65 Days Of Sunshine A Year...

two fridays ago, after work, i headed home, picked up my bags and took a car to the airport. i was doing alright for time and noted that the terminal seemed very crowded - it must be the summer travel rush, i idly thought. i walked in to check on what time my flight was leaving and then it became clear. flights were cancelled, flights were delayed, some people in the airport had been there for many hours and my flight had been delayed for two and a half hours. by the time i reached seattle, it was 2am there and by the time i got to my hotel it was after three. my two girlfriends who had arrived on time and were out at a dinner party, came back to join me at the hotel and arrived at around three thirty. the time difference between seattle and new york is 3 hours so my body believed it was six thirty in the morning and my body was exhausted.

however, i found myself rising at 6am, seattle time, a good 2 and a half hours later, to go for my run. 14 miles was on the schedule and so i sleepily stretched and stepped out. WOW! it was kinda chilly. i stepped back in and grabbed a sweatshirt and stepped out again. it was also raining. darn. oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.

what a great run. i mean the air was so clear and my lungs were smiling. yes, there were hills, the likes of which i hadn't experienced before, but my happy lungs declared - i can do this! and so we did. my pace was good and by the time i got back to the hotel, the girls were getting up and my dear boston friend commented on how happy i looked. "it must have been a good run." and indeed it was. but now it was time to get ready. i jumped into the shower and we got dressed and it was time to go out again.

we picked up a car from the airport and drove around a little, taking in the sights of seattle. then it was off to a reunion barbecue - the reason for the trip. old friends from high school, new friends from around the northwest, and lots of food and drink. we laughed, posed for photos and danced until after 4 in the morning. thankfully the hotel was less than 6 miles away. how do i know this? because i just happened to run right past this house earlier that day. how is that for coincidence? either that or there are very few roads in seattle.

we were up at ten in the morning because we had a brunch cruise to get to. i was dragging a little and my throat was feeling a little dry but nothing that a few lozenges couldn't fix. twenty of us got together and we brunched, and we cruised and, thanks to an awesome patch, i didn't get sick. again it rained on and off though, relative to the days before, it was a pretty good day. after brunch we walked around a little and then it was time for me to get ready to head back. my flight back was at 10pm. and i was beyond tired by the time i got onto the plane.

i grabbed what little snippets of sleep i could on my flight back. i had a stopover in atlanta that had me dragging my beaten up body across from one end of a terminal to the end of another terminal. murphy's law, i tell you. i arrived back in new york at 9am and caught a cab - to work. more than a few people commented on how tired and out of it i looked. i didn't think it was that bad.

apparently that was because i was a bit delirious. by the time i got home, i had a fever and a chill. how does that work? i took something for the fever and wrapped myself up in a blanket for the chill. hidef made me chicken soup and then i got into bed. by friday i finally felt as though i was going to be human again. and by saturday my brain was working well enough for me to know this - the days of my insane college energy where i could pull and all-nighter and still function during the day and then grab a couple of hours of sleep and do it all again? those days are so far behind me, they are practically almost unbelievable legend.

i must accept that i must sleep.