Smells From a Morning Run In Suburban Mississippi

I was determined to get out of my house this morning and run my measured 5.2 miles in the neighborhood. Running at 5:00 am is hard to maintain, especially when I'm afraid of the dark. I woke up with a headache (big party last night at my book club- PAR-TAY), so I downed two cups of coffee and readied myself for the torture I enjoy. I grabbed the ipod (I hate to hear myself breathe while I'm running- I sound like I'm about to die) and, by 7:20, I was out the door. It was overcast and cool (ish) this morning as I scrolled through my music while I was walking (warm-up before I run). I turned on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" (must listen over and over again to music I am currently obsessed with) and started my trot. As I was jogging, I started smelling different things and imagined my own stories for the smells...

Cigarette smell wafted under my nose as I passed a man sitting in his garage (where I see him a lot) and I imagined that he was lonely. He looked lonely.

I smelled fabric softener as I passed another house, and I imagined a sighing mother looking at her mounds of laundry thinking, "well, I better get this started." I imagined her sitting at her table drinking coffee while the washing machine hummed, maybe writing bills or reading a book.

I passed a house where the cologne smell was so strong that I veered to the other side of the street. Not good cologne, but the kind where you imagine the guy slicking back his hair, looking at himself in the mirror with one foot back, raising an eyebrow at his reflection and doing the gun-fingers at himself, making a clicking noise with his tongue. "Dude, you look good." I snickered as I passed his house.

I passed an immaculate yard where the smell of blooming flowers was very inviting. I watched the man with the weed eater, paused in his work, scrutinizing what was next to be done. I imagined he had been in the military. The buzz cut and stern brow said so.

The smell of a men's college track team, passing me by. They lapped me twice. Thanks boys. They smelled sweaty. I imagined they just wanted to show me up, but I think that's my humiliation talking. I don't even think they saw me. I felt like the coyote when the roadrunner passes him. I think I spun twice around with dust whirling about. Where did the dust come from?

I smelled rain in the air (but was still bitter about the college track team) and gloried in the occasional breeze from the approaching shower.

I smelled a freshly mowed lawn and watched a sleepy teenage boy pushing the mower in methodical lines.

I smelled wet moss, which is one of my favorite smells. It reminds me of memories from my childhood at Moss Park, outside of Orlando. There was a gigantic slide there, that you had to sit on a beach towel to slide down (one because it was boiling hot, and two, because you would go like lightening).

And lastly, I smelled me. I ran 5.2 miles (1st time ladies and gentlemen) and was pretty sweaty. But to me, it smelled like triumph and goals and size 4 jeans.

I had a great run this morning.