I really thought I was going to die!

On Monday, Paul and I went to THE BEST amusement park in the world: Knoebel’s Grove. It is no secret I love Knoebel’s. Growing up, it was the park my parents always took us to. I have so many fond memories of Knoebels!

Paul hasn’t been having many symptoms lately so he felt comfortable riding more intense rides and than he normally would have. I mean, he wasn’t going to do the Cosmotron or anything (that ride involves a light show and strobe lights!), but he was game to try some coasters!

Since most kids were back in school on Monday, there were no crowds and very few lines. The only ride we had to wait for was The Flying Turns, which was a new trackless roller coaster I hadn’t had the chance to ride yet.

Absolutely no lines at The Phoenix!

As we were waiting in line at The Flying Turns, I started to reminisce to Paul about the first time I ever rode and upside down coaster.

It was back in 1992, when I was 11 years old. The coaster was called The Whirlwind and it used to stand at the exact spot we were at now. It was such a magical day for me and my brothers because I remember there being no line at all. We rode The Whirlwind, hopped off, ran back around, and got right back on. We rode it so many times. What an awesome experience for us!

Super old school picture of The Whirlwind...

I had the absolute OPPOSITE experience on an upside down coaster at the park on Monday. And it was the very first thing we rode…

When we got into the park, we headed straight to Impulse, which is the newest coaster. Even though it had been running for a year or so, I never rode it because it looked scary and the line was always long. Today, there was no line, so I figured why not!?

After getting into the coaster, I immediately felt uncomfortable because the restraint did not go over my head. Any time I have ridden a ride that goes upside down, the restraint was like this:

I like this kind of restraint. I feel secure. And I also like the extra measure of the strap that goes between your crotch, so if for some reason the part going over your shoulders released, it would still stay in place with the strap.

Okay, now this is what the restraint for Impulse is:

WTF????? Nothing over your shoulders? The restraint wasn’t even tight against my waist! I swear if I had a gun to my head, I could have wriggled out of the shoddy restraint holding me in.

“I don’t like this,” I kept saying to Paul as they prepared us for our ride. “Why isn’t there anything over our shoulders?” I asked. “I don’t like this, I don’t like this,” I kept saying. As soon as the coaster slowly started rolling I felt my stomach drop. I was absolutely convinced I was going to die. The track went STRAIGHT UP so we were basically on our backs staring into the sky. I don’t know what I was saying but I was absolutely panicking at this point. I held on, closed my eyes, and reminded myself that when I flew out of seat and fell to my death, it would not hurt because I would die right away.

I kept my eyes closed the entire ride and just kept bracing myself for something to go wrong. I was never more scared in my life. As scared as I was on the ride, the emotion didn’t completely hit me until our car slowed to a stop at the end of the ride. That was the point that I had what I can only describe as a panic attack. My chest felt heavy yet fluttery and I could not catch my breath. I could barely stand up to get out of the ride. I was pretty sure my face was white as I ghost. I could not believe I survived the ride.

Sorry if that sounds dramatic, but it was legitimately how I felt.

Looking back, I should have asked to be let off the ride as soon as I realized I was uncomfortable with our restraints. As we walked to the next ride, I apologized profusely to Paul for being a killjoy on the ride and that I hoped I didn’t ruin his experience, but I really thought I was going to die and I couldn’t help myself from panicking. It took me awhile to calm my heart rate. All I could think was “I AM ALIVE!!!!”

(The next day, I went on Youtube and watched a POV video of Impulse. Check it out if you are interested!)

It’s crazy that I used to love thrill rides and now that I am older, all I can think about is “What could go wrong? How am I going to die on this ride?”

There are very few rides at Knoebel’s that don’t scare me anymore. For some reason I am not afraid of the Log Flume, The Twister, The Phoenix, or the Skloosh. Of course I am not scared of the Pioneer Train, Antique Cars, The Carousel, or the Haunted House.

We rode the Italian Swings on Monday. I was terrified. I rode the Paratroopers and The Flyers earlier in the summer and I was scared. Obviously Impulse was the worst 1-2 minutes of my life and you could not pay me to ever ride that again.

We still managed to have fun at Knoebels and I am pretty sure that as long as I never ride Impulse again, I will enjoy every second I am in the park!

Totally my kind of ride.

I freaking love Knoebels!

We also hit up the pool! They have high dives and water slides!

And you know how I feel about water slides!

Do you remember the first time you rode an upside down coaster?

What sorts of rides do you like/dislike?

Did you ever ask to get off a ride?

Diagnose Me!

Okay, this is one of those random posts I am famous for writing. You all know I write about my life and other random shit just as much IF NOT MORE than I write about running sometimes. That's what happens when you blog every day. I could never, ever, EVER write about running and fitness everyday... which is why I write random posts like this one! Oh well! Enjoy! Or skip!

I am wondering if you can figure out what is wrong with me. I am obsessed with death and murder cases.

Should I find it alarming that whenever one of my friends sees an article about Jodi Arias or JonBenet, they send it my way? Should I think it's weird that my heart is sincerely touched that I am the first person they think of when they see any new information about these cases?

Note: I do not like gory horror movies or slasher films. I do not enjoy people getting hurt or murdered. I like learning about the investigation and litigation aspects!

When did my obsession begin? I'd have to say college. I remember watching Forensic Files in my dorm room. That is also when I discovered Court TV and I started watching various criminal trials.

I love reading books about high profile murder cases. I love watching trials on Youtube. I have seen the Jodi Arias full trial twice and highlights from it twice. I even have a "favorite" Jodi Arias interview I watch over and over again while I'm doing puzzles. I also like watching her interrogation videos.

Before you think I am sick, I must stress: It's not that I love "murders", it's the I love learning about the investigation, the law, and how both prosecutors and defense attorneys go about litigating a trial.

When we went to Boulder this past summer, we drove by the Ramsey house. I would have paid money to go inside and take a tour.

I give Paul tips on what to do if I am ever murdered. First, I told him that as the husband, he would be the first suspect the police would look at. I told him to take a polygraph right away so police could rule him out and focus their investigation resources elsewhere.

When we go on vacation, I always like to research what kinds of deaths and accidents happen. When we went to San Francisco, I wanted to learn about how many people commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. When we went to the Grand Canyon, I wanted to learn about all the people that died there and what went wrong. When we went to Rocky Mountain National Park, I wanted to learn about the deaths and accidents there as well.

You probably already knew I like learning about murder investigations, but I realize you this post makes me sound bat shit crazy! I swear I am not! But I still ask you in a good natured way... What the hell do you think is wrong with me!!??

What do you think is wrong with me?
Is there a high profile crime you find particularly interesting?
Any unsolved cases that you think you have cracked?

Weekend Wrap Up!

I ended up having a SUPER long "weekend" thanks to several buildings in our district having air quality issues. I was off Wednesday-Monday. That's right. No school today. Yes, we will have to make up the days we missed. But for now, I'm just trying to enjoy and make the most of this little extra taste of summer!

I was up so late on Thursday night. What kept me up? Big Brother message boards, Wikipedia, and party mix. Due to all the fun that was happening well into the early morning hours, I slept forever on Friday morning!

Paul and I decided to go on a fishing/running date at Pinchot Park. I ran 6 miles in the scorching heat and then cooled off in the lake. It felt great!

So much laziness occurred the rest of the day. Couch + CBS All Access = our evening. We are near the end of Big Brother 5- an old season from 2004 that we are watching on CBS All Access. If you like Big Brother and want to watch an old season, I highly recommend this one! There are lots of people to love and lots of people to hate.

Chrissy did some relaxing and self care as well...

I felt like running, but I knew my muscles needed to get torn up, so I went to Planet Fitness to lift back. On the way home, I stopped at Good Will and Community Aid and TOTALLY SCORED in the puzzle department!

Needless to say, I spent a lot o the evening working on a couple of these bad boys while watching Jodi Arias interrogation videos.

We also nearly finished Big Brother 5. Tomorrow, for sure. BIG GOALS!!!

Sunday was horrible, but I can't get into details. I didn't get out for my run until around 1:30. The pace of my 5 miler clearly reflected my sorrows and how I felt like the weight of the world was literally wearing me down.

What does one turn to when they are sad? I suppose in my case it is running, sweets, diet soda, and puzzles.

I hate ending on a bad note, so I will end on a good note. I forgot to mention that Chrissy had a wild and crazy Saturday night. Paul accidentally left a glass of milk on the counter and Chrissy managed to down 3-4 oz of it before we realized it. Milk does not make Christmas sick. He loves it. What a great night for him! (No we don't give him milk on purpose... okay sometimes I give him a few licks from my cereal spoon...)

Do you have a favorite old season of Big Brother?

PSA: If anyone local ever wants to borrow a puzzle, I have MANY for you to choose from and would be happy to lend them to you!

What is your fur baby's favorite "people food"?

Friendship! Pissed! (Paul Health Update)

On this season of Big Brother, there is a contestant named Paul who I have liked ever since the beginning of the season. (Note: I will call him BB Paul so you are not confused between him and my husband Paul.)

BB Paul has a lot of catchphrases. He says "friendship" when he describes things that are good and "pissed" when he describes things that are bad. So for instance...

Running = Friendship!
Hansons = Pissed!
Oreos = Friendship!
Humidity = Pissed!
Hillary Clinton = Friendship!
Trump = Pissed!

You get the picture?

Oh, here is BB Paul with his beard and without his beard...

Beard = Pissed! No Beard = Friendship!

So Paul and I have been weaving BB Paul's Friendship/Pissed catchphrase into our vocabulary. The other night on the way back from DQ, I rolled the car window down and yelled "Friendship!!!" out the window as loud as I could. I really like Blizzards. When Chrissy peed on the TV stand out of spite because he was hungry, Paul shouted "Pissed!" (But not too loud as to scare Chrissy.)

Okay, onto the "Paul's Health Update" portion of this post...

When last I left off, I shared that the radiation and chemo he went through this past fall was really working, and the new tumor growth they were targeting was GONE (it was now dead tumor cells) and the part of his tumor that is inoperable got a little bit smaller! All SUPER good news. Lots of friendship. We felt like we had a new lease on life when we got that news!

Where we went from there was that Paul continued chemo for a couple months- 5 days on, 25 days off. Not too bad. He wrapped up his last round of chemo in July.

That brings us to Thursday. Paul had an MRI and an appointment with his doctor at Hopkins. I wasn't nervous about this appointment until the day before... when I realized I would be the one taking him. Originally, his dad was going to take him because I had work and we're not allowed to take off during the first week of school. But due to Moldageddon 2016 (aka air quality issues at the school!) I ended up having off work on Thursday. So of course I would take Paul to his appointment. THAT'S when I got nervous.

I was really nervous to go to the hospital again. I mean, you never know what kind of news you are going to get when you go there. We have gotten our fair share of crappy news and of course good news as well. It's one of those places where when you walk in, you never know if your life is going to be completely changed by the time you walk out.

First he had an MRI. Luckily, he wasn't nervous for his MRI because he hasn't been having seizures lately. Normally, MRIs are like seizure machines for him, but this time he wasn't worried. he even swiped me a pair of MRI socks I love...

He accidentally got the Premier Pro Extra Large! It's all good, I don't have any in grey yet.

MRI socks = FRIENDSHIP!!!!
Ps. Doesn't this pose/angle make me look like I am missing part of my body????

Then we waited for his appointment with his doctor who would discuss the MRI results with him. I have actually never met this particular doctor because he was one he saw during radiation and his dad usually took him to those appointments. Since Paul was used to seeing the doctor himself, he said he was okay just going in alone.

I felt selfish for not going in the appointment with him, but he truly didn't care. I know if he cared, he would have asked me to come in. I don't like seeing the brain scans- in fact, I can't look at them. They make sick in the stomach. (Because it's his brain.) I also don't like waiting to hear news from a doctor. I just can't take that shit anymore. So finally Paul went into his appointment and I stayed in the waiting area. I tried to read my book, but I kept reading the same page over and over again because the words were not computing.

When Paul came out to the waiting area twenty minutes later, I asked, "Friendship or pissed?"

"Friendship," he said calmly.

I was not convinced. Paul tends to see the bright side of things. If his tumor had grown back, but had only grown a LITTLE bit, he may have called that friendship. So I fished for more answers.

"Is the tumor still gone?" I asked.

He said yes, and that the dead tumor cells were shrinking... a sign that the dead tumor cells may stay dead forever. Oh, and you know that pesky inoperable part of the tumor? It got a little smaller.

HOLY FREAKING FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I held it together until he said that his doctor wanted to start lowering his meds since he hasn't been having many symptoms. That's when my tears started flowing. Paul is on so many meds. They have never been reduced. Only increased. Until now.

WE ARE SO HAPPY!!!!

THIS IS SUPER DUPER FRIENDSHIP!!!!!

Tell me something that is going on with you right now that is FRIENDSHIP!

MGR's Workout Recaps!

Okay, I think I finally got my workouts posted on the correct day- Saturday! This is when I will be posting them from now on. 

My main reason for doing this is because I know that not a lot of people read my recaps. (I don't blame you. But I still write them because I love to have record of what's going on in case I ever need to look back.) 

Due to the odd timing, this recap includes more than a week of workouts... 10 days, actually! But I am finally on track and from now on I will only share a week with you at a time!

Wednesday- 5 miles before work. I wanted to do 6, but my knee was hurting so I called it quits. Freaking annoying.

Thursday- I woke up with very prominent pain in my left heel! It went away after I walked around a bit. This is how my PF started back in the beginning of the summer. Freaking A! If this is the beginning of PF, how the hell did it happen? I have only run 40 miles in the past 16 days. That's only 2.5 miles per day on average. 

WHAT THE HELL DID HANSONS DO TO MY BODY????? (By the way, I will officially be blaming Hansons for anything and everything that is wrong with my life from here on out. Just kidding. I will stop complaining soon, I promise.)

My plan was to lift that day anyway, so it's not like the heel pain altered my plans, but it was still annoying! I decided I would lift the next day too, just for good measure and reevaluate the situation on Saturday.

Friday- My heel did not hurt at all today but my ITB was KILLING ME. Absolutely KILLING ME FOR NO GOSH DARN REASON!!!! I lifted before work in my sun room while I watched CNN.

Saturday- I ran 5 miles and felt pretty good. Why does my body feel better on running days than non running days?

Sunday- Another 5 miles... feeling good.

Monday- 5 more miles... feeling good.

Tuesday- I went to Planet Fitness and lifted back before work. Back days are the days I have to get up the earliest... 5am! It usually takes me around 1.5 hours to complete my whole workout. I didn't feel great because I got my period that day.

Wednesday- 5 miles. My runs have been hovering between 8:15-8:25 pace. Much faster than I was doing while marathon training. I feel like I am BACK to my normal "la la la" pace.

Thursday- I lifted chest at home. I almost skipped it but I didn't!

Friday- We still had off work due to mold issues in our buildings, so Paul and I went on a fishing/running date at Pinchot Park. It was so freaking hot and humid that it was borderline dangerous. I stayed near my car so I could grab water and shade when I needed it and/or bail if I needed to. Since my body felt great, I ended up doing 6 miles.

How were your workouts this week?

Runfessions!

Today I am participating in Marcia's Runfession's link up! Be sure to visit her blog and check out some of the other bloggers who are Runfessing today!

I don't have a whole lot to Runfess, but let's see what I can pull out of my ass today...

Runfession #1: For years and years, 5 miles was the shortest distance I would run for a workout. When I was doing the Hansons plan, I never ran anything shorter than 6 miles. Now that I ditched the plan, I have switched back to having 5 miles as my base running distance. It sort of messed with my head the first couple times. 5 miles seemed so short. But now I have embraced it! I am honestly ready to be done after 40-45 minutes of running.

Runfession #2: Yesterday I worked out at home and did sit ups on my stability ball. As I was doing them, I suddenly became terrified that my stability ball would pop and I would go crashing to the floor! Do you ever worry about this when you're on a stability ball? I was convinced I'd hit my head and be knocked out.

Runfession #3: I wish I had quit marathon training sooner. I am so happy and I feel good physically. I can't believe I wasted my whole summer being unhappy about that situation. The cool part is that my brother is running a half marathon on the day I was supposed to run my full. And the day before that, my other brother is running a trail race and has stated he is going to WIN IT. (I am inclined to believe him!) So I am extremely happy that I get to spend the weekend cheering on my brothers!

Runfession #4: You know how they say that one way to curb late night snacking is by brushing your teeth so you don't eat anything else? Well, last night after I finished my Blizzard (second night in a row for Blizzards!) I not only brushed my teeth but I rinsed with mouthwash. No more snacking, right? Wrong. About two hours later I got out the party mix. I can just brush my teeth again, duh!

Do you have something you want to Runfess?

Mold Day!

On the second day of school, the students got dismissed due to air quality control issues... aka... MOLD.

On the third day of school, I got a 5:43am phone call informing us the entire district would be closed. Hours later we got another call telling us school would be closed Thursday too.

What a way to start the school year!

Yes, we will have to make up these days... which is why I don't feel bad about sharing with you what I did on this surprise day off. I may as well make the most of it, right!?

After a stinky run (trash day in my hood), I went to hang out with Katrina at her pool. Katrina teaches phys ed at our school and we have become pretty good friends over all these years working together.

Let's drink to mold!

  

Paul was there too but he didn't want to blind you with his pasty whiteness!

We don't go out to eat much, let alone on a weekday, but we decided to splurge that evening and have sushi.

The one bad thing about sushi is that it doesn't matter how many times I wash my hands, they still smell like sushi for the rest of the night.

When we got home, Paul and I watched some TV. Look at my little baby! He looks a little concerned in this photo.

You see I am drinking a diet soda. I am DEEP in a diet soda hole right now. For some reason, I decided to buy a bunch of 12 packs and now all I do is just drink diet soda all day long. I can't stop! I don't want to stop! But I want to want to stop... if that makes sense.

The good part about having off tomorrow is that I can take Paul to his doctor appointments in Baltimore. He has been doing monthly rounds of chemo pretty much all through spring and summer. Tomorrow he gets an MRI and meets with his doctor to see if things are going well. I feel like they are. He doesn't have as many symptoms as he did before.

I'm gonna wrap this up so I can go stir up my Blizzard before we watch Big Brother. That's right, we went to DQ. Don't hate.

This is the song we like to blast on the way home from DQ...

Do you like Mika?

What's your favorite Blizzard flavor?

What do you like to do on a surprise day off?