Cravings

I eat rice everyday. Now don’t get me wrong, I love rice, but I’m starting to crave a big ‘ol baked potato, maybe with some flank steak on the grill, or perhaps pesto pasta or… No, this isn’t productive, must stop craving what cannot be.

Having a week off from the lab has given me lots of time to read, think, and reflect. I’m not quite ready to distill these thoughts down into blog form yet but in the future I hope to; until then you’ll just have to wait☺

About an hour ago I was going stir crazy and decided to go for a run. Right out the front gate I ran into Douglas (one of my guard buddies) we chatted a bit until duty called him away; I took off with no real direction in mind. My calves felt like overstretched rubber bands, still not recovered from a 4.5-mile run on Monday with Dimas. He, Dimas that is, has convinced me that I should join him for a 10K race in the Parque La Carolina in November. I guess my first “training run” (read, sufferfest) was a bit overambitious, as although I’ve been biking a fair bit I haven’t run 4.5 miles continuously in probably a decade. Thus, three days later, I still feel as if someone has soundly beaten my legs with a baseball bat. Ok, back to the run.

I found myself heading for Gringolandia and decided to stop by the Fulbright office, I had a question but more just to say hi. Karen was able to help me with the pregunta (my monthly update reports can be in Spanish or English – I’ll stick with English, at least for the first few) and then I dropped by Susana’s office. She seemed to have some time to chat and I sure did so we did just that; and it was great.

My run back was rather uneventful until I hit our street and ran into Carlos (another guard). I hadn’t seen him in a few days and it was nice to catch up. I know this is a long way off, but already I can see that I’m going to miss a lot of people when I leave. It’s amazing what a quick run and a few conversations can do to improve ones day.