"There must be a storm coming...my knees are aching!"

Today is the day that I am officially old. Yes, yes I know I haven't had a birthday recently and my face hasn't spontaneously erupted in wrinkles but it might as well have. I have that much proof.

Listen:

You know how you always hear those old people in movies or whatever and how they can predict the weather by the degree of pain they feel in their various afflicted joints, appendages, and what have you? Such as:

"Their is definitely a storm headin' in because oh my back aches so!"

"You better go cover your begonias Martha because my shoulder is telling an earlier frost is coming"

"My big toe is swelling! The hail is coming tonight!"

"My goiter's actin' up, must be a blizzard"

or

"I wish I didn't live in such a rainy climate because each time it rains my ears fill to the brim with wax"

Ok so maybe the last one is stretching it a bit, but I swear on a unopened box on nutty bars (that's serious folks) that I have heard many of these exclamations and then some. You don't believe me? Come on! I work at an old folks home which is synonymous for the local weather station. I know pain means weather worries, ok? I have even witnessed my own mother, who is a spring chicken compared to all my other encounters with those weather inflicted injuries, claim her knee feels ten million times better in the balmy tropical climate of the Hawaiian isles then in the frigid tundra of the 49th state. Now I used to think all of that was a bunch of crock like you. I would chalk my elderly friends' and even my mother's superstitious achey woes up to hypochondria.

Until now.

Today I woken  up with a feeling. My hips, hamstrings, and knees had ached dully. I couldn't be sore because I had taken a break from my training plan for two whole days. I decided to stretch and I ran like I always do. On my scheduel today was an easy three miles. I decided to herd Zoom around for it. It ended uneventfuly besides my anger at having to chase Zoomie around and yell at her the whole time, but the aches still continued throughout dinner. It was lightly sprinkling when I left for work and the pain was worse. And finally while reading a book in the lazy boy at work my legs were causing me some serious damage on my mood. What. The. Heck. I looked outside and sure enough there is a downpour going on. I didn't connect any of my symptoms to the weather until I decided I needed to complain loudly and frequently to a coworker. She expressed similar feelings and said: "Oh, it's just the weather, once the clouds clear up we will both feel fine"

No. No.

I do not have the crazy weather predicting pain that so many in this facility have, I thought. It wasn't until I was laying in bed and the rain had long since stopped that my poor legs decided to give it a rest that I was convinced.

This is real.
I am a phenomenom.

I feel like I should be on Oprah or something. I'll be like that girl on "Mean Girls" but without the boobs and I will be more accurate. Bahahha you can lock me in a windowless room and I'll be like "There is a nintey percent chance that it is already raining,"  When the governement gets wind of my abilities they will capture me and do all kinds of crazy tests on me I'm sure.  Headlines will read: "Alaskan Girl Predicts Tsunami Usining Only Patellar Tendon!" Watch out, it will be crazy how fast my star will rise. Pretty soon I'll have my own talk show that no one watches and recording hits like "My Hips Don't Lie" with my ridiculously autotuned voice. Oh yeah. Epic.

Oh but with great gifts come great responsibilities and by responsiblilities I mean lamenss. I am old. This is bad. If I can already predict the weather with my hips inflammation at the tender age of 22 then what does this mean about the rest of my life? Will I spontaneously start to loose my hair? Will I randomly like grape nuts? Will I get a hump on my back premanently making everyone I meet compare my looks to Golum? Am I going to feel the need to start sentences with "Back in my day"? Am I going to start obsessing about my bowel movements? Will I start to like Matlock? *Gasp* Menopause!?

All of these possiblilites are equally horrifying. You should pray for my youth. I still want to have children and try to not look like Golum for the next 50 years or so. Until then if you ever need to know the weather for a camping trip, picnic, or something give me a call and I'll ask my hammys :)

Here are some lovely photos I snapped that day despite all my pain.

Dropy Drops

You almost want to eat it!

Beautiful.

EDIT: A day later I was caught in a rain storm during a run. It was suprisingly glorious! I think I am going to start a club called Rain Runners :)