"It's such a perfect day, I'm glad I spent it with you..."

I had a lot of good days with good people over my holiday break at home.

After gorging on puto, bulgogi sauced meatballs, and pigs-in-a blanket that reminded us of the little baby Jesus (especially when you give them little mustard smiley faces), and staying up late to watch a nearly unintelligible Dick Clark, I decided to start the new year right with some physical activity. New Year’s Day in the DC area was beautiful. Cool and crisp and a perfect day for a walk.

I went with my younger brother, Guboy, and he decided on the trails based on where he and Pa went mountain biking last summer. They took up biking on a whim and have really loved it. Mom was at first afraid the bikes would sit in the utility room all summer, but ended up chiding Goo for spending too much time and money on his bike. I am really looking forward to getting a bike and joining them, even if I haven’t ridden since I was 11.

First, Goo and I went to Tucker Road where they have a fitness trail that he’s always wanted to try, but has always past it by while on his bike. It would have been silly to ride 10ft and stop to do chin-ups or something. From this activity, we learned that we can’t do chin-ups or balance on a balance beam very well. Did I mention we’re out of shape? That’s ok though, I have NEVER EVER been able to do chin-ups. Since we kinda suck at fitness trail and the trail is actually kind of short we didn’t spend much time there. Actually, I think it took longer to get to Tucker Rd because we couldn’t remember its exact location, despite having gone past it to go to St. Columba for Christmas Mass (which we had to go to because St. John’s didn’t have the usual schedule on Christmas Day and we didn’t realize that until we sat in the church alone for about 10mins! Honestly, churches really shouldn’t change their schedules on holidays for the sake of their occasional participants!)

Anyway, we moved on to our next trail, Cedarville State Forest in Charles County. We were much more successful there. We parked the car and put our $3 in the little box at the entrance for our parking pass and headed off on the Orange trail. The Orange trail is 7 miles long and the only one directly connected to the parking lot. I wondered if there were shorter trails but apparently all other trails branch off of it. So I figured a level, brisk walk is about 4miles/hr and I could walk for 2 hours, no problem.

And wouldn’t you know it, it wasn’t a problem. No sweat, literally, because the high temp was about 50degF. The sky was clear and the ground was soft beneath our feet and made a nice, soft thump "like a bass drum" (can you tell I was with a drummer?) with every step. We only really had to take one break about 4 miles into it and the occasional slight inclines increased our heartrates noticeably (I did mention we’re out shape), but I loved every minute of it.

We realized that if you’re going to take a long walk with someone, you better like him. Unlike while biking or running where you’re going too fast or out of breath, or just out of pace with your buddy, during a walk you’ve got to be able to talk about nothing and everything and you’ve got to be just as comfortable with the silences. And I was lucky enough to be with my younger brother. We make each other laugh and don’t have to explain dumb jokes or obscure references, which you might have to do with someone you haven’t known for the past 20 years.

Along the trail Goo pointed out stumps to be aware of while biking and the place where he had his most dramatic accident. One day he was going too fast down a hill where the path is covered in gravel. Someone didn’t think that one through because you cannot break on gravel. So Goo ended up veering off the path and hitting a stump or something that made his bike stop. He didn’t. He kept going, flying over the handlebars and continuing to fall down the hill with his arms to his side as if he were being shot out of a cannon. Goo finally stopped at the bottom of the hill when his FACE hit a log. The boy has done some backyard boxing and he said it was worse than any punch in the face he’s ever gotten. But he got up ok and soon Pa came along on the trail with the first aid kit. Guboy had to ride the rest of the trail, passing other cyclist and hikers, with a huge gauze on his face. When they got home, Mom was really worried, considering the big bandage on his face, until of course, she took it off. She told me it was just a scratch. LOL. But hey, a small scratch inflicted by a moldy log at high velocity is a BIG deal.

For the record, Goo likes to ride fast and has fewer, but more dramatic falls off the bike. Pa goes slower, but has more frequent small falls. Except probably that time he fell into Cosca lake. LOL and Ewww.

So anyway, after a little more than 2 hours, at about 4:15 pm as the sun was lowering in the sky, Guboy and I completed our 7mile walk (not hike for we were wearing sneakers, not boots!). I have never walked that far for the purpose of just walking. Seven miles = 11.2 kilometers = about 14,000 steps! My feet didn’t even hurt (though my legs did get sore the next day, but I knew I didn’t stretch enough afterwards)! We were very pleased with ourselves.

Looking back at the past few New Year’s days, I am much more pleased with myself this time around. I’ve definitely made some changes for the better, and some have said I’ve changed back to who I really am. Either way, I think it’s going to be a really good year.