Eye Status

Apparently my eye is rejecting some contacts.  All of a sudden a couple weeks ago, one of my eyes started getting blood red and my contact hurt.  I posted about it before, but basically, I tried another pair of contacts, same thing.  Went to the eye doctor, got a new prescription, then after a couple days, same thing.  Went to DC with a horribly red eye and my glasses. 

Because I'm vain, I tried yet another pair of contacts for the big reunion event Saturday night.  I made it through dinner, but by the time we got back to the law school for dancing and open bar, I had to take it out because it was turning red.  (I opted to wear one contact and have weird vision instead of putting on my glasses.) 

Finally, this past Tuesday, my eye was clear again and I tried another pair. 

And now, Sunday morning, I'm still wearing that pair and my eye is totally clear.  I guess I've finally found a brand that works -- or whatever allergen was getting me is gone.  Or whatever scratch kept getting aggravated is healed.  Either way, it works.

The three worst things about it all:

1.  Having a very red eye.  Everyone noticed.  I looked ridiculous. 
2.  Wearing glasses while running.  Major fear of tripping because I couldn't see directly in front of me (gap between bottom of glasses and bottom of eyesight range).
3.  No sunglasses, particularly while driving, since I had to wear my glasses and don't own prescription sunglasses. 

And what's funny is that now that I'm finally able to wear contacts (and sunglasses), this was the forecast looking ahead on Thursday morning: 

 

Haha.  Irony. 

 

Especially since Dallas is one of the sunniest places ever and we never seem to have more than about two rainy days in a row. 

Garmin News

I very well may be late to the game (this is technically yesterday's news), but if you hadn't seen it already, check out this gear review:

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2015/05/garmin-fr225-gps-optical-hr.html

Short version:  Garmin has a new watch available for pre-order with the optical heart rate sensor in the watch.

You know what that means!  No chest strap!  It's the lights that shine through the skin on your wrist. 

I'm a big advocate of heart rate training, but oh, I hate the chest strap.  I finally ditched mine in late December when I got a Mio heart rate monitor for Christmas.  I wear it on my wrist and it's just a plain band (you can see it in one of the photos in the article I linked above, but here's a direct (non-affiliate ;) ) link, but mine is plain white) and it synchs with my Garmin, so I can see all my heart rate data on my watch as I run (just like I used to do with the chest strap). 

And more good news:  Garmin is using the Mio heart rate monitor.  So I can attest to the fact that it works well! 

It's been fun to feel like a cool kid not wearing a chest strap and having things on each wrist, but I guess whenever these start shipping, I'll be behind the times again since the cool kids will all have the 225. 

Having something on each wrist hasn't really bothered me, but I have not run (or trained for) a full marathon yet this year.  Usually in a marathon, I like to wear a pace band, and it may very well not work with the dual straps.  I'll let you know in ... October? 

Either way, I like my Mio and how it works with my Garmin enough that I won't be upgrading to the 225 anytime soon, but it sounds totally awesome for anyone who is in the market. 

Stuck

Our lovely vacation to DC and Charlottesville is being involuntarily extended by 24 hours!  When we were getting close to the airport last night, we found out our flights were cancelled.  Fortunately, we have good friends in DC (who I'd stayed with Tues-Fri, and who had then come down to Charlottesville with us last minute), so we made the best of it and called them to see if they wanted houseguests.  They said yes, so here we are!

It's funny because I can work remotely pretty easily for my job, so this doesn't cost me any vacation or put me further behind at work.  My husband's job is the opposite -- he can't really work remotely (though sometimes he does emails and paperwork via Citrix from home), so he has to use a vacation day today.  Yet last night I was far more unhappy and stressed about the situation.  I felt bad he was using vacation to be sitting around while I have to work, and after a weekend full of so much food, drink, friends and fun, I was just kind of ready to be home, back in a healthy routine.

We ended up going to the airport since we were nearly there anyway and since when we tried to call American there was just a recording saying they were busy, try the call again later, bye.  Not even the usual "extended hold time over 2 hours".  The line at the airport was only about 75 people but it was barely moving.  While in line, I kept trying to get through on the phone.  Eventually I got through and got in the line to be on hold with an "estimated wait time" of over 1 hour.  But it wasn't awful.  The people in line in front of us were pretty young (early 20s?) and fun to talk to, both from India originally so we got to talk a lot about that.  Eventually my call got picked up (there were still at least 50 people in front of us in the physical line) and the best the AA rep could do was putting us on separate flights out of separate airports tonight -- ugh.  But at least we'll get home.  Other friends who were at the reunion from Dallas are stuck here until Tuesday! 

So last night, I finally got over my pissiness that we really were stuck, and my friend convinced me we weren't imposing, and then we had an awesome dinner my friend was making anyway -- roasted sweet potato and mushroom tacos, and lots of wine (ugh!  I was planning on starting a personal little detox, but that is also delayed 24 hours), and so much laughing.  And now I'm working from her couch, getting ready to go for a run on an awesome trail by her house, and if I can wrap things up, we may do a memorial or museum in DC for fun prior to setting out for the airports. 

Tonight will be as miserable as last night was supposed to be -- just 24 hours later.  We will get home late, have to run to the store since the fridge is totally empty, have no clean laundry, etc.  Ugh.  But whether it was last night or tonight, a small price to pay for such a fun week. 

Not bad in the end! 

Victory All Around

Happy V-E Day!  What a great day to be in DC to celebrate 70 years from the end of the war in Europe! 

It seems like just last month we were celebrating the 70th anniversary of D-Day.  Of course, that was actually last June, and it's amazing to think about what ensued between D-Day and V-E Day 70 years ago.  So many lives lost, so many lives changed, the course of the world shaped, one front at a time. 

I was awake and working long before the crack of dawn today because I want to get down to the Mall today to be at the WWII Memorial for the fly-over.  At lunch time, a whole bunch of WWII planes including the only remaining flying B-29 will fly over the Mall.  So exciting.  I imagine a fair number of veterans will be there as well, so I hope to be able to spend some time telling those guys how much their service means to me. 

And fortunately, I'll get to see it!  My eye is getting better!  I woke up on Thursday and the pain scale was at about 2.5.  It still looked awful, so red and bleary, but it felt okay unless I was looking right at the sun, which actually kind of hurts even when both my eyes are okay!  By last night it looked substantially better.

Today, still a little red, but no pain!  Yeah!  Allergies?  Scratch on my cornea?  Not sure, but so glad it's resolving -- and so glad I had packed my glasses.  Now it's a vanity question.  Reunion cocktail party is tonight, then the big dinner with dancing afterward is tomorrow night.  Do I risk contacts for either or both events?  If I do, I'll absolutely have my contact case with me so I can take them out right away if it hurts.