Yeah! I tore my rotator cuff¹ doing extreme sports.

“It’s a good thing you wore your loosest possible jeans to work then, isn’t it? Really tight ones would make going to the bathroom really, really difficult.”

It sure would. Dammit.

1. Yes, again.

I really can’t say that I was expecting a massive thunderstorm instead.

In retrospect, I wish I’d taken the bus, letting me get in another post about how the #8 bus is crazy and how it was much better when my MLA drove me to work every day. Sadly, it was not to be.

I have to say, I’ve never seen a thunderstorm like this in Vancouver. From the streams coming up on Twitter, it doesn’t appear to be stopping the fireworks in English Bay though, so if they can press on, so can we!

It’s a Kuwahara-built Apollo road bike, with a 62cm frame with double-butted Tange 900 chromoly steel tubes. From 1984, if the serial number is accurate at all. I bought the frame separately, though it came with the original seat, stem and a pair of terrible, out-of-true wheels that were still good enough to walk it home from Richmond.^[1]

It had originally been intended to be converted into a fixie, which is why a lot of the other original parts were absent. As it turned out, the rider for which it had originally been intended was way too short for it. (Read: under 6 feet tall.)

Because of this, the woman I bought it from was extremely careful to be clear just what I was buying when I talked to her on the phone.

“You know this is just the frame, right?“
“Yeah, it’s cool.“
“And you get how big it is, right?”

Just right, as it turns out!

I assembled it myself with help from the folks at Our Community Bikes on Main Street a few weeks ago. It’s a 62cm frame with double-butted Tange 900 chromoly steel tubes.^[2] From 1984, if the serial number is accurate at all.

I opted for a somewhat lamer braking/gears arrangement than is traditional in Mount Pleasant. In short: I actually have them. And it’s a good thing too; I may be stronger now than I’ve ever been, but there’s no way I’m making it up Vancouver’s hills on a fixed-gear bike. ^[3]

It’s got a Shimano 105 crank, with functional but boring brakes and Suntour shifters and derailleurs. So it’s kind of a beast, but the original parts it still has are in great shape.

Sadly, jogging seems to be just too hard on my knees, but cycling 8-10km a day is working out just fine. I mean, I made it here, right?

[1] On the way home with my new bike, I managed to find the sole American tourist couple taking the 98 B-line and tell them horror stories about the Downtown Eastside and Lower Mainland’s little drug war. Maybe I should be sending my resume to Tourism BC.

[2] And I know what that means now!

[3] Still, I like it, even if I’m not allowed to go to Gene anymore.

To say I was skeptical of some aspects of the conference beforehand would be a terrible, terrible understatement. On the ride up with former coworker Jnet:
Her: “So are you recovered from your flu?” [Swine flu, I swear.]
Me: “I guess, yeah… I’m still not very hungry.“
Her: “Well, you’ll have lots of good vegetarian cooking at Cortes.“
Me: “…Whaaah? Awwww.”

I know! Fortunately, said vegetarian cooking turned out to be delicious and, contrary to our hosts’ warning, I didn’t totally fart the entire time. Upon leaving Cortes, Jnet and I immediately went to a Wendy’s in Campbell River, but that’s neither here nor there. It was good, trust me.

Now, I’m not a super-huggy person, and there was a bit more hugging than I’m used to, which is honestly saying a lot, coming from the Vancouver social media scene. There was also a substantially greater-than-usual amount of talking about ambitions and goals and feelings and things. On the other hand, there were parts I was really interested in, such as answering the question, “is it possible to create a new medium and use it for artistic purposes without the first few years of its existence being used expressly to discuss that medium?” (See photography, cave painting, the web, Twitter, etc.) The answer: maybe?

Despite my skepticism, it turned out that there were parts that proved extremely valuable to me. Incredibly, these were the parts that involved tackling issues and feelings! And talking about them! If the words “coaching circle” make you wrinkle your nose in pain, you’re experiencing more or less the same sort of anticipation as I was beforehand.

And yet, the coaching circle was extremely helpful after all. Of course, there were still parts of Media that Matters that I was perhaps a little too much of a cynical prude to enjoy.

So I got back and decided I needed to make some changes. So I’m trying new things this summer. First of all, as mentioned in my last post, my knees have finally recovered enough for me to get places with my exercise regimen. (I think my problem with the stationary bike is that I get bored and always have a sneaking suspicion that I’m accomplishing less than I ought to be. I might end up buying a trainer for my bike, since there’s plenty on Craigslist, but actually using it without feeling like I’m just screwing around, that will be the challenge.)

So, exercise. What else?

• Writing more. Theoretically.
• Actually building a bicycle instead of just buying one.
• Knitting classes at Three Bags Full on Main Street. I’ve never knit before.
• Going to more art shows. More barbeques. More events.
• Quitting my job and going to art school.

Oh yeah. That last one. I’m entering Langara College’s Fine Arts program in September, then transferring to Emily Carr to finish up my undergrad. So that’s new too.

I’m tall. Really, really tall. (Yes, taller than that one friend of yours. No, I don’t care if he’s single. A swimmer, you say? Does he have a sister?)

Now, what you may not be aware of is that there tends to be a few downsides to being tall.

On the plus side, I never get heartburn and laugh heartily at the signs that read “please ask for assistance for items on this shelf” at the pharmacy. On the other hand, humans tend not to have joints built to handle a larger frame, and with much greater distances to pump, our hearts don’t work as long.

One other issue tall people can face is actually pretty difficult to claim as a particularly bad thing, — though it is if you’re as unaware of it as I was. Differences in proportion and scale being what they are, I can gain 20 or 30 (or 60) pounds without anyone really noticing much difference.¹ Including me, unfortunately. (Yes, that’s right. I just complained about my appearance being too forgiving. Stone me now.)

However, as ridiculous a “problem” as that is, it’s actually not super for one’s health, particularly if you don’t realize it for a year. In late 2008, wracked with knee pain so severe that my doctors had been talking about osteoarthritis and the possibility that I might be unable to walk by the age of 40, it was discovered that I was just in disastrously poor shape. In fact, despite walking fairly regularly and having a “healthy” BMI^[2], I’d managed to develop virtually no muscle mass whatsoever.

On the one hand, this was a relief. On the other hand, it would have been nice to have had no culpability whatsoever.

So, back I went to physiotherapy. Again. Years ago, I tore the crap out of my rotator cuff while working as a shop assistant in a giant ladies’ clothing store. Carrying jeans, yes. You see, the thing about jeans for tall women is that they have to be much longer, contain more fabric, etc. The thing about bones for tall women is that they don’t just tend to be longer, they also tend to be bigger. So we’re not talking about carrying around Size 0 capris here, we’re talking dozens of pairs of Size 16 and 22 jeans, each leg several inches longer than what a regular store carries. It adds up, trust me.

Messageboard testimonials suggested Vancouver’s best physiotherapist was Kelvin Tam of Kelvin Physiotherapy Clinic. I am pleased to report that this appears to be highly accurate.

“So let me guess,” he said, looking at my chart. “You hurt your shoulder playing volleyball?”

“No.”

“Basketball? Softball? Soccer?”

“…lifting pants?”

I think Kelvin still thinks I might be making that up. This would be much better if I hadn’t seen him a further time for my elbow, suffering from both golfer’s and tennis elbow — from using the mouse too much. I had to make a significant lifestyle change there too as well.

Annoyingly, if I had injured my shoulder or elbow playing sports, I probably wouldn’t have had this problem with my knees. Of course, I likely wouldn’t have suffered those injuries either.

So, several months of physiotherapy and exercise later, I’m finally moving up from walking to jogging. So far, things seem to be working out okay. I’m currently in week two of the Couch-to-5K Running Plan from Cool Running. So far, so good, but it’s pretty exhausting, I have to say. I suspect I’m still not quite in good enough shape, given my struggles last week, so I’ve inserted a second “week one” into my own exercise regimen.

I’ve also been eying the Nike+iPod gadget for my iPhone — which is ridiculous, frankly. I don’t need that and I really don’t want to use any of their social media features like sharing how far I’ve run/limped about. Let’s all just assume that things are going really well for me, okay?

Anyway, dealing with sports bras and running shoes is novel, but dealing with bikes is fun! Yes, I’m secretly an aspiring bike nerd, and I’m finally able to ride one again. Sadly, it turns out that Catherine-sized bikes are fairly difficult to come by, but I’m pleased to report things are progressing smoothly despite that. I will post details of the great bike-building project shortly!

[1] Case in point: as of the writing of this post, the last time a close friend has called me a “skinny bitch” was approximately 36 hours ago.

[2] Seriously, Body-Mass Index is the worst possible measure of physical fitness there is. Not only does it have trouble scaling at the top and bottom ends, but it doesn’t even account for what that mass consists of. Ouch.