One Mile for Life

Phew, so I’m about to commit to something pretty major…

I will run at least one mile a day, every day.  No matter what.  Ok, maybe if I get sick or injured I won’t run it, but I will cover one mile at least.

The idea started when I was in Bolivia last year and a girl in the house said she had been doing this for years.  She was a super fast runner and was in amazing shape, and when I brought it up to a friend, he had heard of others making this same commitment.  Apparently there’s other people online who have come up with all kinds of rules for this, like being in full running gear for that mile to qualify.

I’m turning 28 next week and figure it’ll be a good point to start so that in the future I can count up how many years I’ve kept up the commitment.  Plus once you do get into full running gear, it’s pretty easy to just go ahead and do a full workout.  The bonus of committing to just one mile is that I can use it as a warmup for a weightbuilding workout, so if I did a long run the day before I can still stay active the next day.  Last week I ran 13.1 on Monday but felt like doing something Tuesday, so I walked around the San Diego Zoo for a few hours.

This is kinda scary to go out there and publicly announce, as I hope to really stick to it!  I will cover one mile minimum every day!!  I know it’ll be hard on days that I’m really stressed, sick, injured, etc. but I hope to stay motivated by knowing it’s an inevitability, just another part of your routine.  Like brushing your teeth, emptying the trash, or cooking dinner.  I’m not looking forward to this but I know I’ll thank myself later 🙂

Mistakes

Sometimes I wonder if regret really should exist. It has such a negative connotation! What’s the point? Why wish for something to be different when you can’t change it? My philosophy is to learn from that mistake and to be a better person for it. If it hadn’t happened to you, you wouldn’t be the older, wiser, person you are now. Why take that away from yourself?

Granted, I’m sure we have all done things or been subject to/victims of things you can spend a lifetime turning over in your head, contemplating the multitude of alternative realities we could be living instead. My question is, what is the benefit to you now from this exercise… does it help you be less concerned? Less stressed? Does it relax you to mull over “might have beens?” In most cases, the answer is “no.”

Therefore I am putting out the idea that regret may not be something to hold in high regard. In fact, maybe we should discard it altogether. Reviewing my life, there could be things I look back on as things I regret. Only I don’t.  In fact, I feel this idea has helped me live every day to the fullest, so there is no regret.  All options have been exhausted, as in “I did all I could.”  What more can anyone ask of you than your best?  And if you don’t measure up, call it a mistake… you suffer the consequences, and you learn from it.

I have made mistakes, but they made me who I am. I am better for them. I am who I am for them. And I’m OK with that. Thus I don’t regret.

Four hours for an “I Voted!” sticker

Knowing that the voting lines are long, I decided to vote on my day off.  I’m pretty happy with my accomplishment- I spent a lot of time researching before I filled in all those bubbles!  Though nation wide we’re obsessed with the presidential election, it’s really the local election that influences your own life most.

That’s why I read up on all the propositions- state and city.  In trying to find info on both sides, you can really see how money changes what the average voter will be exposed to.  For example, it’s pretty easy to find Obama’s platform, or a senator’s… then there’s the local stuff.  I hardly found more than one-liners describing each of the propositions, or good backgrounds on the San Diego candidates.

It was nice, however, that when I showed up to wait in the serpentine line at my polling location that those around me were also educated.  We didn’t really discuss the issues, but tons of information was being handed out concerning each of the state propositions and lots of people were reading it pretty thoroughly.  I mean, what else are you going to do in 4 hours?  Have a loud, obnoxious 4 hour conversation on your cell phone?  Gladly, I wasn’t exposed to that…

All in all, everyone seemed relaxed and the atmosphere was really positive.  I overheard someone saying how they wanted their kids to see what voting was about, how this was a historic occasion, etc.  Personally, I was really happy to see so many people enthused about the political process, exercising their right to vote, and reflected about how much our country has gone through historically for all of us (women and minorities!) to be standing in that line today.

I’ll be wearing my oval-shaped sticker with pride 🙂

Bloody Sock

I’m training for the Silver Strand Half Marathon on November 16 and was running a nice 5 miler today.  It was kind of warm, but I like running on the boardwalk where it’s even warmer.  Typically there’s a ton of mist coming off the waves when I run afterdark and the boardwalk is pretty deserted so I really enjoy my runs!

Anyway, today was a good run, I was a little dehydrated so had to stop a few times at water fountains but otherwise it was all good.  Oh, and my iShuffle stopped working, so I ran with my iPod.  No biggie.

Here at home, I took off my shoes and was walking around when I look down and -oh my gosh!  My poor little toe!

my poor toe!
my poor toe!

Isn’t it odd that you can have an injury and not feel it at all?  I’ve definitely had this before, and it always surprises me when I look down- once it bled all the way through my shoe.  Kind of a mark of pride, don’t you think?  I ran till I bled!  Of course, it looks worse than it is, just a little bleeding from the nailbed.  Maybe it’s time for a pedicure?

Hurricane in my apartment

Sitting back on my couch with my busy month behind me, I look around at the new mess I have to tackle… laundry, sticky countertops, half-filled glasses of water, and overdue vaccuming needing to be taken care of!

It makes me think about how I prioritize my time… when I did have a spare moment, I took the time for myself, to sleep that extra hour, or to go for a nice run on the beach. I didn’t want to lose touch with friends, so I went out to dinners and parties with them, texted people back home, and answered the phone even when I knew it’d lead to an hour long conversation.

So with the evidence of having limited time and limited energy being all around me, I have to wonder- how do people with even more commitments do it?! I’m a single girl and don’t answer to anyone. I don’t even have a pet. My one plant died. My wonderful basil plant! I never even had time to use it in my cooking because I never had time to cook!

All of you out there with house projects, kids, hobbies, etc… ENJOY THEM. Please, for me. I will live vicariously through you!

Trauma Surgery

Currently I’m working 80 hour weeks and wearing bright blue scrubs while running codes in the trauma bay. May sound like the hours are long, but I barely notice! It’s super fun and I’m learning soooo much.

The intern on call (which is a 30 hour shift) will typically “run the code” which means I’m the first to evaluate the ABCs- airway, breathing, circulation… then getting to all the other important stuff. Typically, I’ll be in the middle of doing something important when an announcement will go off in the hospital… ” Code trauma… Code trauma….” a few seconds later two of my three pagers will go off also announcing the code trauma (one is the on call pager, one is my Scripps pager, one is my Navy pager. kinda weighs down your pants)

Immediately I’ll have to excuse myself and take the elevator down to the trauma bay. First thing you do is take off your white coat and don a lead vest with thyroid protector, then a paper gown and gloves. Well, really the first thing you do is read the white board and see if there’s any info on what kind of trauma it is. Our team has taken to making wild guesses about what it might be as we walk down… “shark attack! incident with a blender! soccer game gone wild!”

Usually it’s a car crash, motorcycle accident, fall on bloodthinners, or assault. There’s been a few gun shot wounds, but not on my shift. We’ll typically get all gowned up and wait until the paramedics show up with the patient and give a report. Then we all kind of pounce on the patient, cutting off clothes, doing a head to toe exam, putting in IVs, yelling out findings to the scribe, pausing briefly for x-rays, then resuming the methodical madness. My spanish has definitely come in handy, considering all the people we get from Tijuana! Crazy stuff seems to happen there…

I can’t say enough good things about the nurses, nurse practicioners, and attendings we work with. The past few weeks have been awesome and although I’ll come home with the realization that I have about 2 hours to get stuff accomplished before I need to go back to bed to get a decent night’s sleep, it’s worth it! It is making me question why I decided against surgery… but then I think about the last time I made it to the gym and again I’m happy with my emergency medicine choice!

Wipe Out!!!

In all my 10+ years of running, I have never ate pavement. Sure, I’ve tripped on cracks in the sidewalk, slipped slightly on packed ice, but have always been able to stumble a few steps before regaining my balance. Even after training through Iowan winters, muddy trails, and Chicago rainstorms, my feet have always stayed under my head.

Today it finally happened! Like many runners before me, I can now join that club of truly hugging the ground we pound. I started my run with the intention of going 4, maybe 5 miles. I started off feeling good. Then I felt even better… then great…then awesome. Finally around mile 5 or 6 I felt like a million bucks!

Around mile 7.5 or 8 I was in the homestretch of my 9 mile run. Running down the uneven, poorly-lit sidewalk I suddenly felt my left toe catch a crest mid-stride. With both feet behind me and my momentum carrying me forward, I was suddenly reaching towards the ground, both hands stretched out in surprise. My left knee scraped just before my palms caught the rest of me, sliding forward with that sting of concrete.

Down on the ground, I don’t feel the point in sitting for any longer than is necessary to dust off my knee, hop up, and jump back into stride. I brush my hands off, and wipe them on my surprisingly wet shirt.

Underneath the nearby lightpost, a guy saw the whole thing and yells out “Oh my gosh, are you OK?!” Immediately I give him two thumbs up and feel a huge smile on my face- “It’s all good!!” I say.

That’s when I felt like 10 million bucks 🙂

Jack Johnson!!!

I got to see the amazing Jack Johnson this past Saturday at the Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, it was incredible. My friend Danny, who when I asked him to come, said “Who’s Jack Johnson?” but he ended up loving it too! It was too bad that my friends who are Jack J fans had to work or were post-call, but I couldn’t have had a better friend with me 🙂

For those of you who don’t know, Jack Johnson is this really mellow folk-ish surfer who makes surfing videos and the best music on the planet. He’s super down to earth and his music is inspired by his wife and environmental-friendly attitude. He also did the soundtrack to Curious George, which has some fun songs on it. If you check him out on iTunes, definitely check out more than just the popular songs, I honestly think some of the other songs are the best! My absolute favorite is “Holes to Heaven” from On and On.

I wish I had pics to share but my camera battery died… We missed the opening acts since both Danny and I thought each other knew the way, but with each of us knowing halfway how to get there, we ended up in some ghetto!! Thankfully we got there with plenty of time to get in the looooong line for t shirts and drinks.

The show was…fantastic. Am I using too many adjectives? Can I even describe how much I love Jack Johnson? Did I mention I’m naming my first born son after him?? 🙂 I’ll just leave it at that!

This is the special poster for just this concert, that’s Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) in the clouds because on the tour, Jack Johnson’s name at every hotel is “Ron Burgundy”… so he gets greeted by clerks and cleaning people as “Hello, Mr. Burgundy.” But he might have to change that now…

Odd timing

Now with being on emergency medicine, I am liking what I do more and my time at the hospital just flies by. When I see a patient, the possibilities about what they might have are so open and fresh for discovery… not already dissected out and written in stone. I can figure it out instead of continue what someone else already set in motion.
Much to my surprise, I am writing this at 5:08 AM. My shift finished an hour ago and I can’t figure out what to do with myself. My circadian clock is all whacked! Am I hungry? Do I work out? Should I try to sleep? Ultimately, crawling into bed and surfing the internet until I feel tired has won out.
Something new for me is that I joined a boxing gym. It’s a great work out and the classes really push me to both focus on technique and to push my limits physically. Today was my third time going and I still haven’t bought gloves. Today they ran out of spares so I took jabs and hooks at the bags with only knuckle wraps, and now I have no skin over my left pinky’s knuckle! Oh well, I’ll wear it as a mark of pride… but with my girly nail polish too