Running, jury duty, and who let the dogs out?

With week 1 of training for a 5k under my belt (guys, that's a weird expression...I've just decided) I wanted to report on how I'm doing.

I actually ran every single morning this week and didn't quit after the first day...go me. And oddly enough I kinda like it.

With the exception of that morning when I went out a little later than normal and had to run past at least 4-5 high school kids waiting for the bus, followed by the bus (filled with more high school kids) passing me on the way to picking them up, then a 2nd random bus passing me right after the first one, and THEN when it went around the neighborhood, the first one passed me. AGAIN. As if the first go around weren't enough. So much for no one seeing me. It would only be right that of anyone who could've seen me, it had to be an entire busload of the generally most judgmental and mean group of people in society. Who probably have a bus-wide nickname or 2 for me by now...woooohoo.

And with the exception of the fact that my former cross country coach also lives in my development and I'm paranoid one of these days he's gonna come out of his house and just start running with me. It hasn't happened yet, so I guess I can't really count this as a con.

Also, now I have to pee uh thousand times a day, and I'm also even hungrier and have started eating like a teenage boy. Ok, it's not that bad.


But I digress/make lame excuses. It's going pretty well, REALLY well actually and the good far outweighs the bad. Today I ran a mile and a half in 18. Some women run the entire 5k in that amount of time haha. But it's progress! And I'm happy with it. And heck, it's only been a week. I'm not going for speed at this point.

The very best thing about running so far? My lungs feel AMAZING. My lung capacity has grown immensely and when I breathe in I feel like I can just keep breathing in forever. It's delicious. The other day on my drive to work, I took in a really awesome breath of fresh air and out loud said to myself "I'm ALIVE!!!" haha I was so happy about it. Other good things: it's helped me get up earlier, have more time to get ready in the morning, more time for introspection, feel happier, and in general feel more awake throughout my day.

Still can't believe I'm doing it.



On a different topic of discussion, I love my job, because I love the kids, and the people I work with. Today, as a bunch of us were in the classroom at the end of the day doing chores and clean-up and other end of the day activities, one of the kiddos, (who happens to be all legs and is VERY spontaneous, impulsive and not exactly in his right mind, so you need to watch him at all times) out of no where started jumping around singing "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT". Immediately after yelling/singing that, he bolted to the door, through the baby gate (that's to keep my client in there), and sprinted out of the classroom and down the hall. His staff chased him down while the rest of us just stood there wondering if that really just happened, and when he was caught he says to the guy "Good catch Mr. Derrick!" HAHAHA. It was a fantastic moment in my life.

Monday I have jury duty. Totally NOT excited about it, I hope I don't get picked. My work even pays me for a full week of not being there. And I still would just rather be at work. I suppose it'll be a cool experience and all. And I should just have fun with it...well, not literally you need to take it seriously, but you know what I mean!

As long as it's not a gross murder trial that lasts a month. Or something controversial that makes the news like the George Huguely trial that causes thousands of uninformed people who THINK they know everything to make a huge deal that our government is ruined, horribly corrupt, etc, that the judge was paid and let him off easy and this guy clearly murdered someone and he's a rich snobby little priviledged brat who's walking away without the death penalty and what is the world coming to yadayadayada. UGH. People. Were you on the jury? No? Then shut it. Where did you come up with all that information? One unflattering picture of the guy and you instantly knew his life story? Oh, you read a little blurb from the media and inferred the rest from it? IT MUST BE TRUE. And for the love of pancakes, the government isn't corrupt and the judge didn't make the decision, there is a jury. Which is made up of a bunch of carefully chosen, unbiased, unpaid, everyday people like you and me who do everything they can to make the right decision and see that justice is served.

Wooo sorry for the unexpected rant. It's a newly discovered peeve of mine. If you couldn't tell. ;)

Honestly, being on a jury for a murder trial would be pretty epic, as long as it doesn't take more than a week! I'll just hafta wait and see what goes down. I'm all hyped up and it'll prolly be a "we got a divorce and he's keeping money from me" kinda ordeal and I'll feel like Judge Judy having to listen to a bunch of idiots.