Pause

Things move at a breakneck speed for me, especially at this time of year.  I had the first of two dance competitions last weekend, with another one coming up this weekend, which means lots of time in the studio and backstage to get my dancers ready.  It's also three weeks from the end of the semester, and it feels like my grading load has doubled between daily work I have my students do, plus rounds of papers to grade and conferences and staff duties as the semester closes.
I've mentioned in the past month or so of entries that lately I've been feeling a little off- getting winded climbing only one lap on the hueco wall, not able to do much cardio without getting dizzy or tired, and having to take naps after really long days at work.  I kept attributing it to maybe having the flu, or lapsing because I don't take it easy, but kept getting discouraged when I couldn't even run a mile when I'm supposed to be training for a half-marathon.  I finally went in to see what the heck was going on, and was stunned to discover that I have a ridiculously low iron and hemoglobin count- enough that I'm Anemic, needing to take Iron supplements and take it easy with my training.  Basically, anemia means that my blood doesn't have enough iron to carry oxygen to my muscles (and carbon dioxide away) when I'm doing anything more than regular walking.  The nurse was actually flabbergasted that my vitals were as good as they were- someone with my levels of hemoglobin would normally be given a blood transfusion upon reaching Urgent Care or the ER!  I'm going in on Friday to figure out why I'm so off, but it's actually a huge relief to discover that there's a real reason behind being tired all the time.  And now that I know what's wrong, it can be fixed.
I'm still hoping that I can figure out a way to train and run the Half Marathon in June, despite the interruption in my training schedule.  I have a lot of projects and climbing goals this summer as well, so being an anemic athlete means changing my diet and really monitoring what I eat (more kelp, beets, and seafood!) plus balancing and figuring out the best way to train, since right now walking up more than one flight of stairs gets me winded.
This past weekend, I traveled down to the cities for the International Dance Challenge Competition, and got some food inspiration and help from some old awesome college friends!

The competition was most of the day on Saturday, taking place in the State Theater.  I was really excited to be backstage there- I've seen a few bands there, including Florence & the Machine and Death Cab for Cutie.  Checking out the view from the wings was fantastic, and I know my dancers were thrilled to dance in such a beautiful place!

Our studio and my dances did really well, and I'm excited for a chance to do even better at the Duluth competition this weekend!  After it was over, I got picked up by Lust and Jeff, two amazing friends from college and old roommates!

Lust and Jeff are going vegan, which was actually really helpful because when they heard of my newly diagnosed issue, they helped by cooking me some delicious pad thai and showing me how to make spring rolls, which I can line with healthy veggies and throw in some meat for iron!

I also got a fair bit of knitting done on the Artist Mitts both on the way down and back, and hopefully with Friday's duty day at LSC for faculty, I can maaaaaybe squeeze out an FO on these.  I do have some more cowls to blog about finishing, but that's for another post.  Along with my latest finished read.
For now, back to grading!