I don’t often go back into my archives to read entries. While I enjoy the writing, and the occasional bit of feedback, I don’t often feel the need to wander back through things. But it is nice to have them, especially when someone from your past pops up and you have this nagging sense that you remember who he is, but can’t quite place him.
In this instance it was AH, a young man with whom I’d flirted a great deal, and had a couple short dates with back in 2003. He found me over on Loopt and dropped me a message this morning while I was home dealing with my allergies. He happened to mention that he was glad he remembered the nickname I’d given him on here, so that set me to searching to see if a) I could find my old archives, and b) if I could find him. Good on both counts.
Had an interesting time wandering through the past ten years of online writing (started in October of 1999). A lot has happened in that time, pleasant memories and not-so-pleasant ones. I do see that I used to write a lot more about the minutiae of life, which was I suppose a bit easier when I did more in terms of going out, and when there were fewer of us doing this online diary thing. I also see I was consistently reticent to go into great details about work (smart), and not so reticent about certain details of what others might consider one’s private life. So be it. I certainly don’t regret (most) of what I’ve written, and in many ways I’m glad to have the record, if for no other reasons than to catch up on where I’ve been and see where I might be headed.
On my run this morning (in near-perfect weather – 70s and low humidity), I did two new things. First, I ran all the way to Roosevelt Island and went over onto the island itself. Second, I took my shirt off for the second half of the run.
On the first, I’ve been past Roosevelt Island more times than I can count, but had never gone over to the island to see the statue of ole Teddy. So while I was running north on the Mount Vernon Trail the island was about at my time turn-around, so across the footbridge I went and up to see the memorial grove. It was a nice setting, I enjoyed the brief bit of it I saw (I didn’t stop running). It’s a shame it’s not more accessible – it looked to be a good spot to visit.
On the second, let me start by saying that I NEVER take off my shirt when I run. And I do mean never. I’ve never been particular fond of the bit of belly fat that I carry, and combined with my pasty-white doesn’t-really-tan skin, I’ve not been in a big rush to take off my shirt. I’ve wanted to in the past, but never had. Every time I’d think about it the usual little excuses (“want to lose X lbs,” “not tan enough,” “too much fat showing,” etc.) would pop up in my head. This morning was no different, those same excuses popped up, but I finally told them all to go fuck off and pulled the shirt up and off and tucked it into my water belt.
Then of course all I could think about was how, if I did get any sun, I was going to have a tan line from my heart rate monitor strap.
Was perfectly fine, a bit cooler than normal, and nothing felt like it was going to fall out of place or that I was going to die of embarassment or the like. . The only thing that struck me as different was that scratching an itch on my stomach felt so much more obvious without a shirt in the way. And that there were more itches because of the breeze and lack of shirt.
So, a hurdle overcome. Not sure that I’ll do that much more running that way, and I still do want to lose more belly fat before I’m 100% comfortable with it, but that was a good first step.
Low-rise briefs take some getting used to.
But I think the effect might be worth it. (possibly NSFW link, underwear pics)