A story about Layla.

Good morning to you all — I definitely have a case of the Mondays today and the weather is not doing much for pulling me out of the Monday slump. It’s hot and muggy, but very overcast and drizzly at the same time.

Workout:

NONE. Off-day, and a much-needed one at that. I am starting to taper for my races (ugh, tapering) so I’m seeing a lot more rest days on my schedule than usual. Trying to not get anxious about it, because my workout days are still pretty intense.

One thing I am pretty happy about is how my hair turned out this morning. I have no idea what I was trying to do, but it ended up working.

Seriously I was going for like a teased ponytail look, and I think I accidentally nailed it. I basically have to tease the crap out of my hair in order to not look like a drowned rat so I started by spraying some dry shampoo into it for texture, teasing it around the crown of my head, and then actually making TWO ponytails (one on top of the other) for the effect of added volume.

Then, I teased the ponytails and sprayed the whole mess with Big Sexy Hair Spray. I think it’s working. I’m not sure how long it will last, but at least it looked decent when I took the picture.

Now for this story about Layla Brown.

Layla Brown ran away from us on Saturday night, and I think it was the first time that I’ve ever seen Steven Brown cry openly.

So, we were running errands like all day on Saturday and had the pups in the car with us, obviously. We did some last-minute grocery shopping at Kroger Saturday evening, and by the time we got home, it was dark out. Usually, when we get home, the dogs run straight from the car to the front porch and wait to be let inside. But, under the cover of darkness, Layla got brave and had other ideas.

We were pre-occupied while gathering the bags of groceries, and realized when we got to the front door that Phish was the only dog waiting patiently to get inside.

So, Steven immediately got into his truck and started driving around the neighborhood calling for Layla, and asking if she wanted to go for a ride. When he wasn’t back within 10 minutes, I went outside to call for Layla as well. Steven pulled in the driveway and I was unpleasantly surprised to see that he actually hadn’t found Layla. When I went to the window, he had his face buried in his hands. It was awful.

I jumped into my car and we took off in separate directions. I got about a tenth of a mile down the road and was calling out “Layla, do you wanna go ride?!” And I heard what is, to me, the unmistakable sound of Layla running uncontrollably toward me. She appeared out of nowhere in the pitch blackness with a look of pure joy on her face. I opened a door for her and she hopped into my truck like it was totally no big deal. We circled the neighborhood and I saw Steven’s truck up ahead of me. I flashed my lights for him to stop and pulled up beside him so that Layla’s window was right next to his driver’s side window. Steven literally put his truck in a park in the middle of the road to hug Layla and cried again. The emotional roller-coaster of an evening, I’m telling you.

Needless to say, we’re both very grateful that Layla’s disappearance didn’t result in something more serious. It would tear me up if anything happened to either of our pups, so thank goodness it was only a brief scare.

Alright friends, I’ll catch you all later tonight. I was thinking about taking a Les Mills class at The Burn tonight (Body Pump, 6 p.m., which I’ve never done and want to try!) BUT — I’m pretty sure Susan would advocate against that, especially the day before speed work and during taper time. Bummer.

I hope your Monday is as good as a Monday can be!