The Mystery of the Left Wrist

Since I moved away from home and settled three states away from my mother, our meetings a few times a year in the flesh kind of go like this:

We hug.

She holds me out at arm length.

She says "Alicia, you're so PALE!"

And I say "I know! I know!"

I am pale. This is in part because I worship at the alter of sunscreen. Nobody would ever accuse me of having flawless skin, but the esthetician I saw back in July exclaimed that I had absolutely no sun damage. "You've got the skin of a nineteen year old!" she exclaimed (sadly, this occasionally means I break out like one, alas.) If I'm going outside, I'm wearing something with sunscreen on my face. Foundation. Moisturizer. Something. Count on it.

I'm not as diligent with the rest of my body, I admit, which became apparent last night as I was staring down at my arms because my wrist looked odd. Specifically, my left wrist.

It's been kind of weird looking for a few months because I burned myself taking a pizza out of the oven back in February, and despite the fact that the burn was not particularly bad, it scarred dark. It's fading. I don't quite get why it scarred, and the really bad burns I got last year getting boiling hot simple syrup down the backs of my fingers didn't scar at all, but hey, I don't make the rules.

So here I am, trying to figure out why my wrist looks weird.

And then it hits me.

It's a watch tan line.

That kind of confused me at first because 1. I rarely wear my watch and 2. my watch is pretty small, whereas this is a BIG FREAKING WHITE BAND on my wrist.

Yes, dear readers. I have a gigantic tan line on my wrist FROM MY GARMIN 305!

I piked up the Garmin Forerunner 305 about a year and a half ago, when I was first with Team in Training. I am gadget obsessed, so it and I get along great. Basically what happens is that when I go out to do my intervals I tell it what I want to do (currently, warm up for 5 minutes, run a set number of intervals in which I run for 3 minutes and walk briskly for two, then cool down for five more minutes.) It beeps at me when it is time to make these transitions. It also tells me how fast I am running (or perhaps more accurately it exclaims "Look! Look how slow you are!"), how far I am going, what direction I should run home in (now that I have told my Garmin that the house is a set point), how fast my heart rate is, whether my heart rate is too high, how many calories I have burned, and more I haven't figured out how to use yet.

Apparently it is also the source of the huge white band around my left wrist.

Hilarious. Just hilarious. Memo to self: remember to wear biggest watch you own next time have to dress like a grown up professional person.