Did I ever tell you how much I'm inlove with October?

Which is kind of ironic since I almost died in October a few years ago. And no, I'm not being a melodramatic blogger, I'm serious.

I'm sitting in a lawn chair in my backyard eying a pretty calico who's eying me back. Tank is gumming his pink elephant and I'm not letting any of this weather go to waste. There's just something so right about the way Don Henley and fall go together. I'm a little sad paramedic school has robbed me of it this year though. I'll miss the best part of this year inside a windowless e.r. and o.r. Even though intibating and watching surgeries close enough I can smell the electrocautery through my mask is amazing and addicting; I'll miss the best parts.

But the air is crisp in the morning when I leave for school and work and in the midst of staring down a hellacious year, where 130 hour weeks are normal and my life is still kind of falling apart and he's on a completely opposite schedule, I'm excited. The air makes me excited for life.

And there's me, in a healthy adult relationship. Not running, not balking, not saying, "I have to piss". I'm different than I was a year ago.

"I think I get used to, even addicted to, the feelings associated with the end of a long training run. I love feeling empty, clean, worn out, starving, and sweat-purged. I love the good ache of muscles that have done me proud. I love the way a cold beer tastes later that afternoon. I love the way my body feels light an...d sinewy."

Kristin Armstrong, Author and runner