Why I Kind Of Love Running

My fingers, with their bitten nails, their scars from cat claws, and their few tiny hairs just above a couple of joints, drag across the old, wire fence, making a ratatat-ratatat ring as I run along the gravel-dust path passed the tennis courts, the football and the baseball fields, the children's park with its playground, slides, swings, seesaws, all as one would expect, around the golf course at the center of it all, sloping hills, sandpits, ponds, and fountains, as I run passed others, some traveling the same clockwise trail as me, some counterclockwise, some running, some walking, with dogs or children or lovers or friends, perhaps in solitude, some smiling and laughing and nodding hellos and others keeping their eyes from mine, avoiding greeting, and then everything slows down to a walking pace, the ratatat long gone replaced only by heavy breathing.

I know a lot of people who don't like to go running outside. They don't like the heat. They don't like the uneven ground. They don't like the lack of privacy. There are plenty of reasons to dislike outdoor running. I understand that. There's nothing wrong with that. A lot of people don't like running in general, and that's fine too. Flat feet, short legs, simply having a stockier build, can all be dissuading to people considering running. Whatever a person's reason, there's nothing wrong with disliking running. I, however, kind of love it.

My description above is relating the basic experience of running around the 3.8 mile loop from my hotel here in Tulsa around LaFortune Park, a trail with which I have become quite familiar in the last two weeks. I generally try to get out and run the loop at least every other day, and I'm happy to report that every time I have gone out, I have beaten my personal record for average minutes/mile--generally around 10 or so, though that number is a little misleading, as that's including the first 5 minutes which I usually walk to wake up my legs rather than starting the actual run cold turkey.

Running isn't a new thing to me, really. I went a decent amount over the summer in Cherokee, and I've had a handful of other times when I've been consistent about it the last few years. I benefit from naturally having a runner's build, being tall, thin, and having the deepest foot arches I've ever seen--a trait which is great for running, though not so great for maintaining the shape of shoes. With that in mind, it makes sense that I would like running, purely on a physical level.

I also like running on a mental level. I like the individuality of it--sure one can go running with friends, but a person's pace and duration in a run is all his or her own. I enjoy running outside, because I like being out in the sun and the fresh air. I like seeing people, be they other runners or families or people walking their dogs or playing Frisbee, whatever they're up to, I enjoy seeing others enjoying the outdoors. I think a fair amount when I go running. It was actually during a run that I began considering writing this very post--the post began with my fingers dragging across the fence, because I actually did just that mid-run a day or two ago. I like being able to let my mind consider and process the various sensory impulses I come across during a run: the heavy breathing, the soreness of exercised muscles, the slick sweat, the brightness of the sun, the wonderful cooling wind. Running is such a sensory goldmine. It's a raw, individualistic exercise and yeah, I kind of love it.

I also hear tale it's good for you, which is a nice plus.

Confessions of an addict

I go to a lot of bookstores. I'm currently sitting in a Barnes and Noble in Tulsa, Oklahoma. There are two of Barnes and Noble in Tulsa, and I have already been to the other one twice, so I thought I would check out this one today. I've also been to Fine Books, which is in one of the malls, Gardeners, which is apparently the largest used bookstore in the state, the Frugal Bookshop, and there was also a small shop in one of the towns in which we had a performance--I didn't catch the name of it, alas, though it had a very friendly black cat which made up for the small selection.

Bookshops come in all sorts of varieties. You have your massive, unorganized piles and piles of cheap books stores. You have your tiny, independent store that mostly sells things the people running it like. You have your corporation bookstores, though these are becoming fewer and fewer as the days go by--a tragedy. You have your rare books stores, those where you mostly just look and don't touch, books not intended to be read so much as peered at. I love bookshops of all varieties (though I do prefer the ones where I'm allowed to touch).

During my first tour for the National Theatre for Children, I went to upwards of twenty or thirty bookstores. I bought thirty-one books over the course of that 10 week adventure. I was close enough to home that I could stop in and drop books off every once in a while. This tour, however, I find I have to restrain myself far more often. I am nearly a thousand miles from home. No quick pit stops to drop off books this time. Whatever I buy, I have to carry with me at all times. I have an unending list of books that I want to find and read. I have had a fair amount of success finding several of them in the last couple of weeks. Yet despite the cheap prices, despite the successful finds, I have more often than not forced myself to walk away from stores empty handed. This has been a challenge.

You see, I have an addiction. A book buying addiction. There. I said it. Don't misunderstand: it's not that I have an addiction to reading--I do read a fair amount, perhaps more than many of my peers, but I have far more books sitting on shelves unread, waiting for me to crack their spines, turn their pages, and invest in their worlds than I can keep up with. My addiction is to the thrill of the buy. The thrill of finding works by great authors that are not always easy to find. See, there's a certain kind of book that is my favorite thrill: I fondly call these books "OOPs. books." Out of print is this terrible disease that sadly befalls works that, for whatever reason, do not have consistent mainstream success. Several of my favorite authors have such books running about the used bookstore circuit. I get excited whenever I find something by Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny, or M. John Harrison (to name a few) that I have never seen in print before. I love coming across a book I've never heard of before written by an author I love. This is a thrill in itself, perhaps not quite as potent as the thrill of finding something for which I have been searching. But still. I revel in the find.

So, why am I sharing all this with you? Well, my name is Daniel. I've been a bookoholic for roughly 14 or 15 years. I hear admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery....

Oh, one last thought: go support bookstores. I buy a lot of books, but I can't keep them in business by myself, try as I might. I urge you to support even the big chains and especially the small, independent stores.

PS. Read a book. It's good for you.

UTH ---> NTC

So...... It's been a while. Oops. I've been busy.

We finished out the 2014 season of Unto These Hills strong. The summer was full of new friends, theatre, and far too much fast food. I directed a show, performed in three others, and even won an award for "saving" shows--ended up playing a handful of roles I wasn't originally cast in. I got into a relationship this summer with the lovely Erin Gathercoal. I made a number of connections and hope to work with several of my coworkers again in the future. It was a great summer.

Yet all things must end (hoping the aforementioned relationship is immune to this absolute). I said goodbye to Cherokee, NC a few weeks ago. But frankly, I haven't had any time to stop and really think about it, because five days later, I got on a plane and flew to Minneapolis, where I began rehearsals for a tour with the National Theatre for Children. This is tour #2 for me--Dan O and I did a tour with them last January-March, you can read about some of our adventures during that period over at http://dansquaredblog.blogspot.com/

This time around, I'm working with an NTC veteran named T.J. Besler. This marks his 8th tour for NTC. Last time around, I was in North and South Carolina. This time, however, I've moved further west to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. We just finished up our first week of performances, and it is certainly shaping up to be a fun tour.

So far, I have already gone to six bookstores (Magers and Quinn, The Friendly Bookstore, Dickson St. Books, Nightbird Books, and 2 Barnes and Noble). Tour is off to a good start.

Anywho. I'm going to try and be a bit more consistent about keeping up with the blog. We'll see if that actually happens.