The Grey Area

So, if you don't know this about me already, I have studied a lot of theology. During undergrad, I majored in Religious Studies and then I went of to become a Master of Theological Studies as well. There are many foci you can have when studying theology: you can focus on liturgy, doctrines, Scripture, ethics, or -- my favorite -- history, and of course within each of those concentrations there are even more foci to choose from.

That's us, the Rel Studs of UD. And I think all of us even do stuff with our degrees...

I have loved Church history since high school. Especially the early stuff. Especially heresies. I love reading the ideas of different people as they try to figure out how God can be both one and three or how Christ can be - and must be - both human and divine. I love trying to make sense of why the East and West split apart in the Middle Ages (leavened vs unleavened bread mostly, in case you were wondering) and how bishops came to be a thing.

What I don't really like too much about the study of theology -- and what I tried shamelessly to avoid as much as possible while studying theology -- is ethics (which is ironically what I teach now to high schoolers nowadays for a living). I don't like ethics. Know why? Too much grey area.

This is Lydia. She's the coolest.

Enter Lydia, the trainer at the school where I work (I highly recommend working at a school with a trainer, by the way. It's mondo convenient). As you may recall, my Thursday ended with her telling me not to run again until she saw me again on Monday. So, rather than do yoga on Friday and run (or even walk) 5 miles on Saturday -- sorry, Kristy!! -- I sat at home with my family and looked through pictures of me when I was an adorable baby. Like this one...

A ride around the dining room with Dad.

And this one...

With my uncle, who was in fact my high school Church History teacher.

And this one...

My grandparents on my dad's side.

I also wrote comments about all the students I teach to go along with their quarter grades. It was a very exciting weekend.

But back to the point. My leg no longer hurt when I went to see Lydia, who determined that the problem was definitely my Achilles tendon, but also that there was no black/white in this situation. There are many things that could be contributing to my calf muscle freaking out and many things that could make it better and/or worse. Essentially, there's lots of my favorite: grey area. I just have to keep trying different things and see what works best.

Meh.

I like knowing what to do so I can just do it and be done. Apparently, this is going to be a growth opportunity for me...

And that is how I feel about that.

In other news, I went running again today and did the Rose Bowl loop in 35:22, which is pretty good, especially considering that I wasn't going my fastest because my Achilles was hurting me. And I felt like I could've run further if I hadn't been in pain. So I'm calling that a win.

Yay me!!

And in more other news, I informed Other Colleen that her training schedule freaked me out a bit, so she's kindly working on another. So in honor of that, and of her, and of Halloween, here's a picture I stole from her blog of the two of us when I did her Pippy Longstocking hair back in college.

Oh, 232 Stonemill. How we miss thee...

We're also running a half marathon on the same day (which I'm convinced she'll finish in half the time I finish mine lol), and she really likes matching people when she runs races so we're going to try to match. I'm pretty psyched about it.

...

I still can't think of a good way to end these things. But I'm late for something so I think I'll just have to cut it off there. Ciao, y'all!!!