Your taste buds change every seven years.

This 'folk fact' as I suppose it can best be described, is a bit of running joke between Gavin and I, spurred from his family. However, I've figured out that apparently my interested change at least every seven years as well.

It's true that, as this blog has detailed, I've taken up many new interests lately. Biking, gardening, ceramics, painting: while I've never spent much energy on them in the past, I've never disliked any of these activities.

This week I tried and, to my shock, enjoyed two new interests: Running and History.

I've always disliked running. I think my dislike of running is a big part of my dislike of many sports I've tried playing. I hated Fridays in middle school because we had to run a mile every week. About six months ago I tried to pick up running because one of my girlfriends loves to run and we were going to be vacationing together (if you can call PCA a vacation). I planned and failed exactly three runs and gave up on the well intentioned, if fatally flawed, idea. Last week I decided to take a short run because I wanted to exercise but didn't have much time. I hated it, but I finished and felt accomplished. It was a long run, or a fast run, but I set a goal and made it. The next day I felt good, the way I generally feel after a particularly good yoga routine. So I tried again. I told myself I couldn't add running to my blog tracked activities until I'd done it five times. Mini-mission accomplished. I doubt I'll ever be a 'real' runner, but I'm excited to try something new for a awhile.


And History. I've been trying to come up with a good reason for why I disliked history so much, but cant really seem to. Regardless, a history book came up as a recommendation by my audiobook library: That's Not in My American History Book. by Thomas Ayres. It is even more surprising to me that I would download an American History book. Ancient history, history of civil engineering, and even religious history all sound more (.0001% is greater than 0%) interesting to me. I suspect I downloaded it for the same reason I downloaded the Art of War, to pacify my guiltily pleasure of crime novels.

I didn't intend to listen to it. I was finishing up Stiff by Mary Roach on my overnight drive from Vegas to Los Angeles. The middle of the night alone on a nearly empty highway is not the best time to listen to a book about what you suspect to be one of the more boring possible groups in the Dewey Decimal system. When Stiff ended, I realized that my iPod had slipped onto the ground in the passenger seat foot well. Penny had just fallen asleep and I wasn't really interested in being eaten by the Hills Have Eyes monsters while pulled over to retrieve it anyway. History book ti was. The book was actually pretty good. I was a bit embarrassed that many of the 'common known' historical people and facts he was debunking or expanding on were completely unknown to me, but at least I learned something new. I'm nearly done with it now and would recommend it to anyone with even a vague interest in American History.

Moral of the blog? Don't be afriad to try something again!