Rating the Day by the Spots of Ink on My Arm!

So, is it just me? Or is it just a fantabulous day when you get out of work in the evening and you raise up your right arm (I'm right-handed, you lefties might choose the other) as if you are trying to get to know your elbow better and there are NO INK STAINS! It is just me, isn't it? No one else "loses" their uncapped pens and pulls out another, only to lose it 5 minutes later and grab yet another and then at the end of the day they are all there, laughing at you and how much ink you got on your arm because you didn't see the tip peeking out from under the statement you were using as reference to reconcile an account?

Gack, it is just me.

Whatever, I'm talkin' kaloo kalay here! I'm talkin' "you mean I don't have to try to wash out the ink I got ON MY SWEATER again!" It makes constantly stopping to readjust my chain as I ride home (more on that later) seem less of a pain in the butt.

I call that a day so full of good luck and wonder that I actually don't mind that the person who answered my Verizon customer service email was incorrect about my being able to NOT choose a particular feature when I tried to use technology and upgrade my cell phone for the very first time in the FIVE years I've had it/the plan/etc./ever. I just shrugged it off and called up customer service like the old lady I am and had him manually set me up with the orange one. Had I not declined the insurance, I might have agreed to smash it against a brick wall and watch it bounce when I get it (FRIDAY!!!).

PS, I have nothing against iPhones and/or Apples, I just think it'd be overkill to the nth degree for me. Instead I will bask in my soon to be new phone's ruggedness and not be afraid that I will destroy it if ever I should wipe out on my bicycle.

My bike. (Except I thought mine was an '03/'04 but the photos don't match.)

I am so very full of excuses for not riding it. Most of them, I am admitting whole-heartedly here, stemming from the mental blocks I have that were firmly embedded, as was the asphalt, just after my last big almost-shattered-my-hip accident that occurred DAYS before leaving the Big Island. I literally had the still-broken-bike (the guys at the shop said it was okay but could use a little love and tender care and maybe a new gear hub) packed up and shipped to Los Angeles, while I moved 503 miles north, to North Lake Tahoe. (BTW my cell phone? The one I still have? The cheapie hello kitty (I am 12) case I had on it was THRASHED, but the phone was awesome and survived.)

Does it surprise you that to ride my bike the 3.7 miles to work during the one summer month in Seattle (I do not joke, it was still pouring on July 31st; why do I live here again?) I need a whole bunch of conditions met? The stars finally aligned last Friday. (Except for the tune-up, which is why I have to keep kicking my hub to change gears and greasing up my fingers when putting the chain back on the gears when it tries to get back at me.)

I'm on a mission to try to get my hip and knee and maybe even my wrist up to par before the end of the year/before I visit my mom in November. It would be just totally awesome if I could lose the 12-15 (you know girls and their ever/hourly-changing weight) pounds I put on after the accident. But I consider that a bonus, whipped topping on the cake of life and all that. All I really want is my hip and my knee to stop acting as if they were 80 years old so that if my nephew wants to run up the street, I can chase after him without FEELING my hip or my knee. (Camping with a three-year-old? Yeah, that opened my eyes to just how bad it can be--i.e. where is my walker!)

Everything I've read and everyone I've spoken to says I should try to build up the muscles around the damage. So I am, slowly. Yey crunches and knee lifts and biking!

But lemme tell you it is so very hard to keep watching the numbers on that damned scale go UP when you are working so hard...I know, I know, muscle weighs more than fat, really I do, but there is nothing I can do to convince the non-logical parts of my brain, it would seem.