When you run around a track that is 12 laps to the mile you begin to question the validity of the track and the mile as points of reference

I joined a gym today. Well, actually yesterday. I joined yesterday. I went for the first time today. It went well. My lungs hurt, but in that good way that lets you know your scrubbing the bile off the walls and making them more efficient.

Back in St. Louis I had a gym, but since I moved here money has been tight and time has been limited and I didn't make it a priority since in the beginning when it was not 3 degrees outside I was exercising on the lake path and biking to the Goodman, but then I got nailed by a car door and it got cold and I hung my bike up in the downstairs bike storage room, and then I started to look for a job and so I didn't have the time or the mental energy to consider joining a gym since that involves research and comparing and budgeting and I could still just run outside, but then it got REALLY cold and the ice on the ground made running legitimately dangerous rather than just uncomfortable.

Then Rachel got back from Louisville, walked us into Bally Fitness, pulled her little Siren trick where she says something and I immediately agree to steer my ship into the cliffs (this happens more times than I let on), and now we are proud owners of a joint gym membership.

On Friday I was out with Tim and Annie (and the Goodman interns who just finished and Willa & Misty [our coordinators]) at a dive bar up in Andersonville where they serve a spiced alcohol drink from Germany (?) called glug. I had many glugs. I recommend you drink glug. On a night that is 3 degrees warm but feels like negative 20, you need to drink glug.

Tim and Annie told me that there is a theory that if you avoid 5 foods you can eat whatever else you want and remain healthy: soda, "sweets", fried food, pastries, and chips. I have given up soda before, and I don't eat fried food often anyway. I don't buy chips -- Unless you count tortilla chips. Are we counting tortilla chips? -- but I'll eat them when they come with a sandwich. I mean I'm not going to waste them. But do pastries include bagels? And sweets? Really? All of them? That seems a bit outrageous.

I mean, I want to be healthy, and I want to live as long as I'm able to live; but at some point you have to determine where the line is between living and subsisting. And while I am deliberating on this matter, I am going to go enjoy some Spicy Chex Mix.

Which is delicious.