Resuming my Routine

Time of departure: 3:45pm. Which would be 10:45pm in Italy. And it's now 8pm here so jet lag is catching up with me.
Temperature: I didn't check. But I'm guessing it was in the 60s.

Route: The usual lakefront route.
Approx Distance: 5-ish miles
Running buddy: Alan Watts. :) Matt had to work or something. And he's dumping me for his bicycle buddy tomorrow morning.
Clothing: T-shirt and athletic pants.

The Drive Activity: I didn't notice.
Dog beach Activity: Quite a bit of activity.
People tally: Lots of people out and about. I didn't count them. I seem to have lost interest in counting. Runners, walkers, cyclists, rollerbladers, people sitting by the lake, people with dogs, people on the montrose hill with kites, people playing soccer.

What did I eat pre-run? Nothing intentionally, but I had eaten.
How did I feel? Good. Better than expected, really, considering how long it has been. Maybe all the walking on Roman cobblestones and hills and stairs did something. My knees felt a little squeaky after 3 or 4 miles. Too much pasta and gelato in Rome. Yes, you read that right. I learned to like pasta. The trick? Eat it with wine. Pasta is good with wine. Anne and I figured it out when we were in Florence. But anyhow, I have to watch my food intact for awhile.
What do I like about running? I like the routine of it. Sort of like an old reliable friend.
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I love traveling. Make no mistake, I do. But I love coming home. I love loving to come home. Sri Lanka was the rare exception (and I'm still not sure what to make of that) when I really didn't want to come home, when I actually considered, what would happen if I just didn't get on the plane. But whatever would have happened didn't happen. 30 hours later I was back here with happy memories, a confused heart, and an interesting story.

But Rome wasn't like that, thankfully. Italy was a good trip in that I spent some awesome time with my sister and her boyfriend, learned some interesting facts, saw some amazing art and architecture, gained some insight into myself (life, history, culture, religion, spirituality, family, priorities, etc), found a TV show that makes me laugh and that I can knit to (The Office), and... Yea. It was good. Nothing emotionally upheaving and it was grounding even.

So now I'm home and my calender is open and it feels wonderful, in that sense of standing on a mountain in Colorado and breathing in that crisp sparse air they've got out there. I feel a sense of freedom with my relative absence of commitments. In my book I have scheduled 3 concerts and 2 plays in the next month or so but that's it. No classes scheduled (yet, anyhow), no trips to plan, no obsessions to feed -- oh it feels wonderful. I'm looking forward to unpacking my toiletry bag and putting it up for an indefinite period of time. Until Anne and Jamie and I and our siblings go camping, perhaps? But hanging out with them is the opposite of stressful. And since I know how Anne likes to camp, planning that will not be stressful. Oh, the many joys of sisterhood.

I feel like I've gained some real insight into life, into my life, in the past year and I just want to revel in it. I want to chew on it like a wine connoisseur to experience all the flavors and subtleties. If I do too much now I'll miss out on digesting everything I've experienced, and it'll all be for naught. Like when lifting weights, it's on the rest day your muscles rebuild; I need a period of introversion, a period of cultivating the creative part of me, a time of practicing expression.

What I do have on the books is my first triathlon in June. This is good. This is exciting. This is not stressful and it gives me some direction. Which means that despite Matt's unavailability, I went running. And I ran a complete route and the whole time even. I feel pretty good about myself.

What do I want to say about the run itself?

It was sunny. The sky was cloudless and a deep blue that contrasted beautifully with the yellow brick of my building, I noticed upon my return home, and on the lakefront complimented the green of the grass. Jet lag has arrived so this'll be it for tonight. Except I did notice that many of the tiny leaves on the trees in the courtyard of my building appear brown and burned. Was it the cold spell that occurred while I was gone? How is that going to affect the life of the deciduous trees? I hope they make it through okay.