Bend it Like Beckham!

First of all, Congrats to Spain! And to my good friend David Villa, for winning the World Cup!!



I think I will maybe get this shirt to help celebrate =]



I really never used to get into soccer so much. In fact, I really didn't like all that much 4 years ago when Dan would make us watch the World Cup when we would visit each other. I remember I would bring big stacks of magazines and read through them, or sleep a lot when games were on. I never played a whole lot of soccer until I moved to Columbus. Dan would get together with people from the SPPO department and play, then he told me I should go along. Then we started to play FIFA on PlayStation...So I learned the game, and I learned to appreciate it.

I joined a league with a co-worker in the fall of 2008 and had a pretty good time. It was fun to go out and play. WE never did win a game. Now, Dan and I are playing soccer in my work's rec league. This is a co-ed C league.

Anyway, with that said, I am normally not a super competitive person. I am pretty timid when I play, because I am not super skilled at soccer. I like defense because I like to take the ball away rather than control the ball. I am not super aggressive when I play. However, if you try to push me around, that gives me the green light to push you back.
Most of the time I will throw an elbow or knock into someone to throw them of course from getting to the ball.

Now, as I mentioned before this is a C league, meaning the bottom league. But there are some super competitive teams in this league. Just a little over 2 weeks ago, we were playing one of these teams. There was a man, bigger than me, who was pushy! I was trying to stay between him and the ball and I was pushing all of my weight onto him. I am not sure if he tripped, or just moved, or fell but all of the sudden he was not there anymore. Next thing you know I am on the ground trying to get up off the ground so no ref or anyone would come over. The only thing I remember was hitting my right elbow really, really hard. It is almost the same memory I had when I broke my foot. I remember landing wrong and how bad it was, and that is the only thing I remember. Dan said it also looked like I was in shock a little bit.

It felt like I hit my funny bone really hard. My fingers went numb and it HURT! But this is soccer and you don't need your arms, so I kept playing. Towards the end of the game I just held my arm up close to my chest, and I couldn't bend or extend my arm fully.

On the way home, I was in the car trying to use my hands when talking and I had a shooting pain in my arm. Of course, Dan and I planned a cookout for that night and saved the cleaning for after the game...I discovered I am pretty good at one armed cleaning.
I was in the shower when I realized how bad it was, because I couldn't reach my hair or face to wash. I couldn't squeeze the shampoo bottle.

The next day we went to urgent care. The X-rays were probably the most painful part of the whole injury...
We found it was probably fractured, but I had to go back to the sports clinic and make sure.

The gave me the sling. This helped a lot! Plus I had a lot of help from Dan! Who has become a master at dressing me! I was able to type and use the computer mouse at work. I could also ice it throughout the day. It was really swollen for about 5 days or so, then the bruise started to show! I had most of my range back, but I couldn't fully extend my elbow.

I went to the sports clinic and the showed me the X-ray, and this is what it looked like:




The arrows are pointing to Fat Pads. Which, according to the doctor, you should not be able to see both. this means I have a radial head fracture.

The also told me most of the soreness I was experiencing was from my arm being in the sling, which was causing tennis elbow.
They forced my arm to extend, and thought it wasn't excruciating pain. There was a lot of pressure and it was uncomfortable.

Since I have a good range of motion and the sling as starting to hurt my the said I didn't have to wear it anymore. I guess you don't need a cast for elbow fractures!

I still can't fully extend my arm and I feel like Quasimodo. I try to work on it at night when I am at home. Last night, I tried to to do a work out video (which you can stream on Netflix), and realized my arm is not quite at 100% yet.

It is still a little sore and weak. But hopefully I will be good to go in 2 weeks!
We still have a few games to play =]

Busy Bodies

Yikes! I am horrible with keeping up with the blog...It doesn't help that Dan and I have been going non-stop for the last month...

In May-We went to Milwaukee for Talitha and Darren's Wedding! It was blast and I am so glad we got to go! We got to do a lot of dancing and had some great food! It was great to see Milwaukee and my friends from TFFV.


Then, we got to see Conan O'Brien's tour that came through Columbus. It was amazing, and I am glad I finally got to see him in person.



Then we went to San Antonio to see Jamie, Katie, and Derek. It was a lot of fun and great to see our friends from UNI. We saw the Alamo, River Walk, John Cena Rapping, Mario Kart, Fast and Furious and Blade. We also saw SATC 2, and it was horrible and pretty much made me hate rich white women.




I also got a promotion to manager of my department at work and was very stressed, but now I am getting the hang of it :).

In June-We drove to Iowa for Kristy's wedding. We got to see a lot of people and the wedding was beautiful!! We even got to see Dan's Aunt Anne, Sally, and Kirsten in Illinois. It was great trip and it made us homesick to see everyone, and knowing it would be awhile before we saw everyone again...



We joined my work's team in a soccer league and had our first game yesterday. We lost but it was fun. We realized how much out of shape we are..We are also watching the World Cup and are going to minor league baseball game this week.

Dan is still playing in the community band and might join another band.
I am thinking of taking an improv class again. I miss it a lot and realized it would probably be less painful than joining the roller girls. I really liked it in college, so hopefully I can find my niche again!

Other than that it is same old same old here....

She's Like the Wind!

Long Story Short:
Once upon a time, I used be a runner. A pretty decent, hard working runner. I loved running! Then I broke up with running. Then awhile later, I got engaged (to Dan, not running) and had to fit in a white dress in front of a lot people. I started running again, because I didn't really like other forms of exercising all that much. Then I got married and Christmas came (along with winter). Running and I were on a break. I wanted to prevent gaining "marriage weight" as I worked so hard 9 months before. I started doing workouts in my basement. Then spring came.Running and I got back together, and I started running again....

On May 1st I ran in the Capital City Commit to Be Fit 5k. I signed up because I failed to do so last year, and said I would this year....

I really didn't train a whole lot, but I wanted to make sure I didn't die, so I started running 3 weeks before.

It was an interesting race, considering there were a lot of people...
(On a side note, if you decide to walk or walk/run or wog (walk-jog), please stay to the side, so I can get around you without feeling like I am on an obstacle course. I don't care how fast you are, but I care that you are in my way. Start with the 13 milegroup not the 7....To the lady in the mint green sweatsuit that I flat tired, I am not all that sorry that I did that, you were in the way....)

My goal was to run under 30 minutes and I made it in 28:18 ( 9:08 pace).The Amanda from 10 years ago would probably of cried at this time, but I was pretty happy with it. I was 15th out of 217 in my age group (25-29)! Which is pretty good considering I was "just trying to finish under 30 minutes." You can see photos of my finish here!

Later I found out that I had the fastest time out of the 51 one people on my work team :).

There were quite a few people that did the 1/2 marathon. That is 13.1 miles. I don't think that sounds like fun at all. I don't think that is something I would like...at all...but it is pretty impressive, plus they get neater medals...

I was a little disappointed I didn't try harder, but there is always next year....and maybe Dan will run with me!

I am still running and finally got a new pair of shoes, as I retired my other pair after the race (they were about 3-4 years old, oops)!

**If anyone in the area is doing any other races this summer/fall let me know-I am up for it!**

Basketball Diaries/Love and Basketball

Warning this Blog is really long...but it makes up for a month of not blogging!

College Basketball is my favorite sport. March Madness is my favorite holiday. I am serious, I look forward to it more than I do Christmas or New Years and probably my birthday. I know you are thinking, that isn't a holiday, but trust me it is...

This year I prepared for the Big Dance, by listening to the ESPNU podcast. I became buddies with Andy Katz and Doug Gottlieb, and listened to them go on and on about the Big East, ACC and DUKE....I watched bracket busters and talked about basketball a lot (sorry Kim).

I made three brackets (one was mascot themed). One had Kansas wining it all and the other had UNI taking Kansas down (I knew they could do it).

I don't know if you remember last year or not, but the tournament was not super exciting. Three number ones and one two made it to the final four...I knew this year would b different.
We went to Hooters for the first round game, with our friends Mark and Sarah, who also are UNI alums. We had some deep fried food, drank some beers and watched Ohio Beat Georgetown and most importantly UNI beat UNLV. Next year I am contemplating taking the Friday of March Madness off work...
It was an awesome first day.



Saturday the four of us went to Bdubs in Grandview. We had some deep fried food, drank some beers, and most importantly watched UNI beat KANSAS....It was amazing. I was getting nervous towards the end and even yelled at some randoms saying Kansas was going to come back and win. Our waiter brought us purple and gold shots and let us fill in the brackets in the restaurant. It was the BEST. GAME. EVER.

I was so excited! I read every article, watched every clips show and special, listened to every interview. Finally people knew how great the Panther are and where UNI was =].

I even wrote Doug Gottlieb a letter when I got home:
Hello!
My name is Amanda McCurley, and I have been wanting to write you for awhile. I have been listening to Andy Katzs' and your podcast for awhile. I like it a lot, however I find that you mostly talk about DUKE, the Big East and ACC. I feel the the MVC and PAC 10 were greatly ignored and talked down about, and have been performing enormously during the tournament, Maybe next year, instead of oogling over Duke (who always chokes, trust me they destroy my bracket every year), The Big East (who only 4 of the 8 teams made it to the second round)...you can talk about other conferences who are severely neglected and under-rated. Yes, I may be an alumni of UNI (and a little tipsy) , but I would listen to your show every week in hope of talking about them more than 5 seconds and it never happened. Maybe next year the MVC and the Pac 10 will get more respect...Just a thought.

Thanks!
(yes I know Duke won...but I HATE them)

The game on the next Friday was not so exciting..however I am still proud of the Panthers. We went back to Bdubs, and they remembered us =].
The rest of the tourney was great...despite the fact Duke made it to the final....
I will say this, I am glad I did not pick them...I just could not do it...

My bracket was destroyed (yes, all three of them), I didn't when any money at work, but it was still the best Tournament in awhile.
I am glad that Butler made it to the final and ALMOST won. I am glad a number one got knocked out in the first round. I am glad there were upsets throughout the tourney.

I bet you are thinking, wow, you are obsessed and crazy about basketball, poor Dan. But trust me he is almost just as bad (maybe even worse). He bough multiple copies of Ali's SI cover, watched the three point shoot out on ESPN about 4 times, created this years UNI team on his NCAA game and plays a game everyday, bought some memorabilia, looks at the player's facebook pages, and even made O'Rear into Wolverine...What can I say? I love him!!


And now my favorite time of year is over...and to top it off baseball season is here....womp womp

UNI FIGHT!!!!!

What's UP with that?!?

Maybe you have seen one of my favorite SNL skits , that asks the question: What's Up With That?

I have been asking this a lot lately myself.

Especially with all of this going on:

Shrimp Tacos at Taco Bell?? What's up with that?

Chuck Norris is 70???

Remember when The Office was funny?

UNI may be a 8 or 9 seed meaning they will have to play the number 1 in the 2nd Round of the tourney... What's Up with that?!?

We caught up to HIMYM on Netflix now have to wait a whole week to watch new episodes....

How does this guy have his own show on CNN? Also when did the "news" become interactive? Meaning, having people call, tweet, or facebook message in to voice their opinion on something...

Jay Leno is still on TV...

Movies like this keep happening...

THIS is the number one comedy in America...

What's Up With That??

I could probably go on, but I won't...
In other positive news, we have been selected to be a nielson ratings tv family...We filled out the intial survey and there were $5.oo in the packet =0)

The weather is gorgeous here! Bye Winter!


Also, March Madness starts Sunday!

Growing Pains are AWKWARD

Lately I feel as though I am going through an awkward phase lately.

First of all I am growing my hair out, no reason really just something different. I am not planning on growing it out super long, just to my chin. But anyways now I feel like a Hanson Brother. AWKWARD with weird hair. Maybe if I buy some cute headbands....

Lately, I have been having trouble about where/how to shop. For example Women's or Junior's? I am 26 years old and some stuff is way to old looking and some is way too young looking! I hope it is ok I still shop in the Junior's section. AWKWARD....


Also, Dan and I have come to the crazy realization that a lot of our friends are moving away.We do have a lot of friends still in CBUS, but it is a realization they may be leaving soon too! Now we have to meet new friends...as a couple...AWKWARD. The upside is that we live in a great new neighborhood and really do like Harrison's on Third (the bar) and the even let us watch the UNI game there. Maybe we will meet someone there...

I am trying ti make a blanket made out crocheted granny squares. I keep trying and I can't make it work. AWKWARD! I am still struggling with the darn granny squares, but I think I understand them now...I will keep you posted.

Hopefully the post isn't too awkward!