Thank You

Thank you, woman in Wegmans who looked at me today and then, when I looked, glanced away only to look at me again. It has been longer than I care to consider since I was last checked out and I'm over the moon that it happened today.

It was a challenging day at work. I wasn't sure I knew what I was doing but kept doing it. After a day like that it's not Miller time so much as Wegmans time for bagels to break my wife's and daughter's Yom Kippur fast and a bag of pistachios for me. That and to people-watch. In the bakery aisle I got bagels and slowly made my way to dairy humming Springsteen's — "Western Stars" — until I remembered we didn't need cream cheese. I went to the back corner thinking I might get beer but decided against it and turned down the snack aisle so I could decide against a bag of chips. I grabbed pistachios hoping they're maybe least a little healthier.

Along the way I saw two guys laugh near the flowers, a small child pointing at her teeth less to show me than to count them (she was on twenty-nine when I passed, which I thought was optimistic), a woman limping in high heeled sandals, three old people hanging onto carts being gently pulled by quiet people with faraway eyes every one, a woman in black dress, heels, and make-up fit for a state dinner, three college women carrying fancy water bottles and wearing black running tights, and one dog being trained to help others. Don't pet. That dog's working.

At the registers the old woman ahead of me paid with her "Oh, it's so easy!" she said. The boy nodded, eyebrows raised. After she left, he scanned my pistachios and I told him, "five bagels." I tapped my phone (so easy!) and thanked him. Picking up my bag, I looked at a woman looking at me. She turned her eyes away then looked again and turned away. I smiled, not at her (creepy!), but at getting checked out. Day made.

Now, sure, I might have had ink on my shirt in the shape of a gunshot wound or a split down my pants (two things I've had at Wegmans before), but no, so I'm going with the odd notion that she checked me out and riding that high. Why not?

Thank you, woman in Wegmans who checked me out today. It's hours later. The sun is down. Yom Kippur has ended for my wife and daughter (I'm not Jewish). The moon is up and there I go, right over it, into the heavens.

Ten Miles, Wegmans, A Smoothie

Just got home from spending $235 at Wegmans for the week's groceries and back-stock. This after dropping my youngest and a friend at the mall and having my oldest drive from the mall to Wegmans on the highway. She is sixteen and her driver's ed. class will be on the highway this week so she wanted practice. Sure, why not? She did well and we made it to Wegmans where we shopped for an hour and a half, my girl in full command, me just following and paying the bill. Coming out, getting in the passenger seat, I looked at the clock. "4:03? How did it get to be 4:03 already?" I just wanted a nap. And a smoothie. 

I'm sipping that smoothie as I type this. A cup of milk, handful of spinach, one frozen banana, a heaping tablespoon of natural peanut butter (no sugar!), and a tablespoon of chia seeds. Delicious and nutritious, don't you know. I'm skipping the nap in favor of writing. That and I tend to make a mess drinking smoothies in bed while asleep. 

I wanted a nap because I ran ten miles this morning. I'm getting ready for The Fifty, as I call it and did two loops of the course on which I hope to run ten loops in August. I didn't plan to run two loops, but as I finished the first I felt good and wondered what it would be like to go for a second. Ten miles later I had my answer. You're thinking I'll say it hurt like hell. 

You're wrong. 

As I came down Euclid and turned into home, I smiled then laughed a little. It's okay. The neighbors know I'm weird. I laughed because it didn't hurt. I had felt my legs tire on the run, but not so much that I wanted to stop or was counting down the miles to home. I knew I would want a nap later (bet your ass I do), but coming up the driveway, stopping my GPS watch at 10.02 miles, I felt strong. I knew that I could have easily gone on for another mile or two and could have gutted out another loop.

I may feel differently tomorrow, but for now I feel good even if it is thirty degrees and snowing. It's Syracuse. These things aren't that shocking. And neither really is the run. 

The groceries are away. The girl is learning to drive. That smoothie was delicious. My legs are tired but strong. My feet too. I don't know if other people think about how strong their feet are, but I do, and I've got some work to do on them, but it's too cold to run barefoot. That can wait. So can the nap. I'm feeling too good to go to sleep just yet.