A Long Report for a Short March

I am exhausted. Sore all over. Ouching with every move.

How did I get here?

Well, let's see. Thursday night I had water aerobics, so afterward, and Friday, I was generally sore, as I usually am. My hands were also having a bad day, which could have been due to the swimming in whole, in part, or not at all, who knows. The joys of arthritis.

Friday night I went to a friend's house to hang with her cats for a bit, as the family is away and she's worried they were lonely. I watched the Bruins' must-win game there, or I guess I should say I watched the part that happened in regulation; when it was going to overtime, I decided that since I was getting pretty tired and would only get more so, I should drive home while I was at least that alert. I caught the start of OT in the car, and then went inside for the rest of the first overtime period and into the second. There was a lot of drama, and I was highly stressed.

But finally, just before midnight, the Bruins scored! (Rational game recap here; emotional one here.) I was so happy for rookie Sean Kuraly, who tied the game with his first NHL goal, then got the game-winner in 2OT. He was leaping into the air, it was very cute. The whole thing was very exciting, but so exhausting to watch. I tumbled into bed just after midnight, feeling like I'd been beaten with a stick.

I slept pretty solidly, but got up (at 10!) still feeling surprisingly sore, and generally achy and tired. In hindsight, I should have thought twice about going in to the Science March, but I really wanted to go, and it wasn't until 2, plus it was actually a rally and not a march, so I thought I would give it a try, and gave myself permission to leave when I needed to.

Which didn't take long. I got there just about 2, when the crowds were already large but the speakers were just getting started.

You can see that the ground is wet; yesterday, the forecast for today just said it would be "overcast," but that turned out to mean drizzling and chilly and truly unpleasant. Stupid April in New England.

Anyway. I listened to some speaking, but my back and legs were getting painful with the standing, so I tried walking around, and that wasn't any better, and in short order I was in enough pain that I was walking back to the T. Disappointing, but when I was trying not to groan out loud at the pain of sitting down once the train came, I knew it was the right thing to do. It was a good, if painful, lesson in Listen To Your Body, and maybe next time I will get the message before I overspend my spoons.

There were lots of great signs there, and I got pictures of a few of them.

This one on the left I tried a few times to get. Cut off the top.

And cut off different parts. A for effort?

And a clever way to carry a sign.

My arms were too tired to hold my sign up much, but I made a small, two-sided one.

And the shirt I wore (which no one could see under my coat, but anyway):

I remember giving blood in college, back when the Red Cross would take my blood (yes, I am still bitter that they won't now), and they would offer us little stickers that said, "Be nice to me, I gave blood today." There were also stickers that said, "Be nice to me, I tried," which I always thought were rather sad. But today, I think I earned that much. I tried. I'm okay with that.