Running in Traffic

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I make a lot of deals with myself. You may be aware of my most current deals:
*When I get to my goal weight of 170 or less, I get to seriously explore plastic surgery for my tummy.
*When I weigh less than 200 I get eyelash extensions.
But I also make smaller, day-to-day, minute-by-minute kinds of deals. Yesterday the deal I made was for running. We had track practice, then a whole rigmarole of exchanging/losing/picking up/walking children to and fro various play dates, and after all that we were laaaaazy and tuckered out! You know that moment- you look at the other person who might be an appropriate age to make dinner and, with horror, you realize that they are every bit as bushed as you? That moment. And you kinda wanna cry a little because you know that if he feels anything like you do that you cannot, under any circumstances, ask him to make dinner… And if you have to eat one more box of Annie’s Arthur-shaped macaroni and cheese you’re going to go into the ugly cry. Yeah. That moment. That night. So you opt for the store.
I happily stood by the car door, all settled into a trip to the store for easy food when Bradley suggested that I might enjoy a run, instead. Erm. Not so much. I’ll admit that I felt guilty for just happening to overlook the fact that I wasn’t running, so it actually wasn’t a hard sell. I headed back inside to get changed, but made this deal: I would go around the large loop (1.8 miles) as fast as I could, following the route where I would be most likely to see my family on their way back from the store. If I saw them before I got home or if they were in the driveway when I reached the house, I could be done. If they weren’t there and I didn’t see them, I had to add another mile. I was about 1/4 of a mile away from home when guess who drove up?!

I tell you what, it was as if the paparazzi was after me. They slowed down and filmed me while I ran, hollered greetings and affirmations at me and just made me feel like I was really doing something exceptional! I love those people. I ended up with another quick mile (9:04) and a decent cardio workout. I’m looking forward to another good run tomorrow.
I was lucky my family arrived and took pictures, too. I decided to try a different angle for my derpy run pic of the day, and I’m just not good at selfies from the side. Obviously. But I included the picture because that ponytail banged me in the back of the head the whole time I ran. I shan’t be doing that again. And the picture of me in front of the bulletin board? That was my ‘I lurve ya, Baby, and I’m on my way home’ pic of the day and noticed how freaking long my hair is! Wow! Sometimes I just lose track, I guess. I’ve never had hair past my shoulders as patience is a virtue I learned later in life, so I’m continuously surprised by the long hair experiment. I’m glad Gigi talked me into it; it’s been interesting.
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Tonight we had our Brainworks Museum about pioneers and held the exposition for the families. My kids’ projects and reports turned out absolutely amazing and I was so proud of them. As I left my classroom, I realized that this was the final parent night of the year- after this the year starts winding down and coming to a close. It’s the time when I start to love on my students a whole lot and hang onto them harder for that last little while. It’s the both the best and worst time of the year, where we can ease up a little and laugh a little more, but that also makes me realize how much I’m going to miss seeing their cute little faces every day. I’m always surprised at how vulnerable we all become at this time of year. As a collective and community, we suddenly grow. Makes me miss them more.