The Boys in the Boat

Pssst.  Hey, you!  Yeah, I'm talking to you.  Go read this book - it's wonderful and I highly recommend it to all people, rowers and non-rowers alike.

Veni, vidi, ...um, what's the Latin word for "I vomited"?

Hello, Duluth Internet!  

This weekend I went up nort' to race.  

***Disclaimer: this report is kind of gross if you don't like vomit and such.  Do not continue reading if you dislike that sort of thing.***

...

Since you're still reading, Internet, I will consider you to have asked for it.  

...

So.  This weekend we all went up to Duluth to race some boats.  I was expecting 70s and rain for weather.  Instead, we got 90s, humidity, and sun.  Oh, meteorologists.  And seriously, oh, the baking sun.  I do not like humidity & heat, much less racing in those sauna-like conditions.  But out we went.  

Looks can be deceiving: doesn't it look pleasant?  This was the 4+ race my teammates did without me because I was going to race the 1x.  Silly me.  Or maybe smart them.  

First up for me: the single (or 1x, if you want to learn the lingo before the 'lympics).  This is me in the 1x before the race:

I am still all smiley here and have no idea that in a few short moments I will be vomiting during my race...well, maybe I had a little bit of premonition: it was hot, and I was nervous.

You might think that it would not be possible to be too hot and yet not warmed up at the same time, but trust me, Internet, it is most definitely possible.  Because of a variety of factors, such as the burning-hot heat, not being warmed up, nerves, over-tiredness, and possibly drinking too much coffee too close to a race, I have now cemented my reputation as a single's puker, because I have only ever thrown up whilst exercising three times in my life, and all of them involved rowing a 1x (or this one time, an erg), all of them involved humidity and heat, and all of them involved being overtired.  Puke-ahontas.  That's what I am.  (Or since it haunts me, maybe it's Puke-a-haunt-us?  Whatevs.)  

So let's just say the first 500 meters of that 2,000 meter race were not all that fun.  But I did not stop rowing, not ever, no matter what, not during or after the incident.  That's also the trademark of the Pukahontas.  Don't stop.  I mean, I had to get back somehow, right?  And I wanted to get there fast.  It's not like I was going to find some cool relief on the water, so I might as well get off the water as soon as possible.  So after that little distraction, I started to feel much better, and I found a nice rhythm and carried on.  Unfortunately, I'd already lost a lot of ground (er, water), so I only finished fifth out of seven, but I was fine with that.  (Even if I hadn't thrown up, I'm pretty sure that's where I would've finished anyway, just not with so much open water between me and places 1 through 4.)  Also, it was so freaking hot, that the coffee vomit I'd tossed onto my racing jersey had dried by about 1500 meters, I kid you not.  And then when I got off the water, my teammates and coach wanted to know if a bird had pooped on me.  Um, no.  

Final meters of the race.  I look tired and slouchy even in the first race of the day.  I then proceeded to do this three. more. times.  (The racing, not the puking.)  

So after I got off the water and washed my racing jersey out with a hose that sprayed delightfully cool water, and then put the wet jersey back on, I felt much better.  Next up: the 8+.  That actually went quite well, all things considered.  I did not toss any more cookies (or any other food stuffs or liquid, for that matter) for the rest of the day.  I'm proud of the girls, and we came in second in that race.  It's not quite where we want to be, but we were okay with our progress and will work hard to get better before our championship regatta next month.  

After that, I was toast.  Literally baking, my legs felt like marshmallows.  You go out on the water, and with no breeze, you just bake to death.  Then you race a 2k and pray you make it to the end, and then you just can't wait to get off the water and find a tree to die under.  Then you sit in a tree-shaded camp chair in a stupor for a li'l while, and pray that you will just be put out of your misery.  You wonder how you're going to do that again two more times.  

So.  What did I do then, you ask?  I drank about a gallon of gatorade, another gallon of water, and then ate a bit.  And then of course I went out in a 4x and did another 2K.  The third one was awful.  I had marshmallow legs that didn't like me, and that was very unhelpful in trying to get a boat to move down the course faster.  My apologies to the girls, let's move on.  

Next up: the 2x.  My doubles partner and I were basically done for the day and decided to kinda-sorta mail it in.  We were both tired and cranky (at least I was cranky), even though her mom was especially kind and brought more water & drinks for the team, and that was awesome.  (But then her mom also wouldn't let me eat any cookies before the last race, either, even though I hadn't thrown up in, like, six hours at that point.)  

We were only moving slightly less slowly in this picture than in our 2x race.  After consuming so much liquid throughout the day, I'm pretty sure we ran to the bathroom faster than we raced that 2x.

The wind had shifted between our third and fourth races, so thankfully God had given us a tail wind and was pushing our sorry bodies down the course.  This was very good since we were both tired and really didn't want to work that hard.  We weren't doing that great in the first 1,000 meters, but then we settled in at a really low, steady state rating (kind of out for a nice little paddle...with a bit of pressure), and somehow our legs made a miraculous comeback, and astonishingly we took second.  Since we lost to a crew that had a college girl who rows for a big east coast school, we were quite happy with second.  

After that, we all went and jumped in Lake Superior, which was blissfully cool for about 20 seconds, and then seemed rather warm.  Even so, my legs felt much less marshmallow-y after that, for which I am still grateful more than a day later.  Our only regret is that we didn't jump in the lake between each race!  Duh.  

And then the eating commenced.  As you know, Internet, I love to eat.  It makes me sad to be unable to eat (or worse, have what I've eaten decide not to settle in and stay a while).  So dinner was a delight, followed shortly by a DQ strawberry blizzard, and a late-night snack when I finally got home.  

All in all, it was fun now that I'm no longer sweating to death and being beaten into submission by the sun and humidity.  I have some weird spots on my left leg, either the result of poorly applied spray sunscreen, or bug bites.  I am sore in some weird places.  But other than that, good times.  (Air conditioning today is like brain washing: so soon, I am quickly forgetting the agony.)  

I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures of the weekend, taken by my teammate Alisa: the men's 8+ won, so they got to throw their coxswain in the lake in celebration.  (I'm almost glad to have not won.  I'm not sure if we would have had the energy to haul our coxswain to the water.)  To the non-rower, it looks like she's planking.  To the rower, you can clearly see the "up and overhead" call (as if she's a boat they're about to put in the water).  

xoxo, 

Minny "Pukahontas" LinnEy

Don't worry: I'm not superstitious.

Internet,

Today is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Today is also the day that my boat club decided to hold its annual meeting.

Now, usually I would be all in favor of forgetting tax day to think about something pleasant like rowing, but this year tax day isn't until the 17th. And instead, it's a significant anniversary of a large boat sinking.

Coincidence? Probably. A sign of things to come this year at the boathouse? I sincerely hope not.

(Although seriously: we've been on the water for almost a month now.  It's so warm, it would take a miracle to have a literal iceberg in the water.  And since the chances of work/session interfering this summer - like last summer - are slim, I don't foresee too many figurative icebergs interfering with my season this year, either.  Except laziness.  That figurative iceberg is always out there.)  

Happy rowing!

~Minny LinnEy

2011 HotMiss

Internet,

I am not referring to hot cocoa when I say "HotMiss." I'm referring to the Head of the Mississippi, and rather than cold and/or rainy and/or windy as it has frequently been in past years, today was perfect: calm water (only a hint of a tailwind on the course), mid-70s for high temps this afternoon, sun. Gorgeous. And no need for hot cocoa at all.

4+ Boatmates before our race this morning: AR, KK, KG and SW

Anyway, I rowed my last officially sanctioned race of the season today at the HotMiss. Anything else from here on out is for funsies. I rowed only one race at the regatta today, and it was a doozy: a 4+ in the open women's category, and it was extremely fun. Here's why:

1. We had an amazing coxswain (the one who sat in the bow, steered a rock solid course, talked us through the race, and got us to give our best as a boat together). Without this first one, I don't think the other reasons listed below would've been as good (or seriously, they might not even have happened without KK, our awesome coxswain).

2. We were set (balanced, for you non-rowing types who are actually reading this).

3. We had run (the boat was moving more forward than not). The goal was to "pass our puddles" (get a boat length of distance out of each set of strokes), and we were doing that.

4. We were racing at a 26 (26 strokes per minute - that's kinda slow in some people's minds)!!! But we had such good rhythm, were so solid and strong, and were making up so much ground on other boats in our race at that rating, we stayed there.

5. And we won our event by over one minute.

(Our prize = a hat)

But most importantly:

6. We had fun. The whole point of this race (at least for me) was to go out on the water and have a good time. And we did that. It was such a great feeling to really row well with teammates who've been through the thick and the thin all summer with me, and come out on top together - and I think I can safely say that all of us in our 4+ had a blast.

JK and SW enjoying some sun after our race.

This is the other KK (not in our boat, unfortunately), and after her two races, she kept laying down everywhere we went. The ground, the back seat of my car, everywhere.

(That almost looks like a cane next to her hand. It's not. It's a bike handle.)

The day wasn't completely without event. Teammate MH hurt her shoulder and needed some TLC. In these pictures she's a) trying to stay warm with all of that ice in her hand and saran-wrapped to her shoulder under that shirt; and b) testing out Halloween costumes (hunchback of Notre Dame?). I hope MH is back to normal soon.

So, that is it, Internet. A great day.

(Only now I have to go to orchestra rehearsal tonight. Wish me luck!)

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

A Day in the Life

Internet,

Sometimes, at the end of the day, I wonder what I've done all day long. Many times I don't think I've done much. Sometimes I can't remember at all. So to help myself with my old-aged-ness, I've decided to track one of my days. For example, yesterday.

7:29a Drag myself out of bed. (In an unusual twist this year - in contrast to the last four or five years - I will no longer be rowing in the mornings the last two months of the season, thereby allowing myself extra sleep. One would think extra sleep would mean I just jump out of bed, ready to take on the world. One would be wrong. It seems to be harder to drag myself out of bed after an extra two or three hours of sleep than if I drag myself out of bed before 5am when I'm not really awake enough to realize what I'm doing and how agonizing early mornings are.)

8:29a Leave for work. (Wonder who on earth all of these people are still on the freeway - they are all obviously late for work. Don't they know it starts at 8am? If they were on time, they wouldn't be in my way.)

8:39a Arrive at work, only nine minutes late (unlike those other people, who should've been at work by 8 o'clock, allowing me to arrive only seven minutes late instead of nine). (I'm on flex time through the end of October. I don't know how I'm going to get to work 39 minutes earlier on November 1st. See 7:29a above.)

8:39a Find only 1/4 cup of coffee left in the pot at work. Make more. (Wonder if it's worth getting up earlier in the morning to make it to work in time to not be the last person getting coffee each day. Quickly determine there's a whole fresh pot in front of me, and no longer care.)

8:41a Boot up computer, check email. Think about meeting I must attend that morning, and wonder how much prep I have to do for it. (Wonder, like every other time I've dealt with the meeting's subject, if orange is the correct color highlighter for the project. The subject is a criminal one, so I'm thinking orange = corrections = correct color. (At least, this is what the TV machine has told me: all people in prison either wear orange or black/white stripes. I don't think they make black/white striped highlighters.) Then I end up using a pink highlighter accidentally, and then wonder who even thinks about that kind of thing? and if I really am that OCD.)

8:41-10:25a I must have done something during this time, but one day later, I can no longer remember what that is. I'm pretty sure it involved pink highlighters, because I showed up at the meeting with pink highlighted documents instead of orange, even though orange = corrections = correct color highlighter.

10:30a Attend meeting. Discuss a subject that I now discuss every. single. day. with some of the same people. Feel extremely bureaucratic as we discuss how to properly discuss said subject. Discuss how to plan meetings to discuss said subject with other people who must be brought into the discussion. Discuss whether we can actually get said subject into shape and if it's feasible to get a working product done by...well, done by sometime. Sooner rather than later, I guess. Throw out dates and ideas and such.

11:48a Talk to a co-worker about another issue that came up this week. Decide to research and discuss that one more thoroughly tomorrow.

11:50a Eat lunch. (This is late for me. Usually lunch is at 11. 11:30 at the latest. This allows for maximizing the time for a proper two-lunch approach: one at 11, another at 2, and arrive home just in time for dinner. My day has been totally shot as I realize I never ate breakfast, and now lunch is late. Figure I probably am kind of OCD.)

11:55a Realize that you can, indeed, make grapes taste way better (and I already like the taste of grapes) by liberally coating them in a cool whip/sour cream/brown sugar mixture.

12:22p Contemplate the morning's criminal subject. Feel slightly overwhelmed.

12:23p Wish that orange highlighter policy subject wasn't in my research area.

12:24p Work some more on that. (The subject itself. I don't think I can get rid of the subject being in my research area.)

2:00(ish)p Take a break from all that contemplation and orange v. pink highlighter business. Eat a Snickers because that lunchtime "dessert" (grapes smothered in cool whip/sour cream/brown sugar combo) really can count as a "salad." 'Cause that's how we Minnesotans roll. (Some of us literally.)

2:20p Consult with co-worker. Encourage her to go home for a) her health, b) her sanity (are they not the same thing?), and c) our own health and sanity. (She does not go home...but I must confess, her not going home really doesn't affect my own sanity, really.)

3:12p Consult with co-worker. Encourage her to go home (again). (She eventually does.)

3:37p Computer crashes. (This is an almost daily occurrence, and it's generally at approximately the same time of day...I should probably call our IT dept, but don't, because then they would force me to upgrade to a new operating system that I was supposed to have converted to last fall, only have somehow managed to escape that up 'til now. It has almost become a game: how long can I get away with operating the old system before they catch up to me? Please don't tell on me, Internet.)

3:43p I've learned how to reboot quickly, and am back online.

4:29p Realize everyone else is going home now, and I can probably leave, too. Except I was 9 minutes late, and I'm not quite done with the work I had in progress (trying to find the end of the internet), so I stay a few extra minutes.

4:40p Wonder if I will ever get to leave the parking lot because the road construction in the area is causing traffic jams all up in my exit strategy.

4:48p Ponder why the guy in front of me is not going the speed limit when there are no obstructions or cars in front of him.

4:49p Am going slowly enough to stare with awe at the beautiful maple trees and their (turning) red leaves. It's definitely fall.

4:52p Stop for gas. (Think to myself, "Wow! $3.49 a gallon is a bargain! Yesterday it was $3.54..." and realize how sad that sounds. In pretty much every context.)

4:59p Arrive home.

5:02p Consider practicing my violin. Realize that my thumb still hurts from hitting it while docking during rowing practice on Monday night. Properly use readily available excuse to not practice. Figure maybe I can stretch that excuse out the rest of the week.

5:03p Watch an episode of the Simpsons. (Which I then used this morning at work. Sadly. Or not so sadly. Using Flanders-isms causes others to use them, too, which can be quite entertaining.)

5:30p Eat "dinner." ("Dinner" because it was just chips and salsa, and some ice cream. I don't know if that counts as "dinner.")

6:02p Brush teeth.

6:05p Realize I can stop wandering around in the kitchen and living room with the toothbrush still in my mouth. Stop brushing teeth; rinse. (Rinse in the bathroom, not the kitchen. Or living room.)

6:07p Gather stuff, leave for Bible study.

6:12p Realize there is really no traffic to be found.

6:31p Arrive at church for Bible study 14 minutes early. This so rarely happens, I don't know what to do with the extra 14 minutes. Send some text messages to people. (And then it dawns on me that if they text me back, my phone will vibrate throughout the entire Bible study, which is true, and it does. And I very properly and good-manner-ly-like ignore all of them...and just now realize a day later that I never really read or responded to any of them.)

6:45p Start new Bible study for the fall. Meet some nice people, eat some good cookies and pineapple (oooh, I wonder if you could make pineapple cookies?!), and drink tea (herbal, of course; it's after 5p, and I'm an old lady now).

8:56p Leave study, head for home.

8:59p Get stuck in traffic. Traffic is worse going home. Road construction. Apparently MnDOT has just changed the traffic pattern on the freeway, because everyone is slamming on their brakes, trying to merge, and traffic cones are flying everywhere.

9:09p Call my mom to talk. Talk talk talk. Dad wants to talk to me also. Talk talk talk. Good talk. Hang up.

9:27p Having arrived home, I wander around, wonder if I can eat "dinner" again. Decide that yes, this is an excellent idea because - as mentioned above - I never ate breakfast, I didn't eat a second lunch, and technically dinner was more like a snack with some dessert. Heat and eat some fake garlic bread. (This probably still doesn't count as "dinner," either, but whatever.)

10:02p Consider going to bed. Realize I don't have to wake up at 4:45am the next day (see 7:29a above), discover that I'm not totally wiped out because I slept in that morning (7:29a), and opt to look over new Bible study and lesson for next week instead.

10:09p Decide to listen to some music during study.

10:33p Hit replay on song "Call It What You Want," and realize my favorite line is "Who cares?" Indeed. Who does care?

10:57p Phone rings. Most people do not call me at this hour. Wonder who it is. It is Attorney O'Dell, calling me from California. Haven't talked to Atty O'Dell in a long, long, long time. He asks me if it's midnight where I am (it is not), and after congratulating him on his recent nuptials, we chat for a while. I sadly let him know that I only just received an announcement and summons related to the wedding (in true fashion, mail sent to my work moves very, very slowly through the bowels of the system...), and won't be visiting California in the super near future to meet his bride. Continue chatting. Think maybe I should visit California again sometime soon (but probably not next weekend).

11:10p End chat. Put things away so as to find bed. Brush teeth again. Realize it's probably not even going to be in the 40s tonight, so open window wider (perfect sleeping weather, those 50s!).

11:21p Pick up book. Reading Hugh Laurie's novel. (So far at 30 pages into it, I can't figure out if I should hear his Bertie Wooster voice in my head or his Gregory House voice whilst I read the narration. All I know is that the language in the book - but probably not the storyline itself - is more mature than either BBC or Fox audiences could handle.)

11:49p Turn out light. Instantly fall asleep.

My sport is going mainstream.

Advertising. Complete with guinea pigs.

iRow, iRide, iHurt: Version 2.0

Dear Internet,

It's been a busy September thus far - back to the whole "I-don't-want-summer-to-end" thing. The weather has been beautiful - sunny, gorgeous. I've been out and about attempting to enjoy as much of it as possible.

For example:

My dad and I went to a baseball game. I shan't talk about the score (talk about painful!). But I shall say "Hi, Dad!" and mention that it was fun to take him to his first game at Target Field as a belated Father's Day present.

I went to two games in a week and a half, and the lineups were almost completely different both times - but, similarly, they both contained people I'd never heard of. Oh, end of season woes.

Then this past weekend, I did something I said last year I'd never. do. again. Do I listen to myself? Apparently not. Anyway, the Pike Island Challenge was a good time - 13 miles with 3 delightful friends, all in 90 minutes. There was bacon at the end of it, so you know I was rowing a little harder to get to it before everyone else. Highlight of the day: when one of our teammates decided to turn the challenge into a biathlon, and swam over the finish line with his boat in tow.

Then on Sunday, on to the St. Paul Classic. It started out in a, uh, ahem, rather entertaining way. I - quite dumbly - wasn't really awake in the morning, and right outside my friend S's house, I clipped in, leaned too far over, and fell over. While at a complete standstill. So my first visit after pedaling a mile or so to the start was hitting up the first aid tent to get a bandage before I registered.

Entertaining facts: they only provided the nurse one large band-aid, but since I was the first person to visit her, I got it! And yet she told me that every year, she runs out of all of the sizes of band-aids...BEFORE the tour even starts! This year, with 7,000 registrants, I can see how that would happen.

D'oh! Here is the part that I can show you - after I got back home and scrubbed out excess gravel and skin, and once the bleeding had stopped (other parts involve bruising and some more road rash in unmentionable places, i.e., the entire right side of my body, apparently):

Here are the two lovely ladies I tried to keep up with for the last 10 miles or so: A & S. Unfortunately, one of our quad had to bow out with a back injury (we missed you, K!), but I ran into all sorts of rowers, fellow orchestra musicians, fellow government peons. It was great good fun.

We did the same 39 miles as last year, but this year, Internet, we stopped at more of the tour's rest stops to enjoy delightful music and treats. Oh, the brownies with chocolate frosting that I missed last year at the Lilydale stop - how could I have gone by those in 2010 with nary a thought to their deliciousness?! Well, I know they're there now, so I'll make it a point to stop next year. (Yes, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll probably be dumb every year, and will continue to do these two events for quite some time to come...never mind how much my rear end hurts by mile 10 of each event...)

And finally, I have decided that since I'm on Twitter a bit more often lately, I am now feeding it onto this blog so people will know I'm not dead. (Yet. I haven't biked or rowed in a few days, so that probably helps my chances of not keeling over from tiredness.) It is unlocked, and the people may rejoice and read it if they so desire.

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

Five Minutes of Your Life You'll Never Get Back

Internet,

I started rowing on real water again last week. I have had very bad blisters. Day one: two blood blisters. Day two: those went away (the blood, not the blisters; I'll leave that to your imagination, although if you really wanted, I do have a picture I could provide as proof). Day three: took Wednesday off of practice to let my hands heal, only to go back on Day four: and end up worse than ever. Thank goodness for New Skin and bandages, 'cause otherwise it could've been really awkward shaking those people's hands at work the last two weeks. They're all fine now, and good to go.

Speaking of work...for three weeks in a row, I have thought that it was Wednesday on a Thursday, which was really my Friday (because, Yay! Fridays off with flex schedule during the summer...except today, when I got called back in to the office, so yeah, not so much the "Yay! Friday!" today). And in other work-related news, I may get to go on "vacation" in July. No one's really sure yet, so I just keep working and going about my normal business and shaking people's hands with my awkwardly bandaged phalanges.

In other awkward news, you know what's really good for dinner? Doritos and cottage cheese. I ate it three nights in a row last week. It would've been four nights in a row, but I polished off all the Doritos and cottage cheese in the first three nights.

As for other news, I went to Rock the Garden last weekend. More on that (including pictures!) later.

And finally, I am visiting my tween years. In some ways I kind of feel like I skipped straight from being a grubby youth to a miniature adult who wore suits. Although let's face it: I was never really "miniature." Anyway, to rectify those potential lost years, I've discovered this. And now I feel like the tween I probably never was (and never really will be - now I'm just an old person experimenting with those young people's fads).

And now that I have wasted five minutes of your life you'll never get back...

Have a great weekend, Internet.

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

p.s. Happy 3rd Birthday to the cutest niece ever.

Calling Noah: we need an ark

Internet,

Because my boat club currently looks like this...

...we've all abandoned ship, and are finding alternate workout options (and also watching the flood waters rise here).

Me? I re-discovered my building's workout facility on Saturday. And then I re-discovered that awful contraption called a "treadmill." Internet, I doubt I've been on a treadmill in years. Maybe even closer to a decade. It's painful and gross. But after surviving a couple miles, at least my ankle didn't hurt (haven't really run since that ol' injury), and I didn't freeze my lungs (we're still in the grip of winter around here; thus, the indoor treadmill part), nor did I slip on any ice (see the "we're still in the grip of winter around here" thing above). Give me back the erging, I tell you! It's far preferable to this running thing.

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

I can't even remember what month it is any more.

Dear Internet,

I ate a carton of yogurt this morning that had expired on February 17th. I thought to myself, "Hmm, it's only a couple days old, so I'll be fine." It tasted fine. And then I realized it's March now and maybe I should go through the contents of my fridge a little more closely.

If I end up sick in the middle of the night, though, Internet, we'll know what to blame...'cause if I end up sick, it couldn't *POSSIBLY* be because I ate an entire box of Girl Scouts. Er, Girl Scout Cookies (made with Real Girl Scouts!). See, Internet, I know any potential sickness couldn't *possibly* be caused by a box of cookies, because last week I ate an entire box of Dulce de Leche cookies (made with real caramel!) (and Girl Scouts!) in one day, and that didn't make me sick. So how could the Thin Mints or Samoas do that, either? (They won't. I'm sure of it. Otherwise, I'll take mine back to the cute little Girl Scouts and say they broke their Guaranteed Satisfied promise.) (I just looked. Their boxes don't have a Guaranteed Satisfaction promise. What a con.)

In other news, Internet, that I am going to somehow make relate to the above...I went to True Thai for dinner on Saturday night with friend K. I inhaled a grain of rice, and ever since then, my lungs have been trying to cough it out. And then this morning I did a 20mn erg test at the club, and now I'm coughing even more. If I cough enough, I might gag, and maybe THAT'S what I can blame any potential sickness in the next 24 hours on. (I ate the leftovers for lunch today, and besides being deliciously spicy, I did almost inhale another grain of rice...and now I'm kind of disappointed my lungs aren't a matched set - each complete with one grain of rice inside!)

And in even other news, upon which I will force a link to any potential sickness...I'm kinda stressed out at work right now. On Friday night, I got all dizzy and headache-y and went to bed early, Internet (and by early, I mean early - I already try to go to bed at 9:30 most nights these days, so we're talking before that). On Saturday morning, I fell down some stairs when I seemed to forget that I was walking down them and simply forgot what I was doing on the last few. Any potential sickness in the next 24 hours is merely a delayed reaction to one or all of those things, I'm sure (never mind I was fine yesterday...but I am back at work today, and that's definitely a cause of many bad things, Guaranteed).

And now in other news that will make many people ill, I finished the latest Vince Flynn novel over the weekend. Well, Internet, it's not the finished-the-book part that will make most people ill. (Actually, the book is awesome, and I'm glad I finished it.) No, the part that might make other people ill (and it kinda turned my stomach, too) was the part in the novel where Stan Hurley takes a bite out of his captor's ear and proceeds to chew it like a potato chip (Vince's charming imagery, not mine). See? Now everyone else can be sick with me as we think about that lovely little visual (and audio, 'cause I'm sure there would be sounds with that). And now to make others sick, I don't even have to share my boxes of Tagalongs or Trefoils with anyone.

xoxo,

Minny LinnEy

Snowy Saturday

This was my Saturday:

2010 Head of the Hyndman

(complete with an actual Hyndman!)

(Shoveling snow with his sculling blades!)

Giving the boat a "snow bath" before putting her away for the winter

Taking out the dock for the year in, well,

let's call them "less than ideal" conditions

HOCR: I survived

Pictures of my boat at the regatta last weekend are out. You can check us out here. And here (pics #111-113). And here. And if you're really interested, you can find a few seconds of video of us here (select race 16, entry 36).

Boston was good. A little windy, but otherwise good weather. We had a fun race that felt good, and we're happy with how our boat competed. I'm definitely interested in doing the Head of the Charles again.

J & A visited us after Friday practice

A, getting some peanut butter on before our race on Saturday

K & me, watching friends go by during Sunday's racing

The U of M going by

This is your life: 2010 HOCR

Dear Internet,

A few short days from now (in fact, almost exactly 72 hours from now), it's likely I will feel like dying. (I probably won't actually die - I'm just going to want to die.) Here's why: I will be rowing in Boston at the Head of the Charles regatta. It will be 3 miles of agonizing fun. I will be out there with teammates A, K, J and Coxswain K. We will have a great time racing (aka "dying") together.

Here's an idea of what we're going to go through (though we will be in a four and not an eight like you see here), courtesy of the 2008 Upper Valley Rowing coxswain cam:

(Yes, it really takes three YouTube videos to adequately show you the length of time it takes to get through this race.)

I doubt Coxie K will be shouting at us quite the same way this coxswain did his crew (and thank goodness for that! I don't think I could handle "Pushhhh-a" or "oooommpppp-aaa" - or whatever he's saying half the time - for miles on end). But this is basically it.

Wish us Godspeed! Go St. Paul!

Fall Fun

Dear Internet,

I've had an interesting couple weeks.

-I had to have my work computer re-imaged twice in three weeks. This gets old very quickly.

-People say that we are having the most beautiful fall in recent memory here in Minnesota. I'd agree with them, but I haven't been around too much the last few autumns, so I can neither confirm nor deny. But I agree it's awfully pretty. I regret that I have taken no pictures of any pretty leaves.

-As I walk through the streets of the suburbs (and will continue to walk through the streets of Minnesota for another 19 days), I have decided I can no longer wear flip flops - despite our beautifully sunny & warm weather - because crunching leaves with my toes is mildly disturbing to me.

-I'm in a new Bible study. This year it's not Precepts, but Beth Moore. It's taken me a while to get used to the completely different style, but I'm enjoying it thus far. One of the interesting things I've thought about recently is from Isaiah 48:18 - it talks about having peace like a river. Whenever I think of the old hymn "It Is Well With My Soul," I always think that peace is gentle and calm. But you know something? Our stretch of river has flooded twice this year - in the spring, and again now (it still hasn't come down to normal levels yet). This tells me that rivers are powerful and can be overflowing and all-consuming and passionate. (I have pictures of the fall flooding somewhere, but in all the computer melee, I'd have to dig pretty hard to come up with them...and by pretty hard, I mean it would take me more than 30 seconds.)

As Beth Moore says, "God's Word doesn't say we'll have peace like a pond. Some imagine peaceful people as boring and a breath from death. We think we'd rather forego peace and have an exciting life...few bodies of water are more exciting than rivers! When was the last time you saw white-water rapids?" I want that kind of peace. Peace that isn't boring and is all-consuming.

-I'm going to Boston next weekend to row (and also see cousin M with whom I traversed New England last year). So excited!

(Also, I'm very excited to be done with this season of racing. It's been a long one. If I go out on the water after that, it'll be just for fun.) Not so exciting? The fact that our dear Mississippi River is still flooding, and any time we go out there, it's like rowing in an endless pool.

Breaking News: This just in...

...my life is too busy. A sampling of events from the weekend:

Friday night

-Row

-Watch coach M never miss a beat during practice on the Mpls stretch of river whilst she apprehended a person wanted by the police

-Visit friend A in hospital

-Eat dinner at True Thai

Saturday

-Go to a Twins game (they won! yay! my record of only attending games they win is unbroken)

-Wander around Macy's looking for a bridal shower gift; end up under tables in the china department digging around for elusive color "graphite"

-Attend bridal shower; give bride-to-be E a card that says "graphite" is being shipped to her

Sunday

-Row a couple races at the Head of the Mississippi

-Yawn through orchestra rehearsal last night (and also played a few notes here and there in between tiredness)

Pictures at 11. (Or possibly whenever I have time to get around to them.)

HOTDM: version 2010

Internet, I waded down to Iowa over the weekend (you think I jest about the wading part? No: the southern half of Minnesota is flooding...and my boat club will be flooding again by the end of this week, so for now I'm rowing out of our rival club - Minneapolis *gasp*) for the Head of the Des Moines. The ride down itself was enjoyable. Dinner with friends K & M was nice. (Seriously: they go one step further than the Canadians at the downtown Des Moines version of French cuisine and put straight-up braised beef on poutine. It's awesome. And did you know you can make french toast for dessert and smother it with a "bourbon bacon syrup"? You can! And you should! Because it's good!)

Saturday? Rained. And rained. And rained some more. The river was extremely fast (I mean seriously fast: experienced rowers were having a seriously hard time docking because the current was so strong - let alone all the novice collegiate crews out there), and between the crazy current and the endless rain and the cold temps, the officials cancelled racing halfway through the day. But not before good pal A and I won this in a 2x:

So all in all, Internet, it wasn't an entirely worthless trip. (Though I'm still kinda thinking the poutine trumps the gold medal. Sorry, A. No offense - we had a great row! But we all know I have my priorities...)

I pray there is never a video camera around should this happen to me.

St. Paul's a Classic, People

I have kept a crazy schedule the last few weekends. For instance, I rowed a 13-mile "race" called the Pike Island Challenge on Saturday morning, and then the next day, biked the St. Paul Classic. 'Cause apparently, Internet? It's not enough for one's butt to be sore from rowing steadily for an hour and a half (though not as steadily coming back down the river...since we got tired of just rowing, and our boat chose to talk...and sing...and have fun...and not row as much). No, no, no: one's butt must hurt from two different hurt-y sports in two days. (And to top it off, I had my first orchestra rehearsal of the season on Sunday night, so by Monday I couldn't move my legs OR arms. At least it was an even level of immobility between upper and lower body.)

So. Off we went at the crack of dawn in 50-something degree weather to enjoy a couple different loops.

Chilly Morning

By the time the sun actually got all the way up, it was a nice 70-something degree day, but a bit on the windy side. Between my ride to the start, two of the loops, and then from the finish line back home, I logged nearly 48 miles for my few hours of efforts. Which isn't too shabby, considering the fact that I haven't been on my bike once since Alaska. Most of it was enjoyable. The weather was sunny and people had similarly sunny attitudes. I've never seen anyone in St. Paul act quite the same way before - everyone was dropping bikes everywhere and not locking anything up at all the rest stops, and no one was stealing stuff! Shocking. (I think part of the reason was most of us thought that if someone was going to steal a bike or something, there's two right next to mine worth twice as much.) I rode with friends K & J (part of the AK chain gang), friend S and her friend H (and saw a bunch more friends along the way).

(K, obsessively checking one of her three (3!) crackberries...I suppose I should probably point out that, in this picture at least, she was trying to figure out where friends S & H had gotten themselves to)

Parts not quite as enjoyable? The part where I was freezing in the near-dark as I went from my humble abode to the start? Not quite as fun. The part where friend K decided to start out going 20 mph? Again, see the above part about having rowed 13 miles the day before and no longer having any quad muscles to speak of.

(Does she have to look so happy about her blistering pace? Kidding, kidding)

The part where I heard a lady directly behind me hit the pavement in bone-crunching fashion after being squeezed by some riders and a couple orange cones? I shudder still to think of it, and I will be able to hear that sound for the rest of my life. (She was hauled away in an ambulance a short time afterwards, I heard. I'm so thankful that was not me! And also very thankful that I heard only of two ambulances being needed, which is pretty good, what with the 6,000+ cyclists out that day.) The part where I indulged in too many cookies, scones, bananas and lemonade at the Indian Mounds Park rest stop? Fine, until I turned the corner after starting back up and spotting a hill...then not quite so fine. (It probably didn't help that I was still chewing the last of the final cookie at that point.)

(Right before the eating-a-cookie-up-a-hill bad decision - I still look fairly happy in this picture!)

All in all, Internet, I had a lot of fun doing this tour. I'd do it again. But maybe not both a 13-mile rowing challenge and this event in one weekend again.

Anatomy of a 1x Race on a Windy Day in St. Catharines, ON; or, how you can race like me in 35 easy steps

Step 1: Visit the rowing statue close to the finish line of the St. Catharines course; possibly get ill from the thought of your upcoming race
Step 2: Get your boat in the water

Step 3: Put oars in oarlocks (with help from friend M)
Step 4: Realize speed coach battery has died; decide to not care

Step 5: Take socks out of shorts and put on

Socks are very important, and also easier to row in than flip-flops

Steps 6-16: launch, warm up, drift 1,000 meters in the wind, back it down so you don't run over other boats, etc.

Step 17: Come around the boat holder platforms and back it in to the start

Step 18: Wait for the start in Lane 5

Step 19: And we're off, aka 5 stroke start, 10 high, mini settle 10

Step 20: Done with the first 50 meters, aka settle 10

Step 21: Close in on the 250 meter mark (the red buoy) & listen to teammates cheer you on

Second 500 meters of the race: I promise, I'm still in Lane 5 out there somewhere
Step 22: Row
Step 23: Row

Step 23.1: Feel hair fall out of hat in wind, but hat miraculously stays on
Step 24: Row some more
Step 25: Row faster
Step 25.1: Try not to flip
Step 25.2: Try to actually catch water with blades in windy conditions
Step 25.3: Try not to flip
Step 26: Last 250 meters, bring up the rating
Step 27: Row
Step 28: Cross the finish line in second place
Step 29: Gasp for breath
Step 30: Die

Step 31: Done with the race, now to get off the water...row it back to the dock

Step 32: ...Where the heck is this dock?! I swear it was here 20 minutes ago...

Step 33: Yay! There's the dock! Land at Henley Island
Step 34: Finally, it's over! Dribble out of the boat, replace socks with flip-flops, carry boat back to rack

Step 35: Relief!

See? 35 easy steps. You, too, can row like an old person now.