What me, competitive?

Today was orientation day for massage school...don't think I've blogged about this, but I'm making a major life change and going to school full time to become a massage therapist. I'm totally psyched and school starts on Tuesday. I spent several hours yesterday working on a scholarship application essay and e-mailing it back and forth to my pal, Carie, in Colorado who is a great writer and editor to fine tune it (we ended up with 496 words on a 500 word limit). Between the 2 of us and our bantering back and forth online, I've been feeling more and more competitive and really want to (kick some ass and) win the scholarship...So that may have colored my mood today going into orientation.

Of course, as soon as I got there this morning I started sizing everyone up immediately (just like in the transition area when I get to a race...) and trying to figure out who could have possibly written an essay as good as mine. After the initial introductions (which included everyone answering the question of "What movie would you BE today?" I chose Thelma & Louise), we played an icebreaker "human bingo" game. As soon as they said that there were prizes, I went right to task. I'm happy to report that not only was I one of 4 winners, I was the FIRST winner to get a bingo. Hey, it was worth a $5 gift card to Taco del Mar, so I'm calling it a success and the starving student fund can certainly use some free food! Today a burrito, next may be the $2,000 scholarship!!

My last week before school starts seems to be flying by...I'm dog sitting again, this time for Stacia's dogs, and the last couple of days were still sunny so I was outdoors as much as possible. I played with Ja'Narah at Alki on Tuesday and yesterday I went out to St. Ed's Park to mountain bike with Jenny and Nicole...except both of them had to cancel. As soon as I got out there, I got text messages from both of them saying were stuck at work and couldn't get out to play with me. The perils of having real and important jobs, I guess. I was bummed, but was already out there and it was a really great evening so I did my first solo mountain bike ride. I managed not to kill myself or get lost...it was actually a really great ride--I had a blast!