"A random act of kindness

is a perpetual cycle!"

I was struck this evening by the kindness of a stranger who stopped to help me. I was struggling at the Sox/35th L stop with my bicycle, trying to lift & load it onto a second level of a rather large bike rack. I had never had to chain my bicycle up to the second tier before, & my bicycle is not the lightest of bikes. I was in one-inch heels, sun-shining in my face, sweating in my skirt, & the bicycle kept slipping back towards me. 

I think I only really wrestled with the bicycle for maybe 45 seconds before a man in a suit came out of nowhere, asked me if I was trying to get the bicycle up or down, to which I laughed, "I am trying to lift it up, ha!" He loaded the bicycle in, I thanked him repeatedly, I locked the bicycle, & by then the man was gone. 

I could have been smacked in the face by my own bicycle if it was not for this person's effort to just take a minute from his afternoon to help a stranger. I hope to "pay it forward," Mr Awesome Bicycle Lifting Guy. 

I left work today to enjoy the very last of my birthday dinner freebie gift cards from a favorite restaurant downtown (the entire reason I was fighting with my bicycle at the L station). The salad I enjoyed for dinner tonight just made the salads I have been eating at home for the last two nights in a row so, so painfully pale in comparison.

This was my lobster cobb salad, sans bacon & avocado. I was stuffed post meal to the point that I told my waiter that I wanted a nap. His response was, "Food coma?"

We are expecting outrageously high temperatures in Chicago over the next few days. Today during my lunch break it was only 74 degrees outside, so I opted for a run through the neighborhood & the park before the weather becomes unbearable. I surprised myself by clocking a perfect 2 miles in exactly 17 minutes 26 seconds. I hope to up that 2 miles to 3 soon. 

I may have only been outside running for barely 18 minutes, but in that time I managed to get freaking tan lines from my sports bra & running shorts. To remedy this, I spent the rest of my lunch break behind my apartment, in a swim suit, with a bottle of cold water.

I spent about 15 minutes in the sun & presto! My tan lines disappeared.