A full mouth of teeth and hot yoga.

So the past week was an interesting one. On Monday, I had my last dental appointment to finish cleaning up the damage after my crash. I got a crown on my #10 tooth. Before two weeks ago, I had no clue what the #10 tooth was or even that I had one. Now I know, it is the canine tooth just to the left of the big teeth in the middle. On my first appointment, my dentist ground the center tooth flat and now it looks good. However, the one next to it was damaged too badly. It was broken well beyond grinding and even beyond bonding. The only savior was to grind it down and put on a crown. Despite not having any dental work until I was in grad school, now I have huge crown. On the bright side, I don’t look like a hill Billy anymore. While it looks great, it feels just different enough to be something to play with my tongue when I get bored.
What I truly appreciate about the offseason is it gives me a chance to do all the things I really want to do while I am training. After a few weeks of normal yoga, we (Charisa, Kin’dra and myself) decided it was time for something new. On wed, I made my first attempt at hot yoga. I know yoga has more specific names but I don’t know enough about them to differentiate. Either Joanna or Charisa found Yoga Tropics in Encinitas and we were off for hot yoga. Unfortunately, I got caught in traffic on the interstate and I was running late. In the chaos, I forgot my towel. Wow this was a huge mistake. After about 5 min, I pulled off my shirt and was sweating like pig. I can’t tell you how hard it is for me to do a balance pose. Now add the difficulty of being supper wet and I really struggling. Fortunately, the instructor found me sitting in a pool of sweat about ¾ of the way through and gave me a towel for my own safety. After an hour, it ended. It is a strange feeling when it’s over. You are dripping wet and feeling gross but at the same time really relaxed and clam later in the evening. We hope to try it again next week for another round of stories.

The Offseason

Last weekend was my final race of the year. The dirt dog cross country championships. More importantly, it was a full 48hrs after I was off antibiotics. I am so thankful I didn’t need any operations to cut the infection out. The only remnants are three bumps/discolorations where the infection was. Fortunately, I found some good scar cream during my jaw incident that really helps. The race went OK. It was hot, my kind of weather, and I felt strong for most of the race. I cooked on the last hill but so did everyone else. That night was a great end of the year BSK party at Charisa’s. They had a pizza and I brought an ice cream cake that had a horrible melting incident. Future note, ice cream melts! It was great to see everyone relaxed and playing rock band.
This week I realized that when I am not training I don’t get to see many of my friends, so I decided to hold a little dinner party at my place. Somehow, we managed to cram 18 people inside my little apartment. Good thing we all like each other. The best part was getting Kate’s confirmation e-mail saying “to keep it simple.” Of course I will keep it simple. A couple different appetizers, a salad, a few lasagnas and two different desserts and oh yeah, keep in mind everyone’s food allergies/preferences, vegetarians, lactose/nut allergies, etc... Let’s just say I don’t do simple and entertaining well. I spent most the day cooking but it was fun. Everyone went home full and I have leftovers for the next week or two.

Halloween Chili

Halloween is such a great holiday. You get an excuse to dress-up, make a fool out of yourself and eat lots of candy. What more of a perfect day could you ask for? This year, my work had a chili cook-off competition and with the help of Avi and Lilly managed to talk 10 coworkers into joining our team. A few of us made a pretty good beef based chili and the rest made posters for the event. The theme was at the movies. We took movie posters and chilized them…For example, “Pirates of the Chilibean” and everyone’s favorite, “Brave Fart.” We all dressed up in some costume, we had a lot of Pirates, some karate users and me as Harry Potter. Unfortunately, we didn’t win anything but we did have a lot of fun. Next year, less spicy chili. Below you will see a great picture of Sharmeen and me playing around our both. Please note the posters in the background.
On a different note, the infection appears to be going away. The antibiotics are finally clearing it from my body and the sores are starting to go down. I am so thankful. Last time I had a Staph infection it was really bad. I guess early warnings are everything.