TAG! I’m It
I can remember when I was a kid, tag involved running around, hiding temporarily if you could so that the person trying to tag you would forget momentarily that you existed, trying not to get touched by the one that was “it”. To choose the original “it” person, there’d be yells of “not it” and the last person to yell it, was “it”. Now a days, there is no running around, in fact, I usually get tagged and not even realize that I was being chased. Of course, it’s a different kind of tagging, we’re not even really being chased, we’re just being chosen. I digress.
I was tagged by Jillian to write 10 things about myself. Could be weird, odd, random facts, habits or goals. You know, stuff.
There’s even rules. What would anything be if there were no rules (and because I have to follow the rules, you should too):
The Rules:
Once you’ve been tagged, you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random, facts, habits or goals about yourself. At the end, choose 6 people to be tagged, list their names & why you tagged them. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re it!” & to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you, so since you’re not allowed to tag me back; let me know when you are done so I can go read YOUR weird/random/odd facts, habits and goals.
My 10 Things:
1. I have this thing about movie theatres, I have to sit directly in the middle of the row, and I’m fairly close to the front, 4-6 rows back. It puts me right in the sound and the picture, it’s perfect. And yes, I do actually count the seats as I walk down the row.
2. My favorite sammich is Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jelly, cut into triangles (4 of them) with the crusts.
3. I love to read. I can read 1-3 books a week (if I’d step away from the PC). When I was a kid, every Saturday morning after chores were done my parents would take us to the library when it was opening (at 10am) and we’d go in and have an hour to pick 6 books a piece. Being young and not having much to do after homework was done and whatnot, I’d read. Rarely did I have a book longer than a week. It was during that time that I read through all the Hardy Boys Books. They’re some of my favorites.
4. A few years ago, I developed a theory, because I kept thinking I was fat. And I decided that if my belly is bigger than my boobs, then at that point I’m fat. (I have rather small boobs). Needless to say, since then, I haven’t really said that I’m fat. I just get a little chub sometimes.
5. I’m a belly sleeper. I don’t much like sleeping on my sides or my back. Sadly, I keep throwing my back and neck out of alignment and so I’m no longer supposed to sleep on my belly. However, some nights, the fight with the Tempur-Pedic pillow isn’t worth it.
6. I can’t watch scary movies, I get nightmares and they render me unable to sleep for days on end.
7. When I was little, on Saturday Mornings we’d watch American Gladiators. I liked it then, and I still like it now. When I was little I said “I could beat the gladiators” and now that I’m all grown, I still like to think that I could beat the gladiators. When I was younger my favorite event was the rings, but now, I think I’d like to joust. Although the skytrack looks pretty awesome. I’d want to jump off the rock wall once I’d made it to the top. Ok, this could turn into it’s own post. I’m going to move on now.
8. If I had to shave my head for some reason, I’d want to be able to have a mohawk first for a few days. A tall one!
9. I really want to get into the ocean with sharks without a barrier between me and them, and hold one. But if I can’t do that, I’d like to go to South Africa where the Great White Sharks breach the water and get in a cage with them.
10. I kindof have issues clothes shopping for myself. I’m a jeans and polo kind of girl, but if I want something else, I have to have someone with me to basically put my outfits together. Tell me what looks good and what doesn’t.
Ok, here’s the part where I usually wouldn’t follow the rules, picking people. But this time I shall do what I’m told (don’t expect this often)
Nancy of Goin’ Nancy, because she’s a teammate of the triathlon that I’m training for and I want to know a little more about her.
Kate of Resilient Like the Tree, for the same reasons that I chose Nancy. She’s a teammate of the triathlon that I’m training for and I want to know a little more about her.
Ed of Ring The Bolus, because he’s just amazing. I’m kindof looking up to him, he’s out there training and participating in triathlons, which is what I want to be doing. Because he started training and all that good stuff before me, he’s able to provide excellent information about what he’s doing and what works for him and what doesn’t. He’s got a lot to say, I wanna here a little more. Just 10 things Ed 
Jamie, The Diabetic Runner. Jamie is also training for a triathlon (are you seeing a theme here, I am). We’ve exchanged a few emails, he’s a nice guy. I know he’s got plenty to share with us.
I have to say, this isn’t easy, I want to tag the people I know, Kerri, Allison, Bernard, etc. But I’m trying really hard to pick people that maybe I don’t know so well because I’d like to get to know them a little more because they’re doing stuff that I’m interested in and I think there’s a lot I can learn from them and about them.
Erika of Finding Our way…Type 1 Diabetic Running Mama. I recently found her blog. She’s a marathon runner. She has two cute kids. Hence “Running Mama”.
Markus of Sweet Victory. He’s a diabetic endurance athlete that just a few days ago said “I’m pretty boring” (ok, ok, he was talking about variances in his life and how there aren’t really all that many from day to day).
Ok, I think I’ve followed all the rules. Tag! if you’re on my list, you’re it!
When I used to think about being famous
I have an active imagination, there’s no doubt about that. I let it run wild and rampant from time to time as well (read: often).
I can remember as a little kid thinking, one day I’ll be famous. What I was famous far ranged far and wide (remember, active imagination).
Now, I’m like, I don’t have to be famous, I just want to leave a legacy. And then I think to myself, to leave a legacy do I have to be famous? I want there to be something that I’ve done that long after I’m gone, people can say, “there was this one girl, Courtney, that was her name, she did that” or something like that you know. Maybe it can be more extravagant when the story is being told.
I used to think about all the cameras and the paparazzi that would follow me when I became famous. Now, I don’t even need a paparazzi, I just want one person (maybe two) with a camera to follow me around. But I don’t want them around all the time, I only want them around when I’m cycling. And now, it’s not about having a camera man because I’m famous, but having one for documentary purposes.
It’s very difficult for me to get action shots of myself or to have a lot of footage of the ride. I mean, I’m riding, I can’t stop and take pictures every 5 feet. I’m not at the zoo, going “ooooh look at the cute snow fox”. I’m cycling on the road at 12-15 mph getting passed by people with cool looking jerseys or names on their back of people they’re riding for and they have a story to tell. There’s no little “here’s why this person is riding” board that I can stop and read, I can’t quickly snap a picture as they fly past me. Words might be exchanged as they occasionally are, and I’d like to better be able to remember who I talk to.
I have a story, and I try to blog it as much as I can remember, but there’s something special happening out there on the road that I want captured, that I currently can’t capture. I’m working on a method to take care of what I want. But I saw this commercial, and said, that would be cool:
I can’t get my family/friends to ride with me, and we’re not supposed to have our own SaG (support and gear) vehicles; but if just one time they could follow me on a ride, like this family does that cyclist, that’d be really cool. I want them to see what I do, not just see me when I leave the start and when I return. That’s what that commercial made me think of.
You know, I’m all over the place with this post, and I know it, and I’m not going to edit it and make it fluid. This has been “Raw Thoughts” with Courtney. Please tune in next time when she’ll talk about…(who know’s what she’ll talk about)
Steel Magnolias
At some point when I was younger mom told me not to watch Steel Magnolias. When I asked why she said because it showed a bad experience with diabetes. For some reason, I honored what she said, I haven’t rebelled, and I’ve never watched Steel Magnolias.
That movie has been in our movie cabinet for a good, I dunno, 10 years. And when I go to get a DVD and I see it sitting there amongst the others, I don’t think twice about it, I just skim over it and see what else is in the stack.
Last night I was flipping through the channels where I’m staying because they have cable. Cable isn’t something we’ve ever had in our house so it’s a treat. Really, I don’t care much about watching TV. I mean, my idea of an antennae is a paper clip. If I can get ABC on Thursday nights so that I can watch Lost, I’m happy.
So, last night, I’m flipping channels, and looking at the guide and there’s Steel Magnolias. The idiot in me, flipped to that channel. I saw the part where her daddy is in the backyard firing his gun all the way through this clip:
That clip in and of itself traumatized me. Simply because I can remember things like wondering why there was crap all over my shirt after a low once and my mom saying “we were trying to get you to eat and you kept spitting it out”. Or the time I regained consciousness to paramedics and them saying “she’s ok, she’s talkin” (something about asking them if they were in the local half neekid good lookin firefighter calendar let them know I was ok.)
Mom said that movie had bad diabetic stuff in it, and I’m just going to trust her. One clip was all it took and I turned off the TV and went to check my email and read a book. I don’t need to watch anymore Steel Magnolias.
Strive Not To Drive
This week is Strive Not To Drive week in Albuquerque, NM. On Wednesday, the buses are free. On Thursday, if you have a bus pass, you can ride the Rail Runner for free. And Friday, well Friday is get yourself killed on your way to work day. I mean, Friday is ride your bike to work day.
Whenever I voice that I’m going to ride my bike to work, or that I’m thinking about riding my bike to work, red flags go up everywhere. People worry. I can’t really blame them. From my house it’s 10 miles to work. One of those roads that I have to take is bound to get me killed one day. In fact, I refuse to follow the law on this particular road. Alameda heading East from Old Coors Road all the way to Jefferson. I ride against traffic. And I don’t ride in the bike lane, I ride on the sidewalk. The north side of the road is safer than the south side. If I’m heading west, I think about following the law, but the thing is, drivers have no respect for cyclists; they drive in the bike lanes. Even the public safety enforcement agents drive in the bike lanes, it’s disturbing.
It would almost be safer for me to ride 5 miles out of my way to get to the bike path that heads east, and then, when I need to go north (as a result of me heading so far south out of my way; it’s really only a couple miles but still) it’s safer for me to go play in the irrigation channel (read: ditch) because the bike path isn’t completed than it is to get on a road and ride.
What’s really irritating is that all the maps (online and in print from 2007) say that the bike paths are complete. It says that I shouldn’t have to go play in the irrigation channel because the underpass is complete. *rolls eyes* It says the trail all the way to Balloon Fiesta Park is complete. But all the way from where I get to play in the irrigation ditch, ahem, North Diversion Channel, to Alameda, to where you would cross Alameda to go to Balloon Fiesta Park, the bike path is closed.
A couple people and I emailed Mayor Chavez to find out the status on the underpass because we weren’t getting any response from the contact on the Biking in Albuquerque site. Mayor Chavez responded within a few days and the response I got was:
“(Please excuse such technical jargon, however I think this gives you a clear timetable) the Department of Municipal Development currently has a construction project on this trail that begins on the south side of El Pueblo/Paseo del Norte and follows the west side of the North Diversion Channel to Alameda Blvd. The project continues by crossing an existing trail bridge over the North Diversion Channel and continuing eastward with a new trail segment along the south side of Alameda Blvd. to the project terminus at Balloon Museum Drive. The project includes an underpass of Paseo del Norte, El Pueblo Road, a Rail Road Spur, and a San Juan Chama water line. The Channel under crossing will consist of a structure that will be perched on the channel lining to allow bicycle and pedestrian movement. The project is scheduled for completion this Summer.”
I think it will be done by August 2008. This is NM and it takes very long for anything to be completed. But I do appreciate that he responded.
In the meantime, until drivers are punished for their selfishness and cockiness for thinking that they own the roads, and until we get better bike trails and bike lanes on the roads, us cyclists are in danger of being the next piece of road kill you see on the road as you drive to work in the morning. Hence why Friday isn’t ride your bike to work day, but get yourself killed on your way to work day.
Bolder Boulder
Two weeks ago I was told at work that I had to take a vacation. And it needed to be a real vacation, not one of my take a three day weekend and go ride my bike in a Tour de Cure vacation. I was kindof peeved that they were telling me that I had to take a vacation because “you need it” but it didn’t really matter anyways because I was planning to take one anyways. I just didn’t like being told what I had to do, especially in terms of my vacation time, my vacation time is very guarded, I’ll take vacations whenever I damn well want to, not because I’m told to. I digress.
So, I’m going to Colorado to see a friend, scope out the area, do some stuff, chillax; you know, the normal stuff people do on vacations. But I’m also going to do something productive. Productive in terms of training. I’m going to pretend to run in the Bolder Boulder 10k run. I say pretend simply because 6 miles may be more than I can truly run. But, here’s the thing I’ve realized, I’m more likely to run, if I have a reason to run, and running just for the sake of not getting run over by other runners is reason enough to run.
Bolder Boulder is huge. Something like 50 thousand runners huge. There are different waves and all so were not all taking off at the same time, but there’s enough people running, that I’ll strive to keep up with them just because I have issues with being last. Last is not good, and even if I come in one person before last, I’m not last.
The date I was diagnosed
I went home today to go through some containers that I have in the garage in search of the wrist bands that I wore when I was in the hospital as a newly diagnosed diabetic. I spent a good hour in the garage, I found all my old photos from black and white photography, I found my baseball cards from way back when (the late 80s), I found my papa’s camera which I thought I had lost, and a shoe box full of high school memorabilia. I did not find my wristbands. Dad suggested that I call the insurance company because they’ve been paying for the diabetes since I got it. I told him that was a good idea, but I was going to do some more looking.
I went into my rooms and went through some drawers that I had and didn’t find my wristbands. I was flipping through scrapbooks that I had put together when mom came into my room to ask me what I was doing. At that moment I had “The Book of Me” in my hands, a project I had done in 1997 in 9th grade Health Class. I quickly flipped through it and shoved it back on the shelf and muttered “you know, for as much as a pack rat as I was in the past I just don’t know why I can’t find it”
Mom asked “why is it so important” and I told her that it bothers me that I don’t know when I was diagnosed, I need to know. She said, well didn’t you scrapbook it, and I told her that I guessed not because I couldn’t find it and she asked for “the book of me” and was flipping through it as I rolled my chair to my closet to get the crate that has all my spare diabetes stuff in it. I knew full well that the wrist bands weren’t there, but it was the last place I could look before I resigned myself to not having them anymore.
Just as I was about to climb on the chair she said “Courtney it’s right here” and I jumped for joy and thanked her.
The date I was diagnosed with diabetes was July 6th, 1992. It was on the wristband.
Lucky Number Seven
Last year when I decided to ride in the Tour de Cure, I was unable to ride in my home state because the ride was the same day as my college graduation.
Last year when I went and rode in the SoCal Tour de Cure, I kindof thought that I’d ride in NM this year. What I didn’t know was that after finishing my ride in Long Beach I’d decide to ride in a Tour de Cure in every state.
Since June of last year, I’ve ridden in 6 Tour de Cures in 6 different states. Number 7 finally brings me home. For the first time I’m riding in a Tour de Cure on my turf.
I’ll be riding 70 miles this ride and I’m very excited to be doing so. I’ll be one state closer to reaching my personal goal of riding in every state. But really, my goals are nothing compared to the primary reason that I ride - for the cure to diabetes.
One day, diabetes will be cured. Until then, I ride for myself, for my family members with diabetes, for all my friends with diabetes, for those with diabetes that I don’t know, and for those that will be saved from the torment of diabetes when a cure is found. And I will continue to ride until that cure is found, whether it be before I’ve ridden in all 50 states or long afterwards.
The 70 miles will become the longest ride I’ve ever ridden. 62.5 miles (a metric century) is my current longest ride and I did that at the Phoenix Tour de Cure in March.
Actually, I’m looking at the ride route and they’re calculating the milage to be 74.4 miles, so my goal for this ride is to finish it in 5 hrs, so I’m looking at a speed of 14.88 miles an hour. There’s going to be some challenges along the way, I’m already thinking about how to handle them, the rest stops are about 15-20 miles apart, that’s half as many rest stops as I had in Phoenix, so it’s going to be a bit of a challenge. I’m gonna have to figure out how to check my blood while riding, or just wing it and eat shot bloks while I’m riding. I think I could manage to eat shot bloks while riding, checking my blood may be a little harder. With only 3 rest stops, I can still afford to spend 10 minutes at them, making 30 minutes in rest stops plus my 5 hrs for riding a total of 5 and a half hours for total tour time. That’s my goal.
My other goal is to raise $500 for this ride. If you’d like to donate, your donation is welcome.
What I Remember
There’s not much that I remember about the day I got diabetes. I don’t remember the day or even the month. I know that it was either June or July. I vaguely remember a trip to the doctor’s office. Him being told about my lack of appetite, my extreme dehydration to where I was drinking a gallon of milk a day, and the vomiting that occurred almost as often as I ate. I remember my father having to take me to a hospital (which just happened to be a stop on my way to my final location, another hospital, at which I’d arrive via ambulance).
What I remember clearly though, was when I was in the ER at the first hospital. I was lying in the bed really not aware of what was going on all around me except for the tv that was caddy corner from me hanging from the wall in a corner. On that tv was The Incredible Hulk.
He was angry and running a hill. That’s what I think of everytime I see an image of The Incredible Hulk. That’s what I thought of when I went to the theatre to watch IronMan and there was an 8ft tall statue of The Incredible Hulk. That’s what I thought of when the preview for The Incredible Hulk was playing.
Amazing Self Control - Not My Own
I went to dinner with a friend tonight. It was funny because where people usually are concerned about what I can or can’t eat, the tables were turned tonight. I was with someone who’s food limitations (for lack of a better word) are stricter than mine. She doesn’t do wheat, sugar, or dairy products and she’s vegetarian (for her it’s a choice).
I told her that I didn’t know how she could live without sugar. I mean, I shouldn’t eat it in abundance, but I crave it. I have problems when I attempt to steer clear of it. Only a day of no sugar will push me over the edge to where I’m bingeing on it the next day.
She told me that as long as she didn’t have it, she didn’t crave it. I told her that I’d have to detox from sugar. And she said that she did have to. I was amazed, here was someone that didn’t have to necessarily not have sugar, and yet she chose to take it out of the foods she eats.
I was wowed by it, that’s amazing self control.
Healthy Fruit & Juice Carbs
I like to frequent Keva Juice. Start with a shot of wheat grass and then have a Lime Me smoothie. I’ve always guesstimated it to be over 100 carbs. And I usually take enough insulin to cover 100 carbs and I usually maintain a fairly normal blood sugar.
This last time I went there I happened to see nutrition guides, I picked one up. It said “Healthy Fruit & Juice Carbs” and then there was a little star, if you follow it you get “These are healthy carbs needed for a healthy diet!” All I could think to myself was, what about the unhealthy carbs that are in the smoothie, like the sherbet.
Seriously, who just puts the healthy carbs on the nutrition information? And don’t they know that most people look at the total carbs, and if they don’t want the total carbs, but they just want the so called “bad” carbs then they subtract the other carbs like fiber and whatever else they want.
In my line of work, a carb is a carb, if it exists I count it. When I think of carbs, there is no difference between good or bad or healthy or unhealthy, a carb is a carb and it counts.
I decided to use their count, just to see, did I mistake what they wrote or were they truly smoking crack? I decided that they’re smoking crack. The 24 oz Lime Me smoothie according to them has 67.3 carbs. So I took insulin for that many carbs. The result, 2 hours later I was 478. I’m thinking that the Lime Me smoothie has more than 67.3 carbs.
The next time I go I’ll take insulin for 100g of carbs and let y’all know the result and in the event the blood sugars are normal or close to in 2 hrs, I’ll be contacting Keva Juice, some way some how to discuss their “Healthy Fruit & Juice Carbs”