Million Dollar Doggy

.. well, maybe not that extreme.  'Two-thousand dollar doggy' would be more appropriate.

Emergency veterinary clinics are pure evil, plain and simple.  They know you have no other choice at 8pm on a Sunday night, they know that your regular vet isn't open 24-hours and cannot offer round-the-clock attention, they know you love your dog and want them to be happy and healthy, and they take advantage of all of these things.  There is nobody to regulate these places, so they charge us whatever they please and leave us no choice.

And really, I think having a sick kid is way easier than having a sick dog.  At least the kid can tell you what's wrong to some extent.  I feel so awful every time I have to take Sienna to the vet's office... sometimes I think it may be more painful for me than her.  I cry like a baby every time they take her temperature and I have to hold her head still while she whines.  Guaranteed waterworks.

The short story is, Sienna is fine now.  There were some really scary episodes of a very unhappy puppy tummy, some big messes to clean up, and lots of medications, 24-hour IVs, injections, and two nights of residence in the emergency clinic.  She was quite sick, and dangerously dehydrated as a result.  As far as we can tell, she didn't eat anything funny and we have no idea what was the cause of her horribly irritated stomach (technically, it was gastroenteritis).  But she's been home for some time now, and after a day of recovering from the trauma of her sleepovers at the hospital, she's completely back to her old self again.  The only sign that anything happened at all are the two shaved patches of fur on her front legs (which I'm pretty sure she's embarrassed by-- trust me, you can just tell).

Mileage

Gustavo reached 1,000 miles yesterday!  

Hoping to triple or possibly quadruple this odometer reading by the end of 2011...

CrossFit (aka Pain)

I have a hard time convincing myself to do things that I don't enjoy.  Without some sort of ultimatum, I usually don't subject myself to unpleasant things.  Why should I?  Especially when it comes to exercise, I'm a big fan of having fun and getting a workout at the same time. Yet somehow, despite my lack of enthusiasm for un-fun things, I've been talked into joining a CrossFit gym. In case you are wondering, CrossFit is not fun.


This was, of course, Josh's idea.


Josh started doing CrossFit workouts last summer, but stopped attending regularly during the fall due to travel and races.  He decided to start back up in December, and somehow managed to convince me to give it a try.  I knew they would be hard workouts, and I knew that lots of people saw great results from this type of program... so, sure, why not.  One day in, I knew that I was going to probably hate this.  And what did I do? I signed up.  I am currently attending three workouts each week at Wildcat CrossFit.


The whole idea behind CrossFit is that you are doing really high intensity training in small amounts of time, using many different sets of muscles.  Most of the exercises focus on weightlifting, sprinting, and gymnastics.  Every day the workout changes, and usually lasts somewhere from 10-20 minutes.  To get an idea of the kinds of things included in a workout, check out the front page of the website linked above, and they have all of the WODs (workout of the day) posted for the last few months.


Now, to be fair, I don't hate everything about CrossFit.  I enjoy the people at the gym, I enjoy the motivation of always having a trainer around to coach you and yell at you, I enjoy the way I feel as soon as I've completed a workout, and I love the way my muscles hurt the day after a workout.  The actual workouts, however, are not fun at all.  I think it's safe to say that for the 10-20 minutes of every CrossFit workout, I hate everything and everyone and want nothing more than to not be doing the workout.  


Olympic weightlifting is not my idea of a good time.  Nor is jumping up onto 2-foot tall boxes over and over again.  And handstand push-ups?  Yeah, they're as crappy as they sound.  But, these things are painful and awful for a purpose- and when I suck it up and do my best despite hating every second of it, I can tell that my body is really getting some serious lessons in conditioning.  Already, just after a month, I can feel certain exercises becoming easier.  I can tell that I'm getting stronger.  I haven't really lost any weight yet, but I'm expecting that will come with time and increasing fitness.  I go home three times each week feeling utterly spent and exhausted and sore-- and it feels great!  So, yes, CrossFit sucks.  But it only sucks for a total of about an hour each week, and that still leaves plenty of time for me to do other fun types of physical activity too.  

On recent events...

Unfortunately, Tucson has been in the news a lot over the past week.  It's been kind of surreal.  In case anyone is wondering, we are fine, and we do not know anyone who was directly involved with the tragedies of last Saturday.

I've overdosed on news reports and talk shows and gossip, and it has been exhausting.  I probably can't say anything about what has happened that will be very useful to anyone, but I felt like at least saying something.

Although I have never actually met Gabby Giffords, I have been to fundraising events for some of her previous campaigns.  She has always seemed like a very down-to-earth and genuine person.  Her local office is only a mile from our house, and I pass it on almost every one of my bike rides.  The amount of support and the constant stream of well-wishers in front of her office for the last 6 days has been astounding.  The community has really risen to support Gabby, and the families of the victims, and all the others affected by this horrible incident.

Although we did not attend in person, I thought the president's memorial speech was quite moving.  (For those who had problems with the memorial event, please see Jon Stewart's comments here.)  I think the media coverage has been pretty awful, on all sides.  I also think it is unfortunate that people around the country are being given an unfairly biased impression of Tucson.  There are many things about the state of Arizona that make my blood boil, and I can't say that I'm ever thrilled about the general politics of this state.. but Tucson is different.  Tucson has culture and history and beauty and arts and diversity and education and acceptance that is rivaled nowhere else in this state.  It's not just another gun-toting Arizona town.  It's just not.  This deranged individual could have lived anywhere, and this could have happened anywhere.  Unfortunately, this happened in Tucson.  It has very little to do with gun laws, or political rhetoric, or left-versus-right, or anything that would actually make sense.  Because it doesn't make sense.  Things like this don't make sense; they are awful and tragic, but not logical.

Our city is still mourning, and still burying the victims of this senseless crime.  Being so close to such a terrifying event has shaken me up a bit, and it has been a very somber week here in the Old Pueblo.  But as these things go, the people of Tucson have really stepped up to support one another and to work as a community to begin the healing process.  Tucson, I don't care what anybody says... you've got class.

And c'mon, Gabby!  We're all rooting for you.

Happy 2011!

Is it just me, or did 2010 really just fly by?  This past year has been a pretty busy one.

The last couple of weeks have been filled with fun holiday things, and I'll be a little sad to see the decorations go away.  Josh and I spent Christmas with Mom and Arlie in Phoenix.  We watched lots of holiday movies, we ate way too much food, and we took a day trip up to the Grand Canyon.

It was great to spend a few days just lounging around, not thinking about working, not feeling guilty about being lazy, just hanging out.  I think everyone had a pretty nice Christmas.  And I've got some new swanky warm cycling clothes to give me less of an excuse to stay in bed because of the cold wind!  (Check out the leg warmers- they're pretty hot, huh?)

We hosted a little shindig at our place for New Year's Eve.  About ten people joined us for food, drinks, Rock Band-style karaoke, and lots of laughs.  Fried pickles + Bon Jovi + champagne = Party.  Good times.  Here are some photos.

I'm looking forward to a new year.  I've got some pretty big decisions to make soon, and at this point I still can't say that I really know what I'll be doing come August... but I'll figure it out soon eough.  And in the meantime, I'm going to continue to take advantage of the time I have and try to enjoy myself as much as possible.

Happy New Year, folks.