i had a weird run home today. it was hot. i wore a dorky running cap. it makes me look less than tough. however, i reckon that if i refuse to wear sunscreen (chemicals!), i should probably wear the cap.

the weird part of the run came while i was headed up 12th ave. i crossed paths with another running commuter. i waved (because it’s seattle), and his reply was to pound his right fist into his left palm and give me a hard look. i’m not sure if this was a misguided attempt at showing some sort of tough-as-nails running-commuter solidarity or if he was threatening me because of my dorky cap. any guesses?

whenever i sustain an injury, my first impulse is always to take a photo of it. mia keeps asking why i do it but i have no good answer for her. the best i can come up with is that i’m fascinated by what happens after something happens to me.

when you toe a rock trail running, you get to watch the skin that you had to cut from your hands regenerate and the get to witness the deep purple/black bruises that you sustained fade to a luscious blueish/yellow and then back to normal tan/olive/greek. that, to me, is super-fun and worth documenting.

while i’m not particularly squeamish, i don’t always look forward to injuries. that said, i don’t document the cuts i receive when chopping fruits and veggies. it only seems to be about bike/running injuries. maybe i think it makes me look tough? or maybe the chopping injuries bleed so much that i can’t possibly photograph them while i’m losing that much blood. not sure.

either way, in case you’re wondering what happened in the above photograph, the backpack i wear on my running commute home has been chafing my back over the course of the past week and these are the blisters it left. i kind of have a feeling that a really active though not particularly particular medieval sex worker would have these if she didn’t much care about what kind of surface she worked on (cobblestones, etc). that’s not this though. it’s the bag, i swear.

recently i was thinking of posting an entry about a clump of really magic latina trannies who live across the street from me. i only had one or two small things to write about them but was looking for a larger context to pull it all together. and then this morning happened. a completely different set of broke-ass latina trannies got on my bus (on the first stop of the ride free zone, natch). one of them was lagging behind and standing in the way of bus progress. the gay/yuppie office workers who got on at one of the pay-to-ride stops looked up from their books or phones or ipods to stare and collectively sigh.

after a ridiculously long time, every member of the gaggle of fun made it to the back door of the bus and we proceeded to roll through downtown. it quickly became clear they were on the unhappy end of a night of hard living. they reeked of alcohol, etc. and wouldn’t shut up about someone’s gross feet. whee! because they wouldn’t shut up, i learned that they were on their way to court. the bus stopped a few blocks short of the courthouse and one stood up to exit. the bus moved and she fell smack on her ass and stayed on the floor for the remainder of the ride. at their stop, she got up, leaned over me to the girl to my left and said, “i never wanted to marry you anyway.”

my yuppie seatmate pulled the earbud out of her ear and asked me what her suitor had said. i told her. she replied, “shit. so now what?”

haha. exactly.

the original reason for my post: do all latina trannies throw out one shitty old plaid couch per month or is it just the ones who live across the street from me? i think it’s just them but i just want to confirm.

wow. wellington grey made a really beautiful (and scary) chart that shows the percentage of people in a country who have a BMI greater than 30 (which is when you’re considered obese). fyi: BMI = body weight divided by the square of your height.

there is some controversy about BMI and whether it applies in all cases (pro athletes who have a lot of mass, people of different ethnicities, people who have different body types, etc), but it’s still a good general guide to determine healthy weight. it’s what they use to determine whether spanish runway models are too thin and what they use to determine whether or not most americans take in more calories than they burn.

the outcome:

we’re #1! in your face, mexico!

via theheylady

there’s this tree that lives outside my window. it pokes its head out between the north and southbound lanes of i-5. i’ve been trying to photograph it since i moved to seattle and today i think i finally got it, though tomorrow i’ll think that i didn’t.

i don’t know if i love or hate this tree. love it for saying ‘fuck it’ to the thousands of cars that drive by each day, or hate it for not realizing that it should just give up. i also don’t know why i am powerless to not try to give this tree a personality and a story.

i do know that i’ve only felt this way about a tree a few times in my life. there’s another tree that grows between the north and southbound lanes of 880 in oakland (it might actually be an oak tree now that i think about it). that tree seems tough as shit and there’s no way the gentry will knock it down. that tree makes me so incredibly happy, though i kind of wish that it was elsewhere and could rest quietly. something about these isolated freeway trees makes me nervous and completely nuts.

i wandered into rainbow natural remedies the other day with one simple request: i’m looking for a mild face soap that is so natural i could eat it if i had to. the woman behind the counter didn’t look at me like i was insane, which i took to be a good sign that she understood that if i’m not putting chemicals into my body, i didn’t want to put them on my body either.

the most natural one they had there had honey in it (not vegan) so i asked her if there was a way to make my own. her eyes lit up and she said that she’d run and get me a recipe (and then sell me the ingredients, of course). apparently she makes her own face stuff, too.

i’ve only used it for one night but so far so good (mia decided not to try it until she saw that my skin didn’t erupt in a massive breakout).

the recipe:
2 cups white clay
1 cup steel-cut oats
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/8 cup chopped rose petals
1/8 cup chopped lavender

combine them all together and store in a mason jar. take out a little at a time and combine with a little olive oil and enough water to make a paste. then scrub away.

i’m hoping that the olive oil and chopped almonds (which also have a fair bit of oil in them) will keep my skin from drying out so that i won’t have to use a moisturizer.

next up: edible toothpaste and shampoo.

the other, staying in seattle. i’m pretty psyched. for the first time in seven years, my baby brother and i will be living in the same time zone. it’s still a flight away, but being in the same time zone makes visiting easier. visiting new york is hard. it’s far. anyway, dave and his wife, mary o’reilly, are moving there in two weeks. they just made the final decision today.

los angeles friends: many of you have met my brother. the rest of you will probably meet him, and when that happens you may feel like you’re hanging out with a slightly different jay. you’ll think to yourself, ‘hm, this dude is just like jay — same mannerisms, same skinny, same shitty puns. only something is different. maybe more tattoos, more relaxed, and less obsessed with fruit?’ yes, yes, and yes.

psyched!

says mia, “this is what happens on your way home from work and you want to run across washington?!”

yep.

12 miles today. got cut. while i didn’t try to, i didn’t try to avoid it either.

joe alterio who is part of the super-secret circle that i also belong to is running the san francisco marathon (actually, so are dan and sarah reines, which is kind of making me want to run at least the half with dan). to raise cash to meet his fund raising goal, he’s drawing robots and monsters! you send three words and a donation and he’ll put your words to paper in the form of a robot or a monster drawing, then he’ll mail it to you and blam! i’m into it. and as soon as i can think of three words, i’m getting one.

chicken, bunny, alone. something.

lloyd, lloyd. all null and void?

you know how i know it’s spring in seattle? inspirational messages are popping up all over!

yesterday i ran up mt si: 4000′ of gain over 4 miles and then back down the same way. the up was a pretty solid 57min that i ran smartly, i didn’t push too hard. the down was a very fun and fast 30min — moderately technical, pretty crowded. running down that mountain is the closest i’ll ever get to feeling self-sustained flight and i treat every leap like i might take off. bounding over rocks and roots, hurdling dog leashes, brushing against the side of the mountain when whipping around people on their way up who i didn’t see or who didn’t see me. earbuds plugged into my head, shuffle turned up loud drowning out the comments from hikers who are understandably not that into a borderline out-of-control trail runner barreling towards them. getting down mostly unscathed and stuffing my face with bananas and grapefruit and letting the sweat evaporate, leaving salt on my neck.

compared to yesterday, today’s run felt violent and empty. this happens to me from time to time. i’ll go through phases where i run past trees and let the branches lash whatever body part they happen to be near: face, neck, arms, legs. and i won’t think about it. i run faster and faster but it won’t feel fast enough and i’ll be unable to get enough oxygen into my lungs. i’ll get home and eat and eat and eat and not feel sated. it feels like a fight might feel when you drop the other guy with one punch and walk away clean — you’re psyched that you don’t need stitches but that expected punch to your face that never materialized leaves an empty feeling that just sucks. a lot. there’s something going on and i don’t think it’s physical. i’ll need to step back from it, maybe. i’ll let you know what i come up with.

about once or twice per week, i’ll eat some cooked food. this usually happens when i go out to dinner with friends. last night it was sushi, so i got some veggie rolls and a seaweed salad. without fail, the morning after i eat a cooked meal, i feel incredibly hungover and today is no exception: lethargic, somewhat off-balance, and pretty intense pressure behind my eyes. feels awful. and it means having to wait a bit until it passes so that i can go for a run. maybe i should drink some water. it’s the only cooked-food hangover remedy i can think of. it’s weird, right? sux.

i think that in the old days when i was drinking alcohol with a big meal, i’d blame the crappy next-morning feelings on the drinking. maybe it was the food after all. does anyone else get this?

look what i almost drank as part of tonight’s post-run pond-scum smoothie:

close one, huh?

in case you’re wondering:
1 head of spinach
1 huge tommy atkins mango
1 red pear
~400cal

oh, and 1 small bug: negligible calories.

it’s may and i’m yet to decide what kind of racing i’m going to do this year. i’m running well, which is good. feeling fast. the issue is that nothing sounds particularly appealing. half-marathon? probably, but it’s not like i need to train for it. regular marathon? yeah, at least one. but i haven’t picked a race yet and nyc is a) lottery and b) $155 + a plane ticket. local ultra-marathon? maybe. they’re just really long and i always wind up bleeding.

this has been on my mind a lot recently and then a few days ago i realized that this could be the year i start working up to running across the country. i’ve decided to start small-ish and run across half of washington state on the iron horse trail. 105 miles. i reckon i can do it in 3-5 days. the question is how to run with all my camping stuff. it’s almost pancake-flat and pretty wide all the way across, re: old railroad track. modified jogging stroller is my thought on how to carry everything. i may see what the guys in the running store think.

thoughts? i’m kind of at a loss here. also, i’ve never been out to central washington and may have to go scout it a little. i think it’s really hot in the summer. it’s pretty exciting. and i don’t think too difficult. i took a peek at the trail out here today. 6″ of snow on snoqualmie pass made me turn back after 1.5miles, so i drove on and checked out easton. flat, wide, lots of small rocks.

and ready to hit the printer. here’s the introduction and stats stuff if you want to check it out. should i be doing this? not sure. but i feel like sharing, so i’m doing it. this is NOT final, but it’s close. i am assured that it’ll be much more handsome on your coffee table. the stats need work (they’re on it) and maybe something else? back cover? and it won’t be blurry. sorry, i’ve had to improvise because i don’t have photoshop on this new machine yet.