Built for Comfort, Not Speed

What do you write after not writing for so long?

1. I went to Tuscany for a week in October. Best week I’ve had in the last 3 years. Pictures are here. I hope my traveling companions will be my friends for life, the kind of people who make jokes like, “That’s CapRAZY!” Like you’re ordering a caprese salad with a side full of nuttiness, which would be, you know, like, CapRAZY!

2. My floors are coated in a lovely, fine mist of Gold Bond Medicated Powder, the residue from a visit from some of the best people in the world, Boston people, who like their cars American (or German and righteous), their eggs runny, their people stand-up, and their feet and nether regions free of moisture. I miss them and their fresh selves already.

3. I ran 6 miles in 51 minutes in my local Turkey Trot. I’m pretty sure Mr. Makinson, my high school track coach (only signed up for an athletic activity to round out my college applications, even though in the end I only applied to two schools that I deemed “of the people” enough to be worthy of my passion, despite the 4.5 GPA, newspaper editorship, etc. (seriously, I elected UC Santa Cruz over Reed because at Reed students called themselves “Reedies,” which I felt denoted too much affiliation with An Institution)), would have fallen over in his short shorts had he heard.

4. I used to have “run a marathon” on the list of things to do before I die. That is now off my list. I love running. But if I had to train? If running became a chore? 8:30 a mile, top 20%, is a decent time and I can still help cook a Thanksgiving dinner and be in charge of dishes when it’s over. That’s enough for me. As my dad told me, our family “is built for comfort, not speed.”

5. I am one of those people for whom it makes more than one try to get something right. Oh, who am I kidding, I am nearly 33 and nearly nothing is right just yet. But I’m OK with that (generally). So I am starting my New Year’s resolutions early, so I can get in the habit of doing them by the time 2010 (HOLY CRAP) hits.

5. I am not sharing what my resolutions are because darn it! I have to have something to write about on January 1, 2010. And that’s one of them, writing again. We’ll see how that goes.

p.s. It’s been over FIVE YEARS I’ve been writing on this darn thing. It has been important to me. Reading other blogs still is. I’m not ready to abandon ship.