homeless men and running

I saw a homeless man picking through my apartment dumpster today. I was dropping my own trash off on my way out of the house. In my Monday morning fog I wondered what our inevitable interaction would be.

He looked up and gave me a genuine smile and bright "good morning."- And not the oddly scary kind from beggars, but the truly light spirited, morning greeting. Happily surprised I was. I guess everyone can have a good morning.

As to my day- it got progressively better --starting from a significantly low Sunday evening and Monday morning rush. I ate a slice of flourless chocolate cake at lunch out with the girls in an effort to improve my mood-- which it did. I went to a tutorial on a class I didn't understand, and realized that I had a better grasp than I thought. I struggled with some new legal material and made some new connections - raising fresh questions.

Then I ran Saguaro East again, twice. I kept an 8:35 pace over the 16 miles. It was a beautiful run, and calmed me down-- I was getting nervous about my pretest on Friday, and generally feeling behind. I can't wait to take my parents and H to this place- lots of good photography options. As it gets dark so ****ing early here it was dark for the last 40min of my run, which was exciting, especially with all the hills and turns, but it also meant that the rattle snakes were out. I saw one bigger than my wing span and fatter than my bicep (no huge feat, I know). Also in attendance were jack rabbits with their perky ears and big feet, road runners and some bird that sounded like it was making passes the entire run.