when i woke up at 7 a.m. this morning, it was raining and cold outside. not exactly the thing i needed to inspire me to get up, get dressed, drive 35 miles to dublin, california and run in their st. patrick’s day 5k. especially since i haven’t been running in two weeks now because of visiting friends and mounds of schoolwork that kept me busy from dawn to midnight.
but i did it anyway. 32:07, my fastest 5k yet! by june, i’ll definitely be running sub-30:00, no problem, if i keep this up. i really feel that i am already in much better shape than i was at the beginning of this quarter, and know that i’ll only get better. 🙂
on the way back from the race, i was the recipient of a random act of kindness, and it has left me quite happy with the world in general. to get to dublin, i had to go across the bay, which means crossing one of the many bridges. i headed across the dumbarton bridge, happy as could be. of course, i completely forgot to think about the fact that there might be a toll on my way home, because the freaking bridges in this area only charge tolls one way. (which, i know, is nice of them not to get you both going and coming, but it confuses me nonetheless when i can cross one way without paying because i inevitably forget that i might have to pay on the way back.)
anyway, the signage approaching the bridge was bad, and i didn’t realize that yes, indeed, there was a toll for westbound traffic until i was 300 yards from the toll booth with no way of exiting the highway. i didn’t even have $2 on me–all i had was 6 dimes and a handful of pennies. i was hoping the toll guy would somehow be understanding, but of course he wasn’t. i explained that all i had was about 60 cents and hadn’t realized i would have to pay a toll because i’m not from around here and had never crossed this bridge. which is all true. he harassed me for not knowing that “all bridges have tolls, even the ones back east.” (which, for the record, is of course not true…the huge bridges i have crossed over the mississippi river in louisiana and also in st. louis, and the giant yellow bridge over the entrance to the port of houston are merely three examples of toll-free bridges.)
so he walked around to the front of my car to get my license plate number, but of course there was no plate there since my car is registered in north carolina, so, grumbling even more, he walked around to the back and was starting to take down my plate number when a white truck pulled up behind me and the driver called “i’ll pay her toll.” so the grumbling toll booth man waved me on, and i shouted “thank you!!” and now i am forever grateful to the mystery man in the white truck who paid my toll. nice to know that random acts of kindness do actually exist.
the moral of the story: strangers can be really great. oh, and always keep a few bucks stashed in your glovebox.
(11:13 p.m.)
sleepy. about to crawl into bed with my book and some hot tea. don’t have to get up for class tomorrow, and yet have this nagging feeling that i am forgetting something. this is perhaps one of the most disconcerting feelings of all. there is nothing in my planner. am currently trying to ignore nagging feeling. thinking about sitting outside tomorrow in my butterfly chair. if only the warm weather would return.
drafted my fantasy baseball team tonight, think it turned out pretty well. better than last year. my pitching won’t dominate as much, but my hitting should be much improved. notables i managed to snag for my team: curt schilling and chipper jones (keepers from last year’s team), barry bonds, matt morris, roberto alomar. solid relievers in keith foulke and trevor hoffman. biggest disappointment was that edgar got away with greg maddux in the 4th round (second round after we each took back our keepers), two picks before i was set to take him. boo. i wanted maddux back. maybe i’ll propose a trade.
crap. just remembered what i have to do tomorrow. turn in the final propulsion homework problem that was to be done via computer program. crap. poop. oh well. will do it in the morning.
