Keeping Pace

Keeping Pace

Archives for June 2007

pickups

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At work I have been challenged to keep a lot of balls (projects) in the air simultaneously. Today, however, I have off loaded all of the balls to other team members and am waiting for them to be thrown back at me. It’s a good thing for a Friday.

At 11:30 am, I checked in with everyone prior to grabbing my workout bag. I passed Mark in the hallway and apologized for having to do a solo run. Of course he didn’t think a thing of it. He’s a good man.

The workout was a good one for today – run at easy pace and pick up the pace for 30 seconds eight times. I started out and reflected on the day, the week, the month, the year as my body warmed up. It was time for my first pickup before long. I pushed Garminia’s lap button and picked up the pace when she signaled for me to GO.

The increased running effort that this required was nice. I thought of nothing else but running during those 30 seconds. I returned to an easy pace and caught my breath. The thoughts returned to my head. I let them be there but didn’t try to solve them. I looked ahead to my path and watched the seconds tic away. It was good to know that in a matter of minutes, all of my troubles would be pushed aside to allow for me to focus on running (and nothing more) – even if it was only for 30 seconds at a time.

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Over the hedge

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I heard some rustling this morning, as I was getting ready for work. I’ve heard it a time or two before but, with the kids moving throughout the house, I was never able to figure out where the noise was coming from. At first, I looked out the window onto the roof. Nothing. Next, I walked over toward the kids’ room to see out their window. Again nothing. I stopped to listen. The sound was still audible and coming…from…over by the door to the attic. *great* While the kids are away, the critters have made their way inside our house and have come to stay.

I listened and tried to determine what the animal (or animals) could be. When they are outside, many of the critters are pretty cute. But over the hedge and inside my house, they aren’t so appealing. I began to wonder how large they could be.

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Our neighbors had a similar experience about a month ago. I called them today to find out how they got rid of the unwanted guest. Apparently, she banged on the wall and screamed them out of her house. I could try that.

In an effort to avoid another expense I am willing to give noise-extermination a try. So tonight Lucky and I will be blasting some music, and doing some hootin’ and hollering. I might have to invite my neighbor over for some tips on technique; I wouldn’t want to choose the wrong music and make them feel more at home.

If this doesn’t work, I’ll have to fork out some money and call in The Verminator. I may not need the “De-Pelter Turbo” device but something MUST be done. I can just sit back and allow the critters to go around robbing the Spuddies from my neighborhood of overfed, SUV-driving humans! No way.

Over the hump

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It’s Wednesday night and I am getting along okay. I guess you could say that I am over the hump. I booked up my evenings this week so much that I have hardly been home at all. I am able to do a few things that I couldn’t normally do like have dinner with friends and family.

While the meet ups have kept my occupied, the distraction hasn’t worked as smoothly as I had hoped. One pitfall is that th act of booking up my free time has left me exhausted. Additionally, my painful moments have been pushed back into my morning commutes (rather than late evening). Since I hate showing up to work with red, swollen eyes, I’ve decided that I need a solution.

I’ve decided to leave tonight open for some bonding time with Lucky and the 3+ loads of clean laundry that are now badly wrinkled.

sadness happens

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You probably remember that I am not a runner who needs companionship on my outings. There are days when I would rather block out the world around me to retreat to the depths of my little head. Yesterday was one of those days.

The only problem with running solo was that I had already begun arrangements to run with Mark and Cindy. While I am sure that they would have understood, if I had sent them on without me, my mind was busied with the awareness that they had waited for me to get out of my meeting. I wouldn’t let myself abandon them after that. Besides, Cindy was rescuing me from hunger with half of her energy bar.

As Mark and I ran together to the place where we would meet Cindy, I ranted about the meeting. I expressed having let my frustration completely consume me. I described how I had used my own sadness as an example of why the specific criterion under discussion was perfect as is. And how I felt utterly out of control at the moment that I let that happen. I could have said more, but had gotten enough of it out of my system by the time we met up with Cindy.

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Mommy Withdrawals

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This morning at camp check-in I hid my nervousness as I looked around us. I thought back to BoBo’s response when asked if he was excited about camp. He had told his Aunt Carol that he was going to be spending the next few days “watching the little kids.” His enthusiasm for going to camp was back down. When I had last checked, he was actually a little excited about it. I don’t know what changed his mind. I decided that I couldn’t make him to be happy about it; I can only make him go.

After the forms were turned in and the bags were bus-side, BoBo had retreated off to the curb. YaYa and I followed. All around us small groups of counselors presented over-the-top enthusiasm. Grouped by color, I could easily find YaYa’s red group. BoBo’s group, however, was unidentifiable.

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I left the boys curbside and walked over to the red group. I asked for the whereabouts of the Outdoor Leadership Program. In the middle of all the groups sat a smaller group of counselors. They were more subdued but clearly a part of the camp. I escorted BoBo to his group and watched as he got acquainted.

It didn’t take a lot of coaxing to get BoBo to join in on the games. After all, it was a safe environment for BoBo to “play” and not be judged. How perfect was that for a teenager who has been forced to assume the “man of the house” role?

Once BoBo was settled, YaYa was hooked up with his group. It was interesting to observe the quieting of “Mr. Talk.” I joked with YaYa, telling him that the leaders were sure going to be surprised when he got comfortable. He smiled timidly at me.

The games began with YaYa’s group as I stood back and watched. When I could see that both boys were comfortable, I returned to their side for a hug good-bye. I hugged little YaYa and found that, this time, it was me who was afraid to let go. I could feel the tears surfacing and managed to hold them back until I hit the car. Nothing like a little Mommy Withdrawals.

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