No cycling yesterday either. But also, no ice cream or jelly beans, so I think relative to the day before, yesterday was a training day! (Day 7 ).

Last night I meet up with someone I hadn't seen since high school. I will call her Paula and hopefully she doesn't mind. At first I wasn't all that excited, because at some point its just been so long that even though you technically should have ten years to catch up on, you don't actually have that much to say. It turns into one of those dreaded reunions where you struggle to tell your life history in any sort of comprehensive manner and they look at you like you are crazy. I think most high school friendships are sort of suspect anyway. Like making friends with your fellow inmates. Sure its all fine and dandy when you are stuck in a grey building day after day, but after you get out, maybe its better to move on?

(errr ... clearly I'm not referring to any of my high school friends who may be reading this - I treasure what you wrote in my yearbook. So true!)

Not so with Paula! I knew things where going to turn out well when we had the following conversation:

Paula: So have you ever *done* an overnight bike trip?
Me: uhm. No.
(silence)
Me: and you know what? I'm not going to try it out either. I'm just going to go.
Paula: Oh for sure. I wouldn't try it out ahead of time either. Its about commitment.
Me: Ohmygod! That's exactly what I think! Commitment! You have to commit.

Of course my first clue that we were going to get along fine was probably when she explained how after finishing her masters and starting her career as an environmental consultant she decided she didn't want to do it anymore and became a helicopter pilot instead. How cool is that???? Jealous!!!