Synchronicity will provide

I just got new business cards and wanted to pick up an Altoids container to hold them in --it's the perfect sized tin. I stopped in at Martins Southgate Drugs and found the Altoids, but then remembered to zap their barcode with my new BUYCOTT app. This is a wonderful new tool that scans the barcode and reveals the parent company and whether or not they have contributed to campaigns supporting GMOs. Alas, I was informed that Altoids are owned by MARS Co, which contributed $376,650 to NO on Prop 37, which was trying to demand GMO labeling. (Shame on them!)
I was so conflicted! I really wanted the tin, and how much, really, would my small purchase hurt MARS, I rationalized. I got to the checkout counter and, low and behold! There were these sweet tins, free and clear of campaign conflicts, made locally (Yelm) and "GMO free, no corn, sugar, soy, wheat, gluten or dairy." Hurray! Synchronicity in action!

One thing leads to another

I got these orange shoes from Tom's (we all got to choose a pair--all 16 of us headed for the coast last month, as part of a lesson our patriarch wanted to impart)--they jumped out at me from the catalog. But I had nothing, really, to wear with them. I don't normally wear orange (or red). Then I was in the PX on Monday and saw this orange shirt on sale for less than $3.00. How could I not buy it??? Accented with my orange earrings (which I have also never worn before) I have gotten several compliments today already, and it is still morning. It reminded me of a poem my interesting friend Darlene Korbuszewski made up when we were in middle school together (she wrote many poems, but this is the only one I remember.)

"The fall leaves scream out their colors: ORANGE!"

That's it. But today I feel like I am screaming out to everyone: "I AM WEARING ORANGE!"

Who knew?

Today I noticed for the first time the "31" nested inside the BR of Baskin-Robbins sign. I know. Amazing how unobservant I've been for the past 57 years (Baskin-Robbins has been in business for 67 years, but I'm not that old...)
It made me wonder how many "hidden" messages are out there in the Universe that have gone or go unnoticed by me. I am trying to be open to the hidden wonders out there and I believe that the more aware and observant and acknowledging we are, the more we are given to see. A quick Wikipedia search also let me in on the reason behind the 31 (I know, I bet everyone but me already knew this...)--so customers could try a different flavor every day of the month. I hope everyday of the month I see a new message and learn a new thing.
Here are the original 31 flavors. Which is your favorite? (Can you believe they offered Green Tea Tiramisu back in 1945??!! and what is a "Mille-feuille"? Something new to learn!)

Banana Nut Fudge Black Walnut Burgundy Cherry Butterscotch Ribbon Cherry Macaroon Chocolate Chocolate Almond Chocolate Chip Chocolate Fudge Chocolate Mint Chocolate Ribbon

Coffee Coffee Candy Date Nut Egg Nog French Vanilla Green Mint Stick Lemon Crisp Lemon Custard Lemon Sherbet Maple Nut

Orange Sherbet Peach Peppermint Fudge Ribbon Peppermint Stick Pineapple Sherbet Raspberry Sherbet Rocky Road Strawberry Vanilla Vanilla Burnt Almond Strawberry Mille-feuille Green tea Tiramisu

Unplugged?

My NikeBand quit a couple weeks ago, and the two weeks without it have seemed somehow freeing, as though I had some restriction removed. I wasn't concerned about how many "fuel points" I was burning throughout the day and I wasn't stressing over whether or not the website would be "down" when I would be trying to upload my data for the day. I got the free replacement band in the mail a few days ago and have sent off the defective one, but am waiting to wear the new one to be sure they accept the old as replaceable. If it isn't, I'm sending the new one back, rather than be charged anew for it.
Today I was plugging in my meals to MyFitnessPal and calculating how far/long I had to run to burn the equivalent calories and I was aghast that I was already 300 calories over my "daily allowance" and I hadn't even had dinner yet! Then I realized that my morning smoothie had somehow gotten recorded twice, and I breathed a sigh of relief that I was still "on track."
So I set out in the still-warm evening for my 3-miles run and really pumped it, working to break under 10 minute miles. Three miles later, gasping for breath in the heat and drenched in sweat, I look at the stats on Runkeeper and saw that I had only burned 123 calories. What??!! No way! I looked closer and saw that I had inadvertently selected "Cycling" for my activity instead of "Running." The app thought I was out on a leisurely 6-miles per hour bike ride instead of the intense 10-minute-mile workout I had done. Bleh. So I did a slow jog for 2 miles with the setting on "Walk" to compensate.
This wasn't my first technological breakdown, as my first NikeBand (I'm now on #3) quit the day of my first marathon, cheating me of an all-time-high fuel point moment.
Think the Universe is trying to tell me something? What can I learn from this? Maybe I need to become more of a minimalist--running for the "fun of it" (well, and for the fitness) but not to be so fixated on measuring and tracking and competing. Maybe I just need a watch, and not something that will tell me constantly how many calories I am burning, how many steps I am taking and how many "Fuel points" (whatever that means...?) I've earned.
After a year of tracking my food and exercise on MyFitnessPal--a free website that I really have enjoyed and has helped me to be more aware of what I eat and what it takes to lose weight--I think I "get it" and could possibly continue to eat healthy without the constant tracking.
This past year I have learned a lot about fitness, my body and what it can do (yes, run a marathon as well as place respectably in 2 triathlon sprints), health and nutrition (feeling my way towards vegetarianism), and have reached my ideal body weight goal. I believe it may be time to unplug...