It’s 5:30 AM, and I’ve been awake since about 4:30 AM. This was intentional; on mornings that I go running I get up that early so that I have time to run and still get myself and everyone else ready and out the door in time for work/daycare etc. I’m a morning person, though, so it’s not as heinous as you might think.

But no running this morning. I woke up, brushed my teeth (I would hate to get hit by a car or something while running and have the EMTs be unable to get close to me because of morning-breath funk), wrestled my way into the 10th level sports bra that is required to hold Things in place, and went out to get the paper. And heard the thunder and saw the not-so-distant lightning.

Crap. I went back inside, pulled up the weather website (how the HELL did we survive before the internet??) and saw that an extremely impressive line of thunderstorms was marching its way toward my abode. I don’t mind running in the rain, but running in thunder and lightning is another issue entirely.

Bah. I did about 20 minutes on the stationary bike instead, but it’s just not the same. I probably should have done more than 20 minutes, but I just get so booooored on the bike.

In other news, the crush at work is getting more reasonable. Things are starting to fall into place and even though there’s no way to make the June 1st deadline that our director has set (BellSouth will only move SO fast, and IBM took FOREVER to ship our server), everything should be good to go by mid June at the latest. (Crossing fingers!) And, on the writing front, I’ve started keeping a notebook in my purse for when I get a cool idea for the book(s). I had what I thought was book 2 totally outlined out and the first few chapters written, and then I got another cooler idea and realized that book 2 would work better as book 3 and my new cool idea could be book 2 and the rough outline that I had for the original book 3 can just be book 4…

Holy crap I hope this thing sells..LOL

(Side note: It is SERIOUSLY thundering and lightning right now. I’m very glad I didn’t decide to chance it, since right about now I would probably be two miles away from my car. Yes, I have to drive elsewhere to go running, because my subdivision is merely two dorky cul-de-sacs. Fortunately, the subdivision right down the road is frickin’ perfect, so I park in the back and run over there. And no, I don’t run far–usually between 2.5 and 3 miles. And “run” is a strong word for the 11 minute/mile pace that I maintain. But I do keep moving, and there is nothing like running to keep the fat off. Oh yeah, and that darn “eating right” stuff too.)

***

I took Anna over to my sister’s house on Memorial Day to swim and hang out. My sister sent her husband and kids off to Universal Studios, and thus has a week of Quiet House.

Lucky Bitch.

Anna adores her “TeeTah” (she’s called my sister that since she was a baby, and it just stuck) and loves swimming in Teetah’s pool as well. However, before we went swimming we went over to her neighbor’s house to pick blackberries. The blackberries are everywhere this year, most likely because so many trees came down during Katrina and thus there’s less shade. In half an hour we picked a couple of pints, and I could have easily stayed out all day picking, thorns or no. I really like blackberries, but more than that, I love picking them. It’s a challenge, getting to the best berries through all of the thorny vines, and it also really takes me back to some pleasant memories from my childhood. I didn’t have an easy childhood–I was that person in class who got picked on by everyone else. I could never fit in, didn’t belong to any groups, and had few if any friends. In defense I buried myself in solitary activities such as reading and writing. But I also loved outdoor stuff like fishing, and wandering through the woods and exploring. (Yes, any modern day parent who allowed their 12 year old girl to go wandering off for hours on end would be brought up on charges, but it was a different time and a different place. It makes me sad that Anna won’t have that same ability/chance to just go and wander and see what cool stuff is out there.)

And in the summer, it was blackberrying. If you found a good patch of vines you could pick it all day, and that come back the next day and find that the red ones had ripened overnight. I would return home dirty, tired, and covered in scratches from head to toe, but with a generous bucket of blackberries.

We have blackberries behind our house now. Nowhere near as much as my sister’s neighbor, but enough for me to go a few yards back there and worm my way through the thorns to steal the berries away. I come back inside with my arms and legs scratched and a big tub of berries, knowing that tomorrow there’ll be a new batch to conquer. I think that blackberrying is a rite of childhood around here, and it makes me smile when I see grownups pushing their way through the thorns to get berries that can just as easily be bought cheaply at the store, picking memories of a simpler time.