Thoughts

This Sunday evening I was surprised to find myself half a mile from home down a neighboring running trial, moving far faster than I had in months. The path was no surprise - it's a favorite route - but everything else about this situation was shocking.

First, I had spent the better part of Sunday driving from DC to Rhode Island and had been half-heartedly attempting to nap to recover: a run had definitely not been in the cards. Second, I had been in a running slump for months. Sure, I'd get in a quick mile or two a couple days a week, but since April have had trouble finding motivation. And third, with a running slump comes slow speeds. Yet, here I was moving at my race pace. 

Earlier today, a friend passed along a link to a logo competition. With the kind (and motivating) encouragement of "You'd kick ass at this", I checked it out only to discover that the logo was due at midnight UTC. One quick Google search later -- I'm hopelessly terrible at time zones -- I realized I had about four hours. And the clock was ticking. 

Usually, my logo design process is dragged out over a few days or weeks - I spend some time researching the brand, sketching out ideas, creating digital sketches of the best ideas, iterate, etc. All along I get feedback from clients. But with a last-minute work project and time restrictions for other evening commitments, I would have approximately 30 minutes. 

“Let’s catch up soon!”

We’ve all said it before and we’ll all say it again. In passing, it’s easy to suggest; you run into a former classmate on the street and leave the brief conversation with the ephemeral line and loose promise of reconnecting. You may also be guilty of the “let’s link up sometime” or the non-descript parting, “keep in touch!”

The beauty (and occasional curse) of Facebook is that it allows users to control how much they want to share. Oversharers can run rampant and reserved users can stick to reading friends' updates. You have full control over what you post, how often you post, and who sees it.

Yet, not matter how intentional I or anyone else is on Facebook and Twitter, it's easy to overlook the social networks that reveal more personal details. Recently I woke up to a notification from a friend asking how I could have possibly walked a total of 10 miles when it was so cold out. I was taken aback. My mind raced trying to figure out where I had slipped up. Did I sleep-tweet about how I'd gone for a long run? Had I texted him to complain about the cold? Or the worst-case scenario; was he somehow watching my every move?