This has been quite a week! I had my annual physical on my birthday yesterday, and I thought I'd get a good report card considering my diet/exercise/weight loss the past six months. However, my doctor thought I looked pale, even considering I'm a pasty white guy and it's January. He expressed a concern about anemia, and said "you know, one of the main causes of anemia in adult males is colon cancer." Great, now he's got me worried about colon cancer! In the meantime, they're doing a blood test and I'm collecting stool samples (yuck). The cold rain all day did not help with my mood as I rushed back to the office. 

At work, we've been informed that there will be no raises for 2009, and a host of other benefits has been cut. The mood around the office is pretty grim at the moment. Maybe things will perk up a little with the inauguration festivities?

I don't know how on earth this happened, but I let my wife the marathoner talk me into signing up for a 5K run on Thanksgiving morning, the 7th annual Trot for Hunger, to benefit SOME. It starts at 8:30 AM, in an inconvenient location a mile away from the nearest Metro Station, so I don't know what in blazes the organizers were thinking, but I'll give it a shot. Since starting my diet and exercise program on June 1, I've gotten into pretty good shape, but I'm still concerned about hurting (1) my back and/or (2) my feet. You may recall I broke my right foot a couple of years ago while running, so I don't want to do that again. New running shoes are definitely needed; attention Fleet Feet, I'll be stopping by soon and handing over my credit card.

Unfortunately, I can't bring my good camera, which is too large/heavy/delicate, but I'll try to bring my Canon Powershot or a disposable film camera to get some interesting shots while running (or limping, as the case may be). I always find the atmosphere at these organized runs to be amusing from the spectator's perspective, the  cliched music selections, overly-perky announcers (you're all "heroes"! we can defeat [disease name] right now!), and the disorganization and confusion that typically occurs no matter how well-planned it is. There will undoubtedly be someone in the race dressed as a turkey, or in a Santa suit, and at the start/finish line there will be free samples of power bars and energy drinks. Mayor Fenty will finish the 5K in 15 minutes without breaking a sweat.

However, if it's raining that morning, I already told my wife I'd bail, as I can think of nothing less pleasant than running in a cold November rain when I'd rather stay in bed. I'm a weenie when it comes to rain, I don't like getting wet and I don't like my clothes and shoes to get wet. The good thing about doing a 5k run Thanksgiving morning is starting the day out with a calorie deficit, so as to facilitate gorging on food later in the day. Cynical comments of mine aside, it's for a good cause, too!

I bit my tongue very deeply while eating lunch yesterday, there was blood everywhere. It happens pretty regularly, and I also bite the sides of my mouth a lot. The result is bleeding, swelling, and more biting. This has always been a problem for me, and I blame my 1980s orthodontist for the problem.

When I was a teenager, my teeth were misaligned, and I had a badly impacted baby tooth that never came out. My stepfather at the time was a cheap bastard, and he had a friend who was an orthodontist, so he arranged for him to see me at a reduced rate. The work may have even been free, judging from the standard of care I received. The first visit was a nightmare - they didn't give me anything more than local novocaine shots when he jackhammered out the impacted tooth from my upper jaw. The whole process of getting braces, and bringing the teeth into alignment was brutal and sadistic. It was like that episode of The Simpsons where Lisa received the cheapest possible braces after Mr. Burns canceled Homer's dental insurance. And the end result, while it did roughly align my teeth, is that I constantly bite my tongue and the sides of my mouth. They never did take out my wisdom teeth, which probably exacerbate the problem, but I'll be damned if I'm going to make matters worse by going to the dentist for another round of torture.

So, all I can really do is try to chew and eat slowly and carefully. I usually bite the crap out of my tongue when I'm at work, rushing around, chomping through a sandwich, like yesterday.