50 50 50 50 50 50!!!!!!

As I write this post I have a load of laundry next to me, a thunderstorm outside, due date playing in the background and an ice pack on my back.  Laundry is next to me because it always takes me a day and a half to actually fold and put it away. Thunderstorm is widely appreciated in Toledo since it hasn't rained in a month.  Due date: just because I like background noise.  And the ice pack? Well, I need to learn how to not slouch when I'm riding jarvis, especially when I'm riding 50 miles on him. (or 102 when pelotonia rolls around)  I think an ice bath is in order later today if it still feels like this.  I'm not sure if I will actually put myself through that one though...we'll see.
So the ride yesterday I broke up into a 30 mile ride with a 20 minute break to grab some more water at my place, let marley out to pee/play, and get a snack.  I rode to luckey and back on that first part where I only saw a few cars, motorcycles, and fellow bikers.  It's funny how much a motorcyclist and I have in common: they wake up early to feel the wind in the hair, as did I. With the exception of them having some extra help with the actual feeling the wind in the hair with the motor part of it.  And we all had helmets on, so I guess not really feeling it in the hair...sort of.  Regardless, we all enjoyed the morning in the outside....I thought I was going somewhere with that.
Also on my ride someone was gracious enough to spray me with some water as they were watering their grass.  With only about 5 miles to go it was much appreciated.  And I came to the realization that I need to buy riding gloves at some point very soon.  My right pinky is still numb from the ride.  Not the best sensation ever.  I will be heading up to bike works of sylvania this afternoon to see if they can help me out with the glove situation.  Hopefully I get some suggestions, they always have been super helpful there!!!
All in all, it was a solid ride.  It makes me believe that I can really do that next 50 when Pelotonia comes in August.  Well, hopefully!
Not much more going on here.  Will update you all again soon.  Don't forget to make a donation to my ride if you haven't yet and if you can!  Any little bit helps, even if it is 5 or 10 dollars!!!  Just go to
http://www.mypelotonia.org/riders_profile.jsp?MemberID=115667&SearchStart=0&PAGING
and click on "donate to my ride".  Thanks for everyone who already has helped donate so far!  You are making a difference in people's lives by doing so!
Alright, I guess I should get back to laundry. BOO.

Snake Tees and 4 12’s...

I have a lot to catch up with you all...haven’t written AGAIN in a while.  I’ve been busy on vacation/working 4 12 hour shifts straight.  I figured I would just update after I had all of them done (and 7 days off straight!!)

Well well. I left for Bethany beach, delaware last Sunday for the week with my family+Alana. So glad she could join our clan.    Jared’s parents came down for a few days as well.  I haven’t seen them since Em and Jared’s wedding I think! Always good to catch up! It was a week of good eats (of course, Mommy Ernzer was cooking so it was awesome), company, running and biking, and relaxing on the beach with a drink in hand  (only after 4 o clock was there a drink in hand...ok, maybe 3 o clock on some days). I ran every other day and biked on the other days. I was able to do about 5 miles running around the sea colony resort/boardwalk the days I ran and 20- 30 miles biking each time.  The 30 mile ride was absolute bliss: no wind, a few random hills, perfect temp, and very wide roads for me to not have to worry about traffic being a problem.  Oh, and it was right by the shore too...so gorgeous views! I wish every ride was like that. I guess I’ll have to not live in Ohio for that.  Maybe some day...

yay! share the road with us!

The runs were pretty perfect as well. I think the fact that I was on vacation and I knew I had a yummy breakfast to come back to when I was done made it that much better.

Then we spent the rest of the morning/afternoon on the beach. I think this was the first year I was actually able to spend more than an hour on the beach and not get bored.  Just laying there in the sun with the family was a blessing this week.  I don’t think I’ve had so much fun or laughed so hard in a long time.  Can’t get enough of that crew.  

enjoying the sun and our 4oclock bag

biking over to play tennis

J-rod and wall-e

lana baby

Upon returning to Toledo, I was definitely bummed to be leaving everyone.  I was actually ok with coming back to work.  I am glad now that I had my mind set to work 4 in a row because I don’t think I could have done it otherwise.  And I had some pretty sweet patients/coworkers every night which made it that much better.  I had the same conversation with one of my patients who was getting 2 units of blood and a unit of platelets about the importance of giving blood and how thankful he is for people who do (see second to last post).  So thanks to everyone for continuing to give blood!!!  

I also had a lesson on heparin drips and the importance of monitoring lab levels of ptt and ufh as well as just looking for signs and symptoms of bleeding.  One of his lab levels was normal (the one our hospital goes by) and the other one was way out of wack.  And he had some bleeding problems.  I spent most of one night trying to stop the bleeding while we finally turned off his heparin drip even though his lab levels we go by at UT were normal.  Which reminds me I need to email someone about this problem.  If we are using a lab that is not accurate then it is not safe for these patients! I will email someone now...

How was working 4 nights in a row you ask? Hard on my body? Yes, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Did I like it? Actually, yes, very much so.  I was able to have the same people back every night which made it so much better.  I love getting in a groove with things and getting to know the patients more and more each night.  Am I going to enjoy a nice margarita or 2 or 3 tonight with my girls? yes. On that note, time to take marley for a walk so I can start getting up and ready to go! 

Holy Toledo Humidity!

Dear God Toledo, why must you always be humid as hell when I just want to go on a friendly run after waking up? I went to get fingerprinted/background check for grad school in the fall and since I was right by UT’s trail I decided to take some time on a nice 6 mile run.  I was thoroughly ready for humidity...or so I thought. It ended up being a pretty good one, but just sweaty beyond belief.  After I planned on going to giant eagle to grab some snacks for Wine Wednesday with Mallory and me. And KC after rehearsal.   I felt bad for whoever came within a 5 foot radius of me. I had just enough time to come home, eat, and go to volleyball.  So I was the smelly one on the team at the beginning.  But I was glad I hadn’t showered seeing as though I had time between our games to practice my sandcastle building skills in the sand for the beach next week with the family.  

Lesson of today: it will be ridiculously humid in Toledo during the summer.  Being a smelly hot mess is going to be the theme of the summer after long bike rides and runs. And I’m ok with it. 

That’s about it. Have a wonderful, humid day.

Giving blood and saving a life

Very cliche title today. But so true. Working on the oncology floor of the hospital it seems as though I give a unit of blood or 2 at least once or twice every other week.  There was a night at work where 4 units of blood were used on one of my patients (2 of the bags went bad after some complications with getting an IV in/ a high fever ensued after starting one of them).  That is 4 different people who needed to donate to help out this one patient on one of his nights of stay! Are you getting what I’m saying to you?! We use a lot of blood on just our floor...and this is just our floor in our tiny hospital. 

I had a conversation with a patient of mine on Tuesday night about her cancer and how thankful she is to people who have helped her by giving blood.  She told me that she did not realize how important it is for people to give blood when they can, but she sure does know now! She has gotten so much blood that she now can “feel” when she needs it.  She knows when she is tired and dragging so much that a unit or 2 of blood will do her good.  After the unit she got ended she said to me “gosh I feel like a new person! Too bad it’s 3am”...I had to laugh. :)  

Moral of the story: give blood people.  Give as often as you can (if you don’t have a low hemoglobin level like I usually do. Grr.).  It literally will save a life.  You don’t have to be a superhero to save lives, just give some blood every 56 days.

A new ride to work

Last week my mom and I went on an excursion to find another bike. what? yes. another bike.  Why is this? Well, I’m going to start to bike to work and I can’t leave Jarvis outside in the middle of Toledo during the night. Just not a good idea. So I found an old one on craigslist for 40 dollars. I’ll take it. Only needed a new tire on it and it is golden.  I did a trial run last night and it worked well.  It is raining right now so I’m not sure if the biking to work tonight is going to happen unfortunately.  Maybe tomorrow night? Fingers crossed. The ride will be just over 10 miles one way so it will help add some milage on the miles needed for the training.  The bike is so much heavier than jarvis too so it adds some difficulty to the ride.  Helps me with the hills being non existent in NW ohio.  It is quite the gorgeous ride on River Road as well right by the Maumee! Maybe the amount of money that goes to gas from my paycheck will decrease as well.  At least I’m hoping so.  

Side note, this weekend was an absolute blast with my family celebrating marta and matt’s wedding. Marta looked gorgeous and Matt didn’t look to shabby either.  The different, relaxed feeling of the day made it so different than any other wedding but I think it was perfect for them.  During the afternoon (since the wedding was at 11:30) KC and I were able to explore the short north a bit and get Jeni’s ice cream: obviously.  That ice cream never fails to make me smile.  Love it.  At night we all found our way to goron biersch for some beers/dinner before char bar to celebrate some more.  Made for a wonderful night with everyone! The whole weekend was an eating spree as well.  So much food at cafe bella, then at barcelona, and at Aunt Elaine’s house.  We seriously went home with a loaf of bread from panera.  Thanks Aunt Elaine for feeding us!  Spending time with the family makes me that much more excited to go to the beach with the family next week! YAY beach!

Now to take a nap before work. 

Reunion in the bus

Thanks again to everyone contributing to my ride, every single bit helps, so please contribute if you can!!!

I went to cbus this weekend to celebrate suzanne’s birthday/her coming home from oregon/sujie visiting/graduation for everyone else.  It was an adventure (as always) with all of them.  We were even able to get a bike ride in on Saturday afternoon.   It was a little over 20 miles and included a nice steep hill...aka something I never encounter in toledo.  It was a challenge, but man did I feel on top of the world after we took it down.  We were able to enjoy some drinks at out r inn afterwards with some people and shop a bit before dinner.  We went to cafe bella which is by far my favorite restaurant in Columbus right now.  North High Street right after hudson.  Go there.  You won’t be disappointed. http://www.cafebellacolumbus.com/ We are actually going there for MARTA AND MATT’S REHEARSAL DINNER!!!! YAY WEDDINGS!! This Saturday is the wedding. So flipping pumped.  After we were able to hear James Greenebaum’s speech on the oval for the candlelight ceremony. He was the best person for that job because it truly was from the heart and encompassed everything that needed to be said. We left right after and headed downtown.  The rest of the night was filled with plenty of laughs, excursions, and a walk from the arena district back to 12th avenue. Thank you to whoever thought that was a good idea...I guess it was a fun walk but really? All the way back to campus? All 2 miles of it? (I googlemaped it so it was legit 2 miles). I guess I shouldn’t complain. We could probably have used the exercise after all the, um, beverages we had that night.  And it was a nice night.  And it was a blast.  I just want to complain right now about it though. All in all, WONDERFUL to see my friends and be in the bus.

This past Monday I was able to do a 40 mile ride.  It took some planning/metal pumping up but I finished and I finished without 1)popping a tire 2) getting lost 3) falling off my bike. So it’s definitely a win right there. I cannot wait to enjoy those rides on the open roads of Michigan with Suzanne in July. Going to be absolutely unbelievable.  Well, now my mom is here and we are enjoying watching hgtv after a yummy dinner and commenting on the cookies we bought at the perrysburg farmers market.  We both thought they were excellent...not as good as ours. But excellent nonetheless. What does that say about our cookies? That they are flipping amazing. Not even going to be humble about them. We also were able to buy some homemade bread where the proceeds go to homeless shelters in the Toledo area.  The guy that does it seemed in need of help so I gave him my information for volunteering my baking services/helping out the homeless shelters.  I hope he does get a hold of me about it, it would be something I’ve been looking for around here.  An ongoing volunteer oppurtunity. We’ll see where it goes from here.  

All in all, been a great past week and ready for the weekend with the family for the wedding celebration. I promise I will be getting better at posting. I need to! Lots of love

Amanda

MARLEY!

It has been a while since I wrote up here.  Slacker status right here.  First off, thank you thank you thank you to all the people who have donated to my ride already for August! I appreciate it more than you know.  I will be sending formal thank you’s as well!  A lot has happened since the last time I wrote!  Most importantly, though, I have inherited a beautiful little mut named Marley.  From what I’ve been told she is 5 months old (so we’re still mastering the whole peeing outside thing) and the possibilities for the breed are pikanese sp? and/or shitzu.  What do you think she is? 

This was right after her bath...she looks less than thrilled she's all wet.

Marley is a dog that was unfortunately left behind when some neighbor’s of a friend moved away. So sad they would just leave her, but so glad she is now under better care.  This is such a learning experience.  I have never had a dog in my life so I am very thankful for the kind people of petsmart who taught me the ins and outs of taking care of her.  The second day I had her I took her to the vet and thank goodness I did because she was throwing up constantly and had diarrhea (sorry for the visual) like crazy.  They gave her a shot for nausea and some doggy andibiotics and advised me to give her a bland diet for a while.  After about a day and a half she seemed to be doing much better than before.  And now she is herself again.  She loves going on walks and always greets me at the door after getting off a long shift at work.  I cannot be in a bad mood when I get home even if my night is awful....flashback to Saturday morning: my night WAS awful.  I didn’t end up getting done at work until 845 if that gives you any idea of how everything went.  It was less than awesome.  But then I came home to her beyond excited to see my face and I couldn’t help but let the stress of the night go.  I’ll be posting more pics of her soon.  She is my pride and joy basically..

Other than her, basically the same old stuff.  Right now I’m enjoying this weather out at levis commons with marley.  She has gotten more than a few compliments on how adorable she is.I went to wildwood metropark earlier for a run as well.  I was going to do my long ride today, but my other tire needs fixed and did not want to deal with it earlier.  I need to make sure I pump up my tires before every ride, because I think that’s why I popped this other one.  Booo.  I’ll learn my lesson (the hard way) again.  It was a blessing in disguise, though, because wildwood is the highlight of my day right now.  The one thing about Toledo is they have an awesome trail system.  And I’m going to be taking full advantage of it all summer long. I am loving Toledo summer already!!! Cannot wait to enjoy the pool more, head down to another mud hens game, play some sand volleyball, enjoy el camino margaritas on the patio, and much much more!