5K practice!

I'm jazzed to announce that I'm beyond ready for the next 5K!  I went to Planet Fitness with Annie for the first run of 2015, and I'm ecstatic to declare that I ran 3.1 miles in 24 minutes!  That makes my pace approximately 8 minutes per mile!!  Normally, I walk about 6-8 miles a day delivering the mail, and naturally, that aids my stamina.  However, 3.1 miles in 24 minutes is my baseline, and call me nuts, but I'm sure I can close in on the 20 minute mark by the summer.

My first 5K will be in Philadelphia on March 1st for the Philadelphia Flower Show.  Not only will I be able to enjoy a run, but we'll also get tickets to the show!  It also doesn't hurt that there's a post-5k run party with a free beer!  Huzzah!!

Energy Drinks

Hmmm, a new lesson in life: don't underestimate Monster Energy drinks.  I had my first energy drink at around 7:40 PM right before band practice that started at 8:00.  I sipped on that bitch for about two hours until practice ended at 10:00.  I drank another energy drink on the way back home from Union.  I suppose I wanted to ensure that I wouldn't doze off on the way back home.  In case you were wondering, the trip from Union to Philadelphia is roughly about ninety minutes.  I arrived home at about midnight.  It's currently 12:45AM, and I'm wide-the-fuck awake.  I'm convinced I'm not going to doze off for another week or so.  The silver lining in this situation: it's great to know those effective energy drinks work.

Some concerns

I wonder if the issue of respect will prove to be any sort of detrimental occurrence at the work place.  I was raised by "If you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all."  However, at work, this proves to be quite contrary to what others were taught.

I'm not too crazy about how whenever a regular carrier is gone, regardless of how strong or poor of a work ethic that carrier has, the other guys at work would never fail to criticize that person.  I just feel that this would make me more secretive and more quiet of a person if I knew that I would be talked about as if I were a stinky, guilty street dog out on the town in search of a bite to eat.

What is the line between defending one's self and not fueling the fire of another's desire to provoke?  How important is it to maintain one's reputation when living in a den of gossip?  If you live in a village of fools, is salvaging the perception others hold of your reputation as crucial as bolstering the reality of said character?

I  live day-to-day with a clear conscience; should I really get worked up over silliness at the workplace?