So I guess technically, I'm a triathlete. I completed my first race here in hawaii. Figured I was in the neighborhood, so why not? Right? Yeah, a bit out of my league, but as I have heard, triathletes can be very nice, despite being 2nd to last in the overall scheme of things. I'm not turned off of the event at all, but I do have a few things I would do differently. I have decided that I'm not used to ocean swimming, thus I find it rather unpleasant. And swimming parallel to the shore made me feel like I was getting tossed about more than I would like. But I kept going the whole whoppin' 750 meters cursing the stupid ocean the whole way.



The first transistion went in a blur, my mind not really thinking, just putting on everything i could think of that would make the bike attire complete. I stumbled a bit with heavy legs. Crossed the timing mat and mounted my bike. My gear was too hard and I shifted to crazily and tossed my chain off, and it got jammed between the ring and the chain guard. But luckily a strong guy (race director for honolulu marathon *huge thanks!*) pulled it out. I was freaking out on him cuz i wasn't supposed to accept help from anyone, but in the grand scheme of things, I wasn't making or breaking 1st place here!

So I was already lagging behind everyone, it seemed, but the volunteers were awesome, and the traffic control was awesome! And diamond head, well, not so awesome. I tried to go as far as I dared, but found I was rapidly reaching a pace so slow that I might either fall over, or start to roll backwards, so I resigned to walking my bike the rest of the way up the hill. Then the thrill of zooming back down it. OMG scary! Too fast for me, so I pumped by brakes all the way down. And of course right at the end a quick turn! ACK! And I just kept going, kept hollering thanks to all traffic monitors. Then I felt like the bike was never ever going to end. 40K isn't all that long, but when you're not sure where to go, it just never ended for me. And I began to think of punking out, just make it to the transition area and be done with the whole ordeal was the plan. I was starting to think that the volunteers want to go home, and the cut off time was fast approaching. But I got to the bike chute and they said, get your running gear and get back out there. You're doing great! (great? I am so very last!), but i tied my shoes up, and wished I had more water to drink, i grabbed the bottle off my bike and a gel and went away. A woman on a yellow bike said she would escort me the rest of the way. OKAY But I still wanted to just quit. But she wasn't having it. she said that she wouldn't trade anything in the world for seeing me finish, *liar, but i appreciated it* but low and behold, I wasn't last. Some how another person was behind me and I lost my bike support *boo* but i took it upon myself to tell all the awesome aid station people that number 981 wasn't the last one, look for one more, don't leave her without water, please.... it was getting crazy hot!

And I finished and I had people to support me, which doesn't happen much, they're co workers and they deserve a huge shout out since it started at 0545 am but I had to checkin my bike at 0400! INSANE!!!!!!!!!! So thanks!

Its 2am. I am bored, I am at work, and I inadvertantly got into it with some of the nursing staff... the "I don't care" attitude really rubs me the wrong way, especially when the lab gets blamed for crap going wrong in their area... If you don't know why someone cancelled a lab, and you don't have paperwork saying why it was cancelled, or even that it should have been cancelled, then, um... find it, call the one who cancelled it, or call the doc... but do something, it is for another human being and it might be important. If you were a doc, You would know that, but you're not, and neither am I (yet), but I'm not willing to take that risk, nor is it my place to call the doctor on behalf of a nurse cuz I've never even seen said patient and you're just a few doors down from them...
I'm waiting for my bike to be built. I haven't heard back. I'm not trying to rush in there, cuz I'm rebuilding my bike funds... one of my friends is sick, really sick, its his heart.

If you can go to http://saveray.ciconsultants.net/ and donate... I did, and over extended myself, but one person's heart should be more important than another's desire for a new bike... although I don't really have an old one... oh well. Get better Ray!

I'm all signed up for classes this summer. Kind of excited about that cuz I'm a geek, nerd, dork, whichever you prefer... and I like going to school, I like sciences, and i'm going to get these pre-med requirements done even if they kill me. can't say as to whether any med school would ever want me, but well, never know until you try, right?

Maybe I can file some reports.... if they haven't printed yet, i guess I can study up on pain management for my next nursing test.

Holy Chaos!
This past week has been a disaster, disorganized, disappointing mess.

I volunteered for grave yard shifts at the hospital, well, rather I said I wanted to work them.

I still have to finish my temp tour at my guard base which ends at the end of the month.

I am now working both of them for the rest of the month becasue I had to secure this shift now, so later I don't get stuck working shifts that make it so I never see my kids.

I'm not supposed to do "double shifts" according to the military. So now I feel stuck and torn.

I sleep when I can, an hour here, and hour there. between getting the kids to swimming, soccer, and running soccer practice for the team I coach. My coworkers at the hospital are gracious enough to let me clock off and sleep from time to time when it is slow, so that gets me usually another hour or 2.
But then when it was added up, i had 7 days and 98 hours scheduled. but finesse made it so I didnt work all of them. And i had to beg off last night from the hospital because of an exercise at guard. we had extended hours, which was disappointingly cutting into my sleep that should have let me have 6 straight hours.
A series of events, getting out of drill later than preferred, locking myself out of the house I'm housesitting, actually losing that key is more accurate, spending too long looking for it, calling the locksmith I now have on speed dial after locking myself out of my car 2 days in a row 2 weeks ago, needing to wash my uniform because it was sweaty, charcoaly, and stinky, led to me getting roughly 1 hour of sleep since 5 am this morning.
Tonight I am alone at work (sad thing for me)
this leads to no sleep until 430 pm tomorrow afternoon, after working my temp tour.
I feel frustrated. i can't train when I'm this tired, and I feel like I am eating too many carbs just to stay awake, and the scale is being mean to me, as well as my clothes. Working like this isn't good for my health. Thank goodness It is almost over. The worst is behind me. I don't have my kids this week, they're on a cruise to mexico (poor them, huh?), and I'm not working another grave until friday, so I have a few days to recover. I am scheduled to take a test on Tuesday, that I'm woefully not prepared for because when I try to read a book, my eyes close for very long blinks, and the information becomes more slippery than a wet bar of soap, and that is frustrating to me. I hope I can spend a good amount of time tomorrow (after a nap, of course) studying.
It is a nursing test #2 in a series of 6, and i hear the part students struggle on are the fluid and electrolyte sections and the nutriton section... from the practice questions feeding tubes are a big portion of the nutrition section.

I'm sure I will do just fine and pass. I know I have that base of knowledge. But, I'm thinking of maybe applying for medical school in a few years, so that puts more pressure on me to excell and have a decent GPA from here on out. I have a spotty academic past when it comes to grades because, well, life tends to get in the way when you start college with kids and a husband that doesn't really care to support you in what you do... and of course the divorce that is bound to accompany that kind of attitude.

So yeah, fun times, right?

So i've been kind of MIA lately. I've been keeping busy, and when i'm at work the military has me scared to do anything unauthorized on the computers. And they're hard core, as they should be. It isn't like the healthcare field that when there is nothing to do, there is really nothing to do, so we are allowed low key internet activities. From what I understand though games and online puzzles are frowned at. Good thing my obsessions look like research for nursing school. keep up the steady line of nutrtion and body mechanic type posts guys!
I've been working out, mainly swimming. But I've actually broke back into the habit of going to the base gym right after work last week, and biked and ellipticalled some. I'm struggling with a cold this weekend, which is a bummer because it is a 3 day weekend, I had to call out sick on friday, so I guess it was a 4 day weekend, but I slept through most of friday until I picked up my daugter from school then i went to the hospital to pick up a book on Basic Life Saving Instructor class (BLS) also known as first aid/CPR, and I had to get a new ID for the hospital because I've lost my other one somewhere in my mountain of stuff, someplace.
I sqwacked my way through my youngest's soccer game yesterday, as the coach I have to holler, and my youngest was sick, with 102.5 temp. I made her dress just in case we didn't have enough kids... I felt bad for it, because as soon as we did have enough kids for a sub she laid on the floor curled up into a ball. As soon as that game was over we rushed over to another school at the other end of town for my other daughter's game. My youngest was excited to see her dad's truck outside, he was coaching a boys game on the other side of the gym, she found him and made a bed behind his bench covered up with his coat and slept hard enough to drool, a lot!
We all slept and watched TV for the rest of the day while drinking loads of orange juice. My ex father in law brought over a pizza with my son who didnt go to the soccer game, which was probably a good thing because my youngest barfed all over the back seat on the way home from the game and he would have been in the line of fire.
happy days!
my swim from thursday (when the cold started)
50 1:18.93
rest 20.63
50 1:04.87
rest 21.50
50 1:04.00
rest 20.63
50 1:04.00
rest 22.16
50 1:10.25
rest 1:10.71
50 1:13.02
rest 35.62
25 42.36
rest 1:36.64
25 46.24
rest 30.65
25 41.60
rest 36.87
25 41.16
rest 40.84
25 53.25
rest 33.63
25 44.65
rest 23.62
25 46.73
rest 1.23.00
25 49.37
rest 30.89
25 20.40
rest 1.15.47
25 21.75
rest 1.21.40
50 1:13.42
rest 1:03.06
50 1:05.75

total:650