It's 11pm as I start this...a late post tonight. I'm fighting the sleepiness and the pillow is screaming my name. To ensure no days are missed, some fresh brewed, full leaf Passion Tea is keeping my eyelids open. I actually have some stuff to talk about, so here we go.
The day started good but quickly took a nosedive about 30 seconds after walking into the office this morning. Clearly, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed and felt like taking it out on me. The irony is that it came after my cheerful "Good morning!" after I walked in. Luckily, I had a 9am meeting to get to so I got some work done then beat feet out of there. The meeting is about 1/2 mile away so it's a good walk in the heat. Afterwards, I walked across the street to the gym and signed up for the 9/11K. Yea, it's an 11K run (what is that? like 7 miles or something?) on 9/11. 9/11 falls on a Sunday so I figured, why not? It'll be great to do something to commemorate 10 years since the attack on our country. How ironic that I will be in Afghanistan on the 10th anniversary. Had they not attacked us, I would not be here and neither would we. (we = 100,000 troops) After signing up, I headed on back and luckily, the others were heading out. More work then a very late lunch by myself followed by some more Scrabble matches with my iPad at Green Beans Coffee. The late lunch removed me from the office a bit more when the others would be coming back. It's all strategy to get myself some "me" time...which I was feeling was very necessary today. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. I did get a call, though, from Iraq. A friend from back home is also deployed with the Army in Iraq and we'll be getting home to "Kansas" within a week of each other. Can you envision the party we're going to throw to celebrate us BOTH returning to "Kansas?" I can't wait...it's going to be EPIC!!! Before I left the office, I talked to Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow. The girls are enjoying their last few days of summer at the fair before school starts back on Tuesday. I headed on out and left the others behind. I was done so after the late one last night, I wasn't waiting around when my work was done. I caught the shuttle and went and got my 2 week haircut before heading back to my room.
One thing I noticed on the way back to my room was the lack of wind tonight. Very calm which is very rare. Definitely a night not to miss to run. I laced up my shoes and hit the road with the goal of 8 miles around the perimeter. It was barely 7pm when I headed out but it was dark already. Days are certainly getting shorter. I felt really good tonight and ran a very slow, comfortable pace. The stars were out, too. As I finished the loop, I really wanted some more miles so I continued on. This run tonight was special...with the stress of being here, the constant thoughts of my 3 girls at home, and the relational "dynamics" I'm around everyday, this run just washed away all the garbage and all was well...if only temporarily. Just me...beating shoes on the asphalt...my breathing...no gusting wind...and those stars...wow, the stars were amazing tonight. At one point, I just stopped, stretched my arms out as far as I could reach and stared upwards at them. They were beautiful and they are the same stars my friends and family see back home. It felt like a connection to home...my thoughts were already swirling with them so this just felt really, really good. I was already "floating" a bit from the run and this just put the icing on the cake. After my momentary "awe" of the sky, I continued on for awhile until I wrapped up the run with a 1/2 marathon...13.1 miles. What a great run! Yea, it was definitely one of "those" runs that us runners get blessed with every now and then.
Back in my room, it was a dinner via care packages. Chicken Salad on crackers and an ice cream bar I had stashed in my college-sized fridge/freezer over a month ago. That's all I ate...which explains why I don't feel so good but I'll be asleep soon. I'll eat a hearty breakfast...I promise. So with that, it's about 20min past 11pm and I'm going to be asleep within minutes. I'm happy to wrap up and put a nail in 139. Tomorrow's day is another good one to hit...a nice round number.
Goodnight, everyone.
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