Finally, I finished a long-standing work project that had been dragging on for over a week or two.  The delay was my fault along with my ear infection's fault ... really, it was a combined effort, perfect storm sort of thing.  While I do need to get onto the next thing, I may actually have a day of breathing ahead of me, which is a rare thing indeed.

Today, I'm mostly annoyed by anything that would go into this blog, as most of it is so uneventful it wouldn't really be blog-worthy, including my inability to finish 4 miles of running today (I pretty much think it's a mental block based on the courses I'm running, because I can't imagine my body not being capable of that right now).  I did do close to 3, but that felt like disappointment.  I'm trying to get my running mileage back up so I am doing 15 consistently in a given week (plenty when you're not training for anything specific) plus some swimming.  My goal this week was 10, and I think I'm going to just eke it out. 

I told you, I'm just not interesting today, and am frankly in quite a mood . 

The important lesson I'm learning this week is, DISINFECT YOUR HEADPHONES. Either that, or, buy new headphones regularly. Someone told me, "You're just sensitive," but I'm pretty sure that person doesn't use headphones regularly while running, and probably also doesn't have the prolific sweat glands I do.  I've embraced my ridiculous sweating abilities, but that acceptance doesn't exactly make the ear infection go away any faster.  I'm sure if I'd had antibiotics, I'd be riding high and pain free right now, but first we'd need to get better, less astronomically-highly-priced health insurance for freelancers.

Perhaps it's as I fear on a regular basis, and I'm just a complete freak of nature with physical and mental attributes not even a mother could love.  After all, when I tell friends about things that ail me (like the ear thing) or just annoy me that are related to my height or my giant hands or my freakishly humongous face or my grotesque body that means I look like I'm 5 times as huge and sort of "giant" as anyone alive on the planet in any given picture or in real life (even when I know there are people taller and bigger than I am), they make fun of me (in a jovial way, but still, in a way that acknowledges everything I think is wrong with me being true) or look at me like they don't know what I'm talking about, because, they are not the freakish creature like me. 

I'm sure most people are shocked to find that I can actually run at all or that I still am quite a good swimmer, given the multitude of atrocious physical features I possess.  It's probably why my gym teachers in junior high and high school used to urge me to play sports at the height of my swimming career (not knowing I swam) so I could get in better shape and not look like a terrifying sea creature.

Someday, I will meet another baluga whale that is only slightly smaller than I am, or that really enjoys the way I dwarf him/her in photographs.

Dare to dream, Julia ... 

Oh, wait ... baluga whales are sort of small compared to other whales, so maybe that's a bad analogy.

And, by the way, those that know me know that I never bring this issue with my physical being garbage up in public forum, because it's annoying and inappropriate to make it a topic of conversation, so enjoy it -- or don't enjoy it -- while it lasts.