A Chance Encounter and Kisses

Let's start at the very beginning. That's a very good place to start (or so I hear). Anyway, on Thursday afternoon, I stopped by Gary Gribbles Running Sports in beautiful downtown Lawrence. My plan was to look around (because my parents had given me a $50 gift certificate for the store that I hadn't used yet), and then buy a gift certificate for my friend Terra who took up running this year, and who runs every day.

So there I was, looking around the store when I happened to glance up and see, none other than Terra standing next to me. The awkward conversation that followed went like this (It doesn't matter which of us is saying the lines):

"Hey, ummm.... so what are you doing here?"
"Me, oh, ummm... nothing... just looking around."
"Hmmmm... are you here buying a gift certificate for me?" (spoken in unison).
"Yes." (also spoken in unison).

So, figuring we were going to offset each other present-wise, we looked around the store a bit more and then spent the next couple of hours together. We marveled at the odds of running into each other at the same moment. But just spending time together turned out to be the best present we could give or receive.

Running this week was a bit of a bear. The cold nipped at my cheeks every time I stepped out the door. I used the new running gloves that my friends, Marisa and Chris had given me. I sweated through every piece of cold-weather running clothes I own. Runs were kept to 5 miles or less simply because breathing the cold air (while not asthma-inducing this time) was uncomfortable. The best run of the week came on Christmas morning. I felt great and added a mile to the 4 mile route I had planned to run. I didn't get into the zone, but never really needed to because I had a high amount of energy.

Finally, I saw a wonderful little movie this weekend. I rented a Scottish flick entitled Kisses. It follows the story of one day in the lives of a couple of children from (somewhat) abusive homes. I know it doesn't sound too promising from the description, but the story really is worth spending an hour and a half of your life viewing. If you like Bob Dylan, then the film will also appeal to your sensibility.

Until next week...