One [run inhibiting] thing after another

I really hate looking and seeing how long it has been since I've updated. The last month has actually been kind of busy for me, in some good and bad ways. Things were going well with the running and I was excited to be really pushing myself. Then came the shin splints. I tried to work through them and do a run anyway, and completed it, but then I went to Zumba afterwords and had to leave after 20 minutes because I felt like I was about to die. I was hobbling up and down the stairs at school looking mighty pathetic, but I kept stretching so that I could jump back into running as soon as possible. My shins started feeling better and I was even comfortably bending my legs to go up and down stairs - great success! Then Leon and I both got sick and I was out of commission for another week. Things were looking up and I was finally ready to get back to my regular Monday Zumba class and climb back on that treadmill, but my car wouldn't start. This was probably the saddest roadblock of all.

I had been driving my Suzuki Swift for six years and we had spent over 50,000 miles driving together, from going out to lunch with friends my senior year of high school, to accompanying me on the first of many commutes to UCCS and eventually around Tallahassee - my new home far away from family. Sure, it looks like a clown car, but I bought it in high school with my hard earned McPaychecks from my first job. I knew it wasn't fancy, and decided that instead of a bumper sticker I would affix a BMW logo (which had fallen off of my father's motorcycle) to the back of my no-frills Japanese car to take advantage of the hilarious irony. I confused a few people over time who thought that I really did drive the shittiest BMW they had ever seen. I still chuckled when I saw the sad, worn BMW logo on the back of my car, which had acquired a few bumps and bruises over the years. The lack of power steering, power locks and decent acceleration didn't bother me much; however, having no air conditioning in Florida was a lot more horrible than going without it in Colorado. Even so, my little car kind of became symbolic to me, and it was sad to see our relationship coming to a close. Of course, I was a little less sentimental and a little more annoyed when I hadn't been to the grocery store in like a week and a half, couldn't go to the gym and was starting to rely on Jimmy John's to feed me the sentimental aspect wore off.

Nevertheless, things actually worked out quite well. Leon and I rented a car to go visit my grandmother and aunt in central Florida and a member of my aunt's family who works at a car dealership gave me a good deal on Toyota Corolla. It's pretty fancy compared to the good old Suzuki Swift, what with its air conditioning and non-crank windows. I sold the Swift about a week later and have already spotted it driving around town once. Finals are looming on the horizon now, so I don't know if my work out schedule is going to stabilize any time soon. This turned out to be a little longer than I had planned, but it's good to pay homage to my car, which I seem to have attributed a personality to over the years.

The last picture of me with the Swift, with my new car on the other side.
Needless to say, I was feeling very MTV Cribs-esque.