The Working Girl Blog #23: Sucker for punishment, or Yes, it's cold, it's windy and it's been raining. But I'm jogging anyway To see all of Bobbie's "Working Girl" blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs

Yep, I'm back from my self-imposed vacation from writing blogs. And I am enough of an egotist to assume that people missed my blogs. (Yes, indeed, I DO suffer from delusions of self-importance. Heehee)

I guess you're wondering why the short hiatus? Well, it wasn't too complicated: I just needed a bit of a break. Writing blogs for a month and a half is not as easy as one might think - though it's a lot, lot easier than writing a story, it still needs a bit of concentrating, some time alone to write, and to think up ways of making my drab, workaday accounts more than just another recounting of a boring day.

Anyway, guess I just needed a break, and as I was having some... "issues" with some BCTS folks, I thought it an opportune time to give the ole keyboard a rest.

Anyway, I'm baaaack, and picking up where I left off.

As it is a Saturday, it's jogging day. And despite the weather (temp. was pleasantly in the high seventies, but the wind was fairly strong, it's super-cloudy and it had just rained), I decided to push on with the jogging thing. Guess I was just a sucker for punishment.

It also gave me an excuse to wear my new Nike skapri. Yeah, yeah, I know - people say skapris are right up there in style with reindeer sweaters and tie-dyed pants. But I like it. So sue me.

Anyways, with the wind blowing, I decided to wear one of my old henley pullovers (from before my RLT and transition) over my new yoga v-neck.

I had four jogging buddies this time, all from the office, and all girls - there were the two from my previous jog, plus two new ones - girls not from my group.

You would have thought none of them would want to go jogging in this type of weather (the sky threatened more rain), but here they were. I found out Wednesday while in line at the cafeteria that there were people in the office who liked to jog outdoors, but haven't been able to for a while. I guess I let it slip that I was starting to jog regularly now. Anyway, here they were.

I always seem to underestimate girls' predilection to do things together and their non-competitive nature (in things physical, at least) and was surprised at how the five of us jogged in a bunch instead of trying to run each other down. We ended up occupying most of the sidewalk space. Good thing most of the people out were good-natured and just got out of our way, and allowed us to navigate around the puddles and wet spots in the pavement.

We didn't make good speed, though, the girls preferring to talk and gossip, with the exercising almost an incidental thing. Talk was light and inconsequential, with a lot of details about people I didn't know. But I giggled and laughed with them. I mean, how can you not? It was a fun jog.

But in less than thirty minutes, we were almost out of breath. One thing you shouldn't do is to chat while exercising. So, even before the hour was up, we decided to head back in.

I guess I still had some vestiges of my male competitiveness, as I ran a little ahead, not wanting to be the last. And I slipped on a patch of wet pavement. And with everyone so close behind me, we had a five-girl pileup.

None of us were hurt, and we giggled over the little accident. People crowded around us and helped us up. One of the girls whispered to watch out for pickpockets but all our wallets and stuff were untouched.

I gave the two guys who helped me up a smile and a thank you, and we went back, stopping by my favorite coffeeplace for some drinks and a bit of rest. And, despite the little accident and the truncated exercise period, the girls said it was fun and they'd be game to go jogging again next week.

It' a mistake to generalize, I know, but going by my jogging mates, girls don't seem to have a good grasp of priorities: they were more interested in the chatting than in the jogging, which was the whole reason for the morning.

But, you know, now, after getting a bit of rest, I had a thought - I really enjoyed the jogging, and I felt that I got to know these girls a littler better. And if they weren't friends yet, I think we just took a solid step towards friendship. Maybe girls do know how to prioritize, coz girls know what's truly important in life.

   

To see ALL of Bobbie's blogposts, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/bobbie-c
To see Bobbie's stories in BCTS, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot