The Quest Toward Self Improvement

In the interest of not being so cranky, whiny, irritable, and self-involved, I have decided that this spring/summer, I will actually be the active, outdoorsy person that I imagine myself to be.  I've been trying to do some sort of outside physical activity every day, unless it's pouring down more of the miserable rain.  I've been hiking a couple of times, started playing tennis with a friend once or twice a week, and on other days, I run/walk with my dog.

So far, this quest has forced me to face up to some hard truths.  Such as:
- I am really, really out of shape.  No, seriously.  That whole falling on my head and shoulder thing and not being able to move for a while and then just continuing to not move out of sheer inertia...not good.  I'm not a fan of wanting to die after I run a mile.
- I'm not all that coordinated.  Or rather, I don't trust my body as much as I once did, and caution tends to make me a little jerky and hesitant.  It's annoying.  In high school I was never a great athlete, but I played multiple sports and thought nothing of scaling rock cliff faces.  Not so much, anymore.
- My dog is aging.  Gone are the days when she could run for hours and be fairly unaffected.  Forget about my mile exhaustion, that's also about the point when she just lies down in someone's yard and looks at me like I'm nuts to move another step.  This is not conducive to my running improvement.

Anyway, the point of all of this is that I do indeed feel better about life when I'm active and getting some fresh air and sunshine.  And I'll definitely feel better about life when I can actually walk around Europe this summer without getting exhausted and feeling like a fat, lazy American.