Hello once again,
It seems lately I have more pieces of news than actual news, but I've decided if I keep waiting for actual news it may be a long time coming.
After surgery and lots of time, my knee is doing much better. After being lazy in the name of rehab for some time now I had my first semi-official workout at 100% on Friday. Being sore has never felt so nice! Looks like my legs are good going to do well but my lungs have forgotten how to work, so that will take awhile.
Last I wrote my wallet had been stolen. The good news is they seemingly stopped using it after writing just one check, the bad news is they were never caught...and some more people have lost wallets/cash/etc at work in the coming weeks. Fingers are starting to point to a few creepy cleaning people...the only ones with access to some of the behind desk areas. I hope they catch whomever it is.
My job as a trainer is going well, I enjoy the kids and find it to be a very stress free situation. Come fall this may all change, as there has been some discussion of changing me over to a full-time research position...which is great for the experience, but slightly more stressful than training 12 year olds ;). I hope more stress=more money, but we'll see. Summer has been hectic, so at least for the time being it looks like I'll continue training athletes and goofing around with Mike and Chris.
Jason and I are well and went to Arches National Park last weekend for two days of hiking and camping. We slept out on cots under the stars in the middle of nowhere (when i say middle of nowhere I'm not joking!) It was about 98 degrees at Arches, but thanks to tons of drinking water, and SPF 50, the weekend was a lot of fun. In the upcoming weeks we are trying to plan a trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.
After being green for at least a month, the mountains and most of the landscape is starting to brown as we hit the dry season. It's been unusually warm (even for Utah) although right now the low 90's we're having for daytime highs are about average. At least it's dry heat and none of the forest fires are in my neighborhood!
I'm planning on being home from September 22nd through October 1st. With any luck Jason will be coming along for a few days as well. I'm really looking forward to visiting home, as I've found that almost 9 months is a long time to go without seeing the family.
No huge 4th of July plans. Jason spent the weekend hiking up around his grandparents' house, but I had to work Saturday so I stayed home and got some cleaning done. Tomorrow night we're having dinner...hopefully there will be some fireworks to see on Tuesday.
I hope everyone is doing very well! Happy 4th of July and do be in touch!
Steph~
P.S. I'm going to send some pictures very soon!
Sunday, July 2, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
An Update for May
Hello.
Things have been good here. :) At least for a few days that is. I cannot tell a lie, it's been a rough few weeks. The story thus far....
On April 20th I had surgery to fix the cartilage in my knee. An athroscopic debridement is what it was officially called. It went well, but put me on my back for a few days (partly my fault...the pain meds I was taking "just in case" put me into a foggy coma for about 2 hours every time I took one). Having the scope done was easy, however the anethisia made me sick, and then I got an allergic reaction to the glue the used for the tape strips to close the incisions. So no pain, but I was itching like mad for the better part of a week or two! The only bright side was Jason stayed the weekend and took care of me, and I was able to behave myself well enough to get back to work on Monday. The surgery found that the medial plica in my knee was sort of jacked, and I had a flap of cartiladge behind my kneecap that shouldn't have been there. They removed all of the above and I'm now going up and down stairs again without any obnoxious clicking. The doctor said I should have a very good summer. I figure he knows what he's talking about because he's one of the team orthopods for the US Skiers and Speedskaters....those kids can mess up their knees way worse than I can.
A week to the day after my surgery, my wallet was stolen out of the office at work. This threw me into a state of crisis for the better part of a week, as I needed proof of who I was overnighted from WI in order to even get to my bank accounts. Thankfully, I knew which cards I had and managed to close everything pretty quickly. Now I'm dealing with one stray credit card charge (for a tank of gas not put in MY car) and so far only one fraudulent check (written to DI...the Utah equivalent of Goodwill). It looks like an act of desperation at this point, but it made for a really long week, and probably some additional headache to come. A note to everyone...take your wallet/purse out right now and make a list of EVERYTHING in it, including the 1-800 #'s for all of your cards. In hindsight a backup credit card and photo ID kept seperate from my wallet would have been a big help....Just FYI.
No major crisis last week other than the notice from my bank that someone wrote one of my checks. It seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, but I have had better luck since then.
This week I'm working another 60 hour week putting in some long research assistant hours. I like the hours, but some days are frustrating. The morning we had a no-show at 7am, and our 8:30 appointment is now 20 minutes late and just arrived. We've had our share of no-shows, but usally not two people back to back. Good research subjects are so hard to find!
On the Acceleration training side of things, I still really like what I'm doing. It's becomming more and more hectic as we get closer to summer, and there are hours where it's tough to even get the chance to run to the restroom or grab a snack...but I sort of like the craziness. It's also been interesting lately because we've hired a few new part-time "fill-in" people that we are training, and we're getting a batch of 2 or 3 new interns for the summer. The new faces are nice, but it has also solidified Chris and I as the "afternoon team" (since occasionally we find all the new people to be a big pain). We're having great fun at work. Thank goodness once again he has a great sense of humor!
Jason and I are doing well. It was just 4 months, but between me moving, having surgery, and having my wallet stolen, he's been through more than most any boyfriend should go through in say the first year. I think he'll manage to stay around for awhile :) We're planning on getting out and doing some hiking as soon as my knee heals up. It's a slow progression since I'm trying to keep the swelling down, and I'm pretty hard on it at work. Last weekend we just went for a walk around the park, next we're going to find a hill, and then we'll eventually head to the mountains.
It's a beautiful time of year here. It's been dry and around 70 degrees for at least a week or two. The mountains are snowcapped, and becomming green at lower elevations, and in town we have lots of flowers and fresh-cut grass. I have started a small container garden on my balcony...nothing more than peas and a tomato plant, but I thought I would give it a shot.
So that's the news. I hope everyone is well. I'm hoping you e-mail me, because I'd love to know how life is in your neighborhood! Take Care and Be in Touch!
Steph~
Things have been good here. :) At least for a few days that is. I cannot tell a lie, it's been a rough few weeks. The story thus far....
On April 20th I had surgery to fix the cartilage in my knee. An athroscopic debridement is what it was officially called. It went well, but put me on my back for a few days (partly my fault...the pain meds I was taking "just in case" put me into a foggy coma for about 2 hours every time I took one). Having the scope done was easy, however the anethisia made me sick, and then I got an allergic reaction to the glue the used for the tape strips to close the incisions. So no pain, but I was itching like mad for the better part of a week or two! The only bright side was Jason stayed the weekend and took care of me, and I was able to behave myself well enough to get back to work on Monday. The surgery found that the medial plica in my knee was sort of jacked, and I had a flap of cartiladge behind my kneecap that shouldn't have been there. They removed all of the above and I'm now going up and down stairs again without any obnoxious clicking. The doctor said I should have a very good summer. I figure he knows what he's talking about because he's one of the team orthopods for the US Skiers and Speedskaters....those kids can mess up their knees way worse than I can.
A week to the day after my surgery, my wallet was stolen out of the office at work. This threw me into a state of crisis for the better part of a week, as I needed proof of who I was overnighted from WI in order to even get to my bank accounts. Thankfully, I knew which cards I had and managed to close everything pretty quickly. Now I'm dealing with one stray credit card charge (for a tank of gas not put in MY car) and so far only one fraudulent check (written to DI...the Utah equivalent of Goodwill). It looks like an act of desperation at this point, but it made for a really long week, and probably some additional headache to come. A note to everyone...take your wallet/purse out right now and make a list of EVERYTHING in it, including the 1-800 #'s for all of your cards. In hindsight a backup credit card and photo ID kept seperate from my wallet would have been a big help....Just FYI.
No major crisis last week other than the notice from my bank that someone wrote one of my checks. It seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back, but I have had better luck since then.
This week I'm working another 60 hour week putting in some long research assistant hours. I like the hours, but some days are frustrating. The morning we had a no-show at 7am, and our 8:30 appointment is now 20 minutes late and just arrived. We've had our share of no-shows, but usally not two people back to back. Good research subjects are so hard to find!
On the Acceleration training side of things, I still really like what I'm doing. It's becomming more and more hectic as we get closer to summer, and there are hours where it's tough to even get the chance to run to the restroom or grab a snack...but I sort of like the craziness. It's also been interesting lately because we've hired a few new part-time "fill-in" people that we are training, and we're getting a batch of 2 or 3 new interns for the summer. The new faces are nice, but it has also solidified Chris and I as the "afternoon team" (since occasionally we find all the new people to be a big pain). We're having great fun at work. Thank goodness once again he has a great sense of humor!
Jason and I are doing well. It was just 4 months, but between me moving, having surgery, and having my wallet stolen, he's been through more than most any boyfriend should go through in say the first year. I think he'll manage to stay around for awhile :) We're planning on getting out and doing some hiking as soon as my knee heals up. It's a slow progression since I'm trying to keep the swelling down, and I'm pretty hard on it at work. Last weekend we just went for a walk around the park, next we're going to find a hill, and then we'll eventually head to the mountains.
It's a beautiful time of year here. It's been dry and around 70 degrees for at least a week or two. The mountains are snowcapped, and becomming green at lower elevations, and in town we have lots of flowers and fresh-cut grass. I have started a small container garden on my balcony...nothing more than peas and a tomato plant, but I thought I would give it a shot.
So that's the news. I hope everyone is well. I'm hoping you e-mail me, because I'd love to know how life is in your neighborhood! Take Care and Be in Touch!
Steph~
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Life in Utah and Chocolate Covered Eggs
Hello,
It's been awhile since I have sat down and written. I thought I'd send a note to wish you a happy easter and give the update from Utah.
Everything at work has been going wonderfully. I'm getting enough hours, and this week I was helping with a research study involving runners with low back pain, so I put in an extra 20 hours....mostly between the hours of 6am and 10am...what a change that was!
My knee is still not up to par, so I'll be having it scoped next Thursday. I do think it's been getting better, but it's been 4 months of just working, without so much as a trip to the gym that's been driving me crazy. Having a scope done is supposed to be relatively easy. If anyone wants to give me a call next Thursday through Sunday, I'll probably be sitting around my apartment with cable TV and a bag of ice.
Jason and I are doing well. It's been around 3 months and this weekend I'm going to meet his parents and grandparents at Easter. He told me a free meal would be involved so I'm all in.
The weather here has been pretty good. We've gotten a lot of rain, and a lot of extra snow in the mountains, so they are a bit worried about spring flooding when all that snow melts. On sunny days it's been clear and in the mid-seventies....on the rainy days it's still only topping out in the 40's or low 50's, but the sunny days make up for it. I bought some peas, and a cherry tomato plant and am trying to have a container garden of sorts on my balcony. No peas yet, but hopefully soon ;)
I love my apartment! Two months after moving in, the goldfish and I are finally feeling like it's homey. I bought some plants, which helped a bunch...and got all of my things from WI settled. It was fun having my brother and Bendall come visit in March, and Krista will be here in about a week. If anyone else would like to visit or will be in town, let me know and I'll send directions!
I think that's the update for now. I'd love to hear from everyone. Put in a good word for me next Thursday when I have my knee scoped. Take Care!
Steph~
It's been awhile since I have sat down and written. I thought I'd send a note to wish you a happy easter and give the update from Utah.
Everything at work has been going wonderfully. I'm getting enough hours, and this week I was helping with a research study involving runners with low back pain, so I put in an extra 20 hours....mostly between the hours of 6am and 10am...what a change that was!
My knee is still not up to par, so I'll be having it scoped next Thursday. I do think it's been getting better, but it's been 4 months of just working, without so much as a trip to the gym that's been driving me crazy. Having a scope done is supposed to be relatively easy. If anyone wants to give me a call next Thursday through Sunday, I'll probably be sitting around my apartment with cable TV and a bag of ice.
Jason and I are doing well. It's been around 3 months and this weekend I'm going to meet his parents and grandparents at Easter. He told me a free meal would be involved so I'm all in.
The weather here has been pretty good. We've gotten a lot of rain, and a lot of extra snow in the mountains, so they are a bit worried about spring flooding when all that snow melts. On sunny days it's been clear and in the mid-seventies....on the rainy days it's still only topping out in the 40's or low 50's, but the sunny days make up for it. I bought some peas, and a cherry tomato plant and am trying to have a container garden of sorts on my balcony. No peas yet, but hopefully soon ;)
I love my apartment! Two months after moving in, the goldfish and I are finally feeling like it's homey. I bought some plants, which helped a bunch...and got all of my things from WI settled. It was fun having my brother and Bendall come visit in March, and Krista will be here in about a week. If anyone else would like to visit or will be in town, let me know and I'll send directions!
I think that's the update for now. I'd love to hear from everyone. Put in a good word for me next Thursday when I have my knee scoped. Take Care!
Steph~
Monday, February 27, 2006
News!
Hey There!
I thought since I said I'd write later I really should take care of that. As you may have guessed I MOVED! Yay! Why is this such a good thing? Well I am now officially 3 miles from work instead of 15 for starters. I'm also not living with the unpredictable roommate and her new semi-live-in...I hesistate to say boyfriend (since last I knew they didn't have a title). It wouldn't have been so bad if they could have remembered to at least shut their door...you get the picture. Another plus is that in 2 weeks my brother and bendall (his freshman year roommate) are coming to visit for spring break and bringing the rest of my stuff from storage in WI, which I now have room (and need) for!
On the downside, my rent is more expensive and I miss the cat. That's about the only downsides I've come up with so far. So I guess that's not too bad :) This morning I reported a maintenance issue and the guy was here in 15 minutes....this is far better than the old place where we complained for over a month that the hot water heater was dying before we finally resigned ourselves to luke-warm showers.
It was my first moving experience so far from home, but lots of folks from work volunteered to lend a hand (or vehicle) if need be. I messed up my knee a bit a few weeks back and I am still making it better so Jason did most of the heavy lifting. We also used his roommate's SUV to move the bigger things....without that help I would have been SOL.
Enough about that.
The olympics are over...*tear*...it will be interesting to hear the inside opinions of how everyone did when they return in upcoming days. Our nutritionist spent almost a month in Torino cooking for the team. She couldn't drive there so she ended up lugging whatever groceries she could carry back and forth to where she was staying. I'm sure with the number of athletes she was cooking for she made about a million trips on foot. If you knew Nanna...or know Nanna you might be able to better imagine.
Work is going well. Some hours Chris and I think we should be considered babysitters, and sometimes we really feel like trainers. It's been crazy busy lately. It picked up quite a bit after christmas, and word on the street is it will continue to do this until next fall. Bad news is, right now 98% of our athletes can only come between 3 and 7 since they come after school, and Mike left us during the afternoons for softball season (he coaches at a local HS) leaving Chris and I to fend for ourselves. We get by...some days are better than others. Today I was pegged with tennis ball and warned the kid who threw it that his next training session with me was going to be rough. If Chris didn't have a good sense of humor I think the days would be a lot longer.
It's been really warm the last few days (mid 50's or 60's), and our snow has all melted. We might get some rain in the valley this weekend when it cools down and a foot of snow in the mountains. Ski season is far from over, although with my knee bugging me I don't think I'll be on skis anytime soon.
That's the biggest news from around here. I work during the week, hang out with Jason on the weekends, spend way too much time shopping, and am generally enjoying life in Utah. :) I hope all is well wherever you call home. Be in touch!
Steph~
I thought since I said I'd write later I really should take care of that. As you may have guessed I MOVED! Yay! Why is this such a good thing? Well I am now officially 3 miles from work instead of 15 for starters. I'm also not living with the unpredictable roommate and her new semi-live-in...I hesistate to say boyfriend (since last I knew they didn't have a title). It wouldn't have been so bad if they could have remembered to at least shut their door...you get the picture. Another plus is that in 2 weeks my brother and bendall (his freshman year roommate) are coming to visit for spring break and bringing the rest of my stuff from storage in WI, which I now have room (and need) for!
On the downside, my rent is more expensive and I miss the cat. That's about the only downsides I've come up with so far. So I guess that's not too bad :) This morning I reported a maintenance issue and the guy was here in 15 minutes....this is far better than the old place where we complained for over a month that the hot water heater was dying before we finally resigned ourselves to luke-warm showers.
It was my first moving experience so far from home, but lots of folks from work volunteered to lend a hand (or vehicle) if need be. I messed up my knee a bit a few weeks back and I am still making it better so Jason did most of the heavy lifting. We also used his roommate's SUV to move the bigger things....without that help I would have been SOL.
Enough about that.
The olympics are over...*tear*...it will be interesting to hear the inside opinions of how everyone did when they return in upcoming days. Our nutritionist spent almost a month in Torino cooking for the team. She couldn't drive there so she ended up lugging whatever groceries she could carry back and forth to where she was staying. I'm sure with the number of athletes she was cooking for she made about a million trips on foot. If you knew Nanna...or know Nanna you might be able to better imagine.
Work is going well. Some hours Chris and I think we should be considered babysitters, and sometimes we really feel like trainers. It's been crazy busy lately. It picked up quite a bit after christmas, and word on the street is it will continue to do this until next fall. Bad news is, right now 98% of our athletes can only come between 3 and 7 since they come after school, and Mike left us during the afternoons for softball season (he coaches at a local HS) leaving Chris and I to fend for ourselves. We get by...some days are better than others. Today I was pegged with tennis ball and warned the kid who threw it that his next training session with me was going to be rough. If Chris didn't have a good sense of humor I think the days would be a lot longer.
It's been really warm the last few days (mid 50's or 60's), and our snow has all melted. We might get some rain in the valley this weekend when it cools down and a foot of snow in the mountains. Ski season is far from over, although with my knee bugging me I don't think I'll be on skis anytime soon.
That's the biggest news from around here. I work during the week, hang out with Jason on the weekends, spend way too much time shopping, and am generally enjoying life in Utah. :) I hope all is well wherever you call home. Be in touch!
Steph~
Sunday, January 8, 2006
Something Witty Should be Written Here
I thought I'd send out a quick note before I get carried away with work and life and what have you. So it's a week past due, but welcome to 2006! I think it's going to be a very good year. I'm back in Utah, it looks like I'll be working at least enough to pay the bills, and spring is getting a little closer each day. Not that I can complain about the weather. We've had 50's and sunshine for most of this past week which is quite a bit above normal even for Utah in winter. Some places in the mountains got over 6 feet of snow in the week after Christmas though, so it's not like skiing has been hampered at all.
It was great to see so many of you during the time I was home! It was a bit sad leaving, but once I got back to Utah I remembered there were things I missed here too...like the mountains, my coworkers, and Gidget our cat. For my first time flying alone I don't have any horror stories to share. My luggage showed up wherever I was and my buses/planes were on time. Oddly I was less motion sick during the flight back to Utah (which reminded me of riding down a bumpy country road in a school bus), than I was during the smooth flight to WI.
Something about getting back into working this week was rough. I felt like I had the most disorganized week of my life. Every time I turned around I lost something, and on more than one occasion I headed out to do something, and forgot what I was doing before I got there. I figure this is either a direct result of having two weeks off, or early onset Alzheimer's. Here's hoping it clears up next week.
I've been subbing for Acceleration out at the Olympic Oval a bit more than I'd anticipated. It's cool (literally) and I get home and shiver for about an hour. It's fun though since we're getting so close to the Olympics and there is a lot of excitement in the air everywhere in Salt Lake...and especially at the Oval. Evenings of training are guaranteeing me enough hours to get by, and research stuff is picking up.
I broke down and did something I never thought I'd do...I gave plasma. I decided if I were looking for the extra cash I might as well give it a try. It went really smooth on my first try (yesterday), but if it's anything like my experiences giving blood I'll be a degree too warm, or my hematocrit will be a point too low the next time I try to give. If anyone can tell me how to cheat on a hematocrit test I'd be interested in the information. For being a young, healthy, individual I sure do have a hard time passing the dumb screening test. No fail though, they'll always take the blood/plasma from the person I'm sitting next to in the waiting room who is either coughing up a lung and/or looks like they haven't slept in weeks. Jerks. In any case, for a couple hundred extra a month figure it can't hurt to try. :)
My roommate was entertaining this week. Bless her heart, she reminded me yet again why you shouldn't drink in excess, after coming home with her tongue pierced. She's been eating a lot of ice cream and talks like she's got a mouth full of marbles. It hasn't prompted me to be interested in piercing my tongue anytime soon.
I apologize for the lack of exciting news...but I'll try to get out there and do something crazy before my next update ;) Take care and have a very good beginning of 2006!
Steph~
P.S. If you could all do me a favor and send me your current addresses and birthdays I'm going to do my best to send more real mail to people this year. It's one of several loosely organized New Years resolutions I made. I know I'm missing at least a few addresses, and probably most everyone's birthdays. I'm going to try to be better about that.
P.S.S. Speaking of birthdays, if anyone is interested I'll be turning 24 on the 25th of January and you're all invited for cake :) Please let me know when I should pick you up at the airport.
It was great to see so many of you during the time I was home! It was a bit sad leaving, but once I got back to Utah I remembered there were things I missed here too...like the mountains, my coworkers, and Gidget our cat. For my first time flying alone I don't have any horror stories to share. My luggage showed up wherever I was and my buses/planes were on time. Oddly I was less motion sick during the flight back to Utah (which reminded me of riding down a bumpy country road in a school bus), than I was during the smooth flight to WI.
Something about getting back into working this week was rough. I felt like I had the most disorganized week of my life. Every time I turned around I lost something, and on more than one occasion I headed out to do something, and forgot what I was doing before I got there. I figure this is either a direct result of having two weeks off, or early onset Alzheimer's. Here's hoping it clears up next week.
I've been subbing for Acceleration out at the Olympic Oval a bit more than I'd anticipated. It's cool (literally) and I get home and shiver for about an hour. It's fun though since we're getting so close to the Olympics and there is a lot of excitement in the air everywhere in Salt Lake...and especially at the Oval. Evenings of training are guaranteeing me enough hours to get by, and research stuff is picking up.
I broke down and did something I never thought I'd do...I gave plasma. I decided if I were looking for the extra cash I might as well give it a try. It went really smooth on my first try (yesterday), but if it's anything like my experiences giving blood I'll be a degree too warm, or my hematocrit will be a point too low the next time I try to give. If anyone can tell me how to cheat on a hematocrit test I'd be interested in the information. For being a young, healthy, individual I sure do have a hard time passing the dumb screening test. No fail though, they'll always take the blood/plasma from the person I'm sitting next to in the waiting room who is either coughing up a lung and/or looks like they haven't slept in weeks. Jerks. In any case, for a couple hundred extra a month figure it can't hurt to try. :)
My roommate was entertaining this week. Bless her heart, she reminded me yet again why you shouldn't drink in excess, after coming home with her tongue pierced. She's been eating a lot of ice cream and talks like she's got a mouth full of marbles. It hasn't prompted me to be interested in piercing my tongue anytime soon.
I apologize for the lack of exciting news...but I'll try to get out there and do something crazy before my next update ;) Take care and have a very good beginning of 2006!
Steph~
P.S. If you could all do me a favor and send me your current addresses and birthdays I'm going to do my best to send more real mail to people this year. It's one of several loosely organized New Years resolutions I made. I know I'm missing at least a few addresses, and probably most everyone's birthdays. I'm going to try to be better about that.
P.S.S. Speaking of birthdays, if anyone is interested I'll be turning 24 on the 25th of January and you're all invited for cake :) Please let me know when I should pick you up at the airport.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Finally...News
Hey There,
By the title of my e-mail I don't mean to infer that I haven't had lots of news to share lately...quite the contrary actually. However, I've been waiting for final word on some especially exciting news until I e-mailed you once again. So here it is...as some of you have probably guessed....My internship site has officially offered me a job which I have accepted! I'm pumped! I love Salt Lake City and so far and all of the people I've worked with at my internship are amazing. I will be working part-time as a research assistant and spending the rest of my time training the acceleration athletes. It looks like I'll get a nice combination of hands-on research experience and hands-on training of athletes. Since TOSH (The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital) also obviously does orthopedic surgery procedures I get the experience of working in a more clinical setting as well. So far everything about staying here is a plus. And still not a Culver's to work at within 100 miles! Great huh? So if anyone is wondering...I'll be an Exercise Specialist at TOSH by the time I'm home for Christmas. Yippee!
Speaking of Christmas, I found cheap airline tickets so I'll be flying home instead of taking the train. Not getting paid for the last three months has done nothing to increase me pocketbook so for awhile I was thinking I would have to spend 35 hours on a train and/or bus :(. I'm glad I found a flight since I'll probably be anxious to get home quickly once that day comes. Dates of my Christmas visit will be December 15th until January 1st. I'm hoping to do a lot of visiting while I'm home since I'll be flying back to SLC and hitting the job here really hard after the holidays.
What else I've been up to...I spent the entire past weekend taking video clips of the Speedskaters at the World Cup event here at the Oval for biomechanical analysis. It was fun since I got a special credential and got to hang out where the normal spectators couldn't go. I wish I would have realized the credential got me free food on the first day instead of the last ;) Apparently probably 6 million or so people in Europe saw me on TV...but here in the US speedskating isn't covered very well...I think they put bull-riding or something like that on instead...Bah!
My parents got out here to visit a week or so ago. They finally saw the mountains, although we had a bit of an inversion when they were here and the weather was sort of rainy. Thankfully, they being hearty Wisconsin farmers, we just bundled up and still managed to see most of the sites (though they were somewhat rainy/cloudy and I cursed the weather all weekend long). What we really need here right now is a good snowstorm. We've been having a bit of an inversion...basically causing the valley to be smoggy and cooler than it should be and it to be warmer at higher elevations. A good snowstorm will clear it right up. Not to mention make the skiers very VERY happy. Otherwise the weather here continues to be wonderful. Mostly sunny and high in the mid-upper 40's. No snow in the city yet but a few ski resorts have been able to open in the mountains.
I must send props to Ben Craker...the first non-family member to visit me here in SLC. Everyone else should come to town on business too so we can go do lunch ;)
I will be spending Thanksgiving with a friend from work and a few of her friends. All of them have families that are out of state and will not be able to visit them for Thanksgiving. I had several offers for Thanksgiving dinner actually...and for awhile we joked that people would need to submit menus so I could make a more informed decision. I was sold by Tara's peanut butter ice cream pie...I'll be bringing a big spoon...MMMMmmm...who needs turkey anyways? ;)
Since my last e-mail I have also had my first experience with sushi. I can say that although going to a classy restaurant with the kids from work was fun...I'd rather grill out around a bonfire and eat off a tailgate on somebody's back 40 than eat sushi again real soon. I don't want to say I hated it..but I do believe it will take some experimentation to figure out what I like.
There's so much I've probably left out here but I can save all of that for Christmas. A few of you are MIA...You know who you are...and I hope to hear from you soon. :) Take care and have a great Thanksgiving!
Steph~
By the title of my e-mail I don't mean to infer that I haven't had lots of news to share lately...quite the contrary actually. However, I've been waiting for final word on some especially exciting news until I e-mailed you once again. So here it is...as some of you have probably guessed....My internship site has officially offered me a job which I have accepted! I'm pumped! I love Salt Lake City and so far and all of the people I've worked with at my internship are amazing. I will be working part-time as a research assistant and spending the rest of my time training the acceleration athletes. It looks like I'll get a nice combination of hands-on research experience and hands-on training of athletes. Since TOSH (The Orthopedic Specialty Hospital) also obviously does orthopedic surgery procedures I get the experience of working in a more clinical setting as well. So far everything about staying here is a plus. And still not a Culver's to work at within 100 miles! Great huh? So if anyone is wondering...I'll be an Exercise Specialist at TOSH by the time I'm home for Christmas. Yippee!
Speaking of Christmas, I found cheap airline tickets so I'll be flying home instead of taking the train. Not getting paid for the last three months has done nothing to increase me pocketbook so for awhile I was thinking I would have to spend 35 hours on a train and/or bus :(. I'm glad I found a flight since I'll probably be anxious to get home quickly once that day comes. Dates of my Christmas visit will be December 15th until January 1st. I'm hoping to do a lot of visiting while I'm home since I'll be flying back to SLC and hitting the job here really hard after the holidays.
What else I've been up to...I spent the entire past weekend taking video clips of the Speedskaters at the World Cup event here at the Oval for biomechanical analysis. It was fun since I got a special credential and got to hang out where the normal spectators couldn't go. I wish I would have realized the credential got me free food on the first day instead of the last ;) Apparently probably 6 million or so people in Europe saw me on TV...but here in the US speedskating isn't covered very well...I think they put bull-riding or something like that on instead...Bah!
My parents got out here to visit a week or so ago. They finally saw the mountains, although we had a bit of an inversion when they were here and the weather was sort of rainy. Thankfully, they being hearty Wisconsin farmers, we just bundled up and still managed to see most of the sites (though they were somewhat rainy/cloudy and I cursed the weather all weekend long). What we really need here right now is a good snowstorm. We've been having a bit of an inversion...basically causing the valley to be smoggy and cooler than it should be and it to be warmer at higher elevations. A good snowstorm will clear it right up. Not to mention make the skiers very VERY happy. Otherwise the weather here continues to be wonderful. Mostly sunny and high in the mid-upper 40's. No snow in the city yet but a few ski resorts have been able to open in the mountains.
I must send props to Ben Craker...the first non-family member to visit me here in SLC. Everyone else should come to town on business too so we can go do lunch ;)
I will be spending Thanksgiving with a friend from work and a few of her friends. All of them have families that are out of state and will not be able to visit them for Thanksgiving. I had several offers for Thanksgiving dinner actually...and for awhile we joked that people would need to submit menus so I could make a more informed decision. I was sold by Tara's peanut butter ice cream pie...I'll be bringing a big spoon...MMMMmmm...who needs turkey anyways? ;)
Since my last e-mail I have also had my first experience with sushi. I can say that although going to a classy restaurant with the kids from work was fun...I'd rather grill out around a bonfire and eat off a tailgate on somebody's back 40 than eat sushi again real soon. I don't want to say I hated it..but I do believe it will take some experimentation to figure out what I like.
There's so much I've probably left out here but I can save all of that for Christmas. A few of you are MIA...You know who you are...and I hope to hear from you soon. :) Take care and have a great Thanksgiving!
Steph~
Sunday, October 9, 2005
To YOU from ME
Hey,
So lately things here have been flying by! I'm over half way done with my internship...which means half way closer to graduating (yay!) and half way closer to moving from "unemployed college student" to simply "unemployed"...the second of which is not acceptable and highly unproductive. In a few weeks I'm going to start handing out resumes to everyone I know here in Salt Lake City. Hopefully I'll be employed before Christmas.
The last month has been a lot of fun (in between my moments of boredom). I spent a couple of days out at the Olympic Oval--one day observing lactate testing on the biggest treadmill I've ever seen in my life (I kid you not it's got to be 12 feet across and 8 feet long...the skaters rollerblade on it, and the skiers rollerski on it for testing), and one day taking video clips of the speedskaters' starts for Steve (resident biomechanist) to anyalyze/critique. I've also spent a day or two in the lab where the typical bike/treadmill VO2 testing takes place--the victims of the day were the Junior National speedskaters. I sat in on the performance enhancement meeting for the speedskaters where I got to see Carl (my advisor) from LaX. It was nice to see a familiar face. The meeting was extremely interesting...I can't remember if I wrote about it in my last e-mail or not...but basically all of the coaches, doctors, therapists, nutritionists, physiologists etc for the team sit together and talk about all of the skaters behind their backs ;). Everything is fair game--training, diet, personal lives...it was interesting and unnerving at the same time ;) All joking aside, I learned a lot.
I've also gotten out and had some fun. After the football game that didn't work out, I did finally get the chance to hang out with the kids from work at the most amazing piano bar..."The Tavernacle" Two dueling grand pianos play songs by request (for $2), if you don't like the song they are playing you can stop it for $3...if someone wants it to keep playing $4...you get the idea. It was fun and right up my alley. I had never heard Eminem on a piano before... ;)
I got out into the mountains (finally) for a wonderful hike. Well, the altitude kicked my butt...but otherwise it was wonderful. Yesterday I drove up to Park City (where the olympic park is as well as where most of the skiing events were held) to sight-see and do some outlet mall shopping. The mountains are BEAUTIFUL.
Friday morning a few of us from work decided to work out together. We did one of the backpedal protocols from Acceleration. For anyone who hasn't heard of this, basically they strap you into a harness and you run backwards uphill on a treadmill. They are mostly short bouts (6-15 seconds at a time) however the slowest one was 6mph and the fastest was 9mps at a 22.5% grade. In english that's running backwards very fast up a very steep hill. Thank goodness for the harness. And if you're wondering...yes, everyone looks like an idiot when they do it the first time...and if you fall and need the harness the first time you might be doing it right. The science behind this is that it's great for your glutes and all of your stabilizers (somewhere's in the realm of 200% more muscle recruitment than running forwards at the same speed/grade...logical since humans really aren't designed to run backwards). In addition you get the chance to fall down repeatedly/and or lose your breakfast if you're not careful! :) In summary, I was sore for the better part of the weekend, it was a great workout, and a good deal of fun.
In the coming weeks I might get the chance to try my luck at pushing a bobsled..thanks to Robert (one of the athletes in the pool for the 4-man bobsled this winter olympics) who we're training right now, who thinks I'd make a good bobsled pusher. I told him I thought pushing wouldn't be the problem...it would be getting in before the thing takes off down the hill that would be rough. (Mental picture of me dragging along behind a bobsled with 3 riders in it). He also might hook us up with bobsled rides (I'm pumped!). I'm also going with some coworkers to a Switchfoot concert on the 24th and a Utah football game sometime in the next month. If Utah was actually winning I'd be more excited ;)
There's so much more to tell that you probably can't sit through reading it all. I'm going to stop here. Hopefully more individual e-mails in the next week....if I don't get an e-mail to you right away beat me to it! I hope you're well...be in touch!
Steph~
ps. I've created an actual "update" list...and you made it! (The desired response is "yay!" or "yippee!")
So lately things here have been flying by! I'm over half way done with my internship...which means half way closer to graduating (yay!) and half way closer to moving from "unemployed college student" to simply "unemployed"...the second of which is not acceptable and highly unproductive. In a few weeks I'm going to start handing out resumes to everyone I know here in Salt Lake City. Hopefully I'll be employed before Christmas.
The last month has been a lot of fun (in between my moments of boredom). I spent a couple of days out at the Olympic Oval--one day observing lactate testing on the biggest treadmill I've ever seen in my life (I kid you not it's got to be 12 feet across and 8 feet long...the skaters rollerblade on it, and the skiers rollerski on it for testing), and one day taking video clips of the speedskaters' starts for Steve (resident biomechanist) to anyalyze/critique. I've also spent a day or two in the lab where the typical bike/treadmill VO2 testing takes place--the victims of the day were the Junior National speedskaters. I sat in on the performance enhancement meeting for the speedskaters where I got to see Carl (my advisor) from LaX. It was nice to see a familiar face. The meeting was extremely interesting...I can't remember if I wrote about it in my last e-mail or not...but basically all of the coaches, doctors, therapists, nutritionists, physiologists etc for the team sit together and talk about all of the skaters behind their backs ;). Everything is fair game--training, diet, personal lives...it was interesting and unnerving at the same time ;) All joking aside, I learned a lot.
I've also gotten out and had some fun. After the football game that didn't work out, I did finally get the chance to hang out with the kids from work at the most amazing piano bar..."The Tavernacle" Two dueling grand pianos play songs by request (for $2), if you don't like the song they are playing you can stop it for $3...if someone wants it to keep playing $4...you get the idea. It was fun and right up my alley. I had never heard Eminem on a piano before... ;)
I got out into the mountains (finally) for a wonderful hike. Well, the altitude kicked my butt...but otherwise it was wonderful. Yesterday I drove up to Park City (where the olympic park is as well as where most of the skiing events were held) to sight-see and do some outlet mall shopping. The mountains are BEAUTIFUL.
Friday morning a few of us from work decided to work out together. We did one of the backpedal protocols from Acceleration. For anyone who hasn't heard of this, basically they strap you into a harness and you run backwards uphill on a treadmill. They are mostly short bouts (6-15 seconds at a time) however the slowest one was 6mph and the fastest was 9mps at a 22.5% grade. In english that's running backwards very fast up a very steep hill. Thank goodness for the harness. And if you're wondering...yes, everyone looks like an idiot when they do it the first time...and if you fall and need the harness the first time you might be doing it right. The science behind this is that it's great for your glutes and all of your stabilizers (somewhere's in the realm of 200% more muscle recruitment than running forwards at the same speed/grade...logical since humans really aren't designed to run backwards). In addition you get the chance to fall down repeatedly/and or lose your breakfast if you're not careful! :) In summary, I was sore for the better part of the weekend, it was a great workout, and a good deal of fun.
In the coming weeks I might get the chance to try my luck at pushing a bobsled..thanks to Robert (one of the athletes in the pool for the 4-man bobsled this winter olympics) who we're training right now, who thinks I'd make a good bobsled pusher. I told him I thought pushing wouldn't be the problem...it would be getting in before the thing takes off down the hill that would be rough. (Mental picture of me dragging along behind a bobsled with 3 riders in it). He also might hook us up with bobsled rides (I'm pumped!). I'm also going with some coworkers to a Switchfoot concert on the 24th and a Utah football game sometime in the next month. If Utah was actually winning I'd be more excited ;)
There's so much more to tell that you probably can't sit through reading it all. I'm going to stop here. Hopefully more individual e-mails in the next week....if I don't get an e-mail to you right away beat me to it! I hope you're well...be in touch!
Steph~
ps. I've created an actual "update" list...and you made it! (The desired response is "yay!" or "yippee!")
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