Back in the lake!!

Seujan is doing Ironman Idaho in about 3 weeks...she ventured into Greenlake on Monday afternoon for her first open water training swim of the season. Being my conservative and usually cold self, I opted to (kinda) study for a test on the beach that day and watched carefully to see whether she froze... When she got out, she claimed that the water was quite comfy warm and her story was pretty believeable--there was another pod of wetsuited swimmers who hopped in about the time she did and none of them were shrieking...

Watching SJ's happy swim on Monday--and another 3 days of solid sunshine--was just what I needed to bust out my wetsuit (ok, and the neoprene socks and insulated cap) this morning for the first Friday morning swim of the season.

Whoo-hoo! I'm happy to report that Greenlake was, indeed, comfortable and the first swim of the year was GREAT! Ann, Barbara Rose, Seujan, and I had a great sunny early morning swim. I was in over 40 minutes and was NOT cold! I still prefer Lake Washington to Greenlake, but hey, I didn't get hit by any stray oars of the rowers and it was a lovely MAY morning...we're almost never open swimming in May and this weather rocks.

Bring on summer!!!

It's like riding a bike...

Oh, wait, it's not LIKE riding a bike, it IS riding a bike!! For the first time in, well, months, I went for an outdoor ride today. The hamstring is not exactly done giving me grief, but it's improved a little bit lately so I took it for a test drive today. The step mill at the gym and the indoor pool (my only cardio for many weeks) have gotten really old, especially with the return of the sunshine lately, so it was great to be outdoors for a little spin. I made myself leave the HR monitor at home and I also made myself stay on a flat route...but of course I kept an eye on the bike computer cause a girl needs at least a few numbers for validation! I rode from Madrona to Seward Park twice, so I got in 20 miles...and I averaged 16.8 mph. It definitely felt a little foreign and I'm NOT in bike shape, but I'm hopeful about the possibility of actually getting my body back this summer and was pretty happy with the ride.

Bikes 'n Ballard

I'm on the Board of Bike Works and today was the annual community kids' bike swap. This is a super great annual feel-good event where people can bring used kids' bikes, get a value estimate on them, then shop for a "new" used bike with their trade-in credit...hundreds of bikes get traded/bought and many of the same bikes and families show up every year as the kids get bigger and the bikes don't. I was working the checkout for about 3 hours today and it was really fun (plus, a sunny spring day in the park, what's not to love about that). The little kids get super jazzed to get new bikes and some of the bikes are pretty damn cute, albeit too often pink, too (see example above...unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the kid who was wearing a superman cape on his new bike and sporting a red cast on his arm-adorable). And here's the people-aren't-all-bad-have-faith-in-the-human-race story from the event. A guy came in with 3 kids and wanted to swap 3 bikes. The value of the bikes they brought was less than the ones the kids chose and wanted to buy, so he needed to pay the difference of $45. The guy was a little frustrated and obviously didn't have the cash...he went into the bike coral to look around again for other options. The guy who'd been behind him in line gave us a credit card and asked if he could anonymously pay for the other family's bikes. How's that for pay it forward??

At the moment, I' m in a coffee shop in Ballard behaving a kinda like a tourist. I'm dogsitting for Maddie & Winnie, my favorite Ballard residents (aka the velvet-coated Labs) this weekend. I don't hang out much in Ballard and there are a ton of cool places to eat, drink, shop, and people watch...I'm avioding the homework in my backpack and waiting for Seujan to meet me so we can look for a good happy hour location...

Here's Maddie after a chuck-it session this morning...she looks like I've been feeling the last week.

I'm a winner!

On the first day of school back in October, some people from Massage Envy came to our school and annouced that there would be a competition for a $500 cash scholarship at the beginning of 3rd quarter. They announced that the criteria would be perfect attendance in the 2nd quarter, a 3.5+ gpa, and an essay...and that they'd be back at the end of the 2nd quarter to give out applications. Of course, when I heard the words, "competition," and "essay," I tuned right in and filed the idea in my head...where I fortunately re-visited it every time I considered ditching class (and there was at least one snowy morning when, I must admit, this little contest was the only thing that made me get myself to class and only about 4 of us showed up...fortunately, they didn't make us document whining about being in class, just the attendance stats were recorded). So anyway, the applications came out at the end of March and I was all over it. I wrote a super boring essay and fortunately asked Seujan and Carie to read it...they both gave me some good editing and some ideas so jazz it up. I took their advice, sent in my applications and...today...I got a $500 check. SWEET! Granted, it's not exactly enough to bankroll a small business, but it's my first "official" income as a massage therapist and I'm feeling pretty good about it (not to mention that I haven't had the opportunity to compete in anything else with my stupid hamstring and ok, I'll admit, I've missed seeing whether I placed in my age group, wearing a bib number, and having some external reinforcement--and, I also just realized that I never won cash in a triathlon...). And...as my mom says, "Money can't buy happiness, but it sure helps." Lucky for me, Seujan was available for a happy hour drink on me at the end of the school day today! Cheers!

The contents of my sock...

So my friend Holly in Portland has this saying she uses when she's a little scattered and re-organizing herself or her space. It makes me laugh every time she says, "I gotta get my shit in one sock..." I have no idea whether she made it up or where it came from, but I love it (and always find myself thinking of a big tube sock like I wore when I was about 12...never thought to ask what kind of sock she means...). Lately, I'm hearing myself say this in my head almost constantly as I'm trying to keep a lot of plates spinning and feel like I'm chasing my tail most of the time. I guess most everyone has a lot of plates in motion and god knows I don't do well being bored...but holy cow, it'd be nice to learn how to sit still at some point. A week ago, I went to Portland for a day for work. I took the train and Amtrak provided a small gift of down time that I'm sure I would not have taken any other way...I took a nap, read several chapters of a novel (!), and actually studied for a test. I'm wondering when I can have another excuse to get on a train...in the meantime, I'm going to bed before 9:00 p.m. with that novel...