October 2012 Archives

I took this picture with my phone while I was out for a walk/run yesterday morning.  I?  Am *not* a runner, but I'm doing the Couch to 5K thing anyway.  I can't keep kidding myself that a few hours of power yoga a month is going to give me a healthy heart (and by "give me a healthy heart" you know I mean "get rid of the spare tire and saddlebags that appeared, as if by magic, when I turned forty a couple of years back.").

I bought Very Expensive running shoes because I am old and creaky and I need to not wreck myself.  I got two pair of running pants, which are tight and not flattering (yet), and I got an Under Armour medium-impact sports bra.  Turns out what I really should have bought was some kind of sports bra for my ass.  I guess the last time I ran in 2005 there was just less that needed to be compressed and contained back there.  On my first day of Couch to 5K, yesterday before work, I drove to the park so I could look at the pretty scenery (and not have any neighbors see me) while I did my thing.  I had a pocket pack of Kleenex, because running=snot, and my iPhone with headphones so I could listen to music and hear the lady tell me when to walk and when to run.  I didn't have any pockets or an armband phone holster, so I just carried my phone and kleenex.  (Dork)

I did the five minute warmup walk, and then it was time to jog.  Holy.Shit.  I am so out of shape, it turns out, that jogging for a minute was really hard and I sort of thought I was going to die.  But I did it, and the longer I did the intervals of walking/jogging, the easier the jogging became.  I passed a bunch of other people out on the trail -- walkers, runners, bikers, rollerbladers, a birdwatcher -- and one of the lady runners was carrying her phone, too, and she had on all of the things (fancy pants, a hat, the right shoes and shirt and stuff), so I felt less dumb carrying my phone.

When I was done I felt really great.  I even jogged a little longer than the app told me to, because I was still far from the car and needed to get going.  I decided then that instead of running three days a week, I'd go every single day and be in great shape in no time.  And then I woke up today and my thighs were all DO NOT MOVE YOUR LEGS, so I decided to take today off and go try again tomorrow morning.  That gives me today to make a better running playlist (yesterday I just had random songs, which was kind of cool because I got to run to Ira Hayes by Johnny Cash and that's totally going on my playlist now), AND to go back to the store and look for some running panties.

Next month I'm going to Camp Mighty where I will share and focus on my Life List.  That means it's time to put it someplace besides in my brain.  It also needs some fluffing and spicing up, so I'll call this a sloppy first draft. 

Remember the doorman guy in the Wizard of Oz who starts off all GO AWAY! and then is in tears because he's so moved by Dorothy and her friends?  That's me today.  I'm grumpy as hell, but when I was walking Willow to school this morning a tiny little blonde boy with a sweet monster-faced backpack went running past us on the sidewalk, panting loudly, his right fist wrapped around the stems of one green and one yellow leaf, each nearly as big as his head, and he was so happy and excited I started crying.  Luckily, I was wearing sunglasses, because, DORK!  Willow would have been so embarrassed to be seen with me.

Also spotted this morning:  two mini trucks.  And they weren't like, part of a team or anything.  You heard it here first (unless you heard it somewhere else first): the second rise of the mini truck is nigh.  

Willow came home from her dad's house last night with those fishnet wristwarmers she's wearing in the photo above.  Her step sister (Bonus sister?  I'm not sure what to call her yet.  Maybe Other Sister?) gave them to her and she slept in them last night.  So. Cute.  When I woke her up for school, she was really excited about the outfit she'd picked out the night before.  As we left for school I asked if I could take her photo.  She said yes and stood with her arms at her side.  Lemme see the gloves I said, and SHE SHOT ME THE BIRD WITH BOTH HANDS, and then her eyes got really big and she covered her face and we both started laughing and she's like, WHOOPS I just accidentally did that!

Next week I am taking a quick trip to Texas to visit my cousin so we can go visit our grandmother.  She recently moved from the house she and my grandfather built in 1954 to an assisted living place (a really nice one).  I'm not sure I can write about it.  My grandmother, that house; you know how some people and places are in the very center of you?  Those are two of mine.  My three other grandparents who have passed away and especially my dad were part of my center, too.  And so was my mom's parents' house.  When they built it, they had a room just for me and my brother since we were the only grandkids at the time.  I think I'm just feeling a little bit hollow.  I am lucky to have Scuba and my kids and my mom and all my other family and Scuba's family and amazing friends.  I should be FINE, right?  And I am fine, but it's different.  And, it's time to walk to the school and get Willow and see how her cool outfit went over with the rest of the fourth graders.