Death of the birthday dress

Still clinging to my youth, I chose to celebrate my birthday at Chuck E Cheese.

I put this picture on Facebook and all my friends thought I was serious about  having my birthday party there.

Actually I was there for a nephew's party, wishing I had earplugs and covertly eating a pork, fennel, and angel hair salad I had snuck in from home. So much better than germ and pepperoni pizza. I think that venue brings our the worst in kids - not to mention that it's teaming with bacteria. Gross.

For dinner we decided to grow it up a little and use our Groupon to Tempt, a restaurant self-described as "trendy" in the Saint hotel. That was a mistake. It was one of those pathetic attempts to be way-too-cool that falls flat. I do not enjoy dinner while sitting on a lucite chair listening to thumping electronic rave music. And the food was nothing special, ok but not good, which in New Orleans will not cut it.

Last year the leaf pattern was white, this year it is light blue after washing! 

I wore this dress that I made last year. Now, I love this dress, but tonight was its second and last wearing. After I made it last year, I realized two things about the super cheap Walmart fabric I had used:
1. It falls apart when you wash it
2. It bleeds terribly
Actually it bled while I was wearing it - it rubbed off on my skin, turning me blue, and it ruined the purse I had on my shoulder that night. To wear the dress again, I had to restitch several seams where the fabric had basically disintegrated, but the bleeding I could not fix - once I again my body was blue by the end of the night! So much as I like the dress I have to throw it out. I'm sad. I like this dress, and since I designed it and sewed it, a LOT of work went into that thing!

On the running front, I wanted to take it easy today after a longish run yesterday (I don't want any gains I've made on my adductors to go right out the window), so I went for a conservative three miles this morning. Not much, but it put me over 40 miles for the week for the first time in many months. It feels good to get in some mileage! I just feel better all over. Not running does some strange things to my body: My appetite is all off, my tummy is troubled, my skin dries out, I get mentally tired easily, I become forgetful, and - strangest of all - my joints hurt! (Now, I do know that many of these symptoms sound a whole lot like hypothyroid symptoms, and since I have a thyroid cancer history, I should get to an endo for some blood work. I will, too, but I'll see if it goes away with running first!).

I'm curious what you've noticed when/if you've taken a running break. I'm actually thinking about compiling a post that's a reference of how not running changes your body for better or for worse, so tell me your stories! Unless you're the lucky type who never had an injury!