Distractions

Tonight I had a minor directional blackout, as I call them, where all of a sudden I was disoriented and didn't know which way to go.  I had just finished a Halloween-themed FlyWheel class in Bellevue with my friend Lindsay, was feeling yoked, and got back to my car at the Bellevue P&R.  I started driving through the parking lot and couldn't figure out if I needed to turn right or left to head towards I-90.  (It's left, as I can clearly picture in my head now and have done tons of times.)  But I had no idea.  Luckily Lindsay pointed me in the correct direction, and then I was good.  But dang.  I haven't had that happen in months, at least 6 months, maybe even longer.  I remember telling Dr. M's (temporary 1-time) replacement at my last MRI that I hadn't had any blackouts in a while either.  Hmph.  Just a subtle reminder of my crazy brain and its little friend...

The passing of my friend Sara has morbidity on my mind.  I get the Sunday paper (for the coupons, mostly) but always read through the main section, the local section, arts & life, etc.  Well, the local section contains obituaries and I sometimes scan them out of curiosity.  I need to stop.  I'm telling you, every time you see a picture of someone relatively young, especially compared to all of the elderly people who have passed, it is due to brain cancer or brain tumors.  Almost every time.  There were 2 young(er) people in Sunday's paper, and both had brain cancer/tumors.  This does me no good.

I think I'm just starting to get nervous for my next MRI, a month and a half away.  I hope that my little tumor friend has been quiet this last 4 and a half months, but who knows.  I'm very lucky to be in my situation with my circumstances, but I can tell I'm getting nervous.  There's just a lot of brain-tumors-and-the-havoc-they-can-wreak on my mind.

Let's riiiiide

Allow me to catch up on the things I've been doing but NOT blogging about...

Last month, in between weeks in London and Springfield, I rode in the Multiple Sclerosis Society's Bike MS Ride in Mount Vernon.  I rode with Team Expedia and had a fantastic time!!  I did the shortest ride possible, which is 22 miles, but some people rode nearly 175 miles over 2 days.  My goal for next year is to do the next length, which is 59 miles.  That'll definitely take some training since I've never ridden more than 27 miles or so, not even in FlyWheel spin class!

I got up to Mount Vernon the night before for a team BBQ, to check in my bike at the fairgrounds, and to get excited.  I had landed from London earlier that day (and was suuuper jet lagged), so I ditched out early and headed to the hotel around 8pm.  But it was a piece of cake to wake up at 5am the next day!  I had a quick bite at the hotel then headed to the start of the ride.  Had more breakfast and hung out with the team.  I got nerrrvous!  We waited till our start time, then they announced our team and we took off together.  We rode through Mount Vernon and then split apart once we hit the highway.  I learned that I can keep up a decently fast pace, and it was fun to pass people.  However, I was also riding a much shorter distance than other people, so who knows how I'd do on a longer course.  It was super flat, very pretty, and totally doable for someone that doesn't ride a ton (like me).  The longer courses are gorrrgeous (so I've heard) and go over Deception Pass.  Next year!

I had a really fun time (as I love events with uniforms or costumes or matching outfits, and I'm loving my bike) and can't wait for next year.  I'm hoping to wrangle up some other people to join the team next year (Amy?  Lynn?  Syd?).  Go Team Expedia!!

I look so official!

(Part of) Team Expedia!  Where you bike matters

My VP/boss Jeff and former colleague Jack (a traitor to Microsoft who wished he was biking with the Expedia team since we're way more fun, duh)

That's me on the left... I think I could work on my posture

 Look, I can point while riding over a bridge!  I am SO advanced.

Let me know if you want to join next year!!  :)

I don't know what to title this

I've been off the blogging radar and have intentions of catching up, but today I just have to post.  I am so sad to learn that my fellow tumor dominator Sara Lasky (whose blog I've had linked to the right) passed away about a week ago at the age of 35.  I met her parents at the Portland Brain Tumor Walk last year, and they said she told them to come find the tall Sara with a brain tumor (me) that she'd seen fundraising on the site (Sara was at a wedding and couldn't attend the walk last year).  After that, we got in touch and had emailed a fair amount in the last year.  Finally, this year at the Brain Tumor Walk we were able to meet up for brunch the day after and chat, compare notes, and enjoy a delicious meal.

Sara had such a positive attitude and dry, sarcastic sense of humor (which I enjoyed, of course) and took everything in stride.  At brunch, she no longer had the use of 1 side of her body, was in a wheelchair, and her vision was impaired, but she made jokes about not seeing her side of bacon sitting on the table and was generous with sharing.  She made it all seem like not a big deal.

I've met and become friends with other people with brain tumors, and Sara is the first that I've known personally to have it take her life.  This shit is real.  Brain tumors are horrible.  I am so, so sad for her and her family.  They couldn't be nicer people.

As I continue to raise awareness and funds for research (particularly through the Portland Brain Tumor Walk, for the National Brain Tumor Society), I will keep Sara in my heart and fight these stupid tumors for both of us.  RIP, Sara.

Sometimes you feel like a nut

I think I've mentioned it on here, but I have this thing since surgery where I get really disoriented in the middle of the night about the time.  As in, I wake up, see it says 2am on the clock, and cannot comprehend what that means.  Do I need to get out of bed?  Did I sleep past my alarm?  I can see it's dark out and quiet in the city, but should I be at work right now?  My alarm didn't go off, but shouldn't I be up?  It usually takes me a minute or 2 to realize I can go back to sleep.  It sort of comes and goes, but has been happening more recently.

Well, last night I awoke around 3am, determined it was time to be up, went into my bathroom, turned on the shower, and was about to get in it when I decided to come back out into the kitchen for a final peek at the clock.  Then I realized, it's still quite dark, and it's a bit quiet out, and I didn't think my alarm had gone off...  So I reluctantly turned the shower off and climbed back into bed.  I woke up a couple more times, checking the time on my alarm clock and on my phone and in my kitchen (I can see my microwave and stove digital clocks from my bed).  I finally got it through my head that I could sleep until my alarm.

It's such an odd, panicky, disoriented (temporary) feeling.  It never ever happens during the day but seems to happen nearly every time I wake up and feel obligated to check the time (sometimes I don't feel the urge to check the clock, in which case I'm totally fine and go back to sleep).  Makes me feel a tiny bit crazy...!  Eek!  But you know, if this is one of the few things that I have to deal with post-surgery, I can handle it gladly!

London observations

I am a seriously slacking blogger.  Please don't hold it against me!  So let me tell you about London...

• The chips (AKA crisps) come in very intriguing and delicious flavors.  Dill pickle, ketchup, Worcestershire.  I wish we had them here.  I suppose ranch may be a crazy American flavor since you don't find that elsewhere, but still.
• Flying across England is quite beautiful.  Dead flat, and it looks like a gorgeous puzzle of browns, light greens, dark greens, all with an edge of dark green.  It's really quite lovely.  I flew through Vancouver, BC on my trip and also LOVED the flight from Vancouver to Seattle.  Can the San Juans get much prettier?!

Washington, not England

• The Paralympics were going on in London while I was there and it was fun to see all of the Olympic excitement still going on.  Even just at Heathrow, there were signs that welcomed the different national teams, athlete check-in tables, and a guy holding a "badminton" sign at baggage claim.  I cannot imagine how exciting it would be to land in London and compete!  Although I'm fine with the spectator approach (and the baked goods that come along).

Love the sports themed cupcakes, for the less hard core athlete

• I saw men wearing colored denim and colored khakis!  Love it!  Colored denim is such a fun trend here, but for the ladies.  I kind of liked seeing some (straight looking) dudes sporting the color too.

I vote yes

• Thriller!!!  I went to see Thriller Live, the "musical" about Michael Jackson's music, on the West End (which is the London equivalent of NYC's Broadway).  It was SO GOOD!!!  There was no story (which was fine with me), so the show solely consisted of super talented singers singing and dancers dancing, complete with costumes and lights and everything.  HIGHLY recommend!

I totally missed my opportunity to strike an MJ pose here...

• Some of the beggars are quite polite, and with a British accent, it's quite hard to resist giving them something.  They just sound so darn charming!
• Even street signs are polite.  I saw a lot of "courtesy notice" and "kindly don't park your bike here."  I feel like some signs in the states practically flip you the bird.
• On the fashion front, Brits are much more chic than Americans (unless you happen to be walking by the Nordstrom corporate office in downtown Seattle, in which case this statement is no longer true... I always feel frumpy walking by there as those Nordstromites are arriving).  However, Brits are clearly not as chic as the French.  Brits looks much more American than French, unfortunately even in their body size.  They didn't seem too far behind us fat Americans actually.  (I hope these comments don't sound insensitive... but having travelled a fair amount around the world, Americans in general really are much larger than most other cultures.)  The British men are really a sharp dressed bunch.  A bit more preppy, a bit hipster-y (in a good way).  Just sharp!
• A handful of random tube (i.e. subway) ads had stickers stuck on them that said "This belongs to Lionel Richie."  I don't understand it, but I like it!

The escalator was moving just too darn fast!  There's a white Lionel label across this Louis V poster.

• Speaking of the tube, it is smallllll!!  Compared to subway lines in other cities that I've ridden on, the tube trains are TINY.  I have to duck so I don't hit my head on the handlebars on the ceiling and when I go through the doors.  If I sat across from someone tall, we could almost touch knees.  Very petite little transit.  However, the trains come pretty frequently, so even if there isn't room to squeeze in, the next one is coming quickly.  I saw a woman doing her mascara on the tube.  Bold choice, lady!  She's liable to take an eye out.
• Those crazy Europeans like to eat their lunch so late!  I went to a Thai restaurant, listed on Yelp as having 4.5 stars and 21 reviews (so, one would presume, it gets regular customers).  I went there at noon, WHEN THEY OPENED, and there literally was not a single other customer the whole time.  I left at 12:45pm.  Aren't they starving by then?!  This place did serve a pretty amazing watermelon juice...

Nothing says Thai restaurant like cowhide chairs

• Walking back from lunch, in the middle of a ton of lunch pedestrian traffic, I went past a mom and her kid, stopped in the DEAD CENTER of the sidewalk, as her little guy sat on a little plastic potty and peed.  IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY SIDEWALK.  I don't get it.  I just don't get it!  Give the kid a little bit of privacy!  Don't give the rest of us a show!  Sheesh.
• Starbucks does treat receipts in London too.  Instead of $2 grande iced drinks in the afternoon, they're £1.50.  Considering the exchange rate, we're getting the better deal here.
• I had dinner in a delicious Korean restaurant near my hotel and the waiter said that he noticed my accent and asked where I was from.  When I responded "Seattle," he looked at me all confused, as he had never heard of it.  So I had to say the west coast of America (always say America, never the US... people outside of the US don't know what the US is) for him to have any clue where I came from.  People haven't heard of Seattle?!  This "big" city gets smaller and smaller.  :)
• London is full of all the cliche things you imagine when you think London: black cabs, double decker buses, and red phone booths.  And I LOVE them.
• On the tube, I watched a young boy offer up his seat to an elderly woman that boarded, and said "Excuse me miss, please have my seat."  I about melted.  Such a polite and courteous young guy!!  His father didn't even have to say anything and just beamed.
• I keep a mental checklist of the cities that I visit and whether they have ladies there with my same haircut (or similar).  London is one of those cities, along with San Francisco and Austin; Dallas and Springfield are not.  Those Londoners are so on top of things.  ;)

Okay, that's what I have, weeks late.  I'll get caught up one of these days!  Posts on the MS Ride and my oral surgery to come.  Cheerio!