Day 0 (Sep 26, 2008) was massively chaotic just-in-time processing; the important thing is everything got done!
My flight from San Jose, CA to Phoenix, AZ was on Sep 26th at 1 in the afternoon. Before I could board the flight a million last minute things had to be done. One such stressful thing to do was shipping my stuff from US to India. I had arranged for the shippers to do a pickup from my apartment on Sep 25 afternoon, alas my packing was nowhere close to done by then :(. The only option left was to drop all the items at San Francisco. It is important to point that I had been packing by myself on Wed and Thu and was not lazing around :-) From speed packing on the last night, to printing shipping labels to driving my goods to the shipping dock - all required friends, that I thankfully have :-)
Coming back from SF at 10:30 am, throwing all the garbage, giving away things, adding more stuff to travel bags, taking a shower and heading to the airport - are all a bit hazy in my mind....Why you may ask? I didn't sleep even a minute on Thursday night. Just sorting, trashing and organizing all my papers took 3 hours or such....
Back at the SJC airport, things went smoothly....I reached the airport 30 minutes to fly and bags check-in, security, food purchase, all was done in 15 mins :) Slept throughout the flight to Phoenix....Boy was I really really tired! When the bags arrived - my roller bag arrived but the new backpack was missing, ouch :( :( I was told to wait from 2:30 pm to 5:30 for the next Southwest flight from SJC to arrive. I used the time well - ate some more, dozed some more and then did what I had not had the time to do at all - booked myself a nice and cheap hotel for the night in Phoenix and a rental car for my Grand Canyon rendezvous all courtesy Orbitz.com. At that moment I had an economic policy revelation - my apartment for the last 1 year cost me $45/day; so long as I could find a place to stay for <=$45/night throughout my travel I would not be spending any additional $$ on lodging than my usual. I was running out of energy and the next SJ flight was 30 minutes late so I took the shuttle to the rental company and got myself a car....This took >30 minutes although I was the only customer Payless car rental had in the hour...In fact, the small rental companies had 1 booth/cube right next to each other - Fox, Payless, EZ...And all these agents did was gossip...My Product hat was curious when Payless told me they had no record of my reservation...Their systems only get a daily transfer of transactions from Orbitz :) They still gave me the car at the rate I quoted as having received online, just great!
Time was passing slowly, sleep was getting a hold fast of my eyes, drove back to the terminal only to wait 15 more minutes in agony for my backpack to eventually show up - it was literally the last bag to come on the belt :)
I finally made it to the hotel by 7 pm - pretty good room and decor for all of $58 that I paid for the 11 hours I stayed there!
More fun stuff happenned during the day but it will need to wait for another time....Including a quick hike on Bright Angel trail with the team... TO BE UPDATED
Very sleepy after a hot hot shower at the Mather campground showers ($2 for 8 minutes) and good pasta at the Yuvapai Lodge cafe....Need to get up at 5:30 am tomorrow so I can pack the tent, get ready, have breakfast and reach the GCFI building by 6:45 am...
Uhhhhhhhhhhh controlling people!!!!!!!
My sister has the most annoying way of being helpful....Just when she knows I am busy with a million things to finish under a deadline she wants to have a philosophical discussion on just about anything.....
Tonight it was about being connected while traveling, especially since I was traveling alone :( :( Excuse me I didnt know I needed permission from someone to travel alone :-)
Yes some people like being connected with a cell phone to their hip all the time...I have a friend who always carries it to the bathroom also...I don't have any such passion for being connected...In fact I love being disconnected from the world, people and all the tensions that daily life brings us ....Isn't that why people love going to national parks and explore nature? All of us have done it - being unreachable while traveling...Heck we are disconnected while we fly :) Why then must I endure a conversation on how no one can reach me should something happen to someone in the family or vice versa....
When it comes to medical emergencies at home or abroad, the only person who can save you instantaneously is the paramedic or doctor....Everyone else is just moral support, no real help!
Anyway, our entire conversation lasted 9 minutes, we hopped from one tangent to another - anything the sis could use to make her point; my stress level went up 200% and in the end I was so upset I wasted another 15 minutes fuming and then writing this down...Why? because the next time this happens which will be soon may be tomorrow morning, instead of fuming I can read this post and laugh at the recurring and predictable phone conversations with my sister :-)
Controlling other people is something that comes naturally to most women, older siblings, parents and bossy people.... Never mind that the other person has his/her own brain, heart and all other body parts....Its just amazing how blind sighted one can be out of habit...I know it because I can be controlling too on occasion :p....At least I know when I am trying to control...And it takes a friend about 2 nudges for me to get the idea that what I say is not going to work on them.....High time some people in my family realized that what they want or how they do things is different from how I want to do things....Or this is a lifelong infinite loop as they say in programming lingo :)
Tonight it was about being connected while traveling, especially since I was traveling alone :( :( Excuse me I didnt know I needed permission from someone to travel alone :-)
Yes some people like being connected with a cell phone to their hip all the time...I have a friend who always carries it to the bathroom also...I don't have any such passion for being connected...In fact I love being disconnected from the world, people and all the tensions that daily life brings us ....Isn't that why people love going to national parks and explore nature? All of us have done it - being unreachable while traveling...Heck we are disconnected while we fly :) Why then must I endure a conversation on how no one can reach me should something happen to someone in the family or vice versa....
When it comes to medical emergencies at home or abroad, the only person who can save you instantaneously is the paramedic or doctor....Everyone else is just moral support, no real help!
Anyway, our entire conversation lasted 9 minutes, we hopped from one tangent to another - anything the sis could use to make her point; my stress level went up 200% and in the end I was so upset I wasted another 15 minutes fuming and then writing this down...Why? because the next time this happens which will be soon may be tomorrow morning, instead of fuming I can read this post and laugh at the recurring and predictable phone conversations with my sister :-)
Controlling other people is something that comes naturally to most women, older siblings, parents and bossy people.... Never mind that the other person has his/her own brain, heart and all other body parts....Its just amazing how blind sighted one can be out of habit...I know it because I can be controlling too on occasion :p....At least I know when I am trying to control...And it takes a friend about 2 nudges for me to get the idea that what I say is not going to work on them.....High time some people in my family realized that what they want or how they do things is different from how I want to do things....Or this is a lifelong infinite loop as they say in programming lingo :)
Opasna's report on The Triathlon at Pacific Grove, 14 Sep, 2008!
Hello All!
Firstly many thanks to all the people contributed to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on my request in 2007 and 2008. All the money you contributed is officially in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's bank to be used for cutting edge research and patient support. Fill up your company's gift match form if you haven't already!
My Story.....
The cancellation of the Treasure Island triathlon in Nov 2007 due to an oil spill in the Pacific ocean was not fun. I had been training for 3+ months with my teammates from Team in Training by then and we had nothing to show or achieve at the end. Multiple fits and starts later, I got around to signing up for The Triathlon at Pacific Grove on 14 Sep, 2008 and this time I DID IT!
Many things went wrong the night before - from my bicycle tube's valve pin breaking off to mistakenly riding on broken glass on a road to a restless sleep.... On the day of the race, we biked a pleasant 4 miles from our hotel to the event at 5:30 am in darkness, super cool! The water was cold at 63 degrees at 7:30 am when my race started...The swim waves of participants go by by sex and age...In the water, I was unable to swim at my normal pace with all the people cheering, ambitious participants kicking each other and the adrenalin rush so I kept powering through expending a lot of unnecessary energy..On the bike and while running, I was a crowd delight....As I came close to finishing a lap and the crowd cheered, I gave them drama by overtaking people or just by sprinting and waving and shouting.....
I dont think I took a breath of fresh air normally (at my practiced exercise pace) throughout the race but boy did I have a lot of fun doing the triathlon!!! You can and should do an endurance event once in your life :) :) There are half-marathons and century rides and walks to suit everyone's interest! Next I will aim for an Olympic distance triathlon....Thanks again for all your mental, $$ and emotional support!
The Team's Story....
The Silicon Valley Team in training Triathlon team had major setbacks:
- Jim's lymphoma came back and he is undergoing chemo at Stanford hospital currently
- Doug has a secondary cancer and surgery is scheduled for Sep 22, 2008
- Don participated in the triathlon but had to be pulled out of the race after the swim and taken to the hospital for tests....
But they are all strong, fun and confident survivors...We are all very proud of our team honorees and hope for the best!!!
And whats most important is.....
Team in Training brought ~ 340 amateur triathletes like me to The Triathlon at Pacific Grove from all over the US and together we raised $1.2 Million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! Go Team! Cheers to more research to save lives!!!
Pictures of my fun ordeal can be found at
Slideshow http://picasaweb.google.com/upasana.taku/TheTriathlonAtPacificGrove#slideshow
Click each photo http://picasaweb.google.com/upasana.taku/TheTriathlonAtPacificGrove#
You can still donate towards Leukemia & Lymphoma research at
http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/pactri08/utaku
Firstly many thanks to all the people contributed to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on my request in 2007 and 2008. All the money you contributed is officially in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's bank to be used for cutting edge research and patient support. Fill up your company's gift match form if you haven't already!
My Story.....
The cancellation of the Treasure Island triathlon in Nov 2007 due to an oil spill in the Pacific ocean was not fun. I had been training for 3+ months with my teammates from Team in Training by then and we had nothing to show or achieve at the end. Multiple fits and starts later, I got around to signing up for The Triathlon at Pacific Grove on 14 Sep, 2008 and this time I DID IT!
Many things went wrong the night before - from my bicycle tube's valve pin breaking off to mistakenly riding on broken glass on a road to a restless sleep.... On the day of the race, we biked a pleasant 4 miles from our hotel to the event at 5:30 am in darkness, super cool! The water was cold at 63 degrees at 7:30 am when my race started...The swim waves of participants go by by sex and age...In the water, I was unable to swim at my normal pace with all the people cheering, ambitious participants kicking each other and the adrenalin rush so I kept powering through expending a lot of unnecessary energy..On the bike and while running, I was a crowd delight....As I came close to finishing a lap and the crowd cheered, I gave them drama by overtaking people or just by sprinting and waving and shouting.....
I dont think I took a breath of fresh air normally (at my practiced exercise pace) throughout the race but boy did I have a lot of fun doing the triathlon!!! You can and should do an endurance event once in your life :) :) There are half-marathons and century rides and walks to suit everyone's interest! Next I will aim for an Olympic distance triathlon....Thanks again for all your mental, $$ and emotional support!
The Team's Story....
The Silicon Valley Team in training Triathlon team had major setbacks:
- Jim's lymphoma came back and he is undergoing chemo at Stanford hospital currently
- Doug has a secondary cancer and surgery is scheduled for Sep 22, 2008
- Don participated in the triathlon but had to be pulled out of the race after the swim and taken to the hospital for tests....
But they are all strong, fun and confident survivors...We are all very proud of our team honorees and hope for the best!!!
And whats most important is.....
Team in Training brought ~ 340 amateur triathletes like me to The Triathlon at Pacific Grove from all over the US and together we raised $1.2 Million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! Go Team! Cheers to more research to save lives!!!
Pictures of my fun ordeal can be found at
Slideshow http://picasaweb.google.com/
Click each photo http://picasaweb.google.com/
You can still donate towards Leukemia & Lymphoma research at
http://pages.teamintraining.
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