FREEZING UMBRIDGE

I spent four hours this afternoon finishing the fifth Harry Potter book. If you don't remember this is the one with Professor Umbridge the insanely frustrating awful Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that the ministry has instituted at Hogwarts. She gives out painful detentions, wouldn't let students do magic in the classroom, takes away Quidditch from Harry, and generally is a major pill. I'd forgotten how much this book drove me insane reading it. This is probably the fourth time I've read it and yet I still had to slam the book down and go rant at Mel about what was going on at multiple points while reading it. And then to top it all off Rowling has to go and kill off Sirius the surrogate father for Harry! Freakin' A!
After I was done some of my floor mates wanted to watch the movie. Within three scenes I had get up and walk out of the room I could not handle Umbridge.

Recently (as in within the past two weeks) I've made a change in my stroke (in rowing that is). This is nothing new, I've been constantly tweaking my stroke since Day 1 of my rowing career and switching over to a new team this year I've had even more tweaks to make. Some of those tweaks are less like fine-tunes and more like overhauls. So this change I've recently made is more on the overhaul side of things. And I'm drained. The ache is settled deep in the muscles. There's sore and there's stiff and there's completely wiped out. In my shoulders, my middle back, the outside of my hips, my forearms, my calves. I'm to the point where I'm considering taking an ice bath. In the training room there are two tubs: one with hot water at about 104 degrees and one with water at about 53 degrees. Most athletes just put in a leg or at most up to their waist but surprise surprise rowers whole bodies need be iced so we get to sit up to our necks in 53 degree water for 10 minutes. So anytime a rower says they need to take an ice bath you know its time for desperate measures.