Play by Play

I am REALLY sore today. And not that "oh, I had a work out and now I'm sore and, oh, I'm SO happy because its a reminder that I really exercised" kind of thing. Because, well, that kind of thing doesn't exist in my world.

I don't like being sore.

But, today, I REALLY am.

Yesterday after work I was really grumpy. I'd let myself slip into the kind of funk that I rarely see and hate to be filled with. And just as I was covering myself with my trusty nap blanket I realized that napping wasn't the best thing for me. I would probably have slept the entire evening away and then found myself wide awake at 3 am cursing our houses previous owners for doing a crappy patch job on the ceiling of our bedroom.

Instead I got my knew pruners and headed out to my front yard. We have a garden in the space between the sidewalk and the road and was overgrown, full of last years leaves and bits of trash that passersby lovingly leave for us to pick up.

I got to work pulling and snipping and working up a sweat.

At 5 minutes in my hands were sweating profusely inside my rubberized garden gloves.

At 13 minutes in I was wondering why someone would put a random flagstone rock in the middle of a garden bed

At 14 minutes in I saw the ugly round city utility lid under the rock

At 48 minutes in I was tugging at the dead leaves left by last plants and I thought of my mom's garden. She has the exact same flowers along the back fence of her yard

At 49 minutes I was overcome with sadness. I missed my mom.

At 50 minutes I wiped a few stray tears from my cheeks.

At 51 minutes I looked at my reflection and laughed because I'd given myself two football-player brown dirt smudges under each eye.

At 83 minutes I went in for some water to replenish the liquid that was now soaking the collar and back of my shirt

At 97 minutes I really wanted a tuna fish sandwich. We ate tuna fish sandwiches every Saturday afternoon after working in the garden.

At 136 minutes I sighed as I finished spraying down the dirt filled sidewalk and wrapped the hose up on the front of the house.


And then I spent the entire rest of the evening gazing out the front window and my stark barren front garden thinking about my mom, my family, the value of hard work and how much money I can spend at the nursery this weekend....