Side by Side

Last night I laughed so hard I burned calories. Whoever coined the phrase, laughter is the best medicine was not that far off. I have felt the far reaching, healthy effects of my laugh attack last night, all day today. When I watched The Gods Must Be Crazy, I felt the same way. I walked away with a sore stomach because I laughed so hard in that movie. I am not comparing the movie I saw yesterday with The Gods Must Be Crazy, but the hilariousness had the same effect on me. I love laughing. One of the reasons I like to be with Mike is because he usually is making me laugh about something. We were sitting on the same side of the booth. (He was confused when I sat next to him because the table was set to sit across from each other. At first he tried to be accommodating and move to the other side of the table, but when I wouldn't let him get out of the booth he and the waitress both looked at me like I was crazy.) So, there we were sitting rather close on the same side of the booth, looking at our menus. We laughed about a lot of things, because we talked to each other, not from across the table, but side by side- non confrontational, good conversation. When was the last time that happened? When we went running together, we ran side by side, and talked to each other through our "trying to catch your breath" type breathing you get when you run, when we drove to Cali we sat side by side and chatted the whole way. I honestly can't think of a good conversation we have ever had when sitting across from each other. The side by side conversations have been so much more meaningful and connected than the one's from across the table. The jokes are more fun to laugh at when you are sitting next to the other person laughing, it's easier to hold hands, kiss, put your arm around, whisper into ears, etc when you sit next to each other. Side by side, it is one of my favorite things.

Harps and other stuff

I have decided to rent out one of my harps. I am sad and nervous about it, but since I am not really using this one, it will be good to at least have some other deserving person using it. And a little bit of cash every month can't hurt either. I hope I can find the right person to use it. They need to be responsible, careful, and love the harp more than the little booger smearing neighbors, and scratching pets. HAHA, did I just say that? ya, I did. In any case, I love my Buttercup. I am going to put a photo up, it is really bad quality, but it is the only one I have right now. I can't find the camera charger in all these unorganized office boxes we still haven't gone through since we moved. Hopefully it will turn up. We have 3 different chargers for this camera. One of them is bound to turn up soon.

Samantha has learned Twinkle Little Star on the harp. It is cute to watch her little fingers close, and her skinny little arm raising on the long notes. She seems to be liking it pretty well. Of course she wants to move onto the next song before she is ready. I am trying to keep it simple, not get crazy about it, but let her be my girl, and not pupil. I want her to love it; I know I can't MAKE her love it. It is so hard to find a healthy balance with many things.

My knee has been swelling and aching the last week or so. I have been trying to avoid it and just work through the pain, but I have conceded. My knee is going to have to win for a few days until it doesn't hurt so bad. I have had to drop out of my race. I am so sad about it. I have let so many people down. I just don't know what to do with this lame swelling and pain. In any case, I am still going to run, just not more than 3 miles right now. First I have to figure out what is going on with my body. I went to Zumba last night with some people I met in my new neighborhood. It was really fun, I am glad to be invited. I will definitely be going back some time soon. It turns out the instructors both know Mike pretty well. They went to high school together. In this small town, there aren't many people who don't know Mike in one way or another. It is pretty cool, and a little creepy all at once.

Too Much Bum Time

I spent so many hours in the car driving from place to place to place for things that were fun, and things that needed to be done. I feel sick to my stomach because I sat so much. I even carried my running shoes all around with me hoping I would be able to sneak in a jog, but it never happened. Now, I am still sitting on my bum because it is too dark, so I can't go on a run. (Besides, I am having lame feelings, so my excitement to get off my bum isn't really happening.) I hate feelings, wa wa wa. Feeling words. I've never been good at expressing them.

Running

Running is something I used to do when I was in high school and my freshman year in college. As far as running as a sport or for fitness, my body hasn't visited the activity for many years. For some reason, as mentioned in an earlier post, I agreed to run on a Ragnar Relay team. So, I looked up a training schedule, was more than a month behind, but started in on it anyway. WHAT!? Am I crazy! This is like running a half marathon. For some, who have the marathon achieved already, this is no big deal. But for me, this is craziness! Except . . . after a lot of discouraging emotions and my brain playing tricks, I was able to pass a huge mental barrier today. I ran for over 35 mins straight, and hit a mileage I hadn't yet been able to conquer. I haven't run that amount of time straight through since 1996. I was so happy I felt like I could run another mile, I was actually smiling at the end. Thank you to Callie who sent me an encouraging note with great advise in it. Yeah, may be I can really do this after all.

Spring Snow

Too many days of spring have been littered with snow. Although the crystal snow flakes are beautiful and melt every day, there has been new snow covering the ground every morning for over a week. Spring means, tulips, daffodils, peaking day lilies, flowering fruit trees, fluffy yellow chicks, warm sun, cool evenings, thunder storms and rainbows, refreshed energy, baseball, bicycle trips to the park, etc. The snow blanketing the ground has kept these wonderful spring things from happening. Patience, patience.

I took a wonderful trip with Mike to celebrate our 11 year anniversary in March. It was so much fun, I don't think it could have been more wonderful. I wanted to stay on that fantastic vacation and have my kids shipped out to me. Alas, reality eventually greeted us on our last day, and we came home. The weather was perfect, the water was turquoise, the food was prepared and delicious, and I didn't do any dishes. Mostly, the water was perfect, and the sun was amazing, and it was wonderful to spend a week with my hunny-bun.

I miss the warmth of my sunny Mexico trip; I am looking forward to the warmth of spring days, and the coolness of spring nights. And for school to be out for the summer. I miss my girls when they are gone all day.