Is there a sign on my back?

If so, I think I know EXACTLY what it says:

"If you see me working my butt off,

biking up some really steep hill,

working within 90-95% of my maximum HR,

out of my comfort zone,

not able to talk,

focusing on the road and my cadence ....

STOP ME AND ASK FOR DIRECTIONS.

p.s. Don't think anything of interrupting and basically screwing up the most challenging and best part of my ride, so make sure I'm at the steepest part of the climb so that I have to stop and lose my focus and momentum."

What is UP with that? Could they not see that I was in the middle of something that was requiring a lot of mental focus and physical effort?

Today wasn't the first time this happened to me, either. I just don't get why this has happened to me once, let alone twice. I'm telling you, I have NEVER seen a motorist stop a cyclist while they were biking to ask them for directions. EVER. Think about it... have you ever witnessed such a thing? Am I wrong in thinking this is absurd? It's like flagging down a car coming in the opposite direction to ask for directions. You just don't do that. Unless you're in the middle of nowhere, I suppose. But this is New Jersey people. It's jam packed with people. OTHER people besides the cyclist in her zone. Go ask someone else.

So why has this happened to me TWICE in the last month or so? Is it because I don't wear an "official" bike jersey with all the blocks of color and writing on them? I'm wearing athletic clothing and definitely conveyed that I was in serious ride mode. I was clearly not on a leisurely ride.

I thought the first time a motorist stopped me for directions earlier this summer was a fluke. I remember coming home and complaining about it to my husband, thinking "Can you believe that motorist stopped me on the climb for directions? Who does that?"

So today, when I saw this car coming towards me in oncoming lane and start to slow down, I thought, "No way. Not again. You are NOT going to stop me and ask for directions." So I focused even more so on just me and the road. I figured if I acted like they're not stopping, they wouldn't. They stopped.

The motorist called out, "Excuse me? Miss?" and for a few seconds, I kept going even though it was clear this motorist was stopping to ask for directions. I came so close to saying, "Sorry, I can't stop, I'm in the middle of training." Okay, so I'm not training per se, but I mean, I'm climbing a mountain on a bike. There's no way what I was doing looked easy. One would think one wouldn't want to interrupt me.

The only thing I could think of was that there must be a sign on my back.

Apparently on my front, too. :S

Moral of the story: DON'T INTERRUPT ME WHEN I'M IN THE ZONE. Thank you.

Otherwise, I'm usually nice to strangers and helpful with giving directions if asked. Really. :D

The last week has been busy and a tad stressful, hence the desire to rant about something, I suppose. Nothing too major, just busy with a lot of goings on with the husband, kids, father-in-law and pets. Vacation is coming soon, though, so I'm looking forward to some quality time with my husband and daughters, exploring someplace new and recharging my batteries. :)

How are you?

I really do want to know! Got any rants of your own this week?

Don't do the math...

By the way, this post is about monthly girly girl personal stuff, so if that topic is TMI for you and you don't want to read it, please click away and come back another day. Thanks.

My husband is very patient and sympathetic to my girly complaints. But just a few days ago we had a brief conversation that got me to thinking that as sympathetic as he is... he really doesn't know what we go through. Surprise, I know. He happened to be with me in the bathroom when I had just discovered it was that time of the month AGAIN. I groaned and complained, of course. This was our conversation:

Me: "Oh maaaan. I just got my period."
Him: "Sorry."
Me: "I hate getting my period. I'm so tired of getting my period."
Him: "Well, it doesn't last too long..."
Me: "What?! I've been getting my period for a long time. It sure feels like its been lasting a long time to me."

End of conversation. I wasn't even mad. Until I started thinking exactly how long it has been that I've been getting my period. And if I stacked all of those days together right in a row, how many days of my life so far have I spent having my period?

So I made the mistake and did the math.

30 years x 12 months in a year x 6 days average per period = 2,160 days.

To be fair, I'll subtract out the days that I didn't get my period because I was either pregnant or nursing, which turned out to be 276 days. I just knew those kids were good for something other than a tax deduction! ;) So....

2,160 - 276 = 1,884 days of cramping, bleeding, bloating, etc., feminine product hell

That's approximately 5 YEARS, 1 MONTH and 28 DAYS! And counting! And let me tell you, for the first 15 years--or 1080 days--of my menstruating life, approximately 180 days were spent in bed with the shakes, cold sweats, and vomiting misery. I used to be very ill that first day until I went on the pill at around 20 years old and then later had babies. Seriously, those first days were worse than the labor pains of both my girls added together--and my second birth was 100% natural as in no drugs, no IV, not even a heparin lock! 180 DAYS!!! The equivalent of six straight months of my life was spent feeling like that. IMAGINE IT'S LIKE I SURVIVED SIX MONTHS STRAIGHT LABOR PAINS WITHOUT AN EPIDURAL OR EVEN TYLENOL! And I'm just an average girl. I'm sure there are countless women who have or will have endured the same and worse than me as a result of something so simple and natural as menstruation.

I should have never done these calculations. Now I'm really pissed. At mother nature, or my husband, I'm not really sure.

I sat down at my laptop this morning, thinking I was going to email my husband the results of my calculations. I'll show him. But he emailed me first and sent me this [bookstore coupon] and told me he also left some cash for me on the dining room table from a camera lens he sold off craigslist yesterday. Awww. Maybe I'm not that mad at after all. Because tonight? I'M GOING SHOPPING!!!!!

And its good to be a girl, isn't it?