Things you just don't think of

I got to the gym today and there were signs everywhere that due to a water main problem the building had absolutely no water. I was vaguely irritated by the prospect of working out with no water, but I knew that in a pinch I could buy a bottle of water from the vending machine, so I soldiered on.

Soldiered on, that is, until I was reminded that I hadn't thought to pee before leaving work. I drink a lot of water during the work day. This lack of forethought and fine level of hydration came together to work against me midday through my run.

I decided I was tough enough to keep trying so I went to the ab machine.

After 150 crunches, it became unbearable.

I ended up having to go home and not finish my workout all because I had to pee. Good thing I live close to the gym.

I Was a Weird Kid

Time for more true confessions.
Reasons that it isnt' surprising that a lot of my childhood was spent alone:

* I didn't just pour salt on slugs, I tried to bring them back to life by putting water on them.
* I was really into Culture Club. I dressed up as Boy George for Halloween when I seven.
* I liked the end of summer because wearing pants meant I didn't have to worry about my socks matching.
* I still had a dollhouse (and played with it) when I was 12.
* I had no interest in reading books like Sweet Valley Twins. I was reading Ray Bradbury books in the third grade.
* I hated gym class and kickball made me cry.

A Word of Advice

If someone is trying to do something to make your life easier while they are out of town. And to do that something nice for you, they have to go back to work after an off-site meeting that everyone else is just using as an excuse to leave early on a Friday. The last thing you should do is make fun of that person and call them an ass kisser.

Just sayin'.

What's in a name

I babysat for Katie this weekend and while sitting around with my sister and brother-in-law, Wonderturtle came up in conversation. Last May, following our wedding, WT shared a cab to the airport with my sister and brother-in-law and taught them The Law and Order Game. From that day forward, my brother-in-law declared her one of the coolest people he'd ever met. But, when she came up by name on Saturday, he had no idea who she was. No idea, that is, until my sister said "You, know, Law and Order."

It got me thinking about how the simplest little things can quickly become our identities to people who barely know us. I thought about college. Big Head Girl, who worked on a play with some friends and made a nuisance of herself and had a big head. Willem Dafoe Keychain Girl, who made the mistake of telling a story in class about talking to her Willem Dafoe keychain. The Guy Who Looks Like Danny Siegel, who...well...looked like our friend Danny Seigel. Annoying Question Guy, whose name I learned after several other classes with him but who never stopped asking annoying questions designed to show the professor how much he knew. There were countless others.

The same thing happens now whenever I find myself at a scientific conference with someone I know. We end up referring to other people at the conference by single events or minor physical attributes that become their identity.

Other than the names that are vaguely cruel physical descriptions, most of them were based on a single event, a single comment in class that might have had very little to do with the person's actual character. Yet, its the tiny, seemingly pointless moments in our lives that often come to define us.