Archives for October 2007
What time of year is it? Is this your favorite season? Why or why not?
Technically, it is fall, but if feels more like a winter without rain. Here, in California, it isn’t all the same (as my husband would have had you believe). There are subtle differences in the seasons and, unless you love the snow, it is great.
Although I love seeing the leaves turn to the varying colors; I much prefer spring and summer. One of the biggest reasons for disliking the fall season is that I dislike waking up in darkness. I also dislike the feeling of running out of time that comes with the early darkness at the end of the day. My mood changes to hope as the days begin getting longer. I know that spring will come soon and I even take joy in running in the rain (occasionally).
Spring is probably my favorite of the four seasons. Summer is next in line. This is because I like to be warm, and I like to wake up to the sun coming through the window. I like to sit outside and listen to the birds singing.
Spring has always meant new life – when the spring flowers are blooming and the young animals are coming to life. Since Tom’s death occurred on the first day of spring, “new life” now has a different meaning. Still, I think that I will like the coming of spring. It will be a point to appreciate my life and the new growth that has occurred in the year left behind.
nablopomo
It’s that time again. It’s National Blog Posting Month again! That means that I’ll be joining many of you in the fun of posting something on my blog everyday for the month of November.
For those of you who are wondering how on earth you come up with a new post everyday, look what I found. Click on “journals” for a list of interesting topics to write about.
Here’s one example:
Look in the mirror, and write down what you think. Are you being too hard on yourself?
Quitting Early
It was 4 pm when I walked out the door at work today. There was a maintenance guy assembling a bookcase by the door. “Going already?” he exclaimed with surprise. Although I normally get to work before most of the other workers, I still wanted to tell him to shush. Another part of me knew that I’d put in my time and effort.
Although I had planned to run at lunch, I had not. I worked right through – again. By 3 pm, I had exhausted my brain. So I hit the road and beat the heavy traffic.
I went straight to pick up YaYa from daycare. At home, he got started on his homework right away. BoBo was nearly done with his. I left them in charge while I went to the local track for a run.
My 2 mile repeats weren’t due until Wednesday, but I wasn’t sure another opportunity to get to the track would occur. It was the first time I’d been able to do speedwork on the track since well before Chicago.
There was a girls field hockey game going on. I hesitated. It would be rude to obstruct the view of the parents watching the game. Then I considered it further; would I really be obstructing the game? Sure, I would run past many times but I’d be moving so it would only be a second that I’d be in the way. The more I thought about it, the more I was able to convince myself that I’d only be a distraction if they let me be a distraction. They could probably see right over me.
I hadn’t warmed up a full mile before I started the first 2 mile interval. I knew that it wasn’t enough but the sun would be soon be going down. I glanced at Garminia ever lap for a pace check. I was going too fast, or so she said. Garminia also measured a mile before I’d finished a full 4 laps around the track.
The first interval was 15:22 – a second/mile off my target pace. The problem was that I felt like I was going to throw up after finishing. I enjoyed a 5 minute break and then started up again. I felt the fatigue setting in. My legs were heavy and my body was chilling from the cold air on my sweat soaked body. I finished up in 15:46 – 12 seconds/mile slower than the last time.
The sky was beginning to darken, and my body was letting me know that it was cold. It was telling me, for the second time in one day, that it wanted to quit the workout early. I compromised with it by doing a 1 mile repeat (instead of 2 miles). Then, I ran home (less than a mile) and walked the dog around the block to extend my cool down.
Down Memory Lane
I am often amazed at how I can remember the most intricate details of something which happened long ago, but am unable to remember something as simple as what I had from breakfast. It could be because I didn’t actually have breakfast, but that is a topic for another post. In reading Mia’s post – on Brit’s blog (confusing, but it is what it is) – I thought it might be fun to share a few of my memories from elementary school.
My favorite part of school was recess. I loved it. Even in my youth, I needed to run and play hard so that I could clear my head for further learning. It’s no surprise that I now use my lunch hour to do my running as an adult. In elementary school, however, I wasn’t just running.
I remember being told by the yard duty that I couldn’t swing on the monkey bars because my underwear showed. I thought she was so stupid. It wasn’t like you could see anything and my Mom *made* me wear dresses back then. I had to sneak some shorts under my dress in order for the yard duty to leave me alone. But she was back whenever I hung upside down. I guess she thought there was something else that needed hiding. I flipped over before she could stop me and quickly ran to another part of the playground.
Another thing that we did in elementary school at recess involved huddling around the bathroom mirrors. The lights were out and we were calling out to Bloody Mary. Do you remember doing that? “Bloody Mary…Bloody Mary…Bloody Mary” Someone always screamed and swore that she saw *her*. I never did, but I played along. I was too scared not to believe; I figured Mary’d come after me if I didn’t.
And then there were the cooties. I was afraid of those too. One time, Ben N was chasing me around trying to give them to me. He and his gang kept chasing me towards the bathrooms. I didn’t want to go in there as the other girls were taunting Mary again. My solution was to tie Ben up with a jump rope so that he couldn’t get me. It worked…until I got called into the principle’s office. The principle didn’t get why I *had* to do it. He said that there was no such thing as the cooties. Humph! He probably didn’t believe in Bloody Mary either.