Little Darling, The Smiles are Returning to Their Faces.

Well, it's Friday finally. It was a short week for me since I took Wednesday off for an appointment. My appointment was a breast ultrasound. I know I get one every year now, but I still worry every single time.

I always thought that a breast ultrasound would hurt way less than a mammogram. I imagined it would be like the gentle wand they use on pregnant women. I was wrong. They still use those damn paddles, but they don't smash your boob in between two of them. Instead, they smash your boob between one paddle and your rib cage. This particular technician, just couldn't get the view right. She kept trying over and over again, and crushing me with those damn paddles with every try. I can't imagine getting exposed to the radiation over and over again, could be that great for me either.

I think anyone who has to hurt women by giving them mammograms and breast ultrasounds, should have to have one themselves, so they would know how it feels to have someone inflicting that pain upon them several times, because they couldn't get it set up correctly. The tech who took the films last year was great. I'm sure she had worked there a long time, but she was able to do three views of each breast and be done. Anyway, I'm done whining...For a little bit anyway.

The good news is that the story had a happy ending. Not only did I stop at Trader Joe's and buy myself some flowers afterward, I also got good results from my ultrasound the following day. No malignancies found. Hooray!

The other good thing, was that I took the rest of the day off and got to do an eight mile run in 50 degree temps. FINALLY.

I did run through a little bit of Hickory Hill Park to see if it had de-iced at all. Apparently not.

I took a hard left out of the park and into the cemetery. I have always loved the Oakland Cemetery. It was pretty much ice free and I got to run on the car free lanes.

No visit to the cemetery would be complete without a stop at the Black Angel. She's not quite so scary during the day.

Since I have no sense of direction, it's nice to have some signs to lead me the right way out.

During the run, at about the fourth or fifth mile, I had that moment where I could finally run without having to worry about falling on the ice and it was warm enough that I wasn't layered all up, and I had runner's high and I thought, "Ahhhhh. This is the feeling I've been waiting for these last few months." Winter is finally loosing its grasp on us. Let's hope it stays that way.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, gets the best results possible, has that wonderful feeling of Spring's awakening and buy yourselves some damn flowers for god's sake. You won't regret it.