Inventory

I ran! A little! But still!

The loop from home to Sarah's school and back is 2.6 miles. I'm going to estimate running about a mile and a half (a mile in one go!). And here's what I learned:

1) Running with a jogging stroller kind of sucks.

2) I still run on the outsides of my feet. 

3) Breathing hurts.

4) The one place that didn't burn was my feet. Yay shoes!

5) I'm going to do it again tomorrow.

Beginnings

So, this weekend I went to a couple of plant sales. Because I am an addict. I go to these things and am all, "Yay perennials! Ooh! What's-that-must-have-it-don't-know-where-to-put-it-who-cares pretty pretty pretty wheeee!" (And yet I still haven't planted the vegetable garden. WHAT IS MY PROBLEM?)

Ahem. So, I went to a couple of plant sales and on the drive from the first to the second, I was feeling... off. Just weird. Kinda down, kinda anxious. Stomach in knots. Weird. I'm not an anxious person, and it was a beautiful day and I was doing something I love. What the hell? And then it hit me. Last year, the afternoon after I went to these very same plant sales I started bleeding. I mean, really bleeding after weeks of on and off spotting. I was all of twenty weeks pregnant. Ah HA!

Apparently the body holds memories of its own.

So, it would seem this is the beginning of the anniversaries. I'm not good with anniversaries (just ask Tom, poor fella). And to top it off, I'm PMS-y, which is just, you know, AWESOME. From here on out, every day is another anniversary of when everything went to hell. Yeah. Feeling stunningly well equipped to deal.

On the other hand, I AM stunningly well equipped for my inaugural run. Sneakers, check! Running shorts, check! Ratty t-shirts, check! Strong and limber body, AHAHAHAHA. If any of my muscles haven't seized up in unyielding cramps afterward, I'll let you know how it goes.

New Shoes

Dudes. Shoes:

I was so tempted to get a newfangled pair of Nike Pegasus, but these were cushy and they seemed to fit my feet pretty well and they were on sale sooo...

Sarah went shopping with me yesterday and raced me through the store each time I tried on a new pair of sneaks. It was awfully cute. Then we went home and she insisted on a full costume change into a running outfit so we could go for our First Run around the block.

We just happened to end up at the Meadow Mart, where they have a cooler full of summery treats. Sarah came home with this:

Sno-Cone!

It was a good day.

Nu Shooz

Hi. So. So, you know how I've been walking Sarah to school lately? Did I mention that? I promised her that I'd walk her in the stroller to school on fine days, and I've been keeping up with it for the most part. 1.3 miles each way according to Mapquest (or Google, I forget), so I'm walking a minimum of 2.6 miles, and often 5.2 miles, each nice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Not bad, right?

So, a funny thing has been happening lately. Walking has been feeling... slow. You know, as if I were walking. Sarah's in this great jogging stroller and I? I am not jogging. Walking briskly (about 4 miles an hour), but definitely not jogging. And I caught myself thinking today that I'd like to have some running shoes.

My sister is staggered. So is Tom.

Why? Because I haven't deliberately exercised since 1992. No, wait, I played indoor soccer for a season or two in the mid-nineties. Fifteen years.

And here's the funny thing. It's been so long since I was even remotely interested in anything like working out that I have not got a single appropriate piece of clothing for it. Okay, fine, I have t-shirts. You win. I have no appropriate footwear. To wit, I give you the last pair of running shoes I bought:

Look at those babies! They're so old school they deserve some Hipstamatic love:

Ah, the good old Nike Pegasus. Look at that swoosh. Do they even make them like that any more? (Oh. It would seem they kinda do.)

I totally remember buying these with my dad. We drove all the way up to Newport to get them. See, I grew up in a small town. No, smaller. Whatever you're thinking, it was smaller. The last census put the population at about 1100 people, but that includes all four villages in the area. So we didn't exactly have a sporting goods store up the street. 

I was a little bit of a jock in high school: soccer, mainly, but also dabbled in lacrosse, softball and basketball. I even tried squash once. (We quickly parted ways.) I took sports seriously, and my dad took sports really seriously. So we hopped in the car and drove the thirty or so miles to get me properly outfitted for running at my new boarding school. Dad insisted on the best, and we were told these were the best. As I recall, they cost us $65. That was a lot of money in '85. But they got me through three years of high school soccer and lacrosse and another two years of college soccer. Totally worth it.

But I suspect that running shoe engineering has changed a bit in the last (OHMYGOD) twenty-five years. I suspect you can probably now get a degree in engineering running shoes. I have no idea what a person like me would need. Besides shoes with an instep and soles that don't flap when you take a step. 

I used to love running. I used to be so strong and so quick. And I can sort of feel a little bit of that speed waiting in my legs. Somebody give me a clue as to how to let it out. Totally for reals. What does a small woman need for a 2.5 to 5 mile run on (mostly paved) roads? Any thoughts? Anyone? 

A Fond Farewell

I did it. This morning. I made the grown-up call. Poor Audrey had been waking up every morning on a dog bed soaked with urine, and sometimes worse. Her back legs had completely given out; in the few moments she was awake I would help her get around by holding up her back end so her front paws could wheelbarrow ahead. She was barely eating, she wasn't happy, and there wasn't anything we could do to make her better. So, I did it. I made the call.

My awesome brother came over afterward and helped me bury the last bit of my twenties. Audrey came to me the year after I graduated from college, 1994. I was at a pet store picking up food for my puppy (Peak, who passed away three years ago this month), and there was a sign on the cage of this weird little leggy puppy: "Free with any 20 pound bag of puppy food". Well, I mean, really. Could you have walked away from such a thing? Of course not!

She was skinny, and long-legged for her size, and her tail was a whipcord with a fraying end that slowly unravelled as she grew until it was a glorious waving plume. Her paws looked like fluffy bedroom slippers and she ran on them in a dead sprint whenever she slipped the leash, not stopping until she'd treed something or (once, horribly) was hit by a truck. Whenever I came home, she'd greet me at the door, head down, doing a full body wag, with whatever scrap of tissue she could find poking out of her mouth in a papery offering.

She and Peak travelled with me from Ohio to Boston to Vermont. And now she's under the lilac in the backyard.

This afternoon I was feeling all apprehensive about Sarah coming home from school and finding Audrey not there, and I'm trying to anticipate her questions and SHE DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE THE DOG WAS GONE. She ran into the house, goes straight to the couch in the living room where Audrey's dog bed is not for the first time since we've been in this house and... nothing. Thank god for the self-centeredness of a four year old.

I'm missing my silly mutt. And all I've got to console me is this:

Good grief.

More Importantly

Happy birthday, Mom. I love you.

Wait -- Summertime? What?

Hey, remember that little hoop thingy? I finished it!

I'm pretty happy with most of it, but the stems aren't quite what I hoped. That wonky middle one in particular is pretty lame -- and it's the third one I did. I have no excuse. Also, the colors are still off in the photo (I tried to get a more accurate shot, I swear). The thing the hoop is resting on is white, not peachy pink, so just imagine it all a shade paler on the paint swatch. But still, cute.

In the meantime, out in the world summer unexpectedly descended on us today. Here's what Sarah and I did with our day:

First order of business: obtain and set up sprinkler.

Mid-afternoon creemee and popsicle break (for you flatlanders out there, creemees are the frozen confection known as "soft serve" in points south):

And for the grand pre-dinner finale:

Slip 'n' slide! Woo hoo!

Tomorrow's supposed to see temps in the 90s -- obviously the perfect time for me FINALLY to dig the vegetable beds. At least now I have a sprinkler I can turn on when the heatstroke hits.