Facebook: Friend or Foe

It really doesn't matter where you are at, someone has an opinion about Facebook. People like it, others think it is the devil works. Teachers seem irked when students are not paying attention to them and are scrolling thru status reports. Grandparents, friends and old flames are now all connected. What a world we live in! I am amazed by it all. I don't have to write letters that my recipient can't read because of my poor handwriting skills. I used to be able to write legibly but somewhere about 15 years or so, give or take, my skill left me. I can't print, it takes too long. And my brain forgets the words the moment I write it down so I must go faster but the fingers won't go faster so it starts to blend together. I find myself posting all kinds of pictures to facebook. As soon as I snap I post. It's called Immediate photo gratification for me. I read on someone's post today they apologized for posting all their sorority pictures. Why I don't put a disclaimer on my kitten shots, my sunset shots or even my old family photo shots. If you are my friend you get what you get from me. So for me the whole For or Against Facebook is pretty simple-it's been a wonderful connection tool. A little self control is probably a good thing to have but I will never know what that is like. Keep enjoying all my crazy family photos and sunset shots. Who knows when my next race will be but for sure I will have some self indulgent photo uploaded as quickly as possible. -Angie

Keep on Running

Running is something I did when I was a kid. I loved to run against my classmates when I was in the 2nd grade because I was one of the fastest. Then in 4th grade, I had gotten slow. And running wasn't as important as running with a ball, or running and throwing a ball, or chasing after a ball. For years all my running had to do with some ball.

When I was in high school, a basketball game against Central-Elkader changed my life. And my running. I had surgery on my 17th birthday in hopes of playing basketball my senior year. The surgeon took out a large piece of my right minuscus . I was able to play basketball and I did earn an all conference honorable mention. But after high school, I didn't have any team sports to participate in. To keep in shape, I started jogging. It didn't hurt my knee and I could go for 30-40 minutes at a time. Enough to keep me in shape and still enjoy dessert and beer. When I was 29 and pregnant with Danika, I had to give up running. At six-months pregnant the knee was no longer able to fully support the running lifestyle. So I improvised and walked. Walking became my exercise for the next 17 plus years.

In May 2009, after working at the University of Iowa, I was able to make an appointment with the legendary U of I sports team orthopedic team. Two hours waiting in the reception area was quite an experience. There are so many types of people over at the UIHC. But I was glad to get my repairs underway. An MRI in August 09 revealed not only further menicius deteriorations, but a torn ACL. Scheduling an appointment with another doctor, I was advised. So after my surgery in Oct. 2009 and 4 plus months of physical therapy, I started running again. Not far at first. In fact, the first time I did it I really wasn't expecting to be able to do it. But as I started jogging around the yard with Maggie, it did not hurt. And I would go on the gravel road and run up and down the road. I would go farther every time.

When 2011 spring started, I made up my mind to enter some 5k races. Just for fun, to see if I could do it. My first race was in Quasky, close to home. I ran it in Angie record time. I usually had timed myself at 34 -40 minutes running 3 miles but I made it in 29:06. Now, it was fun. So I entered another race, this time in Winthrop, again close to home. I did better in this race making it in 28:42. No ribbons or medals but an improvement. And Tim and I were making friends with local people. I only had one more 5k to run and it was in Jesup, but Tim found one in Oelwein on the 4th of July weekend. Ran in that and darned if I didn't win a medal. 27:38. Wow. What an improvement. I ran in the Jesup 5k in 27:25. My last race is at the end of the month, in Walker. Again, close to home. I am looking forward to it because I can run. Hopefully, I can continue cutting my times down. But if not, at least I am running. It just feels good to do it.