The Aftermath

Well, after another 10-hour drive, I'm back in Virginia. It wasn't too bad of a trip, as I finished listening to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," which certainly helped my understanding of the plot better than when I read it.

It also wasn't raining the entire time I was driving, and only snowed as I drove south through New York. Clear weather makes me happy in a car!

I made it back to Clifton, Virginia around 7:00 (immediately noticing that the quality of my fellow drivers greatly diminished around DC) , so stopped by the gym to get a quick, light lift in. It wasn't much of a workout, as it's my down week and it wasn't heavy, but at least it was something.

Having no energy to cook for myself, I was on the way to Panera Bread when my coworkers invited me to hang out at our staff director's house, so that was a nice detour. I had a welcome glass of white wine with them and tried to stay as alert and awake as I could for my drive home, but it was pretty futile. It probably wasn't the safest thing in the world for me to drive home (sorry, Chelsea!) but we made it back.

Originally, my plan after getting to Hemlock was to just go to sleep without unpacking. It sounded so welcome! But I realized that I have a wierd thing about full luggage laying around in my room after a trip, so that plan failed.

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out. My bed here at Hemlock, while not the most comfortable, is much more squishy and wonderful than the OTC beds, and having my own thick bead-spread and down pillow didn't hurt the cause either.

At the OTC during the last several days, I was waking up around 4am with the need to use the bathroom, or my body just woke up for no reason. It's been aggravating, so I was expecting it to happen last night. No such thing happened, and I slept straight until 10:30am.

This is the latest I've slept in a couple years, and I realized as I tried to get out of bed, that I could have slept another two or so hours. I had no idea my body and mind were this tired!

I've definitely been dragging all day thus far. I went to the Clifton Coffee Shop for a morning pick-me-up and sat there while I read a beginner guide to skeleton, which Leisl gave me before I left. It helped my understanding of basic equipment for sure, but I was so tired that I couldn't bring myself to fully concentrate on it.

Even driving to Panera for lunch (I have little gorceries at Hemlock, since I was gone for so long, and I am only here for four days) was difficult. I tried to read My Life in France by Julia Child, but I couldn't focus. I was planning on going out to the hardware store to pick up some tools for skeleton, but I decided to postpone until tomorrow.

So I'm back at camp, dressed in an overlarge fleece and sweats, ready to cuddle up in bed and wait for a phone call from a woman for whom I'm supposed to babysit tonight. Since I've called and left two messages and haven't heard back from her yet, I'm assuming she found someone else.

But, seeing as I finally have video of my push starts, I am posting them for your enjoyment! Just to warn you, my form for the push start sucks, but I'm working on it!

December 8, 2010: Push Start 1

December 8, 2 010: Push Start 2 (Don is yelling to tell me how far to run, and when to jump on the sled)