Monday, January 16, 2012

Now I Can Say Hello

H-E-L-L-O TWENTY TWELVE!

Say it like Robin Williams from Good Morning Vietnam.

Hola, Konnishi wa, Ciao, Goedendag, Moi, Bonjour, Guten Tag, Aloha, Shalom, Selamat.

As I was getting in bed New Year's Eve I thought "should I set the alarm?  get up in the morning and start the New Year with a mile run?"  Could maybe set a goal to run a mile every morning for the whole year....would be kinda cool.  But do I really want to get stuck doing that?  Can be a huge commitment, and then if I fail I've got the guilt and crap to deal with.

I decided not to set my alarm.  I would just make the decision to run or not to run when I woke up on my own in the morning. 

I do not make resolutions.  Too easy to fail, and I hate failing.

I woke up without the aid of the alarm and first order of the day is take the dogs for their morning walk.  It's always a little surreal walking in the early morning on new years day.  It's definitely the quietest morning of the year.  Since I woke up without the aid of the alarm it was later than usual for me and the sun was up.  It was a chilly morning.  I noticed the sun warming my arm through my jacket.  Mmmmm, felt good, really good.

And then I had it.  The first great idea of the year.

A Gratitude Journal.

I will journal one thing everyday for the year.  Something that I am grateful for, or  something that makes me smile, or something wonderful that happened that day, you get the idea.  The simpler the pleasure the better.

And wouldn't it be cool to do it for the whole year, 366 (this is a leap year) days of gratitude? 

A year of Gratitude.  I'm in.

Every night before I go to sleep I've journaled.  The first entry is something like "The early morning sun warming me".   Second entry was how it made me smile when I saw the last 4 leaves hanging on a tree dancing back and forth in the wind.  After a few days it got a little harder.  It can only be all sunshiny and leaf dancy for so long.  I am definitely aggravated by things throughout the day more often than greatful. 

Like the cop that ran a red light at the intersection just as my light turned green, and she didn't have lights or sirens on, and she did it just so she could pull someone over on a traffic violation.  Aggravated me cause she put me in danger, luckily I was super alert and had noticed her when she approached the intersection.  I was so peeved that she would put me in danger.  She never even looked my way.  But that doesn't fall into the "Gratitude" category....so I can't write about that.

And then the very next morning the very same cop, made a u turn in the middle of the road right in front of me, causing me to brake to avoid hitting her, again pulling someone over on a traffic violation.  I would totally call the watch commander and complain, but I wouldn't want to become her next target.  And that didn't fall into the "Gratitude" category either, so I'm not writing about that either....

The beauty of "A Year Of Gratitude" is that it causes me to be aware through out the day of the good things.  I pay less attention to the aggravating things in the process.  This may end up being one of my best ideas ever.  And how cool at the end of the year to have a journal full of good things.

Happy New Year

PS, almost forgot, Tamara has jumped on the bloggin toboggan.  She has started the New Year doing boot camp and she's sharing all the fun here:  http://tamaragriffiths.blogspot.com/

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Can't Say Hello Yet.

Ok, so I just have to do it.

While I was writing my previous post I thought should I mention it?  But decided not to.  And now if just keeps bugging me.....like one shoe dropping, but not the other one.  Or getting one hand wet and not the other one (ok, maybe that's a little weird and most people think huh?  what's wrong with that?  But it bugs me and I have to wet the other hand).

That run at the fairplex.  The one where we ran on the race track.  I had a flash back.  To the 70's.  Probably 78 or 79 to be specific.  That was a long time ago, and I'm super fuzzy on the details.  But I believe I was there for some kind of Mickey Thompson race thingy.  I think my friend KV had won tickets to it from the radio station (she was ALWAYS winning things like that, we saw Nazareth at the forum that same year, she's still winning stuff, recently won a trip to Hawaii from her employer). 

ANYWAY, we were at the race track, I'm sure there was some drinking involved, and who knows what else (it was the 70's after all).  We are standing in line for the ladies room, seriously have to pee, the line is ridiculously long.  We notice that there is no line for the men's room.  So some of us girls decide to leave the long ladies line and just go for some quick relief in the men's room.

I don't think anyone was in there when we first entered....but like I said I'm sure there was drinking involved, so it's a little sketchy.  We pop in the stalls, go real quick and by the time we exit the stalls the room is filling up......with guys.  High tailed it outta there, and got out unscathed....well there was some ass grabbing.

Learned my lesson.  No matter how many times in the last 30 some odd years since that I've stood in line for the ladies room and looked longingly at the lineless men's room, no matter where I am, movies, baseball game, upscale theatre, I flash back to that race track and decide, nah, I'll just wait my turn thank you.

So there you have it....dirty little secret revealed.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Farewell to 2011

Ok, so I'm like 9 days late.  Unfortunately I'm so obsessive that I can't begin 2012 until I say goodbye to 2011.

So to wrap it up.....

I committed to running 50 race miles before the year end.  At last count I had 56.66 race miles ran, well over my goal.  I neglected to add my miles from "The Holiday" 5k.  Ran that one December 10th, tipping the count to just under 60 miles at 59.76. 

This one was at the Pomona FairPlex.  A portion of the race was on the race track.....ironic.

Just checked my results.....total time 34.02 average pace:  10:57  under an 11 minute mile.  Not my best 5K, but not too shabby.

After the race we all went over to Elaine's house and had our holiday party.  What better way to spend a day?  Run a 5K, eat great food, drink margaritas, hang out with cool people, can't ask for much more than that.

I have abandoned the 1,000 miles journey for now.  I've had issues with my Garmin and history has been deleted, so I've lost track of the miles.  No worries....was getting lame anyway.

As for 2011....Adios, Sayonara, Ciao, Vaarwel, Heippa, Au Revoir, Auf Wiedersehen, Aloha, Shalom, Daa daa, and Good-bye (said like that aol guy....when you signed off, Goodbye, cracks me up now....wonder if aol still does that.)