Chapter 58: In which the auther rediscovers the joy of having knees and learns Italian

I can't believe that I haven't posted in a week. I've been so good up until now. I shouldn't complain. It's not even the end of March, and I've already posted more than I did all last year.

I haven't run in a week because my knees hurt so bad that I could barely walk. Silly me just thought that if I worked harder, that somehow I could just "run through the pain". This seemed reasonable to me since it didn't seem that different from my approach to mechanical problems in my car: if you ignore them, they will eventually get better as mechanical problems are wont to do. Anyway, I finally decided to take a week away from it and today was the first day I could walk down stairs without any discomfort. I tested out the new knees today on an easy mile. So far so good, but I think a couple of braces and a proper pair of running shoes might be in order.

I'm in Toronto now, and on Sunday, I leave from here to go Mexico City. I can't wait for some of those deliciously nasty street tacos. Originally, I was supposed to go to Rome the week after, but for about a month, I've been hearing that it wasn't going to happen, so I didn't worry about it much. I got an email yesterday, and it's happening. Because of my schedule and the distances involved, I'm not going to make it home for four weeks. Thank god I don't need a visa. Here's my planned itinerary.

• March 18: Greg drives to Toronto
• March 23: Greg finishes class at noon and goes to Newmarket
• March 25: Greg flies to Mexico City, sleeping on the plane. Spends the afternoon at the Diego Rivera museum looking at lillies and Frida Kahlo's eyebrows
  
• March 28 7:23: Greg goes out looking for street tacos and gets mugged (OK, this might not happen, but I've never been robbed before and I'm probably due). He curses all chilangos everywhere and says lots of bad words
  
• March 30 8:00am: Greg checks out of his hotel, goes to class, and finishes by noon
• March 30 1:00pm: Greg eats tacos, goes to the airport and spends four hours in the afternoon learning to speak absolutely perfect Italian
• March 30 10:30pm: Greg gets on flight to Rome via Paris
• March 31 7:55pm: Greg arrives in Rome and smells really bad. He sleeps for 14 hours
  
• April 1: Greg sees everything there is to see in Rome. He drinks so much espresso that he wets himself and doesn't sleep for three days. Visa puts a hold on his card after buying a metro ticket and wifi access.
  
• April 7: Greg leaves Rome to go back to Toronto. It's Gavin's and Krista's birthdays (hey guys, just because I haven't called in 15 years doesn't mean I forgot)
• April 8: Greg picks up his car in Newmarket, drives to Waterloo and on the way there, realises that he forgot to tell Lara's brother, David, that he is going to spend the week on his couch
• April 12: Home again to Ottawa. The kids announce that "that guy in the picture is back again"