Random Thoughts

1. Teaching a fitness class without being allowed to participate is difficult.  It’s super tough to judge how hard people might be working, and I kinda think they wuss out a bit more than if I was going hard right beside them.

2. Teaching a fitness class without music is also pretty weird.  Yup – totally forgot my iPod at home this morning and had no music at all.

3. “Not participating” in silence is super boring, even while counting reps and motivating participants the whole time.

4. Maybe my participants didn’t work as hard because of the lack of music, rather than the lack of an instructor sweating along with them…hmmm.

5. My town is getting a dog park, and that is super exciting!

6. I have joined the dog park committee, which probably makes me a little stupid.  Because I don’t have enough to keep my waking hours occupied already.

7. I looked at my calendar today and realized that I do not have a single day between now and the end of the school year without something going on.

8.  July 1st is the next day where I have nothing planned.

9. July 1st cannot come soon enough.

Liver Woes

Liver biopsy #2 was yesterday.  It was sucky, but not nearly as sucky as liver biopsy #1.  The first time around, my blood pressure plummeted to 77/27 (which my Grandmother pointed out is in the death range – thankfully THAT didn’t happen!). They had to hook up my IV and drug me up real good to prevent further complications.  It was actually a little scary for both Rob and I, especially since the nurse who put in my IV when I first arrived told me that “they won’t even need to use it – it’s only for emergencies or if something goes wrong”….so when the biopsy nurse said, “I’m just going to hook up your IV now,” I was all “WTF?!?  I thought it was only for emergencies….what is wrong???”

My super artistic rendition of what my doctor explained about my liver biopsy.  Sometimes I think I should start selling art for money.Anyway, I was kinda nervous for biopsy #2 considering that the first one didn’t go very smoothly, and this one needed to use a bigger needle (turns out #1 didn’t actually provide the necessary info, so I had to be subjected to this little ordeal all over again – whoo hoo!).  The bigger needle part sucked more – and I’m WAY more sore today than I was last time because of it – but my doctor was more prepared for me this time around.  When I arrived in the biopsy wing yesterday, the doctor was all “I remember you” and smiling (I probably made his day a little more exciting, or something, the last time – ha!).  He hooked up my IV and gave me some meds right from the beginning, so I was more chilled out.  They were different drugs than last time (I was a total drugged up mess the first time around, and was still groggy two days later), but they dulled the pain and took the edge off for me, so that’s cool.  I was also MUCH less hungry afterwards than the first time – they didn’t let me eat or drink anything after midnight the night before, and then wouldn’t even give me water until 3 hours after the biopsy.  I am pretty much always eating, so that was torture, but apparently an IV is kinda like eating, so yesterday wasn’t nearly as bad!

Because the needle was bigger this time, I have more discomfort today, and I will also need to lay off any type of lifting or exertion for a whole week.  I wasn’t expecting that, since it was only two days off last time, so that news kind of throws a bit of a wrench into the fitness classes I need to teach this week.  Hmmm….what to do about that?  Not running the classes isn’t really an option, so if any of my fellow instructors out there have tips for running a class without demonstrating moves or doing any work myself, I’d be much obliged.  I was thinking about setting up a circuit and just sort of doing the drill instructor thing, but I can’t even lift the equipment I would need to set up.  Bummer.

I sort of had this “Oh, I’ll be fine – they just say that I have to lay off for a week, but I’ll really be able to do a lot of stuff” mentality floating around in my head until a couple of hours ago.  I took my dogs for a walk with my Mom (who is super sweet, and took me to the city for the biopsy and then stayed with me overnight because Rob is working away for 3 whole weeks).  My dogs are usually pretty good, and walk really well on a leash, but today there was a rabbit.  Holy mother of Gawd!  Jax saw it and lunged for the bushes and I sorta thought I was going to die.  Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it REALLY hurt.  You see, it’s automatic to contract your core muscles when your large dog lunges at a rabbit, and that doesn’t feel so awesome when someone stuck a big needle through those muscles and took a hunk of meat out of your liver the day before.  Good thing my mom had Naava, because if I would’ve been walking both dogs, I probably would still be lying in those bushes crying my face off with my dogs trying to eat and kill the Easter bunny.

Jamaican Holiday

I’m back, but wishing desperately that I was still in Runaway Bay; the beach at Breezes is beautiful, the people are wonderful, and the pace is so relaxed.  I LOVE the feel of hot sun and humidity on my skin, and I always look my best in tropical climates.  There is something about the air that does wonders for my skin, and my normally fine, limp hair always has oomph from the salt water.

We had a fabulous holiday!  We were able to get in a lot of relaxing in the sun, but we also enjoyed a few tours and some fun activities at the resort.  We spent the better part of one day with a local Jamaican named Alvan Gardner, who drove us up into the hills to Nine Mile to see Bob Marley’s house and mausoleum.  For the entire drive up and back, we asked a lot of questions, and Alvan gave us some great information about real life in Jamaica, while pointing out interesting sights in the hill communities we passed through.  After visiting Nine Mile, Alvan took us to a local Jerk Chicken place (so delicious – much better than the bland stuff they give you at the resort!) and we bought him lunch.  For the last part of our afternoon, he took us to the nearby Green Grotto caves for a historical tour.  We also took a tour to the Captain Hook Pirate Ship in Falmouth for an evening of entertainment and a steak and lobster dinner.  It was a fun night, if a little bit cheesy, and we certainly enjoyed ourselves.

Except for the day we spent with Alvan and the evening we went to the Pirate Ship, we spent the rest of our time at the resort.  We had two spectacular spa treatments: a lovely and relaxing couple’s massage, and a second treatment where Rob had a scrub with accupressure massage and I had a scrub with a milk and honey body wrap and an a-ma-zing foot massage.

We did lounge around by the beach and pool for a good chunk of our time, but Rob and I also spent a lot of time playing beach volleyball with other guests and some of the entertainment staff at the resort.  Rob played volleyball in high school, and still has a pretty mean spike, but I have never really played at all and don’t have much of a skill set, so the others were probably a lot less thrilled to have me on their team.  I don’t completely suck, though, and I’m not afraid to dive into the sand for the ball, so I was able to make at least a tiny contribution on the court!

What I imagined myself looking like while diving for the volleyball

 

Probably a lot closer to what I REALLY looked like out there!

We also participated in a few of the beach race type fun games, including a Goat race that I’ve been looking forward to since we missed it last year!  I also ran through the resort and on the beach most mornings before taking a quick dip in the ocean to cool off, and I completed a short yoga practice on our balcony almost every morning – the beach running and yoga were lovely, as I knew they would be!

My favourite activity of the whole week came on our second last day:  we did a SCUBA lesson in the pool, and then went for a beautiful dive just a few minutes away from our resort.  It was the coolest experience of my entire life and I can’t wait to do it again!  We found out after our dive that we could have done the lesson on our first day, and then dove for free in different locations all week long.  Sigh.  I guess we will know that for next time, and take fuller advantage of that aspect of our resort.  Neither of us had ever been diving anywhere other than a swimming pool, so it was a brand new experience for both of us, and we are looking forward to a lot more SCUBA diving in the future.  I have some great pics, but we used my parents’ underwater camera and I don’t have the cable that will allow me to transfer the photos to my computer.  As soon as I get that from my mom, I will upload some photos.

While I ate fairly sensibly for an all-inclusive resort, and stayed active all week, I did indulge in a lot of alcohol…plus I ate dessert every night.  Not exactly conducive to making my ass smaller.  Oh well.  C’est la vie!  Tomorrow is a new day, and (at least once I kick this sinus infection that reappeared about 15 minutes after I boarded the plane to come home), I will get right back on the skinny train.

Off to Jamaica, Mon!

So I feel like this has become a pretty standard statement for me, but this week has been hectic (and it’s only Wednesday!): an all day trip to the city with my Mom on Saturday; marking papers, cleaning house, and doing my own yoga homework on Sunday; a jam-packed Monday full of all sorts of things at school – plus Rob came home, but that’s exciting 🙂  Yesterday I taught my fitness class in the morning, taught high school classes all day, went to two appointments after school, and then had to pick up groceries for a school event.  Today we had a “compressed day” of classes, with a staff meeting after school and then Parent-Teacher interviews until 8pm.

Tomorrow is nuts too…Sunrise Sweat class at 6am, then finishing some marking that I’d like to get out of the way, morning supervision before school, a full day of classes, lunch time supervision, the student group I lead has an “eating contest” planned at lunch that I need to get ready and oversee, and then we must have our dogs at the boarding kennel about 2 1/2 hours away by 6pm.  Normally this would be a rush, but apparently they are expecting a crazy snow storm in and around Edmonton tomorrow, so I’m not sure we will make it in time to get the dogs to the kennel 😦  Except that we HAVE to, because Rob and I are headed to Jamaica, mon!  School ends for the day at 3:24, so I will be walking out the door at 3:25; here’s hoping the roads are good.

We are going back to the same resort we got married at last Easter Monday, and we CAN’T WAIT!!!

The water and the beach are just so beautiful in Runaway Bay! This is a dock just a few steps away from our resort; it made for great photo options.
- Photo by Kathy Lovell

It’s not quite our one year anniversary yet (about 3 weeks shy), but the Easter break is really my only option for a holiday, so we’ll take it.  We weren’t really sure if we’d be able to go, but Breezes gave us four anniversary nights free with our wedding package, and we were able to find super cheap flights, so we took the plunge and decided to go back this year.  Last year I ran on that beach in the early mornings, and I’m really looking forward to doing that again.  I’m bringing my travel yoga mat too, so I can practice on the beach after my runs.  It is so very beautiful there, and just the thought of a morning workout in Jamaica makes me want to jump for joy 🙂

Our super awesome wedding party getting some air!
- photo by Kathy Lovell