Today was one of those days where I just didn’t want to get out of bed. I stayed up late last night to watch Halloween and when the alarm went off at 4 a.m., I felt the unmistakable tickle of a sore throat. Oh man, how I groaned. BUT, I tossed myself into the shower and managed to get myself on the road.
The walk from the car to my office was frigid! I mean, we are talking 39 degrees and by California standards, that is damn near freezing. I got it into my head that I couldn’t possibly walk in this cold. I already had a throat tickle and walking in the cold air would just make it worse. By the time I got to my office, I had convinced myself to skip the walk. I mean, it’s so easy to do. Just skip it. No one would know and I’d save myself from getting a nasty cold.
With all of this going on in my head, I decided to change my clothes “just in case” I changed my mind about the walk. I added a scarf for warmth and did some stretches, telling myself that I will stretch first and then decide. Then, I set my fitness app and decided that if it didn’t get a good signal right off the bat, then that would be a sign to stay in today. The signal registered as POOR so then I took a few more steps out into the frigid weather and then got a FAIR. I took a few more steps and got a GOOD so I kept walking.
I decided to take my normal route, but in reverse.
Taking my normal route, in reverse, should not be a problem. It’s the same distance but normally I start off up hill and this of course meant I started off down hill and within 10 minutes, I had shin splints.
Plus, I had a horrific wedgie because guess what? I put my pants on backwards. Tagless clothing is the ultimate in comfort, but not when you can’t tell which way your damn pants go.
So there I was, limping WITH a wedgie. It did not make for a comfortable walk and in fact, I think I bitched the entire way. It was HARD. I felt weak and uncoordinated and could not wait for the darn thing to be over. How could it get any worse?
I’ll tell you how. I almost got run over by the ROTC guys that blew past me. I see them regularly but with this being a reverse route and all, I don’t think they expected to see me as they rounded a turn, so I quickly jumped out of the way and slipped in the mud. I didn’t fall, but my shoes were soaked and the next few steps afforded me ZERO traction so it was one of those floundering, “I am gonna fall” moments.
It wasn’t pretty.
Of course, I was really limping after that so when the end of the route loomed, happiness flooded over me in waves. I could take these wet shoes off, take my backward pants off, have coffee and be WARM. Happiness. Pure happiness. As sucky as the morning was, I am glad that it happened this way because looking back, I have had a lot of really good mornings and now I will appreciate them just a little bit more.