About Moving

No, I'm not going to force you to endure yet another post about how hard moving has been.  (It is.  It continues to be.  But, anyway. Yeah.)

A few weeks ago, I ended up with a coworker's ticket to a play.  She couldn't go but her friend still wanted to, so I ended up going with her.  (Oddly enough, a friend from home had tried to connect the two of us when I first moved to town but we never managed to connect in person.)  During intermission and afterward, we talked a lot about the struggles of moving to a new place, trying to make friends, etc. (yes, I KNOW I promised - give me a minute!)  Having lived through it elsewhere, she knew what I was going through and she suggested that a great opportunity to meet people was coming up soon:  training for the local Women's 4 Miler.

If you know me, this seems like a ludicrous idea.  I don't run unless I'm being chased (and even then, I have to weigh my options seriously.)  I can't remember a time in my whole entire life when I would characterize myself as fit.  Heck, even as a kid, the most activity I got was trying to figure out how to get OUT of activity.    I fell off my bike more than I rode it.  I even ran into an old lady once...and that was the end of my "career" as a cyclist.

But since I'm still in the mode of throwing things against the wall to see what sticks, I looked it up.  It was scheduled to begin soon and would be every Saturday morning at the crack of dawn leading up to the race.   Walkers were encouraged.  And so I signed up.

I started walking a bit more around work;  several days, I walked from where I park to my office instead of riding the shuttle bus.  I encouraged others in my office to walk with me a little more.  And I got up that first morning and wondered what the heck I was doing.

But I went.

I didn't really meet anyone but it was fun.  And it felt good to be doing something active.  And I know it's important...and I know it also harkens back to my word for the year.  I still don't know how I fit here in my new town and more often than not, I don't feel as though I do.  But I can focus on trying to get myself fit and this is a great way to do it.  But there is more to this goal than just that.  The money raised goes to the local cancer center.  I've had two dear friends pass in the past few years from that crappy disease; I have an aunt and another friend who are proud to call themselves survivors.  And I have a friend who is fighting her own battle right now.  And when I don't feel like going out, when the weather is challenging as it has been (dear Lord, will it ever stop be grey and rainy here??) or when my foot hurts, my back hurts, whatever - I think of my friend.  What I'm doing is so small.  I'm not doing it for purely altruistic reasons;  there are plenty of selfish reasons I'm doing it.  But when I don't want to, I think of her and put one foot in front of the other.

9 weeks to go.