Superkenz

I am known to take on more than I can handle....scratch that. I can handle everything, duh. Better...I like to be busy, and I like stay busy. I like to be successful more than anything, and you have to work hard to be successful. Or cheat, but I like to stay ethical. I usually have the mentality "I can sleep when I die". Sounds just about right. I don't get too much enjoyment out of sitting on a couch watching television..unless it is Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, or The Office. (Oh my god, I sound like a 60 year old). Jerry will back this up as it drives him nuts on a hungover Sunday when I exclaim "I'm bored" repeatedly and all I want to do is "someeeeeeetihng". Maybe I'm more of a 6 year old than a girlfriend or a 60 year old. Anyways, this is what has been keeping me busy lately...

SEACSM aka "Nerd Haven". Imagine this... research and posters on physiology, cardiology, psychology, chemistry, biology, engineering and how they all related and tie into exercise. Throw in a couple professors, speakers at 7 AM on a Saturday morning, free wine at a reception dinner, a paid for trip by WFU, and a new notepad filled up with notes on concussions, biomech analysis, transporter cells, SIX1 expression, and exercise and pregnancy and you have the getaway of a life time! Last weekend, our class traveled to Greenville, SC for the Southeast American College of Sports Medicine Conference. This is annual thing that Wake sends all the graduate students, and some of the staff to in order to see what the new lines of research are in our field. I think they also send you there to see just how "free spirited" a couple of your professors can be. A couple examples....

Dr. Berry (a eccentric..very eccentric WFU professor AND the Chair of our department) receives the ACSM Service Award at the opening night Presidents Lecture. Not to brag, I know him. But oh, did I leave out the part where he unbuckles his belt upon receiving it and is referred to as an exhibitionist? WE. ARE. WAKE FOREST.

Dr. Marsh, straight from Australia, tells myself and another classmate after defeating us in yet another game of pool, (be sure to use your best Aussie accent) "the foreigners win again, take that you Americans"... (let me not leave out the fact that I may have started this after making a tricky shot and yelling "F*** yeah, AMERICA". Oh beer.)

HELPS Winter Banquet. From previous posts, HELPS is the cardiac rehab facility I work at here at Wake. Every year they have an awards banquet for the participants. "Congratulations, Tom, you've been in the program for 20 years!". This momentous occasion was held last night. Let me try and sell this one to you. Old people, lots of them. Church setting. Door prizes (lucky me I got a hand knitted blue purse...good I was looking for something to match my long sleeve, floor length gown). Coleslaw. Lots of loud talking due to lots of hearing aids. LIVE Bluegrass music. "When I had my first heart attack..." talks. Old people smell. Pictures of everything taken by our lovely, dementia-driven, photographer, who may need a bigger dose of whatever it is she is taking. You get my drift...an experience, none the less. They all love it though, and it is very rewarding knowing how much they really do appreciate everything we do for them.

studying, working, reading, teaching, grading. This is what takes up the majority of my time. I would bore you with what I read, what I teach, what I grade, but I'll spare you, and myself, the time. After all, the sooner I get done posting this, the sooner I can get back to studying for an exam I have tomorrow on Stress*

Being Excited. I am typically always excited about something. This has been escalated with a trip to West Palm Beach this weekend with my mama, Dayton next weekend for a Green House* reunion and a celebration of a Green House Girl ENGAGEMENT, and a trip to Kiawah Island for Spring Break with Jerry and friends from college, and my Marathon the next weekend....oh man it is hard to contain all my emotions. I am basically peeing my pants right now as I type I am so excited for all these trips and events and oh my gosh, FUN (minus the running 26 mile thing).

Running like a mad woman (while we are one it). This is pretty constant in all my busy weeks - but recently it has taken a turn from "I run a lot" to "I am crazy". Last week I ran 52 miles, this week I will do it again. I am sore all day, every day, my feet are too gross to share, but the Shamrock Marathon (VA Beach) is in less than 5 weeks and I am determined to be ready.

Losing weight?! I'll leave it right there, I don't want to jinx it.

So, as you can see, I am Superkenz, doing it all and saving the world at the same time. I try to not complain or get stressed because, quite simply, I love living my life and doing everything that I do. And that's all she wrote (do I have to site this?).




*Stress. Okay, Ill bore you a little bit because it's interesting. We discuss in my health Psychology class that stress is not real. It is what you perceive it to be. We all have stressors, these are the inevitable, traffic, noise, deadlines, relationships, etc...but who is to say that these stressors have to be perceived as stress? Interesting concept, I will leave it at that for you to think about. Try and catch yourself next time and don't let it turn into a negative thinking. I sound like Gandhi.

*The Green House. Always Capitalized. An accumulation of trainwrecks that lived in a Green House at UD. My best friends. Bad decisions and worse hangovers.
The Green House girls on the Green House porch, minus a couple...don't let the smiles and nice clothing fool you

Biomechanics Presentations

So tomorrow lies the biggest day of graduate school thus far.

It is my Biomechanics Presentation.

I have been rehearsing it over and over and over, so much that I do it in my sleep, and yet, I have no idea what Im talking about. Allow me to give a run through of what this presentation is all about....

Imagine you have this professor who is "the shit" and when I say this, I don't mean he is super cool - I mean he is the head in his field and could almost be considered a celebrity research. He is all that and more. He does this annual "Biomechanics Symposium" where all us 8 grad students choose a topic, and topic, and then have 10 minutes to talk it - and 5 minutes to answer questions. Questions that will come from and one of these 200 people we will be standing in front of presenting data we don't even fully understand. Needless to say, I'm a little nervous. Let me also stress that this presentation is worth 30% of our final grade in the class - so it is kind of a big deal.

The grade is divided into content and style. So, obviously, Ill be pulling out that Banana Republic Suit and pray he doesn't know it is last years line. That should get me my style points. As far as content.....well lets just hope that he doesn't know anything about "Soldier Load Carriage" - the genius topic I have picked based on my internship where I worked for the army and thought it would be easy based on my first hand experience. Stress on the the word thought.

I videotaped my self an hour ago giving the speech.

I said "um" 46 times. In 10 minutes. That's close to 5 um's a minute. Is it because I don't know what I'm talking about. Yup. That is pretty much why.

Oh but wait - it gets better.

The symposium goes for 2.5 hours (there is a small refreshment break in the middle - unfortunately I will be so near vomiting that refreshments will not be looking appealing). There are 8 of us presenting. And, oh, lucky me....spot number 8. The grand finale. The Last Hurrah. The end of all ends. Im going to have pit stains as large as basketballs in my BR suit by the time I'm up there. The only thing that will get me through this will be the cold beer I know that is waiting in my fridge as soon as I get home. And maybe the Wendy's conveniently placed on my ride home (after all, nothing says "you've had a hard day" quite like a spicy chicken sandwich and a frosty - especially if it is complimentary).

So, I have probably put off reviewing this presentation again too long. I've reached the end of stalling and I probably should now look into ironing my suit. And looking for some extra strength antiperspirant.