Tuesday, January 31, 2012
My First 10 K
Good GOD. A friend of mine that knows of my running endeavors invited me to run a 10k with her on St. Patrick's day. This year. I hope she's willing to hold back my hair or catch vomit at some point. Currently, I am barely surviving my 3.5 mile runs and now I have a new goal of running an entire 6.2 miles. I'm assuming they won't wait for me if it takes me 6 hours to actually finish the race....therefore, I feel the need to work my way up to running the 10k in it's entirety. Boom! I can do this! Right?.....right? I feel the need to insert this photo, because I feel it suits me...and perhaps my running style:
Thursday, January 26, 2012
2012...my new beginning
Well hello, old friend! It's been a long time since I've posted anything on this blog. So long, that I am going to use it in an entirely new way now. (I love the name, I just can't create a new blog whose name would inspire me as much.) Things have changed quite a bit in the last few years for me. I've gotten a new career as an Ophthalmic Photographer, which I started in Detroit at Henry Ford Hospital. On a whim, I applied for a job in Denver after visiting Colorado for a wedding. I loved it there so much, I was willing to give up everything to move there. I only applied for one job, thinking it was a shot in the dark. The hospital was asking for a CRA (Certifiied Retinal Angiographer) and someone with more experience than myself. I was a four months away from taking my CRA exam and a year and a half away from the amount of experience they were looking for. A week later, I got a call from an overly cheery woman named Denise, inviting me out for an interview...I flew out to Denver a week later and was offered the job at the end of my interview. The whole thing felt like a blur to me, I honestly thought I didn't have a chance in the world, but I would give that interview all I had. I cried tears of joy, sitting on the park bench in front of my new job, telling my parents I'd be leaving Michigan. I was sick of Michigan. I felt there was nothing left there for me. I was the only one of my friends who wasn't married, and most of them had children or had a child on the way. I felt I was being left behind and needed an adventure of my own. What did I have to lose? My boyfriend of a year and a half that had been supportive of my dreams, suddenly couldn't believe that I'd move half way across the country without him. (He is in a masters program that he wouldn't complete until August 2012, a year from the day I got the job offer.) I felt like maybe I hadn't gotten married because there was something wrong with me, maybe I didn't have something good enough to offer another person. Or maybe it was because I had just now found the right person, but he wasn't ready for marriage. I'm hoping for the later.
So September 10, 2011, Craig (my boyfriend and master of tetris) and I packed everything I owned (!) into my Jetta. We drove from Detroit to Denver (with a detour for some sight seeing and a panic attack) in 24 hours. Craig and I had our last breakfast together (with a minor panic attack in there as a side to my breakfast) and I took him to the airport so he could head back to Detroit. I don't think I've ever cried so hard in my life. It will be 8 more months until Craig joins me in Denver.
My new job was stressful, and I wasn't very excited with the new equipment I was working with. I missed our old cameras back in Detroit. Even though they were older, I knew how to use them and get decent photographs out of them. I felt too stressed and too shy to make new friends, and it took months before I actually did. For some reason, I knew I had it in me. But I know that there is more! So my goals for 2012 (and life in general, really) is to radically improve my life by eating healthier, actually stick to an exercise routine, to try things that would otherwise terrify me (what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right?!) and to improve my brain health.
So maybe I should explain these things, if they sound strange. First, I am already a vegetarian and eat pretty healthy foods already. BUT- I used to drink coffee every morning and sometimes in the afternoon. Who doesn't love the way it can dramatically wake up your senses (and bowels) when you barely feel like you can function in the morning?! But it's not healthy. I'd rather wake up a different way. I gave up coffee 3 weeks ago now. I still get a headache here and there, but I sleep much better- which I wasn't expecting. How did my morning coffee keep me up at night?!
Second, I am trying to run every day. Scratch that- I AM running every other day. I felt like I was being passed up by grandmas walking next to me for my first few runs, but I gradually got better. I ventured out when it was dark to run in the park that is a few blocks away from my home. I should add that I live in a gay neighborhood in Denver...and to my surprise actually got whistled at by a lady while I was running last week. Maybe I shouldn't wear my rainbow colored winter hat on this side of town, eh?! Anyways, today I ran 3 miles in 24 minutes! Whoot! It was a rough one, I felt like I could barely breath. But when I am finished running I am so proud that I've already come this far in one month!
Third...to do things that would otherwise terrify me....by that, I mean skiing. I live in Colorado, for God's sake, how could I NOT go skiing?! Because I hate giving up control and having something slide underneath me....like rollerskating, rollerblading and ice skating. (Which I tried over Christmas and wasn't overly awkward and flailing like I thought I would be.) I will go skiing someday, but I think the first time I go I should be heavily medicated and wearing adult diapers!
Lastly, I want to improve my brain health. I just finished a book that was recommended to me by a friend called "The Brain That Changes Itself." The book is pretty much impossible to explain...so here is a link to an excerpt from this incredible book: http://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge/EXCERPT.html
Assuming you clicked on that and actually read it... I saw a commercial for a website called Lumosity.com that has brain exercises disguised as games to help improve your mental capabilities. Sign me up! And sign myself up, I sure did! Sadly, I started off on the low end of the spectrum...I almost thought I may have been mildly disabled, but I've greatly improved since that first day.
This new year had been a challenge, indeed. But I know that if I do this I am improving my life in a variety of ways. I have even been invited to write a blog post for the Ophthalmic Photographer's Society once it is set up. My new job has gotten much better in this last month. Surprisingly, I've been able to crawl out of my shy, hermit shell and actually ask the doctors for help and advice- which has definitely improved my understanding of my job and also helped me to create more of a connection with my co workers. (Can I call a doctor my co-worker?) Also, the equipment I was not so fond of is slowly growing on me. But I would still give up a few toes for a new fundus camera.
Another goal for this year (are you sick of this yet?! (Wait, is anyone actually going to read this...ever?)) is to start an ophthalmic photography blog. I have already put the idea out there to my boss and am hoping to get started soon. Actually, this marble-cheesecake blog will be my new goal/ophthalmic photography blog. If I do get the approval to use photos that I take at work I will be posting a variety of ophthalmic imagery including OCTs (Optical Coherance Tomography), Fundus photos, Fluorescein Angiograms, and B-Scan ultrasounds of the eye. Wish me luck, I hope I can get approval on this bad boy! :)
So September 10, 2011, Craig (my boyfriend and master of tetris) and I packed everything I owned (!) into my Jetta. We drove from Detroit to Denver (with a detour for some sight seeing and a panic attack) in 24 hours. Craig and I had our last breakfast together (with a minor panic attack in there as a side to my breakfast) and I took him to the airport so he could head back to Detroit. I don't think I've ever cried so hard in my life. It will be 8 more months until Craig joins me in Denver.
My new job was stressful, and I wasn't very excited with the new equipment I was working with. I missed our old cameras back in Detroit. Even though they were older, I knew how to use them and get decent photographs out of them. I felt too stressed and too shy to make new friends, and it took months before I actually did. For some reason, I knew I had it in me. But I know that there is more! So my goals for 2012 (and life in general, really) is to radically improve my life by eating healthier, actually stick to an exercise routine, to try things that would otherwise terrify me (what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right?!) and to improve my brain health.
So maybe I should explain these things, if they sound strange. First, I am already a vegetarian and eat pretty healthy foods already. BUT- I used to drink coffee every morning and sometimes in the afternoon. Who doesn't love the way it can dramatically wake up your senses (and bowels) when you barely feel like you can function in the morning?! But it's not healthy. I'd rather wake up a different way. I gave up coffee 3 weeks ago now. I still get a headache here and there, but I sleep much better- which I wasn't expecting. How did my morning coffee keep me up at night?!
Second, I am trying to run every day. Scratch that- I AM running every other day. I felt like I was being passed up by grandmas walking next to me for my first few runs, but I gradually got better. I ventured out when it was dark to run in the park that is a few blocks away from my home. I should add that I live in a gay neighborhood in Denver...and to my surprise actually got whistled at by a lady while I was running last week. Maybe I shouldn't wear my rainbow colored winter hat on this side of town, eh?! Anyways, today I ran 3 miles in 24 minutes! Whoot! It was a rough one, I felt like I could barely breath. But when I am finished running I am so proud that I've already come this far in one month!
Third...to do things that would otherwise terrify me....by that, I mean skiing. I live in Colorado, for God's sake, how could I NOT go skiing?! Because I hate giving up control and having something slide underneath me....like rollerskating, rollerblading and ice skating. (Which I tried over Christmas and wasn't overly awkward and flailing like I thought I would be.) I will go skiing someday, but I think the first time I go I should be heavily medicated and wearing adult diapers!
Lastly, I want to improve my brain health. I just finished a book that was recommended to me by a friend called "The Brain That Changes Itself." The book is pretty much impossible to explain...so here is a link to an excerpt from this incredible book: http://www.normandoidge.com/normandoidge/EXCERPT.html
Assuming you clicked on that and actually read it... I saw a commercial for a website called Lumosity.com that has brain exercises disguised as games to help improve your mental capabilities. Sign me up! And sign myself up, I sure did! Sadly, I started off on the low end of the spectrum...I almost thought I may have been mildly disabled, but I've greatly improved since that first day.
This new year had been a challenge, indeed. But I know that if I do this I am improving my life in a variety of ways. I have even been invited to write a blog post for the Ophthalmic Photographer's Society once it is set up. My new job has gotten much better in this last month. Surprisingly, I've been able to crawl out of my shy, hermit shell and actually ask the doctors for help and advice- which has definitely improved my understanding of my job and also helped me to create more of a connection with my co workers. (Can I call a doctor my co-worker?) Also, the equipment I was not so fond of is slowly growing on me. But I would still give up a few toes for a new fundus camera.
Another goal for this year (are you sick of this yet?! (Wait, is anyone actually going to read this...ever?)) is to start an ophthalmic photography blog. I have already put the idea out there to my boss and am hoping to get started soon. Actually, this marble-cheesecake blog will be my new goal/ophthalmic photography blog. If I do get the approval to use photos that I take at work I will be posting a variety of ophthalmic imagery including OCTs (Optical Coherance Tomography), Fundus photos, Fluorescein Angiograms, and B-Scan ultrasounds of the eye. Wish me luck, I hope I can get approval on this bad boy! :)
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