Walking the Walk But Needing a Walker

This morning during boot camp, I managed to twist my ankle and then step on it. In a word - ouch. But I managed to heave myself through the remainder of the hour, including leap frog planks (don't ask). Upon returning home, I iced my rapidly expanding ankle, Tylenol-ed it, and napped it. However, it still gave cankles a run for their money.

This afternoon, I had a dental appointment to have a cavity filled, thanks to my lackadaisical flossing. It was my first experience with a "dental dam." For those of you with perfect teeth who may never experience this phenomena, a dental dam is a series of devices that go in your mouth to "keep everything dry and narrow the field." Basically, a clamp is stuck on one side of your mouth, a bite thingy is placed on the other, and some kind of material (like balloon material) is somehow wound around your teeth, tongue, and whatever else is in the vicinity. When they construct all this, your mouth has already been numbed by the numbing ointment, q-tip, and shot, so I have no idea exactly what the balloon is attached to.

Anyhow, I sat with this paraphernalia in my mouth for quite awhile, because the dentist was chatting it up with another patient, Luckily, the new dental office has a TV in every exam room, so I could watch Tiger Woods play - in between my trying to swallow with tinker toys in my mouth. Finally, the dentist came in and did her thing and I left with one newly-filled hole in my mouth.

All of this leads me to the point of today's post. As I was leaving the dental office, my left hip decided to spasm. So, here I am, walking to my car, limping on the foot with the ace bandage, drooling from a dead lip and mouth that was probably agape from having a speculum stuck in it for hours, and finishing my strut by slinging my twitching hip to complete the old lady shuffle.

Thank goodness I was parked next to the handicapped spaces - maybe it didn't looked so ridiculous!
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Gifts that make today special: Dental office personnel; family burgers

Seeing the Music

Sam shared this video he found on the internet. I think it's fascinating, mainly because somebody looked at this scene, and saw music. It helps me realize how much music and beauty that God puts into our world, if only we would stop and experience it. But even better, if we would experience it and share it.

This picture of birds on wires by photographer Paulo Pinto looks like music notation. So Jarbas Agnelli naturally wanted to find out what that music sounded like.

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

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Gifts that make today special: Catching up on bills, Sonic drink delivered by Molly and Mikaela

In A Word

... tired.

See ya later!
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Gifts that make today special: People at dentist office; talking with Jennifer; surviving boot camp after a half marathon

Time

I've been on California time for a few days. I never got used to it, mainly because I was getting up early, which translated to the usual time I would get up in Tennessee. I also went to bed early, mainly because I was so sleepy, not to mention wogging a race or two. Steve said last night I was asleep by 7:30 pm. Whatever.

Today we left LAX at 9 am and got back at 1 pm, better known as 3 pm. All I knew was that it was lunchtime. I think dinner will be skipped.

The good news is now I'm back in Nashville, ready to get back on good old Central Time. Now if only I didn't have to get up for boot camp at 5 am tomorrow ...
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Gifts that make today special: Safe, smooth, long flight home; sleeping in my own bed; Demos with the family

Lesson from the Half

The bad thing about Disney half-marathons is that they start at 6am so you have to get up really early. The good thing about Disney half-marathons is that they start at 6am so by the time you're done, you have the whole day ahead of you to recover (if you need it).

The bad thing about Disney half-marathons is that there are a lot of people in front of you. The good thing about Disney half-marathons is that there are a lot of people in front of you to catch up with and pass, to keep you on a good pace.

The bad thing about Disney half-marathons is that there are a lot of people behind you to catch up with you and pass you. The good thing is that there are a lot of people behind you so that you probably won't be the last one in.

So I guess the lesson is that there are usually good and bad things to every situation, if you really think about it hard enough. It sometimes just takes awhile to find the good part.
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Things that make today special: Finishing the half-marathon, lunching with the entire Graves family, ride to hotel by Hertz dude, race bling, walking to In N Out with Steve, Sam, and Lynnette