Busted knee ≠ chicken pox

I grew up as a book-lover in an athletic family. I always trailed behind the rest of the family during family bike rides. On ski trips, I asked if I could bring a book along and just ride the ski lift around and around. I was the kid who never scored in soccer games.

Then, this summer I started running with my coworkers in Mexico, and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. So I continued. I planned on running a half marathon in November and trained by running the 15K trail around White Rock Lake as often as I could. Things were progressing according to plan when, a week before the race, my knee suddenly gave out. I spent three days on the couch with frozen berries on my knee (I was too cheap to buy ice trays.) and decided that the race was doomed.

Instead, I set my sights on the eight-mile Turkey Trot race in Dallas on Thanksgiving. My family runs the race every year, but I always stick to the three-mile version. Sister #3 said that she would run with me, so I began retraining.

As the days of training dwindled, I kept an eye on the weather. I can't stand the cold. I'd rather run in the gnat-infested humidity of a Texas summer than the drizzle of cold any day. Thursday's temperature was forecasted at freezing, with rain. The Turkey Trot must be run, though. I decided that if I could run a 15K in sunny weather, I'd be able to run the race in the cold.

I grew up with athletes. I know what tapering is supposed to look like. I know that it doesn't mean running a hard run three days before a race, especially a hard run that likes to destroy knees. I just assumed it wouldn't happen again.

It did. I ran around the lake on Monday afternoon. By the next day, my knee wouldn't bend. #3 called to tell me that she was tapering for a swim meet and couldn't run the race with me, and I told her it was fine, that I wouldn't be running the eight-mile anyway. I tried explaining to her what had happened. "I just thought bad knees were like chicken pox," I said. "Once you catch it once, it won't happen again." She laughed.

So I'm back to short runs. I miss the lake, though, and I'm beginning to wonder: Can you catch a bad knee three times?

Firemen, flirtations, and bloody noses

I am single, and it is largely because Wolverine has held my heart for years and I just can't bring myself to give it to another man.

I did, however, have second thoughts last week when I saw two handsome firemen sitting in the booth next to mine at Chick-fil-A. I did the quick glance-over -- flat stomach, decent arms, no ring on finger (Do firemen wear rings?), young, but not too young.

I heard the voices of my sisters telling me to flirt, so I did a quick self-evaluation. Pros: dressed all right for a Saturday, hard stomach from lots of running, jeans freshly washed and not yet baggy. Cons: the crew of little children sharing the bench with me.

I keep my little siblings on most weekends. I really enjoy being with them and sharing in their lives, but it does make it harder to form adult relationships. I sat in that booth, reading cow comics with the nine-year-old and watching the three-year-old play and pondered my situation.

I've been mistaken for a mom since I was 14, so I really couldn't comfort myself with thoughts that I looked too young. Probably, I looked like a single mom with way too many kids for her age, and who's interested in that? Plus, how do I even go about flirting while I'm watching a gaggle of youngsters? I got up and down to get the kids ketchup more often than was needed, walking slowly past the fireman table each time. Then I just started laughing. Even without kids, I'm a pretty poor flirter, but really? Ketchup retrieval? Not hot at all.

Too soon, the firemen were gone, and mere seconds later, the three-year-old came wailing out of the play area with blood streaming from her nose. I hushed her and carried her to the bathroom to stop the nosebleed. We came out a few minutes later, pale pink wet patches on my jeans from where I'd tried to scrub the blood out, and I was grateful that an elderly couple had replaced the firemen in the booth next to mine.

Maybe I'll just stick with Wolverine for now.