Awesomefacing. The first known occurrence was documented in this terribly grainy photo on January 16, 2009, on the occasion of getting a new television. We’d upgraded from a 19 inch double wide number, the kind of tv that weighed about five times what you expect. Louie was just a little excited.
We laughed until we cried over this face. It made occasional, but few appearances over the years. I’d request it every now and then.
A sample exchange:
Me: “Hey Louie, make that one face.”
Louie: “What face?”
Me: “You know what I mean!”
And then, in 2013, awesomefacing officially became a thing.
Louie and I trained for and ran the 500 Festival Mini Marathon in May, and the Monumental Marathon in November. His pace is faster then mine to the tune of two minutes per mile. Because of this, we very rarely run together, but we did choose the same training plan. Most days, we’d depart for our runs at the same time, and at some point, we’d cross paths on the Monon Trail, me still heading north, him circling back towards home.
I don’t recall the first time it happened, but at some point Louie began to greet me with his best awesomeface as he passed. The only thing to do at that point is to awesomeface right back.
Here’s how you do it: Kick your head back just a bit. Stretch your mouth open as wide and high as you can as you can – then push yourself to do it a little bit further. If you’re doing it right, it probably will hurt a little, and then you’ll start laughing. Especially if you’re looking at someone else who is also awesomefacing.
We gave it this name along the way. It’s incredibly silly. I’m sure more than one individual who has witnessed our exchange on the Monon has thought we were certifiably insane. But you know what? When you’re digging in and trying to push toward that next running milestone, a good awesomeface goes a long way to pump you up.
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Today’s prompt: “What word(s) did you learn OR make-up this year? How did you learn it/make it up? Did you start using it?”