Do you hear that!?

LOOK OUT! IT'S DONUT DAY!

Pssst

I guess I've been initiated into the gossip ring at work. A well-known gossip hound from our team approached me today with a thinly veiled fire behind her eyes, 'disappointed to be the one to tell me' about two members of our team that had been 'gossiping about me.' Turns out I really let her down when it wasn't juicy at all, in fact it would be hard to have any ammunition against me, as I hardly talk to anyone about anything, let alone all of my escapades and scandals...oh, wait, I'm boring and paranoid about getting caught rolling a stop sign in the middle of the night, wait, again-I go to bed early. Whatever.

I think Bryan's actually coming home soon!! yay. It's been such a hard decision-making process, especially because there was no right decision, I don't envy him. The only thing that matters to me is that he'll get better, more competent training and testing here than he would in bass-ackwards Florida. I'm sad that he has to leave his friends, and I'm trying so hard not to nag him about getting on the road, but it's been almost 4 months, I'm a little antsy to see the person connected to the voice I know better than my own (since it's in my head, and stuff). I'll be worthless for a few days when he gets home, I'm sure, like a kid with a new puppy that can't stand to go to school and leave home alone all day. We'll get to go to the zoo, and movies, and out to eat, and for walks in the evenings, and not talk on the phone-it'll be great. It'll be an adjustment to deal with someone else's stuff in the house again, but he's worth it, I guess.

April Fool's!

Naw, I didn't eat a Whopper...I did run 6 miles, but then I came home and had a meal that was so healthy it's disgusting. Still veg-o, no slips yet.

Welcome, April!

I'm still marveling at the speed and tenacity with which Spring has taken over our little part of the world. The conditions have been perfect for things to grow; Warm, humid, a good part of most days there is plenty of light, and then a couple days of steady rain. My pansies are flourishing, and so is my pride. I know it has very little to do with the care I took planting them, but so far every little stem looks strong and viable. I've been known to have a brown, withering thumb, so I can breathe easier knowing they've got a good home.
I had a much better week at work-I was very successful at ignoring my obnoxious neighbors, except to get a good chuckle out of something ridiculous they said or confessed to, which was a few times a day. More people talked to me, so I actually felt bigger and more attractive than a toadstool. I actually got out of the house and socialized twice this week, and had a good, relaxing time on both occasions. Friday night I took a couple of coworkers up on their offer of a late dinner and drinks, which fit in perfectly with a nice fast run after work, a trip to Trader Joe's for some nice cheese, crackers and fruit, which I enjoyed thoroughly at the get-together. We played a game called 'Apples to Apples' which I need to get and play with some people I know well. It was fun with them, a little addictive, but I didn't know anyone well enough to get into it like you could, bringing in inside jokes, poking fun at politics and favorite people and such. The gist of the game is that one person flips a card over from the stack of cards with adjectives on them (obnoxious, talented, selfish, etc.) and everyone else has a handful of noun cards (car horns, Quentin Tarantino, The Vatican, etc.) and the people with the noun cards pick one out of their hand that they think the adjective-card flipper would choose, for whatever reason. My choice for obnoxious was a close contest between black velvet (as in +paint=tacky Elvis tribute) or televangelists. Frightening was a sweep by The Far Right. I guess I'm pretty transparent, because the people there chose really good ones for me, but I had lousy cards and couldn't get my own opinions out of the way. I ran the circumference of the largest city park today, our very own Forest Park. It was about 6 miles and I had a strong, constant headwind for about a third of that, which of course coincided with the hilliest part. Bastards! Why does that always happen to ME!? Anyway, I sucked down some GU and Gatorade at about mile 4 and felt great the rest of the way. I strategically went clockwise around the park so that I could end by going down the longest hill in the world (well, it feels like it going up). I love my Turtle V. Hare mental races. People that have the look of someone determined to go out and enjoy the day with a long run although they haven't run all winter at least whiz past me, some having the audacity to grunt "On your left" only to have me pass them at my 9:30 pace a ways up the road. Often this happens over and over with the same runner, so I wonder if they are in a mental contest with me, too, or if I'm the only one that sees pretty much everyone as some type of competition. Probably not. I know for a fact that in my Central Park 5-miler I was a pace-setter for two women that kept running until they got a few paces ahead of me, then walked, then caught back up to me, at least 10 times. I didn't mind. I was much more proud of the fact that I'd run every step and felt great than they probably were for sprinting across the finish line 100 paces in front of me, gasping and looking for the port o' johns.
It's opening day at the New Busch stadium, today, so everybody at the park was decked out, I even saw a dog wearing a Pujols jersey. He-heh, Pujols.
I was so proud of myself for my new longest-distance run that I wanted something to really celebrate, so I stopped at Burger King and got a Whopper, fries and a real Coke. $6 bucks of greasy bliss.