my shins still hurt

Once you get a taste of spring, it's hard to go back! On Saturday, I realized how gorgeous it was outside and decided to...(pause for effect)...go for a run. This is a rare and glorious occurrence for me.

Rare though it may have been for me, it was not a unique idea. All of Columbia was out. The bike paths were so crowded that there was always someone around when I stopped running and started to walk. No shame in it, though. Any amount of running is a step up for me. I simply cannot stress this enough.

Anyway, I went from my house in Macgill's (spelling corrected from last time) to Elkhorn and around it. It was an amazing day! I was passing hordes of people in winter coats next to a frozen lake as I stripped down to my tank top, and I never got cold. I was just so happy - that feeling you get from the changing of the seasons when you realize you had forgotten what spring really was.

other simple pleasures of the trip:

• being completely unencumbered by purses, car keys, phones, and cards of any kind
• seeing the ducks and geese congregating in the few melted areas on the lake's surface
• seeing all the multiracial Columbia couples, young and old
• walking on the ice (I would have gone out further if there weren't so many people who would have seen me inevitably crack it and fall in a little.)
• just sitting in the sun by myself...until I felt like moving

One small step for being healthy, one giant leap away from the numbness of winter.