and to all a good night

christmas at home always involves the following things:

1. a trip to tj obrien's, the original home-for-the-holidays bar-hang-out.
2. christmas-eve-day trip to the holyoke mall with my sister for last minute christmas shopping.
3. hosting christmas eve at our house (we have a great christmas house due to an extra-large christmas tree).
4. my parents going overboard on presents under the tree (i swear the size of the piles hasn't shrunk in years) and eating bacon & egg sandwiches specially prepared by my dad.
5. another dinner at nonna's christmas day, even though everyone is beyond tired of eating.

this year was no different except that i was probably going to be doing more cooking than usual, and i was going to have to fit some running in. saturday night was the night out to tjs - had a really fun time catching up with our little crew and some other high-school folk i haven't seen in ages, and managed not to have too much of a hangover when i woke up the next morning.

christmas eve-day shopping wore me out even though the mall wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be, and since i had given my mom most of the recipes for our dinner, i thought it best that i help cook as well (for all you foodies out there, we had a boneless pork roast with a spice rub, mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, roasted brussel sprouts with bacon, roasted asparagus with parmesan.) so no running for me on christmas eve.

by the way, have i complained about how warm it is yet? this is the most unchristmasy christmas ever. but onward with the overly long post.

after opening (too many) presents, eating and watching a very cute movie called millions, i decide it was run time. i only had to go 3-4 miles, and so that meant to the end of my parents road and back. i left the ipod at home since it was such a short run, and took off into the chilliness.

the run was an easy one, and i was awake so didn't feel very creeky. i've only however took of down that road and never come back up, and this time i was particularly aware of all the downhills i was going to have to tackle on the way back up. hmmm. i shrugged it off and remembered the run was just a tiny one and continued to enjoy it.

as i approached the end of the road, i noticed a man in a santa hat walking ahead. the closer i got, the more santa-like he looked. as he heard me approach, he turned my way. he even had a white beard. his jacket was blue and shiny, but his eyes were merry and very santa-ish.

"ho ho ho!" and a sloppy grin.
now i thought he might be drunk. it was not quite 1.
"merry christmas" i cheered as i reached the end of the road. "this is where i turn around."
i'd like to say that he was smiling when he said "you're chasing me *again*!" but it might have been a little more like a leer so i picked it up a little, and called back "have a happy holiday!"

people say there's weirdo's in the city but i'm probably more nervous running on sparsely-housed and heavily-wooded road then i am in central park after dark.

i conquered hill after hill with little difficulty but a tiny pain in my right arch, and was happily sprinting in the final stretch when out of NOWHERE a very MEAN very LOUD dog charges in front of me and stops barking and snarling at me like crazy, blocking the path into the driveway.

see what i mean?

my mom has stories of this dog and it's not a nice one. let me start by assuring you that i like dogs a lot. i've never had one, but i like 'em. however, i am no dog whisperer and if a dog is aggressive and without leash or owner, there's other places i'd rather be. our neighbor saw this particular dog chase a cat and then when it caught it, tore it to pieces. facing this little bastard down was not how i wanted to finish my run.

so there we stood literally in the middle of the road, with him barking *so loud* and crouching, looking like he was going to snap any second. i couldn't remember if you're supposed to be aggressive or passive so i went for more aggressive then not. with no sticks in sight (to throw - i'm not that aggressive), my counter attack was to take a strong stance and yell "hey!" back at him. awesome, i know. if you're laughing right now, you're allowed.

in the meantime, i can't believe that no one in my house (which is a bit set back from the road, but not that far set back) or any of the neighbors can't hear 1) the crazy dog bellowing and growling like mad or 2) me yelling "hey!" repeatedly at him. so i start moving towards him, and he moves back and around, and we're kind of circling each other like...like...people in a knife fight...until my back is to my house and i start backing up the driveway until he backs down and trots on off.

i go into my house and my parents are both in the living room and i exclaim "how did you not hear that!!" they confess to hearing a dog, but my dad thought it was down the road so they didn't bother to check on me. after retelling the story a few times to them & my sister, my mom, who walks a lot, and just throws a stick when she sees him, says "i think he just wants to play."

yes, if playing is looking like you want to tear my face off, yep, then i'm sure he was just out looking for a playmate.

so i guess i'm going to have a fancy new running accessory for the next few days. it's called "a stick."

merry christmas, every one.

today's mileage: 3.3
total mileage: 318.8