130,780

You may be wondering right now what the number in the title means...
Is it the amount of pastries I consumed in France?
The amount of miles I had to run to counteract all the pastry eating?
Or is it the amount of hours I feel like I spent studying for class this past semester?

Eh, not quite folks. This is the number of miles of my dear car, a lady close to my heart, called Roxxy. I was sleeping somewhere on 95 north when she hit 130,000, which means now I have to drive her and keep her breathing until the next milestone (140K). I am afraid if she gets hit by anything larger than a bicycle though, resecitation will not be possible.

Anyways, I have only been with Rox for the past 23,000 or so. But this whole idea of miles and distance and the journeys we log has really got me thinking. Today, my BFF Leigh returns home from Toulouse where she has been living since late August of last year. I haven't seen her since I visited in October, and the time change does make it harder to stay in touch. Out of my girlfriends (the three L's: Leigh, Liz Ma, Liz Mo) two have been in France and one in San Francisco for the entire year. Yeah, I'm not so much a fan. Despite our best efforts, we are all pretty bad at staying in touch. Although I do give Leigh an A for effort as she used google chat to call me several times... I just have a bad habit of NEVER picking up my cellphone.

It makes me wonder, as the miles between family and friends and myself grow longer and bigger, how will we stay in touch? Sometimes it feels like I spend more time with Roxxy than I do with my besties (although, this may just be because I drove from DC-->ATL and ATL-->BOS last week). I truly believe teleporting will be a necessary invention since I may end up in DC with half my buddies and no family. I would like to just click my heels together three times and end up where I want to go. Instead, Leigh will probably travel for 12+ hours today... ah, but won't it be worth it? Because every time the distance between me and one of my family members or friends grows smaller, it does nothing but make me smile.

xo
Camille

Rob and Big

Yesterday I hit the PF for the first time in almost five months. Oh how I missed the bright yellow purple equipment and walls that greeted me every time I went in there. I really hate AU's gym be ause it's full of the few meat heads we actually have at AU (some figures quote that every 1 in 2 males are gay... I wonder). Anyways I like the judgement free zone of the PF and I was glad to be back.

Now my plan is to train 6 days a week and two of those days I have to double up activities. I decided Sunday was a good day for bike/run. Haha. Of course after getting off the bike after only 3 mi,es (in my defense those things hurt my butt and I was biking at 15 mph which is decently fast), my legs felt like jello. My quads were burning and I felt like Bambi. I actually felt like I had after I had been in the car for ten hours driving up from Atlanta last week, but same thing. So I go to get on the treadmill after a quick two minute stretch.

Who do I get on the the treadmill next to, but dedham's own Rob and Big. Now for those of you who don't know who Rob and Big are, they used to have a tv show on MTV, which sadly I have seen once or twice. Basically rob is a skateboarder and a tiny, little white guy who thinks he is thug. Big is his big, black bodyguard. I'm pretty sure he has his own clothing line now or something like that. So here they are, "Rob" wearing an oversized jersey and walking next to Big, who is big. This whole time im thinking: I am so not in DC or AU anymore.

What a warm welcome to the PF.

the divinity... or something like it.

So for starters, I'm back. I found that to truly write in a blog called Meels on Wheels, I had to be on the move. When I started, that criteria was easily filled because I was trekking around unmarked territory (ok I was simply following foreigners directions from gelateria to boulangerie, but whatever). I had backpack and a bunch of borrowed or stolen maps and I was on the move, always.

Once I settled back into school for a grueling four month semester, I toyed around with what to do with the blog, thinking I was not nearly as funny as I was with croissant in hand looking out on to the Champs de Elysse. However, I have found my calling. About two months ago I signed up for my first triathlon (which I still have difficulty spelling) and thus began to grapple with the holy trinity. Swim. Bike. Run.

Now, I originally decided to take on the big three because my Auntie Margie had been begging people to join up to support this great cause called Gals for Cal. Cal is a little boy who has MD, which as some of you may know, is a genetic disease affecting the muscles. So far there is no cure so there is constant fundraising towards that but in this case, families like Cal's need money for wheelchairs, special beds and programs for kids suffering from this disease. MD holds a special place in my heart since my mom's best friend is my Auntie Margie and her son Eddie suffers from it. So I figured, I'm twenty - youthful, strong, right? - I can do a triathlon and raise money for a good cause.

Ha, that's funny. I decided to postpone the majority of my training until school was over. First of all, I am on a competative cheerleading team that was practicing almost every day from the time I signed up for the T-lon until April 10th. Then I had essays and finals and moving to take care. Needless to say I went for my first run in almost two months the day I finished my last final. Woof. It was rough. Sure, lift someone over my head, put up some crazy pyramid - no problem. But swim a half a mile, bike 12 and run a 5k back to back to back? You have got to be kidding me.

However, despite the insanity, I am on the move again and I figured the only way to deal with upcoming blood, sweat and tears (although hopefully just the middle one), is to blog.

So readers, enjoy. I promise it will be as entertaining as me paragliding with the Saudis, tackling the three day diet and hanging with my homeboys at the pf. (see older posts).

Swim. Bike. Run. Beer.

xo
Camille