Just When I Needed It Most

Man, it was really hard to get up this morning. I was up much of the night listening to and trying to respond to toddler crying. I didn't actually make it out of bed before bride at any point I don't think, so didn't provide any useful help.

And when I was asleep I was having this dream I have sometimes of trying to visit New York City but getting stuck living in this semi-offshore tower that is mostly black steel girders with no definite walls. I could step any minute into a hole or off the edge and fall dozens of stories into the bay - rocks and waves. There are some vendors of food and clothes, but they're all sort of junky and seem unauthorized in a dangerous way. I can't get anywhere near any part of the city that you'd actually see on tv or in a movie or read about in a book. I can't even get to the ground floor. Somehow I just get hung up in this squatter society for an indefinite period of time. New York City frightens and confuses me.

So I had to get up and go run through this malaise. I had nothing happening in the automatic iPod, so I tried the blues stuff from Friday and it was all I had, so it had to work, I guess. I finished the run and the sprint was strong at the end so it was okay. This was the first day where I honestly didn't want to do it and I just did it because it's the program. Oh, and I weighed what is easily the median (that is, most frequently occurring for those of you who were merely annoyed by statistics class) weight for the program so far, 212. Yawn. I am so not going to run the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon in under four hours. But I do feel better today than I would have without the run, so that's good.

Automatic iPod Part II

So this morning I started the run with the Bob Dylan song Highway 51 in my mind. (Not Highway 61 Revisited, rather the folk song from his eponymous first album.) Then Elvis' Big Boss Man got in there and Jimmy Reed's "What's Wrong With You" or whatever that song is called. Soon I had a great big shuffle beat going and it was a blues based run. Since I was out in nature and literally didn't see another person on the path the entire time, I sang out loud.

Oh, baby! Honey what's wrong with you?
Whoa, baby! Honey what's wrong with you?
Oh you don't treat me darlin'
Like you used to do

Got me workin' bossman
Workin' around the clock
Want a little drink of water
But you won't let Meffis stop,
Big Boss Man
Oh, can't you hear me when I call
Well you ain't so big
You know you just tall, that's all

Highway 51
Runs right by my baby's door
Highway 51
Runs right by my baby's door
'f I don't get the gal I'm lovin'
I ain't gonna walk down Highway 51 no more!

And so on like this mixing up the songs and characters. It was an extremely upbeat run and I've felt great all day.