Day Ten: Gadgets

Running sucked today. I had a lot of trouble getting out of bed when the alarm rang. I was super tired, stiff, and began to wonder exactly how bad I'd look if I wrote an "excuse note" here on my third day of blogging. Bad, I decided, very bad. I was about to hit snooze for the third time when I was struck with a little spark of inspiration. I remembered, my new gadget!

You see, I need to run with "stuff." It didn't start out that way. On Day One it was just my new pair of sneakers and a good friend to talk to. Such simplicity; but then when the friend wasn't there on Day Two, and I hadn't brought anything to distract myself from that rushing blood noise in my head, the pounding of my own feet slamming on the pavement, the screaming monkey thoughts, "Stop! Walk! This is not natural! No emergency exists! Abort mission! Abort! Evolve! Take a taxi!" well, my first instinct was to take along some "stuff" to distract myself.

First, it was the iPod, then a water bottle, then chap stick, tissues, a cell phone, a hat, gloves, heart monitor, notebook and pens, ID, MetroCard, pin money... So that by now, on Day Ten, I've literally exceeded the capacity of my jacket pockets (things fly out as I run) and really, to be frank, I could use a running valise. Is there such a thing?

I tell myself that these gadgets are good for me, that they're adding weight and enhancing my workout... But, don't fear, because today's new gadget wasn't actually anything incremental, but rather a replacement item. Last night I got... get excited with me now... a new chap stick!! It's a bit of SWAG from a benefit I attended - the Urban Arts Partnership and Working Playground's 24 Hour Plays on Broadway. My new chap stick is made of pure Swedish beeswax and is supplied by a company called LypSyl. It's so delightfully over-packaged it makes me want to cry. The button you use to push the stick up has a fully moulded bee on it!

So, armed with my new toy - and flashes back to performances the night before by Emily Rossum, Claudie Blakley, Rosie Perez, Rachel Dratch (will someone please write that woman a show - she's so talented!), Billy Crudup, Jeremy Sisto, Gaby Hoffman, Julia Stiles, Demi Moore (who is inconceivably petite), Diane Neal, Leslie Bibb, Liev Schreiber, Fisher Stevens (rocked it!), Amber Tamblyn, John Krainsky, Naomi Watts, Sam Rockwell, Ashton Kutcher-Sanders, Michael Ealy, Rosario Dawson, Tracie Thoms, Eva Mendes (...who isn't just hot, she's really shockingly talented), Jennifer Aniston (wafter thin, darling), David Cross (fucking hysterical), Brook Shields (funny!), and Anthony Mackie (knockdown performance) - I managed to put on a good show of my own and ran today - a little more than 1.7 miles.