Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
Central Park East - 7:00am

Good morning!  Neither Sofie nor my most flattering shots but what the hell - it's indicative of the morning. 

Warm and humid when we left today.  Well - I suppose I should start even earlier than this.  When my alarm went off at 6am, I immediately turned over and reset it for 6:45am.  "Just 45 more minutes!  So tired!  I don't have to be at lab by 8:30! What's so bad about 9 or 9:30??"  Then Ben Franklin's old adage that my Dad always used to say to Sarah and I popped into my head, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a [wo]man healthy, wealthy, and wise."  Get up.  

Like I mentioned, it was humid and warm.  Sky was dark & ominous.  "Oh it'll just drizzle."  At first, it was a pleasant, refreshing rain.  Not a drizzle - actual raindrops - small & charming.  Nobody was out.  I was very much enjoying it until the apex of the walk (the point on the backside of the Great Lawn - far as possible away from the entrance I come in at).  Downpour.  "Well, I can't turn back now - might as well just enjoy it."  Enjoy it I did, until my pants got so soaked that they were dragging down.  Sofie was loving it - running into the tall grass - rubbing her face around in it.  Darting here and there chasing birds & squirrels.  The rain gets her very rambunctious.  I kind of get why, too.  There's something about the rain that always makes me kind of giddy.  I feel the same way about snow & sleet. 

Some of my best runs have been in the middle of summertime thunder-boomers, and one particular one I loved was during a sleeting mess at around 9pm in January.  There's something about the chaos and the elements that make you feel more alive.  Hands down the most beautiful run I ever went on was last summer - right before we left Manayunk to come here to NYC.  Early August.  HOT.  Left around 7pm.  As I ran, the sky became green, blue, black, yellow, purple - I watched it over the Skyulkill River.  Churning clouds.  Huge crashes of thunder.  Stripes of lightening - you know, that East Coast summer lightening that comes in veins instead of flashes.  Then it absolutely downpoured - and cooled me the hell off.  Sometimes I feel a little crazy running in rainstorms - sort of like when Lieutenant Dan came to visit Forrest Gump on the shrimpin' boat and went up to the top of the mast during the Hurricane and hooted & hollered until it was over.

Anyway....time to get ready for work now.  We should get 4 week pictures of the puppies today, so hopefully I'll be able to post them tomorrow. 

Have a great day!