Meditation XI-XII : Postcards & Polaroids

"Better watch your soul,
it'll leave you like a hundred bucks.
My friend said, "stick to your guns",
But instead I just got stuck.
And I'm walking backwards,
lookin' forward to getting done,
Oh but that ain't enough,
no, you want me to run.
Oh that ain't enough, no,
you want me to run."
M. Ward

Yesterday I had 2 good workout sessions. In the late morning I went to the arboretum with Maggie and ran in the empty field adjacent the experimental plots. The field is about 1/2 mile square, with some places to stop and do some stretches. I felt pretty good, considering it was my first consecutive running day in about a week and a half.

Later in the evening I ate the biryani leftovers, relaxed, and realized my legs felt good, so I went over to Brookens at 10:00pm and did 10 sets of strength exercises. Last Saturday I managed 5 sets of jumping rope, this time I was able to do 10 sets.

I had some soreness in my knee as I slept last night, but it has not bothered me since I got up. Decided today is a good time to rest and recover. There are days when I feel I am going in the right direction, and that full recovery is only a couple of weeks away. I hope that is the case.

I was looking through some old postcards this afternoon. Reading the notes from friends jarred some memories loose. I have boxes of correspondence from the 90's, but now that email is dominant I don't have much from the past 5 years. Part of that is my fault, as I lost the desire to write. I currently owe letters to 3 or 4 friends. It sometimes takes me 5 to 6 weeks to respond.

Postcards & Polaroids

Card

When Rachel spent 2 years in Namibia working for the Peace Corps I sent her over 250 letters. It would take 3 weeks for a letter to arrive, so it skewed our sense of time. I realized that upon receiving letters from her hitching through southern Africa on a month long vacation, that she was most likely already back in Namibia at her teaching post. I once received a Christmas package from her in June. I proudly wore the scarf she knit to work that day.

When Rachel returned from Africa, I met her at the airport and we had a nice cab ride back to the city. I had hung a sign in the living room which welcomed her home. However, it must not have been well placed, because she never noticed it, and after an hour passed I finally gave in and had to point the sign out to her.

We still joke about that poorly placed sign, so I have decided that I want a second chance to redeem myself. Today I printed out a welcome home poster which I will hang in the living room on Tuesday when she returns from Hawaii. I also plan to bake her favorite cake (chocolate macaroon bundt with German chocolate frosting), and will try to repeat the yummy biryani dish which I made yesterday.

Not much going on tonight, the house is quiet, it is cold outside, and I'm getting hungry...