So fast...

Finally. Today felt like summer. It was steamy even in the shade. I'm loving it.

Summer sneaked up on me, as did my recent birthday, and so many other things, that a recap is impossible. But I have some random thoughts, and wanted to keep up the habit of keeping up with writing in this space...

I'm up to running 7.5 miles now, fairly comfortably. I'm saving the last half-mile for later. I'm still at a 10-min.-mile, and would like to chip away at that time before I add more distance. But knowing that I definitely could run the 8-mile path around the island is a huge mental boost to accomplish my goals. I'm amazed at what the body can do.

I will have to breeze through older posts to see when I started running, but I think it was just the beginning of this month! And I was hurting after 2 miles! That's awesome gain on distance, despite a knee that would give me problems, the occasional cigarette (rare, but yes, at times) and late night/early morning parties.

I feel gross the day after drinking, (rare, but yes, at times) so running it out feels very cleansing. And reminds me of college (the first time I ever drank, and had rowing practice at 6am in the morning!) when coach would just laugh at me and shout "SWEAT IT OUT O'DONNELL". It really does work. But it hurts like hell.

How is it possible to run that much? I have no idea. I didn't think I could do it at all, so now I'm stuck with running faster, which I love to do. I like to sprint the last 1/2 mile, it is such a rush. I'm in the zone, and my legs feel like I can't stop going. And when I do stop, they feel like jell-o.

Shift of topic: Today during dinner one of the guys commented on the rudeness of French people, then the conversation shifted to how foreigners complain about the USA too much because we're "better than them." Ok, I could no longer let this slide, so I piped up about the lack of our health care system, our not so good (to put it nicely) president, and a few other points as to why the rest of the world may not "like the USA."

Poor kid was kinda quiet after that. I feel bad for not being able to articulate more on the topic, and frustrated that ignorance is still abound. I basically left the conversation by saying "others probably have a problem with our ATTITUDE the most..."

I mean, what does our country have to OFFER the world, really? Sleazy Hollywood stories, lots of obese people, marital affairs and divorce? We're really good at all of those. No wonder the dollar is crap right now, what are we selling that the world at large needs? Oil? Food?

I have limited knowledge of these matters, and should not even mention them. But I have lived abroad, in places where the USA is loved and hated. Passionately hated.

And I totally understand why.