Magic in Charity: Every $10 made at Siamese Pixie Store, #2, #3, #4, and
geek stuff PLUS whatever I made with Adsense is sent to Thai Red Cross, my mom's favorite charity. As of June 1, we are at $2.56 toward the next $10 and so far have donated $30.
I’ve been pushing through work and juggling my social life through February. It seems I’m making new friends and reconnecting with old ones all the time. Weekends and evenings were no longer just the quiet moments but full of activities.
There have also been changes at my work. We have created a new department which roped my marketing team of 2 in with 2 other departments to pursue new directions. The new Boss Man is first a friend. Much like my relationship with my boss Nhien, because we are friends first, communications are open in both directions. It makes for very successful partnership I think, but yet also frustrating. You see, the new department is like new found toy. There are constantly “Oooh! I want to do THIS!” and “Yeah, let’s do THAT!” which tend to throw a wrench at both us and another department.
The perfect analogy for my current work situation, which my colleagues agreed on, is that the New Department is like a box of marbles spilled across the floor. Your day-to-day responsibility is like the door you’re trying to reach. You want to get to the door but you keep tripping on the marbles and falling down. You pick up the marble and put it back in the box and keep going toward the door but there will be another marble to trip you up. You eventually get to the door but you’re now all banged up. AND you’re late. Eventually, we will all learn to navigate the marbles and manage to pick them all up AND get to the door gracefully. In the meantime, put on your helmet, kids–it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
Now, the Big Event just wrapped up without much of hitch on Wednesday. So a huge weight has been lifted but yet more are on the way. In all of this, I’m trying to squeeze in an hour here and there to study Italian. I’ve been neglecting homework because I thought I can totally do this without much help, but every week I fall further and further behind. I’m realizing the reason why I struggle so much with it is because I’m learning a third language on my second language.
To use Hugh Laurie’s analogy of going to the set of House being the only one who has to add an accent, it’s like going to a battle with a fish when everyone else has a sword. Almost everyone in class is a native English speaker. Most also speak Spanish even a little bit. I’m there with Thai being my native tongue and here I am learning a new language on my second language. My head is translating it front and back and left and right before I come to some conclusions. However, the benefit of my Thai tongue is that I can roll the R’s and sound the hard T’s better than anyone.
So here I am, trying to be a better student and put in some homework time. On top of that, I still have to find time to cook–which, sadly, I’ve been able to do strictly on the weekends, to keep the blogs up to date, and to wrap up my tax paperwork. Hey, at least the office is in order now. I just have to comb through the pre-sorted bill and reconcile everything.
Oh, and today I had Italian class in the morning, was supposed to be at a salsa workshop at noon, bake a cake, then off to a baby shower at 4 and a birthday dinner at 7. Thankfully the last 2 parties are at the same place.
At this level, I thought for sure I would go down with a cold after the Big Event. I ended up with massive allergies starting at the event. My stomach has been warring with me pretty much for 2 weeks. And then my back decided to throw a coup as I was having a nice relaxing dinner with Brandon.
It’s like my brain knows of the maddening schedule I have ahead of me today. So last night on behalf of the entire body, my back muscles decided to throw a tantrum and seized up.
So, no salsa today. And up until now, I’ve been laying flat on the couch, nursing the stout left in the bottle from making my chocolate Guinness cake with some Ibuprofen.
I don’t know if having been a better eater helps stemmed the physical meltdown I usually have after a stressful period of time. You know, my usual 24 hour of low fever and energy zap? Not happening this time. So the body just went for the most recent injury, my back, and uses THAT to punish me.
Well, I’m soldiering on anyway. At least tomorrow all I have to do is type up notes for Thrill the World and go to the meeting at 7 p.m.
But then there’s the farmers market I want to get to, dinner I want to make, and the paperwork…FUCKIN’ PAPERWORK!!!
We’ve seen how I did last year. Let’s see how many I can accomplish this year.
1. Lacto-vegetarian Tuesdays
Vegetarian or vegan diet is nothing new to this Buddhist. However, the most I’ve ever done was 2 days a week of loosely vegan diet during Catholic lent of back in high school. That was tough too since there was no soy milk or tofu available in nearby grocery stores like there are today. In college, I started back on vegetarian on Tuesdays, the day of my birth. You know, one day a week of not taking any lives. My mom encouraged me to do that as herself had altogether given up eating beef (aka killing of large animals) many years before. But then, I found myself eating mostly fries, mac and cheese, cheese pizza, and cheese sandwiches–grilled or otherwise, on those days. Eventually, I gave up.
I still don’t have the will power to give up beef like my mom did, and now my oldest brother does (I think…?). But lacto vegetarian (vegetarian with dairy product but no eggs) on Tuesdays (and even vegan if I’m mindful enough) can totally come back now that I have more resources to get healthy vegetarian foods and motivation/discipline to do it. Mommy, this one’s for you.
2. One hour of piano/guitar/singing, twice a month
Once a week of music shouldn’t be too hard. I mean, I tried last year. But realistically, with all of my obligations and TV habit, twice a month is a good point to start. Heh.
3. Keep up with Italian
I started it. I’d better keep it up!
4. Work out at least once a week
I have come to realize that my fitness goal wasn’t aligned with my life’s goal. I was pushing working out on myself to “get in shape”. What’s the point of getting in shape if my eating habit still involves Del Taco? However, working out so that my metabolism is high so that I am able to consume more calories, now THAT aligns with my culinary exploration. I came to this little epiphany as I discussed my fitness habit with a colleague, walking up the hill from a big lunch at Bottega Louie.
Exercise so I can eat more. Now that’s a goal I can get behind.
5. Read at least one book a month
Last year I got to 10 out of 12. This year, 12 and up is to aim for!
6. Finish reading the magazines as they arrive
The only magazine I finish in a timely manner is Entertainment Weekly, being a pop culture fiend that I am. SELF gets relocated to the bathroom the day it arrives and it does get well read. Food & Wine and WIRED tend to get backlogged. I mean, I still have at least 5 of 2008-2009 F&W in the cabinet I have to sift through! This is why I recently canceled my subscriptions to Rachael Ray and Real Simple.
7. Do my household paperwork on early day from the office
I have put it on the calendar every month that I come home early from those board meeting days. Last year, after 3 months, I haven’t followed through with that at all. Oh god, that reminds me…ARRRRGH PAPER WORK AVALANCHE!!!!
8. Eat breakfast everyday
Another realization about how my body works came very clearly to me during my week in Bangkok over Thanksgiving. I had proper breakfast everyday. As in Thai style breakfast of, well, rice and whatever was left from dinner the night before. I felt great all day and even with all the food I stuffed myself with during the trip, I actually might have lost a couple of pounds. I guess my spoiled little self has been programmed to have proper breakfast since, well, birth. I mean, when you grew up with a nanny and then a maid, neither one would let you out the door without at least an egg or a scoop of rice in you.
Here in the US, I don’t always eat breakfast. First of all, I’m never hungry the moment I wake up. So if I don’t eat before I leave the house, I usually try to find something to eat at the office…which turned out to be either a cup of coffee or tea and some Goldfish crackers, and not much else. Not any more. I’m going to do better with packing breakfast as well as lunch from now on. Well, I’ll try at least.
9. Take a crack at NaNoWriMo
November is usually the crazy month for me. But I would like to participate in the National Novel Writing Month this year anyway! I mean, I think maybe I could cheat and started the ground works in August. Or something.
10. Keep up with What’s Working
I’m doing brilliantly with saving on little things I started last year. A weekly Starbucks latte and non-brownbag lunch work out very well. Then again, most of my lunch-out would make for 2 lunches anyway.
Drinking Buddy of the Year: Brandon, actually. Surprise! The mister doesn’t usually party down, but he has taken up a beer here and there this past year, a stressful one for his work. So we had gone out for a beer together more than the year before. Cheers to you, honey bunny!
Bar of the Year: Hennessey’s Tavern and Beachwood BBQ in Seal Beach. These two places never fail to deliver cold pints and some great eats. They’re our go-to places when we want to run away from the daily life for a little while.
Sorry to disappoint y’all with the lack of Downtown LA’s bar feature this time around. I haven’t partied in town much at all. Climate change around the office will affect your happy hour weather, I tell ya.
Newcomer Award: Twitter Gang. I have grown to love folks I met at Tweet Ups especially @dananner, @anaperiodista, @fstop23, @davidmoyle, @sendchocolate, @joncruz, @vbesack, and the disappearing @phraktyl. We went shooting pictures. We played Rock Band. We got drunk. We had overall great times on and off line. Great year to make new friends!
High Point of the Year: Watch Thrill the World Los Angeles became the awesome success. From mere 100 last year grown into the thousands. It still blows my mind.
Low Point of the Year: The Christmas Flu and USC Football Rebuilding Year. Yep. Suckage.
Best Holiday: Halloween…again. I mean, prancing through Pine Street as Zombie Princess Leia, rocked that stage with my awesome crew of zombies? Best. Halloween. EVER!
Song of 2009: Glee soundtracks. I mean, I can barely pin it down to just ONE song! Almost everything from Glee I totally dig. I’m especially partial to Somebody to Love, Don’t Rain on My Parade, Defying Gravity (the duet), No Air, Sweet Caroline (Can I get a hell-yeah from Team Puck?), and this one I can’t stop singing. Lea Michele. What a revelation!
Movie of 2009: Avatar. I’m sorry, Star Trek and District 9! You came sooo close!
Surprise Movie of 2009: Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story – Rod Faifa Ma Ha Na Tuh – รถไฟฟ้า..มาหานะเธอ. I’m soooo in love.
Restaurant of the Year: Bottega Louie. Great food and ambiance. Totally a favorite place to run away from work to for a long lunch. Okay it’s a little loud, but what an awesome place to be! Affordable awesomeness.
Book of the Year: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Seriously. Go read that.
TV Show of the Year: Glee. Duh.
*
2009 Goals Tally: 6 out of 10…kind of.
1. FAIL – Explore Kung-fu. HAH! I did not.
2. FAIL – Drink more water. Did okay for a couple of months before waking up to pee in the middle of the night got old.
3. FAIL -More guitar/piano/singing – at least twice a week. I did try for once a month, but that didn’t happen since my office got so messy I can’t even get to the piano.
4. PARTIAL SUCCESS -Read more books – One book a month at least. Actually did 10 out of 12. Not too bad!
Water for Elephants, Sarah Gruen – Love it.
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, Lynne Truss – Learned all sorts of new things.
Watchmen, Alan Moore – The movie ending makes a hell of a lot more sense than the book I tell ya.
Turn Coat: The Dresden Files Book 11, Jim Butcher – Always love Jim. This is no exception.
Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth Gilbert – Definitely love the Eat/Pray part. I could do without the Bali experience.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith – Best. Book. EVER!
Bad Things, Michael Marshall – I’m still scratching my head at that one. Whuh…?
The Foodie Handbook, Pim Techamuanvivit – Totally enjoyable and awesome. She takes gorgeous pictures.
Heat Wave, “Richard Castle” – Totally a fun read for us Castle fans.
5. FAIL – Add yoga to the routine – at least once a week. Not so much. However, I ended up losing 6 lbs. from September through November with the Thriller work out and stress diet. Haven’t gotten any of it back…yet.
6. SUCCESS – Take a language class. Buongiorno!
7. PARTIAL SUCCESS – Cook one new recipe a month. I went with a few new ones in a month and then go without cooking for weeks. But we did try new recipes.
8. SUCCESS – Fix them teeth. 5 more months!!!
9. SUCCESS – Fix them eyes. Well, I *did* decide on not getting LASIK done after extensive reserach and serious discussion with my optometrist. There’s a 50/50 chance I would come out normal or my dry eyes are going to get more severe to a level that’ll become problematic. I’ll stick with the glasses with that kind of odds, thanks.
10. SUCCESS – Keep up with whatever is working well. Still a latte a week here.
Halloween night? Massive fun. My team of Thrill the World LA and OC kicked ass at Halloween on Pine. We literally rocked the stage. I mean, the fucking thing was swaying with our every moves! Not once, but TWICE! It was complete and total rockage.
Brandon was a complete trooper, escorting me up and down the street and once again played photographer and roadie to our rag tag team of zombies.
Obviously, I barely watched USC…and even more obviously, I had a bra on.
Sorry, team. My bad. Moo. Moo…
Sunday came easily. First Sunday with zero schedule. No Thriller. No meeting.
Holy shit.
I had no plan.
I took it in stride and parked on the couch for the first half of the day, picked myself up to go get a massage, took luxurious long shower, and went out to dine stress-free at James & Aurora’s.
A normal Sunday, I quit you for so long. It’s so good to have you back!
Oh hell yes.2,300 or so on paper but it felt/looked like 6,000 out there in the plaza! Brandon shot over 700 pictures and I had another 200. (What a trooper he is, braving the Blue Line and all!)
Worldwide, last counted, 23,000 people.
What a moment. What an adventure!
You can’t see me in this clip though they did close up on me for the “Coming up next” before this section.
Life is slowly getting back to normal. I have to lead my little Long Beach team to perform on Halloween at Halloween on Pine and that’s it for Thriller for a while.
Zombieland. Who knew that movie would give you some great life lessons. Well, you know, aside of the Zombieland Survival Rules.
Enjoy the little things, Talahassee said.
My life has been kind of a whirlwind these past few months. There are many little things I totally appreciate and enjoy.
Like a bouquet of flowers Brandon bought for me. Very unexpected.
Like getting a ride home from a bus buddy who drove in in the morning.
Like getting my Italian homework explained to me by the Italian Coworker.
Like watching Dresden react to “big people’s food” we offer him. On Tuesday, James, Aurora and Dresden were over for beef pot roast. Carrots were a hit. Tonight at a burrito place, the boy who, according to mom, doesn’t like eggs, asked for more chorizo and eggs from my plate, and later on for more of his first Dippin’ Dots experience.
And by asking, I meant he would reach out his hand toward whatever it is he likes and say, “Nom?” Yes, with a question mark. It was the most adorable thing.
Like receiving the pictures from our Thrill the World LA shoot this weekend that look FANTASTIC.
Breakthrough zombies
Or…one of the goofy ones like these.
Zombie no like trees...
Like everything GLEE. It doesn’t matter how my day was, music from the cast of GLEE cheers me up. I frickin’ love this show. The gem of this clip at about 2:22…
On Friday night, I was out at L.A. Live with 6 other Thrill the World zombies, entertaining the crowd waiting for Michael Jackson’s This Is It tickets.
We performed once and we taught the dance for another 1.5 hour. And mind you, this is just folks hanging around LA Live here, nobody’s a professional.
If we were given another half hour, we could’ve taught them the whole thing. But with the time we had, we were just a few moves away from completion.
People were having fun. They were putting in efforts to do the dance. And they all had a great time.
Forward to Saturday morning at my Italian class in Irvine through Fondazione Italia. This is our second class and our class size is pretty big. We were told that the class may split up into 2 sessions because of the class size and also, as it turns out, the teaching style.
The lady who’s been teaching us is actually a substitute of another lady who’s returning next week. She’s not much for having us repeating the conversation like a parrot, but deconstructing what we were saying. It’s more grammar than conversational at this point.
However, some people didn’t like that so much. They want to be able to walk out from the first class already talking. Did you folks not notice that this class goes all the way to January? This ain’t speed Italian.
Sure, when my Italian coworker asked me on Monday, “Come stai?” – How are you? My answer was, “Uh….si?” I didn’t have an answer to that after my first week. However, I know how when to use Un/Una/Uno (the) on a word.
I’d rather have the basic understanding of how everything works and THEN learn the conversation to go with it, than just sitting there memorizing the phrases. I want to be able to hold a conversation on my own outside of Hi! How Are you? Where’s the bathroom?
Seriously, I have a whole bunch of Japanese phrase I can spout out to you right now but I won’t understand a dang thing you said back to me outside of the standard reply. What does that get me? Nowhere.
But then again, I digress.
Back to the bunch of whiny adults. There were also others who have already taken last year’s class and wanted more.
“Can we have an all Italian class?” someone asked. That would be across the way in Intermediate, we were told. “But that’s too fast for me.” But obviously, you weren’t going to get all the beginners in here to understand a lick of Italian.
So, here lies the problem. Our class has mostly newbies, maybe with Spanish background, and some that already had the skills.
Those were the one saying the our class is too slow but they couldn’t go on to intermediate because that one is too fast. Here they are, in our BEGINNERS class, trying to make us go faster.
I have never heard grown adults bitch so much. If beginners are too slow for you, then don’t bitch that class is too slow for you. Obviously, it’s not the class for YOU any more at this point. Suck it up and go catch up with the big kids in Intermediate. Can’t hack it there? Well, you either do better or come back and learn the basics all over with the newbies.
We sat in class for another good 15 minutes just to agree to split the true newbies to 9 a.m. and the Advanced Beginners to 10:45.
I know this is probably an unfair comparison as the two occasions are completely different. But going from one group of learners to the next, and I should probably add, one demographic to the other, I notice that the level of whines goes up with the median income.
When our beloved excuse themselves to disappear into their video games, we call that being a [insert game name here] Widow. For example, I was an World of Warcraft Widow, an EverQuest widow, and most recently a Fallen Earth and Fall Out Widow.
Now, the table is being turned around. I’m making a widower out of Brandon for the next few months.
As in, a Italian Class Widower…
Nora and I are taking Italian lessons together in Irvine on Saturday mornings, starting this weekend on through January.
A USC Football Widower…
If you’ve read my blog long enough, you’d know that Brandon is not allowed to watch any USC game. Not that he would to begin with, the boy’s no sports fan. But anytime he actually sat down to watch, even a few minutes, it all went to hell. It was entirely my fault to have him and his friend sat down to eat dinner and watch the USC-Texas game a few years ago.
A Thrill the World Widower…
It wasn’t supposed to be as big of an event this year with Thrill the World. But then Michael Jackson died. So now we’re in 120% go for this year’s event. I’m still leading the PR/Publicity campaign. And now also a dance instructor. Oh crap, I have to freshen up!
A Big Gala Widower…
Oh yes. The giant work event. A lot of pressure to raise money in this economy. A lot is at stake for the people we serve and for, well, the wellbeing of our non-profit.
And finally, A Thanksgiving Widower…
I’m heading home to Thailand for Thanksgiving for a quick week.
On top of all of this, I have 3 blogs of mine, a Tweet Up social life, and, oh yeah, the monthly cooking challenge.
Thank GOD we are putting long camping trips on hold until spring. With my Italian classes, we couldn’t go far. And with my crazy schedule, I won’t have time to train. I guess the timing works out.
However, the Mister has scheduled us some together time of date nights, our monthly massages at Massage Evny, and game nights. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 just came in the mail. /rubs hands together…heeheeheehee…
Am I nuts do be doing all this stuff? Perhaps.
But am I having fun with all the madness? Oh fuck yeah.
This will be one of those years I’ll never forget.
It took Brandon and I 7 years of marriage to figure out that we both like camping. Away from the cars kind of camping.
We have been investing in our camping gear. When we were shopping for a backpack, the staff mentioned that REI does have overnight backpacking classes and that we should check that out.
So we did.
This past Saturday and Sunday, we were in Mount San Jacinto State Park backpacking for the first time with 2 REI instructors, Greg and Michael, and 5 other newbies. One is gearing up for a trip to Bhutan. Two are day hikers, taking things further. One is a budding outdoorsman. And one wants to learn to go camping in one pack instead of a carload.
Of all of these guys, we were the least in shape. Brandon has activity-induced asthma. And I, like how I was telling everyone else, have a case of activity-induced wussy.
It was no surprise that I came in dead last everywhere we went. However, it was definitely a surprise that I came in anywhere at all.
With 22 lbs. (10 kg) of pack on my back.
And just for perspective, that’s 1/5 of my body weight.
On Saturday morning, we all met early in Rancho Cucamonga REI for gear check at 7 a.m. Bright eyed and bushy tailed, we quickly bonded over the fact that none of us, less one, had done this before. We all had a chance to run amok the stores to be fitted with a pack or finding a tent to rent. I traded in my rain jacket for a kid’s sized lined one and a pair of convertible pants/shorts cargo–both kids size. We had some more talks and split up the foods, and then we were on the road to Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.
The tramway shot us straight up to 5,900 feet (about 1.8 km) from where we were. Thank GOD for the Bonine I took earlier for the van ride from REI, I would’ve barfed on someone during the tramway ride. Hahah!
We found ourselves a spot on the observation deck to battle with fearless squirrels have lunch. Thankfully, I had the mind to put 2 containers of sun-dried tomato and roasted red pepper bruschettas into one of our gallon zip lock bag as they leaked all over the place. After lunch, we repacked everything and double bagged said containers. We came to find out later that one of lid had cracked on transit.
Then we hiked down what we have come to call the Switchback From Hell to the Ranger’s station to learn how to use our compass and maps and GPS units and to further acclimate ourselves with the altitude.
Everything reminded me of Brandon’s parents’ house in New Mexico with both the scenery and the thin air. And I thought, oh yeah, if I could totally handle Red River, this altitude thing shouldn’t be too bad, I thought as I popped a few Aspirins to cope with the altitude. (The Aspirin trick is a remedy Brandon’s folks always have us do before we started the drive up from Albuquerque. It definitely helped stemmed the altitude headaches.)
The altitude kicked my ass like USC kicked San Jose State’s. (Knew I was going to tie that in somewhere, didn’t ya?)
2 miles (3.2 km) to Round Valley with about 600 elevation gain. It doesn’t sound like a lot but with the terrain and the altitude and the 22 lbs. on my back, that was the longest 2 miles of my life. Brandon and I brought up the rear with Instructor Michael behind us. And then we had to go from Round Valley up another hill, I’m guessing half a mile, to our campsite.
This was where I hit that proverbial “wall”. Marathoners, according to this guy here, hit that when their bodies literally used up everything its got. In many cases it’s in our heads too, like in “Run Fatboy Run”. And now I knew what that was like.
I wasn’t out of breath like I was earlier on the hike. My legs just said no. Brain stopped thinking about the fact that the campsite was only just another 2 minutes away: it just didn’t want to me to go any more. I told Brandon and Michael that I had hit the Wall and that I needed some time to get my brain in the right place again. Seriously, I could see the top of the hill from where I stopped but I wasn’t going to go anywhere any more.
Without a word, Michael came over, took my sleeping pad off my pack, and continued his slow-and-steady pace up the hill. That was all I needed to get me back on my feet and got the campsite.
The spot came highly recommended by the rangers and now we knew why. The view at the site was beautiful, totally worth extra work.
We set up our tents and started in on dinner of pasta with pesto or bruschetta with chicken (chunks in pouches). At this point the oil from the leaky tub was everywhere and onto everything. Pretty much anything we touched food-wise at some point was oily and/or smelled like the bruschetta.
I took the liberty and named our little group the Bruschetta Brigade.
And they in turn named me Captain Crunch for unknowingly contaminated the pot of pasta when I used my sand-crusted gloves to break up the noodles. Whoops. Poor Stephanie and Pam got to eat that crunchy batch.
That night, the Brigade split up into two groups: the Summiteers who would actually summit San Jacinto Peak, and Team Tamarack who would do a mild day hike to Tamarack Valley and then clean up the camp for the Summiteers.
The following morning, Instructor Greg and 3 guys left a bit late on their schedule to summit San Jacinto. Team Tamarack was all girls except for Brandon and Instructor Michael. We cleaned up the “kitchen” and pretty much packed ourselves up except for a day pack for our little hike. I was excited to be walking with just the camera. Photo ops, here I come!
Tamarack Valley was gorgeous. We even spotted some deer while we were out! Michael packed us a lovely little lunch of hard cheese, tomatoes, and salami. The Summiteers checked in on the radio and they were running about 2 hours behind, having left late this morning. So we headed back to the site to finish up. I was still a little winded going back to the site so that deflated me a bit.
So we packed up everything we can, and just as Michael was saying the boys weren’t going to make it back on time, I spotted the Summiteers coming up the hill. I started cheering and the rest of Team Tamarack followed. The Summiteers did so well!!
We helped everyone packed up the camp and got some group shots. And down the hill we went.
I was feeling pretty good. My toes weren’t hurting all that much and I managed to not get too winded most of the time. I really struggled with the weight going downhill. Every step down was a little scary like I was going to tip over.
Everyone eventulaly went past me and Brandon, who was helping me down every steep step, except for Francis who injured his toes summiting, Kevin who wanted to actually look at some scenery on the way out, and, of course, the ever patient and encouraging Michael.
This little group did get to witness the marvel that is my agility when I slipped heading downhill. Trying to gain my footing while balancing the weight on my back, I somehow ended up with two trekking poles firmly on the ground in front of me, facing up hill. Zero biff.
I may not have the physical strength or stamina, but I am definitely plus 10 on biff avoidance. That little maneuvering proved to be entertaining for all.
We re-grouped at the Ranger’s station where we first set off. And off we went to attack the Switchback from Hell.
I was out of breath mid-way up the first ramp with Brandon in front of me. Michael was once again right behind me. He said gently to focus on the shadow of the rails cast on the path in front of me and to take VERY small steps. I started my steps and I heard his trekking poles made the rhythmic clacks behind me. Automatically, I tuned into the clacks and got in a pace. I stopped for breaths at every bend.
Michael never once rushed me. Just as he never did on the way in. He waited patiently for me to get a hold of myself, physically and emotionally, and then get moving.
3 turns away. I hit another wall. This one was emotional.
My feet were still going. I wasn’t in pain or anything but my heart was fluttering and my eyes were tearing up. I felt like I either have to start crying or throw up, one of the two. I did neither and I finally got to the station where everyone was waiting for me.
I tossed my pack and sat down to catch my breath. I couldn’t catch one and started coughing. A blessing in disguise really. I was actually crying by that point but I claimed that the heavy coughing got me teared up.
In total, at least what I think I did, the distance I covered doesn’t sound very impressive: round trip (to/from camp and to/from Tamarack Valley) of about 8 miles (13 km). But there’s the 700 feet (213 m) in elevation gain in all of this and with only 2 hours to adjust to the altitude when we started out plus the weight of the pack on your back, that there was a true butt kicker especially for those like me who are pathetically out of shape.
All in all, I did it. All 22 lbs. of it. All 8 miles and 700 feet of it.
On my own two feet.
This is probably the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my life so far.
My epic battle with time this week? I guess it’s a draw.
I didn’t start on Monday morning as planned. Because, as you all have heard, we plan and God laughs. Or something like that.
Last Sunday night, the night I wanted to go to bed by 10 to wake up at 5:15 and work on my stuff? I ended up going to bed closer to midnight and woke up the usual call time for morning with hair wash of 5:45.
I was up peeling and scraping the piths off of 25 lemons to go into my first ever batch of homemade Limoncello.
You heard me. Home made. Limoncello. I will write ALL about that over at HmmFoodGood later. But for this post, let’s just say that peeling and de-pithing took many more hours than I anticipated.
So, Monday was regular day.
Time 1. Oakley 0.
Tuesday morning, I’m on the new early riser schedule. Was up by 5:15 and at station with a mug of tea at 5:45. I got a whole lot done. I went to bed at 10 as planned.
Time 1. Oakley 1.
Wednesday morning, still on the wagon. However, the near end of “Bad Things”, the book I’ve been reading, kept me up way past my bed time.
Time 1. Oakley 2.
Thursday, up a little later but was still up. A couple of hours into work, an alien tried to dig his way out of my brain through my forehead and made me nauseous while at it.
Migraine in the office. That’s just great. I couldn’t look at the screen, let alone tolerate the fluorescent goodness. I took an Aleve around 10 and went to ask a coworker if I could go sit in her boss’ office–the boss is on leave.
My coworker let me inside and closed the blinds for me. She went to tell my boss who came over straight away to check on me and told me to just take my time. 20 minutes later, feeling a lot less like a vampire, I crawled out to ask another coworker for a can of Monster to get the caffeine into my system. A couple more coworkers came by to check on me and gave me some neck rubs…and those did help.
Nausea finally subsided around noon. The alien was now, digging more slowly, trying to get out behind my ear instead. I downed 500 mg of Tylenol and continued to sip Monster to get better, fast. After all, I had to go down to LA Live to check out a few venues for staff holiday party at 2 p.m.
Miraculously, that last bit of crazy self prescription did the trick. I toured the facilities pain free and even scored some free brownies from The Farm of Beverly Hills.
That lovely bit of heaven sent me a wee bit over the edge on the jitters. But hey, my head didn’t hurt any more.
Needless to say, it was an early night for me that night.
Time 2. Oakley 2.
Friday, I tried to get up early but my body screamed in protest. So I slipped back to nearly 6 a.m. scrambling out of bed. My body continued to protest with some scratchy throat and sniffles. I’m sure all these smokes in Downtown LA and all over Southern California doesn’t help either. I fought it with echinacae tea, wild honey, and Airborne. By the time I was home, I was spent.
Time 3. Oakley 2.
I was woken up this morning from a lovely dream about my little country house in an orchard with the fact that I couldn’t breath through one of my nostrils. Then both. Getting out of bed was an out of body experience–as in I was out of my body, dragging it. A cup of echinacea tea later, I had enough energy to make breakfast.
And now, I am stewing in my office intentionally. I am hoping sweating all of this badness out might help me feel a little better.
Time 4. Oakley 2.
Things that have gone wrong? Not going to bed as early as I should have. And the fact that I started this new program on the week before my boss goes on vacation when everything needed to be done before she leaves.
Stress + Change of routine + Lack of sleep + not eating much because of stress = System crash.
So here I am, sweating out my sickness in my home office, instead of out in Studio City, rehearsing Thriller with my fellow LA Zombies. Here I am, missing out on a Beat It flash mob. Here I am, sniffling, sweaty, and icky.
All because I want to beat time.
Next week awaits a new battle strategy. But for now, back to the couch and more tea.
