Freiheit!!!

I guess I really am quite the German geek, because I titled my post "Freiheit" which means freedom.  Freedom from what you ask?  School of course!!

I can't believe 1) that I haven't blogged for over a week  :0 and 2) that It is summer!  I am so excited to be blogging and not having to rush for school work later :)

so, what has been going on, lets see.....  eats shall we?
A sandwich I had some time during the week with fete, Tabbouleh, and turkey.

a bowl of banana oats I believe...

And more oats with Justin's cinnamon PB


So last week consisted of school, finals, and more school.  One interesting thing I did: My first mountain bike ride!  I had a lot of fun, but I crashed 5 times :p  I guess that is part of learning right?  I got really dirty!! 
It really was a lot more dirt than the photos show. And I now have like 7 bruises all over my knee!

This weekend, I did quite a bit of riding :)  We had great weather and it was nice.  My dad is home this weekend so I got to ride with him and my mom as well!  That was good :)  Saturday was just our usual breakfast ride, and sunday I went on a training ride with another team.  I got 50 miles in on that ride then I went with my parents and some friends to a little coffee shop for a bit of lunch and I got 90 miles for the day.  I was pretty happy with that, because it was SO hot!  I was glad to get home.

Then today, I woke up to go on a ride with the family, but we were all tired and didn't want to go so we didn't :)  I am glad that I was able to let it go and not worry about it too much.  We had a showing at 10:45 so we cleaned every inch of the house and got out of there by 10:40 and just drove around in the car with the dogs.  Then the showing service calls us at 11:40 when we are almost home anyway, and tells us that the showing is cancelled because the buyers didn't like the neighbourhood!!  I wish they hadn't even called and let us think that they had at least come and we had cleaned meticulously for some purpose!  Having your house on the market sucks.

but I got to take my grandma to whole foods!! She had never been so I got her hooked up with all of our blogger goodies ;) Lara bars, bulk nuts and seeds, some chocolate covered almonds, dried figs, Medjool dates, ahh she loved it! And I did too because I got to get all my stuff too!! More Medjools for me ;)


And my cousin had a baby..... at home!!!!!*$)(#*$)#@*&!  I think that is so crazy!!  Everything went well though, so that is good  :)

On to tonight.  We went out to a Thai restaurant and I got a jungle curry and I ordered it hot.  And it was HOT!  I didn't get a picture, but it was chicken and veggies that were lightly cooked and still had some nice crunch to them.  It was all sitting in a deceivingly simple broth with herbs that was really insanely spicy!

Then we went for froyo!  I must admit that I have not been to a froyo place in forever!  There aren't that many here, but there was one right next to the Thai place so I got everyone to go there :)  I got a mixture of coconut and taro (which they tell me is a root) topped with cashews, coconut, and pineapple.  It was delish!!!  A perfect nightie snack :)

And look at the walls! Covered in hearts!!

So that was pretty much it for me!  I will talk to you all later, and hopefully more frequently now that school is out :)  Keep on loving yourself and enjoy a terrific tuesday!!

Scott

weekend update

I hope you all had a very nice weekend!! The weather here was just beautiful, and I got to ride quite a bit so I am happy J I am doing a lot better now than I was when I wrote my last post, thanks to all of your thoughtful comments and support from you and my family. I appreciate it  :]



Friday: My dad got home!!!!! =D I am so glad to see him! He is working at the Louisville office for two weeks so he is coming home on the weekends :] And I enjoyed this coffee and this breakfast!

oatmeal with blackberries, yogurt, and almonds

Saturday: I rode the breakfast ride with my parents and friends. It was nice, I got a good pace going with another guy on the way to breakfast and it was pretty relaxed after that. Fun though. Then I got home, drank some silk chocolate milk (I love that stuff!!!) and showered, had lunch, then I headed off to the café at church. I had a pretty non busy time at the café, but it was nice. Then I went to church. It was a really good service about how our lives are so stressed out and we speed through everything to get to the next thing. It makes me realize how much I do this, and how much I am missing…



Then we went out to dinner with some friends of ours. It was a lot of fun, we just talked there for a long time and I had a great meal.






It was Alaskan halibut, fresh caught and prepared on site, poached with artichokes, summer squash, olives, and I think there was a bit of butter. It was so good! And cooked just right. It was so tender and just fell apart. Ddddrrrroooollllllll…….. ;)



Sunday: I woke up at 5:15 to eat this…





Muesli soaked overnight with Medjool dates and apple juice with a bit of yogurt.  I added cashews and a blend of soy nuts and seeds in the morning.  It was really good!!!

And go for a ride! I left and couldn’t find my inhaler, so I was a bit worried, but I found it in the car when I got there. This ride is so much fun! I haven’t done it since last season. It is put on by another team, but they don’t mind if we come. It is a really fast ride! It starts at 7 and I get home by 9:30 after doing 50+ miles! I think we averaged like 21 or so including the ride there and back home slowly. I think on the fastest section of the ride we averaged about 24.5mph for probably 10-12 miles. It was such a blast! And I got third place in a sprint ;) I don’t want to sound braggy, but I am pretty proud, and it was so much fun!!!



Then I got home and my parents had a ride planned to the coffee shop, so I was in for that! We ended up having like 20 people and overwhelmed the coffee shop! I had a bagel with cream cheese, because I hardly ever have that. It was so good!! And of course I had an espresso ;]



Then home and relaxing/studying time. We went to Skyline for dinner, and it was pretty good. Nice and easy. I am looking forward to this next week of school because…….. It is the last week!!!! I can’t wait to get out!!!



Have a great Monday! I hope you had just as great of a weekend as I did J



Scott

Whatev...

I want to thank you all so much for all of your comments.  They mean so much to me and keep me going day in and day out.  I really can not thank you enough.  I will try though ;)  Thank You! Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!Thank You!...........!!!!!!!!!


Soooo today pretty much sucked up until about an hour ago.  I have to vent so here ya go.  I will try to keep it short, and I have something positive to say in a minute.  I promise! :]

Where did it go wrong you ask?  Oh about 7 this morning :/  First my mom can't get her car started to go to work, so she takes the other one.  No biggie, I was going to ride the bus anyway.  I get to school and go to engineering class.  We are doing this project where we make custom lego parts on the computer that will fit onto regular legos.  We have to make a vehicle of some type.  Then we get to print them on the 3D printer!  Cool right?!?!  In theory...

Dimensioning lego pieces is first and foremost a pain in the ###!  And it is crucial when you make custom pieces, otherwise they won't fit the standard ones.  The real problem came today, when my part came out of the printer.  You see, the parts are built on top of another plastic as a support, and the parts themselves are made out of PVC plastic type stuff.  I got my piece today and was trying to break off the extra support material, and my door completely broke.  And then it broke again. And again. :/  Apparently the plastic isn't as strong as I thought.  I made the doors .025 in thick, which wasn't enough I guess.  I asked him if I could print it again after I made it thicker.  He said we would have to see if he has time.  What?!?!?  Ugh, now our whole project is up in the air and we have been working on it for like 6 weeks :/

Then in the last period today I had to turn in this book project we have been working on for the past few weeks.  It is a group project, so as my luck seemed to be going today, one of our members didn't bring any of his stuff in.  Great.  Then when I get the grade back I find out that I got a 10/15 (67%) on my book review.  Mind you, this is the same grade that my group member got when he wrote the review, all two paragraphs of it, right before class.  I had a whole page and it was well written so I went up to him to ask what was up.  He looked at me and told me it had to be typed.  NOTHING in the instructions said that, so I asked him "did it say anything about that"  and he is like "no, but everything has to be typed now"  WHAT!?!?!  News to me!!  And mind you, I am a good student and am pretty good at knowing what's going on...  I guess my teachers like to make up rules they never told us about...

I was looking forward to getting out to go on a ride to just get a break from all this school crap, so I went home, figured out what was wrong with the car, and got ready to drive up to pick my mom up.  Then, it rained.  And it rained more.  And more.  So no riding for me.  perfect especially when Tuesday we didn't go because it looked like it was going to rain, and it didn't!  I am so sick of this stupid weather!  Arizona, here I come!!!!!!

I promised a positive to this post, and I am a man of my word ;)  Here it is: Right now I am saying screw it. (Thanks Ellie!!)  Because you know what?  It doesn't really matter.  I have so much else I have to be thankful for!  I need to try to focus on that more, I really do.  And now I get to read your blogs and contemplate all of your deep and interesting thoughts, and get caught up on your days (which were hopefully better than mine!).  I am off to do that right now...

Have a fantabulous friday okay??  You all deserve it so much, you are brilliant!!
 

Scott

Trip report and updates

Has it really been an entire week since I have blogged?!?!  I think it has!  I am about due then aren't I!

The important stuff first.  I have been struggling a bit lately.  I haven't lost any weight, but my eating habits are becoming a bit more ED like :( And I can see it with my own eyes but I don't know what to do!  I guess it is a really stressful time for me, with finals and the end of school coming up, my trip to Germany, and moving to Arizona.  I am excited for it all, but maybe it is all coming at me a bit too fast?  I don't know...  But that doesn't make it okay.  Why am I going back down this road if I know I don't want to?  I don't want to loose all that I have gained!  It is just a little bit of a change here and there, but the more I act on these thoughts the worse they will become.  And I know that but ugh :/   It makes me feel better just to write that though.  It has been bothering me the last couple of days...

So, the rest of my trip right?  Here it goes...

On tuesday morning (or was it wednesday.???) I had oats with some of this: 

Nom Nom Nom...

I also bought these which I have eaten over the past couple of days.  They are my first Raw Revolution bars and I must say they are quite good!  They have a bit of a different texture to them, but good nonetheless :]

Some pics from the plane... 

You can see the Indianapolis Speedway in this one!  Isn't that cool?!?!

And of course the house!~~

the breakfast nook.  I LOVE the natural light!!

the kitchen, AKA heart of the house ;]  I like the sink being in the island ;}

And here are a few ideas we want to implement for the yard.  Right now, it is a blank canvas!!

And lastly, I found this beautiful moth on a taxi parked next to my dad's car! 

Then I got back on wednesday night and on friday I headed up to Chicago to race on saturday morning!  I feel like a world travler!!

We stayed at my coach's mom's house.  She has hosted us for the past three years I have been here, and I am not sure how long before that.  She is so sweet!  They are a traditional Mexican family so it is always a home-made Mexican feast whenever we come over ;)  Tacos, but the kind the Mexicans meant for them to be!  They were great :)

Then the race(s) were on saturday.  My first race was at 8am for the juniors.  I felt well, but I ended up getting caught pulling at the front.  That means to block the wind for the rest of the group and use up more energy.  I tried to slow down but nobody would pass :/  Anyways, I did fine, but on the last turn I took a bad line and slowed down too much.  I wasn't where I needed to for the sprint so I got 7th.  I am ok with that though :)

Then the cat 4 race was at 3:45.  Two words that you need to know for this race.  BIG CRASH.  Yep.  I mean BIG!  The whole race went fine, except I was farther back in the pack than I would have liked.  I kept trying to move up then kept getting squished out the back.  I think I wasn't aggressive enough...  But then with two laps to go, I hear this huge crashing sound.  It takes me a second to figure out what is going on, and then there are bikes falling over to my right.  From what I am told, some team attacked off the front to start the sprint and they bumped some people and caused a domino effect.  All in all there were probably 20+ riders that went down all across the road.  I was near the back so I am so thank God I didn't go down.  The odds were definitely against me.  I slammed on my brakes and locked up the rear wheel for a second, then got it back under control and stopped.  As soon as I stopped it was like I re entered the world, cause I was like in a trance/survival mode during the crash.  I looked to my right and saw a guy moaning in pain, and a guy running by me screaming "where the f*** is my bike!!"  At that point I decided I should really try to help out, I couldn't finish any better anyways.  I tried to get the ambulance to come which they finally did.  It was a fiasco.  I rode over to the finish and saw some guy carrying his bike and his wheel was bent like a taco.  Ouch.  Not a good day for some.  I am so thankful I am safe.

Then sunday I went to Cincinnati to see my cousin that lives in Florida and is the head chef at a restaurant there.  My eating problems were noticeable there :(  They had lasagne and garlic bread, and I just sat there picking it apart and eating certain parts.  It is awful, and I know I am upsetting my family, and myself, but I feel like it is out of my control. Ugh...

So that is the end of my novel of a post.  Sorry it is so long, I just had a lot to say I guess!  Now I am off to study some more if I am good, but probably read some blogs before I go to bed and maybe watch a bit of tv ;)

Have a terrific Tuesday!!!!

Scott

Terribly stressful day!!

I am becoming a really inconsistent blogger and I am SO sorry!!  I just wanted to let you know I am still here, and doing pretty well :)

I had an ok flight back from Phoenix, I will post a proper post about the trip (with plenty of pictures!!)  Soon.  But, for all my German readers out there, here is my Märchen (fairy tale)

Tiermädchen und das Pferd

Es war einmal ein Mädchen. Sie wohnte mit ihrem Vater. Sie hieß Tiermädchen, weil sie Tiere mag. Der Vater war ein Bauer, aber Tiermädchen machte die ganze Arbeit. Der Vater war sehr gemein. Er liebte das Obst mehr als seinem Tochter. Also war Tiermädchen immer trauirg.

Eines Tages das Mädchen stritt mit ihrem Vater und rannte im Wald. Sie saß beim Baum und wünschte fur ein Pferd. Wenn sie die Augen ausmachte, sah sie ein Pferd!  Dann sagte das Pferd „Hallo!“  Sie konnte mit dem Pferd sprechen!  Sie sprachen über ihrem vater und wie böse er war.  Sie warren beste Freunden.  Sie war sehr froh und ritt das Pferd nach Hause. Der vater war sehr böse, weil er sagte dass Tiermädchen kein Pferd durft. Sie sagte "Vater, es ist kostenlose! Ich hab es gefunden!" Der Vater war noch böse. Dafür musste das Mädchen drei Jahre arbeiten.

Sie arbeitet naturlich mit dem Pferd.  Sie saß mit ihr Pferd, und dachte an was sie machen soll.   Sie wunschte daß ihrem Vater ärmlich wurde.  Mit Obst, er wurde kein geld bekommen!  Sie sagte das zu das Pferd. Am nächsten tag, das pferd aß alle das Obst des Vaters. Er hat kein Obst zu verkaufen, also er ärmlich war. Dann das Pferd ein shöner mann wurde. Er sagte "Weil du sehr nett und gut war, ich werde dein Mann sein" Dan veheirateten der Mann und das Mädchen, jetz eine Dame, und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind leben sie noch heute.

I hope you liked it!  Let me know ;)  It is about a girl who finds she can talk to horses and gets revenge on her mean dad by making him poor.  :)

Then tonight I had a meeting for my Germany trip!!  I am so excited :]  I will again tell you more later!

I am off to race tomorrow in Chicago!  I am super excited =D  It is a big race for our team and I will race with them.  I can't wait!  I will tell you for sure :)

Wish me luck and have a great friday and saturday!!!

Scott

I am in Phoenix!

That ^^ was a cappuccino from a couple days ago I forgot to post.  Isn't she pretty? ;]

OK now, a little confession here: I haven't gotten to read any blogs yesterday or today :o  I miss you all and I can't wait to read tonight!!  So, the reason why... well here was my last two days...

ok.  I posted saturday afternoon about my race, which went well.  I found out Sunday morning that I won the junior division!  :D  I am so happy!  I didn't know because we raced with the men so I didn't know where I finished compared to the other kids, but I won!  End of boasting, sorry about that :(

Ok, then yesterday was Mothers day.  I LOVE you Mom!!  I really couldn't have made it through this year without you.  So we celebrated by going to church and then lunch.  I don't know why, but ED has been popping up in my life a little  bit more lately.  I don't like it.  I guess it must be the stress about not knowing about the housing and stuff and the being away from home... it is a lot of stress.  But it has got to stop!  I have worked too hard to get here and I am not going to let myself slide back down the mountain.  I can't.  End of story.  Keep me responsible please :]

So, as I said I was struggling a bit yesterday.  I didn't eat enough for lunch, I had a great salad but not enough carbs.  Then at night we went to my aunt and uncles and didn't want anything they had for dinner.  By the time I was hungry, the food was put away.

When I got home, I felt bad and I knew i needed to make up for my lack of nutrition through the day, so I had a snackie :]    I had an unpictured pb and honey sandwich with this: a mixture of pudding and greek yogurt.

before...

and after mixing!

I added some cereal and nuts and it was great!!

On to today.  I woke up at 3:00 AM to leave for Phoenix.  You know how flights are, so I won't bore you, but we got here.  An hour late, but we are here ;)  And I get to see my Dad!!!  We had such a busy day today!  We went out to eat at souper salad, and it was really good!  This was the first time I ate there, and I will have to go back again!  I got some vegetable soup, random salad, cornbread, and a baked sweet potato! <3

Then we visited our new house!  It is so nice, yet so different from our current house.  It has totally different architecture, and it is a bit smaller with different design and I will just have to share some pictures!

Then we visited the school, which was nice.  It is really hard to beat the school I am at now though... more on that later...

I am off to pick dad up from work, so I will talk to you later, but I will leave you with a few more pictures...


Breakfast Sunday morning... pb banana oats with mom :]


a bag of potatoes my grandma found under the cabinent. Yes, they are growing something. No, I don[t know how old they are. And Yes, it IS gross!!


We found locally roasted coffee in the airport this morning in Dayton OH. At about 4:45 in the morning!!



a cactus by our community center at the new house. They are so cool, don't they look like they are dying?!?! And my dad says these type are like 200 years old!!

Well, I am off to read your blogs until I have to leave!  Talk to you later, have a great tuesday!!

Scott

 

I had my race today and I am happy to report that there were no crashes!  That is always a good thing :)  here are a few pictures from the day..^^^ I can't move the pictures around with my phone :( It went pretty well though. I felt good and raced well, but I couldn't get around the pack to get up to the sprint. I almost got pushed off the road by some guy going up the hill. So I was kinda mad at myself for not getting to the sprint :/ but whatev, I am safe!

And I just ate dinner and guess what?  I just ate out with family and they had a "diet" menue with the cals listed and everything.  Well, I got something that wasn't on that menu!!!  I am not gonna lie, I am quite proud of myself ;)  It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, I was about to get salmon from that "diet" menu, but it sounded so plain and I just went with the better dish!  It was supposed to have ginger, which I didn't taste but hey, it was pretty good anyway :)  And I ate it all. Yep, all :)  YAY!
Next however, we went to ice cream and I couldn't bring myself to do that, but I still think I had a great day fighting on the E.D front today :)

Have a great weekend all, I will talk to you all later!

Scott

Race tomorrow!!!!

Hello bloggies!

I don't have a lot of time to post, I had a CRAZY day!!  I had to mow the lawn, start packing, get all my homework for next week, it was busy!  I am going to go next week (Monday through Wednesday) to AZ to visit my dad and see the new house :)  It should be fun and a nice break from school.  I hope to be able to stay pretty well up on my school work so I don't have too much to make up.

So the title :) ^^  I am racing tomorrow!!  I am excited :)  It is supposed to be cool (45 ish degrees) in the morning.  It is down-town Indianapolis in a park and it should be pretty good.  I am all ready to go :]  I will report asap after the race ;)

well, I don't have much to say so I will read what you all did!  I will talk to you later and hopefully get to blog from the phone some quickie posts (like these last few have been :/ sorry about that!)

Have a fantastic weekend!!

Scott

Thank you

I don't have time for a very long post tonight, but I just wanted to let you all know how much your comments mean to me.  Every single one of them.  You are all so kind and insightful, and I get something out of every single comment to better prepare me to continue this fight against ED.  For that, I thank you :]

Today, I didn't do much.  Another free day in band.  Yes, that is 4 in a row, 6 hours of free time in band class.  What a lazy teacher right?  Well I got a lot done though so I'm not complaining ;)  Then in German we are writing our Märchen (fairy tale) so that was a fun class.  I promise to share it with any of you that know German ;)

Then tonight I rode the training ride :]  It was so fun!  We had so many people there that I know!  Graham was there, and B and his dad and J and it was great!  Unfortunately I didn't feel great because I had a cold and asthma (not a good mix)  but it was fun.  I did well enough, stayed with the pack, and felt good about it. 

Tomorrow I have a busy day :/  as long as it doesn't rain I will ride my bike to school, then after school to work, then to church, and get home at 8:45.  That is almost a 13 hour day!!  We will see though...

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Scott

Monday 3. April 2010

Hello everybody!  I hope you all had a nice Monday :]

My day went pretty well.  I guess it started a trend when I had a sub in math :]  It was still kinda really boring, but at least we didn't have to deal with Ms. ####  that is so awful!!  Then we watched a tv show in second period called Intervention.  Have any of you seen it?  It is pretty good in my opinion.  This episode was about a crack cocaine addict and a heroin addict.  They always have an intervention at the end (hence the name of the show)  and both of these people had been sober since 2007, so it ended on a positive note.

Then in third period (band), we had a a free day!  Third one in a row! :p  I just sat around and talked and memorised some stuff for German class.

Then German was fun as usual ;)  we always do so much in each and every day!  Today we talked about another fairy tale and started working on our own.

After school today, I planned on going on a bike ride.  So I got ready and left the house by about 5:30 to get up to the starting point by 6:15.  My mom was going to drive but I wanted to be sure I got there on time.  I am paranoid about being late, but I am always early!  Anyway so I got there and no sooner than I did, a storm blew in :(  We were deciding wether or not to ride and there was a huge cool down so we decided to leave.  It was a good decision because we got a royal downpour a few minutes later.  So I was glad to have gone home.

This however, brought with it a minor problem:  I had already eaten my bar to ride :/  I know it shouldn't really matter if I ride or not after eating it, but it is such a routine for me.  I have a hard time going above and beyond my usual meal plan (I use this term loosely, I don't have a MP so to speak, more of a pattern of eating that is possibly a bit more rigid than the average person).  So, the ride home was a bit stressful because of this, but I decided to ride indoors instead.  I am happy to say that I didn't ride indoors for very long at all.  Way less than I would have outside because it is so boring.  I think that earlier on in my recovery I would have done way more on the spin bike and this change in schedule would have bothered me tremendously.  But it is OK.  Will an extra few hundred calories kill me or make me a slower cyclist? NO!!  ED lies, I tell you what, are SO irrational, and each and every time I notice this, the happier and more independent of my ED I feel.

On to some eats to finish up this post...

A snack some day. Aren't these tiny carrots? So long and skinny! with blue corn tortilla chips

A cup of yogurt-filled to the brim :)

A smoothie I made tonight. I always seem to make too much. So I get to have some tomorrow ;]

Make tomorrow a great day!  I promise to give it my all :]

Scott

second post in two consecutive days!!

Can you believe that I am posting two consecutive days‽ <-- haha I love that!!
 I can't believe it either!!

So my day today consisted of 

1. Riding in the car (thanks for the ride Paul!)
2. eating
3. racing

yeah.  It was fine, the drive was nice, but the race sucked :/  

We got to the race in plenty of time to warm up and stuff, so that was good.  It was a two hour drive to get there!  I got registered and they gave me this cool little timing chip to wear around my ankle, it was so neat!  I think cycling is behind the curve on this, because I know running races have it all the time, but not many of my bike races have them... but anyway, the weather was fine and I got warmed up nice and stuff.  


Then the race started and everything went downhill :(


I got a bad position on the line.  There were probably about 80 people because it was a combined cat 4&5 race (I am a 4 and the lower the number the better, 5 being the lowest).  I got started about mid pack or so then after the first turn the whole front of the pack slams on their brakes!  Huge bike racing etiquette nono right there!  when you want to slow down just pull off the front of the pack don't hit your brakes gosh!!  So whatever, I sat in and what do you know... it happened again!!  And when I say slam I mean it!  I about crashed into the guy in front of me and I smelt burning brake pads - it was serious.  But there wasn't a crash or a turn or anything!  They were braking for NOTHING!!  These were some really inexperienced riders (we call them squirrelly in bike lingo)  Then I slowed down and left some room between me and the pack until I could get to the front of the group after the first lap or so.  I tried to avoid what I like to call "the accordion effect"     then...

Hello asthma :(  How nice of you to join me!  Right about this time I started to feel my chest tighten up.  Great.  Fabulous.  Wonderful!!  So I went around one more lap to see if it would go away so that I could at least finish the race.  No go.  It only got worse throughout the lap :(  Then I was going around a corner and I see a couple of bikes off of the road.  I figure that he may have had a flat or something.  It was a crash!  I knew this would happen with such a squirrelly group!  How awful!  I just continued on though because there were people there helping him already.  I ended up pulling off after 2 out of the 5 laps because of my stupid asthma.  Crap :/

So that was my race.  4 hours round trip in the car for this :/  But I have found a positive in all of this!  I am racing next weekend and I am going to be sure to get a better starting position at the line.  That will make a huge difference!!  And another HUGE positive:  I am safe.  The most important thing :)

So, some details on the crash shall we? His bike was trashed!  He said the day probably cost him $2,000 in parts!!  His handlebars were made of carbon fibre and were completely ripped apart.  They looked like straw or something and you could just bend them around.  He also broke his brand new shifter.  Then his wheel got broken, which was a brand new zipp (read: $1000) and he was really upset.  I felt sorry for the guy because there was nothing he could do to avoid it, the guy just went down right in front of him :/  He wasn't too hurt though, just some pretty bad road rash...

I will talk to you all tomorrow!  I am going to help my sister move some furniture up to her new house on campus :)

Enjoy your day tomorrow!!  Make the best of it :]

Scott