Screw the IRA, show me the IPod

My training for the Victoria half-marathon - a mere seven weeks away - is going quite well, thank you. I'm up to 5 miles for my short runs, and my long runs are at 7 miles and increasing by a mile a week up to the race. My pace is getting noticeably quicker, too.

However, it turns out that one hour is the longest I can run without getting truly, stiflingly bored with my own brain. Which is surprising, since in general I can happily spend a LOT of time in my own company. Way more time than most people I know. But after about an hour of running, my brain needs some distraction. I've just started a new consulting gig and although I had vowed that my top priority would be to fully fund my annual retirement contribution, I think that some of this first check must go for an IPod.

Fortunately, I'm charging this client a little extra per hour from my usual rate, because this is an organization that I have now worked for and left four times. How that came to be is a long story, but suffice to say, it got to be a joke. After a while they stopped having goodbye parties for me, thank goodness. I think the last one was like "Hey everyone, there's cupcakes in the conference room 'cause Flora is leaving again." And people went, "Cool! Cupcakes!" Each time, I had to send out a good-bye email, if only to remind people that they should stop contacting me and instead starting calling [fill in the blank with my replacement]. So when they convinced me to help out with this contract job, I just had to charge them a little extra, a premium for the hearty heckling I'm going to get, given that my fourth and last goodbye email was entitled: "Dude. Seriously. I'm leaving."

So it's kind of a Heckling Premium. Or, the IPod Premium, as luck may have it.