Running Log 9/1/08 & 9/2/08

God and nature called me, through the living plants (been drinking green smoothies again), to come out and play on this beautiful day:

Mon 9/1/08
30 minutes in the sunny afternoon. Ran around the neighborhood, in a park, round and round and up many stairs. Came home sweating, so job done. Took a shower and discovered serious and un-shower-related wetness, which tells me the run turned me on. Nice fringe benefit. Another was discovering a series of stores near my house which sold exactly what I’d been looking for, including a cheap fabric shoppe which has satin fabric for 77 cents a yard which will become my next bedsheets. Magenta, I think.
Other highlights: felt like Madonna when running. Imagined not chubby me running alone in the streets, but svelt and muscular me running out in real nature or my suburban neighborhood or my expansive estate with my personal trainer.

Tues 9/2/08
20 minutes in the evening. Was kind of tired, but felt really compelled to go running. Reason: I want to have a running log. Running logs are sexy. Running logs are hot! And I cannot have a running log iff’n I don’t run. So, I decided to go out and do it, just because I wanted to have something to write about. And because I wanted to work off the stress of the day. And because I wanted to do my body good. It’s very rewarding in many ways to be out. I feel my back is straighter, my leg muscles firmer, as is my tummal reggione (area).

Was immediately rewarded by running into a running couple, less than half a block from my place. Just a few yards into it, I see several runners. Apparently, lots of people come out after work to run. It made me think that lots of people think exercise is important.
I didn’t feel too bad not having the same snazzy running costumes and gadgetry others do (no iPod is velcroed to my arm), but I do have real running sneakers, but even if I didn’t, what counts is I left my place and started running around the neighborhood. That’s hot!
Wasn’t turned on afterwards, as yesterday, but two sweet things happened. One is I passed a garden my most recent ex-boyfriend took me to on one of our last dates. We sat and imagined the estate was our future home(s). Lots of to-be-successful couples do this. Joel and Victoria Osteen did this. You should do this: sit in expensive hotel lobbies and dream big.
Second and major sweetness was happening upon a private school’s large playground and various apartment complexes which all looked just like some places I saw when on a romantic run with a guy was really digging. I hadn’t thought of that in almost a year, and I don’t know that I would’ve remembered had it not been for me going out running.
I remembered how great it was to share the house we were living in together, how I loved hearing him come home. How I loved eating with him, and sitting on the couch for hours talking about our days, our friends, and our lives. I remember the total tantalizational qualities of this under-the-skin mutual attraction that remained unspoken until my very last days there. I remember that walk that night. There was a lot of fog – a mist that softened my skin and hair. And it was so quiet – the kind of quiet you can only find in suburban or country neighborhoods.
I remember we talked about our first time – we both had been late bloomers. I’ll never forget that night, nor the morning we went for a bike ride together before work. Those were the makings of a future relationship I will have that will have the very same elements of sweetness. And I so have today’s run to thank for the memory.


(c) 2008 Cassendre Xavier a.k.a. Amethyste Rah. All rights reserved so help me god.


Special thanks to my “running log” inspiracciones, if you will (as it were): Brian Loebig http://www.myspace.com/brianloebig and Steve Scaduto http://www.myspace.com/thescaduto, who started a tradiccione, if you will, well worth following.


Cassendre Xavier a.k.a. Amethyste is a musician, writer, and raw vegan, among other funky things. A self-described “renaissance negresse”, she also loves acting and creating visual art. Cassendre is an award-winning former cultural arts advocate, having founded in 2003 Philadelphia’s annual Black Women’s Arts Festival. She directed it to nonprofit status in 2007 and months later moved to New York City to continue her journey of artmakery (a.k.a. “artmakation”) as it were. Visit her at www.cassEndrExavier.com.