Getting Ready

Yes, it has been a while since I last posted. I have been spending my time reading some books and thinking about stuff.

I have decided to not post as much. I want to go from quantity to quality. I want to slow down and savor life. There are lots of things that I would rather be out doing than sitting here trying to recount my day. If I were a more interesting person, doing more interesting things, maybe it would be worth it. But on a daily basis, I’m just not that interesting of a person.

I’m still going to continue blogging, because I have some genuinely interesting projects coming up, just expect a post once a week. I definitely recommend adding me to your Google reader, so my updates will come to you, instead of you checking my site daily for updates.

If you’re interested in reading my random thoughts throughout the day, you can follow me on Twitter. It’s easy to sign up and easy to use. If you don’t want to get sucked into it, you can read my tweets from here on my blog directly. It’s up to you.

This past Tuesday, December 16th, has been 5 weeks without Coke. Personally, I am amazed. I would normally have caved by now. I still feel strong in my resolve. I wish what has been my influence came years ago. I think a friend from my past, Kara, would be proud. I haven’t had any conventional candy bars either. So far I’ve only had one chocolate bar that fit the bill. It was free trade, organic, and didn’t contain HFCS. Oh, almost forgot, haven’t had any potato or corn chips either. It sounds like I’ve gone quite militant, n’est-ce pas? Maybe I have, maybe not. Blame REI, blame Michael Pollan, blame that I’m a liberal, blame turning 35, or blame not making it to the top of Half Dome. Blame all of the above, or none of the above. I don’t think the reason matters much to me, quite honestly. All I know right now is that I’m having some surprising results. J This hasn’t come all of a sudden out of the blue. It’s been growing little by little for some time now. Part of it is the slowing down.

I had started telling a story about myself, but I removed it because it wasn’t really necessary. I spoke of growing up in the 80’s and never learning to make tortillas from scratch. Basically I was posing a theory that I had sabotaged my future eating habits growing up because I had refused to learn how to cook.

So what projects do I have coming up worth sharing? The Half Dome rematch is a big one. I still haven’t determined a date. May feels too early, August too hot. I like the thought of early June, but I know that June and July are the busiest months to hike Half Dome. I just want to make sure that I won’t have to worry about another storm on the horizon.

I mentioned this next one before, as I was contemplating even attempting it. I have made up my mind, and I have made the commitment: I have joined a LiveSTRONG challenge team. I have committed to raising $1,107.01 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and I will finally (FINALLY) be riding in my first century. (I’ve only ridden metrics in the past). In case some of you are wondering why such an odd amount of money, it’s because my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer on 11/07/01. The ride takes place during July in San Jose. I wish Lance could be there, but I’m pretty sure he won’t because he’ll be in France riding in Le Tour. Don’t panic yet-- I plan on waiting until after this holiday season before I start my passionate plea for your money.

Oh, and that thing that I wrote of previously, I have decided NOT to do it. I can’t. It’s just way too personal. I sense the contradiction in that statement, I’m blogging about my life for potentially all the world to see, yet wanting to maintain a sense of privacy. It’s times like this that I’m relieved that less than ten people read my blog. (And that’s on a good day)

There is one last thing, but I can’t talk about it just yet. It wouldn’t be prudent. If you are my friend on Facebook, you already know. I promise all will be revealed as soon as I think it is acceptable to do so. Definitely sometime in January, I think.

That is all I have for now.

Love, Yvette

Hello

How are you? I'm doing okay. Nothing major going on. This past Saturday I put in some hours at REI. Felt really good to be wearing my green vest again. I missed that place. It's my peeps. REI is genuinely the best retail job I have ever had. I do have to admit that I might not feel the same way if REI was my only job, the one I rely on for my livelyhood. Since I don't rely on that job, it's not really a job. No stress, nothing to take home, I leave the job at the job. I go in, I be myself- that friendly person you all know and love: I sing, I dance, I laugh, I help customers, I share experiences with them. I love asking my customers where they are going. Talking shop, I suppose. It's great, I love it.

I spent two weeks ago in Porterville. Good time to catch up on my reading. I read a very good book about the origin of some of the foods we eat in Omnivore's Dilemma. I definitely will be doing more research on what I read.

Early last week I was working in Merced at the Cancer Center, and Friday I worked at the Treatment Center in Porterville. Now those of you who are my Facebook friends and/or follow me on Twitter, you heard that I had lunch with a certain doctor. Yes, it's true I did have lunch with him, but my sin of omission was that I was not the only one he took to lunch. There was five of us all together. I would not have minded having lunch alone with him, but alas, it was not to be.

It's time to pull out the bike again. I've been invited to participate in a LiveSTRONG Challenge. A century bike ride in July that is a fundraiser for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I want to do it. But I'm scared. Not of the 100 miles. I'll be able to do that defintely. It's the fund raising part that scares me. Those skills suck. So if I do decide to do it, please look kindly and favorably on my pathetic plea for your money. If you also see me out on the loop (up Auberry, down Friant) say hi and throw out some encouraging words for a fellow cyclist.

That's pretty much it. Getting ready for Thanksgiving. I'm baking my yams again. The kids love it. It's all the high-fructose corn syrup that goes in it. This will most likely be my last year baking yams because I'm on an anti-high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) kick right now and I'm massively reducing my intake. It's been very hard since it's nearly in everything that isn't raw food (fruits, veggies, meats/seafood). One good thing that's come out of this is that I haven't had a Coke in almost 13 days. Amazing since I am a serious Coke fiend and it has been my biggest single weakness in every attempt to lose weight over these years. Another amazing thing is that I am currently not even tempted in the slightest. Even another amazing thing is that in these past almost 13 days, I have lost weight, without really trying. The things that make you go hmmmm.

Okay, I'm out. Off to Merced again tomorrow. Going to be doing some casefinding at the path lab.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!

Love, Yvette

10 Days and Counting....

Today is my last day of double-digit counting. Still nervous, still excited. Now it's time to start getting all my stuff together, making food lists, making sure I'm familar with all my new equipment, i.e. water filter and tent. In my training I never made it to the top of the climbing wall. It's okay though, even though I haven't made it to the top yet, I did gain some vertical confidence. That is more important to me at this time- I'll need it on the cables.

On a tangent, fall is here. I love autumn, it's my favorite season of the year. I love the changing of the leaves, and how the sky starts turning slightly orange in the late afternoon. I like how it stops being so flipping hot and it becomes enjoyable to be outside in Fresno again. When the weather gets just like this, I start to want to ride my bike again. I really want to ride my bike this week, but I don't want to jeopardize my trip by crashing or pulling a vital muscle.

Hopefully, once Half Dome is put to bed, I can turn my focus back to the wall and back to my bike. It will be nice.

Love, Yvette

My Apologies....

I emailed a blog post on Friday, and of course I just assumed that it went through. Well, it didn't. So here is a "re-print":

I'm Going Slightly Mad (Friday, 08/22/08)

One thousand and one yellow daffodils are dancing in front of me. It finally happened!

Ok, not really, but I feel like I'm losing my mind.

I'm taking a week long blog vacation, thru Saturday August 30.

Why? Because this week I don't trust anything that is going to come out of my mouth. I'm thinking crazy thoughts that I don't know if I can trust them. Crazy thoughts like quitting my day job and going back to school. I just found out last night that someone I know was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it's a little too much to think about right now. Half Dome is in 41 days, I'm not ready and I'm afraid I will let that stop me. My bike is gathering dust again, and I can't decide if I care or not. I think I want to pursue taiko as a serious hobby. Wild stuff like that.

It's probably just stress. I have reporting deadlines quickly approaching, and back to back out of town trips.

Grrrrr. I want to go hiking. I need some soothing green trees and ferns and the smell of pine. And some really big mountains thrown in for good measure. I need a mental health day up in Yosemite Valley.

Love, Yvette

Fatty Shops at REI!!!!

The Fat Cyclist shops at REI.

Every now and again, when it comes up in my t-shirt rotation (yes, I rotate my clothes), you may find me at REI wearing a pink t-shirt under my REI vest. The front of that shirt says FatCyclist.com. You will find a link to that blog on my sidebar if you're not doing the reader thing. It's an amazing blog that will have you rolling on the floor in hysterics (if you're into cycling, that is), and leave you (ok, maybe just me) in tears as the author shares his experiences as his wife fights recurrent breast cancer. (No HIPAA violations there (hopefully): public knowledge, and not California data). Also, if you haven't made the connection, I'm wearing the 2007 Fat Cyclist jersey in my profile picture. You can see the whole jersey at my flickr page. And yes, I've pre-ordered the 2008 jersey too!

Being a big fan, and a clydesdale myself, I was giddy to read Fatty (a.k.a. Elden Nelson) stopped by his area REI to pick up some Clif Bars. WOO-HOO! Okay, the post was more about what he bought than where he bought it, but still, made my day. I hope his cashier was as delightful as I am (you would know, if you ever heard my closing announcment).

So even if you aren't into cycling, read his post on sports nutrition. I know you'll like his thinking, and maybe you'll even giggle a bit.

The Next Big Thing in Sports Nutrition

Love, Yvette

Hi

If you had trouble reading my anniversary post in your reader, I'm sorry. It was a post via email, and for some reason the font color didn't go through correctly. It's supposed to be black in your reader, and the green in the website. So I tried to fix it myself, to disasterous results. So if you can't read it in the reader, just go to the website.

I am sad. So very sad.

My car is in the shop. It's been in the shop since May 8th. For me, that is a very long time. It's a big repair, and a very expensive repair. I don't speak car, so you'll just have believe me that it has something to do with my air conditioning. I heard terms like compressor and evap-something coils. Or was it core? I dunno. I don't speak car. Anyways it also involves parts you can't just call Decker for. So that is what I'm waiting on.

Because I had to travel to Porterville and Merced since my car went into the shop, I had to get a rental. Talk about expense on top of expense. Not happy and I can't do it anymore, so tomorrow evening, once I return from Porterville (again), I'm turning the car in and going bicycle. Hopefully this funky weather will stay mellow and I'll be able to ride in peace. I have new pedals and tires, so I don't have an excuse not to ride.

Okay, time for the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. Gotta run :)

Love, Yvette

43 Revisited

And one night (or was it day?)
I was awoken from a dream
I was dreaming of someplace like I'd never been
And I heard someone say
Someone's fallen in and they can't swim
So I leaned out and I pulled them in
And he was holding his head
And it was huge and shaped like a fish
And he slid down to the crook of the keel
And when I was sure he'd fallen asleep
I fell back to my reverie
--At the Beginning of Time by Jane Siberry

I've been meaning to get back to this list. My first edition of this list was back in 2006. You can read it HERE if you'd like. It's not required reading. I found it interesting that there were items on that list 2 years ago, that I don't care about anymore. I change. I'm still growing. I bet that 2 years from now, there will be things that drop off this new list. The items that made it on both lists I've bumped to the top, because, I guess they are core things. Things that may never change.

This new list has some new formatting, just for my personal organizing. You know how much I like cataloging ;)

Oh, and technically, I'm still missing one. :) Enjoy!

My 43...er...42 Things:

01. Donate Hair to Locks of Love X 11/17/06
02. Wear a Sari X 10/28/06
03. Learn Taiko Drumming X 12/10/06
04. Participate in a big charity/fund-raising project X 05/05/7 (Relay For Life)
the core list:
05. RIDE- Climb to Kaiser (and finish)
06. GET- My Passport
07. RIDE- A Century (a 100 mile organized bike ride)
08. HIKE- Half Dome
09. VISIT- Kyoto, Japan for the gardens and the blossoms
10. MEET- Lance Armstrong (yes, still)
11. SEE- Peter Gabriel in concert
12. LEARN- How to Play Guitar
13. LEARN- How to Make Sushi
14. VISIT- Deanna in Washington
15. MOVE- To Sacramento (In spite of everything, I still want to go)
16. RIDE- In a Bike Race
17. BE- A Bridesmaid (still hoping)
18. VISIT- The Grand Canyon
19. LEARN- Pointe (again): Take a Pointe Class
20. VISIT- Devil's Postpile
21. BUY- A Condo/Small House
the new additions:
22. SEE- The Aurora Borealis (in person)
23. WEAR- A Kimono
24. CLIMB- To Top of the Climbing Wall, AND GET BACK DOWN (I have serious heights issues)
25. SEE- Mt. Everest (in person)
26. VISIT- Pyramids at Teotichuacan
27. VISIT- Machu Pichu
28. VISIT- Egypt
29. VISIT- Death Valley (really visit, not this drive through at night shit)
30. VISIT- J-Tree
31. LOSE- Weight/Goal: 134 (not unreasonable, it's 20 over my dancing weight)
32. PAY- Off Student Loan (this is the one that feels least possible)
33. VISIT- Auschwitz (some things we should never forget)
34. LEARN- How to Tune-Up My Own Car
35. PET- A Tiger (a real one)
36. SEE- A Ghost (but just once)
37. LEARN- How to Scuba dive
38. VISIT- Take Mom to Yosemite (she's never ever been)
39. LEARN- Ballroom Dance- the Latin Dances
40. WALK- Across the Golden Gate Bridge and Back
41. LEARN- How to Do Cake Decorating.
42. VISIT- The REI Store in Seattle, WA
43. ???????????????????????????????????????????

What dropped off the list? Learning Japanese, Giving up soda, getting a tattoo, spending a weekend at a spa, learning to drive a motorcycle, going skiing, being published, writing a short story, taking a wine-tasting class, catching a fish, inspiring risk, introducing a couple, getting really good at yoga, and going to the chapel Madonna Del Ghisallo in Italy.

Does anyone else do this, or is this just my list fetish gone wild?

Love, Yvette

Life Is Good!

Isn't it? :)

First off, I just want to say a big thanks for my friends showing love and support in my moment of weakness. Jenny, John, Steve, mucho kudos to all of you. And no, I did not have a crush on Ramiro in high school, but I will confess, had he been single and asked me out for coffee, I would not have said no!

I'm still working on resizing my photos from the bike race. I had a great time and loved running into my REI co-workers. Mike, Richard, Brandon, Nancy, Kevin. I really enjoyed watching Brandon and Richard race. Races are cool regardless, but it's extra cool when you know some of the racers in real life. Now there were some racers there that I knew of, but did not know them in person. I read their blogs and visit their team websites. It's too cool to be able to see these people in real life. I tried to see the Lance man himself in San Francisco a few years ago before he retired, but he pulled out due to some lame-ass injury. Okay, maybe it wasn't really lame, but since I missed out on seeing him I felt really really denied, especially since that race day was on my friggin BIRTHDAY!!!!! Tell me that would not have been too cool for school?

I've been very busy this week, but life is good. Working lots of evenings so I haven't had time this week for much blogging. The day job is getting challenging too. We're losing another two colleagues this month. No, not the budget cuts again, one is retiring and the other one is making the jump from regional to state. My Marky Mark is leaving me to go play with the big kids up in Sacramento. The guys *I* report to. Unfortunately, because of the budget crisis we're in, they won't be replaced. Yup, more work for me!!! This is the time I don't mind sharing. Bummer dude.

Oh, and I've recovered from my Ramiro incident. Tonight, Robert Baber came into the store. Dude, I run into all sorts of people from my past in this place. I have a theory that REI is the hub of the universe. Actually, it was Robert and Kim- he married Kim Wheeler, they have two kids. Robert and I chatted for a bit, and it was a natural progression into the occupation subject. He works for a pharmacutical company, so I asked him about drug stuff since part of my job requires knowledge about chemotherapy agents. We had a brief conversation about DVT- deep vein thrombosis. It's funny what people who work in medical-related fields talk about.

Okay, that's it for now. It's WAY past my bedtime, and I have to go work in Porterville tomorrow. I'm being introduced to a new hospital and treatment facility. I'm kinda excited, because honestly, I've never even been to Porterville before. Peace out.

Love, Yvette

A Day At the Races

Today was the Central Valley Classic down in the Tower District. It was good, I'll write about it soon and post a link to my flickr account, but first I want to show you the important pictures:

Me with the fabulous Michael Hernandez. (man, would I love to get my hands on those quads)

And this is the lovely Miss Taitt Sato. She took 3rd in the Pro/Elite Womens race. She's tiny (look, shorter than me!) but she is hardcore and a firecracker!!! She kicked ass! My hero!This is Rich. He's the Master Tech (read: he takes good care of my bike) at REI. He came out to race today too.
Keep an eye out for this guy. He's Brandon Trafton- a young one working his way up the peleton. He works part-time at REI while racing Cat 3 and finishing up high school. If I could pick someone to be my baby brother, he would be the one. I can't remember but I think he finished either 5th or 6th in his race today.

I'll post actual race photos as soon as I am done resizing and uploading. Hope your Sunday was as awesome as mine was.

Love, Yvette

I Rode!

Wow, a day to end all days! I have a day off, I re-start blogging, AND I go for a bike ride. I should buy a lotto ticket.

A modest beginning, definitely. 8 miles with mild rollers. A more traveled cyclist would not have even noticed the length or the difficulty, but it was a very good first workout of the year for me.

Thanks to Belinda, my assistant store manager for today. Yesterday, before we opened the store, we had relay races on the sales floor. Laps of racing with rolling chairs, soft carts and bicycles. I rode the bicycle. Normally I ride with a helmet. It's the safe and sane thing to do, but yesterday I didn't. I rode fast enough inside the store that I caught wind and I felt it flowing though my hair. You cannot imagine how good that felt to me at that moment. For the rest of the day all I wanted to do was to go outside and feel the wind again. I felt like I had just awaken from a long deep sleep. I wanted to feel sun on my skin and wind on my face, feel muscles burn, and my alveoli stretch. Today, to feel all that, felt oh so good. And today is such a BEAUTIFUL day!!!

I hope your day is going as lovely as mine.

Love, Yvette

Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny

Hello. I'm back. With a new blog.

Late, but that is so me. I guess I'm just keeping it real ;)

I just wanted a new thought process, something less structured. A blog that could ebb and flow with my wants, needs, moods. There were things that I wanted to write about, think out loud about, but I didn't, because I felt it didn't fit right with the theme of Blossoms in the Sun. Of course, I know that since it was my blog I could write about whatever the hell I felt like, but, I created a theme- a purpose, and I was going to stick with it.

So, what are my intentions with this blog? My only intention is to express myself- what is inside my head, what is inside my heart, what is inside my body, what goes on in my dreams when I sleep. My hopes, dreams, fears, my restless emotions. My pain. My bliss. I have all in equal amounts.

My passion.

Something I am working on this year and hopefully from here on out is my authenticity. I will be writing on that alot, I anticipate. I've recently had an earth shattering moment. Sounds bad, but in reality it's ranks as one of the best things that ever happened to me. In relationship to the universe, what happened was small, and quite lame. To me, it turned my world upside down, and shook up my point of view. False gods, and "hot shits" came crashing down off pedestals I created. Apparently pedestalling (is that a real word?) is a VERY BAD HABIT of mine. Basically I was snapped out of very bad thinking that did not benefit me at all. Attempting authenticity, I must admit that I have no one to blame but myself. Don't get me wrong, I still stuggle with this self-destructive idea. I believed this one thought for about 5 years, maybe more. I even based decisions on this one thought and tried unsuccessfully to changes aspects of myself for another. All because of this one lame thought. I still struggle, because even though my head has clarity now, my heart ever so slightly still yearns for the (false) sense of perfection that one thought brought. Yes, I fully admit, I am a hopeless romantic on all levels.

So that is me, and where I am at. Well, part of me. In discussion with a work colleague of mine, I discovered that I don't fully reveal myself to everyone I know. I guess to a certain degree, we all do that, and we all have our reasons. I, for example, have a colorful past. Only 50% of my friends know of it. Not really a big deal. What I find more troubling with myself is that two years ago when I had to re-register to vote because I moved, I changed political parties. This is the first I am speaking of it, and I'm sure there are going to be friends who upon reading this will sigh, shake their heads, and generally "not approve". It troubles me that even as I am typing this, I am worrying about it.

Old thinking: I feared revealing how I really felt, what I really thought, because I feared being rejected for it. New thinking: Not going to worry about it anymore. I think part of the fear grew out of the original self-destructive idea, snowballing to massive proportions.

So that, is going to be that, for now. It's a day off, it's partly sunny, I want to ride my bicycle today. So, for those of you who are still here:

Welcome :D

Love, Yvette