come here/go away: november installment

come here, puns on fondue. daily candy was pimping the fondude today. i’m willing to forgive daily candy all its “math-is-hard Barbie” take on today’s modern gal, just for today, just for this. (fondue? i say, fon-don’t!)*

go away, co-worker who left a hammer on top of a ladder. i came back to what i had been doing on stage, moved the ladder, and subsequently took a hammer to the forehead. a minor goose egg over my left eyebrow is all i really have to show for it, so no serious harm done, but it did hurt. first rule is, don’t leave tools on ladders. second rule is, look for tools on top of ladders before you move them.

come here, halloween, oh favorite-holiday-of-mine. our party was low-key, being a wednesday night and all, but we made an effort toward costumes, and carved pumpkins, and watched scary movies, and lit the apartment with orange and black candles. and little kids still trick-or-treat on my street, though accompanied by packs of watchful parents. remember the days of tramping around the neighborhood armed with a pillowcase? you had to look out for the bully hiding behind the monster mask who’d snatch your candy and run if he had the chance, and mom always admonished you for eating the candy before she’d checked it for razorblades or other such horrors, but we were utterly free on halloween night. monsters and fairy princesses and superheros and tinfoil robots ruled the night. it seems like childhood has grown so safe.

go away, shoulder injury. my second class back to aikido after the marathon, and i tore my shoulder up. i’m waiting for it to heal…and waiting….and it’s just not. sore muscles, i can take. but injuries that aren’t better two weeks after they occur just make me feel, well, old.

come here, handy Select A Candidate Quiz. according to this tool, Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama and Chris Dobb are in a dead heat for my vote. i am least compatible with McCain.

come here, sunday brunch with pela. over the summer and fall, we have refined the sunday tradition: i wake earlish to go on a long run, then we meet for a late morning meal at one of the 43 good brunch places in our hood (no driving/public transit is key; somewhere we can both walk/bike to). eating good food after a long run is one of life’s great pleasures; with friends, even better. i inhale my breakfast and have been known to eye the leftovers on pela’s plate. we gossip about the men in my life, and her life, and about work and so forth. today we were at fireside, which ingratiated itself with me immediately by bringing coffee and a plate of chocolate muffins to the table before we’d even read our menus. never mind the standard restaurant breadbasket…a free plate of chocolate muffins? yes please.

go away, shin splints. the plan for late fall/winter was to back down to maintenance running – 5 miles three days a week or so, plus ultimate on the weekends (until it gets too cold to handle the frisbee), just to keep some general cardio endurance while i focus mainly on aikido, and then start a training plan for the Race to Robie Creek in the new year. but the shin splints (for which i think ultimate is the culprit) are not getting better any faster than the shoulder injury. as far as i know, there’s no way to tough out shin splints: they want rest. non-running rest. there may have to be an actual vacation from running…like, where i get to know the machines at the gym again. ugg. i think i need to learn how to swim. i mean, if i fall out of a boat, i won’t drown, but i need to learn how to *really* swim. for exercise, not just splashing about. are there classes for people like me?

*it is unclear to whom this pun should originally be attributed to. no one wants to take credit for it. but it still makes me giggle when p says it.