40 questions

This place needs a little light-heartedness, so I thought instead of complaining about injuries, we’d rock a little Meme Monday action…thanks to Hannah (and by proxy, Lee Ann) for the inspiration. If you’re in need of a blog post, feel free to snatch (tee hee) this one for your own use.

1. Do you like bleu cheese? Not particularly. If I order buffalo wings and the restaurant decides that bleu cheese dressing is a better accompaniment than ranch, I can deal with it, but I’m not going to go out of my way to get it.

2. Have you ever smoked? Like regularly, or ever? I have the occasional cigar, but that’s about it.

3. Do you own a gun? Several. But I only like to shoot non-living things (you know, like targets). I don’t really have much of a desire to go hunting, or to shoot people (unless they mean me harm).

4. Favorite type of Food? Is bacon a type of food? How about “slightly floppy” bacon? That is a type of bacon, and bacon is definitely a food. I think that counts.

5. Favorite type of music? I like Hannah’s answer of “the good type”. Really, it depends on my mood. I have what I like to think is a pretty diverse catalogue. Right now, my favorite type is Pearl Jam on Austin City Limits, because I’m watching it, and it is freaking awesome.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Fucking love them. Just had one for dinner, actually.

7. Favorite Christmas movie? Muppet Christmas Carol, hands down.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Lately, coffee. Although if it’s really hot, I’ll go with a diet soda. As long as it has caffeine, I’m good.

9. Can you do push ups? A few. The tendons in my elbows start popping after a while, so I prefer not to.

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring. It pretty much never comes off.

11. Favorite hobby? Listening to music. I have other hobbies, but I usually listen to music while doing them.

12. Do you have A. D. D.? I suppose my wife would drive if I was really drunk, but it’s not her full-time occupation. (see what I did there?)

13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? I wear sunglasses…

14. Middle name? Starr (yes, really.)

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: I could really use another pillow. Eddie Vedder has an awesome voice. Stop head-butting me, stupid cat.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink: Okay, but that seems silly since they’re gone now. But since you asked, Samuel, Lenny, and Wolfgang. Can I anthropomorphize anything else for you?

17. Current worry? I’m really quite concerned our TV will die before Thanksgiving. It’s not looking good. And you do not want to be in this house during the Macy’s parade without a functioning television.

18. Current hate right now? Don’t really have one, but I’m still a little irritated at this really close-minded bumper sticker I saw earlier.

19. Favorite place to be? Geographically, I would say Seattle. But only if Meredith is there with me.

20. How did you bring in the new year? I don’t really remember, but I think I was asleep.

21. Someplace you’d like to go? Big Sur. I was so close a few weeks ago, but just didn’t have time.

22. Name three people who will complete this. Lee Ann, Hannah, and Harry…and hopefully some of their friends.

23. Do you own slippers? Sort of. I have some canvas Crocs that walk a fine line between slipper and shoe, but I think they’re more “shoe”.

24. What color shirt are you wearing? Red.

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I’ve never tried them, but they sound like they might get hot.

26. Can you whistle? I can, but I actually do better whistling inward as opposed to your conventional outward whistle.

27. Where are you now? Couch? House? Cornelius? North Carolina? Turducken?

28. Would you be a pirate? Probably not. I don’t have a clever response to this, I just don’t think I would do it.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? You never really know what’s going to come out, but I sing in the shower almost every day. Often they’re very strange songs, and I wonder why I’m thinking of them so early in the morning.

30. Favorite Girl’s Name? Meredith. (that’s the name of my favorite girl, at least.)

31. Favorite boy’s name? Julian.

32. What is in your pocket right now? An insulin pump, kleenex, and a receipt from lunch.

33. Last thing that made you laugh? This Geico commercial.

34. What vehicle do you drive? An F-150 Supercrew…which is nice to have, but the longer commute to my new job is getting expensive.

35. Worst injury you’ve ever had? I think something might be wrong with my pancreas…

36. Do you love where you live? I do. I’d like a larger house, but I really don’t want to move away from this area…unless it’s to Seattle.

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 5, but only 3 that are used regularly, and as previously mentioned, one of them is dying.

38. How many computers do you have in your house? 3 that are used regularly, plus a couple of old laptops that we’re still holding on to for some reason.

39. If you changed your job, what would it be? I guess “Customer Account Manager”, since I just did, and that is my new job.

40. If you were granted three wishes, what would they be? A cure for diabetes, healthy children, and a world without hate. (cheesy, I know. But it would be really nice.)

Two weeks, no this:

Tap…tap…is this thing still on???

Hey everybody. So things haven’t really gone as I’d hoped since the last post. Despite resting, icing, and everything, my hip pain really hasn’t gotten much better. I’ve pretty much had to put the marathon plans on hold, since I can’t run more than a half mile without the pain forcing me to stop. It’s very disappointing, but it got to a point where I had to look at things realistically and decide that trying to go forward with the training schedule just wasn’t going to happen.

Also, while knowing the cause of the pain may not have affected the outcome, it would be really nice to know exactly what’s wrong. Unfortunately, since I just changed jobs, I don’t have health insurance for the month of November, and thus can not go to the doctor for a diagnosis. I’m sure it’s one of the many overuse injuries that runners are prone to, but I honestly have no idea which one. Really, it doesn’t matter though, as the treatment for all of them is pretty much the same: rest and reduced training.

I’m now halfway through a self-imposed 2 week rest/recovery period. I felt like before I would take a few days off then run again and re-irritate the injury, so I thought it might be best to stay completely off it for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. To be honest, it really sucks. Running 30+ miles a week is hard, but NOT running is even harder. I see people running, and I just get jealous of them. I’m going to miss the Thanksgiving day Turkey Trot this week, which has been a tradition in our household the past few years. And due to the lack of exercise, my blood sugars have been complete crap lately. Not to mention the $85 marathon registration fee that’s now down the drain…

I’m really hoping that the 2 weeks off will allow things to heal and I’ll be able to start running again after Thanksgiving. If not, at least by then I’ll be able to go to the doctor and find out exactly what the problem is. At least there are plenty of Spring marathons, so if things get better soon, I may be able to get on track for one of those. We’ll see!

Happy(?) D-blog day!

Word on the street is that today is d-blog day. So I guess that means I should write on this blog. Perhaps even about the ‘betes. I haven’t really had much time for blogging, what with the new job and related travel and such. I’d like to say it’s also because of the marathon training, but unfortunately I’ve been battling a hip/knee injury so it feels like forever since I’ve been on a “good” run. Come to think of it, the last good run I had was also the last time I blogged.

Also part of the lack of blogging is that I’ve been a little depressed lately as a result of the injury. I feel like I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am now, and yet my body has suddenly decided to hold me back. Not all that unlike diabetes, really. Sometimes you work really hard to achieve really tight control, and something completely unexpected (a bad infusion site, infection, etc.) happens that makes everything up to that point seem like wasted effort. The only thing you can really do is to deal with whatever comes up and move on. Sometimes that means feeling like crap for an entire day after a stubborn midnight high, and sometimes it means having to stop training, ice the pain, and deal with some uncomfortable runs until things (hopefully) get better. In the meantime I’m trying to stay focused on the goal of running 26.2 miles on December 12th, just like I’m focused on avoiding diabetes-related complications down the road. Will I actually achieve either of those goals? I honestly don’t know, but I’m still hoping for the best…

Sorry for the downer of a post. I’ll see if I can find that witty sarcastic guy that normally writes here and get him to scribble something down.