At the end of 2010 I threw out a random list of things that were on my mind – some from the year that had just passed, and other things that were just “on my mind” and were really not worthy of devoting an entire blog to. Since this will be my first blog post of 2012 it will be more reflective on the past year than anything else.
-->
With each passing year I become more and more comfortable in my own skin and happy to be who I am, at any particular moment. Due to pestering injuries in 2011, I had to take a hiatus from running, but never for one minute thought that just because I wasn’t running, didn’t mean that I wasn’t a runner anymore. Monet will always be an artist, Stephen King will always be an author and I will always be a runner.
In 2011 I learned to embrace substitutes. Because I wasn’t running I needed to do something to keep myself from going bat crazy. My body is used to exercising and sweating and I needed to find an alternative. Ergo, the bike trainer. It was the bane of my existence for the first few months I rode, but in time it became something that I (*gasp*) actually looked forward to during the week. It is in no way a replacement for running, but it does get my heart rate up, and I don’t have to bundle myself up in a zillion layers to go outside to work out. (Which, by the way, is one thing I don’t miss about winter running.) But there are days I both curse and commend Coach Troy for his demonic workouts.
I figured my children would one day be taller than me, but when I saw them starting to tower over me it still came as a shock.
With the new coffee maker my mother-in-law purchased for us I fear I may have become somewhat of a coffee snob. This coffee maker has a bean hopper that you fill every few days and grinds the beans moments before brewing the pot. The stainless steel carafe holds 12 cups and doesn’t require a burner to keep the coffee hot (or continue to “cook” it). It’s funny what you get used to. I don’t think I could give that baby up without a fight! (firstworldproblem)
I have a Twitter account, but I still really don’t get Twitter…
I am almost 2 years closer to 50. That thought doesn’t scare me like I thought it would. Maybe because I still don’t even feel like I’m 40.
I wish I had more time to read…books, blogs, and articles.
That said, I have been listening to audiobooks during my walk to and from work each day. I liken it to being a kid again with a parent reading you a story. Books I have enjoyed include “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein (this had me in tears during my walk home – I hope people didn’t think me depressed), “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer (the movie by the way is in theatres) “A Visit From the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan (a quirky story that had a plot similar to what we computer programmers call “Spaghetti Code”. Each chapter dealt with a character who was introduced, sometimes in a very minor way, in a previous chapter. It kind of goes back and forth between past and present.), “A Kind of Vanishing” by Lesley Thompson, “The Sign” by Raymond Khoury (this book got my husband and I through 13 hours of driving between Calgary and Winnipeg last summer and made the hours fly by.), and “Hour
Game” by David Baldacci. I’ve toyed with the idea of listening to books when I start running again. I’ll have to get back to you on that depending on how it goes.
I could ramble relentlessly so that’s all I have for now. Hopefully the next blog post will be more worthy. I have a bunch of ideas, just not any that have come to fruition.
