I have to warn y’all, things are about to get heavy this week.
We’re entering the home stretch of this crazy writing project, and I’ve saved the best for last. And by “best,” I mean the worst. And by “worst,” I mean the hardest things to talk about.
So today, I figured you deserved a little break. We all deserve a break sometimes, and since it’s a Sunday when you’re reading this, what better day to have some fun?
I’ve been hustling a bit too much this week. Too many late-night Slack messages, too much losing track of time when I’m in the zone on a project. I work for a company considered a “late-stage” startup, and that startup culture is infectious. I’m not a workaholic by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes I become so laser-focused on my to-do list that I neglect to enjoy myself.
Fun is important. Play is important. It keeps our brain healthy. It makes us easier to be around. Laughing until our stomachs hurt reminds us what it feels like to be young.
Two nights in a row this week, I had a ton of fun alone. Having fun by myself is something I never did pre-pandemic. I hated being alone, which is worthy of a whole post of its own. Thursday night, after my husband went to bed, I stayed up to watch the second half of the UCLA-Gonzaga game. It was a nail-biter, and I yelped so loud at one point when UCLA tied it with a few seconds left that I made the dog bark. I texted back and forth with my dad (a die-hard UCLA fan, although none of us ever attended the school… we just claimed it as “ours” growing up) the whole time, laughing at the stupid gifs he was sending. Friday night, I took the long way home and played some songs that were out of my range. The air was pretty warm, so I put the windows down and sang so loud that my voice got scratchy. My rendition of “Shallow” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper is pretty good, though. I sing both parts (flex).
This morning I let myself sleep in. Normally I am up at 6 am on Saturdays to start my long run for the week when the sun rises. But this morning, I thought, “why?” I had nowhere to be and 10 miles to run ahead of me. So why not just enjoy myself?
There is nothing inherently fun about the actual act of running… unless you’re running through a haunted corn maze or something. Even then, I hate haunted corn mazes. I don’t know what was different about today, but I set out to have fun alone on the road.
Ten miles is a lot of miles in a city like mine. There’s a lot you can see. There are stretches where tourists clog the sidewalks and stretches that go under freeways where you’re the only person dumb enough not to drive a car. In the same 10-mile run, you can see multi-million dollar homes and dodge syringes and broken beer bottles in a strip of bars and nightclubs.
So, for your vicarious enjoyment, here are moments from the most fun I’ve had on a run (that wasn’t a race) in recent memory. I sang out loud a lot, I stopped for pictures, and I ate a gas station Uncrustable while running. I nodded at other runners, saw two cycling groups of about 50 bicycles, and petted three doggos.
I did a quick 5-minute warmup on the treadmill. I packed my run belt with my water bottle and a Gu pack. The weather is perfect—41 degrees and sunny—but I still wear two layers on top. I will regret this in about… oh… 9 minutes.
It’s surreal to drive out of your neighborhood, then run back to your neighborhood. Here is a moody picture of the liquor store down the street from me, where I buy many random things. Yes, they do actually have the groceries pictured, although the markup is quite severe.
Union Station was popping off today. I used this as an opportunity to hit the bathroom and eat a Gu pack while people-watching. There were many tour buses full of teenagers, which terrified me. They were all doing TikTok dances in the Grand Hall, and I wondered if they had come all the way here just for that.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that I live in a city where there’s just free art lying about… AND that we have multiple pieces from one of the most famous large-scale sculptors ever. At this point, a pitbull starts sniffing me, and I remember I still have a dog treat in my pocket from earlier in the day. I ask his owner if he can have it, and then I have the good fortune to look at art while giving a dog a treat. Have I ever felt more blessed?!?
Famous fountains don’t look as impressive when turned off for the season. This was right before I had my one irritation of the run as I headed into the Plaza shopping district. I really need large families of grown people to stop walking 6-7 people across the sidewalk! I slow down to window shop at H&M, then remember I am trying to rid myself of the fast fashion habit and keep jogging along.
Seeing one of our church campuses makes me smile. The two very steep hills coming at me don't make me smile. But how you run a hill is how you handle life, so I decided to bop up them while singing Break My Soul.
Now we are approaching the true miracle moment of the run.
Near the end of my route, I see a tiny group of people on the corner ahead. I assume they are doing a car wash or a protest, so I don’t really pay them any mind. But as I get closer, I see the unmistakable green color of the Girl Scouts.
What a gift to run 15 kilometers, only to be greeted by your own guardian angels at the finish line! Theirs is a humble setup—just one wagon and a card table in a park. But they have samples (!), and they take Venmo (!!), so I walk away with four boxes of cookies. As I re-enter the gym, I tell anyone who will listen how excited I am about these cookies.
I finish with a 5-minute treadmill cool down and watch a small slice of The Devil Wears Prada on the treadmill TV. I stretch, get an iced coffee, and chat with the staff, offering them cookies. Then, instead of following my instinct to order lunch there, I come home and make this gorgeous bowl of rice, fake chicken, veggies, kimchi, and the world’s most perfect egg:
There is no bigger lesson here. There is no bait and switch where I’m talking about running, but I’m not talking about running. This is a reminder that there can be joy in the ordinary. Not every run is a race. You don’t have to fixate every time on metrics or pace. It isn’t always about the hustle or grind we’ve come to idolize in our society.
Sometimes, it is this simple: have more fun. Alone or with others. Running in a park full of sculptures or next to a liquor store selling groceries. Throwing rocks into a lake to see the splash, or laying in a hammock watching a bird in a tree. Yesterday I smiled for five minutes straight, watching a rabbit in my yard eat leaves! This doesn’t mean I am not a hard worker or worthy of my paycheck. It means I’m a whole person, marveling at how we can sneak a tiny bit of delight into a typical day.
I hope you have a bit of fun today. And if you want company, let me know. I’ll bring the cookies.