Fadedwords

Before I went home to visit, I joined a gym.  I knew I needed to start pushing the physical aspect of things in order to start seeing weight loss again.  I didn’t have a chance to go prior to leaving, and I kind of wanted to wait to see what the doctor would tell me about my knee.

I had an MRI to rule out a meniscus tear.  We really thought it would be based upon the symptoms I’ve been having.  On the bright side, the MRI showed no ligament damage.  However, it did show chondromalacia patella with effusion.  I had surgery in 1996, and they found chondromalacia at that point.  It was scraped out and I did PT, and went about my business.  Since the surgery though I have had grinding in my knee, as well as popping… it was just never “ok” again.  The doctor told me that I need to focus on building my quad and glute muscles in my right leg in order to alleviate some of the pressure on the outside of my patella.  This may help with the effusion and perhaps the pain.  Or at least that’s the hope.  She gave me some suggestions of things I could do.

I came back and due to work starting, and some other things happening personally, I had to wait a couple days to start going to the gym.  I went for the first time on Thursday and had a decent work out.  It was a lot of testing to see what my knee could take, and what would work best.  Today I went again and stuck with what worked best for cardio and working my knee, the elliptical.  I put in 30 minutes and burned nearly 300 calories.  The machine I used is one that has an incline and pretty big resistance depending on the setting, which is what the doctor suggested.  The lack of impact makes it possible to work without hurting my knee.

I feel very positive about being at the gym.  I’ve always enjoyed going to the gym, and I really like the one I’ve joined.  I feel incredibly good about myself after I work out, and I think I will start to see good weight loss again if I keep it up.  The icing on the cake will be if my hard work helps my knee improve.

For some reason, when I paid my credit card bill this month, it did not go through.  The only reason I know this is because I got a call tonight from them saying my account was 14 days overdue.

I had to pay them over double what my usual payment is to get the account “in good standing.”

I cannot win.

I grew up in a town that is about 15 minutes away from Great Escape, which started out as a very small, kitschy amusement park.  It was the first place I rode a roller coaster (I was 15, I dropped the f-bomb and apologized to my Dad while we were going through the first t loop).  It was a place that had these adorable little fairy tale houses, a western themed village, and a scrambler that was in the dark.  Since I was a kid, the park has been purchased by Six Flags and has expanded quite a bit.

I hadn’t been in probably 8-10 years, and mentioned to my cousin Jamie that I wanted to go while I was home.  She immediately jumped on board and said she and Max, her son, would love to go with me.  I was excited, knowing that the park would be fun anyway… but it would be even more fun with Jamie and Max.  Something that has upset me about living so far from home for the past 8 years (college, grad school, and moving to NC) is that I haven’t had a big chance to get to know Max.  This trip I have been so thankful that he now knows who I am and we’ve been able to hang out a little. (more on this later)

We spent the morning and afternoon at the park, and had a great time acting like 10 year olds.  I often wish there were more days like this in my life, spent with these people because I love them so much.  For now, though, I will simply cherish these days.

Me with Max, on the Steamin’ Demon… the infamous roller coaster that I cursed on.

Me, Jamie, and Sasquatch.  I can’t really explain what’s going on here without a whole blog post… and in the end you had to be there.  But I love this girl.

This day gave me so many wonderful memories of laughter, silliness, and fun.  I hope that Jamie, Max and Michael (her hubby, my cousin) will come to NC at some point over this next year.  I can just imagine the shenanigans we can get into then!

There is only so much disappointment one person can take.

There is only so much struggle one person can take.

There is only so much heartache one person can take.

I reached my quota about 11 months ago, and yet it has continued every month since then.

Well, kinda!  Yesterday my Dad and I got up early and went to Saratoga Racetrack to have breakfast and watch early morning workouts.  I had really wanted to take some pictures of that, and he was kind enough to get out of bed and come with me.  We also got to take a tour of the back side, which was really cool.

You can see the pictures I took HERE.

It was a wonderful day of photography, but it was made better because I got to share it with my Dad.  We don’t have a lot of truly Dad-Daughter time, and this was one of the few times.  Truly excellent.