Wednesday, July 29, 2009

i'm famous... again

what can i say, it feels great to be on the front of another poster! although, i don't think these are printed up on the big paper with poster board, like those sweet alpenrose posters.

(that's me in front- that's right bitches, i do take a pull when the cameraman is around)

i took 8 of them. the alpenrose posters, that is. i plan to put them all across my cubicle subway style. mostly, cause my face is really gross looking in that poster, and it will scare people away from desk.

those posters were stored for a long time in portland, brought up to seattle in a jam-packed car, brought down to san jose. and now are (hopefully) waiting for me in someone's bike locker. i will be very sad if i lost those posters, considering i told everyone about them-- including mccook.

and you know what mccook said to me when i tried to tell him how famous i was? that they mentioned his name on versus during the TdF coverage. whatever. posters are forever.

next up: a tale of three is cities (in installments). that's right-- beth bikes! is back, baby!

Friday, July 03, 2009

visits and visitors

an avc post is in order... actually, 2 avc posts are in order, but that requires going through the oodles of pictures, and i don't have time for that.

well, that is a lie.

if there is one thing i do have, it is time.  i have had a ridiculous amount of time today and this week.  mostly, because i am not really riding my bike.  

apparently my little bounce on the concrete during the scratch race has somehow messed me up more than i thought, considering my left knee is about 1.5-2 times the size of my right knee, despite me giving myself freezer burn with the ice pack and getting a bit too frisky compressing with the ace bandage.

trying to make an appointment at kaiser is somewhat challenging.  despite trying to make an appointment for friday or monday, they tell you you have to go to the ER...and when you say: "it's not really an emergency, this happened 5 days ago" -- they coax you into going, saying: no, no. there is a minor injury clinic inside the ER...it's not really the ER.  but that is a lie.  there is no minor injury co-pay.  there is only an ER co-pay.  

i really wouldn't mind that so much, if there was actually a point in seeing the doctor.  but there wasn't a point.  unless you call that being scolded and patronized in the exam room.  i kinda wanted to tell the doctor-- who i don't even know his name, because he never bothered to introduced himself-- 'i have several people who i could have called to say shitty things about me, and i am sure they would have only charged $50'...but of course i didn't say that because i am a big pushover.

but what did i do when he left?  i cried like a baby in the exam room.  then i went home and called to make an appointment with an acupuncturist.  take that.   

so i wake up this morning and don't really feel like getting dressed...or brushing my hair...or teeth...so i don't.  and then around 9:30 my doorbell rings. so i put my hoodie on over my tank top to look decent; i hobble down the stairs, hoping that it will take too long and the visitors will leave.  but they don't.

two middle age men stand at the door with the Awake! magazine.  

"hello"

"excuse me, ma'am.  but can i interest you in a magazine on depression?"

"uh, no thanks" and i close the door.

i realize i look like shit, but isn't that a bit presumptuous? 

to be effective jehovah witnesses, those guys need to work on their delivery.

noon-time rolls around and it is time for my acupuncture appointment.  i have never been to acupuncture.  i am excited.  this week, i remembered we have a chiropractic/acupuncture employee benefit at work, that i have been apparently paying for since i started working at my job, but have yet to use.  so i decide to finally make an appointment.
 
i don't really know what i would expect going to acupuncture, but it definitely wasn't filling out no less than 12 pieces of paper asking my name, address, insurance #.... all with said: date: ____, _____  19____.

in the "lobby" he said: stick out your tongue.  so i did.  and he looked at it for .05 seconds.  then i told him i have "bursitis of the knee", and he took me to the back and stuck some needles in it after poking it and asking me where it hurt.  then he stuck some more in my shoulder and hand, after asking if those hurt, which they did, cause i fell there too.  then he left.  and i laid there. 

and laid there.

and, i laid there.

as i was laying, i was hoping the needles would hurt.  i discovered if you kinda moved around a bit, they would give you that nice pleasant pain, so i'd jiggle, but then even jiggling didn't make an ache.  and i felt gypped.  i wanted some pain.  i thought needles would give a nice mild pain sensation, but that wasn't the case.  i was bored, so, i listened to some woman in the next curtain over moan in quite a fashion, which made me feel like i was getting again gypped.  so instead i went to sleep, cause this was just a waste of time.

over an hour later, he came back.   he took out the needles and asked me if it felt better, and i just said yes, because i didn't want to say no, and then him make me lie there another hour.the coffee shop was close by, and that sounded much more appealing.  then he got some herbs in some nasty paste and slapped them on my knee and told me that this was going to reduce the swelling.  and they smelled really bad, but i didn't care so much, because i haven't showered for a few days anyway.  then he told me to come back on monday: "i'll call to schedule my follow-up appointment...."  yep.

and then i sat with smelly herbs on my knee for the majority of today, which i definitely don't think are doing anything....but at least the guy wasn't a prick.  

honestly, i am kind of regretting not taking that Awake! magazine from the Jehova's cause they don't even charge a copay.