Here I come Bloomington!!!

I can't wait...I will be in Bloomington on Friday...last time I was at IU was for Steve and Jen's wedding so this trip is long overdue!!!

Very Busy Day!

I woke up before the crack of dawn this morning to race office park crit #2 of the year...this time I was northeast of Boulder racing on the Croc campus. Other famous companies included Thule and Case Logic...watch out, we are getting big time in the office park crits! Good race with an okay finish. I was totally outnumbered by a couple of teams and was effectively blocked from the winning break unfortunately. Got a great workout in and it was FLAT course...that never happens in Colorado! Perhaps that was part of my inspiration for waking up before the sun came up...or else I was avoiding writing my papers?!

After the race, I drove down to Boulder to eat breakfast with Chris. We went to The Buff, appearantly a local hotspot. Note: Chris is a little shaggy these days as he is growing a playoff beard. As long as the Red Wings keep winning, Chris will keep growing...let's hope they sweep the series!

The Buff definitely hit the spot after an early morning race in sub-freezing temperatures...and Chris loved his fruffy coffee drink after a full night of living up the final few days of being a college student. Oh, and get this, he actually bought be breakfast, what an awesome brother! :)

After breakfast I drove home and have been working on papers ever since...I now have three rough drafts down and one to go...I'm giving myself two hours to get started on the last paper and then I have to go to bed. Waking up at 4:49am does not do much for concentration skills!

One Good Reason Why Anybody in their Right Mind Would Not Envy Me Right Now

With Peter and Chris' graduations coming up, I have had to crunch 9 weeks of work into 7 weeks time...add to that I have the hardest two professors in the school right now and you might really feel sorry for me. Since rebounding from my computer crash, all I have done is stare at Mary's computer or into these books. I have finished all of the research for two of my papers and it's time to start writing. The goal is to have rough drafts of all four papers (two did not require research-one down so far) by the time I fly to Bloomington next week. Keep your fingers crossed!

Serious Crisis: My motherboard died!

Today was not a good day! I woke up ready to work and found my computer completely dead...like only the fan turns on, nothing shows on the screen dead! With the final draft of my paper, which is due tomorrow, not backed up (I keep meaning to update my external hard drive but have been too busy) and HOURS of research saved on my computer, I was freaking out...just about to have both a nervous breakdown and heart attack but then Nicole (IT at CTS) saved the day! While she officially declared my computer dead, citing the motherboard as the issue, she was able to retrieve everything off my hard drive-phew, nervous breakdown adverted! And, she was kind enough to let me take a loaner home while I work on getting a new computer. Mary has also been very gracious letting me use her computer all day...I never fully realized how much I depend on my laptop until 12 hours ago. Lesson learned, back up regularly, especially with so many papers due!

Hand-eye coordination is NOT my forte!
We took the highschool girls' small groups bowling yesterday. As you can see, the bowling alley was big on neon colors...I am not sure whether I was more concerned about the germs in the shoes or on the ball, but let's just say I was sure to sanitize as soon as we were done and I am far from a germ-phob!

I cannot honestly remember the last time I went bowling...it may have been when I was a senior at IU! Anyways, hand-eye coordination is not my strength. Not surprising when you consider all my sports revolved around balance and lower body coordination (cycling, horses, and soccer). I was very jealous of the kid in the next lane as he had a little help from this bowling apparatus.

However, I don't like loosing so I worked really hard to correct my bowling slice or hook (whichever it is when the ball goes to the left)...with a little focus, I went from last in the first game to first in the second game doubling my score. So I am a little competitve and pretty good at making corrections when I want to win! :)

Let's Go Wings!

Game 6 against the Nashville Predators this afternoon. If the Wings win today, they advance one round closer to the Stanley Cup!

Definitely Bitter

So the only crit in Colorado Springs was this afternoon during which I was sitting in class learning all about the fallacies of postmodernism amongst other thought provoking topics...and let's not forget to mention it was 72F today! I did sneak over to the men's race on my dinner break for a few minutes as it was only a mile from my school. The only saving grace was that I did get a great ride in with the group this morning before class started.

Happy Birthday Bethie!!!

HUMPH!

Look closely at this picture, it was taken six hours after my earlier post about the fires today...yes, we have a Christmas tree laying in our backyard but that is not the problem...the problem is that there is SNOW on top of it! Did I mention it was 77F yesterday?!

Fort Carson is Burning

While not as devestating as the San Diego fires, Colorado Springs is facing a significant wild fire right now. Fort Carson, an army post south of town, has been on fire since Tuesday and already lost 9000+ acres. This picture doesn't due justice but I tried to get a view of the smoke from on top of Gold Camp during my ride. The air definitely has a smokey quality right now but not too severe. For more info on the fires: Fort Carson Wild Fire .

Flip Flop Inauguration!

It was finally warm enough to wear flip flops yesterday so I got to sport my new Chaco flips which cost me $0 as a result of my REI dividend...I highly recommend the REI Visa card as you get $ back on every purchase. Great for students as you can put all your books on it, earn points for free spending, and pay it off with loans before interest accrues! Anyways, too bad it was only 35F when I raced yesterday morning at 9am...good race and rode well but the most "exciting" part of the course was a sweeping, 90 degree uphill turn...yee-haw!

Points for Campaign Creativity

So I heard through the grapevine today that Barack Obama attended the women's Little 500. While I give him points for attempting to appeal to college kids, I wonder how much of an impression he had on the crowd as Little 500 tends to be synomous with "giant party". Who would have thought Little 500 would become a political playground?

Learn Something New Every Day!

I am currently writing a paper comparing the theoretical orientations of behavioral and humanistic psychology while also arguing that the epistemology of the time influenced the development of the theories...sounds like fun right? Anyways, while I am procrastinating for a few minutes, I thought I would share some interesting information. BF Skinner, famous behaviorist and operant conditioning man, was faculty at IU back in the day! No wonder we have such a strong psych department. Can't say I agree with all of his ideas but that's pretty cool!

First Race of the Year!

Oh, and first road race since the 2006 season! I forgot how much I love crit racing and the Oredigger Classic played straight to my favorite type of crit: fast and technical...well, that was until we got to the back half of the course and it was all uphill into a headwind. I really DON'T like racing uphill! It was a good wake-up call though, I was definitely a little rusty on tactics and appearantly forgot how to race uphill (note: spinning like a track rider is not a good strategy when trying to respond an attack up a hill). But my winnings did cover the race entry fee and I came home with an extra $10 which I spent at Jimmy John's for lunch on the drive home...so I really earned about $2!

Guess What Time It Is?!?!

Track time! Woo-hoo! :) I got to play on the track today with the Paralympic Team and man it is good to be back on the banked cement! While it was a little windy and pretty chilly, I definitely remembered why I have so much fun at the Velodrome...although, my memories may have been a little skewed as I sat on Greta's wheel (pictured) undergeared all day while she pulled into the wind. She was working on 1 minute power and I was working on my track legs...one turn at the front and I was thankful for my undergeared workout! (Greta, by the way, attended one semester at IU before relocating to the Springs. Go Hoosiers!)

Is it May 16th yet???

For those of you wondering why my blogging is lacking lately: I am overwhelmed by my classes this term which are taught by the two most demanding profs at our school, so double the workload for each class. In addition, I am trying to boost my face-face client contact hours to be competitive for an internship that I really want (read: more therapy hours in addition to more paperwork hours). Everything is going well, despite being overwhelmed, but all I do right now is coach, ride, counsel, and study...only six more weeks of this term though!!!