Crazy Week

Wow, where do I begin? This week has been incredibly crazy. The first part of the week was solely devoted to putting together a creative testing proposal for my client. Wednesday was solely devoted to preparing for the presentation. I was literally handed final, bound presentations as I was walking out the door to the client. I'm way better a "winging" my presentations rather than preparing. Otherwise I freak myself out getting ready. This way I only freak out for a minute when I realize on my 10 minute trip to Goodyear that I just finished analyzing the competitive landscape 30 minutes before and have to present to this analysis to the client in 20 minutes. Too late now, let's roll!

Presentation went incredibly well! The clients loved the information and were equally impressed and satisfied that we had done out due diligence in gathering information for this product launch. Then Thursday day came after rolling on and about 12 hours of sleep for the week and my dog peeing on the carpet at 5:45am had me worried about how the rest of the week would go.

Sidenote: went to the Coldplay concert on Tuesday at the Q with Molly. Concert was awesome! Hard Rock cafe for dinner, awesome! Molly = double incredible awesome!!! Thanks for sharing the tickets beautiful!!!

Back to Thursday. I was just plain tuckered out it felt like I had put in a weeks worth of work already, maybe even two! Finally I was free, it was 4pm! I was incredibly happy cruising home with my two week old car rocking out to Hairnation on Sirius when the worst thing possible happened.

Stupid f@c$! Some ass in a big Jeep Wrangler hit the side of my car with his big ass tires. Does anyone see the irony that I work for Goodyear and tires f-ed up my car? Then he didn't even stop! Hell no! I took off, how far did he think he would get in a jeep? My car maxes at 127 mph and I was more than happy to use every single mph to catch him. :) Got his license plate and stopped to call the cops. :) Now that the rubber is almost all buffed out and my blood pressure is out of the red zone some stupid f@c$ will have to deal with a hit and skip and my car is back almost good as new.

Now it's Friday and the clients denied our proposed research that we had 120 hours of work in on and I feel like someone is playing one huge joke on me. Oh well I guess, at the end of the day I'm still getting paid.

Other news:
Brother: doing well, he should get cleared on Tuesday to head back for another 7-8 moths of chemo. Too bad he sill have to lose his hair again. :( However, his mobility is coming along very well and he should be up to using a cane soon instead of a walker.

Bike: I have 1/3 of the bike paid off and I'm well on my way to half way after only a month! I can't wait, I feel like a kid again!!!

Pump: moving along pretty well. I've finally been on long enough that I'm slowly tweaking the basal rates to stop the random fluctuations in my blood sugar. Feeling good, other than that. :)

Hello Cold!

I went out for a bike ride yesterday morning as the thermometer rose to 42 degrees! Yikes! It was freaking cold! Luckily I planned accordingly and was able to dress perfectly. I was cold for the first three miles then warmed up once I got the old ticker going! I managed an easy 18 miles. Short but at least I got out, I was happy!

It's crazy how the leaves look when you ride over them. It's like there is a funny carpet over the whole trail yet you can ride over them without any problems. Kind of weird, it's like you want to dodge the leaves bu there are only more leaves! lol

Still working on paying off my mean race machine!!! I'll keep you posted on that, want to free it before the beginning of 2009 so I can start prepping for some rides and races. :)

My brother is doing well, taking a few steps on his own. Hopefully he will only need a cane soon instead of a walker. He likes my new car and wants to borrow it, I said let's not get crazy!

My BG were a bit out of whack this weekend. I need to test more and reign them back in, don't want to lose the 6.2 A1C. That was hard to get!!!

More to come, check back soon!

My Crazy Week!

Here is a recap of how last week unfolded, it's amazing I don't have panic attacks!

Monday: Work all day, stop at bike shop on the way home to test 3 bikes and put a down payment on a bike.

Tuesday: Dentist appt. 7am then off to work for the rest of the day.

Wednesday: Take car in for 30K mile tune-up, ask about getting out of my lease into buying a VW. Work the rest of the day. Get phone call about purchase options on a 2008 and 2009 Jetta. Mill over purchase decision all night while hanging out with my incredible girlfriend.

Thursday: Go to work, go to dentist at lunch to get my cavity filled, test drive VW on the way back to work. Pick up new car at 6pm. The new car: 2008 VW Jetta Wolfsburg Edition. Meaning BIG engine in tiny car. Plus a ton of cool shit like 17" wheels, sunroof, spoiler and sport suspension. I apologize in advance to anyone I may cut off in the next few years driving wayyyy too fast up and down route 8. Go out for ride with beautiful girlfriend after her school open house.

Friday: Work and hair cut, followed by a bike ride in the evening.

Saturday: Go to parents to visit brother and help around the house. Back to Stow where I fell asleep an 9:45pm and didn't get up until 10:20 in Sunday. I think I needed the extra sleep.

Sunday: Get up, make breakfast, ride bike 20 miles, drive to Youngstown to meet beautiful girlfriend for a walk in the park and dinner.

Now, back to the grind! Below are a few pictures of the new car for your viewing pleasure!!! :)

Gotta Start With The Basics

I've recently decided to get back into an old sport that consumed (in a good way) me as a young buck. Mountain Biking. My family can attest to how much I loved this sport before, in high school I built my MTB up from scratch. Bought the frame, then the fork, seat, pieces/parts, etc. That's what I did with my money, I worked all through high school to support my habit. This past summer has been great getting out and riding. I feel great and it keeps my diabetes under control. The more I've thought about it the more the itch came back to head for the hills.

Road biking is great but very flat. It has it's own sense of danger and obstacles but I would rather those be from steep and muddy downhills and uphills or some gnarly single track than the 2500+ lbs. vehicles whizzing past me ear and elbow.

Molly, my girlfriend, is incredible! She supports me 100% and has said it is who I am and that makes me feel incredible as well as driven to take this on! I know I'll love it, I get excited just thinking about riding! I have some goals as well. In 2009 I would like to ride in at least two races. On top of that I also wanted to try my hand at marathon cycling starting with the less challenging 12 hour race. I'm going for it solo, I want to prove some things to myself about how I can not only handle the race but handle diabetes and the race. I'm tired of people saying what I can't or shouldn't do. Why don't you let me decide? (directed at no one in particular just society in general) I can do it, I've been doing it for over 15 years! How about that?!?!?!

I'm still going to keep my road bike for training and when timing doesn't allow me to pack everything up and drive to the nearest MTB trail. Are you excited yet??? I am, do you hear that coming??? It's me getting ready to take on the competition and myself!!!

Here is the bike that I am working on purchasing from Eddy's. It's hot!!! Cannondale Scalpel 4:

Lefty front suspension, carbon rear triangle with pivot less rear suspension, disk brakes! Bikes have sure changed since I was younger!!! As every cyclist knows you need shoes as well, these are my new shoes. Diadora X-Trail Carbon:

Wish me luck!!! Here goes nothing!!! I just need to get the rest of the money together to get these out of layaway! lol I love bike shops!!!

Most People Won't Care

But some may. Just had my Dr. appointment yesterday and my A1C was 6.2!!!!! For those who don't know that is an incredibly good A1C to have as a diabetic. It's the lowest it's been in my 15 year stint with the disease! Lower A1C = reduced risk of long term complications from diabetes, minor things like blindness, extremity amputation, kidney/liver/heart failure and death. Another "for instance" a healthy non-diabetic has an A1C of 4-6, that means I'm almost non-diabetic!!! lol

My Summer of Learning

As the temperature drops here in NE Ohio, the leaves begin to change color and days grow shorter. I've been reflecting on my whirlwind of a summer. I was trying to find the uniting thread that ties together my life. If any of you know what my life is like you would think I was crazy for even trying that but I did and it worked. This was my summer of learning.

My life has tested me, my family, my friends as well as my co-workers. Here is a list of 20 things I've learned.

1. Cancer sucks
2. Diabetes can suck
3. My brother is stronger and more resilient than cancer
4. My family is stronger and more resilient than cancer
5. I should not have ever stopped cycling
6. I still can run, fast sometimes too!
7. Insulin pumps kick major ass and I should have started on one a long time ago
8. I am extremely passionate about fighting cancer and diabetes
9. My family is growing closer not farther apart
10. Ziplining is fun!
11. Less soda = healthier me
12. Less little debbies = even healthier me
13. You can change everything about your life except the weather if you desire to do so
14. I have some of the best coworkers anyone could ask for
15. Never give up on anyone or anything you believe in
16. Never be afraid to love someone
17. The human spirit can move mountains
18. I'm not a diabetic, I'm a person living with diabetes
19. I have priorities, I need to keep them straight
20. Life is short, if you love someone always, always let them know

That's all for now, I have some crazy ideas brewing in my head for next year! Check back as I reveal them!!!