cheaper than therapy

I went on a run today. It was my firs run since the half-marathon in January. My first run since Haiti. Oh, it felt so good. If I can manage to do it every day, I know I would feel better. I did (reluctantly) have a five-year-old tag-a-long and it would have bit a little bit more peaceful had I been alone. But still . . . it was awesome. Jafta and I hit the bike path, and there were only about five professional-looking bikers that had to swerve from his unbalanced path. Kind of a record for him. He talked the ENTIRE TIME, but I turned my ipod up and gave him the occasional “Really? Uh-huh . . . yes”. A few times I would turn the volume down. He was mostly talking about alligators and what they like to eat. I’m not even sure he was talking to me. Just talking.

It was weird to be running again. I had a rocky start, because I am breaking in a new pair of running shoes. At first my knees were really hurting, and I think I looked Phoebe from friends. But after about a half mile, I felt pretty good, and managed to finish three miles feeling decent.

This morning was my first time to really assess my running gear since my Haiti trip. I flew down just after our half marathon in Florida, and I had all of my running stuff with me. I had done what I do when I am stressed and packing – I just kind of threw everything into a bag and figured I would sort when I arrived. Unfortunately, that bag had to be abandoned at the embassy – which is really not a big deal given the circumstances. But I do have to laugh at myself a bit, because in the frantic five minutes I had to try to shove a few items from that big suitcase into a backpack for the evacuation, I made some very poor choices. In the stress of the moment, I remember thinking that I needed to have plenty of stuff for Karis in case we got stuck somewhere, and that I should try to grab anything that was really expensive. For some reason, the only thing that popped into my mind was a pricey hot pink thermal hoodie that I bought from the Nike store when I learned that our race would be in frigid weather. It is something I will probably never wear again – unless I go jogging in the frozen tundra of Alaska. It is one of the few personal items I made it home with, and now it is the running joke whenever I am at a loss for something to wear. I just hold up the pink monstrosity and remind Mark, “well, at least I have THIS!”

So, just to recap:

*things I shoved in my backpack – 20 diapers, 5 footed pj’s, a tacky but spendy pink sweatshirt, and a technical running shirt I got free from Disney

*things I left – all my bras, my navigational system, my nike running sensor, four pairs of jeans and many shirts I would actually wear every day, and any running clothes I owned that are appropriate for SoCal weather.

Oh well. Not a single regret when I hear that commercial flights are just now resuming to Port-Au-Prince.

I am still trying to process what’s going on in Haiti right now. I am trying not to rant about UNICEF again. I am probably going to rant about UNICEF again. But for now, if you are following what is going on in Haitian adoptions and want to stay informed, you can check out what Tara and Dixie have to say.