If you saw my last George Jetson post, you know that things were a little crazy for me in January and the first part of February. I managed - with the help of my friends, assorted donors, and 72 guests, of course - to pull off the trivia fundraiser event on Friday night. We raised a couple G (Gs?) for the MS Society, yo!
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| I didn't bike to drop off the moolah, but I would have been accommodated! |
To recover from the past 6 weeks of insanity (and ignoring the half of my brain that was saying, "you should be catching up on your work projects and making up your leave-without-pay hours to help pay for those dudes who've been jackhammering in the basement for a week"),* I went on Saturday to a salt water sensory deprivation tank.
The jury is still out on this. I think I liked it. I sure felt nice and peaceful and restored afterwards, and I think some of my aches are gone. But 90 minutes is a long time to float in a big pile of salt, even when you consider all the napping I did. However, I really had very few thoughts or stimuli in my brain for an entire 90 minutes. When I did have thoughts, in between my naps, they were:
- What if there's a fire? Will I boil? Will I know? Will they get me? Is that bathrobe nearby?
- Oh, I moved my arm and now I hear my heartbeat. I didn't hear my heartbeat before. What's my pulse? It normally is low. Is it ultralow? Is that bad? Am I dead? Do I care?
- When you sleep in saltwater, why does it feel like you're encased in gelatin, but then you move and you're in water?
- I wonder how their filter works?
To further treat myself, I decided to ride in the woods on Sunday. We finally have good snow, and it is between 20-30 degrees (the best winter weather). My poor friend Matt went with me and learned how unskilled I am at anything other than beginner conditions. I didn't mind wiping out the few times I wiped out down by the Minnesota River. However, all the riders had made a rut and you couldn't really ride outside the rut very well but if you were in the rut and didn't stay in the rut, you'd start to fall. So, my foot was on the ground a lot, and I was too tense, so my arms got really sore, which is a weird thing to happen when you're biking. So, I called uncle and we rode to and on a boring, groomed, flat trail. It still wasn't my best showing, but at least we saw two deer close by. And then we had coffee.
Matt told me a funny story about how I annoyed him last year, and it is still making me laugh today. We agreed that with how much time we've spent biking together over the years, it is inevitable that we will annoy each other from time to time. I really appreciate all the friends I've met through biking, and look forward to what the future holds.
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| This is not the boring, flat trail in the woods. It's my boring, flat driveway. |
So, trivia has helped me get a jump on my fundraising, but of course, I haven't met my goal yet. Want to help? http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/GoMaggieGo
* I just heard one basement guy use the word "keister," so I think they're feeling as done with this job as I am. I'm increasingly skeptical that they'll be done by the end of the day. Because it is essentially the end of the day. Sigh.
