Who Runs on What?

I'm a terrible blogger. At least I'm a terribly infrequent blogger. It's been over 4 months since my last blog entry. Sheesh!

So I'm planning to rectify that this year. Starting now. What could possibly be worthy of a blog entry since my previous entry when Obama was elected? The answer is: Nothing of any major cosmic or global significance. But it was something that brought a slight chuckle to my day.

This afternoon I went for a run as part of my battle against the weight I've gained from the holiday bingeing and traveling I've done during the period from November through February. It was a rather nice day and despite having rather tight and sore legs from a previous workout, it wasn't a half bad run.

After my run, I stretched out in front of my apartment. Just as I was finishing up an old lady walked by and gave me a rather strange look. As I was finished with my stretches, I followed her inside and rode the elevator up with her. While in the elevator she asked me what type of work was I doing. I replied with a question, "Now?" To which she replied, "Yes." I told her I wasn't working, but was exercising. At least that's how I interpreted the conversation.

This might be a good time to say that I'm still living in Beijing at this time and this entire conversation took place in Mandarin. There are subtleties of language and culture that I'm so used to in U.S. English, but I just don't have in Chinese. So it's in that context that I thought I may have misunderstood what she meant with her question. This thought was further reinforced by the fact that as she exited the elevator, she looked unsatisfied and confused by my answer. Her reaction in turn made me unsatisfied and confused with my answer as well.

As I exited the elevator and shortly afterward, entered my apartment, I noticed my outfit. As the accompanying photo shows; I was wearing a blue "America Runs on Dunkin" t-shirt with a long-sleeve t-shirt underneath and my sunglasses. Seems innocuous enough. But it's all about context. I don't live in a neighborhood with many other Asian Americans or expats. Most people in my complex seem to be local folk. They often dress in pretty drab grey or dark colors during the winter and I don't remember seeing anyone wear sunglasses. It struck me that I must look like a multi-colored freak doing these strange things in front of her apartment. She may very well have thought I was wearing some strange uniform and wondered what the heck I was doing in front of her apartment. I'm pretty sure I stood out like a sore thumb dressed as I was while doing strange things in front of her apartment building.

So I had a little chuckle about the matter and snapped the accompanying pic from my iPhone to commemorate the incident. I could very well have been suffering from the effects of a runners high and completely misinterpreted the situation. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have. But it gave me a chuckle and I deemed it blog-worthy enough to break my 4 month non-blogging streak.