Jason (HR), Bonner and Joel (both in Modeling (not the super kind, the weather forcasting kind)) show thier stuff
Yee ha, pardner! How could I resist sharing some moments from the ICAT company picnic? I must say, these guys know how to party like no other company I ever worked for (in one month I attended numerous baby showers, happy hours, and birthday celebrations) and this company picnic, though reportedly “low-key”, was no different.

Yes, that is me licking a cow pie, just before tossing it in the great Cow Chip Tossing Constest. And yes, that is our very own Pat in the background, riding her imaginary stick pony (who knew?)
ICAT did it up cowboy style, at Sylvan Dale Ranch outside of Estes Park
It was incredibly warm out, especially for me in my cowgirl duds, but a nice day overall.

Atul Gawande’s 2002 book, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science brought up a diverse array of interesting topics. I’ll address each topic that most impacted me as separate entries in this book.
My entire life I’ve been a heavy blusher. At first I denoted my frequently red face to my debilitating shyness. Then is seemed to come up for no reason. That’s when I came up with the “my blood vessels are closer to the surface of my skin” excuse. Later I thought it may have to do with high blood pressure and that perhaps my blood just flowed with more intensity than most (my face gets unusually red when I am exposed to heat, cold, while exercising, embarrassed, or surprised, or thinking about anything with intensity). I’ve seen other people around me blush, but never with the frequency that I do. Again, like many other idiosyncrasies, I ignored it. The only frustration from frequent blushing is that many people feel the need to point it out, which distracts from the point I am trying to make. Sometimes I am worried that the person will incorrectly assume I am embarrassed (sometimes I am, but sometimes I just had a thought that was embarrassing but is of no association to the current situation). Lately, people ask me “if I got a lot of sun.” It’s easier to answer, “yes” than try to explain a condition I know nothing about.
But then Atul Gawande writes, for a whole chapter, about a newscaster with “pathological blushing.” Once again, more puzzle pieces to my own life are coming together by reading this book!
The newscaster’s blushing limited her career options. She wanted more, so she flew to Switzeland to have sections of the sympathetic nerves that ran up her chest cauterized via endoscopy. This is a surgery traditionally (and with little success) used to treat inoperable heart disease, glaucoma, epilepsy and others. They noticed that it consistently stopped facial blushing and uncontrollable sweating of the face and palms. It successfully stopped her blushing, with the side effects of strange sweating habits and the constant horror of living a lie. It never occurred to me that some would find this a condition worth surgical correction. But then again, a lot of money goes into boob jobs, doesn’t it? There’s a lot to learn from this woman who cured the physical problem, but basically ignored the psychological one.

When I was between the ages of 6 and 10, I vomited a lot more than I have the entire rest of my life combined. While it added to the long list of things that gave cohorts reason to say, “You’re weird” it in itself did not seem to be reason for alarm. I avoided foods I ate prior to “loosing it” which accounted for times large amounts of vomit came out of my mouth. Spaghetti and garlic bread seemed to be the culprit for a while, a premise I hated because spaghetti was one of my favorite meals. But there were the times I “controlled it”. On these cases, I would vomit into my mouth and simply swallow it back down. This usually happened after I ate. Sometimes, if I were outside, I would spit the vomit out, but only if I felt no one was looking. The experience tasted horrible and felt uncomfortable in the throat. But it did no harm, so I just figured it was a part of me, like having ankles that pop every time I move them. My ankles still pop, but the vomiting stopped by the time I hit puberty. Now I read this book, Complications, by Atul Gawande and he refers to a condition known as rumination syndrome which is the unexplained condition of people vomiting after they eat for no apparent reason. I feel like a missing puzzle piece of my life has been found!

Atul Gawande’s 2002 book, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science brought up a diverse array of interesting topics. I’ll address each topic that most impacted me as separate entries in this book.
In the first sections of his book, Gawande covers the vexing complexities of becoming a surgeon. He notes that practice, not talent, makes a good surgeon. One of his professors commented that that when given the choice of choosing a Ph.D. who painstakingly cloned a gene and a sculptor to become a surgeon, he would choose the Ph.D. every time. The sculptor would be more talented, but he could count on the Ph.D. being less “flaky.” “Skill can be taught. Tenacity cannot.” (Gawande, 20)
This brings up a conundrum when it comes to surgical training. All doctor’s adhere to the Hippocratic Oath to provide the best care possible to all patients. However, older surgeons are better because they have more practice that surgeons-in-training. But with there being only one way for a beginning surgeon to get better, all surgeons must compromise that oath to learn. I am reminded of this fact when it came to choosing where to have LASIK eye surgery. My choice weighed heavily on the surgeon who completed the most surgeries. Gawande used Shouldice Hospital outside Toronto for his example. Shouldice does nothing but treat hernia patients, and therefore is so practiced and focused that their operations take about 30 minutes and have a 1-percent recurrence rate (the average for other hospitals is 90 minutes with a 10-15 percent recurrence rate). Gawande points out that a Furthermore, when it has been studied, computers tend to outperform doctors in diagnostic and procedural tasks (Gawande, 37). Gawande argues that research would be better utilized to focus on improving diagnostics (currently studies indicate physicans accurately diagnose a patient less than 30% of the time) and automating procedures instead of finding cures and improving technology. Under his model, doctors would have more time to provide direct care to patients, which is lacking under our current system. Repeatedly he notes that most doctors rely on their “gut instinct” when it comes to diagnostics and procedural decision-making. While it feels best and is less time-consuming that penning a complete statistical analysis, it is easily influenced by outside factors and, according to statistics, frequently wrong. I quickly identified with the surgeon on this observation. When interviewing candidates for positions in Antarctica, I would ask identical interview questions to each candidate. However, I was bothered by the lack of convincing evidence that the questions I asked were the right ones, that the answers I sought were the right answers, or that the person I hoped to hire by answering these questions “right” was even the right person for the job. I had no hard evidence for any of this, and the hiring managers and HR staff lent me no insight. Who I chose and who I didn’t came down to “gut feeling” or instinct. Therefore, if I was not 100% focused on the interview while conducting it (I rarely was) I felt I was compromising my decision-making. At the end of it all, I felt I could simply strike conversations up at random with these candidates instead of asking questions. If it came down to my “gut instinct” what did questions matter? What did consistency and fairness of questioning matter? The way in which hiring managers hire for Antarctic positions varies so drastically that a study could never be conducted in any reasonable time frame. Yet, there is a certain person that fit “The Ice” lifestyle and the rest do not. The best way the program has determined to identify these people is to have those already known to fit the profile talk to others. The human body is so much more complex, and our health so much more important that hiring that I deeply sympathize with these physicians.
A big personal discovery was made while reading this section of the book. I am the artist, the sculptor, not by trade, but by personality. I am flaky. I am not tenacious. For years I struggled with my identity as an artist. The more I struggle to practice, to achieve competencies for the social and work world, the more frustrated I feel. Where my flakiness before felt only a negative trait that must be dispelled before I alienate all my friends and employers, I now see it as a trait to be lovingly accepted. Maybe this flakiness I so despise is deeply connected to the inspiration I so long for.

An earwig, turned upside down, struggled to right himself behind my bathroom door. Every time I went into the bathroom, I would notice the earwig and his constant struggle of flailing legs grasping nothing but air. I would make a note to transport the guy outside, but would invariably forget by the time I finished my business. But each time I noticed him, my amazement would increase. For 6 days this earwig struggled to right himself. For 6 days he did nothing else but wiggle his 6 little legs in the air. Sometimes the flailing was rapid, sometimes slow, sometimes he stopped altogether, if only for a moment. That level of tenacity that comes when death is the only other option is amazing. I felt it was worth mentioning here. How long would you struggle before giving up to death? Does the lack of a cerebral cortex that we humans have grown to regrettable proportions, make being tenacious any easier?

I lost a lot of motivation to ride this year. Yeah, riding is great once I’m on the saddle. OH but the getting there. For next, I’ve already set lofty goals to achieve.
I hope to increase my motivation with these lofty goals, and by incorperating new training ideas. I would like to try indoor training videos or spinning videos. If anyone out there has recommendations on PodCasts, VideoCasts (preferred) or DVDs for cycling/spinning I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear them!

Ride Ideas
http://www.bikethewest.com/AMBBR.html
America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride, Lake Tahoe, NV
June 8, 2008

http://bikeutu.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?fr_id=7250&pg=entry
MS 150 Utah, Cache Valley Utah, UT
June 28-29, 2008

http://bikecoc.nationalmssociety.org
MS 150 Colorado, ?, CO
July 5-6, 2008

http://www.parkrec.nd.gov/parks/fssp.htm
CANDISK Fort Stevenson State Park, ND
August 2-9, 2008

To train for this:

Train 2 hours per week September-February on the ice
Train 3 times a week, 1 hour each (focus upper body, lower body, core) September-February on the ice
6 hours a week of physical and/or aerobic activity March-April
80 miles a week May
100 miles a week June
focus on speed, continue 100 miles a week July

I have to got hand it to The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus . In this world where songs about finding perfect love or sad breakups dominate the pop music scene, it is refreshing to hear a band breakout into the mainstream sing about something substantial. Domestic violence affects so many families in our country, yet few people address it. Like many terrible epidemics in our country (famine, poverty, homelessness, medical care), domestic violence gets pushed aside to easier issues to stomach, like that war way over in Iraq. While the song doesn’t go into much depth, or discuss anything people can do when in a sitution like this, they are at least getting the topic out there. As of today, they’ve spent 13 weeks in the Billboard to 20. I hope that the song will at least get people talking about it, and getting the issue more out in the open. Hell, if one couple realizes they are stuck in this downward spiral and gets out, I say The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus deserves many accolades from the music industry!

For more information on domestic violence, check out my friend Elise Hudson’s website in progress, KnowDomesticViolence or
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224 (TTY) - Break the silence, make the call. or
Love is Not Abuse.

If there was one thing I could say to someone in a hurtful or violent relationship, it would be “Please, act now. Life is to short and too special for you to suffer this way. And you can get out of it. Trust me.”

On a similar topic, this song by Lit epitomizes the standard pop song of today. While it might get the introspecive into thinking about serious issues like domestic violence, it does nothing to benefit the masses. Songs that rock get to the top of my list, ones I can space out to and feel the rythem inside. It’s especially nice if the lryics in the song were also meaningful, for those few days when I want to do more than just rock out.