Letting yourself suck

Daily Stats:
Words: huh?
Caffeine: morning cup so far
Evil Calories: four hundred pounds of sushi for dinner last night.
Reality TV: (there's something new on, but sleepy, overly-sushi'd brain can't remember what it is)

So, on Saturday morning, I woke up nice and early, before it got hot as crap outside, and went for a 4 mile run. Yes, I've become one of those people. So there I was, trucking along, and suddenly I caught sight of my shadow. For a second, I thought it was someone else. It couldn't be me. The shadow wasn't doing a drunk-waddle. The shadow was actually running. At a pretty good clip, I might add. I blinked, slapped myself in the face and looked again. Sweet mother of crap, it was me! I looked totally bad-ass.

And that's when I started getting all deep and introspective, trotting along there in my Nike's listening to that new Madonna/Justin Timberlake song (I'm so ashamed). I had to let myself suck at this for a while. I had to ignore my pathetic waddle (and the fact that elderly people with canes often passed me on the sidewalk) and just keep going. And look at me now. All Chariots of Fire and stuff.

Interesting, no? Perhaps the reason some people shy away from trying new things is because they can't deal with that initial sucky phase. But I think there's something warm and fuzzy about that sucky phase. If anything, it makes the eventual non-sucky phase that much better.

On a totally different subject, my mom is coming into town today. It's funny living far away from your parents because you forget their little day-to-day quirks. For instance, when I'm driving with my mom, she reads every sign she sees out loud. I have no idea why. "No left turn" signs, "Caution: bridge may be icy" signs. But she says it in a very Romper Room sort of way. "Hmmmm....kill or injure a worker and get a $70,000 fine and 15 years in prison. Oooooh.....mmmm, hmmmmm....."