SO SICK

Dear blog,

sorry i have ignored you so. I am really really sick. as soon as I get better I will begin writing to you daily again.

100 words…blisters

Blisters are the runners enemy. The ones that burn red hot behind your sock on the soft skin of your heel. Or the ones that move in to the space between your toes rubbing with every pounding step. Bright and round the blisters love to grow only because you love, because you need, to run. You stick band-aids and paste tape and pray that the blisters subside but they answer to nothing. Running, running, they love the rubbing of your skin against sock pressed into your sneaker and you are begging, begging that they would stop, go away or damn it. Just pop.

100 words a day…transition

I am the kind of person that likes everything to stay the same. I know a lot of people say that they hate change but I really mean it. I love routines. I love listening to songs on repeat for hours on end. I love eating the same thing for breakfast, the same thing for lunch, and the same thing for dinner every day. I love knowing that I will wake up the next morning and do it all the same all over again. I understand that sometimes change can be a good thing but there’s no harm in a little consistency.

100 words a day…wednesday

Wednesdays in high school were always the best weekday because we only had a half day of class. We had class until lunch time and then we had the afternoon off to attend athletic events. My favorite time was in the winter when I would have ski races. I would usually have three or four classes in the morning and then go to ski all afternoon. There was always a nervous excitement in the van to the slopes. I think I loved ski racing because it always scared me. A lot of the confidence I have now I gained from finishing all of those races.

Home Again

I am back from New Orleans and about to catch up on some 100 words. I can’t believe that I head back to school tmrw to start spring semester!

100 words a day…Mardi Gras

You can feel the energy in the streets. It is flowing through the veins of the people and across the power lines down into the cracks of the streets. The air is thick sweat. People packed to touch. A float rolls through the street, energy explodes. Popping out the veins it bursts through the air and out fingertips. The energy blows out mouths screaming to be given recognition. People just like to be noticed. Attention. Given. Taken. Recieved. Energy feels fast and ebbs and flows with the floats. It pools in droplets of sweat roll down your neck like beads.

100 words a day…victory

I get that feeling when I am running. It exists in the moments when you really don’t want to finish that last mile. You are tired and your legs are aching and you feel how easy it would be to just push that red stop button on the tredmil and give up. You are the only one watching. But if you deny your hand its desire to make the belt roll slow to stop and you let your feet keep flying forward you can feel it. It is ectasy, pure happiness; you run the last few feet. Pounding. Panting. Victory.

100 words a day…standard

We go sailing in the summers and I love when my older brother and his friends can be on the boat with us. One summer they all started using the word standard. They all started to use it to express the usual or what they expected. So if you woke and up in the morning and said “wow I’m hungry!” one of them would reply “standard”. I think it is a sort of nice way of agreeing with someone and I also think it’s interesting to think about how words evolve to be used different ways in our everyday language.

Got to a computer!!

I am here in New Orleans and I luckily got to use a computer so I am going to catch up on some 100 words! New Orleans is an amazing place. I have never been down south before and it is very exciting to be seeing such a great place! Mardi Gras ended yesterday with Fat Tuesday. I had no idea how many beads were really involved with this holiday until I witnessed Mardi Gras first hand. We went to a bunch of parades and during the parades people on huge floats throw out beads and toys. The streets are packed with people and as the float goes by everyone yells and throws their hands up for beads. The beads aren’t worth money and aren’t super fancy but there is something about them that makes everyone go crazy to get them! It is so hard to explain the lure of the beads but everyone just tries to collect as many as they can. It is crazy to think about what happens to all of the beads after Mardi Gras each year. My friend who rode on one of the floats said that they do not re-use the beads but that they are brand new each year. So every year people buy thousands and thousands of dollars worth of beads and then throw them on the streets to people. These beads then probably end up in people’s attics or in the trash and all over the streets. The city is an absolute mess after all of the parades. And all of the money and cleaning just for a bunch of plastic beads…. But I have to say; I wanted to catch the beads too! I don’t think I can fully understand it; while it seems like an immensely wasteful holiday I absolutely love it.

Daily Blog and Going Away

Well I leave for New Orleans in the morning so I don’t think I will be able to post for about a week. If I can get to a computer then I will post but if not then be excited for all of the stories I will collect along the way!!