I've started running.. and who knew that I'd like it so much. I only do a mile.. my goal is two at about 6 or 7mph-- it's a good warm up to other things I've been working on. I have discovered, and I don't know if this is normal or not, that if I grab the heart-rate-things on the treadmill once I've hit the mile marker and begin to walk, that I can slow my heart rate down from 170 to 115 within the span of a minute. Fun game. It's probably normal.
I'm not built like a runner.. more like a gymnast, but I do love sprinting. I remember vividly the first time I ever put on a pair of cleats.. it was like flying.. gripping the ground like an animal.. turning on a dime.. causing the opposing team no end of stress..
I used to play softball and I miss it every now and then. I was short stop, and third base. Left field if there were a bunch of older girls on the team who got infield favor. I was always told it was best to be tall if you wanted to play short.. tall or fast as hell with an arm that wouldn't quit. Which was me when I was twelve.. so shortstop it was. Third base used to terrify me, especially when I started playing in a high school summer league, and the third baseman was stationed about three feet away from the batter. I pitched for one game.. the one game where we were in need of an umpire.. and my father volunteered. The only decent pitch I threw he called a ball.. and apologized under his breath from behind me (the ump would stand behind the pitcher for little league games.. far away from where a wild bat could be thrown). As far as batting went, I spent a fair amount of time hitting ground balls directly to the pitcher or the first baseman and making valiant attempts to outrun their efforts to get me out. Never really worked.. beyond that there were a few years where I managed to sit comfortably in the clean-up hitter spot. I think this was more for shock value than anything else. I'm a small person, and when I was twelve I was probably smaller, so watching me go up to bat clean-up must have seemed fairly ridiculous. The opposing team would inevitably signal to their team mates to "move in" ten feet or so.. later in the game, four runs behind, their educated method would be to back up. I also used to LOVE to attempt to steal bases. If you get any two twelve year old girls to enthusiastically huck a ball back and forth to each other under the stress of trying to manipulate a troublesome runner they will eventually miss, and this I would use to my advantage-- much to my coaches dismay. Yes, softball was fun. I enjoyed it and had a knack for the skills required to play it. I stopped playing in high school because the coaches started to adopt this "win or die" attitude that I didn't agree with. Also, I wasn't good friends with the coaches daughter so I would get benched while her buddies enjoyed field time. Lame.
J is far away at some army officer training thing-- I wont be able to speak to him until sometime next month - they've taken his phone away, like fat-camp. This amuses me, pretending that he's at fat-camp- he being more or less built like the David.. perhaps broader in shoulder and smaller of head..
Ten year high school reunion in a few days. I get to go up to Maine which will be nice- do some hiking and swimming in the MDI area. I miss Maine.. been thinking about it a lot lately. I'll probably end up back there.. some day.
Had a thought the other day, and it was this: Abacus was probably the best job I've ever had.
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how ~ Nietzche
