You know that feeling you get, that tightness in your chest when something touches you deep down?

I’ve been getting that two days in a row now. The first one was when I saw the amazingly breathtaking sunset Tuesday night. The sky was alight with pinks and oranges and purples. It wasn’t even one of the perfect ones. This one was marred by many fat, fluffy clouds, which only added to the already wonderful play of light. I only wished I could’ve been on my bike on top of the hill I train on so that I could stay up there and admire it. Instead I was in my car with a paperbagfull of groceries to unload.

Then, last night I finally (I’m ashamed it took me so long) got my 5th Muse album - Black Holes and Revelations. On the way home, while I had it blasting in my car, I got the same feeling.

Ah, sunsets, music, bliss.

I’ve been breaking out in hives almost daily and regularly for about a month or two now. It started out mild in the winter when I would get chilled from the wind. I remember it happening once in NYC when we were at the South Shore Seaport and it was windy and cold and miserable. When we got back in the car, I started itching. When we got home, I had the bumps on my face.

Then, last Spring, when Els, Bob, and I went for a bike ride on the railroad tracks and then up London Road in Westmoreland, we kept going up and up, so when we turned back, the downhill kept going down, and down, and the wind kept cooling me up. So I think the combination of physical exersion and cold wind made me break out that night.

But since I took up running, it’s been happening every morning, and sometimes late at night. Showering after I run helps sometimes, but not always. When we went for a swim in the cold waters of West River in VT, I had a really, really bad breakout after a few hours. The same thing happened the other day when we swam in Silver Lake right before the chamber concert at Apple Hill. Bad breakout then too. Getting swarmed with mosquitos didn’t help.

Plus, I’ve been in a whole lot of stress lately, which I have not been very good at handling. I ignore it for the most part, which doesn’t really take the problem away. Things work out in the end for me, but it’s just the way I do things, I think. Hopefully after Tuesday (big presentation at work), I should be a bit more relaxed again.

So anyway, I’ve been breaking out a lot around my friends and they’ve been concerned about it especially when they see me miserably itching or even more miserably trying not to itch. One of our friends, Radka, looked it up in her book and this is what she sent me. I thought it was so sweet.

Hi M,

I hope you are not stressing too much. You will be fine. Thanks again for the photo albums.

As I told you I have this book, which is called “You Can Heal Your Life” by Louise L. Hay. She talks about how our emotions and mind influence our physical body. I looked up the hives and what the probable cause could be and then the new thought pattern to heal your self.

So, here it is:
Hives - Probable Cause: Small, hidden fears. Mountains out of molehills. The New Thought Pattern: “I bring peace to every corner of my life.” Try to repeat the sentence to yourself and just work with it for the next couple of days/weeks. And see if you observe any changes.
I hope this helps you feeling better.

Love — always,
Radka

I don’t know how it started, but Jacob and I started talking about 69 - not what it actually meant, of course, but just the fact of it being funny.

So I was telling him how the whole night before the race, I was psyching myself up to go up to the registration booth and ask for the number 69. Well, I was getting ready to do it, but I found out that because I pre-registered, I had been given a pre-picked number. 58. No fun. It didn’t even have any of my favorites.

Well, he told me this story about how once he was helping organize a race and how he had given his brother the number 1, which was a no-no, because you’re supposed to set those aside for the elite runners. He had given himself the number 69. Awesome right? But that’s not all. There were only 20 people in the race. Ha! There goes racer 1, racer 3, and oh, hold on now, there’s racer 6..9 crossing the finish!

The other day as I congratulated his Mt Washington climb with a time of 1 hour 32 minutes, I told him that if he wanted a new goal for next year, he should try to make it up in 69 minutes. It seems like he took it pretty seriously too, so, I’ll be looking out for that next year.

Well, last night, as I was trying to get a link to the race results for the other post, I noticed the results for the Newton’s Revenge race was posted up too. Well, the only woman who finished in the first group had a time of 1:09 == 69 mins! Cool.

So at lunch time, I went down and showed it to Jacob. And he checked out how he would’ve placed at that race last Saturday given he had 1:32 time. He would’ve been 69th place.

Too. Freaking. Cool.

Sorry T and Casey, I think you two have been beat.

Watch An Inconvenient Truth.

Even if you don’t believe in global warming.

Besides, it doesn’t hurt to take action. It doesn’t have to be political. It’s personal. Take Action.

Here’s what I’m doing:
1. I’m riding my bike to work whenever I can and carpooling when possible
2. I’m shutting off my computer at work and at home when not in use
3. I unplug the computer, the microwave, and anything else that’s plugged in that doesn’t have to be, that has an LED light.
4. I recycle
5. I’m bringing my own bag to the grocery store
6. I’m buying stuff with less packaging
7. I’m packing up the dishwasher before I run it
8. I’m washing my clothes with cold water
9. I’m going to hold off using the AC until absolutely necessary
10. I’m spreading the word