FridUpdate #portmanteau #jamebrow

My friend James Brown Loves portmanteaus, which is a type of neologism. He's also an awesome comediatic improvier. Go see him with the Family Dinner in Baton Rouge.

Anyway, this has been the setback week. My muscle tone and spasms have returned something fierce and nobody can quite figure out why. I'm in surprisingly good spirits despite of it though, meh, nothing can hold ME down! Short of maybe getting hit by yet another car...but hell I've survived two so what's a third? ;) So I've been pushing through it. 

I've finally decided on an business name. I almost just now told you it but it's not on the records yet, so next week! Here are some hints: you're going to be disappointed cuz I picked a boring name,nobody suggested it sorry, and it has nothing to do with vets, or pets, or behavior. Ha I'm sure you can still guess it!

I've got nothing really new on the healing front 'xcept progress ever forward, and an elliptical and exercise bike from my Very awesome neighbors (I'm surrounded by 'em!) so I've sketched out more of a plan in my training log. I'm typically overzealous, fair warning! I'm cool with it.

For those of you that plan on running a half marathon next year, with me or "with" me in another state, I have a basic idea when you should start training. If you're running the NOLA RnR 2014, which is on Feb 2nd, and you just don't run at all, my opinion is start no later than 16 AUG 2013 with  Hal Higdon's 30/30 Plan. Let me be very clear that I have NO idea about training! I just wanted to warn you that you may want to start  by August 16th, if not earlier!

Me, in a dress, and tennis shoes, on my new exercise bike. Awesome.

On a last note, I love Nelson Mandela. Lately I've been thinking about him a lot because I have a long road ahead of me, but hell he was over 10 years older than I am now when he was imprisoned for over a quarter of a century, and he still accomplished so so much even after that! If he can do that, I can survive this. Everyone dies, but I'm glad for his impending peace.

Update Saturday, one time only!

Friday just had too much going on!

Not much this week! I've had a strange elevated tone thing going on that prevents me from doing too much. I don't know what's causing it and it's frustrating because it won't go away. I did end up having a left over suture in my shoulder from the surgery that was taken out this week!

There has been some good changes. My elliptical pace is about the same but I could hold it easier for longer. And my fingers are making some real progress; I can extend my thumb at will now, and all my extensors are stronger, I can hold my hand flat! It still tightens up when I'm paying attention to something else but the progress keeps me believing that the function is going to continue improving. I've also been walking more, even forgetting the cane sometimes when I'm at the house. 

You can tell my left leg is bigger than my right. Also, I inadvertently weight-shift onto my left! Healing for me is more about breaking compensatory habits and less about the actual healing part.

Nothing really has changed in other parts of my life. I was finally allowed unemployment, on the basis that I'm a pregnant administrative assistant...? Sheesh nobody has their shit together! Plus my username was changed without telling me - Holy Crap I forgot to thank Rick Manuel for his help with that! THANKS!!!

Everything else is still mounds of paperwork, too boring to talk about, but so tiring and time consuming.

Still having fun though! We went to watch some friends bellydance last weekend, mais they were good! And slowly becoming more bike active...I need a bike! Yay!

Ya'll have a good one!

5K Friday!

Church Point (named because you could see the steeple of the Catholic Church from anywhere in the town) held a 5K to raise money for SIDS research. The timing of this race coincided with when I wanted to walker 3 miles anyway, plus I have some dear colleagues whose baby died from SIDS very soon after I went into the hospital, plus I love Church Point because it was the first place Liam and I went to "Courir de Mardi Gras", so it was perfect. The couple that put it on were super nice, and when I arrived they knew who I was and treated me like gold. Liam ran his first 5K, I think his official time was 1:05.25, but looking back on it I think it was quicker because I know he ran the whole way, so I might have that wrong. My official time was 2:11.0, which includes time subtracted for an urgent bathroom break. BUT it was great to be out there again, and I had the sweetest lady that decided to walk with me, and then a bunch of kids met me at about mile 2.5 and walked the rest of the way with me. I don't have the pics yet, sorry! I'm eternally grateful to all of them, and I'll definitely do this one next year too!

The other side to this is that my personal goal was that once I reached 3 miles, I would start using the cane instead of the walker. This is going to make me MUCH slower but I'm going to try it.

All my focus right now is on strengthening my super weak hip flexors, right ankle, and core. I'm also doing a lot of finger strengthening exercises constantly, so if you see me doing weird stuff, just go with it!
The AWESOME thing this week is that I'm starting to feel a bit more! I've been walking to the neighbors barefoot on gravelly blacktop to try to stimulate some feeling, and I'm either lucky or it must have worked because it Hurts to do that now! And I can feel if I have socks on, or if something's in my shoe...these are all good things ya'll!

My awesome neighbors are giving me their exercise bike and elliptical, so I'll be able to do more workouts at home. I'm ready to start looking for a road bike again. I don't have the money right now but I want to begin practicing on my rollers, so now's as good as a time as any! (YES rollers, they really are that safe if you do it right!)

I'm planting a vegetable garden, I've been cooking, and we've been going to the library more.  I've been attending meetings with BikeLafayette and the Lafayette Consolidated Government bicycling subcommittee. Plus there's therapy and job hunting and the mounds of paperwork ones has to fill out in my position, which barely is leaving me any time to work on my business. BUT it's coming along! And I have some leads to some minor stuff with the vet school and a local vet too.

SO life's been worse, I've been chill, ya'll have a good weekend!

HA Forgot today was Friday! It's "Devil Beating His Wife" Friday Ya'll! *UPDATED* *AGAIN!*

Well we can all agree that I'm pretty good at writing depressing stuff! ;) On to this week.

I've decided to write some Country/Western song lyrics since my life is looking like a good one right now! I'm a scientist, not an artist, so you've GOT to forgive the silliness!
It's to the tune of David Allan Coe's last verse of "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" since it's the self-proclaimed perfect country and western song. Here it is in case you don't know it:

My bike was wrecked
The day that unlicensed driver
Broke my neck

And I lost my job
in south Louisiana
Over iiiiittttt!!

But before I could catch my deaf dog
In my a/c-less pickup truck
The devil was beating his wife all over again!

And I'll hang around as long as you will let me...

There's a disbeliever here in Laffy that anybody around here know's what the "devil beating his wife" is besides for me, so here's a pic as a hint.

There's a little tiny cute rain shower! Right in the middle there!

On the therapy front, I have good news in that my therapist says I'm ready to start speeding things up (the speed that's coming from walking is from improved form, not speed). My knee is still a problem but everything else is okay. Also, I achieved a normal speed on the elliptical this week so this is awesome. Unfortunately I still have bike malfunctions, and my left elbow is still bugging me so swimming has been out. I've been walking less because the time it takes isn't worth the therapeutic benefit, but I plan on walking my own personal 5K this weekend just because. Unless this one tomorrow at Church Point will take me... SO the training log may be looking sparser and sparser, but it ain't, swear!

*UPDATED* I AM GOING TO BE IN THE 5K IN CHURCH POINT TOMORROW!!!!

SRA 5K & BUGGY FESTIVAL

I've got my bills paid, financially stable again due to some money shuffling around, and some low-paying but awesome odd jobs on the horizon. I'm still searching for a permanent job but I don't have to stress about it yet again for a while! Soooo close to going more public about my new little behavior business! Next week!

This week has been pretty great overall! Nic was out of town but he's back now, and Liam was in UL's soccer camp all week! Plus he just started on COLA's swim team, so he's a busy kid! We stayed the night with some of our friends Paige and David Billeaud and their kids, who have a new pool. And the crowning point of the weekend is that we went to Lake Chicot and stayed the night with some friends in a cabin - oh man, great times! The Awesomest Jen Steele rode Liam and I tandem on her bike! We went a little over 10 miles, and it was the first time that I've been on a bike outdoors since I got hit. It was also Great therapy for the inhibition process that needs to happen with my quads/hams. I had to tie my right foot to the pedal, but it's soo much stronger. I might have a pic, I'll update this with it if I do! The whole weekend was great, and set a great tone for the rest of my week. BikeLafayette is run by some great people ya'll!

Happy days, ya'll have a great week!