And Not a Drop to Drink

Went to gorgeous Martha's Vineyard yesterday. But what's a day hanging out with childhood friends, riding bikes, sitting on the beach, and seeing Bo' folks without a little embarrassment? Boy, was yesterday embarrassing. I had always assumed that 'dehydration' was slightly made up, that drinking your water was up there with flossing and taking vitamins- crazy, healthy stuff for weaklings or really intense folks. I mean, isn't thirst usually a good indicator of whether you should have water or not? How could people not have enough water in them? I had gone through a summer of landscape work at BP, and went to the deserts of China, all without any hiccups, but as I learned yesterday, even someone as young and relatively invincible like me (i.e. pretty out of shape) can fall prey to dehydration. Yesterday, after biking for only about a mile, Nate and I stopped so my wondrous Puma bag could be strapped to his bike (Maria: Thank God you have that backpack, I'd never recognize you without it.) All was well until I stood up and suddenly felt lightheaded. Then things looked splotchy. Then I told Nate I wanted to sit down. Then I stood up again because sitting down seemed weak. Then I couldn't see. Then I stood still for five minutes holding onto my bike trying to compose myself and not freak out Nate too much or crash down onto the road. All I could process at the time was that the world was fuzzy and my arms tingly. Then slowly I could see again. At that point sitting down didn't seem so unreasonable. And Nate made me drink lots of liquids. After some more humbling resting, my weakness left me and I finished the bike ride, albeit much later than everyone else. Lesson here, boys and girls, is that having enough fluids in your body is much more important than having a bathroom nearby because holding your pee in is a lot easier to do than trying to make your eyes see when you're blind from dehydration.