Hunchback from Notre Dame

We've been having such a great summer, so much fun. It's been absolutely perfect here almost every day, and when it's not perfect, we've been at work, so that's fantastic.

Last week I got out to Boston to visit my friend Laurie and her son Caleb, who is (well, they both are) so smart and adorable and he is getting so big! I have to send pictures. I also got to see Jenn Buhl, Ed, their daughter Caroline and son, Ned, and then I saw Diane, Erin, Erin's baby, Casey, and then Kelle and Maura whom I haven't seen in a way too ridiculous length of time. (My wedding??) It was much too short a visit, but lots and lots of fun.

Last week, I even got back on my bike for the first time in two years, and managed to ride it through the city--although very cautiously much to Brendan's impatience and chagrin.

(I had an incident my first time riding in shoes that clip into your pedals where I skidded out in the rain, toward a turning SUV that didn't see me and I couldn't get my feet out, and it came about a foot from running over my head--before someone else screamed at them to stop...and since then I just haven't been all too keen on the city streets of Chicago...or with these shoe/clip things.)

I've gotten new shoes/clips since then and ridden since, just not on the streets, mainly bike paths...and not terribly confidently. I know you have to get back on the horse, and I did...but it's not as easy as it sounds when you don't trust the equipment or yourself. I can handle being a klutz, and the bruises, skinned chins, broken knees, pinched fingers that go along with it. I'm used to those, and I don't walk or run so fast that I'm really going to do any major damage usually. But going 20 miles an hour into (or across) cement isn't my idea of a good time.

I definitely envy Brendan's coordination. I hope if we have a kid he/she gets that gene because I definitely am missing that little gift. And I envy his confidence in his ability to control the bike. My problem is, I don't like pain, falling, breaking bones, or a combination therein.

Anyway, we rode Sunday for a bit...and I think I'm starting to sort of get my bike legs, and we're taking this class tonight for bike training, basically. I'm taking it as cross-training for the marathon. You're in this room on your bike hooked up to a computer, and you ride these courses, virtually. The computer makes it harder or easier depending on the terrain. (To give you an idea of our athletic range, they have this test the first day to figure out your capabilities. Brendan finished first, I finished last. There are 19 people in the class. There you have it. But, proud to say, I didn't throw up, which is good.)

Mainly I signed up because I haven't seen Brendan all summer with all his running and cycling around, and at least here I'll get to spend some quality, sweaty, hunched over a bike time next to him. Unfortunately, here's the kicker...

Yesterday when I was running I felt like my shoulders were really tense...like I was stressed out. (Only I didn't think I was stressed about anything.) And when I went to bed last night, they were really stiff, but again, didn't think anything of it. Well, this morning...oh my God. Ouch. It's like a pinched nerve or something.

Why does your body seize up like that sometimes? I can't turn my head, which is helpful for driving/changing lanes, and when I had to put my bike on top of the car this morning, I briefly thought I was going to pass out and panicked that if I did the bike would fall on me from a six foot height, which has to hurt worse than a neck pinch, right? Thankfully, I did not find out. And, when I got to work my friend, Sal upon seeing me, immediately found me a bottle of Aleve. God bless him.

I am now sort of back to my normal color, and no longer the super-beyotch-in-pain I was when I got in this morning, but....Lord, this is really owie.

If I didn't have the long-standing theory that chiropractors lull you into their office with a free consultation only to "crack your back" so you have to keep going back...I would totally go to one. Anything.

So, tonight, I'm supposed to go to this two hour bike class. And you know they're just going to think I'm being a wuss and yell at me to push it. As if all that weren't enough, to add injury to injury, I now have a Fergie song stuck in my head.

Now I know how Brett Favre got hooked on pain meds.