Life in the Cheese Drawer

i missed the dancing sharks 🙁 

how do you get in a twitter argument about hillary vs. bernie when you’re technically on the same side…? (and only have 140 characters, to boot.) this happened to me today. here’s more than 140 characters!
here’s what unusual about bernie sanders and why i’ll be voting for him. 
he hasn’t taken any money from large corporations. all his money is funded by the little people (aka you and me). i’ve donated $25 to him, the first time i’ve ever in my life given money to a politician. i’ll probably give more. 
he’s pretty darn staunch on his issues. he doesn’t sway on them like other candidates. hillary only became supportive of gay rights in the last five years. not cool, hills. (as an aside, i just read that hillary supports the death penalty in federal cases. really? really??)
he’s honest. liz and i went to see him when he stopped in rochester, and i’ll never forget what he said about by the people for the people. we have to do some of the work ourselves. he alone as president doesn’t have much power. but we the people can make things happen. if he can fire up the country to take a more active role in the issues that come to politicians’ desks, then all the better. those issues are our own issues, after all. let’s own them.
will he beat a republican? if you vote for him, yes he will. people keep saying that bernie can’t win. bernie can’t win. well, not with that attitude! if you’re going to the polls to merely vote for the lesser of two evils, that’s a pretty sad state of affairs. then suddenly there’s a candidate who actually seems like he gives a crap about people’s lives and isn’t a corporate shill at the same time, and you actually really like his policies and what he’s talking about, but you’re NOT GOING TO VOTE FOR HIM?? what is wrong with you? 
his stance on guns has been questioned as not controlling enough. i feel the same as bernie on this issue, and that’s a blog for another day, but if he’s pretty lenient on gun control, more undecided moderate/conservatives might lean his way. plus, he’s said gun control is a state issue (think rural vs. urban and how guns are used differently), which is pretty attractive to states’ right activists. 
here’s the thing. this is a chance to take the current state of politics and turn it on its nasty little head. even if you’re staunchly republican, you can’t deny that this would be a 180 in politics. what does bernie need to do now? appeal to minorities. appeal to older voters. get people fired up about going to vote. i’m planning on going to a caucus for the first time in my life. add that i gave him money, and if this is what he’s doing for a 36-year-old average, liberal white girl? let’s get the fire going. bern it up!

snow falls all day long
out comes the snowblower
work on a snow day

i’ve been trying to get some writing in magazines! i got my pie essay put in the rochester women’s mag a year or so ago, and now i’m submitting a thing on running. here it is! 
“Well, she’ll never be a sprinter.” My father’s insight when I was three years old was spot on. I never did become a sprinter. I think I surprised him, though, when I decided to become a runner at age 32.
Oh, I had dabbled a little bit. The summer after my sophomore year of college, my younger sister and I took up running in the evenings. I don’t think we ever ran more than two miles at a time, and it was always an easy walk-run pace.
Then it slipped from my routine, and I didn’t think to take up any sort of sport for a long time. My lazy ways caught up to me, and exercise was something I just didn’t care about.
Something clicked in 2011, though. I can’t pinpoint a specific moment, but I was frustrated with how clothes didn’t fit well and how certain chairs were not comfortable. I started looking for something I could do to feel better wearing a button-down shirt. At the same time, my former-running-buddy sister had mentioned something about a program called Couch to 5k. In theory, you could get off the couch with no exercise experience and run a 5k (or three miles) in nine weeks. I figured I could try it out, and if anything, I could quit.
That was five years ago with many miles logged since. I’m not going to say the program was easy, because it wasn’t. It was difficult and hard and more than once I wanted to stop. My knees wigged out and my hip cramped up and my breathing took a long time to normalize. What they said would take nine weeks actually took me about twelve.
But the first time I ran three miles without stopping for a walk or break was beyond exhilarating. I’m not talking about the so-called runner’s high; this was a personal pride high. Running is a mind game you only play with yourself, and the only competition and person to let down is you.
After I reached my goal, it was another long few months until I actually enjoyed a run. Even after five years of doing this, I’ll admit that most of the time I’m on a treadmill or out running through the streets, I am not enjoying myself 100 percent.
The times I am enjoying myself, however, I realize why people do this. It isn’t the sore muscles or the labored breathing, the money spent on shoes and the blisters.
It’s the thought of lacing up shoes, opening your front door, and taking a break from the world for a half an hour. It’s listening to the queued podcast or inspiring music or just the sounds of the world around you.
It’s running along a residential street and wondering what people are doing inside their houses. It’s waving to the neighbors and getting a small wave and nod of acknowledgement from every other runner or walker on the road.
It’s the smell of springtime growth and fresh air after a long winter of making do on a treadmill (or worse – running in sub-zero temps! Not my cup of tea). It’s plugging away in summertime humidity and catching a whiff of just-cut grass. It’s kicking through piles of orangey-red maple leaves that have migrated to the edges of the road and inhaling the scent of autumn.
It’s the final half mile when you can see your destination in the distance and push yourself a little bit more to get home a little quicker. You power through because maybe this will be a good final running time or you’re tired and want to collapse on the grass or you know there’s a giant bowl of ice cream waiting for you. But really, the only real reason you power through it because, well, you can.

hey february
you’re the forgettable month
except in leap year*
 
 
*yes, this year is leap year

i’ve always said that home is where nate and the kitties are. that’s not a lie. 
but when i drive northward to central minnesota, i can feel my heartstrings relax and reach out to the countryside. i find the familiar rolling hills, the clustered farms, the trees that abut fields that abut more trees and more trees, and the occasional lake or pond. these aren’t the valley bluffs or the pond masquerading as a lake or the five trees lining the edge of farmland before stretching into another expanse of crop. 
when i am northerly, and i have been more than once recently, i exhale a sense of relief: i am home. 
last time i was there, my friend melissa drove from fargo to meet me for lunch. we talked about how the st cloud area, for both of us, always feels like we’re coming home. she’d only lived in st cloud for two years. maybe it’s because this was the first place that we both lived after moving away from our parents’ homes. or we want to relive the halcyon days of college (although not really the case for her). 
the people look familiar (very german). the orderliness and cleanliness is satisfying. even the shoppers get me. (seriously – i went to target in st cloud last time i was up, and it was uncanny how differently people shop up there than down here. they all shop like i do.)
and then i come home to nate and the kitties. they are home. but i watch the countryside as i drive to work or to run into town, and while it’s known to me, it’s not familiar. rochester is nice looking but it’s not orderly nor is it clean. the people (caucasian) look more angular and different (not too german). 
i like my house. i like my job. i really like the people i work with. but. but but but.