Training to Live

this morning started off very early (for a day that i didn’t have to go into work, that is) – i took a bus to the subway station, then the subway all the way downtown, then a shuttle to the ferry and then a short ferry ride to the toronto island airport to catch my flight to this windy city. i was flying a newish airline that i’d never flown before but had heard awesome things about. every single one was true! the waiting lounge was lovely (free drinks – cappucinos, lattes, tazo tea, all kinds of juice bottles/pop, etc, and lots of snacks plus free wifi and comfy chairs), the staff were all extremely pleasant and everything just went really smoothly. plus all their branding/marketing is extremely sharp, and i’m kind of a sucker for gorgeous design! i’d fly with porter again in a second, even though actually getting to the airport is a little bit more complicated that going to the main toronto airport.

we flew into midway airport in chicago, and that was a breeze as well. i found anne almost immediately and she, rebecca and i headed onto the orange line to make our way to the hotel. i found my awesome roommate hanging out in the lobby. the hotel let us check in early, which was awesome because after an hour out in the super chicago humidity, i really needed a freshen up and a shoe change! then we met sarah and meg in the lobby to head to a lunch place that several friends had recommended to me called Lula’s. it was fabulous – very healthy food blogger worthy and interesting. i got a “taneka” sandwich. i don’t even know what that is, exactly, but it was yummy!

i love a sandwich that is packed with interesting stuff, and as you can see, this one is loaded!

then we decided to make our way back downtown to go on an architecture boat tour on the river, which also came pretty highly recommended to me by friends from around here. it was a bit cooler on the water (just a few degrees!), but mostly it was nice to just sit down and hang out somewhere after a busy morning of running around. chicago has some amazing architecture. i took a whole ton of pictures, but of course now i hardly remember anything about any of the buildings. i’m just going to leave you with a nice little selection to enjoy.

you can already see, just looking down the river, that chicago’s skyline is interesting.

lots of lift and draw bridges!! very cool (although slightly less cool when you’re in a car, stopped because the bridge is up. apparently in chicago, only on wednesdays and saturdays in the summer do the bridges move, so i guess that’s not too bad)

there’s a famous chicago architect who was super into triangles, so there are many buildings designed around that shape. i like triangles too!

trains and bridges! two of my favourite things.

i thought this wavy building in the middle was pretty wacky!

this is navy pier. we didn’t really *go* to it, but it was on my list of things to see. i haven’t decided if this counts or not! luckily i have a lot of time on sunday and most of monday to work on exploring the city a bit more.

after we took a quick cab back to the hotel (we were far too hot, sticky and exhausted to ride the train at rush hour), we checked in and grabbed our swag bags (holy! good thing i packed extra luggage inside my luggage) and came upstairs for a rest before the opensky cocktail party.

getting to the party took us a while, as apparently we walked RIGHT PAST harrison station, but we did eventually make it. it was lots of fun to meet so many people. the food was tasty and we each got a free drink ticket (which is more than enough drinks for this one! i also had many glasses of ice water because i was soooooo thirsty!). the photobooth was cool – mary and jennifer and i squeezed in just before it closed at 9! i don’t have any pictures from the event (besides the open sky prints!) because i accidentally left my camera battery charging in the hotel room. good one!

i met andrea (also from TO), stampy lisa, krista, kristina, callie (callieflower kitchen, who goes to the same university i did my undergrad in! even in the same program i started off in too), sabrina, jennifer, morgan, emily, susan, erin and many many other people i’m forgetting. it was nice to see a few familiar faces (from last year, other meetups, etc): caitlin, nienke, allie. i loved putting together faces and names with twitter handles!

at around 10, after la salle power co turned into a club (and the music started to get a little too loud), mary and i called it a night. there was a bit of a failed froyo mission with krista and kristina (and a few other people whose names slipped through my very seive-like brain). it was raining, but not hard enough to make things miserable. we took the L back to the hotel, and pretty much hopped right into bed! lots of chatting and late night blogging happened in our room before the lights eventually went out.

i am now up ridiculously early (the clock definitely said 4:xx when i woke up) and think i’m going for a little run before the morning begins. i should probably take it easy though, since it’s going to be a super super long day and i will need all the energy i can get later on! ) i really sound like a grandmother some days….:-P

wow, december seems to have taken its toll on me as i have not blogged once this month! i’ve been busy. baking like a mad woman (my coworkers all enjoyed and were extremely impressed with their treats this year) and planning this 2 week road trip we are about to leave for. i’m not sure what our internet situation will be like on the way (or when we get to our destination: SUNSHINEY FLORIDA) but i’ll try and get some good posts up if i can.

the drive will be tough. we’re banging out the 21.5 hour drive to my parents’ place in 2 days, and we only have one driver! woooo fun. i’ve packed lots of healthy and delicious snacks and loaded up the ipod with road trippy tunes (we finally got a stereo that does not destroy cds! the bonus is that it is also ipod compatible!) i have no idea where we’re stopping tonight – depends how the traffic at the border is and what time we actually end up getting out of the city this morning (we have a couple errandy things that couldn’t be done until today)

if you don’t hear from me again until january, i wanted to wish every one of my (two? three?) readers an absolutely wonderfully merry christmas and the happiest of new years. take good care of yourselves, be safe and have fun!

november is finally over! do i feel fine? i don’t know. maybe. maybe not. i am not sure how i would classify my nablopomo participation. i posted every single day, except for two: one of which i had a pretty good excuse and the second of which was directly related to the first, but the rest of my posts were not 100% awesome. i did have a few sorry excuse for a post days. i did not finish writing about all the things on my list either.

i’d probably give myself a 7.5/10. the effort was mostly there, i showed some promise, but in the end, i don’t think i quite reached the bar. it was a good exercise though. the only way to write better is to write lots. i will probably do nablopomo again, though not in december. i need a break, and i also know that i will not have access to the internet every single day, which would make it stressful/hard. we’ll see about february! it is the shortest month i can handle 28 days! i did it this month.

i’m super excited that tomorrow is december. december is my favourite: christmas, my birthday, snow, presents, family, vacation, tasty food – everything i love. i forgot to add gingerbread to my list of things to make! can’t forget that. i also signed up to make a dessert for my branch christmas potluck next friday. i haven’t figured out what i’ll take yet, but i’m sure i’ll get to that on thursday night. my coworker asked if i’d be making packages again this year (last year select friends/coworkers each got a box with a jar of jam or preserve and a selection of holiday cookies and treats). apparently he quite enjoyed them! this december will be extra busy, as we have a move scheduled (jon is vacating his apartment and coming here!) and a road trip to plan and take. i am going to have to remember to breathe.

the resolution project went well. i did not reach my goal of 150 points, but i got 138, which is 92% of that and a decent first effort. i will restructure my december goals to further my happiness through the season of light and cocoa (and stress!).

i got two jars of free nuttzo in the mail today, courtesy of opensky. that is not too shabby! there are still a few other cool things i found in various stores, so i am holding out for more december sales!

can anyone identify this car?

this is where i am spending my days at the conference. the royal york lobby and facilities are pretty nice. i checked out my friend’s hotel room this afternoon to use her internet to send a quick email, and i saw that the rooms are just regular. nothing special. on the small side, even, and no flat screen tvs like many of the other (equivalently priced) hotels around here. but still. impressive lobby. i got to watch them assemble a giant christmas tree this morning (picture tomorrow?). i had only planned to go to the first two days of the conference, but i was so impressed and excited about more discussion and idea sharing that i am going back for day 3 tomorrow!

my operation beautiful note. i am not sure how long it was up for; when i returned in the afternoon, all the notes i put up (several) were gone. oh well.

this video will make you super happy, even if you haven’t been following along on the blog as long as i have!

although it’s not thanksgiving here, i’ve got the urge for pumpkin pie! i roasted my last pumpkin in the oven this evening. tomorrow i’ll get the crust ready. saturday will be faux-thanksgiving. there is always so much to be thankful for and an excuse for super seasonal fall foods is always welcome.

you know you’re a runner when you feel like some candy, but all you’ve got are sharkies!

off to watch a little tv!

i got home pretty late today, about an hour and a half after normal (since the conference i’m going to is all the way downtown and ends almost an hour after i normally leave work). i got home, microwaved my supper (chilli from the freezer, with some tortilla chips) and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening watching tv (lie to me) and playing shift. SOOOO unproductive. i did not do yoga. i did not cross anything off my to do list (not even any fun things!). i was basically just a useless bump on a log. the day was pretty tiring though – networking and talking to people and asking questions and listening to presentations is much more work than i thought.

the conference is going really well. i promise pictures for tomorrow! (and maybe an OB note or two?) it’s in a super swanky hotel. i’m kind of sad that i don’t get to stay there overnight, but it doesn’t make sense since i’m only an hour away by subway and bus. it did mean i had to skip out on dinner with the group though. i knew i had tasty supper at home, and i would have gotten home far too late and probably would have been grumpy tomorrow! did a bit of christmas shopping before i hopped on the subway home. now have 1.5 people crossed off my list (add to the previous 0.5 + 0.5 + 1) and the situation doesn’t seem so bad! i love how christmassy everything feels downtown now. maybe i will hit up the eaton centre tomorrow! (good thing tomorrow is a getting paid day. hahaha)

many of the people at the conference are francophones and so the organizers hired professional translators to translate on the fly. we have headsets and any time someone is speaking in a language you don’t know, you can just put the headset on and listen to the translation! i am pretty impressed. the translations are not perfect (there is a bit of a time lag, though just a few seconds) but it is really nice to have. ordinarily, the francos just kind of have to either get by with what little english they can understand and talk amongst each other for clarification or hope that the presenters are bilingual and can answer their questions in the language of their choice. thumbs up to professional translation! i’m sure it’s expensive though. today i listened to some translation just for fun – the best is when it’s Q+A and the audience asks questions to a panel and the panel responds. it sounds like the translator dude is having a conversation with himself. his voice inflections are also pretty amusing and don’t necessarily match the way you’d normally say something. (there are two people translating. one is significantly better than the other)

i’m going to continue my bump on a log evening up in bed with the latest little mosque on the prairie. sometimes there really is no better way to end the day than with some quality racial stereotyping breaking television. sounds like jon’s root canal went ok today: “toof doesn’t really hurt”. this is good news! dental trips rarely end well.

the top 1000 awesome things , via the happiness project

a hilarious video about hipsters discussing cyclocross. hipsters are funny.i need to make an xtranormal video – all i need is an idea for a script! any suggestions?

in other news, i finished shift 2 this evening. it was fun and challenging! good thing i still have shift 3 and 4 to play through*. now i am going to work on an art project.

i need to make this butternut squash risotto with some of the mountains of cut up butternut squash i have in my fridge.

*disclaimer: i only played once the dishwasher was empty and my laundry was folded. i am starting to become more diligent and responsible!

tomorrow. swear.

i am about to do something somewhat against my happiness project, but i have to do it, so i’m kind of being a bit “san jose” about the whole thing. maybe it’ll be ok. maybe it’ll make for a good blog story, anyway.

i’m working on a visual art project to hang up in my room that will make me smile whenever i see it. these pictures are part of my content. they were all found at the pursuit of happyness, which is a new website i recently discovered and absolutely adore. the editor basically aggregates awesomeness from around the web in the form of photographs, drawings, notes, quotes, music and videos. pretty much every entry makes my day. this is a sneak peak. i hope to start work on my project next week some time, though it is competing with christmas art projects and my mission to organize my life and my house. a little bit at a time.

i am feeling better today. my right arm kind of feels like i was vaccinated and the bruises have started to materialize into purpleness. i’m going to try an aloe vera / massage trick that i read that is supposed to help heal bruises tonight. (i read it on the interwebs! it must be true) the bike ride home today was uneventful (thank goodness)

sorry for such a cop out post! my day was kind of boring.i did get a supersurprise midweek visit from the boy, which was awesome. we had dinner together (triple bypass bacon cheddar mac and cheese), watched the latest top gear, had some cocoa and then he was off. have i mentioned that i can’t wait till he’s done school? 1 more month and a bit! 3 more days until i see him again. hurray! i’m going to load the dishwasher and go watch tv in bed.

i may have gotten into a small bike crash this afternoon. the damage wasn’t terrible. i was thrown off my bike and i think i landed on my arms. i’m not exactly sure since it happened so fast and i don’t really remember. my arms are sore now, so i’m assuming they broke the fall. anyway, once i decided i was ok, i got up to check my bike. nothing seemed broken: there was only a dropped chain. i managed to get it back on the rings and pedal on.

when i got home, i had a closer look at myself:

nothing too terrible, just some scrapes and bruising. and a lot of chain grease.

then i looked in the mirror and had a good laugh:

it feels appropriate.

having a day off in the middle of the week always throws me off. i spent all of thursday referring to incidents that occurred on tuesday as “friday’s events”. my brain was confused! i am looking forward to the weekend. there’s a chance of rain for sunday, but saturday is supposed to be nice (a mix of sun and cloud). next week’s forecast is gorgeous. sunshine across the board! negative temperatures, yes, but i can dress for that. my bike and brand new tires have been getting lots of use! any day that i don’t have to take the bus is a great day.

speaking of buses. lots of nonsense going on with the TTC (toronto transit commission, they operate toronto’s bus and subway system). they are raising fares in january by 25 cents. to prevent people from hoarding tokens by stockpiling them now at the current cheaper price (and risking drying out the token supply), they have shut down all the token vending machines and are only allowing people to buy tokens from operators in quantities of 5 or fewer. this is ridiculous! if you take the TTC every day, you will be buying tokens multiple times per week. no vending machines means you will have to wait in line to do this. last year, ttc drivers went on strike. they were legislated back to work after only two (weekend days) off the job. today, riders decided to protest the latest ttc hijinks by organizing a rider’s strike/boycott of TTC services. i participated (though I rarely every take ttc anyway. i specifically made a point not to today in solidarity with my fellow riders).

i think this weekend will mostly be spent relaxing and catching up on tv. i have a few fun projects and tasty meals planned. definitely a twice baked hangry pants squash in the works! maybe some kind of pie or cookies? we’ll see. jon is supposed to be bringing me some fresh apples from the farm, so i may have to do something to finish up the old ones. i’ll keep you posted.

(picture taken by my sister at the dead sea)

why did the camel cross the road?