Everyone else is doing it

OK. I am not the most dedicated blog-poster in existence-I guess there are worse things in life, eh? However, in the interest of communicating to an audience that will never read this thing ...

I've been running quite a bit more lately. Hmmmm ... am I running towards something or away from something? Most likely, a bit of both. There is a mountainous pile of student papers to grade, final exams to be guffawed through, and course grades to calculate. Has anything that exciting happened to you lately? So, why not avoid those things altogether by running and blogging? Sounds like good avoidance therapy to me.

The running has been fun. I am not the fastest runner by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy it. In the past week I have run about 25 miles -- not too bad for a 'not-in-the-most-althetic-shape' English professor. Truth be told, I mainly run as an excuse to listen to music on my iPod and allow my mind to get away from thoughts of anything dealing with work. Is this successful? Well, on one of my more recent running adventures (the adventure here in Orlando is not getting mugged or murdered and avoiding the sidewalks that are being repaired months at a time) my mind wandered into the vapor of mediated composition and spat forth a title for something I planned on submitting: Re-visioning the Nature of the Writing Workshop in Computer-mediated Composition Courses.

Yeah, the excitement in my life never stops!

Well, I should get to grading ... This weekend my husband will be competing in the St. Anthony's Triathlon. Of course, I will be "the support crew." Wow - I'm a plural! I hope to complete a triathlon of my own before we leave FL in August. Only time will tell.

A Run in the Rain

This afternoon I took a run ... in the rain. Actually, it wasn't raining when I began, but about 2 miles into the run the rain started to fall. It was grey and windy ... reminded me of U.P. fall weather. It felt GREAT! I've always wanted to run in the rain, but until today the opportunity never seemed to present itself. At any rate, it was a great run. Perhaps the best so far.

It's been quite a week. Who would have ever thought that university professors would take on the role of 'protector-of-students'? The events that transpired on the Virginia Tech campus have caused us all to pause and take stock of our lives. Some of us have grown up, while others have once again become children.

As a suddenly grown-up college 'professor' (according to my students) I take joy in the fact that my soul can still be stirred by something as simple, ... as wonderfully marvelous, as a run in the rain.

Perhaps we all need a run in the rain.