Six Flags!

Sorry for the belated post. I wound up making very last-minute plans to go to Six Flags with my church's youth group as a chaperon, and I didn't get back until too late at night to do much before collapsing in bed. We had a blast, though. I hadn't spent much time around the youth before then, and I'm glad I had the opportunity yesterday. We've got some great kids, and I'm excited to see them grow in maturity as they learn more about what it means to be followers of Christ.

Six Flags was a ton of fun. I'd only been once before, and only been on 2 roller coasters then. I rode just about everything this time. I wanted to give Superman a try, but I heard it's a long wait for a short ride that isn't quite worth the wait. The girls in the group I was walking around with (along with 2 other chaperons, older and more familiar with being youth leaders) were keen to ride lots of roller coasters, so we didn't skip many of the others.

My favorites were Daredevil Dive, Goliath, Mindbender, and the Great American Scream Machine (there's a reason it's still around!). Also, being in the front is awesome. When you're in any of the other rows, you always see the seats and heads in front of you; the stationary view is too orienting. In the front row, you see the hills, curves, and everything else, and sometimes you see nothing but air - it's awesome. After riding so many coasters and feeling everything drop out from under me so many times, I might even be ready to ride Acrophobia next time I go, or the Space Shot at the Space and Rocket Center here in Huntsville!

A few of us tried one of the games in the park, the one where someone tries to guess your age, weight, or your birth month. I played it last time I went, and won; I don't remember if she tried to guess my age or weight, it might have been both. This time, I asked the guy to guess my age, capitalizing on the tendency everyone has to undershoot my actual age. The rules allowed him a 2 year margin of error, and he was off by 4 - he guessed I was 18. (Not nearly as bad as other guesses I've heard before.) At the prompting of one of the girls, I chose a plastic scepter that lights up in different patterns as my prize. I had a lot of fun carrying that around; kept feeling like I should make declarations or something, haha.

My foot was not pleased with me for walking around and standing in lines for so long, though. I wore the boot on the ride there and back, and I was thankful for it - my foot is not as healed as I thought it was. I probably set myself back a little with that decision, but I count it worth the discomfort today. Not just because the rides were fun, but because this youth group is incredible and I'm really glad for the opportunity to invest in their lives. I was there Sunday night for their Bible study, and I plan to keep attending those to help the leaders and to keep investing in these kids' lives. (Still, after some convincing, I have decided to schedule a follow-up appointment with the doctor. Maybe there's something they can do that will help my foot heal better and faster.)

As far as the job front goes, I've got a couple active applications with Huntsville Hospital and one application for a part-time job at a small coffee shop. I was going to aim for only full-time work (and any freelance proofreading I could get, which is still the case), but I've got to earn money somewhere, and I know part-time places are always wanting to hire people who won't be gone when the school year starts. I've just got to mark out a day and go out for the rounds of collecting applications.

That's all for this update. Peace out!

Daredevil Dive - check out that drop!!

Goliath - my ears actually popped going up the first hill!

Twilight Zone

Time is probably the most bizarre phenomenon ever. Supposedly it just moves forward, but I swear it speeds up, slows down, stalls out, and even goes backward! Maybe all those time warps we experience aren't just figments of our imagination, maybe we've grossly misunderstood the concept of time. I say that because my weeks have started to run together. I know there was one that seemed to take forever, and it feels like there was another that zoomed by, but I can't tell which was which or if there even <i>were</i> two weeks. Maybe I wandered into the Twilight Zone??

Look at that face. He knows something.

Anyway, here's what's new.

Entertainment
I finally finished my second time through Avatar: The Last Airbender. Still incredibly epic, and still worth more re-watch marathons! I caught up on Legend of Korra, the follow-up series, too. I had to skip one episode because it had already been bumped off the website, but I don't think it was too terribly vital. At least I hope not! It's a good show, and I like the flashbacks to older versions of the original characters, but so far it's not as impressive as the original series. I think it might just be too early to tell what point the series is going to try to make; everything is still building.


Lord of Chaos continues to be awesome. It's not constant excitement or anything - none of Robert Jordan's books are - but there've been some mid-story plot twists that have really shocked me! Everyone I've spoken to who's read the book before has just smiled as they remembered whatever epic ending lies ahead for me, saying two words: Dumai's Wells. I still have no idea what that means, but I know there's a battle, and I'm excited to read through it! Only about 300 more pages until that specific chapter - it's the last one in the book. (I'm about halfway through the book, by the way, to give you an idea of why it's taking my so long to read it.)

Le Foot
The giant ankle brace thing has been great. It does exactly what it's supposed to, and my foot is benefiting from that. The swelling went away after a few days, but there's still a good bit of soreness and tenderness. I've done a little prodding and some comparisons between my two feet, and it does feel like the really tender part isn't bone, although putting pressure on certain bones is uncomfortable. Ligaments connect bone to bone, so I'm still hoping the doctor was right and it's just a ligament strain. This coming Friday will mark 2 weeks since the incident; I'm hoping my foot will be healed up either in this week or next. Even if it's not improved, though, I doubt I'll go back to the doctor. No sense in paying for another x-Ray when I'd already be halfway through the recovery time for a fracture; the ankle brace works fine and I'd rather not trade it for a cast, even for a couple weeks. (Besides, I've got a record of no broken bones to maintain!)

I'm able to walk around in my running shoes without too much of an issue - they've got good support in the arches to help my running stride, which means I can continue walking almost entirely on my arch (the most comfortable way to walk with the bum foot) and I'll still get some support. Feels good to wear a matching pair of shoes. :)

Job Search
The Huntsville Hospital is one of the biggest employers in Huntsville, and I got an interview/evaluation for an Admissions position (thanks to a 2nd degree connection with someone I've never met). It went well, I think. I just need to get an application in on their site, which is proving more difficult than expected. But it's gonna happen, I guarantee it.

In the mean time, I'm still cat-sitting for a friend, got a small proofreading job later in the month, and I've been pressure washing for my granddad. The cat-sitting is going alright. She's a sweet cat, but there's definitely some tension between her and our 2 cats. We do our best to run interference when it looks like the fur might literally fly, which isn't too often, thankfully. The proofreading job is with my former advisor and professor; he'll contact me when his paper's ready for me to go through it. I'm pretty excited about it, since it will be my first time getting paid to proofread! The pressure washing is really tedious, but I like watching the dirt disappear as though I'm dragging a super-strong eraser over it. :D

Father's Day & Birthday
Yesterday was a double celebration of Father's Day and my birthday. I turned 22, and my granddad continued to be an awesome father to his daughters and father-figure to his granddaughters. We had lunch together at my grandparents' house. I didn't ask for anything, so we both just opened cards, which was nice. :) Talked with one of my friends on the phone for a while - I'm teaching him some German, and it was a lot of fun for me to go through pronunciation stuff with him. Knocked some of the rust off my own reading skills. Snuck in a quick nap before heading out for Sunday training, taking advantage of my free Starbucks birthday drink (green tea frap, ftw) on the way. And despite still having to sit out and take notes, it was a great class. :) One of my Birmingham dojo friends came up to train. It was great to see him again, and it was fun to watch the other guys training try to wrap their minds around the new things he brought. I got some good notes out of it, too.

All in all, it was an excellent birthday. :)


That's probably a good place to stop. Time to put my nose back in my book and reenter the Twilight Zone! Peace.

X-Rays

I got a call this morning with the X-ray results. They didn't see any fractures. :) That doesn't completely rule out the possibility that there is a fracture, but the fact that they didn't see one is encouraging to me. So, I'll spend the next couple weeks walking around in the boot and, if it's a ligament strain as the doctor thinks, then I should be feeling much better by then. If it seems like nothing's changed, I'll schedule another X-ray to see if the fracture shows up. My guess, though? It's a ligament strain and maybe a bone bruise. Hopefully I'm right. :)

Growing Pains

Apparently I just had to call life out on that conspiracy thing, because it seems to have let off for now. Ha! Take that, life!! (Du-dunuh-du, dunuh, dunuh, can't touch this.)

Entertainment
I'm neck deep in a marathon of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm about halfway through season 3, and loving every minute. It's so great to revisit these episodes and remember all the little things that made me love this show. :)

I'm also making decent headway on Lord of Chaos. I'm in a bit of a race with one of my friends (who's on book 2, whereas I'm on 6; I had a solid head start), so there's extra motivation to keep pushing forward.

Growth
I was recently challenged to get involved in some sort of service ministry - tutoring, serving food, that kind of thing - and to do a Bible study with one or more of my friends who are around my age. So, I decided to volunteer at the Manna House, which is where some people I know from my church serve. The Manna House is run by a local church and provides food, clothing, hardware, and toiletry items for free to families in need. I first heard about them when the tornadoes hit last year and so many people needed food and supplies. It was great volunteering with them, and I hope to go back soon. All the people volunteering there are so incredible, and I think I'd really like getting to know them better and to serve alongside them.

As for the Bible study, I've been really interested in learning more about the Holy Spirit lately. One of the best books out there right now on the subject is The Forgotten God by Francis Chan. I asked one of my friends from church if she would be interested in doing a study on it with me, and she agreed. We're meeting tomorrow for the first section in the study. I'm pretty excited about it. :)

Warrior Dash
Last week was my first strength training week. I'm still not sure if I'm reading the workout log right, but it's working, either way. The workouts aren't impossible, but they are definitely challenging. Looking forward to getting in shape and building up some muscle again!

I decided not to do any running this past week; I wanted to wait for my new running shoes to come in. They came in on Thursday and I ordered some inserts, which came in the next day. They feel pretty good, and I'm looking forward to taking them out for a spin.

There's a playground and an amphitheater up on the mountain (which is also where I run, sometimes), so I went up there one afternoon to see what kinds of exercises I could create that might better simulate the obstacles I'll be facing on the course. It was pretty fun climbing up and down ladders, running up slides, swinging across monkey bars, and so forth. The amphitheater was an especially good workout; lots of jumping, balanced running, and leaping. On my way back to the car, I saw some large rocks lining the parking lot, and figured it'd be fun to try and jump from one to the other. Dumbest idea ever.

Foot Injury
I landed my first leap fine for about one second, then my left foot slipped or something and my ankle rolled out, causing me to fall. It hurt quite a bit, and I spent about a minute just kneeling on the ground waiting for my foot to stabilize and get over the initial shock, so I could better gauge the severity. (I wasn't that rational about it at the time. It was more like, "Oh no! Just be still and maybe it'll stop hurting.") When that subsided, I stood up and tested to see if I could put weight on my foot - I could, but it hurt too much to take a proper step. Good thing I was already in the parking lot, because my car was maybe 100' away, and I could easily hop over there. I started elevating it and putting cold things on it as soon as possible, and continued that protocol when I got back home. There were 2 distinct lumps the first night, but they've since melded into one.

See that big reddish bump? The other bump is
smaller and directly below it. This was the
first night.

We decided not to go to the ER that first night, and to just wait and see what would happen. We've got some crutches on hand, so I used those over the weekend to get around. They're not that bad, really. I learned pretty quick how to maneuver corners, stairs, slopes, and various directions. It does get tiring after a while, though.

I went to the doctor today, and he thinks it may be a ligament strain, which was great news to me. We were looking at web articles and thinking it might be a fracture - which hasn't been ruled out - and fractures take at least 6 weeks to heal. But a strain would just take a couple weeks! The sooner I can heal up and get back to training (both martial arts and for Warrior Dash), the better. I went and got some X-Rays to rule out the fracture; the results will be in tomorrow morning, and I'll update once I know the verdict. Even then, though, it might be too soon for the fracture to show up, so if it hasn't mostly healed in a couple weeks, I'll go back in for another X-Ray to see if the fracture shows up then.

For now, though, I got this fancy walking boot! I can walk around and have both my hands free!! :D

So stylish!

The area of the injury is still pretty sore when I put weight on my foot in certain ways, and that foot's had a lot more activity today than it has all weekend. I'll keep up the ice and elevation as needed, but it's really more "very uncomfortable" than full-on pain, which I'm grateful for. Here's hoping it's just a ligament strain!!


That's all for now. I'll post an update tomorrow once I know the results of the X-Rays. TTFN, ta-ta for now! :)

Conspiracy, I say!

For whatever reason, I've been incredibly busy the past 2 update days for my blogs. Which is really kind of strange, when you consider that the other 5 days of the week, I've got basically nothing going on. So, I've concluded that life is possibly conspiring to make my decision to blog more of a challenge to stick with.

BUT I SHALL NOT YIELD.

Nay, though updates may come late, or may be short, or any other number of other descriptors indicating that posts will be any degree less than what they have been the past few months, I shall continue to update this blog!!

My resolve is steadfast and immovable!!

That being said, let's get to some updates, shall we?

Warrior Dash
     A couple of my friends recently posted excited links to this event on Facebook and G+. I went and checked it out, and it turns out the Warrior Dash is a 5K/obstacle course sponsored by St. Jude Children's Hospital! I've known some people who've had to go get treatment at St. Jude, and I strongly support their mission. Plus, I kind of wanted to get back into running, and this gives me a goal to work toward.
     But the thing that roped me in and left me no choice but to climb aboard the awesome train was the obstacle course. There are 14 different obstacles to go through along the 5K path, things like climbing, crawling, swimming, and leaping over things that are on fire. It's going to be such an amazing challenge, and I am psyched to run this thing.
     I don't hope to run for any sort of admirable time - finishing in an hour or less is all I ask of myself. But even that modest goal requires some training and prep work, so I did some hunting on the official website and found 3 different training schedules for the different levels of athlete (couch potato, mildly athletic, psycho athlete; I'm in the middle). The cardio part is a lot of running - no surprise there - and the strength training is pretty much everything. I started the latter program this morning, and I'll start the cardio once I get my new running shoes in. (I [accidentally] ran 4 miles on some mountain trails last week, and I was in my old pair of tennis shoes; I was limping a little by the time I finished. No more running until I get some shoes with proper support!!)
     If you're interested in signing up or maybe just checking things out, here's the official website: http://warriordash.com/ Oh, and there'll be a turkey leg and a free beer once you finish. :)

Job Hunt
     I'm still looking for work, but I've got 2 side jobs lined up. I'm taking care of a friend's cat for a couple weeks while he's out of town, and at the end of June I'll be proofreading a professor's paper. So at least there'll be some extra income while I search for a more permanent job.

Random
- I finally got on board with Pinterest. I can see how people would lose hours on it. Just scrolling through the "humor" pins took up a lot of my time last night. But, I am finding a lot of great recipes. Which is great because...
- I'm expanding my cooking repertoire. I made a few things during the semester when me and my friends would get together for dinner. I'm trying to build up a good stack of meals and snacks so that I'll actually be able to feed myself and others without shelling out hard-earned money on nasty ol' fast food.
- Some people at my church are going to be volunteering at the Manna House this Thursday night. I'm going to join them, and use this as a time to see if I should start plugging in there as a ministry.
- Re-watching Avatar: Last Airbender on Netflix (love that show!!) and just started watching the new series, Legend of Korra. So far it's pretty good.
- Still slogging my way through Lord of Chaos. It's a great read, it's just taking me forever.
- That cat I'm watching for the next 2 weeks? Yeah, she's a straight up ninja. We can't find her anywhere in the house! And she's not out in the garage, which is the only place she could've gone if she slipped outside a door. I'm not worried about her, but I sure would feel better if she turned up. Guess there'll be some sort of ruckus tonight when the cats find each other.

Alright! That's all I've got. See you next week!