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My Therapy After Therapy

As those of you who have been reading my blog know, I have been going to physical therapy for the tear in one of my peroneal tendon for about six weeks now. This has been a new experience for me. My only impressions of physical therapy up to this point were based off movies. You know exactly the type of movie I’m talking about. Yes, the one where the guy is hurt in the car accident and is told he is never going to walk again and then through some dramatic physical therapy rehabilitation work he somehow miraculously regains use of his legs.

Now, after having actually done physical therapy myself, I can say it’s not quite as entertaining as it may seem in the movies. In fact, most of the therapy work just makes you feel like an idiot. Yes, all of you who have done physical therapy before are nodding your heads right now in agreement. But for those of you who have not had the physical therapy experience, let me enlighten you.

Physical therapy is meant to strengthen and remobilize your injured area-wherever that may be. In my case, this area is of course my ankle. So, for roughly an hour per session I have to do awkward ankle exercises and stretches while the physical therapists observes. Doesn’t sound too bad to you? Then you really aren’t imagining it correctly. Do you remember those days in junior high gym class where they combined the girls and boys classes and you all did aerobics together? Well, back then, all the boys made complete fools of themselves. Yes boys, you know it’s true. Your clumsy representation of “the running man” was definitely laughable and the fact that you couldn’t even get jumping jacks right was pretty pathetic. Of course, I was much too nice to make fun of all of you back then-so let me do so now. You looked pretty moronic.

A Wobble Board, an instrument of humiliation
A Wobble Board, an instrument of humiliation

Physical therapy is much like those pitiable gym classes, only the teacher is concentrating just on you and all your idiotic moves. There are no other morons to distract them. And to top it off, you are working on the weakest and most uncoordinated part of your body so you make a mess out of simplest of movements. Needless to say, throughout physical therapy you know you look completely ridiculous.

Despite the embarrassment, physical therapy seems to be helping my ankle. I will have to do it for one more month before a definite decision is made by my doctor on the next course of action. Surgery is now looming in my future so I will happily swallow my pride and do my silly looking exercises in hopes that they will decrease my chances of getting sliced open.

On the upside, the physical therapist I have been going to has been very nice, helpful, and great to work with-much nicer than any gym teacher I ever had. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a chance to publicly humiliate themselves through therapy.

Rachel April 10, 2008 4 Comments

Boardgameous dorkus maximus

There is a strange and unique species of geek, a relative of Videogameous dorkus nocturnous, which thrives on a specific activity-playing board games. This species is known as Boardgameous dorkus maximus.

Although they are in the same geek family, there are several differences between Videogameous and Boardgameous. Unlike its cousin, Boardgameous actually enjoys being in the presence of real human beings and having genuine social interaction. To the non-geek, the type of socializing that occurs at board gaming events might seem strange and perhaps undesirable, but it is still interaction between actual living beings, and is therefore less geeky than the atmosphere Videogameous dwells in, which is devoid of any human contact.

Now, if when I mention board games, you are envisioning the likes of Monopoly, Clue, Cranium, Battleship, Sorry, or Life- you are grossly underestimating the caliber of geek I am referring to. Boardgameous would never be satisfied playing such games, they are for lesser beings. Instead, Boardgameous enjoys games such as: Arkham Horror, War of the Ring, Descent, Robo Rally, Puerto Rico-games that all you non-game geeks have probably never heard of. If these games are unfamiliar to you, rejoice, for you are less geeky than me and there is still hope for you.

Jas, Simone, and Andrew geek it up playing Yspahan
Jas, Simone, and Andrew geek it up playing Yspahan

These geeky games are much more complex than your standard board game. In fact, some of their rule books are about the same length as Crime and Punishment and take an equivalent time to read. And if reading the rules for a game doesn’t take you a decade, playing the game certainly will. The playing of some of these games is an all day event.

I must admit, that while I am not really into the extreme hard core geek games, such as Arkham Horror or Descent, I do quite enjoy geek gaming. Nearly every Saturday night for over a year now Jason and I could be found at the Rowley’s playing some geek board game. Now that the Rowley’s have moved to New Jersey we will have to relocate our game night, but the tradition will continue.

Speaking of the Rowley’s-no discussion about board game geeks is complete without mentioning Jeremy Rowley. He is a perfect example of a special sub-species of Boardgameous. This subspecies is practically unable to function unless given a regular infusion of board games. I am happy to say, that while I am geekier than I would like to admit, I am not THAT geeky. (Halleluiah!)

So there you have it, my confession. Although I am much less obsessed than Jeremy Rowley, I am a board game geek, and I have no intention of reforming.

Rachel April 6, 2008 9 Comments

Mountains of Mashed Potatoes

On Thursday Jason, Jeremy Sabin, Aaron Blakely, and I went snowboarding at Sundance Resort. Novell had arranged for their employees to get super cheap lift tickets so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity even though we weren’t sure how good the snow would be this late in the season.

I also really wanted to go one more time before the season was over to improve my toe carving and cement it in a little more so next season I wouldn’t feel like I was starting all over again. I even got my physical therapist to approve this outing. After five weeks of therapy he thought boarding would be a good test to see how much my ankle had improved.

When we first got to Sundance we rode the Arrowhead lift all the way to the top. This proved to be a less than wonderful idea. The snow at the top, due to melting and refreezing, was basically like a solid sheet of ice. It was extremely difficult for me, a boarding novice, to control my board well. Even the boys had some spills due to the hard surface. You only had to fall once to realize just how compact that snow was. It was like falling on concrete; the bruises on my knees attest to the fact.

After one trip down we decided that we needed to come up with a new plan to avoid having to do anymore ice boarding. We opted to eat an early lunch at the Bearclaw cabin at the top and then ride down to the lower regions. Our hope was that by the time we finished our lunch the snow would have warmed up and become a little slushier and that down in the lower areas of the mountain it would be slushier still. This plan worked splendidly. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch and the snow the rest of the day was slushy and soft.

Sundance
Sundance

In the nice slushy snow, referred to as “mashed potatoes” by Aaron, I practiced my toe carving. I am absolutely thrilled to report that I got the hang of it. I could still use some more practice to become a little more graceful, but I was actually doing real toe carving! This may not seem like much of a feat but it has been many years in the making and for me it is a major accomplishment. I have to say that boarding is a much different experience when you are able to carve and link carves. I’ve always enjoyed this sport but it is so much more fun now! Wow! What a difference!

The boys already have my boarding plan mapped out for me. Toe carving was first-next is supersonic speed, and then wicked mad tricks.

Thanks boys for cheering me on Thursday! Maybe someday I’ll actually be able to keep up with you…maybe.

Also as a side note-for any of you considering going boarding or skiing one more time this year-there is still plenty of snow. We only noticed a couple patches where the ground was exposed, so if you hurry you can get one more time in. I’m actually very tempted to try to go one more time in the next few weeks-but I’m not sure I’ll be able to pull it off.

Rachel March 30, 2008 5 Comments
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