This Is The Day

Not very much exciting news on the running front -- treadmill at the gym during the week and a hill run on the weekends.  Overfocus on heart rates.  Not enough weight lifting.  I ditched the orthotics about three weeks ago.  My arthritic left toe is feeling much better,  although I am reluctant to give credit to the Osteo Bio Flex supplement I started.  But slowly, one run at a time, getting back to it.

I have been listening to a lot of music on the treadmill at the gym.  I am really sick of my iPod right now.  At any rate, last night was my daughter's 10th birthday.  (Happy Birthday!).  I told her -- and this true -- that on the way to the hospital on the day she born, "This Is the Day" by The The was stuck in my head.  "This Is the Day/Your life will surely change..."

The The is an interesting band.  I remember my sophomore year in college that my roommate had the "Soul Mining"  album.  It has a very disturbing/bizarre painting on the cover.  And I couldn't stand the record.  But later, senior year or so (1989?), I just really fell for the music and listened to the cassette so much it actually broke.  The music is incredible ("Giant" has an incredible xylophone solo (at 1:27)), and even now, I still run to it.  I thought The The (which is mostly one person with a rotating backup band), would become an obscure eighties band remembered by a few hard core fans.

And then "This is the Day" ends up licensed to M&M's and becomes the theme song for a bunch of singing and whistling animated M&M's.  And what is even more ironic is that the song is actually kind of depressing (as is most of The The).  It is about someone who wakes up and resolves that this is the day they will pull themselves out of a stupor and realize their ambition.

But, as I told my now ten year old daughter, I listened to it again yesterday, and remembered the sunny walk from our apartment to the hospital to see my new baby girl. 10 years ago.


Well... you didn't wake up this morning
Because you didn't go to bed
You were watching the whites of your eyes
Turn red
The calendar, on your wall, is ticking the days off
The calendar on your wall is ticking  the days off
You've been reading some old letters
You smile and think how much you've changed
All the money in the world
Couldn't bring back those days.
You pull back the curtains, and the sun burns into your eyes,
You watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky.

THIS IS THE DAY -- Your life will surely change.
THIS IS THE DAY -- Your life will surely change.

You could've done anything -- if you'd wanted
And all your friends and family think that you're lucky.
But the side of you they'll never see
Is when you're left alone with the memories
That hold your life together like glue

You pull back the curtains, and the sun burns into your eyes,
You watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky.
THIS IS THE DAY -- Your life will surely change.
THIS IS THE DAY -- When things fall into place.