I’m sorry if you love office fish tanks…

But I have to say that the fish tank at my office is downright creepy. It’s not just because of the odd-looking fish and the shark with snake-like eyes.

I was recently hired at a start-up (sorta) marketing business and they recently changed  locations. This doesn’t mean that they had a lot to transport.

There is virtually no wall art or plant life to be found anywhere on the floor of this building, and yet there is this huge humming aquarium stationed in the main “reception” area (which makes up a significant area of the total office space on this floor.) The isolated fish house is surrounded by cardboard boxes scribbled hurriedly with black marker, and the inner digestive tracts of the aquarium are a jumble of exposed pipes beneath the main watery habitat.

I halfway expect the shark in the aquarium to hiss at me as I walk by. It doesn’t help that most of the fish follow you with a slow-blinking stare as you pass. (Shudder.)

In other words, it’s not creepy in a cool way. It’s not like some mystical, unearthly display of creatures arranged aesthetically for shock value or as a tourist attraction.

It’s more like a small business owner’s eccentric attempt at appearing reputable or even (spare me) medical.

If you were to simply walk in the door, you wouldn’t expect to see a team of highly productive and smart-alecky copywriters in the next room – oh no. You’d expect to hear the crazed snickering of a dentist as an unnaturally loud drill buzzes dangerously to life somewhere you can’t see and someone else starts wailing.

I know you’re asking that question right now, and the answer is:

No.  No, I definitely could not ever have stopped at plain old ‘creepy.’ It’s me.

how to - hopefully - fix runner's knee

My particular brand of "runner's knee" syndrome was not your typical outer-side-of-the-knee pain. It was on the inner knee. And I think I have diagnosed the problem

Well, my physical therapist diagnosed it.

I've been running and working out with this deep ache in my left knee for a while now, and even tried resting from running for the entire month of January before jumping back into my half marathon training, only to discover that the knee pain was still there.

I finally saw a physical therapist. Apparently my hips are not the strongest - especially the lift hip - which has gradually been allowing my left knee to turn slightly inward as I run. The idea is that increasing hip strength prevents runner's knee by keeping your hip, knee, and ankle in proper alignment as you stride.

So I am now officially doing special hip exercises every day to strengthen my hip and - hopefully - stop straining my knee so that the pain can go away.

There are 3 exercises total. I'm sure I could find a way to post visually appealing pictures of them if anyone's interested.

Good news: I can still keep training for my half marathon as long as I keep treadmill miles to a minimum and make up the mileage with elliptical time. Can do.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a tempo run today that needs to be taken care of!

Operation: Morning Person

So far it's going well. My new job, I mean. I usually work from about 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. And the commute is 45 minutes each way. I've downloaded some audiobooks that keep me entertained in my car. And... I have decided to finally force myself to become something that I have never been, nor have I ever thought I would voluntarily become:

a Morning Person.

You see, waiting to exercise until after getting home from work was just too late. It didn't leave me any time in the evening to clean up, make dinner, maybe watch a TV show with Clint, get in some writing, and get ready for bed. It just didn't. So my new daily schedule looks like this.

• 5 a.m. - alarm goes off. I sleepily slap on gym clothes that I laid out in the bathroom the night before.
• 5:15 ish - workout at the gym
• 6:30 ish - arrive home from the gym, depending on length of workout, number of miles, or whatever. Shower and eat breakfast.
• 7:15-7:30 ish - leave for work. Traffic's not bad and the sun comes up.
• 8:00 a.m. or so - arrive at work and spend another day trying to be a confident copywriter.
• 4:30 p.m. ish - leave work. Traffic's filled in a little but still mostly smooth.
  
• 5:15 ish - arrive home. Ahhh.

Then I have time for grocery runs, making dinner, getting to Young Women's at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays, or working on my story (which has taken a serious hit of neglect the past week or so).

• 10-10:30 p.m. - bed time.

So, yes, I am running low on sleep. Just like my gas tank is now routinely running low on gas. I'm feeling deeply connected to my Dodge Neon these days.

On a brighter note, I think I may just become hooked on this Morning Person thing. The first day I forced myself to drive to the gym when it felt like the middle of the night, I was encouraged by 2 very significant signs (redundancy intended).

If you know me, you know that I am not a superstitious person. And I do not believe in coincidences. And there are some things that happen in this world that simply defy all reason. And there are some things I feel so intrinsically passionate about, that I might just be a little insane about them.

These were the signs during the 5 o'clock hour as I for the first time revved up my car and faced down the dark and lonely road:

#1: There was a big, I mean freaking huge, yellow full moon shining right through the driver's window.
#2: U2's "With or Without You" was playing on the radio - on the very last station my radio was set to the last time I turned it off.

I kid you not! I am dead serious. Those 2 very things happened at the same moment! Full moon frenzy and U2 delirium both rose up to energize me on my first morning as a voluntary morning person. It was insane, people.

Also in the "fortunately" category: I am continually refreshed to see that there is a surprisingly plentiful slew of crazies at the gym at the same time as me. I feel like I joined a secret organization or something.