I thought that four months in the gym had gone a long way toward conquering my fear, my embarrassment, my (dare I say it?) loathing of my appearance, but that wasn't the case as I headed down Hughes Road toward Dublin Park. As I was stopped at the next-to-last red light before turning left onto Old Madison Pike, I stopped for a moment and gave my thoughts their objective, silent, frightening due:

Ages ago, Suzan said to me that the number sixteen was magic, and so far, I'm inclined to agree. For women, dropping back down into the sixteen-and-under range brings you back into the land of the living, the normal, the everyday.Sometimes, what's utterly normal and everyday for the rest of the world is terrifying and magical and scary for me.