Posts Tagged ‘things that chap my hide’
This past holiday weekend was The Weekend of Eating Everything I See. Oh.my.God. We went Friday after work and had sushi and SAKE! I love sushi and I adore sake. Needless to say, I did not get my Friday run in. Saturday, we spent the day cleaning house and doing yard work — those 2 things are workouts in themselves. Sunday morning I awoke a wee bit sore and stiff. Sunday afternoon, we went to the Enzian Theater and watched A Single Man. We shared a bottle of brut cuvée and a large popcorn [supposedly prepared in a healthy manner -- HA!]. I had a herbivore sandwich with homemade chips and the SO had the spring greens salad. After the movie, we went outside to the Eden Bar and split an order of yucca fries [also supposedly prepared in a healthy manner -- double HA!]. The SO had a cosmo and I had a sidecar cocktail.
Monday, we went on a long bike ride around the neighborhood and surrounding areas in the morning. When we got home, we went grocery shopping. After that, I baked 3 dozen homemade oatmeal raisin pecan cookies for the SO’s brother. He chipped some bone in his back and it was pressing on his spinal column. He had surgery this week to remove the piece of bone that was causing the problem, but the numbness in his left leg is still bothering him. It will take time for the nerve and tissue to heal, but he’s still very down and worried that he won’t ever be back to his old self again. Considering he was thrown from a horse, it’s a miracle he isn’t paralyzed. So… we made cookies to make him feel better. After baking the cookies [we each ate 2 -- they were the size of a half dollar; I like to make them small so they're crispier], we decided to roast a chicken. We had broccoli and squash with that, and then I had some Ben & Jerry’s Fish Food ice cream!!! What a treat. 
So come Tuesday, I’m feeling slightly bloaty. I ran a little over 2.5 miles after work; I need to get back into a solid workout schedule again. I’m not training for any humongous race now, so I can just enjoy my runs, do some strength training twice a week and take it easy. During my run yesterday at about the 1.5 mile mark, a car drove by me in the opposite direction. Now I’ve been running along the streets up on the sidewalk ever since I began training for the Disney 1/2 marathon. So cars go by all the time in both directions and I pretty much ignore them and don’t notice anything about them. This one car however, apparently had as its driver a certain type of pubescent boy. This type of boy delights in trying to make other people feel badly. Why? I don’t know; I’ve never had the compulsion to purposely make someone feel badly.
Now for what is probably the first [and most likely not the last] sermon of this blog…
As Mr. Drive-by Adolescent goes by me while I’m running, he yells out the window, “You’re fat”. For a split second, I thought I misheard — actually I wanted to believe that I’d misheard. In response, I raised my right arm at a 90 degree angle and shot him the bird as I continued to run. It’s not that I was upset that he called me fat; in no universe, either here or any alternate one, could I be considered fat. Even if I were, that wouldn’t matter — at least I was out there. I was running and working out. And yet, this little shit chose to drive by and yell something like that. It pissed me off.
There are hundreds of women who are overweight or out of shape who daily make the decision to change their lives. Women, who have found the courage inside themselves to go out on what is pretty much public display so they can run and get into shape and become healthy. And this is what they run into: some little turd with nothing better to do than to yell something hateful at them. Every time I see one of these women – or men — out there running, sweating and knowing that they’re pushing past the pain and the fatigue to go just a little further, I say to myself, “you go” and I smile at them and give them a thumbs-up. I know how they’re feeling and I know how difficult it is to get out there and try to workout where everyone can see you; especially if you are overweight or out of shape.
Growing up, we were always told “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”. That, my friends, is BS. Words do hurt. Things people say — even those not intended to hurt — do matter to someone who is constantly reminded day-in and day-out that they are “less than”. Those who look in a mirror and don’t see someone they love; those who don’t have a good body image — they do hear what is said and those words do hurt.
This year, I told the SO that my only resolution [I usually don't make them] is to treat my feet better. Well, I’ve added one more thing to that list: I resolve to publicly support everyone I see out running, walking, jogging — whatever. Whether it’s a smile, a wave or a thumbs-up — they’ll know someone is cheering them on. More ideas on that as I think it through… I’d love to come up with a way for people in my community to have a safe, secure, hate-free zone in which to run while outside.
As for Mr. Drive-by Adolescent, I wish him no harm. However, I do wish him a rude awakening that turns his hateful behavior around and makes him a better person.
