Lesson Learned

I fell on my run today. I was only a quarter mile into my normal route and I felt a line across my foot and down I went. I hit the ground hard enough so every bony prominence was scraped up. I looked for the said wire and gave up. I hurt too much to care and as I hobbled back to my trailer, I kept thinking …great, now I’ll get some staph infection from the nasty Iraqi dirt in my wounds. Luckily for me, my roommate is a nurse back home and after I cleaned out the wounds she bandaged them up. I can’t ever remember falling while running except for when I was a kid. Maybe I should wear my glasses while I run but I hate when they slip down my nose from being sweaty. This running thing has really lost its luster for me.

April 1st thru June 30th, I’ve logged 242.7 miles; 12 of which were in Kuwait. So, I’m behind my monthly goal of 100 miles to reach my 1000 miles. Luckily, my new shoes arrived so I’m not hurting in my knees and hips when I run. I never knew new shoes could make such a difference.

Recently, I’ve realized what a positive impact this deployment has had on me personally. I’ve learned to maximize the time I have. Take for example, I’ve wanted to learn how to play the guitar since I was in middle school but it took this deployment to finally pick it up. Initially, I thought I would have time to myself to do some things I never do at home. What was I thinking?!!! I have so little time to myself now yet I pick up my guitar at least every other day and practice for 10-15 minutes. Or the beautiful easel that Brian gave Lyndsey and I for Christmas a few years back that is on our main level of our house. I saw it every day yet, I hardly used it. I’ve knocked out 5 pastel drawings since I’ve been here.

Not having a TV is truly a blessing and I vow to watch less when I get home. There are too many other things in life to do instead of sitting in front of the tube. So now that I’ve learned my lesson, isn’t it time for me to go home?