Most Gorgeous Day Ever!

It may be that the long, gray winter has influenced me, and the fact that it was practically light when I met my friends for our run at 6:15 this morning buoyed my spirits, but I think today is the most gorgeous day ever.
Sure, it was cold, in the 20s, and I couldn't really feel my fingers for the first half hour or so, but I love running on the trail with my friends. The sunlight reflecting on the snow was like manna from heaven. Today is Princess' birthday and she started it with a 7.5 mile run. Everything has to be good now. So happy birthday, Princess.
One of the blogs I follow, http://willows95988.typepad.com/tongue_cheek/ asked the question today about who is the storyteller in your life and what kinds of stories do you tell. Well, that Saturday morning run on the trail is all about telling stories. We tell stories about our lives and our kids' lives. We talk about work and we laugh and laugh.
Today's stories were all over the place, as usual, as we interrupt each other to point out bright red cardinals, disappearing bunny tails and the smooth water of the river right before it gets bumpy over the rocks.
Stephanie told a story about her mammogram that didn't happen because the machine was broken. We began to speculate about what could have happened to the machine. We pictured it getting stuck with a woman's breast inside it and how they would have to call the firefighters with "the jaws of life" to free her pancaked breast.
We imagined running a marathon at Big Sur and how we wouldn't make it very far because Stephanie would stop to look at every hole in the ground, every scat on the path and every movement in the bushes.
The Queen of Secrets pondered how three of her friends at work could have the exact same birthdays that her three running friends have. Strange coincidence or karma?
Then we laughed about our hiking trip when we were all a little more out of shape, Princess was on Accutane which was giving her old-lady joint issues, and we decided to hike 25 miles in the rain and slippery leaves. We didn't even see the night sky because of the clouds.
"Why didn't we just spend another night on the trail instead of going home?" I asked aloud.
"Don't you remember that you sat down on that stump and refused to move?" Princess asked me.
Oh, yeah. Now I remember why we returned to civilization. I was miserable, along with the Queen of Secrets and the Princess. Only Stephanie was cheerful, trying to keep us walking.
That trip, that miserable trip, has given us so many fun things to talk about though, as we meet each week on the trail to run.
Maybe we'll go again for two nights and a much shorter hike -- just so we don't run out of things to talk about on the trail.