow kept that up for five minutes, then went back to a walk. But then my shins started screaming and the rest of the workout was somewhat painful. Because I couldn't do any more running, I burned less than my goal of 300 calories.

Once home, I schlepped all of my exercise and work stuff into the house, took a shower and decided that I deserved to relax for a few minutes before making a grocery store trip. So I snuggled up with a fleece blanket on the couch in the spare room and watched the latest Food Network Star episode. Unlike previous years, the shows have been running an hour and a half. So I was surprised to see that I had a one hour recording. Hm. Sure enough, with plenty of show left still, the recording suddenly ended. In the middle of a challenge! Sassafras! Fortunately, they show lots of repeats and I was able to find the same episode to record again. To be safe, I added an additional 30 minutes to the recording.

No use procrastinating at that point, so I went on to Publix. It was a long trip. I only came home with three (very full) bags of groceries, but I spent a lot of time reading labels and trying to make healthy choices. In addition to my usual Eat Smart bag of broccoli, I also chose two sweet potatoes and a pint of strawberries. I found a cereal with a little less sugar and a little more fiber. I stocked up on frozen meals, canned veggies and individual fruit cups.

More ethnic food fun!

By the time I got home I felt like I'd been run over by a truck. That stupid workout made me feel more beat up and caused more agony than a CrossFit workout would have. I spent the rest of the evening whimpering and feeling sorry for myself.

Will it be a rainout?…

Today is Tuesday and it should be our last day of tennis league before we take our annual summer break. I'm excited about making it to court 7 and the new tennis shoes I ordered arrived yesterday. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to tennis this afternoon. Or at least, I would be, if our rainy season hadn't arrived this week. I hate to complain (though I do it often anyway), but couldn't it have waited for just a couple of days? It's still possible that we'll have clear enough skies, but I'm not counting on it.

To that effect, I have brought with me a variety of clothes and shoes and water bottles. I will do some sort of workout this afternoon, be it tennis, CrossFit or my own thing at the Fitness Center.

* * *

I attended a CF workout yesterday. The WOD called for running again and I expected to get a bit wet, as I don't see anyone letting a little rain get in the way of a workout. But the rain took a break from about the time I got there until just after I left. That certainly was generous, wasn't it? Part of the workout involved a lift called a snatch. I found it to be a bit tricky. It's basically one big move made up of a number of components. I had a hard time remembering to do everything. I had a pretty light weight - just 25 pounds, but after doing 30 reps, the bar began to feel a lot heavier.

I still suck at the running parts. I don't consider 800 meters to be particularly short, but it still seemed doable. Until I was doing it. I had to walk several times as my heart rate kept getting ridiculous (175). I sure do wish I could be better at running, but my body is totally against me.

* * *

Continuing to go back in time, the weekend was pretty good. Saturday I played tennis for four hours. Yes, even in the heat. Though I think it has reached the point where I will need to bring along a small cooler with a sport drink or two. Water alone isn't good enough now that summer's here.

When I got home from tennis, I did a little work in the yard. Just trimming the shaggy bits from the bushes and taming the confederate jasmine. It didn't take very long, less than an hour, but I certainly was ready for my shower and lunch by the time I was done. It started raining while I was finishing up my meal, so I laid back to enjoy the sound and ended up taking a three hour nap. That is clearly excessive. Though I guess I needed the rest. Tom came in at one point to check on me and I could barely respond, I was so out of it.

When I finally managed to crawl off the couch I was disappointed about how much time I had wasted napping. There were so many things I could have accomplished during that time. Oh well, there's always next weekend.

On Sunday, I had a guest. My good friend Melissa, who was my roommate at Flagler, came down to visit. She lives near Daytona and is only a 40 minute drive away, yet we hadn't seen each other in quite a few years. We had a great time together. There was none of that uncomfortable, getting reacquainted thing that sometimes happens. It was as if we had spent time together just last week.

We vowed to see each other more often - and include the husbands, too. I hope we follow through on that.

Run for pizza…

I had my second open session CrossFit workout yesterday. It was crowded and chaotic, yet fun and exciting too. It was a Rest Day, so I wasn't sure what sort of workout we'd be doing.

See, here's how CrossFit works  - and this is my interpretation from what I know and what I have experienced, so take it with a grain of salt (and a margarita, if that's how you roll) - Each day there is a Workout of the Day (WOD) posted on the main page (www.crossfit.com). That is the workout that everyone is doing, essentially. Most (all?) CF gyms will be doing that same WOD. CF is two day on, one day off, two day on, etc. Therefore, every third day is a Rest Day.

My gym, 26.2 CrossFit, is open seven days a week. So what do they do on an official Rest Day? It turns into a makeup day. You can do any of the WODs you might have missed. Which is great, because I really only want to go to the gym about three days during the week. My weekends are already filled with tennis, bicycling, spending time with Tom, freelancing, napping, catching up with my Tivo recordings, etc.

I decided to do the WOD for Wednesday, which consisted of deadlifts. Five rounds of three repetitions. Typically, weight is added to each round. The instructor working with me made an estimate based on a deadlift weight written down on my chart ages ago when I first started my personal training sessions. Turns out it was on the low side and I could have lifted more weight. But that's fine - we'll know for next time. Anyway, my weights were: 75, 85, 95, 115, 135.

Currently, the class size at 26.2 is four people per instructor. There are no mirrors, as they prefer to have a trainer watching your form. So I was surprised when seven people showed up yesterday for the 5:30 class. I had faithfully reserved my spot online, but I think that's something new so not everyone is used to doing it. But it worked out just fine. Four of us did the deadlift WOD, two did a different day and one guy did a running something or other. Watching the other three sweat and suffer, I was so glad I chose the one I did.

That being said, I looked at today's WOD and it doesn't look like fun at all: For time - 800 meter run, clean and jerk, 30 reps, 800 meter run. OMG. That really sounds awful. Especially in this heat. Ugh.

But if I want to have pizza tonight…

Lucky seven…

OMG you guys! Tennis was brutal yesterday. It was so hot I could barely breathe. I was wringing wet with sweat by the time I got home. I just hate taking off my workout clothes when I've sweated so much. By that point, they're cold and clammy and just yuck!

Anyway, back to tennis. I had my Bubba Keg filled with lots of ice and water. Teresa showed up with her chair and canopy combo. Good idea! But she also brought an umbrella. We opened it up and inserted the handle through the fence, from the outside, which provided some shade over the bench.

Somehow, despite the miserable conditions, I played well. Pretty darned well, in fact. During the final set I was convinced I was in danger of going back down a court. My partner and I managed to pull off a tie-breaker win and to my immense surprise, I learned that I am actually going up a court! I've never made it to court 7 before. I'm scared!

Jumpin' fool…

I learned to jump rope yesterday! At 42, I guess it's about time, right? I'm simply not a coordinated person and have never been able to jump rope. Plus, and this is one of my huge faults, when I try something and it doesn't start clicking soon, I assume I'm never going to get it and just quit trying.

Learning to jump rope is similar to my hula-hoop moment a couple of years ago. I was with a trainer at the O&C Fitness Center and she gave me a hula-hoop to try. Naturally, this did not go well and I was ready to throw in the towel right away. But she wouldn't let me off of the hook and kept making me try it and then suddenly, I had it going!

The jump rope moment wasn't quite as smooth and clear, but similar. The biggest problem was that in addition to just trying to do basic, single unders, the actual CrossFit workout was about doing double unders. Yes, the rope passes under the feet twice on one jump. I never did get that to work, but I tried. It's my opinion that I really need to get the basics down before trying new and difficult versions. I swear I'm not trying to be lazy and I certainly worked my butt off doing singles yesterday. Just ask my calves today whether I worked hard or not.

The other half of the workout consisted of 25 wallball "2-fer-1s". The only way I can describe this without twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one is to say that it's a wallball with an extra squat thrown in before catching the ball. I was using the springy 9 lb. ball with quick rebound again, so my activity had to be modified. In a nutshell, with three rounds of 25, I ended up doing 150 squats yesterday. I'm a tad sore today.

Baring it…

Yesterday was a pretty good day despite the disruption of sleep from the smoke detector fiasco and soreness for a CrossFit workout the night before. For a change, I used my time wisely and by bedtime felt satisfied with myself.

On the way home from work, I filled my car with gas. Once home, I put a load of laundry in the washing machine, then I ate some goldfish crackers while watching the second episode of Food Network Star. Penny has got to go. That's all I'll say about that.

The laundry went into the dryer, then I fired up the Mac and did a little freelancing. Around 7:00, I removed the clothes from the dryer, hanging or folding as necessary. I checked on Tom, who was napping - yes, at 7:00 at night! - and he was all groggy and unresponsive. So I heated up a frozen meal with a side of steamed broccoli and enjoyed it while watching an episode of Franklin & Bash.

Tom finally crawled out of bed and microwaved a bag of popcorn for his dinner. Well, at least they're whole grains, right?

About 8:30 I headed out to take a walk. I have been pretty lazy lately. I'm usually ridiculously active, but have slowed down for some reason and I really need to head back toward the other direction. A walk sounded like a good start and I could listen to my audiobook too. I was gone for a little over 40 minutes, but it wasn't all walking. At least five minutes were spend talking to a neighbor, 2-3 minutes spent petting a calico cat, another minute wasted trying to pet a black and white cat, about 1-2 minutes trying to get closer to a wild bunny. I was wearing my new-ish "barefoot" training shoes so on four different occasions I ran for one minute at a time.

Barefoot running has become rather popular lately. Proponents claim that cushioned running shoes, which date back only to the 1970s, may seem comfortable but may actually contribute to foot injuries. Runners who run without shoes usually land on the balls of their feet, or sometimes flat-footed, compared to runners in shoes, who tend to land on their heels first. (from WebMD) Barefoot runners also tend to have a faster turnover.

Interesting experience! I found that it was actually difficult to land on my heals. I had to think hard and force myself and it didn't feel very pleasant so I went back to what felt natural and what my body wanted to do. Which was land on the mid-foot. Again, I only ran for short stretches a few times as I know all sorts of new muscles were being engaged and I didn't want to end up sore from overdoing it.

Once home again, I took a nice cool shower and relaxed on the couch with Tom before heading to bed and sleeping very well.

Murphy's Law addition…

Can anyone explain to me why when a smoke detector needs a new battery it's always in the middle of the night? Seriously?

BEEP!

I was instantly awake. Oh no, there are few sounds more dreaded than the beep of a smoke detector. BEEP! Every 30 seconds. Tom was snoozing away, blissfully unaware. I crept out of bed and closed the bedroom door. I stood under the detector in the living room, the one way, way, up on the high ceiling. BEEP! Yep, sure enough, that was the one.

Into the garage I went to get the ladder. With my body between the ladder and my car, I managed to impale myself on the driver's side mirror. Oof! Made it into the house without damaging anything else and set up the ladder. AMAZINGLY, we actually had one new D battery! I climbed up the ladder and after a small struggle, managed to open the little battery compartment door, removed the old battery and popped in the new one. Piece of cake!

Went back down the ladder and was just preparing to fold it back up when BEEP! WTF? I stared at the smoke detector in dismay? Did it not like its new battery? It was Duracel, perhaps it preferred Energizer? BEEP! Well, I didn't know what else to do so I went into bedroom and woke up Tom. (Still completely unaware. How on earth could he sleep through that infernal racket?) He pulled himself out of the warm blankets and stumbled through the house to the ladder. He climbed up and took a look at the detector. He pushed the test button and we heard a nice, loud BEEP!

Nothing.

Hm. Maybe I needed to press that button. Honestly, I was afraid to, not sure exactly what would happen and how loud it would be. Tom climbed back down the ladder and folded it up while I turned off the lights. We went back to bed and snuggled happily back into the covers.

BEEP!

OMG no. We climbed back out of bed, turned on the lights, unfolded the ladder. Tom climbed back up and took another look at the detector. Finding no reason why it shouldn't accept the new battery, he proceeded to removed the darned thing from the ceiling, disconnecting the wires. Silence at last.

The ladder was refolded, lights were turned back off, again we got back into bed.

Beep.

Fainter this time. You have got to be kidding me. The one in the spare bedroom now. There was no fooling around with batteries this time. Tom simply took this one off the wall too and disconnected the wires.

Finally. Finally back to sleep.

Stuck…

What a rainstorm we had yesterday afternoon! Tennis was canceled as a result, which was a tad disappointing. But we need the rain so much it's hard to really complain. It's been dry, dry, dry around here for ages. Drought levels, fire hazards, etc. So the lightning that came with the storm wasn't exactly welcomed. Neither was the hail.

In the late afternoon, the storm started building and I started gathering information to help me decide whether or not league would be playing or not. At first, it was that maybe, maybe not stage, which I find extremely frustrating. But after going outside, looking to the north and seeing nothing but black, not to mention the wind that nearly knocked me down, the decision was pretty apparent. Then I heard reports of hail at the SLF and the OSB. I'm the league co-administrator and as I couldn't get in contact with the administrator, I took up the responsibility to email everyone an official cancel notice. It was really pretty obvious, but the members like to get something in writing.

My drive home wasn't too bad. It was raining, but not very hard. My biggest issue was trying to figure out how to work the windshield wipers in the Bimmer. I hadn't had an occasion to use them until yesterday. Let's just say that the rain sensing setting is a tad out of control. It probably looked as if I were about to take off in flight.

At around 6:00, it was not raining, so Tom and I headed out on a quest to visit Lowe's and Target. We started with Lowe's and ended up spending a lot longer than we had expected. We sort of saw it coming, really. As we trekked across town, we were headed straight for another bank of dark, gloomy clouds. The bottom fell out as we were running into the store. I'm just sorry that we hadn't gotten stuck in Target instead. Home improvement stores just don't excite me much.

So my main reason for going to Target was to buy the new Jackie Evancho CD. The little girl has only just turned 11 years old and has the most amazing voice. She had four songs released around Christmas time last year and they were my most played in the holiday rotation. I listened to samples from her new CD, Dream with Me, and couldn't wait to buy it. And I was not disappointed. It's just incredible. Highly recommend!

Staff reductions…

Well, what happened to Monday? I don't know. It's certainly not because it went by quickly. I didn't think the afternoon was ever going to end. There was a good amount of drama at work. Due to cutbacks, we are losing one of our artists and since we're a union department, the decision is made according to seniority. So our new guy would be the one getting the ax. However, two of our artists put in their self nominations and I thought it might come to blows between the two of them because the company can only accept one. They got it worked out, but it was a bit tense for a while. As union steward, I have Super Seniority so no need to worry about me.

There's a new show on TNT that I recently became aware of called Franklin & Bash. In a nutshell, it's about two young lawyers who are recruited into a large corporate firm. I found the show to be fresh, funny and entertaining. The pilot episode is available as a free download on iTunes right now, but you know TNT - do a Tivo/DVR search and you will find both the pilot and the second episode to record if you think it sounds interesting to you.

* * *

So I went back to my usual activities this past weekend. Pizza on Friday night. Saturday tennis followed by a refreshing Slurpee. Lunch, then a nap. Shopping, then dinner out with Tom. Sunday morning bike ride. Lunch, then a nap. Wanted to go shopping at Kohl's but did freelance instead. Fast food dinner with Tom while watching cycling.

The only item worth expanding on is the Sunday morning bike ride, because it wasn't a solo ride. Tom did not have baseball for some reason and wanted to take advantage and do a group ride. We were joined by Alex, Jeanene, Dallas and two after work riders, Jim and Norm. I rode with Jeanene a lot while the boys rode fast and tried to impress each other. In other words, Jeanene and I had fun while they just exercised.