Ok, so it's been a week and a half since I've used chapstick regularly. In my journey, my lips have completely peeled off an entire layer twice. The first time was a week after I stopped using, then the second time was 3 days after that. Today, my lips are dry, and kinda peeling a tiny bit here and there. I have been putting this Avon moisture care lotion on, it has orange roughy oil in it. My older sister gave it to me, it is the best lotion ever. I'm trying not to use it that often. It's like my methadone. So weird! This whole process has been so weird, psychologically. It's like, I've been using chapstick for so long, I have no idea how "normal" lips are supposed to feel on my body. I've probably been using chapstick nonstop for 20 years. That's over half my entire lifetime.

I was curious as to how my lips would fare today: I rode 28 miles in the freezing cold. I've sort-of joined a new training team for the MS15O. They have a more organized, more supported, more rigorous training schedule. I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm still a member of my old team, though... I absolutely LOVE my old team - more warmth, personal support, and love. My girl-group-of-friends: a lot of them come from my team, I never want to lose this. So the ride today started at 7:30, but we had to check in at 6:30. It was 32F, but no wind. I signed in, then went back to my car, turned on the heat, and ate my granola - I'd brought a bowl, spoon, and some soymilk in a flask. Genius! (*I've been making my own granola.) Ride started after 7:30, there were about 400 of us. It was frickin freezing!!!! I thought I was going to DIE! I've never ridden in that cold of weather in my entire life. I couldn't feel my toes the whole time. The second half of the ride I was hauling ass, I just wanted to be done! I may have pushed myself too hard. Other than the excruciating freezingness, it was a good start-of-the-training-season ride: fairly flat the whole time with minimal traffic. 28 miles was good enough for me. Afterwards, they were serving lunch, but I didn't stick around to find out what they were serving. I just wanted to get home to a hot shower and thaw out my frozen toes... they were blue.

Now I'm in bed with Richard, it's 1:27 in the afternoon, and I've got the electric blanket on. I'm beat! I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich, but we'll probably go out to eat here in a couple of hours. I'll fully recover then. Oh, and there's another ride tomorrow I'm registered for, but if it's going to be as cold as this morning, I might just chicken out.

*My granola I made contains: rolled oats, cashews, almonds, sesame seeds, some sort of high fiber psyllium cereal I forget the name of that looks like rabbit food pellets, dried blueberries, dried cranberries, and pumpkin pie spice. I mixed all these ingredients in a large bowl. Then in a smaller bowl, I mixed some honey, canola oil, and a bit of water, and poured this over the oats and such, and tossed until everything was coated. Transfer to a baking sheet, and cook at 300F, stirring every 15 minutes, for maybe 45 minutes. Be careful, it can burn in a flash. Yummy!

I got suckered into a girls night out last night with half of the chicks I didn't even know, but they turned out to be OK. We had a mediocre dinner at a chain restaurant, then went to see Rabbit Hole. What a terrible movie: oh boo frickity hoo, the plight of rich, white, Americans. I think the movie was trying to invoke some sort of emotional response from the audience. One thing kept me preoccupied during the movie: there was an actor who I'd seen before, but I just couldn't place where I knew him from. It took the whole duration of the film to remember that he's the chicken dude from Breaking Bad, the dude Walter White works for, in the fancy meth lab. Bingo!

Richard's watching Salt right now as I type this.

Got the whole rest of the day ahead of us, and no plans at all. Just know we'll be together all day. Feels great!
0 (comments turned off. leave me a note?)