reward.

 I had a very (very, very) busy week at work.  Oh wait, it's not over yet, is it!?  I am getting into a good groove with my new position and learning how to balance all of the needs and demands that come at me while at the same time still teaching my classes. I have to-do lists written on the corner of each of my to-do lists, and I can't walk into one side of the main office of my school without coming out the other side with something new on my to-do list.  I'm working on my fast, purposeful "I'm in a hurry" walk so that no one grabs me and says:  "I've been meaning to ask you to look into....."  You know what?  I love it.  It's fast-paced and punchy, and requires me to multi-task like a madman.  I love multi-tasking, I really do.

Add the fact that I am coordinator of the end-of-the-year Senior Banquet, and oh my holy God, what a week I had, er, am having.  Tonight I left work and thought about how I miss marathon training because it kept me on such a focused and regimented running schedule and forced me to leave work behind for a part of my day.  I'm in a transition period between the marathon and the start of training for the Half-Ironman Triathlon that I'm 90% sure that I'm going to do in September.  I'm kind of giving myself a little break from a training plan, just for, you know, a minute or two.

But I was feeling the need to sweat a little, and after some Skyler and Reed time, I pushed myself out the door to go for a bike ride before dinner. Two minutes in, I saw this enormous black cloud ahead of me, but it was so sunny and warm, so I just rode right into it.  I figured if I got wet, it would last a minute or two.  A mile later, it started to rain, and then it RAINED hard, a hard, soaking, pounding rain -- and it was cold.  It also turns out that pounding raindrops kind of sting on bare arms.  Ouch.  It rained for 9 miles and then stopped just as I was 1 mile from home.  The sun came out, everything started to glow, and of course, because it was prime rainbow weather, this:

The last bit of my ride home was so bright and warm and full of sunshine.  What a sweet reward.

 I was absolutely soaked.  And totally happy.
 I feel kind of rinsed out, just what this working mama needed.