Adventures in Rural Running, Part One

Oh. My. Gosh. Oh. My. Gosh. Oh. My. Gosh. Oh. My. Gosh.

Never before have I felt so silly. Yesterday for my Facebook status I wrote, "I'm a silly sally." I had no idea that it was oozing with foreboding. I thought I was a silly sally yesterday. It turns out that today I am a silly sally squared.

Here's the deal. I'm just going to be candid here. I like this guy & yesterday was the first time I had ever spoken to him. Well, sort of... He comes into my work a lot. But yesterday was the first time we had ever talked about anything other than coffee. He told me his name & I then went home & looked him up on Facebook. Stupid, I know. The whole time I was doing it I was thinking, You know his name because he told you, but now you know all of this because you are a creep. Anyway... it turns out he is in shape. He's athletic. And me? I am not. So what do I do about this? Today I decide I will begin working out. I "worked out" on the Wii Fit this morning for about thirty minutes but after I was done I didn't feel like I had done anything at all. And I was content with that. So I go to work & on my way home I get the urge to run. This NEVER happens. Seriously. It's like Boy George being normal. It just isn't going to happen. But today the impossible sprouted wings & flew into the sky of possibility.

Here is where my trouble begins.

I come home, change into workout clothes that are tight & fill up my water bottle. First thing that happens? Ten seconds after I begin to run I drop my brand new phone which I was hoping to take back. Of course it got scratched. AT&T, please deal kindly with me! I put my phone in a more secure location & take off again. All I can think about is how awesome I am for finally taking a run. And to think... my twin sister isn't even here to beg me to run with her! I AM awesome. I round the corner & head past my neighbor's house, picking up my pace. I don't want them seeing me in these skin-tight leggings... No way. I get down to the pavement & run across the street quickly. I'm running on the side of the road which is just a small patch of dirt about a foot wide which then curves down to the side. At this point I am happy to have gotten past my neighbor's house without them seeing me. Then I hear a car coming. I pick up my pace.

Listen, I know I am ridiculous. Let's just establish this now.

So, I'm running (jogging really...) a bit faster. Then, the unthinkable happens. I start to lose my footing. My pace goes all wacky and I start to lose my balance. At this point, I can see the vehicle I am trying so hard to outrun for fear that they will laugh at my little leggings. It's a gold pickup truck.

I'm still trying to regain my balance. As the truck gets closer, I begin to tumble forward. OH NO! I'm falling. No! Finally, gravity takes over & I land on the grassy cover of the ground beside the road. I roll to the right, down the slope & nearly run into the fence beside the road. I lay there for a moment as the truck passes & then sit up. Oh my gosh. Did that just happen? I let out an embarrassed laugh & brush off the sleeves of my sweatshirt. I pick a goat-head out of my leggings and take a breath. Seriously?! Ugh.

I look in the direction the truck was headed & see that they have pulled into my neighbor's driveway. Then I realize it is my neighbor's parents, whom I know pretty well. I get up & decide to get the hell out of Dodge before they come over & ask if I am alright. I run into a nearby pasture that is on my grandpa's land & run to the far end, away from the road.  When I get there I start laughing. Hysterically. Loudly. "Oh. My. Gosh!" was all that I could think of to say. "Did that really happen?" I look down at myself & I am a mess. There's grass all over my pants & my side hurts, just above the line of my pants. I pull up my shirt a bit & I am bleeding. Not horribly. Just a scrape. But that was quite enough to send me into giggles again. I decide I better head home, taking a different route this time because my pride will not let me go back toward my neighbor's house. I jog back up toward the road and some ducks in the adjacent pasture distract me. How cute! They are playing in the water, I think to myself. I walk to the fence line and watch them for a moment, still laughing of course. Still feeling humiliated, of course.

I decide to run through the duck-pasture, which is currently void of cows. I crawl through the fence & run up to the top, nearest the road. It is at this point I realize that the irrigation water is on. I figure that if I stay close to the road it will be dry. I'm wrong. Why wouldn't I be? I decide to trudge on through & I think that it won't be that bad. I'm wrong again. The water is flowing out of that pipe & fast. I try to daintily step on pieces of grass in the slop but give up soon enough. So here I am, laughing, trudging through the mud in my running shoes. I think I am the biggest idiot in the whole world. Finally, I find a dry spot & find my way up to the highway. I cross the street & go up onto yet more of my grandpa's land. This is what I love about living where I do. My grandpa owns beautiful farm land in abundance. When I want to go adventure (or make a fool out of myself) I can go right across the street. That's but one of the perks of living next to him.

After I cross the road in my dirty shoes, I pick up the pace again. I run for about one minute before my side hurts & I stop again. I say to myself out loud, "This is why you don't run." But really, I don't mean it. What I should have said was, "This is why you don't push yourself so hard on the very first day you decide to run. But don't give up yet, sweetie!" Yeah, sure...

As I walk, nearly home now, I think about falling again & start laughing. Again. I put my hands on my head & just laugh like it's going out of style. HA. HA. HA! At this point, all I can think of to say is, "Shit. Shit, shit, shit!" And I'm just laughing! Ah, the ravings of a prideful lunatic...

I get home, walk it off & talk to my dogs a bit. Like they understand the folly that is being a human being...

So here I am, sitting in my room typing this post, still occasionally laughing. I am SUCH a silly sally.

Rhetorical Analysis

So, for school I had an assignment to basically pick apart some sort of advertisement & analyze its arguments. I'm so relieved to have it done & I think it turned out rather decently. I decided I'd share it with you! Here it is:

If you are a responsible, health-conscious adult, you will buy Colgate Total toothpaste. That is what an ad I found in Reader’s Digest suggests, at least.
The article depicts a healthy-looking woman with obviously white teeth smiling. A line extends from her teeth to an outline of her body, which has bullet points on various body parts. The bullet points list ailments such as serious gum disease, heart disease and diabetes. The title text asks, “Healthier mouth, healthier body?” and is followed by a paragraph about how Colgate Total helps protect your body: “Research suggests that the gateway to the health of your body may be your mouth. So it’s good to know Colgate Total actively fights germs for a full 12 hours, which helps to prevent and reduce the gum disease gingivitis. If left unchecked, gingivitis can lead to serious gum disease, which emerging research associates with other diseases like heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Learn more about the health of your mouth and the health of your body at ColgateTotal.com.” There is also an image of a tube of Colgate Total above a line stating that the product, “Actively fights germs for 12 hours.” At the bottom of the page in small print, there is information about how Colgate Total prevents gingivitis but is not approved for preventing or treating serious gum disease. It urges you to talk with a health care professional about mouth-body association and health.
To begin, this advertisement is chock-full of emotional appeal, or pathos. The ad is all about good health and the importance of maintaining a healthy mouth. Everyone wants to live to a ripe old age and this ad outlines one of the ways you can do so. By bringing up undesirable health conditions associated with poor dental health, the ad enlists a sort of soft scare tactic. Strokes and diabetes are things we try to steer clear of. The makers of this ad use their knowledge of human nature to invoke a sense of urgency. We don’t want to die, so we better take care of our teeth.
Some of the word choices in the ad brought my imagination out to play. The line, “Actively fights germs for 12 hours,” had me picturing a good-guy, bad-guy scenario. The nasty germs in my mouth need to be wiped out and Colgate Total is there to fight the battle for me. After picturing this, I was pretty much hooked by the ad. I want someone on my side. Someone like Colgate Total.
The advertisement gains credibility by playing up words like research. The ad alludes to current research about the importance of a healthy mouth, which makes it believable. This also helps with the logos of the argument. The ADA symbol on the tube of toothpaste gives major credibility to the product. The American Dental Association would not endorse this product if it did not work. These things, in addition to the name-brand power of Colgate, give this ad a great amount of credibility.
This ad appeals to its audience in a smart way. The magazine it was published in, Reader’s Digest, is geared toward an older crowd. They are concerned with health, well-being and relationships. The publishers aren’t worried about vanity and fashion. The Colgate Total advertisement takes this into account. The model in the photo isn’t sexy or racy. That’s not what the ad is about. The ad is about making an informed decision and taking control of one’s health. This works well.
Ultimately, Colgate just wants to sell toothpaste. With this ad, they are likely to do so. The advertisement gets to the root of the issue and I believe that most anyone would be on board with this argument. All facets of argument are used well to persuade consumers that this is the toothpaste they need to buy.

Turtles

I'm loving this photo of the 60's band The Turtles. How cute are they?

Photo via eyeballfm

Bow & Quiver

Today I'm dreaming of archery. Growing up I took lessons on how to shoot a bow. I used to love it so much. My old bow is at my parent's house, but I wish I had it with me here today. Adventure.

Fries

McDonald's fries. Salty to-the-max and full of calories. Yet I couldn't stop eating them. My office manager at work brought me some McDonald's fries today as a joke. Before she left the office to run some errands she sent out an email asking if anyone needed anything. I jokingly replied, "French fries. ;)" Twenty minutes later she plopped a bag on my desk and walked off laughing.

Occasionally, I love to pig-out on fries. How about you? What are your "guilty pleasures"?

-Cassi

photo here

No Matter What

No matter what I say, you're always going to think you are right.

Quip

When someone says, “See ya later, alligator,” you should say, “Goodbye, horsefly.”

Cassi

photo via: Sharpie Blog

Jaques

So, I gotta say, I am loving this Jaques tote bag from Wayne Pate. I was browsing the A Cup of Jo blog where she had posted about the Sammy the Seagull print and had to take a look. I'd love one of these. It's just so cute!

Cassi

30 Rock

I don't know if I've posted about this before, but I love the TV show 30 Rock. It's hilarious and cute and witty. Tina Fey plays the lead character, Liz. She's completely lovable and awkward. Lately I've been using references to 30 Rock a lot in everyday life. Most of the time people don't get it and I have to explain. I'm not completely sure they fully appreciate what I am doing for their lives: Enriching them with comedy. Because 30 is chock-full of comedy. So technically, because I share 30 Rock quotes, I am super hilarious, too. Right?

Any-whoozle. I love this dialogue.

(Talking after Liz finds a strange number in her phone.)
Jenna: Future husband? Who did you put in your address book as "Future Husband"?
Liz: I have absolutely no idea.
Jenna: Well, whenever I find something weird in my cell phone, I can usually trace it back to last time I was drunk.
Liz: Oh my God, the dentist's office!
Jenna: Your dentist gets drunk with you, too?

You can see full episodes on NBC's website: NBC.com

Cassi

Thinking 'Bout Something

 I love Hanson's newest song, Thinking 'Bout Something. Check it out!

Cassi