Month: March 2012

Life #3

My work mom is convinced that I have nine lives.  I’m beginning to believe her.  But what is more remarkable than my abundance of lives, is that I have so many and such quality friends that help me out when I use up one of my lives.

This past weekend six other girls and I took a road trip to St. Charles, IL to visit Ali’s house for the weekend and go into Chicago for St. Patrick’s day festivities.  Anna and myself took our bikes up with us.  We were going to go riding while everyone else went to church on Sunday morning.

We took off at 8:30 on Sunday morning.  The sun was shining, the roads were rolling and windy, smiles were permanently plastered to our faces.  We didn’t even make it three miles before things went wrong.

We were going down a hill to a sharp right hand turn.  The road was dry and free of gravel and we weren’t traveling very quickly.  Anna was in front and as she went around the curve her rear wheel slid out in what is known as a low-side crash.  She separated from her bike (thankfully) and both bike and rider went sliding across the street.

I was right behind Anna and saw her go down so I started breaking.  Then I hit the same spot in the road.  My rear wheel started slipping but then regained traction throwing me over the left side of the bike in what is called a high-side crash.

Anna scrambled to her feet and got out of the road.  I grabbed the bikes and headed over to see how she was.  Immediately cars started stopping to see if we were ok.  One man brought out his super first aid kit to help stop the bleeding on Anna’s face.  She had road rash on both arms, both legs and her face.  I somehow managed to rip my clothes but keep my skin intact.

I called Ali to come and pick us up.  She was there within 5 minutes.  We started the roundabout journey to the ER that involved two Urgent Care clinics before we were told we really needed to be at the hospital.  Anna was admitted immediately, she did look pretty rough.  Thankfully there wasn’t anything broken.  A dislocated shoulder and jaw along with the road rash.  I escaped with just a bunch of bruises.

What’s really amazing (besides the fact that we escaped relatively unscathed) is the way the five other girls jumped into action.  Ali came and picked us up and drove us to the hospital.  She then went back and picked up Angela to go and retrieve our bikes that we had left at a house near the crash.  They then came back to the hospital to bring us clothes to wear so we weren’t stuck in spandex.  They also brought food and water.

Then two of them stayed with Anna while she was bandaged and the others took me home.  I was allowed to shower by myself (thankfully) but Adrienne was knocking at the door as soon as she heard the water go off to make sure that I was OK.  She had a bottle of water in her hand so that I could take some pain medicine immediately.  While we waited for Anna, Ali, and Angela to return Adrienne braided my hair for me while Holly and Jordan made me lunch

Monday Scott, who wasn’t even with us that weekend, drove both Anna and myself to the bike shop so we could have our bikes inspected.  He took care of all the loading and unloading of the bikes since neither of us had two good arms at that point.  He was also appropriately concerned for the well being of our bikes.  After the bikes were fixed he took us to Walgreens so I could get more pain medicine and Anna could get more bandages.  Then he returned us to our apartments getting the bikes inside for us.

That night Adrienne picked me up and we went over to Anna’s apartment where Adrienne cooked dinner for the two of us so that neither of us had to do anything.  She also braided my hair again. Ali and Angela joined us for dinner and everyone made sure that neither Anna or myself ever had to get up.  It was ridiculous.

I told my work mom about all of this when I returned to work on Tuesday.  She just looked at me incredulously.  At the conclusion of my story she said, “You are really lucky you know.  Most people go their whole lives just hoping for one friend that good.  You have a whole posse of them.  It’s unbelievable.  You have really good friends.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

New Friends

I have a great group of friends, I really do.  In recent months it has become more apparent that they are all fast.  More importantly, they are all faster than me.  Allow me to explain.

I ride my bike approximately 100 miles a week.  But when we go on group rides I am always the last one.  When we’re out rock climbing I have to climb the easiest routes and I’m again the slowest.  If we are doing something that involves running, my sprint is pretty much equivalent to everyone else’s power walk.

I’m tired of being last.  So I’m going to do something about it.  No, I’m not going to go to the gym more so that I’ll be stronger and climb better.  I’m not going to ride my bikes by myself so I get faster.  I’m not going to run to get in better shape.  No agility drills to get fast.  Nope.  I’m going to find new friends.

Below I’ve listed a few requirements for those wishing to apply

  • Age 21-27
  • Have at least 2 different bikes and reasons for both of them
  • Prefer wheat beer
  • Have a bedtime of around 10pm
  • Be a good story teller
  • Not like worms

Please submit a letter of intent and a resume listing any pertinent qualifications for being my new friend.  Also a 437 word essay on the benefits of Crest Cool Mint Gel toothpaste.  New friends I look forward to meeting you.

Chicago

This past weekend I went to Chicago to visit one of my best friends.  There also happened to be a few other people from WashU visiting that same weekend.  It was quite the glorious reunion.

Saturday afternoon I got to go and play futsal, indoor soccer on a smaller field with no walls and a slightly weighted ball.  For 2.5 hours I was running around with the guys playing.  And for that being the first time I’ve played soccer in four years, I didn’t do too badly.

My friend and I were the only two girls in the place. It was kinda baller

Saturday night we met up with the other WashUers in Chicago and went out Guthrie’s, a bar that has tons of board games to play.  There ended up being 9 of us and it was really great to get to see everyone.

On Sunday, after my friend participated in the Hustle up the Hancock, we met up for Mass.  There were six of us that all went to Old St. Pat’s for Mass.  Three of them were from the class of ’11, I graduated in ’10, and the other two were from ’08.  We all had different majors and extra curricular activities.  The one thing that we all had in common was the CSC.  It is a pretty wonderful testament to the power of the community that is created there when a group of six young women meet up in a city and make it a priority to attend Mass with each other.  I couldn’t be more grateful to the CSC for the friendships that it has given me.

Naturally after Mass we all went out to brunch.

It was a wonderful weekend full of good friends, good food, and good conversations.  Not sure I could ask for more.