OMG I'm having a baby!

No, not me... but great title, eh? An all time greatest baby shower moment happened today...

One my most favorite gal pals in the world, we'll call her Bina Garry, was having her shower this afternoon. She opens her first present. She holds up the cutest of cute little girly outfits... With tears in her eyes... She proclaims to the room, "Oh my God! I'm having a baby!"

Sometimes those moments of adulthood can grab you by the neck and chokehold you for a few minutes...

We've all had those moments, but I know I'm pretty darn happy to be where I'm at. I work with adolescents and teens. Whoo! Don't send me back there! Heck, I don't even want to revisit my 20's. I think it would be great if we could all look back at our younger days, blush with some embarrassment, have a tear for someone we've loved, stand tall for our accomplishments, know that we've touched a life somewhere, and smile brightly as we look forward to all that the future still holds! (Of course occasional moments of "Who am I? How did I get here?" are completely normal, too!)

Encouragement

I'm still coughing. I ended my anitbiotics on Monday, this is Friday. I feel a fraction better, but I thought that by the time I ended my 10 days of antibiotics, I would be so much better than this. The coughing is still so bad that I have major back pain. My coach recommended a chiropractor because I've put a tremendous amount of stress on my back with all my coughing. I've never been to a chiropractor before, but the pain is pretty bad. I was in tears this morning because I felt so bad. I think some of the tears were just plain sadness because I want to be better! Now! Before my Spring Break is done!!! So I can start training again!

Speaking of my coach, he's in California right now competing in the Ironman California 70.3 race! I think he'll do well! Good luck Coach Eddie!

I was online looking for inspiration and ways to keep my chin up while I work through this pneumonia bug. I found this video... WOW!!! If you're curious about what an Ironman is, you should watch this. It's only about a minute long. I've watched this several times... I WILL do this!

http://www.nasports.com/mediacenter/fordvideo/fordvideo.php

When you teach and live in the same area

Having a five or ten minute commute to work is a beautiful thing... Running into your students at the grocery store, gas station, rec center... Not as nice...

I've accepted that I will see my students everywhere if I live so close to the school I teach at. It hasn't been as much of a problem with middle school kids, they tend to hide, but the elementary kids are just the opposite. Elementary kids will yell from the end of a grocery aisle to say hi to you.

I only worry about this when I'm at the rec center... And my biggest fear came close to realized last night. I did my best walk/jog for a while on the treadmill. (It's still not going well with the pneumonia thing, but I'm trying to do something.) I go into the locker room to change so I can swim a few laps. Mind you, I have to get totally naked to get my swimsuit on. No one is in there, so I breathe a sigh of relief. Shortly after removing my shoes, two young girls come bounding in... To the locker next to me... And yes, they were former students of mine. Time for me to stall. I do not want my students to see me naked, nor do I have any desire to see them... Aaahhhh!!!! Creepy!!!!!!!!!!

One of the girls recognizes me, the other does not. I say "hi" and ask how school is going. They tell me they are in day camp. The babysitter/day camp girl appears nervous that I'm talking to the girls and rushes them on. Whew! They leave and I can finally change...

Only I start undressing and the little girl that didn't recognize me comes bounding back in screaming my name! Apparently she forgot her towel, only to realize she didn't forget her towel... Or at least that's what she told her babysitter. I think she just wanted to see if it was really me. IT IS. PLEASE LEAVE.

I change in peace and quiet. I go out to swim, and the girls start screaming my name to come swim with them on the other side of the pool. It really was a little embarassing. I wave and jump in my lane. I do my laps (coughing on the ends--stupid pneumonia!) The girls wave at me at every opportunity.

I enjoy the attention, because I probably won't receive this kind of attention for too much longer. They'll forget me sooner or later and the middle school kids will completely ignore me...

I go in to shower and change. Luckily, no spies are in proximity...

I'm drying my hair (with clothes on!) and I spot my nine-year-old neighbor putting her bathing suit on... Aaaahhhhh!

I turned my head and hid from her... She never saw me. Whew!

First Major Ironman Setback

So all was going well. I was hitting all the workouts my coach set for me. I started my own blog. I was excited about my Ironman adventure. Now, the whole time, I've just been one big complaining mess at work. I was lucky enough (I say lucky because I LOVED it, I know others that hate it) to be able to work in a year round school.

Here's the beauty of a year round school. You don't actually attend all year long. You attend the same as any other school, you just don't get your summer break. In a year round school, you get breaks all year long. On average, I had four three week breaks per year. They happened every nine weeks.

Back to my story... I think I uttered how much I missed my track off possibly three times last week. Everyone reminded that I only had two weeks until Spring Break... But it was driving me crazy because I needed a break ASAP.

Ask and ye shall recieve. At the same time I was complaining all week and tired at work, I also developed a nice little cough. It started innocent enough, here and there, and really liked to rear its ugly head after a run or a bike up a steep hill. The cough kept getting worse and worse all week. I was feeling yuckier and yuckier all week. At what point do you visit the doctor? I called Friday in the meager hopes that I could get in Friday evening, but the best they could do was Monday morning. Forget it, I ought to be better by Monday, shouldn't I?

Friday night was awful. I coughed and coughed and coughed. My poor husband... I emailed my coach and told him I couldn't do my prescribed bike on the trainer Friday night because I had a major coughing fit. He told me to see a doc. The way I felt Saturday morning--I WANTED to see the doc.

So I went into the after hours urgent care. The doc listened to my breathing and nonchalantly told me, I don't even need to do a chest x-ray, You've got pneumonia!

I was already feeling pretty bad on Saturday. The meds made me feel that much worse. Antibiotics and cough syrup with codeine.

I think I did my best impression of a bear in hibernation for the next four days. I slept, and then slept some more, and a little more. I took Mon-Wed. off work the following week. Today is Thursday. I'm still coughing here and there, but I'm feeling much better than I was. I think I'm going to try to jump in the pool and see how it goes. I'm pretty bummed because everything I read about the bug I caught, mycoplasma pneumonia, states that it can take up to 4-6 weeks for a full recovery... Ugh.......

I think I'm more embarassed that I hired a coach and he can only work with me for a week or two at time before I have problems again... Sigh...

There is one little piece of sunlight in this big mess. The doctor asked me if I found myself out of breath and tired. I told him that I work on the second floor at my school and I frequently got out of breath walking up the stairs, but I work out a lot and I assumed it was from that. He laughed at me and told me that I shouldn't be that tired. I just assumed I would always feel that way so long as I was training for an Ironman. Turns out, that's not necessarily the case! Yahoo!

Opening Day

When I first heard of blogging a few years ago, I thought to myself, "What type of pompous person thinks the rest of the world really cares to read their daily diary?" I thought it was a stupid idea. Well, time has passed, and as so very common in my life, I'm forced to later eat my words and discover that I was the pompous one all along.

I actually have several friends that started blogs. What I've discovered is that most of them start a blog, and then never actually continue beyond the first 10 posts. It's very possible that I might join them in my eager endeavor. We'll have to see. Nonetheless, it's been an eventful year thus far. I kind of wish I would have started this a while back. One of my very best friends in the world moved to Iowa. I miss you terribly and you know who you are. Two other very good friends moved to Texas. I have a couple friends going through divorces. I started a new job teaching middle school--which has been exhillarating and trying at the same time. I found myself stranded at the the Chicago O'Hare airport for five days while the Denver airport dug itself out of giant snowstorm. And... As a professional first, I lost a 14 yr. old student in my current 1st period class a little over a week ago. I've had a lot to journal about. I've never been one to keep a journal, or a diary for that matter, but you can bet money that I religiously get online every night to log my daily workout. (Definitely some obsessive/compulsive behaviors going on here...)

I usually find myself glancing at my friend's blogs. Nope, they haven't been updated in awhile. Hmm... I have a couple other favorites picked out. I'll glance over and see what other anonymous triathletes are up to. Did I mention I signed up to do and Ironman triathlon?

Yep... Guess that's the real reason I wanted to start up my blog. I fully realize I am one teeny tiny spec in this world and there are very few people that may actually care about my training and who knows what else. That's okay. I know there's lots more fun ahead of me this year--I'll be anxious to look back and see where I was and how I did. Here's to Ironman Florida!!! November 3, 2007!!!!! And whatever else the year has in store...