and I Feel Fiiine
Mood:  happy
Topic: Marathon
I got my morning workout in--just barely. I woke up at 5:00 feeling like the back of my throat had been scraped and every bit as exhausted as I felt last night. Hans said I had woken the dog with my snoring in the middle of the night and she had barked at me, so I guess snoring could account for the throat thing and the exhaustion. In any event, I didn't actually drag myself out of bed until 6:00, and Kaija did everything she could to keep me from getting up even then. I went out for only 22 minutes with no warm-up, and felt okay, but there was no joy in it, despite the gorgeous "vanilla sky" sunrise. By the time we were in the car and driving to Durham, my body ached from my neck down and I was feeling fat and lethargic and deflated.

Just as I was hitting Hillsborough, though, I turned on the radio. Unfortunately, I seem to have burned myself out on NPR recently. I can't stand to hear the news even if it is broken up with cool essays and stories. So I turned it to The River and heard 4 or 5 good songs, and then they played the song Hans and I used as our wedding recessional, "It's the End of the World as We Know it (and I Feel Fine)" by REM. That's all it took! I've been BOUNCING ever since! It's amazing what one great song can do.

Plus remembering the wedding got me thinking about me and Hans. He and I definitely have our difficulties--we're two very opinionated people with strong, stubborn personalities--but our being together has a purpose. Aside from the more obvious reasons we're together, we're also a great team, and we have a lot to learn from each other, as well as from the experience of being stuck with each other. The next couple of weeks are going to be trying, but the man and I survived living two months in a tent together, so I'm sure we'll survive this, too. And our lives will have a cool, different shape when we come out on the other side.