Something Weighing you Down?

Anything been weighing on your mind lately?

Amenti feels your pain! I decided to work from home today and at some point got up for a drink and found Paivi sitting atop a mound of blankets and upon closer inspection I found Amenti tucked neatly into those blankets being smothered by Paivi. Some sister!

Keeping with the random... (hey sue me a random post is better than no post right?)

Life has been a bit crazy this week. Trying to get ready for vacation and crazy cold weather has not been good for my running. Only 13 weeks to Boston so I need to get to it. Hopefully I will get in some decent mileage in Cancun without the excuse of single digit temps and a messy house getting in the way.

Crazy story for the week was last night's bus ride home. Downtown was an absolute gridlock last night with the cold and the snowy roads and we had company coming over at 7:30 so I decided to take the 5:45 bus home which would usually get me home around 6:15. I figured things would be moving slow though so that was okay. The bus didn't arrive until 6 PM and I didn't end up getting home until shortly after 7 PM. Thankfully it didn't feel as cold as it was while waiting, so I must have been dressed appropriately for the cold and our building must have been blocking a lot of the wind.

A few stops into the ride a man got on who was in a serious state of distress. He announced loudly to the whole bus that he desperately needed a ride to Eastlake from Shoregate, that his mother had passed away and he needed to get to the hospital in Eastlake as soon as possible. Understandably no one seemed to respond, usual bus etiquette is that you really don't talk to the entire bus at once and in general no one says anything to anyone at all unless they know the person. Not to mention most of these people probably don't have a car or they wouldn't be taking the bus, and the road conditions were absolute crap out so unless you were already going to be headed that way you probably weren't going to be able to help this guy. I felt bad for him, but I wasn't in a position to be able to help so I continued to read my book. Well this guy continues to repeat his story several times getting visibly angry that no one could help.

By the time we got to the highway the bus was absolutely packed with at least 8 people standing, maybe more. Although he had been seated earlier now he was standing towards the front of the bus. The highway was pretty much stop and go and he starts yelling wanting to know why the bus has stopped. Clearly it is because there is nowhere we can go but this guy was probably not in a stable frame of mind and he starts ranting. At some point he changes his tune and accuses us all of setting him up and saying that all of us got on this bus with him because we couldn't help him. Which he promptly follows with an exclamation that geeze don't any of us have a sense of humor, he is only joking. Then he starts talking about how rough it is working for the man and that we probably all voted for Bush... Finally he ends the rant with telling us all we are all hiding in our shells and we need to get out. He shouts that we just need to let it all out and then starts to yell that he WANTS TO GO HOME and prompts that we should all shout the same, repeatedly. Of course the whole bus has pretty much been quiet through all of this, other than a few people near him trying to calm him down. We've probably been on the highway for 20 or so minutes and we are still far from getting off. The bus driver finally shouts that he needs to quiet down because she can't concentrate on driving with him yelling and she doesn't know what he epxetcs her to do, she can't go any faster in these conditions. He starts apologizing profusely that he really is sorry because he knows her job is hard. Finally he seems to have quieted down.

A few miles from our exit he gets extremely distressed and announces his name and that he is the head of the Cleveland FBI. And that now that we all know who he is he can help us all get out of this mess, that he will get off the bus and get us help. While I felt awful for this guy, as he was obviously distressed I started to get a bit worried when I hear the guy seated next to me whispering to a man standing in the aisle that the distressed man has a bat, which he apparently dropped on the floor earlier in the ride. No matter who it is I am not really comfortable with anyone on the bus having anything that could be used as a weapon. Well sure enough the guy realizes he has lost his bat and starts yelling that he needs it and that we should please just give it back over and over again. At this point the guy next to me (thankfully a tough looking fellow) stood up and offered his seat to a lady still standing in the aisle. I felt a little better knowing that this guy was willing to try and calm the man down if he had to, and that that lady could get a seat in a safer place on the bus. Finally we got off the highway and on the exit ramp the guy starts freaking out and trying to get around the people in the aisle in front of him to get off the bus saying he will run all the way to East Lake. And the bus driver ends up letting him off as soon as she can safely stop.

It was definitely my most uncomfortable bus ride yet. And it ended up taking over an hour to get home. Hopefully the guy was able to find some help. As I got off the bus I noticed a bottle of liquor on the floor near where he was standing so it is very possible he was extremely inebriated. A very unsettling experience. You want to empathize with the guy because he is obviously suffering but at the same time you want to keep yourself and those around you safe.

So that is my bizarre story of the week. I'm hoping the plane ride to Cancun will be much less exciting than my bus commute home!

Plans for Cancun include a day trip to Cozumel to see my godparents and do some snorkeling, lots of free margarita's and some drink called a Miami Vice that GD highly recomended. The resort is adult only and has lots of different relaxation or exercise type options. I'm hoping to get in some rock wall climbing, swimming (including competitions!), aqua aerobics, yoga, spin class, and of course running. They also have a pool with a bar in it, I think I will spend quite a bit of time there :) I am pretty sure we get a free massage and a pedicure so those options are a must. Pretty much I am just going to have a blast. Hopefully I'll have a few spare minutes to post some updates and pics. If not I'll definitely have photos the following week to post!

Major good vibes out to all my local friends running and volunteering at the winter buckeye 50k this weekend. I hope the trails are runnable for you! Daisy kick some trail ass girl! You are in awesome shape and so ready to bring home a win to kick off the year! Solar just have fun out there girl, no pressure, Trisaratops hope that cold is gone by the weekend for you! Bridget good luck with the back to back events! Before you know it I will have you signing up for a 50 miler ;) Tkins have fun and don't let Peterman out of your sight ;) I am sure I missed someone so good luck to you too ;)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!