I generally limit any sort of exercise (and frankly movement) to my weekday trips to the gym, as I am a naturally sedentary person who relishes the couch potato-ness of my standard evenings. It works well—rise at
My plan of (in)action was further confirmed this weekend. After a week of rainy days, the sun finally appeared on Saturday and by Sunday everything was dry. After a couple of judgment-clouding afternoon glasses of wine, I made the [foolish] decision that a little vitamin D might do some good in combating the foul mood I’d been experiencing lately, and so resolved to go for a quick run on the trail near my house.
I’d been relishing the bayou I was jogging along, the picturesque cemetery on its far bank, and the fact that I can now run in my [new] neighborhood without [an inordinate amount of] fear of getting jumped, when I spotted a fellow jogger and his two white terriers.
My first thought was “great!” Our well-established neighborhood is surrounded by, let’s face it, the barrio, and the trail I was running on was strewn with bottles and beer boxes. I was excited to see another friendly face/gentrifying yuppie using the trail in the way it was intended, and hello! cute puppies! I luff you!
Until the dogs ran up to me and this happened:
WTF?!? Who has fucking dogs that bite people? And who runs with those dogs off-leash? And what kind of dog bites a non-threatening girl, unprovoked, in a completely open and neutral environment?
Admittedly, the guy stopped briefly and asked how I was and I responded that I was fine. I think I was still in shock and hadn’t yet realized the severity of the wound. Upon returning home I posted on our neighborhood message board (told you we were yuppies), and found out that these dogs had bitten someone else in the same area a few months ago(!), but also, and thankfully, that they were up to date on shots and all.
This morning I returned the gym and received much sympathy from my compatriots who noticed my wound. I mentally renewed my commitment to limiting exercise to movement within the confines of the YMCA walls, and tried not to squeal as I washed my leg in the shower.
I was feeling better about things as I readied for work and even managed to [miraculously] blow dry my recently-cut hair into something resembling a style. I opted to preserve this moment in history with some of the complimentary hairspray the gym provides, but which I have never before opted to use, as I am largely incompetent when it comes to anything more than basic grooming. I carefully sprayed just the right size cloud of poison about my head and while lifting my finger from the trigger simultaneously realized that I had in fact just engulfed my top half in a fog of aerosol deodorant.
Note to self: Maybe you overdid it with the whole ‘lifting your arm above your head thing.’