spinners, running and Carmen Sandiego

I found a terrific piece of Facebook flair the other day that read, “Chuck Norris knows where in the world Carmen Sandiego is.” Fantastic. Chuck Norris jokes will never ever get old and Carmen SanDiego is one of my most favorite characters ever. I had the computer game as a kid and desperately wanted to be a contestant on the PBS game show of the same name just so I could “run” the map of a continent. Carmen inspired me to participate in the 7th grade home-school geography bee. Don’t make fun.
Anyway. As I’m never home these days, I’m seriously considering re-naming the blog, “Where on the road is Bethany Daniel?” Sadly, Rockapella wouldn't be there to follow me around with catchy lyrics, but maybe Ronnie would write me a little ditty to chant...I'll have to ask him about it. (p.s. i put the Carmen Sandiego theme song lyrics at the end of this post in case you don't have the patience to check out the YouTube video.)

Today’s answer: Montgomery, Alabama.
Home of lots of vanity license plates (spotted today “IGETIT” and a few other gems I won’t repeat here), a “tricked out chopper” with cross-shaped spinning rear-view mirrors, and a teenage girl who drives a standard clutch jeep with a silver hand grenade on top of her stick-shift. I kid you not. I can’t make this stuff up.
Also home to Ronnie Freeman’s parents and the church he grew up in…hence why I’m here. Ronnie, Trenton, Ben Phillips and Glen Kimberlin and I are playing the “homecoming” service at First Assembly of God, Montgomery this weekend.

Tonight we’re at the Freeman’s house for a cookout and while the guys sacked out on the couches to watch the Alabama/Tulane game on pay-per-view ($30 ladies and gentlemen…), I got the workout bug. For those of you who know me well, you know that I’ve been a self-declared “novice runner” for about 2 and a half years now and even though I’d decided to run the Nashville half-marathon last Spring (which didn’t happen, p.s.), however over the past 2 months, I haven’t run one bit. Not a bit. Tonight however, fueled by a random burst of energy I plugged into the old iPod and set off down the dirt road.

Dirt road?

Who am I kidding? Sand road. With every step I took I sunk about an inch and a half into the loose dirt working out my calves more in a mile that I normally do in a month. Once down the road and back with 7 of the neighborhood dogs padding happily along behind me (yes….7….just call me the Pied Piper) and I was dripping with late summer afternoon Alabama humidity; my “muffin top” shifting uncomfortably from side to side as I ran reminding me that I need to get back into a regular exercise routine that includes toning the abs. Crunches, thou art my friend. Much to the dismay of the local canines, I headed to the air conditioned weight room to finish my workout. ahem.....death sentence. (I am actually posting this a day after I wrote it since this is the first time in 24 hours that I'm sitting down to an internet connection....and my calves and abs are KILLINGme!)  I then made sure to pig out on Mrs. Freeman's yummy yummy food and undid everything I did in the gym.  Nice.  gotta love it when that happens.



Carmen Sandiego Theme Lyrics

Well she sneaks around the world from Kiev to Carolina,
She's a sticky-fingered filcher from Berlin down to Belize,
She'll take you for a ride on a slow boat to China,
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

Steal their Seoul in South Korea, make Antarctica cry Uncle,
From the Red Sea to Greenland they'll be singing the blues,
Well they never Arkansas her steal the Mekong from the jungle,
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

She go from Nashville to Norway, Bonaire to Zimbabwe,
Chicago to Czechoslovakia and back!

Well she'll ransack Pakistan and run a scam in Scandinavia,
Then she'll stick 'em up Down Under and go pick-pocket Perth,
She put the Miss in misdemeanor when she stole the beans from Lima,
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
Oh tell me where in the world is... Oh tell me where can she be?

Ooh, Botswana to Thailand, Milan via Amsterdam,
Mali to Bali, Ohio, Oahu...!

Well she glides around the globe and she'll flimflam every nation,
She's a double-dealing diva with a taste for thievery,
Her itinerary's loaded up with moving violations,
Tell me where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?