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Oct. 2, 2006 Ok, so I'm
going to try something new. I'm going to put what I used to put on the "journal" page on the home page. That way people can
read that instead of going through pages that take forever to load. When I put something new on the home page, I'll move the
old post to the journal page.
Allright here we go. I'm listening to the radio through my computer, and I never realized how much different music was
available. There's everything from Broadway showtunes, to gospel, to news to traditional African music to heavy metal. It's
AMAZING!! i love it. Right now I'm listening to this Aussie "Cruize Raddio" "Why surf the internet when you can cruize it?"
they ask. On to school, our football team
lost to Wisconsin over the weekend, 52-17!!! That's as bad as my high school team! It was 52-0 in the 4th I think, maybe the
end of the 3rd, but we somehow managed to scrounge up some points. It was bad. I don't know much about football, but I can
recognize good and bad play in sports, and that was B-A-D BAD. I'm coming home for the weekend of Oct. 14-15th woo hoo! It's may grandma's birthday party. It'll be nice to see everyone.
Me and my cousins are the first wave of grandkids/nieces/nephews/sisters/etc to go away to school. Oct.
1, 2006 It's officially what I would call "Fall" right now. Te leaves are turning all sorts of spectacular
colors (Not on the tree outside my window though-see "photos" for that) Everyday I go for a ride they're a different color.
It's great. I'm finding lots of people to ride with which is good. I even went to an IU cyclocross race today. I didn't race
but I was there for moral support. Next week is the Hilly Hundred, a two day, 100 mile ride through
the hills of Indiana. It starts close to campus, so a bunch of us are going to do it. I looked at the course profile, and
it is HILL-Y!! Some sections are +20% which means tough climbs, and sweet descents. Sweet, sweet descents. Classes
are going well too. I'm still interested in what they're teaching so that's good... Sept. 27, 2006 Well, this updating thing is a sloooow process! O well, slow and steady right? Classes
are going well so far, luckily I didn't miss all that much. Just a TON of reading, but no projects or anything. I've been
reading a lot lately, me and my $100 Psych book are becoming quite good friends. Same with my Rec & Leisure book. At least
they're interesting...sorta. I found some peoplel to ride with! There was a sign posted in the stairway
about Teter Cycling (Teter is my dorm) so I told 'em I wanted to ride. We went out yesterday, and today just one other girl
and I went for a short ride. The roads are pretty nice here, and the dirvers are good about driving with cyclists. There are
a lot of hills though, there's a bunch of little poppers, but a few sustained grades here and there. Maybe I'll be able to
climb like a goat for next season...
Sept.
22, 2006 I’m finally back in America, and at IU. (Indiana University)
I got home-Chicago, Tuesday night, and had that night and the next day to
unpack, do laundry, assemble bikes, and repack to go to school. This reality thing sucks! I just
want to ride my bike.
Forget school and work- let me ride! I spent today trying to get all my stuff where it belongs
(There sure isn’t any extra space that’s for sure) and figure out where
everything is on campus. Most of my classes are straight in a row, right near
my dorm which is nice. My dorm (Teter-Elkin) is right in the middle of campus
so everything is reasonably close by. I exchanged my Psychology book for the correct one. The new
one turns out to be basically the same as the one I used last year. It’s just
the next edition. I have the old study guide, which will be helpful. They
correspond well enough. I planned my schedule to allow for morning training sessions
so my earliest class is at 11:15, Tues/Thurs. and Mon/Wed I don’t start till
3:35. Friday is the worst I think. My ONE class that day isn’t till 5:45. I
have nothing at all until then. It kinda sucks. BUT now I’ll have some time to
keep this thing up to date. I’m not riding this week. I need a break. I don’t
want to over do it, this past month has been pretty intense, so I figure I’ll
just put the bike in the corner, and relax for a few days.
Sept. 16, 2006 The TT!! When we woke up at 0:dark-hundred
(5:45) this morning it was
cold and overcast. Not the way I wanted the day to be. By the time we left for
the races though (about 7:30) the sun had started to come up, and burn off some
of the clouds and fog that had settled in the valley. (The town of Aigle is
about 12k down the mountain in the pancake flat valley.) It was still only
about ~68° when I started warming up outside out container. I had a good warm
up-got the wheels turnin’, the go sticks going, and the heart pumpin’. I got
off the trainer, put my skinsuit, shoe covers, arm, and helmet on and rolled to
the start ramp. I went off at 10:02:00; second rider of my class. I was the
meat in a sandwich with Chinese bread, the first one went off at 10:01. And the
next at 10:03. The course was very technical, two loop 16.8k course, and
started off with a 180° turn about 700m
out of the start gate. There were several sweeping turns, another
hairpin, this time uphill, and some tight 90° turns. In practice, I took them
all very well, but sorta backed off today. I’d rather lose seconds being in
control through the turns, than minutes picking myself up off the ground. Anyway,
I had a good start, and was
making up time the first lap. ¾ of the way through I was just 10 seconds behind
the first Chinese girl. I stayed there through the beginning of the second lap,
then started to fade. With about 4k to go, the second Chinese girl caught me.
She was cooking. I’m not sure which one is which (they look the same to me) but
one got on the podium. Third I think. I rode a 27:43.something which I’m very
happy with. I finished 7th, but was only 8 seconds out
of 5th,
and about 1:30 out of 3rd.
I gave it everything I had, no regrets. Craig was surprised, and we
figure that I’ll be able to take 25-30sec off each year for the next several
years. Tomorrow is another rest day for me, thank god cause
I’m
cooked. I got home from the race, curled up on the couch, and was out for 3 ½
hours. It was great! I woke up just in time to get a light massage, then went
down for dinner (chicken and macaroni noodles) We’re making
up for our lack of medals on the track. Today
we took home three more in the TT. The women’s tandem took gold-WORLD
CHAMPIONS!!!! Barb got silver in the LC3-4, CP-3 and Allie took bronze in the
same category. The rest of us had good solid times, none of which were that far
out of the medals. Tomorrow the first road races start, the handcycles and men’s
LCs race tomorrow so that’ll be a good chance to get some more hardware.
Sept. 13, 2006 I know all of you have
been on the edge of your seat waiting to hear from me, so here it is.
Yesterday was the last day of the track competition,
and my 500m
(meter) sprint. That's my worst and coincidentaly
my least
favorite event. I'm not a sprinter, plain and simple. So the time comes for our
session to start, I'm second unlike for the pursuit where I was
numero uno (thats #1 for the non-spanish speaking readers) The rider before
me one of the Chinese athletes (I call them the posers cause both of
them in my category have two hands that work damn well on the bike.)
anyway, she goes, and sets a new world record (38.02 seconds). I'm
sitting there thinking "Great, this is JUST what I needed right before my
race." I'm nervous to begin with, then having to follow that up=not fun. I
get up there, and Craig (our coach) gets my bike set in the start
gate. I'm trying to relax, and just think about riding my ride. I get out
of the gate clean, and start winding it up through the first turns.
I get my first half lap done, and then-I'm not sure if it was with two
laps or one lap to go, I think two, but going into turn three my front
wheel slipped and I started wobbling really bad. I didn't go down
(Thanks to Randy's track clinics :) ) but that cost me about a full
second. I ended up riding a PR, I cut about .8 seconds off my time from
nationals. I never settled in, and relaxed which is what I think
caused me to bobble on the first lap. I finished behind the Canadian, so
I'm not the all-around one armed track champion of North America lol, but
it's all good. She only beat me by .036 sec. I know I can beat her
though, So I'll just have to settle for "North American One Armed
Pursuit Champion" instead :) I have the day off today,
and tomorrow also. My time trial is Saturday, then my road race is on
Monday. All of the english speaking countries are teaming up against
the Chinese in the road race. There are 4 english-ers and two
Chinese in my category, so we should be able to hold them off. They're
both sprinters so if we can drop them early, or make them do all the work
and tire them out we should be set. But if they hold on till the
end, it could get a little crazy. I think it'll come down to a sprint
anyway, but it'd be nice not to have two sprinters
in that
mix. 5 more days in the
Alps... Greta
Sept. 11, 2006 Well, despite my best
efforts, I didn’t advance to the finals tomorrow. BUT i did ride my personal
best for the pursuit (4:21 for 3 kilometers) and I'm the best in North America.
I beat the Canadian by about 3 seconds. WOO HOO!!! I took about 4 seconds off
my pursuit time at Nationals. I was the first rider of the session, so I was
sitting in first for a while :) the girl that took first rode a 3:54 or
something insane like that. I'm happy with my ride, I went out a little hot
from the start, then faded towards the end. My first 7 (of 15) laps were right
on schedule, but then the anchor started to go out. I went from riding 15.5
second laps, to almost 17 second laps. It's all good though, Shane, I was
workin on turning my brain off. I went about 12 laps feeling good, then it got
the best of me. next year though. I did get my entire race on video, so I'll
have that sometime. My first international race-when I'm old I'll be able to
look back on that and see how green I really am.
I stayed for the rest of
the afternoon and watched all the other races. They were pretty awesome. There
were a bunch of world records broken, then broken again in the same session.
The kilos for the tandems were wicked fast. The British rode a 1:03.something,
then the 2nd/3rd place Aussies were within a second of that. We saw the
Canadiens shred a tire and eat it hard then get up and try it again after
everyone had gone, and the Greeks false start twice, pursuiters get lapped-more
than once, illegal race setups, dopers, (and people that could use a little
extra help). That was all in day 1, tomorrow has some more finals, and the
womens tandems start. I'm just
going for an easy road ride tomorrow, then will stop by the track for a while
and see what’s up. My 500m TT is Wednesday,
there’s no qualifier- its just the final. Well, I'm off to bed, I’m
pretty cooked. The fastest
one armed
girl in north America, G
Jul.
5, 2006
Wow it's been a long time since I updated this thing. A little site called facebook is taking all my time, its so addicting!
Well, now I'm writing, so I may as well tell you all the things that have happened in a month.
First off I graduated from high school three weeks ago. YES!!!! free at last! It was a long ceremony, like 2 1/2 hours.
Yea there were a lot of us (almost 400) but there was a lot of talking before/after the name reading. Whatever, it was an
amazing day and now I feel old.
The Saturday after graduation was the Illinois State Junior Track Cycling Championships. I was a looooong, fast day of
racing, six races total. They combined the boys and girls categories because the fields were small, and it was a scorching
hot day. But it was all worth it. I’m the 2006 Junior Girls Illinois State Track Cycling Champion. Whew that’s
a mouthful. Since then I’ve been racing both juniors and women's on Thursday nights (our regular track racing day)
to prepare for Nationals.
Good segway Greta-on to Nationals. I’m going to Pittsburgh tomorrow for Cycling Nationals. I’m driving
out with the xXx team coordinator who has some family in that area. My first race isn’t until the 12th, but I figure
I’ll go out early (avoid having to fly with al my stuff) ride in the area, and see some of my fellow xXx’er
juniors race. (There are six juniors from xXx going to Nat's this year, more than any other year. Woo hoo go xXx!!!) Anyhoo,
my first race is a 20k TT (Time Trial-a race against the clock) on the road. After that, I travel with the US Paralympic team
to T-Town (Trexlertown) on the other side of the state, for track Nats. There I’ll have two races, a 500m TT, and
a 3k pursuit. The 500 is simple-go balls out for 500 meters and the fastest one wins. The Pursuit is pretty simple too. Two
people start on opposite sides of the track and try to catch each other. If neither person catches the other, the person to
finish 3k the fastest wins. Hopefully I’ll make the US Paralympic Cycling time standards and then qualify for a
spot on the National team. Hopefully I’ll pick up a stars and stripes jersey in the process (That's what the champion
gets)
For those of you that don’t know, the Tour de France started over the weekend. It’s the biggest race
in cycling, lasting 23 days, and covering 2300 miles. (Yes that says 2 thousand 3 hundred miles). In an exciting turn of events,
the day before the Tour started, about 35-40 riders were pulled from the start list because of involvement in a doping scandal.
This doesn’t mean that they were all doping (although they probably were) their names came up in investigations,
and they had affiliations with doctors, trainers, managers, riders that were under investigation. Two of the biggest names
in cycling Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were involved and subsequently pulled from the tour. That sucks for them, as they were
both very capable of winning the Tour this year (maybe because they’re doping?????) But this does open things up
for the Americans, Floyd Landis, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie, and Bobby Julich. I think Floyd is gonna
win it this year. He’s had several big wins so far this year and he’s only 16 seconds back after the 4th
stage. And he’s mennonite so I don't think he’d dope. In second, I have George Hincapie. I don’t
think he’s a doper either. Why dope if all you do is kiss Lance’s ass? He’s only 6 seconds back,
and has already worn the yellow jersey this tour (his first jersey ever). I think he’s doing so well cause he can
finally ride for himself, not Lance. And in third, I think it’ll be an unknown rider.
Next time I write I might have a stars and stripes jersey!
Jun 4, 2006
I'm writing from the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center, for cycling camp. I got in yesterday afternoon. This is
my first time in the Springs, and so far I like it. The altitude is about 6100 ft, much different from Chicago's
585 ft. Today was a rest day for everyone, except me and two of the handcyclists. They were leaving, and I was just getting
here, so I couldn't start off with a rest day. We rode out about half an hour, through town, till the foothills of the good
ol' Rocky Mountains for some steady state intervals.
Despite struggling to breathe, I couldn't help but notice the amazing scenery. Trees everywhere, cliffs, little dirt
roads, and the rest of the mountains. We can see Pikes Peak from the OTC. Pretty cool!
Tomorrow I should be at the track, on the rail at 9am ready to go. The 7-Eleven track is a 333m, paved track with some
grade between 17 and 45. I think it's like 30, but I could be wrong.
I'll be posting pictures when I get home.
May 13, 2006
My birthday was last week. You know what that means, I"M LEGAL!!! YAY!!! Instead of going out and buying cigarettes
or porn (a lot of people suggested that, along with a voting spree) I went out for lunch. We had a half day of school, and
late soccer practice. The whole team went to Chinatown and ate enough food to feed the entire Chinese nation. Then ran around
for two hours, then ate cake and brownies. My healthy food diet was shot to hell to say the least. It was a ton of fun though.
Prom is coming up soon, 3 weeks away. My friend Ben and I are going. We both want to wear cool outfits, nothing boring.
I got a dress today, actually two cause I coudn't decide. One's hot pink, and the other one is a lighter pink. I like the
hot pink one better. (The lighter one makes me look even whiter than I am, which I don't need AT ALL. If I were any whiter,
I'd be clear.) Maybe we'll find a hot pink tux for Ben to wear too... Don't worry, I'll post pictures.
The day after prom I fly to Colorado Springs for cycling camp. This camp is a preparation for Nationals, and my chance
to actually make the Paralympic team.
Tomorrow is Mom's day. I love you Mom! And we're going out for breakfast, early. So I'm gonna go to bed now.
Till next time!
Apr. 27, 2006
YAY NO SCHOOL!! Thank you juniors! Juniors have had testing yesterday and today (ACT/PSAE) which means no school for the
rest of us. SCORE!
Yesterday I shadowed at the Rehab Institute for my anatomy/physiology class (We have the option of shadowing someone in
a health related field or going to a lecture at U of C) It was pretty cool, I went to a staff meeting, and a lunch meeting
where we talked about summer programs and planning. I liked it a lot. Thanks Barb!
I also had a soccer game, we played Lane Tech (One of our, I guess rival schools) We had the shittiest refs on the planet.
Almost every call was in favor of Lane, it was bull shit, they'd pull our jerseys, or throw an elbow, and we'd get called
for it. I don't mind when refs call stuff, but not every 5 seconds, you can't possibly play soccer like that! I was ready
to punch them in the face, I'm sorta surprised I didn't get called for yelling at them... our team got 3 yellow cards for
that. I scored the first goal (My first of the season) like 20 min. into the first half. Then we scored again with about
7 min. left in the second. Then, we got a foul in the box- penalty kick. Damn (It really was a foul though.) They scored,
but when they got the kick the game was already over, the refs let them take it, and score. Damn bastards, giving them the
chance to feel good. PSSHHH! Whatever, they couldn't score in regulation time, so if that's the way they need to score go
ahead, we still won. And we dominated the ENTIRE game so it's all good.
Tomorrow morning we're going to Bloomington-Normal for a tournament (Again no school for me!!!!!!) It's gonna be awesome,
I can feel it. We're only playing two games, but they're gonna be tough.
Apr. 22, 2006
So it turns out that when I landed on my head in that crash last week I got a concussion. I was feeling really sluggish
when I got home, and couldn't talk as quickly as I usally do. After three days, and a soccer game of constant headaches, I
went to the doctor. She sent me to the hospital and they told me I had a concussion. Great. Just what I needed to hear the
week I have 4 soccer games in a row, then 4 more the week after. They had me take a week off from EVERYTHING. I can't even
ride on the trainer. It's torture. My week of hell is over on Monday and I can play again. So this past week sucked, partly
'cause I was concussed, and partly 'cause it was the first week back from break and back to reality, and mainly 'cause I had
to sit and watch 4 games from the bench. Needless to say I'm ready to get back in the game, and back on the bike.
Since I've had a little more spare time, I thought it'd be good to update this thing I call "My website". I
uploaded a bunch of pictures from camp, and am writing this journal entry right now, and will post more pictures as soon as
I'm done writing.
We'll I'll get back to my uploading/posting. Hopefully it'll be a little more enjoyable of a site with some pictures......
O!! Sign my guest book! (I just added that too)
Apr. 12, 2006
PARALYMPIC CYCLING CAMP UPDATE #3
So I'm done with camp now, and I fly home tomorrow. (Did anyone notice that
I started all three updates with "So I-"??) We had that ass kicker TT the other day, it wasn't as bad as I remember it being
in December, but it was still awful. I cut two minutes off my last time though so I was stoked about that. It took 4
times as long to climb as it did to come down....maybe that give you guys some perspective on how hard this climb was.
Tuesday morning we packed up the USOC vans and headed to Carson, CA
home of The Home Depot Center and the ADT Velodrome (the only indoor track in the US).
After a cramped 2 1/2 hrs in the vans we got to the track, and let me tell you, bring extra bibs cause I just about peed my
pants walking in there. We came in through the access tunnel that enters righ into the infield, and all you can see coming
in is this wall of wood. Standing in the infield made me feel like an ant inside a funnel. It's a 250 wooden track with 44*
corners. The straights there were more banked (17*) than the corners at Northbrook. This
place makes Northbrook look like a dinner plate. Needless to say I was a little nervous getting
on that thing, I think I took about 8 laps around the flats, first to get a feel for my new bike, and riding a fixie, and
this monstrosity of a track. Once I remembered to breathe and relaxed a little bit I started picking up the speed and riding
on the poll line, then up out of the sprinters lane to the stayers line, and finally after about an hour up to the rail at
the top. Holy cow that's a long way down, and pretty wierd to see bikes flying past 15 feet below you.
I don't think we were there 20 minutes and we allready had our first crash. One of
the guys had never ridden track before, so he was rolling around the flats gradually picking up speed until he needed to stop
but didn't know how. He T-Boned this guy ( I guess it was his own coach) and his whole fork came apart. It just sorta....fell
off. Moral: Don't get the eBay special track bike, especially if you don't know where its coming from!!!
After a good warm up we started working on kilos, starts, and some paceline
tactics. During one of the paceline exercises we had a nice little pile up. Crash number two was me and the guy in front of
me, Scott. He hit the guy in front of him and went down, and since I was so close to him, I went down too. Luckily there
were no broken bones, just bike parts. He bent his rear wheel, and snapped an aero bar off, and I shredded my front tire (actually
it was Marcus's. Now I owe him a new tire) on his cog. He had some nice track burn all over his elbow and knee, and I took
most of the impact on my hip. I walked away with his wheel imprint on my hip in three places, and a little scraped ankle.
If you're ever on the ADT track and you see the piece of tape on the back straight, right next to the red line going into
turn three, that's from me.
Today we spent the morning at the track doing some of the same stuff, with a focus
on starting. I'd only done a standing start twice at Northbrook, once at the clinic and once for a
chariot. They do this fancy here, we used a genuine starting gate with the buttons, and the seat post clamp, and stopwatch.
That stuff is fun, I like starting.
After returning to the OTC we got on our road bikes for a recovery ride. It was supposed
to be a nice easy 45 min spin. It was an easy spin till I hit a block of asphalt the size of my head. Again I was riding behind
two people, and couldn't really see the road ahead of me. The first person swerved out oft he way, and the second one said
"Rock" and avoided it, but by then it was too late and I was allready in the air about to land on my head. I did, and split
my helmet open into about 4 pieces, slid on the shoulder, elbow, and hip. Luckily, maybe, I landed on the previously un-injured
side and slid for a little while. Pactimo makes some good uniforms, cause my jersey didn't rip it just got rubbed down, like
old sandpaper. I should send them a note....
I'll be home tomorrow, watch out reality here I come. All in all this was an awesome
camp. I learned a lot, like making sure to tuck your head when you crash, and important things like that. I'll be kicking
off the season with some road rash and bruises and of course the tan lines ready, shorts, jersey, glove, helmet and glasses
are good to go. I'm like a candy cane and lovin' it.
Your very sore teammate
Greta
Apr. 12, 2006
PARALYMPIC
CYCLING CAMP UPDATE #2
So
I've been here almost a week, and its great! yea, I'm cooked, and sunburnt, but thats ok. This is my kind of spring break!
The
last couple days have been tough. We've done one TT, TT intervals, high speed sprints, endurance rides, and lab testing. The
TT was good, I cut almost a minute off of my time from December with a 5-7 mph headwind. After that we kept riding for about
another 1.5 hrs through the hills. The TT intervals were fun too, we did 5-6 sets of 5 min intervals. I was cooked after that
day. The next day instead of doing steady state intervals, I was in the lab doing body comp, LT and VO2 max testing.
I knew what to expect for the body comp and LT cause I did those in Dec, and I heard that VO2 sucked. I heard right.
The LT felt about the same, and the body comp was good cause all I had to do was stand there. But that VO2 max!! man I'd do
another LT test any day instead of the VO2. -I know some of you are getting your VO2 done, well get ready. I thought it was
just gonna be like, a fighter pilot mast with a strap or something to keep it on. It was like a giant snorkel mouthpiece,
with plastic bands that fit on your head like a helmet only not as comfortably. It started fine but as the wattage went up
the breathing got harder, and it was really hard to breathe through the tube to begin with. Then I started geting chlostraphobic
with the damn helmet, and the lack of air, my arm taped to the bars (yes that's the high tech way we do things here at the
OTC) so I was done. That was it, it was awful. But hopefully I wont have to do that again for a looooooong time.
Today
was relatively laid back. We split into two groups: the handcycles, trike, me and the one-legged guy were one group, and the
womens tandem and all other single bikes were another. My group went out for what was supposed to be a 2.5 hr ride that
turned into 3. We were just doing edurance miles through some roller hills when one of the handcycles' chain snapped, then
Scott (the one-legged guy) got a flat 50 ft ahead of him. The rest of us pulled off to wait, and when we were stopping one
of the other handcycles blew his front tire out. So we were sitting there for almost 30 min waiting for the SAG to come give
him another tire, that and we all wanted a break. After we got rolling again we made it back pretty quickly, it was almost
all downhill from there.
All
this riding has built up, and fried me. I'm soooo tired! This camp has been diferent cause its so close to race season.
It's much more intensity work than base miles. Tomorrow's a rest day. We're only going out for two, one hr recovery rides.
I'm looking forward to that. Then Monday is an ass kicker TT up this mountain, then Tues/Wed we're going to LA to ride the
ADT track.
Your sunburnt
teammate,
Greta
Apr. 12,
2006
PARALYMPIC
CYCLING CAMP UPDATE #1
So
I'm here in sunny southern California, at the Chula Vista olympic training center (OTC if you wanna be hip about it) It was
about 80 degrees and sunny today, I cant remember the last time I rode in just shorts and a s/s jersey.....maybe it was at
the December camp. Well, today was a kick in the butt sayin "Step it up Greta" I'm not gonna lie, I haven't really been on
the bike for about two weeks, and I could feel it. I'll tell myself that part of it was all the climibing, part of it
was a swolen ankle the size of an orange (Thanks soccer!) and part of it was the lack of fitness.
We
have our first of two ITTs tomorrow, its a 15k, pretty flat course, and the past two days has had a tailwind. That's fine
with me, I'll take all the help I can get....it's supposed to pour tonight and tomorrow, with about 4-in of total rain. Yes!
I can hardly wait.
Most
of the people here were at the December camp, but there are a few new faces which is good. This time I'm in a corner suite,
and have my own room. My roomie should be here in a few days.
I'm
worrkin on a tan.....or should I say some nice tan lines. It's been one day and I/m allready looking like a zebra. Just wait
guys, these lines are nice and defined, no fade into the blinding white of my natural skin color, just red then clear. Like
a candy cane.
Well,
that's all for today. I hope I'll be able to write again tomorrow (the internet's been sorta off and on here, but I'll
try) and tell you all about this great TT...in the rain.
Greta
Mar. 6, 2006
Wow, it's' been a loooong time since I posted something, and I've done a lot since then.
First,
the xXx Laser Tag Juniors fundraiser. That was AWESOME!!!! If you haven't played laser tag, go do it today. It's sooo much
fun, especially when you have 30+ people that are totally into it and think they're Rambo, or from "Platoon". We played 3
games, the first was guys vs. girls, we lost like 540-160 or something shamefull like that. The second game was split up by
ranking from the first game, so All the odd ranked people were on none team, and evens on the other. This made for a much
more even game. My team lost, again, but only by 10 points. The second game was divided up the same way and the green team
finally won! YAY!! (I was on the green team all 3 games) I think we raised about $400 for the Juniors team. Woo Hoo!!
Next
up: VAIL BABY!!!! RIC has an annual ski trip to somewhere besides the midwest. It started out in PA with only amps, but it's
expanded over the years to include amps, and a couple freaks (non amps) Anyway now we go out west. Did you know that Vail
Resort is the number 1 resort in the world? It's got over 5300 ski-able acres, and is almost 7 miles wide. Well it is... and
does. We had three full days of skiing and riding in *GASP* REAL snow!! how crazy is that?? The snowboarders spent a lot of
time doing tree runs (That's where all the good powder is) Runs would take 30-45 minutes to get down or longer depending on
how many times and how badly you got stuck in all the powder. I got stuck in a tree well (The base of the tree where all the
powder stays loose) and was in powder up to my chin. It took me 10 minutes to dig myself out and find my board.
I tried
the super pipe!! It's not nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. I'll admit it, I was scared, this thing was huge! It was like
400ft long, with 5-6 ft of vert on it (That's the vertical walls on both sides) I just took it easy, threw down some 1080s
and McTwists, Im just kidding, I cruised down, had some 180s and that was about it, no air out the top thats for sure.
One
of the days we spent time in the back bowls, Oh my god they were amazing! The snow was awesome, and the trees were great but
the view was unbelievable!!! It was snow and mountains and more snow and mountains as far as you could see. It looked like
a painting. The only bad part was the wind. It was like a wind tunnel becasue the wind just got pushed around inside the bowl,
and the lifts were sooooo cold! I'd never been that cold skiing or riding in my life. But it was totally worth freezing.
My
friend Michelle (she 3-tracks) gave me corn-rows, but we only got through half of my head. Maybe we should've started before
11pm after 3 days of skiing, but that would've made too much sense. So it was super ghetto, there were like 5 braids, my bangs
were hanging out, and all the braids were held in with one hair tie. It was pretty sweet.
It's taken me waaaay too
long to write this, so I'll take a break and come back later.
Feb. 8, 2006
My thumb is healing pretty nicely. The skin died so I had to cut it off, but other than that it's lookin good.
Has anyone else gotten a sore throat where only one side of their throat hurts?? Well, that's what I have, it's crazy,
and every time I swallow, I'm convinced I can swallow on one side (like chewing your food) so the other side wont hurt. It's
not working, it gets me every time! ARRGH!!!
If you have cable, and get the Discovery Health channel, at 10pm est (that's 9pm Chicago time) on Wednesdays turn it on.
It's this show called "Rebuilt: The Human Body Shop" and it's all about amps getting new legs and arms and how they
get back into "normal" life. Some of the people they've profiled are an air force pilot who got back into the special
services to fly Air Force One and Two (with one leg) some triathletes, and a few kids who go through limbs like socks. All
the people are from the DC area and from the same O&P clinic (Orthotics and Prosthetics). I dig it, check it out if you
get the chance.
My old school, Near North Montessori did a little story on me for their newsletter. It turned out pretty well. I didn't
even know there was a newsletter till after I graduated, and even then I really had no idea. Whatev.
14 DAYS TILL VAIL!!!! WWWOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I can't wait! It's gonna rock. It's an RIC trip, so it's all gimps (and chaperones)
going. I think there're 9 kids, and 6 volunteers for this one. That's 3 more kids, and another volunteer from last year. Last
year we went to Park City, UT and it was HOT, like, sweating in a l/s shirt hot. We did go in March which is like summer compared
to February.... But yea, Vail's website says they have a 68"-70" base, and ~168" of snow. That's like, mind
blowing for me, my brain can't even process 168" of snow. I'm happy when we get 2" here, needless to say I'M STOKED!!!
WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Feb. 2, 2006
Oh man!! It's February, and there're six more weeks of winter. That's ok with me I like winter, it means more skiing/snowboarding!
I'd like put out a warning about a very harmful yet common house hold item: the apple slicer. You know those things, that
core the apple and slice it into even pieces all with one push? Well, those blades are like RAZORS!! Razors I tell you! All
I wanted to do was have an apple (evenly sliced) with peanut butter, but I sliced my thumb open in the process. My one and
only thumb!!!! It was bleeding like a fountain, G-ROSS. Should I spare the details? naw! It sliced the side, right in to the
side of the nail, and halfway down to the base. *Shudder* But it's healing fairly nicely now. So beware! Use your apple slicers
with EXTREME CAUTION!!!
Well, I gotta go, time for me to get some sleep!
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