The Big Turn-Off
I type this from Old Town Coffee, an establishment peopled by attractive, cool-looking people wearing fashionable, outdoorsy clothing. Seriously, every person in this place, including the baristas, looks as if they just finished a race or a wilderness adventure. Except they're clean. I don't quite fit in, being a bit non-clean (having just finished a trail run) and decidedly non-fashionable. But it is happily noisy and busy and it's a good place to reflect and type a few thoughts about real life. This is my first time online in over a week, and a rich and eventful week it has been: an explosive- and friend-filled Independence Day, huge PRs for Sarah and me in the 4th of July 5k and a 2nd place finish for me (I've never earned prize money in a race before; I have to say I rather like the feeling), an utterly fascinating all-day guided tour of the Red Desert, a birthday party involving an insane number of sugar-buzzed small children and their exasperated-but-amus