All week I have been lazy. Physically, I feel fine, I’m not sick or in pain. Just being lazy. Last night I stayed up very late talking on the phone with my new special friend. Yes, I like that, I’ll call him a “special friend.” We’ve had one date. He met me downtown on my break and took me to lunch since he often works the night shift. I decided to be myself and not a fake 1st date version of myself. And guess what? We actually clicked. He has a great sense of humor and was quite the gentleman. So, I’ll keep you posted! …Anyway, since I didn’t get a lot of sleep, I felt like I got hit by a bus this morning when I got out of bed. But, I figured part of the reason I was feeling so busted was because I haven’t worked out since the Sista Strut walk on Saturday. Isn’t that terrible? It’s like my body was begging to get moving again. I made a promise to myself that no matter how tired I was when I got home, I was going to work out. It was a gorgeous day, and I planned on going to walk in the park, but Fall is here already, and the sun starts to set shortly after I get off work. So, I picked up my little sister and we headed to the gym. We walked 2 miles around the track as she talked about the stress of Senior year in high school, and I gushed about my special friend. Now that I’m home, I actually feel more energetic than I felt all day. Sometimes, instead of fighting the gym, we should actually stand up and fight lazy. Once you do, you’ll feel so much better.
P.S. Rest in Peace Steve Jobs (Apple Genius)…my workout would not be the same without my iPod.
This post going to be super quick! After work, I came home, got Nyah and went to the park for a walk. It was so nice outside. A breezy 73 degrees. It was wonderful. I did a 30 minute walk, and I even ran for a few minutes. Beyonce’s “Countdown” song was playing in my ear, and I felt good that I had motivated myself to work out despite my long to-do list.
I recorded my Book review video for the South Beach Diet, and hopefully, I can have it edited and posted tomorrow. Later!
I went to church this morning. My mother and another member of the board asked me to assist with the church walk-a-thon. Of course you know that’s right up my ally. I had about 20 people to sign up after church. I even scheduled two group training sessions before the walk on September 24. That’s not really enough time to train, but I’m working with the date they chose. After church, I went to the gym, but I went pretty late. My 10K training schedule indicated that I should complete 3.5 miles today. However, I was only able to complete about 2.7 miles on the treadmill before the gym closed. I was reading The South Beach Diet 
book as I walked on the treadmill. It’s a very easy read, and I almost read the whole book in one day. I actually learned a lot, and I’m going to do a video book review soon. I walked until the security guard came and put me out because the gym was closed. I was going to walk the last mile or so outside the gym, but I got lazy, and there was this weird old guy sort of following me around. He got beside me on the treadmill, and told me to have a happy holiday, at least 3 times in 5 minutes. Is Labor Day even a real holiday? … Then he was following right behind me as I walked outside. I realize now that he might be kind of “special,” but I felt more comfortable just going home.
On Thursday, I was supposed to walk 25 minutes. However, I did not sleep well Wednesday night. So, by the time I got home from work on Thursday evening I was exhausted. I realized that meant I would have to come home and walk on Friday night, but I was just that tired and willing to do that. Friday after work, Nyah and I went for a quick walk in Forest Park. I came across the most interesting little creek. There were these strange plant-like things growing out of the water. There were so many of them, it looked like they went on for miles. I snapped a quick picture with my cell phone, because I hadn’t really seen anything like it before. I was chatting on my cell, getting updates on my niece, while talking to my Big Little sister, and I was finished with 30 minutes before I realized it.
Today, the schedule called for 3 miles. I have not walked 3 miles in a while. My little sister came over after church, and we set out on a mission to find the tree within the tree… (Again) Apparently, she said that Tuesday was not the first time that we were supposed to look for the tree within the tree. I reminded her again that it was not that exciting, but I decided to participate anyway. We walked about a mile before we got to the sign pointing towards the tree within the tree.
This time however when we got to the fork in the road we went right instead of left. “Do you think we will find it she asked?” I told her we probably would, but that I honestly could not remember where it was. Soon after, we arrived at the mysterious magical amazing tree within a tree. Can you sense my sarcasm?
She looked at the small bare tree within the large hollow decaying tree and stared. “I don’t get it!” she exclaimed sounding confused. I just laughed; I told her it was nothing but a dead tree. However, the tree did look like that it had been struck by lightning at some point. Now, it’s glory days are over. We walked closer and saw that there was an unknown white powder sprinkled round the base of the hollow tree, as well as pieces of cloth and a small frog-like a statue. I suppose the old Osage Indian tree means something to someone. Then, after further inspection she said in a voice almost as if she had been bamboozled, “it looks man-made.” I read the plaque that was closer to the path in front of the tree, and it said that the smaller tree was planted in the hollow tree around 2004. We got a good laugh, as we both had assumed that the smaller tree had naturally grown within the hollow tree. “Oh well” she said, ”at least we found it.”
Since today was a 3 mile day, I let her lead the way, and we continued along the gravel path instead of heading back towards the car. We continued to walk through the woods. She said “this is pretty cool”, to which I replied it reminds me of the crime scene. And she too had to admit that when she heard stories of girls being chopped up in the woods, her first reaction is “what were you doing out there anyway?” So, in good fun, she pulled out her iPod Touch and begin filming a video, just like they do in the scary movies. She said maybe the rescuers would find her iPod to explain what we were doing walking alone in the woods. LOL! We were both laughing so hard at our foolishness, knowing that were weren’t in any real danger. I told her she forgot to tell Mom and Dad Thanks, and that we love them. Luckily, the gravel path turned back into pavement and we were soon near the picnic grounds with family reunions, church picnic’s and birthday parties. We survived the treasure hunt in the woods part 2 without being eaten by some animal or running into any crazies hiding amongst the trees. We must not have been in there as long as I thought, because we still had more than a mile to go. My lower back was hurting a little bit but I was glad that physically I wasn’t out of breath or tired. We walked around the back side of the zoo, and peeked through the fence to get a glimpse of the zebras.
We could have walked through the zoo, but I’m pretty sure that my dog Nyah would not have been allowed. After climbing the giant Hill and heading around the east side of the zoo, we made it back to the car safe and sound. We city girls, found the tree, survived the man made forest, and walked just over 3 miles, mission accomplished!
My little sister joined me on my walk in the park today. She came out of the house wearing her family reunion t-shirt that we got down in Mississippi. Coincidently, I had on mine too. We both laughed at the thought of how silly we would look walking through the park in matching t-shirts looking like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. …Oddly enough, Me and my Big Little Sister frequently have on the same style clothes and the same colors, almost every time we see each other and it’s never planned. Sometimes we try to outsmart the other, and we change clothes so we won’t be dressed alike and still end up looking like we planned to coordinate. When I talked to her on the phone before my friend’s b-day party the other weekend, she said, I know we won’t be dressed alike. But, when she walked out of the house, we both had ruffle shirts, cute ripped jeans and black studded flip-flops. Isn’t that strange?! … But, this was a first for the Me and my Little Sis. Anyway, once we got to Forest Park, she said she wanted to see the Historic Tree within a Tree site. I told her it wasn’t that interesting the first time I ran across it. But, she still wanted to see it. I reminded her that I saw the tree during my Half Marathon training, and that I had no idea how deep in the woods the little tree really was. I couldn’t even remember exactly where it was, and wasn’t planning on a six mile Treasure hunt on a Tuesday evening to find a dead tree. We walked toward the mini forest that was totally green and full of life, it was the complete opposite of the barren trees during my winter training.
When we got to a fork in the unpaved road nearly hidden with plant life, I went left, back towards the car. It was hot, and I had stuff to do at home. After a few minutes we realized the tree must be the other way. She turned around. I did not go back, and I told her to meet me at the car. I knew she wouldn’t stay in the scary forest by herself, especially since it would be getting dark sooner rather than later. A few minutes later, she wasn’t too far behind me with a pouty face because we didn’t find the hidden treasure. However, I on the other hand was satisfied. When I got back to the car, I had walked for 45 minutes, 20 minutes past my goal. Yay! I’ve earned another Pink X.
