Five Things Friday - November 21

I had been planning to open this post with how excited I am that work is finally winding down and Thanksgiving is almost here, except work blew up in my face and Thanksgiving might as well be six months from now instead of six days. I tried to remind myself about my last post and how I should really cut myself some slack in all areas of my life, but instead I cried and ate bagels for dinner.

However, I'm trying to take my coworker's advice and not dwell on it, so let's jump right into my Five Things.

1. People at the allergist's office are very strange creatures.

This is some weird phenomenon at the allergist's, where random people seem to congregate in the waiting room like they're there for a shot, even though they're not. I don't know who enjoys waiting rooms so much they feel compelled to spend more time in them, but that special subset loves the practice I go to.

I go once a week, and there's always at least one pair of women that will gab it up for awhile and then just wander off. Other times, I will be the only one on the list to get my shot, but the waiting room will be packed.

But Wednesday this old lady took the cake. She brought in a grocery bag filled with bills and her checkbook. She then proceeded to go through them one by one and created a giant pile of trash on the floor around her as she went. Eventually she finished and left. Why was she there is the first place? That place is seriously the Twilight Zone or something.

This is a public place, not your kitchen table.

2. People on my running path can also be pretty strange.

When I was out doing my long run last weekend, I encountered a group of four runners. They were running in a pack coming towards me, and they barely made room for me, even though they acknowledged me. (The path can comfortably fit four people across, and five is pretty doable, so it's not like they needed to cram together.) I was pretty annoyed, but I (tried to) let it go, since I had a lot of miles ahead to save my energy for.

However, they turned around pretty shortly thereafter, so they came up behind me. One of them called out on your left, so I started to move to the right (I run more towards the middle to avoid the camber), when another called out on your right. They had dropped one person at this point, so they easily could've all run side by side and still passed me, so I don't know why they decided to split around me. I then had to see the lead instigator two more times, but I don't think he noticed my death glares.

3. I got selected for jury duty (again!).

Earlier this year I was notified I had been selected for Circuit Court (for my county), which I'm on call for in December. Earlier this week I checked my mail to find that District Court (for a group of counties, including mine) has summoned me for that same time frame. I've had my driver's license since my 16th birthday, so I've been in the jury pool since the day I turned 18, and I've never been summoned before, so I think it's hilarious that I got double-summoned when it finally happened! (I also will find it really stressful until my "hardship" waiver is approved.)

4. I got my credit card number stolen (for the first time!).

I got a call on my way back from the gym Tuesday asking about a charge to a dating site based out of France (obviously not mine). When we went through my pending charges, it turned out someone had signed up for several more dating websites with my card. I check my statement every month, but I'm so glad Capital One caught it right away and got it fixed immediately. (The charges were removed from my statement as soon as I said they were fraudulent.) I'm also glad thieves are stupid and tried spending my money on something very different from my normal charges.

5. Indoor tracks suck, but not as much as I remembered.

I should probably throw a running related item onto this list, since this blog is ostensibly about running. Details, details.

We got a few inches of snow Wednesday night, and the roads were in awful shape after being pre-salted, so I could only imagine what my running path would've been like without treatment. I would've rolled with it had it been an easy run, but I knew it was important to hit my tempo pace, so I put on my big girl shorts and went to the indoor track.

It took me quite awhile to finally accept the indoor track last winter, because 12 laps to a mile is mind-numbingly awful (though still less awful than the treadmill!). I was dreading my return, remembering how terrible it had been. But it surprisingly was much better than I expected. I use my cheap Ironman watch as a lap counter, but keeping count in my head is very meditative and calming. It was just enough to keep myself from jumping over the railing.

As awful as Thursday was, I'm trying to focus on getting to the weekend and taking some time to hit the mental refresh button. As masochistic as it sounds, I'm pretty excited for my 20 miler as a way to release some stress. Please remind of this when I'm paralyzed on my floor Saturday afternoon.

True fact - it is impossible for me to overuse this picture.