The New ASL

That'd be "American Spin Language".

So last night I realized something. In a given day, every person has a quota for "things that can go right" and "things that can go wrong".  Yesterday, I apparently donated all of my "things that can go right" points to a friend who needed them (and I'm glad I did, because everything went as well as possible for her). However, that left me with a lot of "what??  THAT went wrong???" moments during the rest of the day.

I won't go into the little things (like how my iPod reset itself recently, so shaking it makes it shuffle the songs..which is super great mid-spin class), but the one major thing that left me shaking my head is worth sharing.

Last night I subbed for Alicia. I love the Thursday group - they're all regulars, and they were all there when I was first learning to teach a year ago. They're good sports. Last night, I was utterly exhausted after a day that started at 4 AM (which really means that Wednesday just never ended, since we all know that if you need to wake up at 4 AM you really wake up every hour before that, panicked that you forgot to wake up). I was already punchy. I walked around and helped some new members set up their bikes, which means I had the headset around my neck so I wasn't talking instructions on bike setup into the ears of everyone else. Oh, quick detour. This is what our spin room looks like:

 You see the wires coming down from the ceiling? Those go to headphone jacks because the room isn't enclosed - it's just a mezzanine overlooking the rest of the cardio area. Usually, I actually like this. It means the music (and my voice) is really inside everyone's head.

Here's where I live. That's a protein shake, not a milkshake, I promise. But you see that railing behind the bikes?  Behind that is this:

I call it The Void. Things go down there, they don't come back. For example, I lost a towel down there 6 months ago. The brown stuff, it turns out, is just insulation over ceiling tiles. Translation: step on it, you go through the ceiling of the children's play area.

So

Back to the story. I'm running around with the headset around my neck and get back up to adjust my bike. Lean over to move the seat and guess what I dropped down into The Void 5 minutes before class?

That would be the headset. The only headset.

I ran down to the front desk to get maintenance or someone with a stick, but no dice. Then I realized there was no class running in Studio A, so I grabbed that headset. Then realized that...duh...the headsets are wireless, which means they're not transferrable. Awesome.

So I spent the rest of the class playing charades and miming what the riders were supposed to do. The profile I'd planned involved a lot of verbal cues, so that was right out the window. I had to make it up as I went along, which was interesting. They were good sports, god love em, and laughed along with me. I told them it was a "do as I do" kind of class, so for the first time, everyone jumped in sync (which I don't usually like to do, because some people don't jump as fast as others) and we all got a kick out of Fred keeping his head down too long and missing the cue to sit. :-) Good times.

After class, an unnamed person decided to take it upon themselves to hop that fence, nearly fall through the floor/ceiling, and grab the headset (AND my towel!!) so all's well that ends well. I'm still shaking my head over that one.

So after all that, I finally made it home and wouldn't you know it there was one more thing waiting to go wrong.

Sir Derps Alot (aka Grisgris, aka Kitty Pants...I swear I've been calling him that for 2+ years and I nearly fell out of my chair when Rose said she called her cat that too) suddenly has a very bad limp and won't put any weight at all on his left front paw. It's really swollen too (you can kind of see it here) and he won't let me touch it. I don't blame him. So, off to the vet we go this afternoon. At least he's still purring, bless his heart.

God love him, Nick suggested we go out for dinner last night, so we did...we got home around 8:30 and by 9:15 I was passed out. Didn't wake up until 8 this morning. It. was. glorious.

Anniversary Weekend: Returning to the Scene of the Crime

A year ago on Sunday, I was doing this:

There was also a lot of this:

And this:

I put a TON of work into our wedding, including making all the flowers:

And the programs (and invitations, etc):

The ceremony was at the cathedral in Burlington, VT (no pictures, it's ugly) and the reception was at Snow Farm Winery and Vineyard in South Hero, VT. It was PERFECT.

We had a photobooth, so our guest book rocked:

I also have fantastic friends and family, who made the whole night crazy fun:

 Guess what song.

 That poor horse.

 Can you tell we're related?

 And now they're related too (brother and sister in law)

 Seriously, it's like we're from different planets.

The ring bearer. Clearly, he's got the same contaminated gene pool.

It was a great day. Literally everything went as planned (as far as I'm told), minus the ring bearer ditching the rings with his dad before he walked down the aisle with his hand up yelling "no pictures please!" But that's just a great memory. :-)

Anyway, this weekend, we went back to South Hero and stayed at the Allenholm B&B. The Allens are the very definition of "salt of the earth" people. They're just adorable.

Saturday morning we had breakfast and then took a bike ride back out to the winery.

 We tried this year's wines and Nick told me we needed to come back again next year...that way we can get a bottle of wine made with grapes that were on the vine when we were getting married. Love that boy. :-)

 Saturday night we went out to dinner at the North Hero House, which was wonderful. We were underdressed, but everyone was super nice. The wine was on the house, since we were friends of Pam (the hostess of the B&B - she's really that wonderful of a person; anyone who associates with her is automatically assumed to be wonderful too).

 Apparently across the lake there is Nick's hometown. He says.

On Sunday we went back to the church where it all started, but no one was there, so we had to take one of these shots to prove we were there.

So that was the weekend. Very low key, but it was just what we needed. A year later, I'm still crazy about him, and he doesn't seem to be regretting his choice either. :-P

Nail Biter

Google Images continues its magic streak. This came from "tell me shake".  I was looking for something more like this:

Anyway. 


So the grade became visible at midnight. I got an 87.5 at first, then saw that one of the questions hadn't given me the credit I should have gotten, so I ended up with an 89.1. I needed an 89.667 to guarantee an A. 

I'm 0.567 points shy of an A at this point. 

But then the professor announced something about getting ONE extra credit point for turning in assignments on time? So...I might be 0.443 above an A? I emailed the prof about it, and she said I'd know by the end of the day what my unofficial grade is. 

I'm dying here. I know it's only an A- if I don't get that extra point, but dammit...I took 6 classes in the last 12 weeks, worked full time, put in over 80 hours of PT observation, and got A's in 5 classes. An A- isn't the end of the world, but it just looks so much more impressive if I get straight A's. 


UPDATE: Long story short, after some minor drama about being 0.01 points shy of an A, I politely pointed out a couple of rounding errors and she gave me the A. :-)

---

In other news, I have to teach spin again tonight at 6:45 and I'm thinking  about just going early and taking the strength class before it at 5:45. I realized last night how much I miss going right from work and just working my butt off until I'm too tired to move. 


I also realized last night that I'm doing ok. Bear with me on here, we're going down the rabbit hole a little. 


I know everyone has a fear of public speaking to some degree, and that's not something from which I am exempt. However, my fear of public stupidity FAR outweighs the general fear of talking to a group of people. The major source of anxiety for me when getting up in front of a group and doing something I haven't done before is fear of fraud - that everyone in the audience will suddenly realize I don't know what the heck I'm doing and either laugh or (worse) drop and shake their heads and leave, never to trust me or my judgement again. 


Yes, seriously. 

The funny thing is, I screw up in class all the time. I flub wording and mix up exercises and forget stuff completely, and in the end...no one walks out. No one laughs unless I make it funny, and there's yet to be a class that I didn't get some kind of thanks at the end. It turns out, I'm actually pretty good at this. I still don't know 100% what I'm doing, but I'm having fun and I'm becoming comfortable in my own skin a little more each day, and that rocks. 


And on that note, Rose, this one's for you: 

Between workouts, in the bathroom, sweaty and happy. Enjoy. :-D 

Vegas

Vegas was a whirlwind. The first night I felt like a toddler who hadn't napped in like 4 days.

This much stimulation literally brought me to tears at one point. I called my mom and told her I needed a hug. She gave me a verbal hug, helped me unwind a bit, and sent me on my way. I have the best mom.

We went to the Mandalay Bay shark aquarium thingy. Not as many sharks as advertised, but still one of the better aquariums I've been to.

Lizard for Alishia.

These tunnels make me so nervous that the glass is going to break. I think someone should put one of those awful broken glass stickers on there somewhere, just to scare the bajeebus out of folks like me.

Jelly fish are my favorite. As long as they're in a tank.

There were these water massage things. I was tempted, but not enough to shell out $20 for 10 minutes of aqua groping.

Then there was the Statue of Liberty.

Made out of jelly beans.

At MGM they have lions that lay on glass above your head.

Lions.

What you can just barely see here, in addition to the bright lights and stripper pole, is on the front of the boat there's a mother and her 9 year old daughter just hitchin' a ride. Call me crazy, but I just don't think that's the kind of place I'd take my preteen. Just sayin.

We got all gussied up and went to dinner. That dress is one of those ridiculous "wear it 100 ways" dresses. I talked the girl down from $100 to $60 and I know damn well I still paid way too much for it, but whatever, it was Vegas. I can wrap it around me in exactly one flattering way, and I can't move at all or else it either becomes unflattering or VERY revealing. Or both. But the color is nice. 

Sweat Shopping

First of all, it's way too early for this: 

 But that hasn't stopped me from having one every night for the last week. Yum.

 Second, in answer to your question, Rose, I have no problem shopping while I'm sweaty. In fact, you may notice that I'm in the condiments aisle instead of the produce aisle...that's because half my spin class showed up to shop after class as well, and I didn't want them to think I was a crazy person for taking nasty pictures of myself in the grocery store. At least not yet.

Also, I forgot to add this picture to the vacation pics. This is the meal Nick and I had when we got out of the canyon. Heartburn has never been so wonderful.

Zion

Thursday morning we spent doinking around the South Rim, waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the North Rim. 

Pretty great scenery abounded.

Happy, freshly showered couple.

Then, the apocalypse. The southwest has some serious storms, y'all. You don't want to mess with them.

Waiting for the shuttle.

Got back to the car and found this. No one had ransacked it, we just really left it this messy. Classy.

The drive to Zion was pretty impressive.

We stopped for dinner at this barbecue place in Hurricane (pronounced "hurr-a-kin"), UT. They had...shirts.

And boots.

And fun stuff to take pictures of.

Including a giant chair. Devin and I were the only ones who liked fun in this place.

See how fun I am? Not at all tacky.

All class.

Pretty much sums the trip up. The black bra/white shirt was poor planning...those were the only clean clothes I had at that point.

I forced Nick into this one. Can't tell at all, right?

We had to drive through Zion at night to get to our campsite, so we couldn't see the road ahead, but this is what the GPS looked like. Yikes.

Heading into Subway canyon.

Again, pretty epic scenery.

Love this place.

Devin took this one...love it.

The hike down was no joke y'all. For being so popular, they did a really good job of keeping it intense and not dumbing it down like the GC.

This river was a lot more refreshing on the way back.

No one did this one gracefully.

Fortunately, I was both last to go and holding the camera. No proof. :-D

Happy couple on a rock!

There were some serious up climbs too.

Love love love this place.

Taking the easy way.

Lish the lizard.

The rock formations here were so cool. Nothing else like them on earth.

I'm not sure how this kind of thing happens...

...but it's amazing. Love it.

Finally, the "real" canyon!

It's called Subway because it looks like a subway tube...I guess. 

Regardless, it's wicked cool.

No big deal, just eating lunch in one of the most beautiful places on earth.

These pools are deep enough to require swimming, and are fed by a waterfall you'll see shortly.

About to take the plunge. It was cold.

*swoon*

It was safer to just start on your butt to get down this.

Starting the trek back.

He jumped off of this, but Alishia has the picture of it. It turned out well, but she's off the grid for a while. :-)

Looking back up.

Apparently while the boys waited for us, things got a little crazy.

Zion Gothic.

Next up: Vegas!