The past week or so has been filled with some up and down moments. Of the worst have been becoming a victim of debit card fraud. (I just was a victim of credit card fraud in January.) But after taking a day to rest (kind of) and spend some time on my own I was able to shake off the negative vibes going around in part due a couple of key events. I'll share them below.
1.
First Fridays- I was able to attend this city wide event and hang out with a few of my friends in the process. There's nothing like being able to view a ton of different styles of art all in virtually one place. As a bonus, this week one studio was helping a new business owner market his business by giving away free Mexican food to anyone who wanted it. My friend and I received an entire meal from this man. You could make a donation to show your appreciation but the crazy part was that he didn't have any business cards to hand out, otherwise I would have given him props on my blog. His food was delicious. Well, if you are from Rochester you can catch him at the Public Market on the weekends.
2. Sunday I awoke ready to partake in the
Bike MS ride. My awesome friend Amanda graciously allowed me to borrow her road bike as I had upped my ride from 18.5 to 31.7. The set up of the event was awesome. There was a free bike shop that donated their time to have a tent where they would check out your bike for a last minute tune up, great breakfast food, granola bars to pack for the trip, and a DJ. My team had a tent with some goodies (chocolate) on it. We took a team photo and then most people scattered as departure times were staggered.
I ended up riding most of the trip with some female students from the college I work at. I was pretty proud of myself as I was able to keep up with students 15 years younger than me who looked to be very physically fit. My little group got lost a few times (as the directions were 2 pages 2 columns each), but only ended up shaving off 1.7 miles in the process. :) My group didn't stop at any rest stops and went at a fast pace. We ended up finishing in about 2 hrs 15 min. for 30 miles. Not to shabby!
There was a lot of steep hills and very little down hill action. By mile 25, I was over it and just wanted to finish. It was a perfect day-sunny and 70. This was a great experience but my "sit bones" have been a little tender the last couple of days. Perhaps the highlight were that there was a photographer who did a mini photo shoot with each person, the school of massage there giving free massages (I had an amazing 30min. massage) and a FREE full course meal from Carrabbas which was the bomb. I hoovered some chicken, salad and pasta like it was going out of style.
Overall seeing people biking who had MS or those that are living with MS that were there supporting us bikers was overwhelming and really made me appreciate that my recent struggles are nothing like what they experience on a daily basis. It helped put things into perspective for me and I think we all need that reality check at times.
3. Other updates. Below are pics of some more
ATC cards from all over the US and the world that I've received this week. I've received some awesome cards that seem to say just the right thing that has also helped me to keep going this week through the dips in the roads.
4. I realized recently that I haven't been very good about keeping up with my
Good Reads list for a while now. Here's a look back at the books I've read over the past couple of months and how I rated them. Hope it helps your search for your next Good Read!
The Giver by Lois Lowry ***
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini *****
The Rosey Project by Grame Simsin ***.5
Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry ****
Messenger by Lois Lowry ****
Son by Lous Lowry ****
And I know I had read some others but blanking out on them right now. As I think of them I will update this meager list. :)
