Hit and Run

Some songs I listen to for the beat, for a rhythm that's almost impossible not to match with my strides. Others are just happy- think 60's classics and 80's silly pop. But a few transport me. This morning it was Paula Abdul's 'Straight Up'. In first or second grade, all the girls in my class spent our free time choreographing a dance production to our collective favorite song (this was a time when we also had a collective crush, which we decided upon after a debate in the bathroom, and a shared obsession with hair wraps). A few girls, the official singers, learned all the words, but the rest of us just piped in for the chorus, and especially the oh oh ohs.

Straight up now tell me
Do you really want to love me forever oh oh oh
Or am I caught in a hit and run
Straight up now tell me
Is it gonna be you and me together oh oh oh
Are you just having fun

Brilliant choreography. We pointed up for the 'straight up,' pointed to ourselves for the 'me,' and shook our straight pint sized hips with attitude for the belted 'oh oh oh'. I don't remember ever sharing this production with anyone not participating in it. I do remember feeling energized by it, and some exaggerated huffing and puffing as we collapsed on the carpeted classroom floor at the end.

This is when I'm happiest; when I'm active without realizing it, because I'm on my way somewhere or I'm playing or I'm thinking. It's my 20 minute walk to work each morning and evening. A little window for people watching, and time to myself or to catch up with a call to my mom. It's a bike ride on a pretty day when it's more about the food you're going to pick up on the way than getting a workout.

It's also how I feel when I'm running, get lost in a song or a thought, forget to turn off the dirt path, and end up on a second reservoir loop. Another full hour morning run :)