Now the party's over. I'm so tired.

Made it!

A long day of driving, many thanks to Ze's uncle Nick for providing us the truck. And I've learned so many things! How to attach a U-Haul trailer! How to drive a truck hauling a U-Haul trailer! All kinds of crazy things for a fifty-eight year old never to have done before.

Distance: 2:45

Duration: 24:29
Pace: 10:01

It turned into a late night, I don't want to go into the details. They are embarrassing. I had an existential crisis in the room I had rented for myself to stay in and asked our kid to pick me up to stay with them.

As a result, I got to help them put their bed back together, so I think it was a good thing. But that was hard. 

Route: Humboldt Park Loop
Temperature: 76°
Climate: overcast, threatening rain 
Mood: glad to be running

Songs For My Funeral
Avalon - Roxy Music

Pictures of You - The Cure

Dust in the Wind - Gabriel & Dresden ft. Molly Bancroft

All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Stuck In the Middle With You - Stealers Wheel

Strange discoloration on my right forearm, like a bruise but it doesn't hurt. Weird. Bug bite? Been around a lot of different insects the past several days. Maybe I will develop superpowers. Or get sick.

Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Our child has landed an excellent first apartment in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. I headed out for a run, to see what the park is like, and noticed there were far fewer cars on the side of the street where we had parked the trailer. Sure enough, there were temporary signs posted that street cleaning is today. So, instead of taking it back after, we got ourselves together to return the thing right away. Another milestone.

Humboldt is a nice city park, the paths haven't seen some love in a long time. Lot of food trucks getting ready for lunch -- but then we had a tornado warning. I hope they were all okay. 

Planks: TBA
Push-ups: yes

Sit-Ups: TBA

And that's it. Cincinnati, Athens, Chicago. Tonight I head for home, and there will be no one to greet me but the cats.

A solar superman.

Last month, I developed a rash down both arms which I can only attribute (at that time) to the costume I was wearing. However, while the irritation has calmed down since then, it has not entirely gone away and I continue to have daily bouts of scratching, in spite of whatever medicine, lotion, or treatment I provide -- or even if I leave it alone entirely for a time.

My mother also had s skin condition which affected her forearms, and I assume this is also that. I need to check in with a dermatologist.

Am I disgusting? I think I might be.

Distance: 3 miles

Duration: 26:52
Route: Rec Center
Mood: good
Stretches: yes
Water: yes

Weight: 165 lbs.

Yes, thanks to Noom I have lost ten pounds. The question is whether I can keep that weight off. My compulsions can be great. This is a good weight. If I could lose (and keep off) another five pounds, that would be perfect. But it is good to be here. I feel so much better. And I feel no pain.

1994 Playlist

Doctor Worm (173 BPM) - They Might Be Giants

Get the Message - Electronic

You Gotta Be - Des'ree

The Becoming - Nine Inch Nails

Supernova - Liz Phair

Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago - Soul Coughing

Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos

I feel like I've been run right through the mill.

Those boots.

We did it, we sent a child through public school. I am exhausted.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 29:02
Pace: 9:21
Route: Forest Hill Loop
Temperature: 75°
Climate: sunny, hot and AWESOME
Mood: excellent
Weight: 182 lbs. (-2.0)

Intake
Breakfast: coffee (2x) 
Lunch: shrimp tempura roll

Treat: Chocolate covered Oreo (1)

Snack: apple
Dinner: air fried brussels sprouts, pasta with mushroom & veggie meat tomator sauce, beer (1x)

Also, fizzy water (3x)

Boy chose the decade. I was surprised, he hates contemporary music. But seeing as 2012 was almost a decade ago, it is ancient to him. It was a banger. We went hot and fast. He gets his second dose today, no idea what he will feel like tomorrow.

Now we're running.

2012 Playlist

Youth Without Youth - Metric

Drive By - Train

Starships - Nicki Minaj

We Found Love - Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna

Bubblegum Bitch - MARINA

I'm Shakin' - Jack White

Boozophilia - Low Cut Connie

Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO

Oblivion - Grimes

He says he attracts bugs. He is a bit allergic to mosquito bites, they affect him terribly, big swollen welts. Then there's the spider bite he got in NC once, when he was a child. Traumatic, scary and also made him ill for a shot period. And it just hurt. No, he did not get super powers.

Running through the woods makes him anxious, he just feels the itch all over. I can sympathize with that part. That was me, too, at his age. Skin was an enemy. My acne was much worse at his age than his currently is. Cold comofrt.

In your imagination you're a thousand miles away.

Now that's how you make blood, children.

It is easy to reach back twenty or thirty years, and find some solitary moment or building to focus upon, to tell a little story. Ten years is more challenging. So much has changed ... but not so much. I occupy the same space, I am merely older.

Even at thirty-five, I do not feel I had a clear idea of who I am. But I worked for the same company, as an actor-teacher for the school residency program. I was an actor, and a teacher. I had a new play I had written about my wife and my experiences with stillbirth. That was new. I took it to Minnesota, by fall I was being asked to perform the work for nurses and midwives and doctors, a journey that would continue for several years.

I started my first blog ten years ago.

We had a girl, a baby girl. She could push herself onto her knees by August. All was new again, fresh and new.

How could that have been ten years ago, already? Where did that time go? And do I have a clear idea of who I am yet? And will I ever?

Temperature: 63°
Climate: coolish
Distance: 3.25 miles
Weight: 174.5 lbs.

Okay, here's an interesting piece of running-related information ... for the longest time, my left toenail was very sensitive. Like, if one of the children accidentally stepped on my big toe, it would really hurt and I would be all crabby-daddy and shit.

I had cut back my toenail, to try and relieve pressure on the nail bed, but often that just made the problem worse. I had gotten used to (but by no means any happier with) the idea that my big toe would always be sore. Never asked anyone what to do about it, never thought deeper about the problem.

Then I realized or noticed that the nail bed itself was the problem, not the nail. The nail bed was deeply calloused. As you may be aware, pressure on a callous can cause pain, especially in a sensitive area, like a toe.

What to do? I got OTC callous-removing medicine -- salicylic acid. You realize, of course, this is the same stuff which is the main ingredient in everything for skin problems, not just for callouses but also for warts. It just dissolves skin, that's what it does.

I used this stuff to carefully dissolve the callous on my nail bed. After a few days, however, I noticed that the surrounding skin appeared to be necrotized -- it was gray and not sensitive to the touch, so I discontinued use. But soon the callous detached, I used a brush to gently clean most of it away, and the surrounding flesh regained health.

And now my toe doesn't hurt anymore. I am not a doctor, I do not recommend this treatment. But I will try some dangerous shit.

2003 Playlist
Sunrise - Simple Red
The District Sleeps Tonight - The Postal Service
Never Coming Home (Gonna Live My Life Remix) - Sting
Boombox (160 bpm)  - Mosquitos
Transatlanticism  - Death Cab For Cutie
Extraordinary - Liz Phair
Go Brown - Kaada

Crazy-ass guy at the bus stop near my home tonight, screaming into his cellphone, "I swear to God I am going to shoot somebody!" I hear him yell it as I ran past. Crazy-ass guy.