My boss pointed it out to me this morning. "What's that yellow stain on the front of your pants?" she asked.
I looked down - it was all over the front of my slacks.
"Oh you know," I replied. "Papaya."
About this time last year, I had jumped headlong into running a marathon for some reason. It was never an ambition of mine, nor was it on a life list. I told Lauren about it and she looked at me with wary eyes (a look that, by the way, I've grown quite acustomed to). To her credit though, she didn't poo poo the idea. She just kind of rolled with it. Just like she does whenever I announce something monumental. Like how one day I'm going to name my children Bishop and Ripley.
That look. Whatever you say, dear.
Long story short, marathon was trained for and marathon was ran. Months later, my shoes sat in the closet, gathering dust. Until one day, about a month ago, I just decided I missed running and would start running the 2 miles into work in the morning and then the 2 miles back. Turns out, its faster than the bus and the only sweaty, smelly person I have to worry about is me.
The challenge with running into work, is that you have to have your clothes on your back. This creates some logistical challenges and frankly, there is nothing I love more than planning and logistics. What kind of bag do I run with? (REI's Flash Pack does nicely!) Do I stack my work shoes one atop each other? Do I put the belt in the shoes with the socks? How do I pack my shirt so it doesn't come out a mess at the end of the run? Where do I put the tomato?
I happen to like a mid-afternoon tomato break. Getting this thing to work would be slightly problematic.
The first time I put the tomato in the bag, I felt the firmness and judging it to be sound, placed the tomato on top of everything else. At the end of the run, much to my dismay, I had turned my bag into a giant V-8. Tomato juice was everywhere. On my white shirt. On my nice slacks. In my shoes. Safe to say, it was a bit of a mess. Apparently, the weight of the tomato caused it to work its way down to the bottom of the bag, where it became ketchup.
So, this morning. Tomato - safe in a ziploc bag. Placed firmly in the middle of the pack. It made the run fantastically. Unfortunately, I didn't think to do anything for the papaya.
I happen to like a nice papaya in the morning.
