On my feet

I did market research today. Which meant six hours on my feet, trying to get people who didn't want to talk to me to talk to me.

It was sort of fun (maybe not the six hours on my fee part), and it reminded me of some of the reporting assignments when I worked at newspapers.

Here's a difference in the men and women I observed. Most men, even if they wouldn't agree to do my survery, would look at me and make eye contact. They'd smile and apologize.

At least one-third of the women who turned me down would just walk by as though they didn't see or hear me.

Of course, that's a female skill. I do it myself. Not so much with market research people -- I don't have a problem saying no if I'm busy. But I do bring it out sometimes.

I'm going to be doing more of that kind of work next week. One nice thing about working for a more sustained length of time is I get to miss the kids and appreciate the fact that I usually get to be home and making my own schedule. The money, of course, is nice as well.

Baby steps

I ran for 30 minutes this morning.

The weather was cool, yet sunny.

About, oh, 30 seconds into it, I was thinking it was a singularly bad idea. I felt slow and tired and supremely out of shape.

I'm not, of course, compared to the vast majority of the population. Or to where I was anytime before two years ago. But I'm out of shape compared to where I've been recently. I'm used to running being easier. Because I Used to Do It More.

But around about 15 minutes in, I started feeling as though I could go for as long as I wanted.

It was only 30 (slow) minutes because I had other commitments and had to get home.

I'm basking in the minor endorphin rush. This isn't like a longer run.

But I'll take it.

Rethinking racing

Sometimes, I think it's worth trying things that are outside one's comfort zone.

I hear too many people thinking out loud, "Oh, I could never do that."

Maybe you can. And maybe you'll like it.

Before I ran a single race, I had a feeling that it wasn't "me." At the same time, I thought it was worth a try. I also enjoyed conquering each distance.

Lately, though, I've been skipping out of as many races as I'm running.

Which tells me I don't enjoy it all that much.

So the current plan is to be judicious, to swear off races for at least a little bit. I'd still like to run a marathon this year -- but I have to get my base up before I even consider it again.

Running has lost a certain amount of novelty, but I'm going to try to reclaim the pure endorphin love I found in it. Before I messed it up for myself.

There's no point in running races undertrained. I like to feel good out there, not as though I'm slogging through things.


So I need to do more slogging on my own again.

Some favorite Internet sites

OK, this is a cat video. It is, however, the greatest cat video ever. I don't even like the genre, but I must watch this one every day. It is of two cats playing patty-cake. The best part, however, is the voice-over. A couple of young men added "What were they saying?"to the video. Since I spend a lot of time with teenagers, this just kills me.

Also, and I should've posted this sooner, Social Distortion's new album is available, streaming over the Internet here. The band is lowering the pre-order price of the album by a dollar for every 100,000 streams.

Social Distortion is a classic L.A. punk band -- and one of my favorites. This new album is excellent as well.