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March 11, 2005
Extremely Content
...like a fat cat with full bowl of food, his favorite toys, and a warm, cozy place to sleep...Although I'm a bit stressed about rushing to unpack my bags to repack a new bag and military gear for a two week stint at Quantico and about being behind on my school project, I simply can't complain about anything right now. Watching my little sister at karate last night (...the simple pleasues of being a kid), having an undistracted and humorous dinner my with mom and sis, and driving back up to DC today gave me reason/time to step back and reflect on several of the many blessings in my life. I'm running healthy - even if not that many miles at this point, both of my jobs are challenging, educational, and fast-paced (just the way I like things), and I couldn't ask for more loving family and friends. Oh yes, and I get to sleep in my own bed tonight and also found out that I got a very generous pay increase at work this year. I'm taking this brief "stop and smell the roses" moment before the madness kicks in again tomorrow. I suppose that I can take a break on a Friday night.
Yesterday, I had both a great swim and run. I swam the farthest I ever have - 1600 meters - without much trouble. By focusing on what my individual body parts are doing at different intervals, I stave off boredom and feel that I'm improving. But really, it's hard to tell unless someone is critiquing me. If only I had an underwater video camera that taped as I swam, I could see what I'm doing wrong. I also practiced treading water in the deep end, since the YMCA pool length travels from a chest-high shallow end to ~8 feet at the other end. At lunchtime, I planned for an hour run but only ended up going 53 minutes because I didn't want to get caught in an unsafe area. I started at the Reserve center and headed toward 35th Street, which someone said was 3.5 miles one way. The sun was out (tank top weather!) and the scenery was nicer than Wednesday's route, with large, beautiful homes with pillars and wrap porches, as I would envision in the deep South. I passed 35th Street in under 20 minutes -no way it was 3.5 miles since I was trotting along at an easy pace. When I got to the end of Huntington Ave, I took a left and ran over a foot bridge until I got to a stoplight and turned around. There was a little huffing and puffing as I went back over the bridge, as I'm out of hill practice. My left shin was achy by the end, which I'm sure was a result of running on concrete for three days straight. Oh well, I didn't have many options that were convenient and/or safe.
Because I needed to pack and work on my annotated bibliography for class, sadly, I didn't get in any form of exercise tonight. On the other hand, I was happy to catch up with R. at dinner at our new favorite Italian place. Did I mention that it's good to be home?
Posted by Leilani at March 11, 2005 08:55 PM
Comments
Glad things are going so well for you (albeit very busy!) and that you are stopping to count your blessings! I suspect if I slowed down once in a while and remembered how good life truly is...I would be just as content as you... :) Hope you have a great weekend!
Posted by: Beth at March 12, 2005 07:22 PM