September 19

4.3 miles- With a great girl who is actually a professor at our university. She's a little faster than I am, so it's a good challenge to keep up with her.

Coming off of a break from running due to my full participation in Austin City Limits. I don't think it's ever a good idea to take more than 2 days off of running. I took 3 days off and it made yesterday and today harder than it had to be; I should have gone to run before we went to the festival.
The reason I didn't is that I am very adverse to driving, and having driven to Austin at all was an ordeal for me. It's the whole growing up in a town where 40mph was booking it, there were no mountains or curves to impede the view (and therefore you always could actually SEE what was coming at you....curves and hills really freak me out). That coupled with my being hit by a car while riding my bicycle a few years ago makes driving a very traumatic experience for me. In the eight years I've had my car, I've put about 40,000 miles on it, most of which were put there from driving to Dallas to visit my sister, various road trips to national parks/backpacking trips, or music festivals in various locales.

Anyhow, I hate driving, but especially hate driving where there are lots of other cars. I.E. Austin. I therefore did not feel comfortable driving from our seedy interstate motel downtown and back. I suppose that is no excuse, as I could have taken advantage of Austin's excellent public bus system (which we used to get to the festival) ....but I didn't. I should have. I will move forward from here.


I am loving my research project. I love my life right now....I wake up and read about things I find fascinating...I feel like I'm in a different world. The folks at the coffee shop get my mug ready for me before I even get to the front of the line because they know what I'm going to order. I know I'm in the right place in my life, because even if I wasn't getting a degree, I would be doing the same thing. That's a good place to be, living as you would want to even if you weren't 'getting something' for your efforts. Of course, you are getting something for your efforts, but not something material.

Speaking of...I've got to get to work!



OH the TOUR, the race for the cure, and the lubbock music festival is all this weekend. So exciting!