Too-short break

but very productive. I got to bike (a 12-hour race, at that!) and climb. I weeded, a LOT, and mowed. I replanted a tree shrub. I cleaned, organized, and moved furniture (in the living room). I finally finished the trim on the new window, and painted the crown molding in the living room to set off the latte-colored paint I put up in July to replace the former fuschia-magenta. I got new shoes, visited with friends, and cooked. I put in some time at REI and sold a few bikes. I slept. I ate. I caught up with friends up north on my slightly-frustrating cell phone.

Oh, and I got notice that I won a $7300 scholarship for writing an essay on the life and research of I.N. Toftness, a chiropractor who contributed to the growth and development of the field of chiropractic care. Yay!

Living room before and after:













































Today I headed out with my friend Webster to hike up Kennesaw Mountain, a molehill about 20 min north of here. It's actually a pretty little hike, about 3 mi round trip for the short version. The trail goes over the top of the "mountain" and runs the ridge, with views of downtown Atlanta. The weather was perfect, 80 with no humidity, yahoo! Now I will have the afternoon and evening to get my stuff together for classes starting tomorrow (at 7am), and to attend our cycling club has a potluck organizational meeting at dinner.

I forgot that since I started this blog in February, I had not put up pictures of my other favorite pink-ablating project: my room. Here's a before and after. I can't believe I lived in this room for a year and a half with pepto-bismol pink walls (also note the floral border, ugh!!!!!!). I kept meaning to get to it, but it was just easier to keep the lights off :) Finally, New Year's Eve, I realized that one resolution that I had not kept was to get RID of the pink in my bedroom. I decided that it was going, then and there. So, I stayed in that night - given New Years' past, my liver probably appreciated it :)

12 hours of Dauset

The morning began as a light mist, which made the trail..... well, slick as snot.

We had some carnage, but no one had to visit the ER, always good. Of our eight riders, four had wrecks which resulted in blood. Melissa's and Greg's were the best (they're OK, so I can say best! tho i bet they're both a little sore today)



This was Melissa's first race, and she rode very well and took it pretty aggressively, esp for the # of times she has been out on the trail (she just started this summer). She took a couple of hard falls, and got right up, dusted off, and kept going. She is made of steel, I tell ya!

The trail was a sweet, sweet loop with lots of turns, swoopdies, and just enough climbing to take it outta ya. Thankfully the mud dried up for the most part in time for my second lap. My second time around the loop, since I had seen it before, I took a little faster, and Siren and I had a fantastic time. My bike was just MADE for that kind of trail. Since the weather has now turned more bearable I intend to put Siren to good use :)

Ryan and Melissa spied a fantastic spot for us to set up our team tent, right next to the pond and away just a little from the main (noisy) staging area. I enjoyed a nap in my purple hammock (the one mom and dad brought me back from mexico!) and Moose enjoyed several dips in the water. All in all a very good day.


Don't bother asking about how we placed: both teams DQ'd due to emergency returns after wrecks. We finished the race nonetheless, just for fun :)

DONE WITH FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for now, at least, and that's all i care about

this has been a very yucky quarter. definitely the worst i have had here. i am so glad to kick it in the tookus on the way out. Buh-bye.

my ninth final was this morning at 8 (two friends were here at 630 to cram before the exam. Yeah, ME, up at 630 studying with friends). i've been flying by the seat of my pants all week. minimal prep time for each exam, try, the night before?? not my usual style but the lesson i can take from this week is that..... well, i guess i can do that! So SCREW all of this working so hard. Apparently it's completely superfluous.

I shouldn't speak so quick, i haven't seen four of my grades yet, but i think i'm in pretty good shape.

Today I am taking the day OFF!!!!!!! I got a haircut, and i think it's still long enough to do an updo for Darcy and Chris' big day :) I bought TWO pairs of shoes. Go, Payless! I also decided to really indulge, Aunt Cathy style, and I got a pedicure (i couldn't believe that it only costs $19 around here, i'm going to do that a lot more often now!!) I feel fabulous. Well, exhausted, but still fabulous.

I am headed out soon for lunch on a patio with Steph, Sherri, Kimmie, and Ashley. Yup, i'm wearing my new shoes :) Brown faux-suede 3" pumps with a small shoelace bow at the front. Twinkletoes, you may want to drop by Payless, these are really your style :)

Tomorrow i get to scramble for final arrangements for Saturday's 12-hour mountain bike race, to which our cycling club is sending two teams. Then I work in the evening. Then Saturday, I get to spend on my bike most of the day. Siren has been so lonely, she'll be happy to play in the mud! Our teams don't even intend to be competitive, we're all beaten to crap from the quarter we just finished. But boy, we're going to have a fun day :) Twelve people, three dogs, two teams, a grill, a tent, 80 degrees and sunny, and 15 miles of windy rollercoaster singletrack. Yay!

boards part 1 are over!

boards hurt. two days, six subject exams. several were a bit brutal. but the good news is that i think i did ok, so hopefully i won't have to repeat any of the exams!

Thank you SO MUCH to Aunt C, Suebee, Tracy, Rusty, Michelle, and Kristen for your words of encouragement - it meant a lot to me to get your messages. And Michelle, if you felt a brain-drain on Fri and Sat, that was just me channeling your alpha waves down to Atlanta so I could draw some extra wattage :)

Saturday evening, I went with my neighbors Aryn and Celeste and a bunch of other Lifers to see Dave Matthews in Piedmont Park, in downtown Atlanta! The Allman Brothers opened. 'Twas a great show. I guess I'm a Dave Matthews groupie - i've seen him 5 or 6 times that I can remember? The first show I saw was at Bates, in 1995 - get this, the event is actually logged on Wikipedia!!!!!!!!! Quote:

• Dave Matthews referred to a concert he performed at Bates in 1995 on the Charlie Rose Show, claiming that the concert "at this little college in Maine" sparked his career^[9].

Wow, do you guys believe that?? How many of you remember that concert? In the gym, no seats, just gym floor. I do believe some of you worked security!!!!!

Today I have just been existing. Trying to take a day to breathe, because it isn't over till the dog sings: I have a quiz tomorrow AM at 7, a project due on Thursday, and two lab finals on Friday. Then, next week, oh boy, final exams!! This is really unneccessarily yucky and really pretty brutal. By means of comparison, after my qualifying exam at MCW, I got to take a week off - then it was summer break, and I was just working in the lab. Kristen says that when she took boards for med school, they were scheduled so that students had a month off afterwards. Not so much for this place, i guess.........

Oh well. Here's another happy thought:




ps i was just perusing the rest of wikipedia's entry for Bates and holy cow look what i found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newman_Day

Yay Buchholz!!!!!!!

a funny snippet from the yahoo article:

"...catcher Jason Varitek rose from his crouch to run to the mound. The rest of the Red Sox soon joined him there, and David Ortiz enveloped the rookie in a bear hug.

"He's somebody you don't want to see running at you, full-speed," Buchholz said.

Ah, I would have loved to have been at Fenway tonight..... Sox 10, Orioles nada! All i can say is that we'd better keep this Buchholz character :) Damn good job by him, that last pitch just sailed over the plate.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=bos

Did anyone else think that the Red Sox pigpile at the end of the game looked a little familiar? here's to hoping -

Funny that I already have plans to be in Boston twice in October...