Serenity

This painting is titled "Serenity," by Bill Davidson. It is a painting of the lake at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA.
I haven't posted in a while because I'm in another intensive summer class and I am exhausted. Just two more days, two papers and a project left (oh, and a major paper for CPE...). But, today, though exhausted, I am also renewed. Today I went with my class to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA. We met at 5:30am and rode together to the morning prayers. The majority of the morning was in silence--unless we were praying. We prayed the liturgy with the monks and received blessings during Mass, then ate breakfast of cereal and fruit in silence together. It was wonderful.

Another wonderful discovery today was the results of Mary Crist's CAT scan. Her tumor is 1/5th its original size! Yesterday, she had the stint to her pancreas removed and today she received her 5th round of chemo. She has one more round after this, but her prognosis is looking good! I am tired, but I feel serene.

The Tortoise and the Hair

A few days ago, it was raining pretty heavily, and a little turtle showed up on the sidewalk outside my window. I don't know where he came from, maybe he was temporarily flooded out of his home, but it was nice to see him for a little while.

I thought about him last night as we swam. One of the drills they had us do was a continuous 10 minute swim, with the entire group starting in the same lane. This was to simulate the start of a Triathlon, so we would feel all the bodies on top of each other and learn to navigate our way through it. Once we reached the end of the lane, we were to swim under the lane line and swim back the other direction in the next lane. We were to do this continuously for 10 minutes, and if we reached the end of the last lane, we were to get out and walk back to the first lane and start again. I completed the entire pool and half of the first lane again before they blew the 10 minute whistle.

Now, each lane is 50 meters long. There are 8 lanes in the pool. If we do the math, that means I swam a little more than 400 meters in 10 minutes. The swimming portion of the race is almost a mile. A mile equals 1600 meters, so I swam a quarter mile in 10 minutes! My pace wasn't piddly, but it wasn't fast, either. It was a good, steady pace.
Slow and steady wins the race! (Or, completes it, and that's my aim.)

At the end of my team swim work out, I was supposed to swim a 100 cool down. I realized, though, that if I swam a 200, I'd have swum a mile. So, I did. :D And I felt great afterwards!

The hair part of this, is that I'm starting to warm up to this new style. I can style it in about 5 minutes and it looks much more styled than my long hair ever did. I don't know if I will keep it, but I no longer hate it. :D

Sharing the Love

We've been going to the gym at 5am to do our training before work for the past two weeks. It's been very energizing. Today, though, I really wanted sleep. We were supposed to swim. Rachel swam and swam and swam in her own lane. I swam some. Then I floated on my back and dozed a little. :D

I deserved some sleep though, because yesterday was traumatic. I've been growing my hair out for Locks of Love. When you donate 10" of hair, or more, this organization makes wigs for children who have lost theirs to chemo or other illness/treatment. It's a fantastic organization. Amy is growing hers for Locks of Love, too.

Anyway, I had grown my hair intentionally for Locks of Love and was waiting until it was long enough that I would have at least chin length hair when I cut it. Yesterday was the day! In the series of pictures below, it is interesting to see how excited and happy I am at first. Notice, that first smile is a real smile. I asked the hairdresser to add a little texture to my hair. She kept adding and adding more "texture" (or rather, cutting and cutting more hair). You can see my face looking more and more worried and, in the last picture, you can see my totally fake smile--the one that says "Get me out of here!" Today, it looks much better. I styled it myself and flipped up the back, straightened the bangs, used a headband and earrings. The last photo is the one Va' Nechia took of me at work this morning.

A long time and a lot of new things!

It's been almost two weeks since I last posted and a lot has happened (which is why I haven't found the time to post).

1. Rachel and I won hats for having raised $1000 each by June 29th! So many people have been so generous! Thank you all, so much! I've received a few more checks in the mail that have not been posted on my account yet, but I'm now a little past $2000 of the $2600 I promised to raise. I only have $600 left to go! I've been very touched by the gifts, notes, and encouragement you have all sent me. This endeavor means a lot to me. It is providing an outlet for my fear and anger about Mary Crist's cancer. It is helping me get healthy--my clothes are fitting so much better, my knees no longer hurt, my energy is higher, and I can climb the stairs at work and home with ease. Plus, it has helped me get back in touch with many, many people.

2. For my birthday, my dad paid for my bike to get a tune-up and new tires. It's a mountain bike, but it's no problem to change the tires to slicks for the race. Instead of traditional slicks, which pop easily, requiring tube replacements in the middle of riding, I went with the police bike tires. They're just as fast (for my purposes--I'm sure Lance Armstrong wouldn't get them) an they are much more durable. Plus, they are the same price. Thanks, Dad!

This photo is of Chris a Atlanta Pro Bikes--he got my bike done in 1 day!
All the other shops said they could have it done in several weeks.

3. I bought a new car! This process was very time consuming and irritating--most of the car dealers I met really were slimy. But, I finally found a great car. It's an Eucalyptus Green '97 Accord Station Wagon. Hooray! I learned a lot about used car buying through experience and consumer reports. I'll post a top ten lessons I learned in another post once I take a picture of my new car. And, Allstate had the best service and the best rates for a good full coverage policy. Hooray!

Identical Shoes and Personal Missteps

Doesn't this look like a good shoe? I thought so, too. Apparently, Rachel thought so. And, so did Amy!

We ran 2 miles on Sunday morning at LA Fitness. Monday we were supposed to swim, but I wanted to visit with my mom and sister. Tuesday we ran 3 miles. Last night we rode 15 miles! My muscles are rock hard right now.
It's amazing how heavy your legs feel when you get off the bike. They feel like you are wearing cement shoes and every step requires major effort. I feel like this when I get off of the elliptical machine, also. Maybe my concentration on my heavy feet was what took up my entire attention, so that I didn't notice the sign on the locker room when I walked in. It took me a moment to realize--those people in towels, and nothing else--those are men. Whoops!

A Very Happy Birthday, to me, to me!

Bones, Karen, me, Rachel, Austin, Amy, Gretchen & Michelle

My 30th Birthday was very, very fun! My friends took me to the Shakespeare Tavern, which is a dinner theater here in Atlanta. The cast performed Cabaret and they were AMAZING! The actors were great actors, singers, dancers, and orchestra members! They did it all!

After the play, I opened presents and had a wonderful sugar-free chocolate raspberry cake that Rachel made. So much fun!

Haaaapppppy Birthday!

This has been a very, very busy month. It's been interesting fitting my workouts into the week. I'm working out 6 days a week now! But, this weekend, I will play and visit with friends. I turn 30 on Sunday and it feels very significant that I am training for something so important during this significant birthday.

On Wednesday, I sat with Mary Crist for a few minutes while she received chemo. The Atlanta Cancer Center where she receives chemo is very nice. It doesn't feel clinical. It has faux hardwood floors and comfy recliners sat in circular groups. It feels more like a living room than a medical center--wonderful! Mary Crist is good about explaining her treatments and letting us know what's going on with her, but I have trouble hearing it. Her cancer scares me, a lot, so I appreciated the comforting design of the chemo room.

Before her treatment, she received high levels of benadryl to help prevent possible allergic reactions to the chemo. She said it made her sleepy for a little while, but then it made her legs twitch. She also received rotuxin, which targets her B cells (fast growing cells). This helps the rest of the chemotherapy target only B cells which reduces her physical reaction to the chemo and helps the chemo target her tumors. Her hair is getting much thinner, but she still has it. Despite the thinning hair, Mary Crist is looking more and more like herself again. The swelling that she had from the cancer--both from retained fluid and from the tumor--has gone. It's nice to see this change.