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October 18, 2005
Luck of the Draw
Since I had to get up earlier than usual this morning, I did not sleep very well. There was a lot of tossing and turning going on. If I had to share a bed with someone, they would be awfully ticked off at me half the time because I don't sleep all that well. I was up around 3 in the morning and didn't sleep at all after that. My alarm was set for 6:10 to get up to run. The first time it went off, I hit the snooze bar because I wanted to try for another ten minutes or so. No sleep ensued, so it was just another ten minutes of peace.
I had to flip-flop my runs today, so I did my shorter run in the morning. I could have done the longer run in the morning, but didn't really want to get up that early. It was still pretty dark when I got started around 6:30, but the sun was coming out quickly. As I did the loop that I used to do at 5 in the morning, I ran by the park area and realized that I was a complete and total idiot for doing that. It is a nice neighborhood, but running by a park in the pitch darkness is just not a safe idea. Since I had been awake for so long, my run was faster than it normally would be at that time. I also did my new add-on loop to make it five miles in the morning. It was sort of chilly at the beginning, but by the end my long sleeves were getting pushed up.
I had jury duty today. My original summons was for a capital murder trial that was slated to last for at least four weeks. When I called the juror hotline last night, the message stated that that trial was delayed and we could either be re-summoned or come in today and be part of the petit jury pool. Well, duh, one or two days of service versus the possiblity of four weeks-today won, hands down. I was part of the pool for one trial, a rape case, but did not get selected. Unlike when Barb had jury duty last week, I did not get out very early. There was no lunch break and we did not get out until about 2:00. By the time we let out, I was starving and knew that I would need to eat a light lunch in order to be able to run later in the day. It turns out that a friend of my mom's had jury duty today, so I had someone to gossip with and pass the time. My civic duty is completed, I should not be called for two years, and I have a frameable certificate that shows that I served today.
This afternoon, I was going to run from my house, but by the time I would have been able to run the traffic would have been very bad. Running at 5:30 was pushing my luck with having lunch so late, but it turns out that things were OK. I went and ran with J's middle school team since that would be avoiding traffic. This was supposed to be my main run of the day, so while they stretched and did striders, I just kept on running loops. One of the reasons this seemed so attractive this afternoon, is there are two port-o-pots in the small park where they practice; so if nature called, there was a place to go. I did the main part of the workout with the kids. One of the coaches was bribing the younger kids that if they could catch me before I got back (with a head start), they would get a dollar. The rationale behind this was that I was just running and they were supposed to be doing a workout. One of the girls did catch me; well, three did, but two of them cut the course. I ran around for another ten minutes while they stretched to get an even hour in. It got very dark by the time I finished and I had no desire to be on the grass by this time because I could just see myself turning an ankle.
As I was driving home, I saw a woman who sometimes runs with our group. She is the kind of person who is going to get killed one of these days. It was dark out, she was running on a relatively major (busy) road, running with traffic, had headphones on, and did not have on a reflective vest. As soon as I saw this, I called J to tell him, because he agrees that she is going to get killed because she just does dumb things like that. The lack of common sense is just a big pet peeve of mine.
Posted by Blondie at October 18, 2005 08:15 PM
Comments
Hrmpf. I actually served on a jury and I didn't get a frameable certificate! I guess Massachusetts is just cheap.
Posted by: Alison at October 18, 2005 11:32 PM
I didn't get one either, I just got a carbon copy of a sheet of paper! Congratulations on completing your civic duty.
I am glad to see I am not the only one who has a hangup about running during rush hour. I hate it, there are so many cars and so much exhaust!
Good luck with your job decision. I am sure it is a tough one - I would probably go work for my dad just because it would be something to do while I figured stuff out, but I can totally understand not wanting to do it.
Posted by: Barb at October 19, 2005 01:25 PM