It's That Time of Year Again

That time of year when my morning commute gets that much ickier, and parking at the Metro parking lot fills up that much faster – that’s right, it’s the end of summer. Everyone is back at work, and apparently they’re all so bitter about not being on vacation anymore that they’ve decided leaning on horns in the middle of a traffic jam is the only way to express their angst. Which is unfortunate, because that’s just about the least helpful thing you can do, and is guaranteed to make someone like me, who really tries to be accepting of my traffic time but has a low irritation threshold, get edgy. (Oh, let’s just say it – pissed off.)

Then you have monumentally unhelpful things like police stand-offs on the Beltway, as happened this morning. It didn’t affect me, because I took the Metro and only had to do some Rockville Pike time (which wasn’t a picnic, but wasn’t shut down, either. It only felt that way.), but people were calling in to various radio shows, talking about seeing police ducking between cars with guns drawn, and the rocket scientists who decided to get out of their cars to see what was happening.

Um…you already know what’s happening – there are police officers with guns drawn crouching behind their cars so they don’t get shot. Unless you’re watching it on TV, you don’t need to see more than that. Because, since the Beltway is shut down, it’s going to take a while for the ambulance to come get you after you get shot.

Change of Plans

The friends who were supposed to come last weekend ended up not coming, owing to a nasty case of strep throat that. This ended up changing my weekend plans rather dramatically, but probably for the best in the end, much as I would have liked to see the gang. And we’ll reschedule anyway.

I don’t know when exactly this happened, but I have realized in the last few years that, as much as I’m an extrovert, I am also definitely someone who needs time alone. Time where I can go to the gym, clean my house, run my errands, and I don’t say more than “thank you” to the person checking me out at the grocery store over the course of the entire day. Where I can have a day or two when no one needs anything from me or wants anything from me and I can get my head together, or let my brain unwind. I often feel guilty for taking this time, which I think is the combined result of being a people-pleaser and some residual FOMO (“fear of missing out”), a teenage and early-adult affliction that I seem to be getting over fairly well. And, clever acronyms aside, there’s also a genuine desire to be there for the people who are important to me. However, I’ve noticed that it’s a lot easier for me to happily volunteer my time and energy for things, and it’s a lot easier for me to be the kind of person I want to be, if I take this time. So that’s kind of the ever-present conflict – I can’t ever say “no” because I feel as though I’m being unreliable/irresponsible/uncaring if I do, but in order to be the kind of person who really can be reliable/responsible/caring, I really should say “no” from time to time.

And I don’t know anyone else like that, either.

Um…yeah.

So, before the triathlon, there will be the 5K that my friend E and I have decided to run. (As I’ve mentioned, I need goals.) I’ve done one before, but I’ve slipped a lot. Currently, I can run 1.5 – 2 miles (depends on the day), and I run approximately a 10-minute mile. No, that’s not terribly impressive, but I used to have a very strict rule that I didn’t run unless someone was chasing me, so this is a marked improvement. Especially when you take the joint problems into account. I can swim a mile, but it takes me an embarrassingly long 40 minutes, and I can make it through an entire spinning class, but I don’t know how that breaks down into times and speeds. I suppose that first up on my training regimen goals should be getting my running up to snuff – i.e. 3.5 miles, preferably at a 10-minute mile or less. (I’d prefer to work up to the distance right now and improve my speed later.)

We’ll see how we do with this. Because as much as I really want to do this, I’d also like a pony. Who’s to say which is more realistic at the moment?