Lilacs

On the ripple blog they have a question of the week and it got me thinking to blog on it tonight...
"What is your favourite childhood memory?"

Off the top of my head/my first thought:

For the two summers that we lived in Manitoba, my sister and I used to ride our bikes every single day to this wading pool run by the city. I think I was around 8 years old at the time. We spent the better part of the day there in the pool, playing games with the other kids, and doing crafts - there was a girl from the university who ran the activities there all summer and I guess was kind of a lifeguard for the pool - although it was a wading pool, so I'm not sure an official lifeguard was necessary. It was the 80's though, I think there was more money for stuff like that back then. And I don't think you had to pay for any of these things either - you were a kid in the neighbourhood and you just showed up. It was so fun. We would bike there through a bunch of different streets, passing some of our friends' houses, sometimes stopping at their houses on the way home, or going to their houses for lunch and back to the pool again. Sometimes we'd ride all around for hours just riding - to the train tracks, to the park, etc. Back then (OMG I'm about to sound old) we were allowed to hop on our bikes and not return home til dinner. Our parents didn't worry at all about where we were. When we lived there I got my first ten-speed. That was a big deal. I never really knew how to work the gears very well. The most vivid part of this memory is the pathway that took us from a residential street into the park where the wading pool resided - it was lined with lilacs. Whenever I pass lilacs/smell lilacs today it brings me back to age 8-9 and biking in Manitoba to the pool with my sister and our friends.

Change Management

Interesting how lessons seem to come around in life like a theme. At least sometimes they do. And if you are open to seeing it, you notice, and you think - how funny (not funny - haha) how that works... Or maybe it's just the universe hitting you over the head with the message to be sure you don't miss it. Of course, some people miss it anyway. I'm glad that sometimes I catch on...

So, I found out that I'm likely going to make a big change in my life in the next few months: I will have to move. Like where I live, is what I mean. It's not ideal timing as I have other ideas for my 'short-term life plans'. I had no short term life plans a while ago, but now I see some forming and I'm excited about that. As a result I thought those plans would come about in the next year or so and then I would start to look at moving. But life doesn't always work on my schedule and according to my detailed plan of attack. My landlord wants to take over living in my apartment himself and it's about a year earlier than I'd hoped we'd have to think about stuff like this. So, this is one big change that I'm sorting out on every level.

Then today I had my performance appraisal at work. It went really well. :) And in the process we talked about me being a leader in change orientation for the other people on my team. Which is cool, because for the most part I welcome change, and even when I'm not welcoming it with open arms, my usual approach to it is: OK, I may not like this, but let's figure out how to make the best of it (kinda like the situation I just described in the previous paragraph). So I'm going to look for a course to take on how to be a change agent - or whatever the catch-phrase/buzz word of the times is for that.

It's nice how you can work on personal and work stuff at the same time. Figuring it all out. Growing and maturing in both areas at the same time and using the same tools and skills for work and life outside of work. Hmmm. OK. Way too cerebral. What happened to posting on bikes and bike gear and cycling and trips and, and... ;)

Some quotes on change for inspiration:

If you don't like something change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it. ~Mary Engelbreit

If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~Author Unknown

Change always comes bearing gifts. ~Price Pritchett

Hungry

I'm hungry. All the time these days. I know I've been working out a LOT, but it's more than that. Maybe it's the weather or something. It's cold. So I feel like I need to eat all the time. And nothing satisfies me. And the only reason why I'm not actually giving in to the hunger and eating more than normal is because I'm lazy. I've got celery in the fridge waiting to be washed and cut so I can eat it with my hummus for snacks and I'm too lazy to wash and cut the freakin' stuff! So then I just don't bother eating. When that happens I just sleep instead. Cuz I'm also tired. I defrosted some of that tuna casserole that I made last week and ate it for dinner because I'm even too tired and lazy to make anything. Or do the dishes. You should see the kitchen. Ugh. :(

I hope I ate enough. Seriously. I'm heading out shortly to my rescheduled xc-ski lessons. And since they are later than my originally scheduled lessons, and it's colder when it's later, and it's the first lesson... I'm not sure how much skiing we're actually going to do. On the first lesson they like to teach you how to wax and talk and stuff - and they do more talking if it's cold so you don't have to be outside in the cold too long. Because you're not going to move a lot on the first lesson - they will start easy drills and make you learn your balance and weight transfer. And I just finished waxing my skis. I already know how to do that too. So why the hell am I in beginner skate lessons again? I already know what we're going to do. If I were the instructor I could write the lesson plan. But the thing is - I need to start from the beginning. So anyway, I hope I ate enough - in case I get to be more active than I think. And I hope I didn't eat too much in case we aren't too active. It's torture, I tell you!

K, I think it's time for some chocolate.

b-early

What's up with the word 'belated'? What's the antonym for that? You know like - over-early? Because you know, late is late - how can it be 'belated'? Anyway... happy be-earlied birthday to me:



Oh Becks - you shouldn't have! ;)

Tuna Casserole

So my weekend had a theme of an "attempt at self care". I think I did not too badly. After a very hectic week and low spirits I tried my best to do things that would just make me happy. I had an amazing dinner with some friends on Friday night at a restaurant I would highly recommend. I skied - a lot. Since I wasn't doing so well at learning skate up in the park Saturday morning (1/2 an hour spent battling hills when I should have been working on my gliding technique), I went home, had a nice lunch (pictured above) and rested. Then I headed over to the TF complex once I figured the xc lessons would have wrapped up, and I practiced loops and loops of gliding without my poles. Before I left though, I had phoned up one of my friends and when she joined me later I switched over to my classic gear and did a loop of that park with her. Enough exercise for me? ;) I should hope so. After that I had dinner with she and her hubby where they had a special dessert for me (in celebration of the upcoming date of my birth). Today I slept in and then bummed around most of the morning. I finally got my butt out the door - brrrrr, it's a cold one today! And headed to the gym to do my strength training. Once home I cleaned a bit, studied for my exam, road the bike for 40 mins and then dinner, laundry and now this. Not bad. Today might not have been as relaxing as it could have been for a self care initiative, however, the total lack of doing anything until 1 PM likely made up for it!

As for the picture I posted... my new little treating myself thing - which I just started this weekend with that meal. My sister made me that little tray for Christmas - cute eh?! Talented little sister I've got. And it's my favourite colours and all. Makes me happy. So now I'm going to take all my meals to the living room on that tray - like a weird old lady. lol.

My Week

Yep. This is how I've been feeling this week. Since my last post really.

And Sunday wasn't really as nice as it usually is. Certainly not as fun as it looks for Snoopy.

What I'm thinking: 'this too shall pass'. Hope to have more fun stuff to blog on soon.

Skate Skiing

Did I write yet about how I got out on the weekend for my first skate ski? I kinda learned all on my own. My lessons are supposed to be this weekend, but now that it rained and got all warm this week the conditions are all screwed and my lessons are postponed for two weeks.

So anyway, as I said, I went to the park and did my first real skate ski - AND I LOVED IT! I found it came more naturally to me than classic - but it's also quite a bit harder cardio-wise. However, that gets me pretty excited too because if I can skate a couple times per week for the rest of the season (may the snow-gods shine on our city!), then my cardio will be so wicked for cycling season!! Yay! I love it!

Year in Review

Yesterday I wrote this, but now I've changed a few things after playing around some more. Now you can just click and go to a set of photos. I tried to get it to go to a slideshow, but I was having difficulty with the code. I'm not that adept - yet.

As you can clearly see, I am very easily finding my way back into the work groove.
Since it's working out so well for me, I've decided to take tomorrow off to go skiing.
And in the meantime, share my favourite images from 2007...

www.flickr.com

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008 boys and girls! Another year has passed. Hard to believe.

I hope everyone had a safe but fun holiday! I spent New Years in Montreal. I had a really fun time there for the past few days! We're in the middle of yet another snow storm though and I drove home in it. It was a pretty slow drive back - the roads were a bit dicey. Maybe not the best thing to do, but I managed ok and didn't take any chances on the road. Just slow and steady. I'm bagged though. Last night the people living below my friend, Lisa, stayed up til about 5 AM I think and they were screaming and laughing and pounding around. Needless to say - I think I'm ready for bed now. Yikes!

Well, I'm ready for 2008. I'm ready for my skate ski lessons next weekend - yipee! I've already started teaching myself because I'm too excited to wait. I had a totally wicked ski last Friday with a group of friends up in the park. Super-fun. I'm ready for more cycling, and I'm ready to be even stronger this year than last. I'm ready for new challenges at work (I think). I'm ready for a boyfriend, however I don't really blog about that stuff so you won't hear much about that unless you are one of my girlfriends. If you are one of them - rest assured, I hope not to disappoint with more dating stories for you. I'm ready for more traveling - although my travel plans keep changing in my head on a semi-regular basis. Regardless of changes, I should have more wander to lust about this year on the blog. And I definitely plan to travel and bike this year - maybe even more than last! Yipee!!

I wish you all health, happiness, success, love, and friendship for this year... 2008 - here we come!

And here's an interesting tidbit for you:
Happy 150th Anniversary Ottawa!















Couple of photos I took in February 2002!
Can you believe the difference in snow to this year?