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By kilax, May 17, 2009 5:12 pm

Apparently, besides worrying about bugs flying down my bra and biting me (yes, that happened today), water from my hydration belt spilling all over my legs (felt kind of good), having to poo (always a concern), and a killer sunburn (totally my fault), I also need to worry about GETTING LOST while I am running.

Today I decided to do an 8-miler close to home, but I chose to explore the neighborhood north of ours (thought that would be FUN). Without looking at a map (first mistake!) I figured it was small and only had two entrances, like ours.

Uh, no.

About 5 miles into the run, I realized I could see a major street that I shoudn’t be able to see. And wasn’t planning on seeing during this run. I knew where I was, but only by the major street – and there was no way I would run on it because of the high speed limit. So I kept heading east then south then east then south (with one long accidental north) until I finally got back to an area I had run by earlier. I was kind of freaking out a little bit, because I was running low on water, but I felt reassured knowing I had my phone and could call Steven for directions. Ha!

Has this happened to any of you?

It was pretty funny when I got home and uploaded the map of my run – I had accidentally run into another neighborhood that I didn’t know was connected to the one north of our house.

If I am wearing a Garmin Forerunner 405, shouldn’t it tell me how to get back home? I mean, it IS a Garmin! It has GPS! Who knows. Maybe it can. I think the new model should have an actual map with directions as well as a thermostat. Just because that would be cool.

And you know what else IS cool? I figured out how to set up the 1-mile lap button on Jack so I can share my splits. Because they are oh so awesome. Not. I tried really hard to start out slow, but I still started out too fast and ended slower than I wanted. I need to work on that. Along with not getting lost.

Distance: 8.01 miles | Time: 1:14:05 | 1: 9:19 | 2: 9:24 | 3: 9:09 | 4: 8:58 | 5: 9:14 | 6: 9:12 | 7: 9:18 | 8: 9:20 | 9: 0:06

Comments (13)

By kilax, January 7, 2009 5:55 pm

I’ve posted a few times about my disdain for my neighbors (here, here, and here… and probably elsewhere), and how I felt it was normal to not know ANY of them.

After yesterday’s post, you might be wondering what my deal is, and if I have any friends at ALL. I do. And ironically, I felt inspired today to write about some of our newest friends – who, also ironically, are neighbors! We met them last spring, and have been hanging out with them and their daughter regularly since then.

I don’t know if I can accurately describe how nice, thoughtful, giving and fun to be around these people are. The husband is charismatic, gregarious, outgoing… he may be the friendliest person I’ve ever met. He’s one of those people that EVERYBODY likes.  The wife is very easygoing, easy to talk to, caring and thoughtful – the type that seems to find happiness in everything. She listens and shows interest – you know I like that.

And their daughter is absolutely adorable. I kind of thought it would be a problem for the five of us to hang out since we don’t have a child as well, but their daughter is so well-behaved and well-spoken that it has never been a problem. She sings and dances and plays with Data while we are having a conversation. She’ll tell you if she needs a nap or is hungry or wants to go to the bathroom.

We went to her third birthday party in the beginning of December. Oh my. They had A LOT of people in their home. A lot of family, a lot of friends, and a lot of kids. It was fun. Their daughter kind of just sat back and watched the other kids play (she’s an observer, until she begins to feel comfortable). At one point, her mother asked her to put away the toys to her kitchen set – plastic food, utensils, plates and so on. She sat diligently on the floor, packing everything into a storage bin, not noticing the other kids dancing and yelling around her. She put the bin away when she was all done then got up and went to another part of the room. Another kid immediately came and dumped everything out on the floor! Then her mother came back and asked her to put everything away, in that sort of voice like, “I already told you once!” She had a little pout on her face, but listened to her mother and put everything away again. Steven and I were just sitting there laughing. We knew she had put it all away once. We told the mom that story last week and she just laughed and laughed. She said, “I wondered why she hadn’t put them away when I first asked!”

Oops, that was kind of a tangent.

I get really excited when I tell people about our “neighbors,” because I think they are so awesome. Besides inviting us over all the time, feeding us, entertaining us, etc. (which we do the same), they’ve really helped us out a lot. I needed to find a church in the neighborhood, and they knew of one. I didn’t know where to go to vote and they gave me general directions. I wasn’t sure about taking the job with the federal government and they encouraged me, supported me and followed up with me – calling to ask my decision, congratulating me, asking how I like it so far, etc.

We’ve asked them to watch over Data the past two weekends while we were out of town. Both times, they came over everyday, sometimes twice! They leave a detailed list of when they were there, how much Data ate, if he went poo, if he had a treat, if he seemed happy… Steven and I think they do a better job recording him than the shelter does when we board him!

A family emergency came up and Steven and I have to travel again. Another four days away from home. I hated asking them to watch Data again, but I don’t like leaving him alone for that many days. I start to feel really guilty.

Well, you can probably guess, our neighbor was more than excited to watch Data. He said, “I wish I could watch Data every weekend!” Then he started to tell me about how cute Data is, how he is there when he opens the door and follows him around the house, purring.

I apologized for asking him to watch him, yet again, but he started telling me how he feels like we do so much for him and his family, and his is more than happy to return the favor. “We’re neighbors afterall!”

We are. I just never realized what that meant!