Commercial voiceover: "It's beer, grown up."

Kris' response: "AKA, man soda."

Tomorrow, Kris and I are heading over to have our portraits taken. Having (admittedly very minor) surgery near my eye next Thursday has made me a little nervous, so I wanted to have portraits taken before hand. I had professional pictures taken last about eight years ago, so now is a good time to have more taken.

I asked the photographer, Sandra (the wife of a classmate of JenO's, which is how we were referred to her, that, and well, the amazing family photos of JenO, Bharat, Cole and Ally), what I should do about make-up. I'm so clueless about make-up. That I feel like an idiot when I wear it only feeds my cluelessness, so I wear it even less.

Sandra recommended I wear lipstick and a bit of blush.

Rats.

Especially since I don't have any make-up. I buy the stuff once every four or so years, so the various packages of make-up become single or dual use. The last stuff I bought was for my Aunt Marilynn's birthday on 02-02-2002, so time to buy more. Great.

I wandered to the cosmetics section of my local Safeway. Yes, that's me: the big spender on women's cosmetics. Only the good stuff for me (i.e. the $1.49 eyeliner, on sale!). As I stood there, in front of the small, yet seemingly vast, array of cosmetic choices, I felt ten years old again, looking at all the pretty colors. I remembered thinking how I wanted to have one of each, because I couldn't choose just one or two, how about all of them?

It's a sad, sad sight, when a woman my age (or any woman over 22, for that matter) has no clue what her colors are, what the various products are, or how to use them. How the heck do I apply blush? What's the current style? Match my skin color? Highlight my checkbones or enhance the hollows? There are no directions on these products. What the heck do I do with this stuff?

Sigh.

Yesterday was my last day in my package of twenty training sessions. I kept declining the measurement sessions (every tenth session is a progress-check session, which seems to be a waste of time and money to me), so I have no idea if I've gained weight, lost weight, gained strength, or just wasted my money.

Well, that's not quite true. I know that recently, none of my clothes fit, and that I was frustrated by a trainer or two. Despite those issues, I was going consistently, so I was definitely reaping the benefits. I have all these new muscles, but none of them work quite right with ultimate yet. I think I need to get a couple hundred miles under my feet with them to feel good about that as of yet.

So, here's my time to be wishy-washy, instead of just deciding. Doyle suggested I join a gym with a trial membership (24-Hour has a gym four miles away with a three month introductory membership that I might try), and see if I can stay committed to going. Going to the trainer costs a lot of money (the introductory gym membership is 5% the cost of going to the trainer for the same period), but because of that cost I go without fail (sometimes later than I'd like, but I can often make up the lost 10 minutes afterward).

I think not deciding is hard. It's draining. Do I choose A? Or do I choose B? If I go with A, it'll cost a lot of money, but I'll go. If I choose B, it'll be cheaper, but I may not go consistently. Or will I? Is paying someone to encourage me to keep going worth it? Can I find a workout partner, making the need for a trainer somewhat obsolete?

Gah. Don't know. Need to decide shortly.

Like this weekend.

Another mystery of life at least semi-solved with an Aha! moment.

My last two ultimate seasons have been plagued with shin splints. I'd work at preventing them with this exercise and that exercise, but had little luck. I started taking Advil before practice so that I could play, progressing to more and more to keep playing. At one point, I was taking small doses of Vicodin, usually a half pill, so that I could keep playing. I stopped when I realized how badly it was affecting my reaction times. The bottle of Advil was still my bestest friend.

The biggest problem I had with them was that they weren't normal shin splints, with the pain along the front of my shins. Instead, they were strangely deep pains, along the back of my shin bones. Unusual in shin splits, unheard by some (mostly because it implied the front shin muscles were stronger than my calf muscles, which, well, isn't true).

I, once again, managed to confuse the doctors with my bizarre pains.

While sitting in Hawaii, reading a magazine, this past weekend, I pulled my leg up as normal so that the outside of my left shin rested on my right knee (plus or minus a few inches adjustment in what you just imagined). I've been sitting this way for years, ever even. I can't stand sitting daintily with my legs crossed in an oh-so-proper-lady-like fashion, drives me nuts. Instead, my knee is sticking up and my mother is cringing when I sit that way with a dress on (yes, tragically, I've done that unthinkingly, only to have my friends stand in a strategic spot to whistle and cheer until I notice that, yes, they can see straight up my dress).

This time, however, for the first time, I noticed my leg begin to hurt when I sat that way. It hurt in the way very much like my shin splints. Why, exactly like my shin splints! Holy crap! This is the cause of my shin splints!

So, I've adjusted, yet again, how I sit. So many rules to remember when sitting now (sit on your sit-bones, pull my chin in, balance the spine, don't pull my leg up, stop bouncing the legs, okay, don't stop bouncing the legs).

Hopefully with these adjustments, I'll be able to stop worrying about my shins.

Yesterday, after returning from the long weekend with Mom, I tried valiently to catch up on my Intarweb™ communications: reading emails, skimming websites, scanning blogs. About two hours into my word overload, I came across Messina's post about Boris being in town.

Boris is Fru's Canadian twin, and there's pretty much no way I was missing an opportunity to hang out with him. To my surprise, he was down in Mountain View (for an Identity Workshop), and needed a ride into the City. WhoO! Captive audience!

So, I drove to the Computer History Museum, picked him up, and off we went, heading up 280, talking about Drupal, various projects, my work, his work, Vancouver and the Bay Area, roadtrips and vacations, and all sorts of topics in between. We arrived an hour early for dinner, so wandered around looking for a Sephora, to buy a hairbrush for his wife, but ended up at the corporate headquarters instead, so no brush.

When we arrived, we asked if there was a reservation under "Messina," but were told there wasn't, did we want to sit? Sure, so appetizers, a lychee tini and a mango tango later and we were all set. Terrell Russell and Fred Stutzman of ClaimID showed up, and we moved to the table Messina had indeed reserved, under the accidental name "Christ."

Holly and Bill Ward, Kieran, Zach, Niel, Tantek, Messina, Tara, Cal, two people I didn't know all showed up and had a wonderful dinner. I enjoyed talking to Fred and Terrell, about all their various projects (ah, the time available to doctorate students). After dinner, we wandered over to Mel's diner for dessert, having been unable to find an open gelato place for dessert.

Turns out, Boris was staying at a hotel around the corner from my house, so heading home was easy. We talked more projects, with Boris (Bobo, Bruno, take your pick), with his asking what project I would work on if I could work on any project. I talked about Mom's website, a Drupal rewrite of ultiteam.org, and a start of ultileague.org. Boris liked Mom's project, so once I'm done with my super seekrit Drupal module, I'll start work on that.

A remarkably wonderful evening. Really must head up to Vancouver to say hello.

Oh, and Brussells in September.