Thursday

Happy Thursday night! Random blogging time, right?

See, I had intentions of getting some serious writing/blogging time in this afternoon, but my legs ache like fire from my jogging class (more on that in a minute), and that made me cranky. So instead, I curled up with a cup of pumpkin spice coffee and a Kristin Billerbeck novel (A Billion Reasons Why – good stuff! I also read her Perfectly Dateless this week, which was laugh-out-loud hilarious). Now my appendages only burn when I’m standing or trying to move, so the crankiness is gone, and I’m ready to write.

Today’s post is  simply called “Thursday” because, well, I had a more intriguing topic, but it’s already 10:00 pm, so we’ll save that one for next week. Okay.

So I’m taking a walking/jogging class at my school for 4 1/2 weeks this summer. I just made it to the 1 1/2 weeks mark. Each day, we do some stretches, some walking, some jogging, some more stretches, etc. We also do stairs and jump rope. Hence my pitiful muscles. I like to find spiritual lessons in everyday activities, but honestly, so far the spirituality in my jogging workouts usually consist of pleas along the lines of: “Please don’t let me pass out in front of the class. Please make those black spots go away.”

Exercise usually helps me think through some plot problems in whatever story I’m working on, so I originally planned to just go solo during the class and brainstorm for my current novel (more on that in a forthcoming post). But about 2.5 minutes into the first class, my love of social interaction won out. I found an exercise buddy (who also happens to be an English major and writer, which means we have some interesting conversations), and we teamed up to help each other survive the workouts.

Well, Tuesday, our instructor told us to do some skipping. In my humble opinion, if you’re going to do some skipping, you might as well go all out. So, I plastered a ridiculously big grin on my face, pumped my arms, and skipped my way across the mezzanine like a stretched-out version of Strawberry Shortcake. My partner and I decided we needed happy music and butterflies to accompany us on our frolic. Our instructor started laughing and just said, “Pace yourselves!”

Today, though, we alternated between jogging and walking. My new friend and I talked about books the whole time, which really helped the time pass more quickly. Afterwards, after stretching and listening to the Fact of the Day from our instructor (while we were hanging upside down at the waist, she announced, “Contrary to popular belief, ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand”), she said: “A good way to tell if you’re exercising right is if you’re able to talk while you jog. If you can’t, you need to slow down.” Then, looking at my partner and me, she said, “I know you two are doing it right, because you talk the whole time.” Finally! A useful purpose for my love of gabbing!

But anyway, this was my Thursday:

I woke up feeling all bright-eyed and bushy-haired. The good thing about my jogging class is that I don’t have to put a lot of effort into what I’m wearing. Super casual makes me super happy. We don’t have a dress code at school, so I could technically dress that way every day, but I know myself well enough to know how lazy I would become if gym shorts were my go-to outfit.

Goodness, I get sidetracked when I blog at night.

My sister Abby turned sixteen Monday, so today she went to take her driving test. She took my car to drive in during the test since it’s the smallest, most manageable vehicle. That left me with my dad’s Buick, which—let’s call it what it is—is basically a boat on wheels. If a car could be meaty, this car would be meaty. Solid.

This car also has issues. Before I took it to school today, my mom taped up the sun visor, the passenger door, and the ceiling upholstery. It’s seen better days, but at least it’s got AC, and I feel like I could survive a war in that thing. I rarely drive this car, so when compared to my cute little college-y car (I call it that because it gets superb gas mileage and it’s small enough to navigate an overly crowded parking lot), I have to stand on the brake to make the thing stop. But apparently I could use some more calf workouts. It does have radio control on the steering wheel, though, which is something my car doesn’t have.

The only problem is, I forgot that I left my jogging shoes in the trunk of my car. I realized this as I was leaving my house at 8:00 am. My sister’s appointment began at 8:00, and she was supposed to complete the driving portion at 8:20. So I had to jump into the Tank and drive all the way across town. I whipped it into the DDS mere minutes before my sister hit the road. Yes, I realize the irony in the fact that I’m whipping it into the very place I proved my worth as a driver five years ago, but I did a fabulous parking job given the circumstances. Just so you know. I then burst through the doors of the building, retrieved my keys, and rescued my shoes.

I’m sure it did wonders to calm Abby’s nerves when her psycho sister flew into the DDS like she was being chased by a deranged chicken (hey, weird things have happened in my past…), but she passed her test anyway and is now a licensed driver! Whoohoo!

After jogging and my  Communications class, I rolled down the windows, cranked up the radio to a decibel I’ll probably regret when I’m elderly, and drove home. I’m sure the sheep I passed on the country road were way into my TobyMac. If you must drive a brick, you might as well enjoy it.

Tomorrow I’ll be back in my little car, and I’ll only have my Global Communications class, since jogging is Monday-Thursday. My poor legs could really use the break, but I know all the pain will be worth it in the long run (no pun intended).

How has your summer been so far? You should take up jogging. We can commiserate over pumpkin spice coffee.

-Anna