Spring.

Spring is breaking out all around ECC. It’s a beautiful city – at least around where I live – and the weather over the weekend was gloriously resplendent. I took the opportunity to go running. I ran for the first time last week, doing four miles on Sunday afternoon. My legs screamed at me for three days. Which is fine. But this weekend I really wanted to get some mileage in. Not for the sake of running of course. I hate running. But I do love how I feel after I’ve run. And I do love not having diabetes.

So Saturday I went out and ran 6.5 miles. There’s a river path near my apartment that supposedly one can run marathons on if one wants to (This one doesn’t.). But there’s a bridge almost exactly 5K from where I live. I didn’t know that when I started this weekend, but when I saw it in the distance and figured I was closing on 5K, I made it my goal. Then I turned around and walked most of the way home. I’d have done more in the way of intervals, but I got a phone call from a colleague who is embroiled in personal and professional intrigue that ought to be fiction, it’s so absurd. He deserves better. But I did get a few intervals in before I got home.

Then Sunday, I decided that I would go out again, even though I was sore and my ankles hurt. I intended to go less distance, but I found myself at that same bridge. It ended up being 6.3 miles, because I took a tiny bit of a different route, but still a great distance. And like Saturday, I ran the whole first 5K without slowing, and then did intervals on the way home. Real intervals this time, no 30 minute walk. So in all, I did two whole 10K runs, in addition to about 5 miles of other perambulations about the city. This morning my ankles and nipples hurt, but my quads are surprisingly un-shredded. I guess my start-up run last week took care of that.

And of course, they say spring is when a young man’s fancy turns to love, but I’m not so much a young man anymore. And I don’t currently have any fancies. I went out on a lunch date with a woman on Saturday, where I felt like I was being interviewed for the potential quality of my sperm. She was very pretty and undeniably brilliant; very ambitious. But showing up 15 minutes late, telling me “I’m ready to be a mother”, and then quizzing me on my goals and exercise habits felt awfully off-putting and invasive. Though I suppose, if she’s looking for someone to have a baby with right away, maybe that’s a good way for her not to waste her own time. I just think that even if I were interested in having a baby soon, that would not be a winning strategy with me, personally.

So who knows. It’s been fairly easy to get first dates here in ECC. Second dates have been more elusive. And in both directions. A couple of women I’ve wanted to see again didn’t like me, and a couple of times I haven’t liked a woman who did want to see me again. Finding something that feels right is difficult. But I’ve always been willing to do difficult things when there’s something rewarding on the other side.

I’m settling in to my AA world here. The men’s meeting is really good. My Sunday meeting is pretty strong. I feel like I’ll find a good home. I miss my St. Louis meetings. I miss my people. But I’ll make new friends as time goes on, and I’ve already begun. Life is good here. Different. New. But good.