The Hip Update:  I am entering week 3 of this pain in the ass - I mean hip - and no running and even though I have now been to both the Acupuncturist and the Physiotherapist and they were encouraging, I am still kind of depressed to be losing this much ground on my training.

I mentioned that to help with my downward slump of running progress, I got the iPod ready and ate some Sports Beans (which I love, by the way, but I've never even tried the Gu, so I don't know how it compares).

Hey everyone, I haven't posted an update on the fundraising progress in a bit, so I wanted to tell you how stoked I am to be at 38%!

Whew. I have had a week to recover from my Saturday morning at the BodyWorlds exhibit at ScienceWorld, so I feel ready to talk about it.

I cant say I was dying to go in the first place, I just kind of found myself drawn there. In fact I was sort of frightened that it would be really grotesque. I was surprised that when I entered the exhibit, my immediate experience was relief; the bodies didn't seem real at all, they seemed like they were made of resin or plastic or some synthetic substance. My mind had a hard time reconciling the information it was receiving: what I was looking at had, at one time, been living, breathing humans each one with a set of stories, a network of other people who loved them and each one with their own voice.

People would point and laugh. Children would start crying. Dates would quietly excuse themselves to the restroom, never to return -- after catching a glimpse of my nearly 5 inch x 2 inch, slightly beaten up QUALCOM 2762 cel phone. Purchased in 1999, and the height of technology at the time, this green-screen dot-matrix beauty has served me like a loyal friend. Only after a glorious tour of duty in excess of six years, did the battery finally start to go, and let me tell you, it was hard to acknowledge the deteriorating health of my beloved QUALCOM 2762. Finally (but what felt suddenly) in May this year, I looked down to my friend to make a call to find out where the hell my ultimate frisbee game was being played, and read the words 'Service Required' on the green, dot-matrix display. As a single tear emerged from the welling pool in my eyes, I felt gratitude toward the skilled makers of my QUALCOM 2762 for their thoughtfulness. "When the time comes", I imagined them having said, "let's make it gentle". Service Required. I pulled the car over and stared at it for a few moments, late for my game, but feeling the need to be with these feelings of sadness, regret for not having better prepared (though you can never really be prepared), and also.. Fear.