I noticed this week that the classes are a lot busier now. They warned me about this when I signed up for the gym in October, the place will be hopping in January when everyone is gun-ho about their New Year's goals, they said. Saturday morning at nine is apparently an exception.
I decided that on this day, when I woke up uncharacteristically early with an uncharacteristic urge to go out in the cold to a fitness facility and commit aerobic exercise on myself, that I wanted to run for an hour. I've actually thought about this before on previous treadmill expeditions, but I'm often there in the evenings on weekdays during "peak hours" when machine time is limited to 30 minutes, so mostly it was just something nice to think about but not actually try.
Lisa is a runner and will go running, outside, for hours. I said to her the other day, "I just can't imagine spending two hours running. I mean, you could watch an entire movie in that time." Which isn't to say that I would rather sit on a couch or in a theatre and stare at a screen for two hours instead of doing something healthy for my body. It's just that I consider myself a busy person and two hours is a long time to spend doing anything, really.
I did a five-minute warm up by walking briskly before bumping my speed up a few notches. I've gotten much better at the treadmill since my first experience. At my best I'm doing about a 12 minute mile, which I seem to recall being what I ran when I was in public school and was considered rather poor, but it feels somehow better 15 years later (in the sense that my lungs don't feel like they will burst and my throat doesn't feel like it is full of blood and razor blades). Looking back now it makes me mad that they just expected everyone to know how to run, how to breath properly and find your pace and rhythm. In my day more kids were natural athletes than not I guess. I wonder if the tables have turned now in the age of Facebook and PS3.
It wasn't long before my new favourite song came on--Enjoy the Silence as sung by Anberlin (I say as sung by because the song was originally a Depeche Mode single and has since been covered by many many other bands and singers including Matthew Good, Kim Wilde and Nada Surf). I discovered the song on a soundtrack list for Vampire Diaries (See Episode 6). It's a good running song and it gave me an extra burst of energy to kick it into the next gear. In fact I played it twice. Sometimes I buy shoes because they make me feel like someone else--like how my red strappy wedges make me feel like Wonder Woman or how my black and purple platform heels with the zipper on the vamp add a little edginess to a basic black dress. Songs some how get into my head and do the same. When it's just me and the music I am the fastest, strongest, smartest, most kick-ass rockin' it girl I know. Like Wonder Woman, Nancy Drew, Carrie Bradshaw and the Sarah Michelle Gellar Buffy all rolled into one.
Vows are spoken
To be broken
Feelings are intense
Words are trivial
Pleasures remain
So does the pain
Words are meaningless
And forgettable
Depeche Mode--Enjoy the Silence
During the songs that I didn't love as much I tried to get my mind to wander to anywhere but the clock. I thought about the week gone past and replayed a conversation I had with OAF on Wednesday. OAF has a wry sense of humour so many of our conversations are spoken with our tongues planted firmly in cheeks. Which is to say the real conversation happens between the lines.
me: did you think of me today?
4:29 PM He: Today and all days. Kind of. Okay, not much, I admit. Why?
4:32 PM me: well, I was walking through the mall today on my way home and coming toward me was this guy who had a striking resemblance to you. I mean, just shy of uncanny. He looked at me and I at him and I was so startled I nearly walked into signage.
So I thought surely, you were thinking so hard, that your Winnipeg twin was lead to pay me a visit.
4:33 PM He: Love it.
4:34 PM it's cold here, so maybe the fact that I'm cold projects me to Winnipeg
("Project" and "project", by the way)He pointed out "project" because it's a heteronym, a word that is spelled the same as another word but pronounced differently. It was something we started when I was visiting New York. It is the geekiest inside joke I have ever been a part of but it's nice too. Do you ever tell your friends, "I love you?" Well I guess some guys, maybe after a keg of beers on an evening that includes an iPod shuffle mix sprinkled with U2 and Green Day, will turn to their best buddy and say something like, "I love you man," but under ordinary circumstances when neither party is under duress or near death, do people ever turn to their friends and say just what they mean to them? I love Lisa. I love Vince and Rob too. I don't say those words but there are other ways to communicate my grand appreciation for having them in my life all these years, for being there, for making me laugh. Later that night OAF popped up again.
He: Hey, I thought of you today
10:08 PM me: really? That's funny, I thought of you too.
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