Had my first bad allergy day 🙁 I knew it was soon approaching that time of year and have had random sneezes the last few days, but this afternoon and evening has been horrific. The meds I’m on (clarinex, claritin, and sudafed) are not helping one bit, and I just feel like crap. I forgot how much energy a single allergy attack takes from you. I took a nap this afternoon with the hope that when I woke up it would all be gone, but it was not to be. I’ll go to bed relatively early this evening to help my weary body, but with my luck it’ll all be the same tomorrow.

They definitely call this town Bloomington for a reason: everything blooms at the same time. It’s beautiful, but polleny. I saw the most beautiful tulips yesterday while on my run…a bright red and yellow mix out front of a local church. Tulips are everywhere here, which isn’t the case in the places I’ve lived in California. Tulips are certainly my favorite flower…but I can’t really explain why. I just like them a whole lot. I’ll try to take some pictures of them and give you all a look at them.

Speaking of my run…yesterday was a 14 miler. They’re getting longer and longer. I really feel like I’ve accomplished something after a long run like that, unfortunately it knocks me out for pretty much the whole day. I’m feeling pretty confident about this marathon, which is great news. The 14 miles was definitely do-able, and I think with people cheering me on the whole way I can do another 12.2. I won’t jump to conclusions though, cause that may be dangerous. BTW, I don’t know if I’ve said it before, but everyone is invited to the marathon. Come out and support me and the thousands of other runners, or feel free to just do it from afar. 🙂

Have I told you that I sing to myself in French when I run? Well I do. It’s an old habit that I’ve never kicked. When I’m really tired on a run, I’ll generally start thinking en Francais, and soonafter that the songs start to flow. The grammar is surely off, and the songs are simply American translations, but it’s fun for me. It’s always so surprising how much of my French vocabulary I have retained…I bet it would be much better if I started studying the language a few years earlier. Now it’s all been shoved to the tired running area of my brain instead of the vital language processing areas. Que sera, sera. (What will be, will be.)

In other news, the “Ice Man” is coming out to Bloomington in a few weeks. I’m excited about this for a multitude of reasons. First, hanging with S is always a good time. Second, I’m gonna give him a chance to see the midwest, a place which he prejudges as bad…which is truly not the case. Third, we’re gonna have Indian food, and I’ll get to see if it meets his standards (S was a major influence in my initial Indian food experiences). Fourth, we’re driving across the country together, which will surely be a blast. And fifth, S will learn to drive a manual transmission, a skill that I enjoy teaching. I think S will especially appreciate the structured nature in which I have enumerated the reasons for my excitement at his visit.

Ok, bedtime for me. Gooo night.