I Would Walk 500 Miles....

Mmmm.

It is summer. Even though I am busy - summer seems to be a less frenzied pace than any other season. Perhaps it is that heat that soaks through your skin and into your bones that makes me far less able to come up with reasons to not take a blissful random afternoon nap. Delightful. Perhaps it is my change of occupation. Pretty much any career choice out of food service is going to be a down shift in gears, and my alteration in direction has definitely been just that. Whatever the reason - I don't mind it. Being frenzied lends itself to exhaustion and burnout.

Currently I am eating a delicious burrito with my family's top secret home made hot salsa recipe. It makes me feel a little closer to home and the promise of frozen fruit for dessert if I am a good girl and finish my dinner is oh so tempting.

Tonight I walked twelve miles in three hours and seven minutes to get to Wal-Mart to buy a can of black beans for my burrito. I could have walked two miles in thirty minutes and gone to the grocery store down the street, but I didn't. No real reason, I suppose. I just had time and I love walking. My legs will let me know what they think of me tomorrow, but I don't mind. If I had time tomorrow night - I would do it again just because I am so relaxed now. But I can't. So I won't.

But that's okay, because my alternate plans are a hot date with That Man Of Mine who has been MIA from my life since May 17th. Oh yeah. Walking can wait.

Tiny Bubbles

Last Night I:

• Went on a two hour road trip to Arkansas con mi amigo Jeff Jenkins.
  
• Played a show for a group of churches for their church camp.
• Saw people from CYT and Kansas City that I knew. Weird.
• Embarrassed a seventh grader (really should try for someone harder. Seventh graders are in a perpetual state of embarrassment).
• Made up the new jingle for Taco Bueno.
• Didn't go to bed till three AM.
  

Today I:

• Got up at 6:30 AM and it was awesome.
• Taught a seven year old kid the four principles of flight (nod: Mad Science).
• Made about 50 billion paper airplanes and origami rabbits (the only two things I know how to make with paper).
  
• Have a peel-off flower tattoo on my collar bone courtesy of an artistic four year old and a tan line from being in the pool for hours with a two year old on my hip.
• Watched The Jungle Book.
• And sang along.
• Ate cereal sans milk for breakfast and for lunch (Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Honey Combs, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Frosted Mini Wheats all in one bowl at the same time, baby.).

Blondes may not have more fun but... Life is good. <3

New Horizons

I put in my two weeks today at Backyard Burger. It was bittersweet. I will miss the people, but not the job. That being said, I am not unemployed. No. Far from it. I have been hired at Metropolitan National Bank as a teller. Well. I still technically have to see if I pass the background check - but considering that I don't even have a traffic violation to my name I don't think that will be a problem. Perhaps I should take this as a clue that I am a boring person...? Either that or I am super sneaky.

Speaking of being boring - I am taking Astronomy this summer. Online. It is the absolute last gen-ed that I will ever need to take. There are things I really like about it (like finding the textbook online for 75 cents) and things I don't necessarily like as much (there is something just inherently wrong with summer school). If you want to commiserate with me, or at least be a little more empathetic, you can actually watch all the lectures exactly like I do on your computer. Missouri State has their lectures on iTunes U. Just go to the iTunes store, type in Missouri State University, and go to the Astronomy 114 class and download a lecture.

Go ahead.

I dare you.

I also dare you to go here and vote for my friends so that they can go to Tahiti!

Numb3rs

I love finding and creating numerical patterns in rooms. I do it in every room I enter, every building I see, every landscape I encounter. It doesn't have to be symmetrical, or always be odd numbers or something like that, but there is definitely a science to it. If I am in a place where I can't find a suitable pattern or order to things - I am uneasy. It bothers me. Like when someone has food stuck in their teeth and they are talking to me (which is why I always tell someone if they do).

Goals are also very important to me. Setting up expectations for myself makes it a lot easier to get from one point to the next without just aimlessly drifting. Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly... you name it - I probably have a goal broken down into that segment.

What do these things have to do with each other at all? Well... I will explain.

A friend of mine and "fan" of my blog (what? that happens?) asked me if I ever had problems with coming up with things to write about or ever just wanted to not post. I have actually had a few people ask me about how I go about with posting. It seems that everyone has some sort of "method" for how and when they post. My buddy SJ just did an "every-day-in-May" stint. a lot of my friends with blogs say that they try to write at least once a week.

I write my posts so my blog becomes a haiku. I can tell you exactly how many posts will be in each month. 5. 7. 5. The haiku always starts in the first full month of the season (since a haiku technically requires a seasonal reference). It works perfectly since a season lasts just about three months and a haiku is three lines long. I love looking over at the side bar of my blog and seeing the number pattern repeating. 57557557557575575.... It works perfectly.

Also my blog does not (for the most part) have to rhyme (unless someday I decide to go all Dr. Seuss on you). Who knows? Weirder things have happened.

Do Do Run Run Run Do Do Run Run

Tonight is the first night I've run in over a week. Tonight is also the first time in over a week I haven't felt like collapsing from exhaustion due to an untimely cold. It felt great. Those three miles were a little slower than my normal pace, but I forgive myself because I didn't lose any distance on my route. I feel so centered now.

Running is spiritual for me. Kind of a "your body is a temple"kind of thing.

I don't listen to music when I workout outside. It is as much a safety rule (hearing oncoming traffic) as it is a mental discipline. When all you have is your mind keeping you going and making you keep pace - it a different game. In a gym I have to have music to drown out the drone of the machines and the groans of overly enthusiastic gym-goers, but outside it is just me and my mind.

I do my best thinking and praying while I'm running. It is the perfect time for me to sort through mental lists and remember the simple beauties of God's world. Tonight I ran at twilight, before a storm, the sky was a marbled cloud-scape of warm colors, then dull grays, then just darkness. The first lightning bugs of the season were out. I caught a few while running and let them go again just for the sheer childhood nostalgia. A very grown up thing like running for exercise mixed with the childish glee of firefly hunting was delightful. I sprinted up the stairs of my apartment just as the first flash of lightning and clap of thunder crashed through the sky. It was almost like God was saying: "Good job. It was hard, but you got it done."

I think I like running at night better than running during the day for a few reasons:

• I seem to always have more to think about at night than in the morning.
• It is easier to go longer without the sun beating down on me the whole time (I need a more shaded running path!).
• Fewer people are out so that means far less creepy cat calls.
• I like having the dark patches and then the light patches from the street lamps - I use them as mini distance goals within my run.
• My night time shower is not redundant from an earlier post-workout shower.

Speaking of post-workout showers - I think I am going to look into that right now.

Also: Congrats to my parents on the 30 year milestone of marriage. Thanks for getting married 'rents! It was kind of crucial to my existence. Holla!