On This Day: January 13, 2017, 2018, 2020

I’m adding these words on Jan 13, 2024. Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of this RUN! project. Wow.

jan 13, 2017 / 4 miles / 2 degrees, feels like -6

In this entry, I posted my running playlist. Since 2011, when I started running, I’ve had the unfortunate habit of editing my playlists — adding and removing songs — instead of creating new ones. As a result, all of the original playlists, as they were first created, are gone. I can remember many of the songs on them — I’m always calling out when I hear one playing, “that was on one of my running playlists!” — but not all of them. Thanks past Sara for documenting this one!

  1. Hey Ladies/Beasties Boys
  2. Furr/Blitzen Trapper
  3. The Raiders March/John Williams
  4. Don’t Stop Me Now/Queen
  5. Happy/Pharell Williams
  6. Without You/feat. Usher
  7. Skyfall/Adele
  8. Sorry/Justin Bieber
  9. Get Lucky/Daft Punk
  10. Ride Like the Wind/Christopher Cross
  11. Cheap Thrills/Sia
  12. I Made it Through the Rain/Barry Manilow
  13. Back in Black/ACDC
  14. I’m Going to Go Back There Someday/Gonzo
  15. ABC/The Jacksons
  16. The Best of Times/Styx
  17. The Distance/Cake
  18. Video/India Arie
  19. Roar/Katy Perry
  20. Ordinary People/John Legend
  21. Learn to Fly/Foo Fighters
  22. Gonna Fly Now (Theme for Rocky)/Bill Conti
  23. Don’t Dream it’s Over/Crowded House
  24. Big Shot/Billy Joel
  25. Pinball Number Count: 4/Pointer Sisters
  26. Uptown Funk/feat. Bruno Mars
  27. Hollaback Girl/Gwen Stefani
  28. I’m Still Standing/Elton John
  29. Summer Breeze/Seals & Crofts
  30. Firework/Katy Perry
  31. Another One Bites the Dust/Queen
  32. Baby/Justin Bieber
  33. Hot for Teacher/Van Halen

jan 13, 2018 / 4.1 miles / 0 degrees / 99% snow-covered

During the winter of 2018, I discovered the irritating delight of crunching snow. Here’s an early poem fragment in which I reflected on the sound snow makes when I step on it:

Running on snow
I hear a crack–
not sharp and singular
like a wooden bat
on a hot summer’s day
but a constant crunch
creaking and brittle
dry crystals shattering
crying out
with every step

jan 13, 2020 /

Every year, reading through these early 2020 entries, when the pandemic was already happening but we didn’t know it, I think about past Sara and what she’s about to experience — you have no idea, I say to her.

My former sister-in-law generously asked the poetry people for vision resources back in 2020 and I archived the link in this entry. I’ve been lucky so far that it hasn’t been lost as twitter dies, but I think I should post a list of the suggestions here:

writing about vision

  1. Seeing Red/ Meruane
  2. Emily K. Michaels
  3. A Vision of Empathy/ Kathryn Ma
  4. Vanishing Point/ Michele Leggott
  5. Garden Time/ WS Merwin
  6. Eye Trouble/ Alice Mattison
  7. Eyes/ Czeslaw Milosz