Snippets

[I posted this last night real late. But then found it as a draft just now, an entire 24 hours later. Right now, Blogger and I are not talking. This is ridiculous. Without further ado, here's yester-freaking-days post:]

I just ate a mini-muffin that had been drying out in my room all day since breakfast and it was crumbly. When I finished, I glanced down at my shirt and laughed because there were muffin crumbs all over me, as though I'd just ground up the muffin in my hand and let it drop to my shirt instead of actually trying to eat it. I think I'm going to eat the second dry muffin. I don't even care.

One of the guys in the dorm pointed a finger at me and said, "I'm going to miss this guy next year" real quick and then kept talking. I think he meant it though, and I think I felt good about it. I do now, I know that.

For three days in a row this past week I found a tick on me. What can I say? They love me.

I brag about my running here a lot, slipping in how I'm tired "because I ran yesterday" so I can answer their question of how-far-did-you-run with "26 miles" or whatever. Like that. See what I did there? It's fun because the kids here are impressed with things like that in their own way, and as always, impressed people quench a thirsty ego. (I assume they're impressed, because I feel impressive.)

On Tuesday I went back for a re-run of the 25-mile trail at Riverside State Park. This time, though, I accidentally skipped a little section and then didn't get lost in the four places I got lost on during my first try. That meant that when I finished the loop and got back to where I started, I was still three miles away from my marathon-distance goal. And that meant I got to learn a lesson: passing your starting point is very demoralizing. Those last three miles were rough. I just wanted to be done.

I subbed some classes for a couple days this week. It was kind of fun, especially the first day when it was a novelty for all of us involved. It was fun to interact in a different setting than the dorm, fun to relax a bit, have an audience that laughed at me. Especially that one class, they were the best.

I want to be C.S. Lewis.

I've made some kind of connection with the dorm this week, I feel. I don't know if it will last, or what it is, really, but something's felt right for the past few days. So I'll probably get in trouble soon or something, but at least this will remind me that there were a few days that felt right. It's like when I've started reading a book and felt like there couldn't have been a more perfect time to have read it. Or when I'm on a run and suddenly, at some point several miles in, I realize that everything feels right. Or when I get to a point in a meal when I feel completely content to just stop eating, even if there are tasty things left to eat, even if I could keep going. Like when two blinking lights are off, then end up in sync for those two blinks, and then are off again. Kind of like a rhythm, kind of like a scenic view on the side of the road, kind of like a thrilling new song. It could always get better, and certainly will be worse, but right now it's the best thing ever. Kind of like all of that.

In Time

Whispering breezes hum a song

Asking the birds to sing along

Nodding, the trees take up the dance

Tipping far this way, oh, then that

Together they sing—the birds, the breeze

Only for me, sometimes it seems

Laughing, they know the song they sing

Is a tuneless tune, the sigh of Spring

Venturing its way from tree to tree

Echoing away, away from me