Sweating in Style

Tonight on my way home from work, I was about halfway home and riding on the sidewalk, when I got something in my eye. It was so bad that I couldn't open my eye and had to swerve over into the grass, come to a stop, and un-clip from my pedals all with my eyes closed. I'm really lucky that I was where I was, that there was grass next to me and no other people walking or biking on that sidewalk. Once stopped, I blinked a bunch, rubbed my eye and let tears fall until I couldn't feel anything in it. This would be completely insignificant if not for memory it inspired...

On a Thursday evening in March, my freshman year of college, I was riding my trusty Pink Panther Panasonic down a steep hill in Gainesville to Cold Stone creamery. I was participating in a FAB (Florida Alternative Breaks-- spring break service projects) trip that was leaving 36 hours later. We were hosting a fundraiser at Cold Stone that night in preparation for the trip. Anyway, I was biking on the road sans helmet when some dirt and gravel sprayed up from a car and got in my eye. I pulled over and rubbed it out and felt completely fine. About 5 hours later, though, right before bed, my eye went bat shit crazy, spasming and watering with no end. I went to bed hoping it would water itself out overnight. I kept waking up in the middle of the night feeling swollen. I thought that my brain was swelling up and bumping into my eye. I'm kind of a hypochondreac and it was actually the skin around my eye swelling up. Hypochondreac or not, something was not right. I went to the infirmary to learn that I had conjuctivitis. For those who haven't had this, it is NOT fun. You feel like you have something in your eye constantly, your eyes water, and you look like a cyclops. I had to rub globs of clear neosporin-like goo in my eye twice a day, something I was not at all comfortable with. After the initial two days, conjuctivitis wasn't that bad. It just came at the worst possible time. I was with all these people, practically strangers, self conscious about what a freak I looked like. Looking back, though, it is an amusing memory. Despite the annoyance of getting some mystery dust in my eye tonight, it is nice to reminisce about my FAB days on the pink panther and the conjuctivitis I endured during these days.