16th Birthday

"We're buying these party hats for people...not a cat," I said overly loudly to my wife as we walked through the dollar store, giggling helplessly.  "No one would buy party hats for a cat.  Who would do such a thing?"

Yesterday was Higgy the cat's 16th birthday, and since he's been diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, it's in all likelihood his last birthday, so we decided to make a really big deal of it to celebrate the life of our weird, furry, treasured friend.

I can't say that Higgy did not hate his race-car themed party hat, but he did enjoy tuna, cake, and ice cream.  Not all at once...of course.  That's just gross.

Higgy's favorite part of the party was probably that the kittens were not invited.

Too Busy to Run (Again)

("run less, feed moar" says Pooka.)

I'm still in a little bit of a running funk right now.  Real life is kicking my butt lately and I think the really tough month of work ahead will make it hard to get the miles in that I would like to in June.  School's out soon, so that means my normal routes starting from the high school become less-trafficked to run in the morning.  Great, but it's hard to get up and run in the morning if I'm up working till 2am the night before.

That's what happened this week.  I ran 5 miles on Monday morning, the miles I'd gotten in after my zero-mile week, and then work just took over my whole week again and I didn't run again until a hilly 6-miler this morning.  

I know my job is more important than running, at least until I start winning big races and taking home huge cash prizes and racking up sponsorships and endorsements.  So yeah, my job will always be more important than running.  And luckily, I'm better at it.  I'm sure with harder training I could be much faster than I am.  I think I could even get to Boston.  I don't think there's a chance in hell that I could be fast enough to earn a living as a runner.  I'm mediocre-to-good now and could probably train myself up to above average at best, which is not going to win lots of big races.  I've been told I'm very, very good or even great at my job.


But still...running IS important and I need to make time for it.  I spend hours every day (and well into the night, lately) sitting and staring at my computer screen while I write very very very very very very important things!!!!  (Not this blog!)  While I do so, I probably snack more than I should, especially when I'm stressed.  If I want to avoid looking like Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons (Worst. Character. Ever.), I need to keep pounding the pavement and get back in the weight room.


I also need the stress-relief that it brings.  I think I started running to drop a few pounds and get in better shape.  Now, I run to keep out the darkness -- to fight stress and feel better about myself.  When every workday is a quagmire of ASAP deliverables, my stress level goes through the roof.  I need that 30-60 minutes where I can turn my brain off, listen to crappy punk rock, and not be able to do a thing about any of my projects.  And even though I think I'm very, very good at what I do, it still stresses me out, and I've found that running's given me something outside that arena to be proud of myself for.  "Yeah, but I ran (insert number of miles here) this morning."

I've rambled long enough.  I need to do better and here is my goal:  Counting a week from Monday to Sunday, like dailymile, I am going to run 15 miles next week and 20 miles every other week in June.  I don't care if I'm running them at 3am or in the hottest part of the day, I will get those miles in.  I'm not going to be able drop 100-mile months all summer like I did last year, but I think I can do a better in my road back to being at least the runner that I was a year ago.