Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

Marathon Weekend

Today, I am working a half-day at work and then it’s off to Orlando for marathon weekend!

Not mine, though. HA! My mom is running her second marathon on Sunday. I hope to find a way to blog throughout the weekend and most definitely will be tweeting up a storm on marathon day!

Last year, I spectated at the Walt Disney World Marathon and it was a blast. I made a lot of mistakes as a first-time marathon spectator but spectating at this marathon is not like spectating at other marathons, nor is it for the faint of heart.

I’ve compiled a list of mistakes I made last year and what I’ll be doing differently this time around. Last year was miserable for me. I want a different experience this year.

MISTAKE #1 – Not getting enough sleep the night before

The first bus that takes runners to the race site leaves at 3:00am. There are other buses that leave later but I read some horror stories from people who waited for the later buses. Getting to the race site is utter chaos and my mom has enough anxiety about making sure she has enough time to get settled once she gets to the race site that we try to make the first one. So it’s an EARLY wake-up call on race day. Last year, we slept in on Saturday and then didn’t get to bed until pretty late. Well, my mom and my brother did. When I was still awake after midnight, I decided it would be harder on my body to get just two hours of sleep than to just stay up so I stayed up. THIS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA. I was cranky and overly emotional due to my lack of sleep. Also? Really, really really tired.

THIS YEAR, I am going to institute an early wake-up call for both my mom and me on Saturday morning and then? I’m hitting the sack at 7:00pm! I do not do all-nighters. I want to be as well-rested as possible to make it through the following day. (I also didn’t end up sleeping well the following night due to my mom having terrible blood blisters at the bottom of her feet and me freaking out she would have to have her feet cut off and I would have to take care of my crippled mother. Yes. I had nightmares. I never said I was normal.)

MISTAKE #2 – Not buying a ticket to a park or the spectator package

Spectating at a RunDisney event is a vastly different experience than spectating anywhere else. For one, you have to depend on trams and trolleys to get you to specified destinations throughout the course. And for another, unless you buy a special spectating package or a ticket to one of the theme parks, your options for food and drink are severely limited. As in non-existent. The spectating package was expensive but did allow for more access to places around the course and a place to sit down and EAT. If we had a ticket to a park (like Epcot, which was where the runners run through around Mile 9), we could go in there for food and drink and a place to somewhat relax. (After Mile 13, there’s nowhere else to see the runners until the finish. DISLIKE!) We could also hop back ON the bus that would take us back to our hotel where we could either find something to eat there or go out somewhere. But I was nervous about how long it would take us to get there, eat, and come back in time to see my mom finish so we ended up staying at the race site which, in hindsight, was a TERRIBLE idea. But I don’t think I was operating on all cylinders last year…

THIS YEAR… we are all buying park tickets! My brother and sister-in-law are buying annual passes and my mom and I are taking advantage of an awesome “3 days, $99” deal. We can spend 3 days at any Disney park, one of which will be Sunday. (I’m buying the Park Hopper so we won’t be limited in what park we can stop in while we wait during the marathon.) And then we have two more days until May we can come back! I like this idea a whole lot!

MISTAKE #3 – Not having any food or drink to fuel me for the upcoming 9 hours

Oh, this was the biggest mistake of all. Somehow, I didn’t pack anything in my bag so far as nourishment was concerned. I think because I expected my brother and me to head back to the hotel after we saw Mom at Mile 13, I didn’t even think to bring a snack or anything while we waited. And need I remind you we got to the race site a little after 3:00am and didn’t leave until close to 1:00pm? I was a Grumpy Gus, that’s for sure! I do not function well when I’m hungry. The worst part of this marathon is that it’s very hard to find somewhere to eat. (Plus, I was nervous about not seeing my mom finishing so was at the finish line area way earlier than we needed to be.) I’m actually very surprised my brother was still speaking to me after everything I put him through that day. Hehe.

THIS YEAR… I am definitely filling up a backpack with food and drinks to get my brother and I through the first part of this journey. (I’m not sure when my sister-in-law and nephew will be joining us but I imagine not until later in the day.) Then, hopefully, after seeing my mom pass Mile 13, we can stop into a park and get something to eat and relax for a little until we head on over to the finish line to see her finish. Obviously, I am very concerned about eating this time around.

MISTAKE #4 – Not dressing warm enough

It was in the low thirties that day, which is pretty freaking cold for this Florida girl. I wore a pair of jeans, running shoes, a long-sleeved shirt, and a lightweight hoodie. It was not anywhere near warm enough for me. I was basically an icicle from the time I stepped off the bus to the time we got back to the hotel. It never really warmed up enough (especially with the wind) for me to ever feel fully comfortable. I felt really bad for my brother who had on a pair of long shorts and a big hoodie. He doesn’t get cold easily but he was chilled to the bone, too.

THIS YEAR… the weather is looking much nicer. The lows are in the upper 50s and highs in the low 70s. I’m also going to make sure to bundle up and bring some blankets for the morning part (fifty degrees in the middle of the night feels way different than fifty degrees in the afternoon!). But I think the weather is going to play nice this year. And since my mom would prefer to run in the heat than in the cold, she’s especially happy.

MISTAKE #5 – Not having enough communication with my mom

My mom decided against carrying her phone with her for the race. She didn’t want it weighing her down but it also meant my brother and I didn’t have any communication with her. It wasn’t so bad in the beginning since we were able to see her three different times, but it was AWFUL from Mile 13 on, since there were no places to view her (unless we bought park tickets) until the end. For some reason, even though I set up to receive text alerts when she passed certain points, I never got any so I had to keep refreshing the website on my phone to see where she was. There was always a huge lag between updates (like HOURS!) so it put me in a constant state of worry and paranoia something was terribly wrong.

THIS YEAR… my mom is definitely carrying her phone on her. (I even bought her a Spibelt for Christmas since her other belt was bulkier.) I am not going through THAT again. She’s also set up her Facebook and Twitter feeds to update and I’m going to have myself, my brother, and my sister-in-law all set up to receive text alerts. ONE of those ways has to work, right?

Even though this seems to be a major complain-y post, I am so freaking excited to do this all again. I know I’ll be better prepared and she’s better trained. We know what mistakes we made last year and we have learned our lessons from them. Aside from the lack of spectator spots towards the latter half of the course (seriously, Disney, WHY?), it was so much fun to spectate at this marathon. It’s a fun marathon, not one most people run for time, and what better way to inspire a person than to see people FINISHING A MARATHON? I know my mom is going to crush the time she set at last year’s marathon.

She’s entering into a very nervous “can I really do this again?” time right now. So, if you can, leave her some words of encouragement in the comments or reply to her on Twitter (seriously, she’ll LOVE that!). I can’t believe that in three days’ time, my mom will be a TWO-TIME MARATHONER. That’s crazy to me!

Categories: Life

On Living Without Insurance

I haven’t had health insurance in a very long time. It’s been at least five years, but probably more than that. My part-time job offered dental and vision insurance but I missed the cut-off date for that when it rolled around. Getting on my mom’s insurance or through my school was out of the question, financially. (The amount you have to pay up-front for one semester of student health insurance is outrageous.) And I’m sure there were other options I could have looked into, but I’m not certain any of those would have been what I needed.

Aside from keeping up with yearly doctor visits, I haven’t felt the huge burden of not having health insurance. It hasn’t been scary, just very inconvenient. It means I can’t go to the doctor when I’m sick or think something is wrong with me. It means I have to keep putting off a visit to the doctor unless my condition worsens. Since graduating high school, I have had three medical “emergencies”.

  • December 2007. I had a hacking cough for about 3 weeks before I realized I probably needed to see someone about it, to make sure it wasn’t something more serious. It was keeping me awake at night and I had no energy during the day. (This was also around finals week.) I went to student health services at USF where I was tested for bronchitis and a slew of other things. Close to $100 later, I was given a prescription for some type of medicine to help me sleep at night and the name of an over-the-counter medication to help me during the day, Mucinex. Yes. I paid $100 to be told to take Mucinex. Wonderful.
  • September 2010. I sliced my thumb while doing the dishes, granting me my first visit (as a patient) to the ER since I was in fifth grade. I was x-rayed and stitched up by Dr. Handsome and a few weeks later, given a $2,500 hospital bill that I have yet to pay. Oh, fun!
  • March 2011. I started experiencing pain on the left side of my body, around my back and the side of my stomach. I was convinced I was dying but kept it all to myself until the pain got worse and I started seeing little scabs growing where the pain was. At first, I thought it was hives. I was in my last semester of college while also trying to train for a half-marathon I really didn’t want to do. Stress caused my hives! But when I showed it to my grandma, she told me it was shingles. I went to an emergency clinic where I waited, staring at an AIDS poster for one hour, to be seen. It was shingles, easily solved with an antibiotic. This ended up costing around $100, including the visit and prescription. (Although had my doctor not approved a generic prescription, it would have been closer to $350. Ouch.)

Are we noticing a pattern here? Living without health insurance can be VERY expensive. I consider myself very, very lucky I haven’t needed it in more extreme cases.

I’m thrilled about finally being able to have health insurance. I’ll be able to see a gynecologist for the first time in my life. (Yes. I’m serious. I’m seriously anxiety-ridden I am going to find out something is terribly wrong in my nether regions.) I’ll be able to finally see a regular doctor and get some blood work done. I’ll be able to go to the dentist for the first time in, oh, 3 years. Most of all, I’ll have peace of mind. If I get sick, I can see a doctor. If I have an emergency, I can go to the hospital and safely know (some of) my bill will be paid. I won’t have to worry and fret that there is something medically wrong with me.

It always grates on me when people gripe about their co-payments and how much they had to pay out-of-pocket for this procedure or that procedure. First of all, be grateful you live in a country where you can receive healthcare. Be grateful that you can be seen quickly and given the treatment you need, by some of the best physicians out there. Be grateful you have insurance. Maybe your co-payment isn’t exactly what you want, but at least it’s something. Something is better than nothing. Be grateful you can afford to have insurance, or grateful you have a steady job that offers it. Stop the complaining. Maybe our healthcare system needs a lot of work but at least we have one. If I have an emergency, I have my pick of where I want to go from a dozen different hospitals all within driving distance. And maybe you only have one, but at least you have one. Our healthcare system may need work, but at least we have it in place.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some doctor appointments to set up…

Categories: Life

School-Less September

It’s my first September without school. I can’t even remember a time, aside from summers, when I wasn’t preparing for school. For classes, for tests, for papers.

And you know what? I don’t miss it one bit. Sure, sometimes I get nostalgic about going to class and being in the college environment but it quickly passes as I realize how much freedom I have now. And how my weekends and nights are filled with things I want to do, not assignments and long classes to sit through.

I didn’t have the “normal” college experience, but I can’t say I regret it. I entered college at 16, thanks to a new charter school in my area that allowed me to earn high school credit for college courses. When I started at USF, I was 18 and had two years of college behind me. I was placed in a freshman dorm and full of excitement about what the college experience would bring me. At 18, I was ready to have a normal college experience.

Well, I hated living on campus. More specifically, I hated living in a dorm room. (And the fact that my roommate and I were polar opposites and didn’t get along at all didn’t help.) I’ve come to realize I need my space and a place to be alone and you don’t get that in a dorm. Luckily, my roommate was gone more than she was around but it was a big adjustment for me and I didn’t take to it well. It was especially hard to be locked out of my room so she could have sex with her boyfriend. I spent countless hours in the bookstore and common area to do homework and study for tests thanks to her. (For me, I get distracted way too easily in public places to ever be focused and productive.)

I moved back home after the year on campus. (My roommate moved into another room in the Spring, leaving me with my own space for 4 months. Those may have been the best 4 months of my life.) I struggled to get involved and find friends, roommate issues notwithstanding. At 18, I was even more socially awkward and painfully shy than I am now so it was just a bad situation for me to be in. I was burrowing even farther into my shell and knew moving back home was what I needed to do for myself at that time.

I became a commuter student for the next year and completed two student teaching internships. A few weeks after moving back, I started working at a preschool, a job I loathed. In the summer of 2008, I was working for a printing shop that was dying and preparing for my last semester of college.

Well, the last semester of college ended up being the start of a new school path for me. The internship was terrible and I left before it was over, broken and unsure of what to do with my life. After a few weeks of searching my heart, I chose a new major: Journalism. Writing had been a passion of mine for a very long time, but majoring in it had never even crossed my mind.

The next two and a half years were spent in journalism classes, a second daycare job that was much smoother than my previous one, and living at home. It was hard. My entire life revolved around my job and school. There was barely enough time to breathe Mondays – Thursdays. There were no coffee dates before class, strolling around campus, or waking up 15 minutes before my class started. Since my weekdays were filled with work and classes, my weekends were my catch-up days for homework and studying.

For the first time, I have absolute freedom to do what I want. I have a full-time job that is pushing me just my like classes in college did, except I’m getting paid to be pushed. I have my nights and weekends for myself. I don’t have the pressing worries of upcoming papers or presentations or huge projects. I can simply be. I feel more in the moment, more alive. I am happier. More fulfilled. Less stagnant.

My college years were different than most, that’s for sure. But I tried the normal route and that’s not the path I was meant to take. I can’t regret it, but I don’t look back upon those years with fondness. I don’t long for the “carefree” days of college. (If anything, I feel more carefree now than when I was a student.) That was then, this is now. I needed that time for me, to get a degree and gain knowledge in the field of journalism and media. But that chapter of my life is over. And while I can’t say for certain I will never be a student again, I can say that I’m glad those days are behind me.

How did you feel your first “September” out of college?

Categories: Life

From 20 to 40

I was really worried about how hard the adjustment from being a part-timer to a full-timer would be. At the preschool, I typically worked 20-25 hours a week. I was usually done for the day around noon or earlier. Big changes like a new job are hard for me and there’s an adjustment period that takes place until I feel settled and as if my feet are on solid ground. There were so many times I questioned myself about accepting this new job. Was it the right decision?

To answer the last question, abso-freaking-lutely. I can’t even tell you how much I love my job and now that I’m doing more tasks, it’s gotten even better. The past two days, I’ve had work to do from the minute I walked in until the minute I left. No observation or sitting around, twiddling my thumbs.

As for the worry about adjusting to a full-time schedule? It hasn’t been much of an issue at all. My days absolutely fly by and most days, I look at the clock and think, “It’s already 4:30?” instead of “It’s only 4:30?” I thought I would miss having my afternoons off, but it feels good to be productive. It also helps that my work day doesn’t start until 9:00, instead of 6:30. (Driving to work with the sun out is pretty awesome, let me tell you.)

I think what I noticed right off the bat was how much my energy levels improved. I remember days when I would have been at my old job for just a few hours and my energy levels were so depleted. That job was emotionally and physically exhausting and sometimes I wondered how I would make it through the rest of the day. And I was only working part-time! How the full-timers do it, I will never know. Eight hours at my new job is a piece of cake compared to 4 or 5 hours at my old one. The work I’m doing can be mind-numbing and a lot to take in, but it doesn’t deplete my energy level. (It also helps I work with fun people who have amazing attitudes and energies.)

I had a few people remark about how working a regular, full-time job is similar to the time when I was working part-time and going to school. I’ve only been out of school for 3 months so my knowledge of how that time of my life was is still fresh in my mind. When I was going in school, my days were generally 6:30 – 1ish. Some days I would be going from work to classes to my internship to a night class, leaving the house at 6:00 AM and not returning until 9:30 PM. My afternoons, nights, and weekends were filled up with homework and studying and writing papers. The biggest difference between that time of my life and now is my weekends. My weekends are finally my time. I can do whatever I want and maintain any schedule I want. I don’t have to worry about making sure I started on this assignment or finished that paper. I spend 8 hours at my job a day and then come home and can leave it all behind. Once I’m done with work, I’m on my own schedule. It’s such an amazing feeling. (And makes me wonder if I’ll ever go back to get my Master’s. I’m enjoying my freedom a little too much to even think about it right now.)

My days are long. I leave the house around 8:15 and don’t return until 7:30 or later. (I head to the gym for an hour right after work.) But it doesn’t feel like such a chore, like my long days before did. It just feels like my new life. I think it helps that I’m spending most of my day at a place I enjoy and am starting to find my place in. It leads to a specific amount of joy in my life. For the first time in a very long time, I don’t feel stagnant and unhappy with the place I am in life. I finally feel happy to begin each day. It’s really one of the best feelings in the world.

Categories: Life

A Birthday

Today, my blog turns two.

I didn’t celebrate my blog anniversary last year. It passed by without me even realizing it. But I’ve been thinking a lot about my blog lately, the direction it’s headed and whether or not I’m happy with the content I’m publishing.

I’m very critical of myself. I can be even more critical of my writing. I’m also Queen of the Comparing Game so I find myself comparing myself to other bloggers on a regular basis. I think I’ve matured from the “how come they have so many followers?” questions and I’m more concerned with comparing my content to what other bloggers are producing. I never want to be a blogger who posts just to post but I know I have had the tendency to do that on occasion. I rather envy those who don’t write with any specific schedule in mind, just whenever they feel the urge to write.

Sometimes, I want to get back to my days of early blogging where I blogged whenever I wanted to. I didn’t adhere to a strict five-days-a-week schedule or have this need to get a post up every weekday morning. All of my posts had some kind of meaning attached to them, even though nobody was reading.

That said, I started this blog to find my blogging voice and establish community. I never imagined making the friendships I have made through this space and they are so true and real. It’s hard to talk about these friendships to non-bloggers because they just don’t understand. They don’t understand how I can write a blog post, thinking I’m the only one who feels the way I do, and receive responses from friends who tell me they get me. They understand. They are on the same page. These friendships may not have been made in person, but that doesn’t make them any less real. Some of you have been more excited and supportive about my new job than my own family members.

But here we are. Two years after writing my first post for this blog. I’m in a much better place now than I was then. I’m happier, more secure in myself. I know exactly the path I want my life to take, but also know God’s plans have the tendency to be completely different. I know what I want out of life, and know I have to do Big Things to make it happen.

This next year will be a whirlwind. My life is changing, for the better. I am changing. And I have big plans for this blog. Plans to take it in a different direction, put the focus back on the reason I started this blog: to write.

I love this place I’ve created for myself and for the people who read this blog. I love that people see me as raw and honest. I love the friendships that I’ve made and the hard truths I’ve discovered about myself – and written about. I have as much – probably more – passion for blogging as I did when I started. It’s been an amazing two years, and I can’t wait to see what happens in another year with Stephany Writes. I’m sure it will be amazing.