great jog

My favorite purveyor of 'tude, that sassy little penguin Batzu-Maru was smiling from somebody's bumper during my jog down Four-Mile Run. He egged me on and filled me with hyperactive glee just by being there.

The weather was perfect, too. And I got lost in my thoughts, as I sometimes do when the weather's perfect (upper 70s with a breeze). Furthermore, my recent stresses (piles and piles of schoolwork and the generic emotional isolation) seem utterly surmountable and I am in a very happy place right now. I can manage everything. It's all... sorted.

I uttered the phrase "No se puede ponerse la bicicleta aqui" to a girl who had parked her bike smack dab in the middle of the busy trail. She understood immediately what I meant and yanked the offending bike off of the path. Communicating that felt great -- I haven't used my Spanish very much with this job... except every now and then, when a kid will inquire, "What does 'Esperanza' mean?"

"It's the name of the main character of the novel," I explained, adding that it means "she who waits" in Spanish.

The Batzu-Maru sighting, the great weather and the effective use of Spanish in oral communication, plus the ever-present endorphine rush at the end of the run... they all added up to a great mood. And even a silly mood.

I was in such a silly mood, in fact, after the run, that I played a little joke. A happy young couple were walking out of a rowhouse behind ours, just around the corner. The house was for sale and it was an open house weekend for potential buyers. So, as they were walking back to their car, I stopped and said, with a super earnest look on my face, "It's a nice place, isn't it? You'd never guess that the house -- the whole neighborhood -- is built on an old Indian burial ground! {Pause} You folks have a good day!" They paused for a second and just froze. The look on their face -- of shock and confusion -- were priceless and so photographable. Wish I'd had my camera. I would've posted it.

Um. I think the endorphines made me do it.