March 3, 2008
February 24, 2008
Getting Better
So at the same time that the dirty little devil showed up on my face, I had some other health troubles. My tonsils started giving me a great deal of trouble! I had a fever for a few days, was weak and dizzy, my tonsils swelled up, got extra red, and got white spots in them. {SICK, I know!} It was nearly impossible to swallow. You know, just all around miserable. Oh, and I had that dirty little devil known as a cold sore. Well after a few days of this I broke down and went to the doctor. {I say broke down because I feel like going to the doctor is a joke... they never give me really good answers, or help me out all that much...}.
The doctor{I didn't see my normal doctor this time because it was on such short notice and he didn't have any openings} said it looked like Strep Throat, so we did a test. We did the test that gives immediate results and is accurate 96% of the time. It came back negative so the doctor told me it was probably a virus and to just wit it out. She did, however, give me something called acyclovir to help my cold sore go away. After about 4 days my throat was feeling better.
Here's how my mouth is looking, by the way--for anyone who cares.
Look, it's so happy to be looking mostly better!!!
Well, last Sunday my throat started bothering me again and all the mess with the tonsils came back, but worse this time! I gave it a few days again and once more went to the doctor{my usual doctor this time}. He asked me the usual questions and lolly gaged around a bit, and them he finally decided it was time to look in my throat. {I thought about taking pictures and putting them up here[in fact I even have one, but it is only sort of 'good'], but my throat was gruesome, and even I have some decency and know where to draw the line...}
Doctor: "Okay, go ahead and open your mouth, let's take a look"
Me: "Ahhhhh"
Doctor: "Oh wow! ....Well, there are only two things that look like that: strep and mono."
Yeah! BAD NEWS!!! So We took another strep test and sent it out to be tested to see if I fell in that 4%, and did some blood work to see if it's mono. I should find out tomorrow. He started me on an antibiotic in case it is strep, and since then the spots have left, the swelling and redness have gone down, and I can swallow again, so it seems like it would have been strep, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up in case that's not the case. {It's sort of funny that having strep throat would be getting your hope up... haha}. So we'll see....
But the GOOD news is that my cold sore is getting so so so much better!!!
The doctor{I didn't see my normal doctor this time because it was on such short notice and he didn't have any openings} said it looked like Strep Throat, so we did a test. We did the test that gives immediate results and is accurate 96% of the time. It came back negative so the doctor told me it was probably a virus and to just wit it out. She did, however, give me something called acyclovir to help my cold sore go away. After about 4 days my throat was feeling better.
Here's how my mouth is looking, by the way--for anyone who cares.
Look, it's so happy to be looking mostly better!!!
Well, last Sunday my throat started bothering me again and all the mess with the tonsils came back, but worse this time! I gave it a few days again and once more went to the doctor{my usual doctor this time}. He asked me the usual questions and lolly gaged around a bit, and them he finally decided it was time to look in my throat. {I thought about taking pictures and putting them up here[in fact I even have one, but it is only sort of 'good'], but my throat was gruesome, and even I have some decency and know where to draw the line...}
Doctor: "Okay, go ahead and open your mouth, let's take a look"
Me: "Ahhhhh"
Doctor: "Oh wow! ....Well, there are only two things that look like that: strep and mono."
Yeah! BAD NEWS!!! So We took another strep test and sent it out to be tested to see if I fell in that 4%, and did some blood work to see if it's mono. I should find out tomorrow. He started me on an antibiotic in case it is strep, and since then the spots have left, the swelling and redness have gone down, and I can swallow again, so it seems like it would have been strep, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up in case that's not the case. {It's sort of funny that having strep throat would be getting your hope up... haha}. So we'll see....
But the GOOD news is that my cold sore is getting so so so much better!!!
February 20, 2008
Gregron's Birthday
For those of you who don't know, this is Gregron:
Gregron and I are extremely close. I feel comfortable saying that the two of us could be called best friends... I have been known to say that I "love him more than any human child {Save Brig}". Some people don't think that is okay, but they just don't quite understand the intricasies of our relationship. Call me weird, think that's strange, but it is what it is...
Gregron recently had his first birthday, and like any good owner and best friend, I threw him a birthday party. We sarted out by all writing something that we loved about Gregron, and putting it in a bowl. We then passed then back out--making sure that no one had their own paper--and read them off in robot/computer voices. It was basically amazing!
After that it was cake time! We sang happy birthday and then Gregron blew out his OWN candle. How, praytell, did a computer blow out his own candles, you may be asking... Well, he's just that incredible! ...Okay, I shut him, and the air from that blew out the candle... but you have to admit, that's really RAD!
And here's a picture he took as he was blowing out the candles.
Happy first birthday Gregron! It has been an incredible year! I can't wait to see what the next has in store for the two of us!
Gregron and I are extremely close. I feel comfortable saying that the two of us could be called best friends... I have been known to say that I "love him more than any human child {Save Brig}". Some people don't think that is okay, but they just don't quite understand the intricasies of our relationship. Call me weird, think that's strange, but it is what it is...
Gregron recently had his first birthday, and like any good owner and best friend, I threw him a birthday party. We sarted out by all writing something that we loved about Gregron, and putting it in a bowl. We then passed then back out--making sure that no one had their own paper--and read them off in robot/computer voices. It was basically amazing!
After that it was cake time! We sang happy birthday and then Gregron blew out his OWN candle. How, praytell, did a computer blow out his own candles, you may be asking... Well, he's just that incredible! ...Okay, I shut him, and the air from that blew out the candle... but you have to admit, that's really RAD!
And here's a picture he took as he was blowing out the candles.
Happy first birthday Gregron! It has been an incredible year! I can't wait to see what the next has in store for the two of us!
February 11, 2008
Dirty Little Devil!
So I am a fairly healthy, normal, run-of-the-mill girl. I don't get sick very often, my blood is pure enough to donate often, and I'm not even allergic to anything.
Last Sunday {8 days ago [Camille, I used that beautiful bracket in honor of you] } I woke up with a COLD SORE! Of all things!!!!!! The little devil was there, on the top left portion of my lip--like he owned the place. Lest you be deceived, this was totally unexpected. This is cold sore #1 for me. I went 21 years, 8 months, 1 week, and 1 day cold sore free, and then BAM! one shows up.
DAY ONE
It started off really small and discrete like this. Not too bad. {I mean it was bad, but it wasn't as awful as it could have been [or would get...] }
DAY FIVE Little devil just got worse. Ugly, ugly, ugly!
DAY SIX
I think that this was the worst day of all! Bigger, uglier, and more painful than ever.
DAY SEVEN
This is today. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's much better today than it has been in the past. It isn't better yet, but it's on the way....
Stupid cold sore...
Pretty sure there's nothing that you can do to prevent cold sores, but do your very best to try not to get one: they are miserable--sent from Satan himself I think!
*******Disclaimer: I did not contract this from someone else as you may think! Tanner is the only boy I had been kissing and he has NEVER had a cold sore*******
Last Sunday {8 days ago [Camille, I used that beautiful bracket in honor of you] } I woke up with a COLD SORE! Of all things!!!!!! The little devil was there, on the top left portion of my lip--like he owned the place. Lest you be deceived, this was totally unexpected. This is cold sore #1 for me. I went 21 years, 8 months, 1 week, and 1 day cold sore free, and then BAM! one shows up.
DAY ONEIt started off really small and discrete like this. Not too bad. {I mean it was bad, but it wasn't as awful as it could have been [or would get...] }
DAY FIVE Little devil just got worse. Ugly, ugly, ugly!
DAY SIXI think that this was the worst day of all! Bigger, uglier, and more painful than ever.
DAY SEVENThis is today. You can't really tell from the picture, but it's much better today than it has been in the past. It isn't better yet, but it's on the way....
Stupid cold sore...
Pretty sure there's nothing that you can do to prevent cold sores, but do your very best to try not to get one: they are miserable--sent from Satan himself I think!
*******Disclaimer: I did not contract this from someone else as you may think! Tanner is the only boy I had been kissing and he has NEVER had a cold sore*******
February 4, 2008
Rain in a Desert
So I think it's so funny when it rains in Mesa. Rain and a desert just don't seem to mix very well!
Every time it rains and I have to drive somewhere, I have to plan an extra ten minutes to get there. Today it took longer than normal to get to ASU because the heavens blessed us with moisture.
This morning I got dressed and put on a blue and brown striped shirt, a blue undershirt, brown sweater, and blue jeans. I don't have good blue shoes, and my only good brown shoes are flip flops, so naturally I slipped those on on my way out the door. I didn't even think about the rain and my shoes being a bad combination. All day my feet have been cold, wet, and my shoes have been slipping about. I have had to walk extremely slowly and carefully as not to fall and break my back--or more tragic, Gregron (my computer in my backpack).
Half of my class was late today, but my teacher was okay with that:
"Oh, it's raining... We'll give everyone about 5 more minutes to get here..."
What?! That's just silly...
The funniest thing that I have seen today was when I was walking this morning. You know those little booties that doctors wear when they're in the E.R.? The little blue ones? Well, there were these three guys walking together and one of them had those over his shoes!!! did he really think that was going to help? Haha!
Oh, us poor desert rats... we don't know what to do in the rain...
January 22, 2008
First time and a failure
The body is an amazing thing! It is made up of millions and millions of different parts, working together, telling it how to work. Bodies breathe subconsciously, blood flows smoothly throughout the whole system, food gets digested, minds process and store information. Well, it just so happens that when my body was put together, it didn't get it's snowboarding gene...
To begin this story, let me take you back a month and a half. Someone in my ward sent out an email saying that a group of people were wanting to plan a trip to Brian Head up in Utah to go snowboarding. I have never had a burning or incredibly strong desire to go snowboarding, but it's always been there in the recesses of my mind as something I would like to try someday. Well, due to a number of factors: money, needing to take time off of work, the trip being planned for the same week as the beginning of school, the cold (my body and the cold do not get along-not one bit), the excruciatingly long drive (okay, it's not THAT bad... I mean I once drove to Canada...), and the FEAR OF FAILURE, I decided to pass and try my hand-or should I say feet-at snowboarding some other time, when another opportunity arouse. Well, I talked to my Brad brother and after telling him about the trip and what a good deal it was, he decided that we HAD to go.
Okay, let's jump ahead to the ski resort. We got to Brian Head, got our gear, lift passes, and headed to the slopes. I decided to go to the bunny hill to start off. Mckenzie Wright and decided to ride up on the lift together, but due to my shaky start on my board I couldn't move fast enough and missed the seat Mckenzie got on and had to ride up alone-which was okay... it was peaceful (probably the most peaceful part of my day to be honest). My peace, however, was swiftly disrupted when I had to get off the lift. That blasted lift DOESN'T STOP! Thankfully the lady 'manning' the lift exit talked me through it a little (but I still had troubles). I thought I had my footing okay, but boy was I wrong, that slippery little devil (known as my snowboard [this was only the beginning of my trouble]) slipped RIGHT our from under me and I fell right on my face! It didn't hurt, but about 5 people from my group were all right there watching me quite closely. And thus began my adventure. I scooted over to the side by Mckenzie, Tanner (he's my fabulous boyfriend of 3 months for those of you who don't know), and a couple other beginners and near-beginners. We clipped our boards on and everyone but me took off. I got my board on, but for my life I couldn't stand up!!!! It's so slick that every time I tried to stand up that blasted board just slipped out from under me. I look all around me and NOBODY else was having any trouble... After about the ninth failure I have a flash back *******I was about 10 years old and one of my cousins had a skateboard at my grandma's house. Everyone was taking a turn, catching on real quick, and having so much fun. They asked is I'd like a turn and I said, "Sure! Why not..." I mean everyone else was doing it and it looked easy enough... Well I stepped onto the skateboard and tried one little push. I don't know WHAT happened, or HOW it happened, but that thing and my body felt like they were made enemies!! It is a miracle that I didn't get killed: I came awfully close... It was then that I realized that I was meant to have both my feet wheel free, separate, and on solid ground-I guess I had forgotten*******
To begin this story, let me take you back a month and a half. Someone in my ward sent out an email saying that a group of people were wanting to plan a trip to Brian Head up in Utah to go snowboarding. I have never had a burning or incredibly strong desire to go snowboarding, but it's always been there in the recesses of my mind as something I would like to try someday. Well, due to a number of factors: money, needing to take time off of work, the trip being planned for the same week as the beginning of school, the cold (my body and the cold do not get along-not one bit), the excruciatingly long drive (okay, it's not THAT bad... I mean I once drove to Canada...), and the FEAR OF FAILURE, I decided to pass and try my hand-or should I say feet-at snowboarding some other time, when another opportunity arouse. Well, I talked to my Brad brother and after telling him about the trip and what a good deal it was, he decided that we HAD to go.
Okay, let's jump ahead to the ski resort. We got to Brian Head, got our gear, lift passes, and headed to the slopes. I decided to go to the bunny hill to start off. Mckenzie Wright and decided to ride up on the lift together, but due to my shaky start on my board I couldn't move fast enough and missed the seat Mckenzie got on and had to ride up alone-which was okay... it was peaceful (probably the most peaceful part of my day to be honest). My peace, however, was swiftly disrupted when I had to get off the lift. That blasted lift DOESN'T STOP! Thankfully the lady 'manning' the lift exit talked me through it a little (but I still had troubles). I thought I had my footing okay, but boy was I wrong, that slippery little devil (known as my snowboard [this was only the beginning of my trouble]) slipped RIGHT our from under me and I fell right on my face! It didn't hurt, but about 5 people from my group were all right there watching me quite closely. And thus began my adventure. I scooted over to the side by Mckenzie, Tanner (he's my fabulous boyfriend of 3 months for those of you who don't know), and a couple other beginners and near-beginners. We clipped our boards on and everyone but me took off. I got my board on, but for my life I couldn't stand up!!!! It's so slick that every time I tried to stand up that blasted board just slipped out from under me. I look all around me and NOBODY else was having any trouble... After about the ninth failure I have a flash back *******I was about 10 years old and one of my cousins had a skateboard at my grandma's house. Everyone was taking a turn, catching on real quick, and having so much fun. They asked is I'd like a turn and I said, "Sure! Why not..." I mean everyone else was doing it and it looked easy enough... Well I stepped onto the skateboard and tried one little push. I don't know WHAT happened, or HOW it happened, but that thing and my body felt like they were made enemies!! It is a miracle that I didn't get killed: I came awfully close... It was then that I realized that I was meant to have both my feet wheel free, separate, and on solid ground-I guess I had forgotten*******
At this point something in the back of my mind was telling me "Why are you doing this?! You can't even STAND UP!!! You're pathetic... Just give up, go back and try to get your money back. You have been trying to get up for almost 10 minutes and you can't even do that, for Pete's sake!" I almost listened, but then a louder, stronger voice in the front of my mind said, "Who are you kidding?! You're a BURNHAM! You don't give up!!! Suck it up... You can do it!"
It was then that I looked over and saw Brian and Lisa Coleman fresh off the lift: they could have been angels, the way it felt seeing them! [You will know how bad the situation is if you know two of them because they are not angelic in the least bit... haha] Well, Brian was good enough to come over and help me up. It's amazing how much easier it is to get up when you have someone to help you! Brad Brother happened to appear right after Brian helped me up and being the kind, good, teaching, patient brother that he is (yes, Brad IS all those amazing things!) , he gave me a little mini lesson and helped me out. I felt real bad because I was doing such a crummy job and I can only imagine how much Brad wanted to go out and throw some sweet jumps and what not. Well, he told me the basic things I needed to know, and then he physicallt helped me a bit. He help my hips and we boarded down the mountain. The only problem is, it's hard to navigate 2 people at once-we were losing control and gaining speed: a bad combination! We took a tangled, tumbling fall! It was the first one of the day, and I was in the company of one of my favorite people, so it wasn't too bad. Some of our friends saw, however, and said it looked pretty painful...
Brad helped me out for another 15 minutes or so, but then with my encouragement went on his merry little way. Together we had made it 60% down the mountain in 20 minutes; the next 40% would take me almost an hour!
I tried to stay positive on that freezing, lonely mountain, but it was hard-and with every passing minute it I got increasingly colder and it got increasingly harder. 30 minutes later I was about 50 feet farther down the mountain, 5 degrees colder, 5 times more discourages, and had fallen nigh unto 25 times!!! I decided that I needed to just take a little break. The problem with this sort of situation is you can't relax and take it east, you can't sit in a soft, warm chair till you're ready to try again--if you want a break all you can do is sit on the cold snow strapped to your board. As I sat there (for a good 20 minutes) I watched all sorts of people go whizzing past me: teenagers, adults, old people, and (this was the most frustrating...made me want to curse, to be honest) small children! I'm not kidding, there were 8-year-olds who were skiing and snowboarding down that mountain like it was a piece of cake... and there I was--a 21-year-old, and I could hardly stand up on my own! It made me think how unfair the world was...
(This is how I felt...)
Well, after the 20 minutes passed i realized that my bum was numb and losing feeling and that if I didn't stand up soon, I might risk getting frostbite, and i didn't think i could take that--not in the state I was in. So I tried probably 10 more times, and fell about 20 more times (mot sure how that worked, but I feel confident that I fell many more times than I got up... [It was at this point that I decided that I was SO GLAD--beyond measure--that I wasn't born a mermaid or a seal or something of that sort: I diffidently need two separate feet, which can move separately!]) Well, that was all I could take! I decided to unclip half my board and then sort of 'half walk' the rest of the way; I was so close... I unclipped one side and was even MORE clumsy than when I had both feet on the board--no good. I would have to unclip the other side as well and just walk down, like a failure. I got my second foot free, but before I could get a good hold of my board it started sliding down the snowy mountain. I mentioned earlier how slippery those boards were against the snow. Well, that thing went sliding toward the lift, and consequently toward a whole lot of people. With it's great speed it slipped into the mass of people and lift equipment and out of view...
Less than a minute later a worker--a sturdy man in his mid 20s--appeared holding my board, waiting for the owner to fess up. I contemplated running away and not claiming the board, but thought that they would find me eventually (especially seeing as they had my name and number on the paperwork that matched up with that thing). Well, ashamed as could be I walked over to get my enemy--the board. (One of the reasons I never got in trouble in school as a child is because I hate for people[esp. superiors] to be upset with me, and I detest confrontation... Well, no luck of escaping either of those things...) The worker asked me if that was my board.
"Yes, sir."
"Miss, you need to be more careful... there are a lot of people down here and someone could get hurt." (Does he really think I did it on purpose?!)
"I understand"
"You keep a better hold of that in the future, you understand"
"Yes sir, it won't happen again."
I walked away on the verge of tears...
I walked around for a few minutes, glad to be on two feet and in control of my movements again. I spotted Mckenzie and we chatted for a bit. She needed to go inside to find a screw driver to tighten her bindings, and I was happy to tag along. I killed some time with her inside and then she said she would love to go down the bunny hill with me...
The second time I actually got on the same lift bench as her, and coming off at the top I didn't fall--I was actually quite pro (well I didn't fall...) We both got in our boards and started. Sure enough I started with a fall and Mckenzie took off down the mountain--just me and the mountain once again.
I looked around and was pleased to see that there were more beginners this time down (it seems that only people who are hard-core go right when the resort opens... so the first time down I was surrounded only by 'pros'). There was an instructor giving a lesson near me and he could see that I was struggling so he had pity on my and let me listen in on the lesson he was giving. On my opposite side there were two girls about my age: one was okay, one was struggling. We started chatting and I learned that they were called Amber and April. They were going my speed and falling just as many time as me, so we stayed together for a while. Well this time down wasn't as bad as the first time, but it was still rough. I fell a LOT! I was gaining more speed, so the falls were a little more painful... One time I turned backwards, fell on my back, landed hard on my wrist, and hit my head real good.
Once again when I was nearly at the bottom of the mountain I was SPENT! I just couldn't go on... I unstrapped again (this time being super careful with my board) and just as I was getting ready to stand up a tall, blonde, attractive instructor about my age said, "Hey, what're you doing?!" I told him that I was ready to take a break, that I was going to walk the rest of the way down and give it another try later. He said that I had already paid to be there, and made it that far, and I couldn't give up. I told him that it was too late anyways, my board was already off and I couldn't get it back on... "Well, it's a good thing you had an extra set of hands!" he replied, and helped me back into my board. I got back up and rode pretty good before falling next to Amber and April. After crashing, the two of them congratulated me, and I said thanks, thinking they were referring to my snowboarding skills. They could tell I didn't understand what they meant and said, "No, we mean GOOD JOB" and motioned over to the ski instructor who had just helped me out. "Oh! That... Uh, that was nice of him..."
Well, I eventually made it down that second time. I decided to chill in the lodge for a while, and as soon as I sat down I realized how much my body hurt! My head was POUNDING from that fall I took, and my legs were shaky from all that squatting and up and down motion. Once I realized how much my body hurt I decided to just stay in the lodge for the remainder of the day... I visited with everyone I saw, and just killed time. It was fun to hear everyone's stories: victories, injuries, and tragedies.
(Once it was all over... there's the lift in the background)
The next morning when I woke up, I was SO SORE!! Sore places I didn't even know I had muscles! The saddest thing was that my neck was so weak that I had to help lift it up with my hand... I felt like a little baby--like a newborn that can't lift his head on his own; it was pathetic!
But now it's done and over, and my muscles are no longer sore. Now I can look back, think how pathetic and silly I was and laugh about it. People ask me how it was and I simply tell them, "It was an adventure!"
It was then that I looked over and saw Brian and Lisa Coleman fresh off the lift: they could have been angels, the way it felt seeing them! [You will know how bad the situation is if you know two of them because they are not angelic in the least bit... haha] Well, Brian was good enough to come over and help me up. It's amazing how much easier it is to get up when you have someone to help you! Brad Brother happened to appear right after Brian helped me up and being the kind, good, teaching, patient brother that he is (yes, Brad IS all those amazing things!) , he gave me a little mini lesson and helped me out. I felt real bad because I was doing such a crummy job and I can only imagine how much Brad wanted to go out and throw some sweet jumps and what not. Well, he told me the basic things I needed to know, and then he physicallt helped me a bit. He help my hips and we boarded down the mountain. The only problem is, it's hard to navigate 2 people at once-we were losing control and gaining speed: a bad combination! We took a tangled, tumbling fall! It was the first one of the day, and I was in the company of one of my favorite people, so it wasn't too bad. Some of our friends saw, however, and said it looked pretty painful...
Brad helped me out for another 15 minutes or so, but then with my encouragement went on his merry little way. Together we had made it 60% down the mountain in 20 minutes; the next 40% would take me almost an hour!
I tried to stay positive on that freezing, lonely mountain, but it was hard-and with every passing minute it I got increasingly colder and it got increasingly harder. 30 minutes later I was about 50 feet farther down the mountain, 5 degrees colder, 5 times more discourages, and had fallen nigh unto 25 times!!! I decided that I needed to just take a little break. The problem with this sort of situation is you can't relax and take it east, you can't sit in a soft, warm chair till you're ready to try again--if you want a break all you can do is sit on the cold snow strapped to your board. As I sat there (for a good 20 minutes) I watched all sorts of people go whizzing past me: teenagers, adults, old people, and (this was the most frustrating...made me want to curse, to be honest) small children! I'm not kidding, there were 8-year-olds who were skiing and snowboarding down that mountain like it was a piece of cake... and there I was--a 21-year-old, and I could hardly stand up on my own! It made me think how unfair the world was...
(This is how I felt...)Well, after the 20 minutes passed i realized that my bum was numb and losing feeling and that if I didn't stand up soon, I might risk getting frostbite, and i didn't think i could take that--not in the state I was in. So I tried probably 10 more times, and fell about 20 more times (mot sure how that worked, but I feel confident that I fell many more times than I got up... [It was at this point that I decided that I was SO GLAD--beyond measure--that I wasn't born a mermaid or a seal or something of that sort: I diffidently need two separate feet, which can move separately!]) Well, that was all I could take! I decided to unclip half my board and then sort of 'half walk' the rest of the way; I was so close... I unclipped one side and was even MORE clumsy than when I had both feet on the board--no good. I would have to unclip the other side as well and just walk down, like a failure. I got my second foot free, but before I could get a good hold of my board it started sliding down the snowy mountain. I mentioned earlier how slippery those boards were against the snow. Well, that thing went sliding toward the lift, and consequently toward a whole lot of people. With it's great speed it slipped into the mass of people and lift equipment and out of view...
Less than a minute later a worker--a sturdy man in his mid 20s--appeared holding my board, waiting for the owner to fess up. I contemplated running away and not claiming the board, but thought that they would find me eventually (especially seeing as they had my name and number on the paperwork that matched up with that thing). Well, ashamed as could be I walked over to get my enemy--the board. (One of the reasons I never got in trouble in school as a child is because I hate for people[esp. superiors] to be upset with me, and I detest confrontation... Well, no luck of escaping either of those things...) The worker asked me if that was my board.
"Yes, sir."
"Miss, you need to be more careful... there are a lot of people down here and someone could get hurt." (Does he really think I did it on purpose?!)
"I understand"
"You keep a better hold of that in the future, you understand"
"Yes sir, it won't happen again."
I walked away on the verge of tears...
I walked around for a few minutes, glad to be on two feet and in control of my movements again. I spotted Mckenzie and we chatted for a bit. She needed to go inside to find a screw driver to tighten her bindings, and I was happy to tag along. I killed some time with her inside and then she said she would love to go down the bunny hill with me...
The second time I actually got on the same lift bench as her, and coming off at the top I didn't fall--I was actually quite pro (well I didn't fall...) We both got in our boards and started. Sure enough I started with a fall and Mckenzie took off down the mountain--just me and the mountain once again.
I looked around and was pleased to see that there were more beginners this time down (it seems that only people who are hard-core go right when the resort opens... so the first time down I was surrounded only by 'pros'). There was an instructor giving a lesson near me and he could see that I was struggling so he had pity on my and let me listen in on the lesson he was giving. On my opposite side there were two girls about my age: one was okay, one was struggling. We started chatting and I learned that they were called Amber and April. They were going my speed and falling just as many time as me, so we stayed together for a while. Well this time down wasn't as bad as the first time, but it was still rough. I fell a LOT! I was gaining more speed, so the falls were a little more painful... One time I turned backwards, fell on my back, landed hard on my wrist, and hit my head real good.
Once again when I was nearly at the bottom of the mountain I was SPENT! I just couldn't go on... I unstrapped again (this time being super careful with my board) and just as I was getting ready to stand up a tall, blonde, attractive instructor about my age said, "Hey, what're you doing?!" I told him that I was ready to take a break, that I was going to walk the rest of the way down and give it another try later. He said that I had already paid to be there, and made it that far, and I couldn't give up. I told him that it was too late anyways, my board was already off and I couldn't get it back on... "Well, it's a good thing you had an extra set of hands!" he replied, and helped me back into my board. I got back up and rode pretty good before falling next to Amber and April. After crashing, the two of them congratulated me, and I said thanks, thinking they were referring to my snowboarding skills. They could tell I didn't understand what they meant and said, "No, we mean GOOD JOB" and motioned over to the ski instructor who had just helped me out. "Oh! That... Uh, that was nice of him..."
Well, I eventually made it down that second time. I decided to chill in the lodge for a while, and as soon as I sat down I realized how much my body hurt! My head was POUNDING from that fall I took, and my legs were shaky from all that squatting and up and down motion. Once I realized how much my body hurt I decided to just stay in the lodge for the remainder of the day... I visited with everyone I saw, and just killed time. It was fun to hear everyone's stories: victories, injuries, and tragedies.
(Once it was all over... there's the lift in the background)The next morning when I woke up, I was SO SORE!! Sore places I didn't even know I had muscles! The saddest thing was that my neck was so weak that I had to help lift it up with my hand... I felt like a little baby--like a newborn that can't lift his head on his own; it was pathetic!
But now it's done and over, and my muscles are no longer sore. Now I can look back, think how pathetic and silly I was and laugh about it. People ask me how it was and I simply tell them, "It was an adventure!"
December 24, 2007
Six things
I have been SUCH a bad blogger lately. In fact I think that it will be miracle if anyone even reads this-I suspect that everyone has stopped checking my site for updates. If, however, that is not the case, and you have not given up on me, BLESS YOU!!! I am going to be a better blogger... I hope that someday, when I grow up, I can be a blogger just like Camille (she is the epitome of bloggers in my mind: consistent, witty, clever, brilliant...)
Well I have been meaning to get back in the blogging spirit, but haven’t been able to find the motivation. Jami Parker Pitts just tagged me to do "Six Things". For those of you unfamiliar with this practice, let me explain: Someone tagged her and she had to write and expound upon 6 interesting/odd/clever/fun/random things about herself. After doing it, she had to "tag" 6 other people to do it next. Well now it's my turn-I get to come up with 6 things about myself...
1) I love noises and textures. Recently (and by recently I mean about 10 months ago) I have taken a great liking to crunching noises. I love to eat crunch things as loudly as possible. when thins aren't very crunchy, I like to enhance the noise, and I love to make crunching noises when I eat soft things-like tortillas and grapes-it really confuses people! I also love the crunching sound of leaves! As far as textures are concerned, I love feeling neat things: good carpet, fabrics, a bowl full of rice, basically anything that has a good feel to it...
2) I Think I want to live to be 100. When they built the new Carson Pool they sold bricks and the person who bought them could have written on it as they chose. My father is a supporter of the school and city so he paid for one for each of us kids. I thought long and hard about what I wanted mine to say. I finally decided on "Lindsey Bella Burnham 1986-2086" I now feel like it is my duty to live to by 100 years old. I stopped by and looked at the brick the other day and honestly it's not holding up too well-I don't know how long it'll last, so if I don't make it that long I'm not going to feel too bad... I don't know, the idea of living a round 100 years just seems nice. Mind you I only want to be 100 if I'm healthy-none of this feeble, decrepit body junk: I want to be spry!
3) I am addicted to Christmas. I LOVE the holiday season. I don't just like it a little bit, but I LIVE for this time of the year! I have a book of lists, and in there is a list of 14 reasons I love Christmastime. It's not quite as intenst or insane as it used to be, but I'm pretty hardcore!
4) I would love to be a linguist. I enjoy languages quite a bit. I think it would be fabulous to devote my time to learning the languages of the world (and then later on in my life traveling the world and using then and experiencing other lands and cultures... that would be my dream!)
5) Just about the only thing I am scared of is elevators. I had a terrible nightmare involving elevators about 9 years ago and they still sort of frighten me. I go on them, and I don't freak out, break out in a cold sweat, or hyperventilate when riding them, but they do scare me a little.
6) I’m tongue tied! That's right...I am tongue tied. For more information and the like you may read about Ankyloglossia HERE. It doesn't effect anything really: eating, talking... But this is what it looks like:
So that is that. I now tag six others: Brandon, Tessa, Shauna, Kristi, Karlie, and Kim. Enjoy!
Well I have been meaning to get back in the blogging spirit, but haven’t been able to find the motivation. Jami Parker Pitts just tagged me to do "Six Things". For those of you unfamiliar with this practice, let me explain: Someone tagged her and she had to write and expound upon 6 interesting/odd/clever/fun/random things about herself. After doing it, she had to "tag" 6 other people to do it next. Well now it's my turn-I get to come up with 6 things about myself...
1) I love noises and textures. Recently (and by recently I mean about 10 months ago) I have taken a great liking to crunching noises. I love to eat crunch things as loudly as possible. when thins aren't very crunchy, I like to enhance the noise, and I love to make crunching noises when I eat soft things-like tortillas and grapes-it really confuses people! I also love the crunching sound of leaves! As far as textures are concerned, I love feeling neat things: good carpet, fabrics, a bowl full of rice, basically anything that has a good feel to it...
2) I Think I want to live to be 100. When they built the new Carson Pool they sold bricks and the person who bought them could have written on it as they chose. My father is a supporter of the school and city so he paid for one for each of us kids. I thought long and hard about what I wanted mine to say. I finally decided on "Lindsey Bella Burnham 1986-2086" I now feel like it is my duty to live to by 100 years old. I stopped by and looked at the brick the other day and honestly it's not holding up too well-I don't know how long it'll last, so if I don't make it that long I'm not going to feel too bad... I don't know, the idea of living a round 100 years just seems nice. Mind you I only want to be 100 if I'm healthy-none of this feeble, decrepit body junk: I want to be spry!
3) I am addicted to Christmas. I LOVE the holiday season. I don't just like it a little bit, but I LIVE for this time of the year! I have a book of lists, and in there is a list of 14 reasons I love Christmastime. It's not quite as intenst or insane as it used to be, but I'm pretty hardcore!
4) I would love to be a linguist. I enjoy languages quite a bit. I think it would be fabulous to devote my time to learning the languages of the world (and then later on in my life traveling the world and using then and experiencing other lands and cultures... that would be my dream!)
5) Just about the only thing I am scared of is elevators. I had a terrible nightmare involving elevators about 9 years ago and they still sort of frighten me. I go on them, and I don't freak out, break out in a cold sweat, or hyperventilate when riding them, but they do scare me a little.
6) I’m tongue tied! That's right...I am tongue tied. For more information and the like you may read about Ankyloglossia HERE. It doesn't effect anything really: eating, talking... But this is what it looks like:
So that is that. I now tag six others: Brandon, Tessa, Shauna, Kristi, Karlie, and Kim. Enjoy!
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