Post, Briefly (does that make it a postcard? or a post-screen?)

So I should be sleeping, as I told a friend I had to skip a movie this evening to go to bed early. I appreciated the invite but was in my PJs and "ahhh... home" mode before 7, and there generally is no going back after that time o' night arrives. Well, trouble is that the new friend lives about a block away. Granted, I would not walk to her place in my PJs, as it's about a five-minute walk. But sorry, new friend or old friend, unless I'm on vacation with ya and sharing a room anyway, PJs do not make public appearances.

Shout-out to my most impressive blogger friend APK, whose blog puts this writer to shay-yame. Wow, pics, ital, crossed-out humor and even running knitting commentary to boot! I love it.

And now for the (literal) running update. Should've run today, although I ran yesterday for 53:30, even making it to minute 30 (instead of the usual 25) when my knees started their twinges. I was running a loop, so after two laps counter-clockwise, I got the genius idea of turning around and running clockwise, which my knees were happy about. Who knew I leaned so much in one direction around a mile-long loop?! go figure.

So anyway, that's my update. Oh, and I think I'm finally past 10 percent of my fundraising goal for the race. I would LOVE to be at 50 percent by August 5, the recommitment date. Yeah... I am not meant to raise funds. I am meant for doing work at bake sales and car washes and stuff, not asking people to give the actual cash. sigh.

But I am determined. I WILL go to this race AND cross the finish line, even if it's dark out and I'm broke b/c I had to pay the other 90 percent of the fees myself (and yes, that would really break me, but as of August 5 I will have to surrender a credit card to commit to the rest of it).

Oh, for the world to see, here's my spiel: "I am raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by taking part in the Nike Women's Half-Marathon through Team in Training, and I need your support! :-) I invite you to visit my Team in Training website [site removed following conclusion of race] (and check in on my progress, too!) and help me kick cancer's butt!"

It's a good cause. My friend Tony, the healthiest, fittest guy known to me, was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago on June 14. He returned to work a year later, after 11 months of some nasty, nasty chemo treatments. His diagnosis freaked me out more than my own mother's breast cancer did. After all, she was not healthy, nor young (sorry, Mother ... as if I'd ever give hher this URL!) nor without a family history of cancer -- including, apparently, a grandmother and great-grandmother who died from breast cancer. (Yay for my genetics, huh?) But Tony was incredibly healthy. I had just finished *finally* taking my health seriously and was becoming, well, a bit lax in the exercise department after having lost a LOT of weight. News of Tony's illness was the biggest wakeup call ever. If such a healthy guy could not evade cancer, where did that leave ME?! Gulp. So I'm running, maybe Forrest Gump-style, to try to vent my frustration about the unfairness of life's curveballs and to try to reclaim my health once and for all. Life is too d@%^ short, ya know?

Yeah, so much for a short post. This blogging stuff is addictive! :-)

My blogging goal -- a gratitude attidue whenever possible. Definitely periwinkle thoughts to affirm the author. Hard to explain, periwinkle thoughts, but they're most definitely good things, in all forms of the definition. :-)

(I'm tempted to write "And now you know MORE!" Heh -- guess I just did. :-) )