Behind Infinity

I just finished reading the last book in Stephenie Meyers’ “Twilight Saga.” Whenever I finish reading or watching a good book, movie, or the last episode of a TV series, I get such an intangible feeling of bittersweet happy mingled with loss. There is the happiness and the relief in knowing that my beloved characters are all happily-ever-after, and there is a frustration that the story is over and I don’t get to share in it anymore. And some sort of nebulous loss, that I’ve come to the end and know all there is to know about those characters, who seemed sort of like friends.

I guess that’s what fanfiction is for.

Yay: This morning I ran in the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5k race, with several friends/fellow church members. I didn’t do super great–I was the last of our group to cross the finish line with a total time of 31 minutes, 22 seconds (a time which I think I heard my brother call “epic fail”). But I hadn’t actually run that distance in over a year, and I hadn’t trained for the race at all (I just kind of decided earlier this week that I was going to go for it), so I was just glad I made it and I was actually surprised at how enjoyable it was for the most part. I probably could have pushed myself a little harder and came in under the 30 minute mark, but seeing as it was my first race in 8 years (since the infamous Turkey Trot 2000, when as freshmen in high school, Mary Smith and I ran it together and after that swore we’d never run again) I was mostly just concerned with getting through. Which I did. And it felt good. And I’m kind of excited to do another one.

Speaking of fitness, I’m loving the whole YMCA membership thing. For the past two weeks since I signed up, I’ve been out the door by 6:30 AM to work out at the Y before work, and surprisingly, I’ve found it to be a really enjoyable kickoff to my day. The key, I’ve found, is preparation: every night before bed I lay out my gym clothes and pack my gym bag and computer bag with everything I’ll need for the day, so that all I have to do in the morning is roll out of bed, wriggle into my gym clothes, throw some food at the horses, and go. Granola bars and orange juice make for a good breakfast in the car, and I have plenty of time to work out and shower and get dressed for work. By the time I get to work I feel sharp and focused and mostly free from any angst which would preclude me from being anything less than a totally dedicated employee. It works well.

Happy Thanksgiving, people. While I was running I kind of made a mental list of everything I was thankful for. I feel like it would be kind of cheesy to post it. But just know that if you are reading this, you’re most likely on my list.

I love finding bits and pieces of my childhood on YouTube. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. This video was probably my favorite Sesame Street sketch of all time. I was five when the Yip Yips (or the Yippers as I called them) first sang the “Family” song:

October 10, 2008 marked the fourth year since BehindInfinity plopped down on the world wide web, (or it would have marked it, had I remembered the anniversary of that auspicious occasion) and in that four years, this humble little blog has never received any award. That is, until now. Leah over at Rondo Street, who is mother to three children who are violinists and Latinists under my instruction, as well as just a really cool person in general, has tagged me with the Kreativ Blogger award. Thanks, Leah.

The terms of the award seem to be such:
1. Pass this award on to my favorite blogs, and
2. Share six things about myself that (most) people don’t know

The bloggers I nominate are:
-Mrs. P over at Blue Mountain Home, because I love reading about the everydays of her darling sons
-Suzanne of Pig or Fig fame, because she too has mad writing skillz, and
-Tabitha, for her already-amazing Chasing Africa, in the hopes that even after she has caught Africa and come back home to G-Raps, she will continue to share her stories in bloglike fashion, because I love her whimsical take on things.

And now for part two, the “six things most people don’t know about me”.

1. Before my parents wised up and began to homeschool me, they sent me to a private Christian school where I definitely wasn’t the most popular kid ever. I had a couple of friends, but I remember spending most of my recesses from kindergarden to second grade playing Lassie. Lassie was my imaginary husky dog who waited for me every day in the corner of the playground and kept me company when the other kids were being jerks (which was most of the time).

2. Once upon a time during freshman year of college, I was an art major. However, I failed drawing class. Or, actually, I would have failed it, if I hadn’t dropped it about 5 weeks into the semester. For the entirety of those first five weeks, the professor had us sketching random piles of crap–pots and broken telephones and tennis shoes and tin cans and teapots, all thrown into a pile. Apparently it was supposed to teach us something, but all it taught me was angry. That fifth week, Prof. Pilesofcrap handed back our first big term drawing (which was, of course, a pile of crap) and mine had a D-. Right then and there, in the middle of class period, I stood up, gathered up my conglomeration of arty things, and left, tossing my D-minuse’d drawings in the wastebin on my way out. I headed straight for the registrar’s office and dropped the class, right then and there.

3. If I didn’t have horses and a family that likes to have me around, I’d probably be in law school right now. My second favorite course at Grand Valley was Dr. Pazdernik’s Roman Law, where we had to prepare casebooks and prove cases. I got an A in that one, which gave me great pleasure because my academic-siamese-twin Devin (seriously, we were like Anne Shirley and Gilbert Blythe, without the romantic tension) did not in fact get an A. It felt good to be better than him at something for once.

4. I have a secret affinity for techno/dance/house music, especially when I’m writing code.

5. When it comes to Pushing Daisies, I wish that Ned would just touch Chuck already, and then fall in love with Olive. She’s so much more adorable, with her broken heart and everything.

6. I still don’t actually know what I want to be when I grow up.