“Beet” red

Ali harvested our first real beet out of the garden.  I was amazed that it looked like a real beet.  Most times, stuff that comes out of our garden looks like a deformed, shrunken version of the real thing.  There is something rewarding about growing your own food.  We have also be enjoying fresh lettuce out of our garden for the first time.

Last night we attended the running clubs annual holiday banquet.  It is a chance for club members to get together, eat some free food and in some cases get recognized for various awards that are handed out.  We just happened to wind up sitting by the guest speaker for the event.  It was younger guy named Peyton.  He is a personal trainer.  His bio stated he was a sports nutritionist which irked Ali to no end.  She can’t stand when people give themselves official sounding titles without any formal training or certification.

So we started talking to the guy about various fitness related things.  He described his training as mostly unconventional, core type exercises, much like the sort of training the 300 is all about.  The women at the table seemed very interested in what he had to say.  He came off as a bit pompous but I made some small talk with him as well.

I sort of felt bad for him when he got up to speak.  It just seemed inappropriate.  Having him go up and speak about fitness and nutrition to a room filled with people that are for the most part in excellent physical condition from running just came off as the preacher talking to the choir.  He wasn’t a very compelling or interesting speaker but hey, he is a personal trainer, he isn’t paid to talk to groups.  Many times during his talk Ali rolled her eyes as the guy would offer up his “sport nutrition” advice.  There was nothing he said that I hadn’t heard before.

After Peyton’s presentation they moved into handing out the awards.  The club president made a point to recognize Ali and I.  Of course having the focus turned on me immediately induced my embarrassment response, I could feel my face turning red. I have always had the issue of being unable to hide my embarrassment.  It’s like a rolling boulder.  Once I can feel my head getting warm, I realize my face is getting red.  Once the process starts, I feel even more embarrassed and it amplifies the end result.  I hate it.  Well anyway, I tried to hide the redness by keeping part of my face nestled in my hands. 

Ali is embarrassed by attention as well but she doesn’t suffer from the same feather light red face switch that I do.  We were awarded the volunteer of the year award for our work with both the timing system and the web site.  It was nice to get the applause and recognition for our hard work.  I just wish I could receive it without looking like I just hit my hand with a hammer.