Tuesday, October 21, 2008

come on baby wreck my fire



A gas fireplace is something of a marvel. It is so much more complex than it appears. At the bottom, there is a layer of fine sand. Then there is a mix of insulation/lint-type stuff with a smattering of what looks like fool's gold. Then there are various shapes and sizes of black lava rock. When it's all put together, it looks very realistic. The lint lights up like hot coals. The fool's gold glitters and shines. When it is all taken apart and strewn all over your living room, it doesn't have the same effect. I would have never known the trouble someone went through to make my fire look so darn great. Thank you, Preslie. Thank you for helping me to not take that for granted again. And thank you Camryn for spending a couple hours with me cleaning it up. Camryn said, "I think this is one of my talents! Picking out tiny rocks. It's like my running talent. Anybody can run, but I can run faster. Anybody can pick up little rocks, but I'm probably the fastest." Let her never hide that one under a bushel.

She is a fast runner. We found that out when we did our Rock Springs Park 5k (our third year!!) this weekend and Camryn stayed by my side the entire time. She was talking and laughing and I was huffing and crying. She took second place in the the 15 and under girls. (I also took silver, but there were few runners in my division.) It is a fun tradition. I can't believe my kids love doing it so much. I have never been an athlete (I'm still not) and I would not have enjoyed a run when I was young, much less paid my own way for the opportunity. Sienna was only a couple minutes behind us. She won a $25 gift certificate to a running store. I'll take that, thank you very much. I have about six weeks until my first (and only ) half-marathon. I am not ready at all and feeling like I shouldn't have ever signed up. I thought at the time,"I have five months to train. I can do it. It'll be a great way to once again tell cancer to stick it." Too bad in September I couldn't run much due to that radiation garbage. I'm still not back to where I was in the beginning of August and I have only ever jogged 7.3 miles. Will I be able to do thirteen by December? Any tips for me? Should I fake an injury? What kind of injury? Should it happen now or should I wait until I am there and have eaten the delicious pasta dinner? What kind of injury would get me out of the race but not out of the massage? There are no books with these kind of answers.

9 comments:

Melanie said...

I love your writing Shelby. I'm sure the second you saw your fireplace strewn all over you thought, "come on baby WRECK my fire." I love that about you. Almost as much as I love "great and OBAMAdable". You are crazy and so much fun. I love you.

Anonymous said...

Okay I have found your injury. You can pay me later. It is sort of specific to "youngsters" but really, define youngster.

Acute and chronic sports-related muscle and tendon injuries are not infrequent in youngsters. In particular, the physis is prone to trauma as it constitutes the weakest part of the immature skeleton. The type of sports activity determines the location of the lesion. Most commonly, apophyses of the hip and pelvis are subject to avulsion. The purpose of this paper is to give a short overview of the pathogenesis, location, prevalence and imaging characteristics of acute and chronic avulsion injuries in the immature skeleton, with special emphasis on tennis-related injuries. Tennis-related injuries particularly involve apophyses of the ischial tuberosity, the anterior inferior or superior iliac spine and the iliac crest.

I think that about sums it up. If anyone asks just tell them that you have apophyses of the hip and pelvis and that right now you are feeling subject to avulsion. They will feel as sorry for you, if not more-so, as they did when they found out you had cancer.

There you have it. What would you do with out me?

shel7by said...

avulsion is THE WORST!! I believe I will make massage arrangements for TWO, miss natalie. See you there?

Anonymous said...

My avulsion has really been acting up. i'll be there for sure.

Anonymous said...

Train with Erin she also is training for a Marathon in April. What a Goal! Good Luck!

Annette M.

Anonymous said...

Once again I'm laughing like an idiot in front of my computer. Thank you Shelby!!

stacia said...

you are so funny... and i'm sure you can do that half-marathon (although who am I to talk, i've never done one)...you can do it! where is it in december?? sounds cold to me.

Jo said...

"Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can't, you are absolutely right!" I can't wait to hear about your great run! Not only will you finish, you won't be last!

Andrea said...

Oh boy - good this Preslie isn't a boy - a boy probably would've spread it out on the family room floor and then lit it. And then if he's like Shane he'll have a hose inside the house ready to put it out. What a great helper Cams was! That's awesome. You can always tell people you're working on your cat walk butt muscles so you are speed walking the second half.