In Betweener

After one week of reminding Becky every day about our hangout planned for this Saturday, I ended up creating scandalous art alone. Which was fine. But talk about ADHD. 

We did work out every morning I could - which is M-W for lifting, F for basketball, and Thursday I took off to get my blood tested again.  

For mutual this week, we listened to a lady in our ward talk about how her only goal in life was to get married by 21 and then she went on a mission instead and baptized 3 people in Ireland and then felt like a failure for 30 years until one of her converts (an ex drug dealer) contacted her and told her he'd been sealed in the temple and served in a bunch of callings. It was good, but also, I cannot relate to most of her feelings.

I had my last Oly class on Saturday with Brian. He told me all about his future plans and we basically just worked out. The great news is that he is agreeable to let the boxing class part with a few heavy bags and pads and such. Now all we need is a venue and I have 3 immediate options. 

Roger's family had their monthly family reunion Sunday. Aka game night. Aka potluck of the century. I showed up for food and dipped because that is a LOT of people in a small house. Yeesh. 

Ragnarians Parte Dos

This week was a hot mess including only 1 short run, a Tuesday night boxing class (with scheming), and a YW pillow case creating activity. In addition to me crushing all my patients into basically 3 days (kill me). But that's not what's important. 

Let's talk Ragnar. 

We had 2 teams, each consisting of 8 runners, several of which backed out or were injured, requiring several last minute replacements. Luckily, Rog, my friend Lindsey from CO, and I were able to make it up to the outer Zion without complication and fueled by delicious Proper Meats sandwiches. (She has been lacking meat in her diet, so we made sure to rectify that ASAP).

The Crew.

Day 1 of Ragnar included setting up camp in a great location right behind the bathrooms/showers, and close to the starting line. Amy (who injured her hip and had to back out, but found her own replacement) made us delicious spaghetti - seriously, unparalleled. We had to wait for people to arrive and go sign the waivers (since they didn't online) and made sure Lindsey was oriented. We got our gear, including bright tye-dye sweatpants that fit perfectly. And tried to get to bed early. 

Love those early morning runs. 

Day 2 was race day. Our girls team started off at 8am with Heather, who passed the baton to me for my least favorite yellow loop (4.4 miles straight up and down a sandy mountain with no shade) - which wasn't as bad as last time. I did some walking and stretching and ate the best pulled pork ever (thanks Becky). 

It was crazy with two full teams and some extra people who wanted to support even though injuries prevented them from running. BUT. Eric, on the boys team, was super sick after his first run and we thought he was catatonic for a while, so we convinced Amy (injured hip) and Matt (fractured pelvis) to run his other two loops. 

The Finish. 

I played some Yahtzee and hung out at camp (with regular voyages into "Ragnar village" for free stuff). After drinking part of an energy drink I ran my Green loop (4.4 miles with pretty steep ups and downs) in the late afternoon and felt great. I ate some more dinner and almost a whole bag of chips and tried to sleep. Unfortunately, I do not consume caffeine regularly and was unable to do so. Rog, Linds, and I dipped in the ice tubs and then the hot tubs instead. 

On his way to try to catch Linds.

So I was awake when another runner decided they were out. This time from my team. And the loop they had left was the same as mine - the Red loop, aka the longest, hardest one. I ran my own loop around 3am, finishing before 5 and actually really enjoyed it. It might be my favorite one, honestly. But after I cooled down from that, there was no way I was running it again. 

I ate even more pulled pork and helped clean up camp and supported our other runners. The boy's team finished at around 10, and most of them left pretty quick. We hung out and waited while Eric (thankfully much recovered) agreed to run our last loop of the race. He killed it, Becky killed it, Lindsey killed it (also was set on NOT letting Rog lap her). We ended up 10th in the women's division. There were 400 teams overall, but not sure how many in our division. 

The Women. Minus Two. 

We took Becky with us back to Page (grabbed some chicken en route) and were actually able to walk into the house this time. We ate pizza, showered, napped, and then went to bed. We saw no snakes, but did eat some waffles/bacon and pork chops the next day. We leisurely made our way home to unpack. And met up with Taylor for some Enemy Rummy and a bout of trying to name everyone in our class (yikes). 

These kids. 

It was a fun time. I was pretty close to my times from last year, BUT my knee didn't hurt - which is SIGNIFICANT. I loved hanging out with Lindsey who I don't see or talk to often enough, but is an absolute delight and a beautiful friend. I also liked hanging with Becky and Rog, who I do see often, and meeting Brandon (even though the first night was a little rough). 

I don't like watching things.

 I'm still sad about the gym closing at the end of May, and so is everyone I know that goes there. I'm thinking the next best will be FAC, but it sucks. I've had the thought several times - well what do I have to stay in Flagstaff for NOW? But we have no immediate plans to move, so there's that. 

I was in charge of YW this week with just the younger girls. Last time, we had 2 girls. This time we had 8, which makes sense since we were making cobbler and playing around the world during the cook time. Everyone was so impressed when I told them to hit the corner of the square to make a layup, so that's how you get in with the kids for anyone wondering. 

I did a few runs this week and I'm feeling pretty good with my new running style. It's still slower than I want, but I cut 3 minutes off my 6mile run this week with no lingering knee pain afterwards - so that's all I can hope for. The knee pain mid run can be debilitating and really killed me for my last 2 runs of Ragnar last year. 

Speaking of which, Becky and I had a late-night hangout to get our Ragnar teams fixed up and do some planning and have a heart to heart. She's got the cogs turning for me, so there might be more to do on that front. 

My work drama is that our PTA, who we don't love and who we can only trust about 30% of our patients to, who has been unreliable of late and finally decided to go part-time instead of full, and THEN decided he wanted a ridiculous raise (so he makes more than the PTs) is being very unhelpful and I'm over it. Anyone know any PTs or PTAs looking for PRN work, send them my way. 

We also had our mock survey this week (where a visitor comes on one visit per clinician and makes sure we're doing stuff the right way). I think it went well, but we won't have the full report til next week. I was somewhat frustrated with the "2 minute interview" that lasted over 20 and all of her questions - which were vague, looking for a specific answer. 

Rog planned to take me on an uphill run so I could get some elevation under my belt, but he refused to wake up in time to get it done Saturday morning, and we spent the rest of the day trekking out to the temple and back. Apparently nobody knows that you can go in the celestial room without having to do a session immediately prior. Also, love the new temple vid. Way better, way clearer, let's go P Nels.

Church was church. Somehow I got added to the music text list, so if I ever have to sub, they are gonna have to sing the hymns about 10x faster than the current dirges. After church, we had some banging burgers and watched part of Willow. Then Rog wanted to go watch the game and was begging me to go all day, so I went and read a book.

Turkey Hunting

The big news of the week is that MY GYM IS CLOSING. I am devastated. It has everything I want - boxing classes, Oly lifting, and just a superb variety of spaces and equipment that are kept really nice by one of the co-owners, Brian. He does work. However, apparently they got a stupid good deal to take over the space and the equipment, but if a boxing bag or two goes missing in the next few weeks, I won't tell. 

am i annoying yet

We ate a new restaurant, Dirty Birdy's where Rog and Stu were apparently expecting to watch the game, but it wasn't a vibe, so we ended up at Grandma's. Let me be real though, watching sports, not my fave. I would 100% rather play than follow some random old guys who don't know what a travel is. But alas, it is a favorite hobby of most boys and Grandma could use the company.

The company leadership was in town this week to renegotiate our contract with the hospital, so they decided to join our weekly staff meeting as well - only 40 minutes late. They then made the mistake of telling us that we could go to them with whatever requests we had. I asked if they wanted the list of demands now or later, and they chose now. 

a bunch of fishies

The other fun event of the week was joining Rog for a campout with his friend Collin, and his dad Jeff. They were out looking for turkeys, which I didn't want to be a part of. But I did want to eat tinfoil dinners again. 10/10. I spent the night and left the next morning for a productive day of cleaning the whole house, running, showering, and then going to a movie with my friend Rachel before settling down and working on my side hustles. 

the biggest fishy

After I went to Stake Conference alone (relevant because the week prior, Rog gave a talk where he 'realized that he needed to be in church on Sundays and not fishing' which I have yet to see evidence of) - I joined Roger for a fishing trip at Ashurst and we have been reaping the benefits using our smoker and saltblock ever since.