My, how the blood is pumping!

This weekend, among other things, I was out in my neighborhood jogging. I find it fascinating the various ideas that run through my head when I am running. Got to love that oxygen-rich blood pumping into my head. Here are just few things that I thought of:

Being Alone:
I spend a lot of time alone: driving in my car, at my house, evenings, weekends, usw. It isn't that I am a dork (well, who knows?) but mainly that I am comfortable with being alone. You might be thinking 'yeah right- how does she show that she is comfortable with being by herself?' Thank you for asking. I go to the movies alone, I have eaten out at a restaurant alone (even better- I have done this withoutt bringing a book to read!) and I show up to events with no one on my arm.
I am realizing that I do spend much of my time alone because I spend all day surrounded by people: classmates, co-workers, other students, usw. So I think it is okay to be alone for a while, to unwind from constant interactions with people.
Or maybe I'm just a dork.

Flashbacks:
While I was jogging, I had my iPod on shuffle and an *NSYNC song came on. *NSYNC, in case you lived under a rock during the late 90's, was an extremely popular boy band that I loved. I have all of their CD's (including the ones sold overseas) and even their concert from the Disney channel on tape. Three of my best friends in high school and I used to dance and sing their songs during our lunch hour and practice the dance movies.
So when the song came on, I began to giggle as I thought back on my high school experiences. Wow, I've come a long way. From afro puffs and baggy clothes to a sleek new haircut and MSCD gear, my look has matured. But the real question is have I matured as well?

Racism:
I was watching the movie 'Glory Road' the other night (by myself- haha). In case you haven't already seen this movie, it is about a college basketball team in Texas in 1966 that had seven African-American players during time when having African-American players on your team was still a no-no. This movie is really good and makes you wonder how people could be so hurtful towards other human beings based on the color of your skin. Easy for me to say, being a woman of mixed race.
Hard for me to live though. Like most families these days, my parents are divorced and have now remarried to other people. The bad part about my stepmom's family, who are from Virginia, would be that my step-grandfather doesn't recognize that his only daughter is married. He refuses to acknowledge my dad, my sister or myself. In fact, we all worried when my stepmom became pregnant- we shouldn't have worried at all. My step-grandfather is totally in love with my baby sister and has no problem when she comes to visit.
It is sad that this is 2006, almost 2007 and people still behave this way.

and lastly,
Pirates:
Now, how does one drift from thinking about racism to pirates? Fairly easy. Blame my baby sister- she is going to be Tinkerbell from the Disney movie 'Peter Pan' for Halloween. Every year, I have gone trick-or-treating with her and have dressed accordingly. For example, last year E was a bunny; I dressed up like a carrot. What about this year? I am dressing up like Peter Pan and our other sister Holly (a recent transfer from CSU) is going to dress up like Captain Hook.
So why dress up? Besides the fact that Halloween is one of my top five favorite holidays (My birthday aka Flag Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July and New Year's) and that you get to dress up in a costume the entire day, I like to act like a child sometimes and what better way than to go trick-or-treating with my little sister?


Whew, now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's discuss world hunger. Ummm, on second thought, maybe next time.