Hooray for Adaptive Sports

This past weekend was great for adaptive sports! Firstly, because I went up to Lincoln, New Hampshire for our bi-monthly adaptive skiing trip. (Wow, what a cold weekend! I had more layers than the younger brother from A Christmas Story. I'm happy to report that layers work. As do those little hand warmer and toe warmer things. So no frostbite here!)

The second, and bigger reason was the passing of a referendum by the US Department of Education on Friday, January 26th that holds requires public schools to provide equal alternative sporting options for students with disabilities. Reminiscent of  Title IX, which required public schools to provide equal opportunities for women in sports, this ruling would require schools to provide "reasonable accommodations" to students with disabilities or to create parallel programs. It does not require schools to change the nature of the game in order to accommodate disabled students, nor does it require coaches to guarantee a spot on a team for a disabled student. Rather, it seeks to eliminate situations where students are excluded from sports team because of a disability.

What does this mean practically? A reasonable accommodation may be supplying a flashing light or other visual cue in place of a starting gun for a deaf student on a track and field team. Eliminating exclusion may mean allowing a student in a wheelchair to play wheelchair tennis against their able bodies peers on the tennis team. (I've witnessed a few of these matches and they are AWESOME!)

Unfortunately, like everything else, there is a bit of confusion surrounding the issue and I spent a good portion of the weekend in good spirited debates with people who were fearful that this ruling would "ruin school athletic programs" by "funneling all the money away from the REAL athletes" to "Special Olympics". I understand there were similar protests to Title IX, arguing that equal athletic opportunities for women would virtually "eliminate football" and "confuse girls into believing they were boys." Um.....sure?

Naysayers can rest assured that the results of this new ruling will not produce situations like this:

(Anybody else see that episode? Where Artie called himself a "human battering ram?"


Rather it will produce more situations like this:

And hopefully, more situations like this:

January's Addictions

JANUARY'S ADDICTIONS

It's been a while since I did an addiction post. I miss em! They always seemed such fun.

This month, I was addicted to:

HOT CHOCOLATE
Nothing is better on a cold morning or a cold night than hot chocolatey goodness with mini-marshmallows floating inside.

FLANNEL SHEETS
I have to admit: I got a set of flannel sheets for my birthday a few years ago and I was like: "What an odd gift. Who the heck give somebody flannel sheets with snowmen on them for their birthday?" Oh, how wrong I was! They are absolutely fantastic and I can't live without them.

ALLIE MCBEAL 
I totally did not get that show when it was on actual television. But since I have discovered the wonders of streaming old, defunct shows on Netflix, I have been exploring the shows that everyone else liked except me. And I have to say, I rather enjoyed the Allie McBeal thing this time around. Especially the Robert Downey Jr. episodes. I think Ol' Allie was the precursor to my second favorite show of all time: Scrubs.

CHICKEN WITH RICE SOUP
I had the unfortunate luck of contracting a case of the creeping crud that was going around work during the holidays. And the only thing I could keep down was chicken soup. It's good stuff to eat while lying on the sofa watching back to back episodes of Allie McBeal.

GREEN SMOOTHIES
I'm very partial to mocha protein powder and spinach this month.

SMART WOOL SOCKS
The EMS down the street closed last week and had 50% off markdowns. Loaded up with socks (amongst other things)

GABRIELLE BERNSTEIN
Got her new book and in conjunction with Amanda's 30 day challenge, have been doing a little morning inspirations and journaling to put me in a bright, sunny mood! Aside from my imitation of Little Miss Cranky Pants yesterday, it seems to be working out quite well.

PHILLIP PHILLIPS
Rather late to the party, I finally downloaded his stuff on itunes. Like Dave Matthews and Mumford &
 Sons thrown in a blender (on high finger picking speed)

Lazy and Cold

Today I saw something that I in no way need, but I absolutely HAVE to have!

I was visiting a friend in the hospital (bad day) and the TV was tuned to the Weather Channel to determine exactly when I should hit the road to avoid the worst of the impending snow storm. When on the television screen appeared a commercial for the most wonderful item: the Forever Lazy.

It's kind of like the Extreme Snuggy. It is a gigantic thick fleece set of footie pajamas for adults. They used to advertise these on the TV at Christmastime in the 70's....they were called Cuddle Ups then. Now they are back with a different name. And I feel like I must  have one!

Why would anyone purposely buy such a ridiculous article of clothing? Why, for warmth, of course!

The thing is, my little yellow apartment by the beach has electric heat. Electric heat sucks. For one thing, it's expensive as all get out. I have a small 2 bedroom apartment and in the winter, my electric bill is higher than friends with four bedroom houses and 3 teenagers! 

Secondly, electric heat is not very effective. It gets fairly warm in here from around mid-thigh down, but not warm at all above that level.

So, in an effort to keep myself out of the poor house and keep warm, I spend my nights on the sofa, ensconced in a fleece throw. It works fairly well, except that my shoulders often get cold. And my back. And if I'm on the computer, my arms have to be outside of the blanket. You get the picture.

But in the ingenious Extreme Snuggy, (I've decided to call this item by that name from here on out, because it sounds a lot more hip and edgy than the Forever Lazy. Even though that may be actually closer to how I'd act when wearing the item). Again, in this ingenious article of clothing, I would be completely enveloped in warmth: my back, my shoulders, my arms, and even my feet thanks to the free fleece socks that come with it! 

Plus, if I had to go to the bathroom, it has a hand back flap! (ok, I would probably actually take the thing off, even I'm not that lazy!)

What I would not do, is wear it to a football game like the idiots in the commercial. Instead, I would put it on, set up a camera, and dance around to this:

I'd make a YouTube video of myself wearing this Extreme Snuggy and dancing to a one hit wonder song from the 90's, maybe even sticking my ass out of the back flap. The I would post it on YouTube and become a sensation. I'd totally end up on Ellen. Maybe I'd even wear the Forever Lazy on her show!

Of course, there was absolutely nothing I could do when I was sitting there in the hospital room, since I have a dumb phone, not a smart phone. (And by now, I'm thinking I would never order that thing off the internet) So I did the next best thing: on the way out, I bought some Girl Scout cookies from a little girl coming in to visit her grandpa. I'm eating them now. They are really tasty. And I'm wrapped up in a fleece throw, still pretty cold and forever lazy. 

Lessons in Dehydration

There are some lessons you have to learn many times before they set in.

For me, the lesson is in dehydration.

You know that part of the Breakfast Club when Molly Ringwald goes: "I have a very low tolerance for dehydration." And Emilio Estevez counters with: "I've seen her dehydrate, sir. It's pretty gross." Yeah, that's me. But when I get dehydrated, it's not so much gross as cranky.

My biggest dehydration debacle was years ago when I was doing an Outward Bound in Canyonlands National Park. It was in the desert and at elevations of 4000 to 7000 feet. Enough to make a sea-level living girl like myself lose water like crazy. But when I started to cramp up, I settled that problem by taking ibuprofen. And when my stomach started cramping and I didn't feel like eating or drinking, well, I didn't. Did I mention I was carrying a 50 pound pack? On my 106 pound body?

Yeah, well, somewhere into day 5, I was hiking up out of a canyon with my fellow hikers, watching a pack of coyotes in the distance. I noticed a lone coyote that had separated from the pack and was coming quite close to us, checking us out in that skittish way that coyotes have. I said something about it to one of my trail mates who got excited and said "Coyote? Where?" Which was strange, since the coyote was about 10 feet away from us. It seemed strange that NOBODY in my group saw the coyote that was in clear sight, nor did they notice the entire pack which was a bit further away but still clearly visible. "Oh, I guess it ran away. It was just here" I said.

Shortly thereafter, I started hearing people calling out my name from the top of the canyon. Which was also strange, since we were essentially out in the middle of NOWHERE! By the time we made camp, I was swearing at people and crying and I yelled at my pack for being too heavy. (I'm sure everyone was super happy that I was along on this camping trip!) The trip leader walked up to me and said "How much water did you drink today?" I answered "Not enough. I think that's pretty F***ing clear, don't you think?" And then he made me drink 2 liters of water and eat ramen soup with extra salt.  Feeling much more like a human, I turned to everyone and said "About my behavior earlier...."

After an experience like that, you'd think that I'd be more astute about staying hydrated.

You would think.

But I've passed out on the beach, collapsed running bleachers, and cramped up during long runs.

And then there was last weekend.

I'm pretty sure I was dehydrated before I even left to go to New Hampshire. (New England winters and all with that super dry forced-air heat at work) Plus I was at 1000 to 3000 feet of elevation. Not Lake Tahoe, but enough to make a sea-level living girl like me lose water. And we were outside all day in the snow. And I didn't drink enough water. I don't think sitting in the hotel hot tub for 90 minutes helped matters any. Or the margarita at dinner.

Anyway, let's just say that Sunday was pretty rough. As I cruised back down to sea level, I consumed two big bottles of Sobe Lifewater and two big bottles of regular water. Plus a couple glasses before bed. I still woke up with a pounding headache on Monday morning.

Once you get behind that hydration curve, it's so hard to catch up. I think I finally caught up today. On Wednesday.

What can I say? I have a very low tolerance for dehydration.

And thank God for ibuprofen.

Life Lessons from Skiing

Last weekend marked the official beginning of our adaptive skiing program at Loon Mountain. Loon has a fantastic, well-established program and they are wonderful enough to let us tag along and learn. (we will be bringing up some clients as the winter progresses, as well)

One thing about me: I'm a mediocre skier. Most of the other people I go up with are accomplished skiers. They grew up near ski resorts. They were on ski teams or ski patrol or were ski instructors. I was not. I bring something different to the table: I am very good with positioning and neuro diagnoses. I'm just not a great skier. I just try to keep up.

In the lessons, we act as "blockers": ski behind the adaptive ski participant and make sure teenage snowboarders don't smash into them and scar them for life. (I can do that) But also: skiing next to a ski instructor all day makes for a day of not just blocking, but learning, as well! I do like to multi-task!

What makes this even more important, is that the better you ski yourself, the better you can instruct somebody else. Especially when you are dealing with the adaptive equipment. In other words, you need to be really adept at using your own equipment (skis) in order to teach somebody to use adaptive equipment, like a sit ski or outriggers. I'm not as good at using equipment as I could be.

My problem, it seems, is that I keep my weight too far back on my skis. I try to control my equipment from the back. It is totally possible to ski in this way, but it's much more work than it has to be. With a little instruction, though, I am experimenting with shifting my weight forward over the front of the skis and controlling things from the front seat. It's amazing that once you do this, the skis literally turn themselves. Rather than fighting the snow and muscling through it, it's like the skis are moving themselves down the mountain and I'm just along for the ride. It just takes fully committing and shifting the weight forward, out of the back seat where it seems safer.

The same can be said of life, I guess. When you try to hang back where it seems safe, you can spend a tremendous amount of energy fighting and muscling your way through every experience. It's only when you fully commit to moving to the front seat, that suddenly everything gets easier. Rather than struggling to control things, you can work with the equipment and go along for the ride.

Change of Season

Today I finally put away the Christmas decorations. I extended it for a while this year, just happy to have the tree and stockings to look at. But today, it was time. The wreath on the door was starting to look brown. The kissing ball had long ago been blown down by massive winds and was sitting in pieces on the bench by the door. (The stockings and tree still looked fabulous)

Afterward, I was expecting to feel a little down, but I actually feel quite content. Things seem calmer. Everything is back in its usual space and it feels much roomier in my living space. I feel a sense of closure.

Officially closed out Christmas season and opened up ski season.

Adaptive skiing starts tomorrow. Can't wait!

Good Luck Thursday

Today, after days of overcast skies, the sun came out. Driving to work today, I saw the faintest rainbow over the canal. Walking across the parking lot, I passed a floating feather a la Forrest Gump. In shared a treatment room with two lady bugs for a while this afternoon. Drank a couple margaritas with some friends after work. And on the way home, saw a shooting star.

I think I'm in for some good luck!