Friday, August 17, 2012

And the absurd.

My life seems very absurd these days. The following is a sampling of the absurdity…

The temperature of my office. Somehow it has managed to feel like winter all summer. I almost resorted to buying a snuggie (turns out the Kmart in NYC is too classy to even sell adult sized snuggies). Instead I bought a fuzzy blanket, drink tea regularly, and bundle up with the few cardigans I (luckily) thought to bring in the move.

Recent podiatric injuries. I always feared these revolving metal “doors” in the NYC subway, but about 3 weeks ago I was walking through one of these on my way to work:


With classic NYC impatience, the person behind me pushed “the door” faster than I was going and my heel then came in contact with this part of the revolving metal cage of death:


I got up most of the stairs before I looked down to find a much bloodier version of this gash on the back of my heel:


I dug out some tissues from my purse, hobbled over to the nearest drugstore, bought big Band-Aids, Neosporin, and some ibuprofen, did a little surgery on the side of the street, and headed to the office. When I realized there was no way I’d make it home in the pair of flats I wore to work I limped through the department store below my office during lunch and bought two pairs of flipflops.  Absurd! Absurd I tell you! I’ve been walking around the city in those two pairs of sandals for the last 3 weeks. So much for my fashionable NY summer!  I finally tried on a pair of tennis shoes and went running earlier this week, which leads to the next absurdity.

Impulsive goal setting. In a fit of…who knows what…I managed to find my way to a half marathon website. Thirty minutes later I was plugging in my billing info to pay for the half marathon in Annapolis on December 1st.  “What were you thinking Liann?” You ask. Well, I’ve wondered the same thing. Upon reflection I realize this crazy decision may have something to do with:
·         a longstanding envy of my running friends (Jess and Christine you are so sexy!),
·         my upcoming 10 year high school reunion (I will have something interesting to talk about!),
·         peer pressure from my current roommates who are training for a full marathon (I can do anything you can do…),
·         and a recent shopping excursion (wait, I can’t even pretend to fit into Old Navy’s generous size 10 pants?!?).
Nonetheless, I’m so glad the impulse came. The first week of my training schedule has felt great. Like impulsive shopping, I’m sure I’ll have a little half-marathon runner’s remorse come October and November, but this first week of training has been great and I’m look forward to giving this running thing a go!

Impulsive trip planning. A friend of mine emailed me with an invitation to come to his parent's place in Martha's Vineyard while he's vacationing there this September. I got so excited about it I bought plane, shuttle, and ferry tickets the next morning. Never mind that I am moving back to DC the weekend before this trip.

A friend still in need of money. After running a food truck in DC for years, the husband of a friend of mine is starting a restaurant! They have one week and are halfway to their goal to raise $30,000 for the unexpected, but necessary repairs to the building. So I’m making a shameless plug for them. It's absurd they haven't met their goal. Help change that by making a pledge on http://kck.st/SUdA3z (and if you aren’t around for the goodies I can help with that! J). 

Anyway, I'm just looking forward to getting back to a little more normalcy in DC come September. 

2 comments:

Melanie said...

Liann you can totally do a half marathon! If I can do one, anyone can. It will be great to have you back in DC. I'm in Virginia now, but you definitely need to come down and visit. Think of it as networking :)

Shara-Dee said...

Such a fun post! I feel for your owie. Hope it's healed (no pun intended) by now. Love you tons.