Training to Live

i had an extra long labour day weekend because of my work schedule and since we’d planned to have a bunch of friends up to the cottage that weekend anyway (the cottage is about a 3 hour drive away from here), we figured we’d make an entire week of it. as luck would have it, the weather didn’t really cooperate. it was cold and rainy all weekend long. after our friends left and we enjoyed the one sunny/warm day there was going to be, jon and i hightailed it to his parents’ farm, about 30 minutes away from their cottage, for the rest of the week. although the farm isn’t home for me, it sure feels like it.

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we didn’t have the relaxing week we originally planned (thanks, weather), it was wonderful to be at the farm anyway, as always. we ate loads of good super fresh, local food, worked hard at putting veggies away in the freezer for the winter [a great big pot of ultra veggified pasta sauce (which i'm calling my 500 metre sauce, since everything we put in it came from within 500 metres of the kitchen we cooked it in!, 2 gallons of crushed/stewed tomatoes for making chili with this week (and oh what chili we made this week!!! at least 17 quarts put away in the freezer), and a bushel of red peppers chopped up and frozen]. we went to a small town country fair, played with kittens, watched movies (and napped) and it was good.

i think this photo (taken on my iphone with the super fun ShakeIt app) really captures the beauty of the country (big open blue sky), fall, and the colourful energy of the fair. shortly after i took this, i proceeded to eat a big bag of cotton candy. ohhhhh was my tummy ever not happy about that! (it was certainly enjoyable to eat, however). i’d never been happier to see vegetables again.

we came back to regular-old-at-home life for a week, but come monday, the craziness begins again. i am flying off to the great city of winnipeg for a work conference and then immediately after i come back, i have a half marathon to run! my training over the last few weeks has been pretty abysmal (i blame the weather again.) i’m sure i’ll make it through, even if not super quickly! i’ve been to winnipeg once before, but only very briefly (i flew into their airport and had lunch at a quizno’s before driving out northwest to a wedding. not so exciting) so i’m hoping to have a bit of exploration time.

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in other, more creative news, i have been working on a lot of projects, art and otherwise. sadly nothing concrete to share yet though! in august i got an email about a super fun sounding workshop that one of my favourite bloggers (elise) was running on how to make minibooks (like a scrapbook but on a smaller physical scale {hence the “mini”} and with a much more casual concentrated or super stretched out approach). my dining table is covered in all kinds of fun new supplies so i can start making and doing. the workshop was 2 weeks long and i learned tons of neat tricks and ideas.

also, another favourite blogger (kal) is running a different kind of workshop right now, which i am also signed up for. it is called “nurture your creativity and be bulletproof”. i’ve been through a bunch of stuff at work over the past year and a half that i really could have been a bit more bulletproof for (who couldn’t!) so i figured the class would be more than useful just for that. the nurturing my creativity bit is a bonus and pairs perfectly with elise’s class that just wrapped up. i am really looking forward to the next 4 weeks!

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last month i finally joined the twenty-first century and ditched my ultra crappy super old pay as you go plan cellphone, which had a battery that only lasted a day (without use) and no other redeeming features (which meant that it was usually left at home, battery uncharged, with no paid time on it! not so useful). i bit the bullet and got an iphone4 (expensive but SO LOVELY), which i guess i was lucky enough to score right when they were released to canada – everyone is out of stock now. having the internet in my pocket has made things so fun and easy! i plan to do a lot more on the fly adventure blogging, once i find a good app for this. any recommendations? i’m signed up for posterous, so i might go that route, but it would have to be separate from Training to Live here. the wordpress app has left me unimpressed (photos only at the end of the text? no thanks!).

other favourite apps so far:

teuxdeux (amazing amazing. i went through a whole bunch of to do type apps before i settled on this one. i love that you can have multiple accounts. and that it automatically pushes everything you didn’t do today onto tomorrow. i also love that you can go back and see what you did on any given day. and that you can assign tasks into any day in the future). also it automatically syncs with the web version, so you can enter everything on your computer at home and have it with you on the go.

doodle jump – super fun and a great game to play when you’re staying put for a bit. i just downloaded tetris for an alternative for my upcoming trips.

shakeIt – just like your old favourite polaroids

mobile banking

mindbody (so i know what yoga classes are being offered where, RIGHT NOW). i’ve been missing from yoga since june and i’ve made a pledge to myself to try and get to class at least once or twice a week.

starbucks (mostly to seek out free wifi. when i was in chicago last month and didn’t have roaming data, i discovered that just being in the vicinity of a starbucks would give me the internet. it was awesome. plus, you never know when you’ll need a pumpkin spice fix! this is good for being in new cities). also, for newbs to the ‘bucks, you can create your own drinks!

alarm clock pro – my alarm clock that i’ve used for the last 5 years recently stopped working (sort of) and i have since been trying to find a good replacement that wouldn’t set me back a ton of money. i came up short. until the day i decided to try out alarm clock pro, for the low low price of 0.99$, it is everything i’ve ever wanted in an alarm clock without a) having to spend a ton of money and b) adding more crap to my night stand. perfect.

and of course, tweetdeck. i still heart twitter!

what apps do you go to?

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

i feel so far behind on blogging! i’m going to start with this weekend and work my way backwards over the next couple weeks to get back into the swing of things. that way when i go to the HLS #2, i will feel like a real blogger.

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so yesterday, we drove about 2 hours west to the quaint little town of Port Colborne for a bike race jon had signed up for. Port Colborne is right on Lake Erie and the Welland Canal (and the welland river, i think), and this weekend was “Canal Days”, which is a festival of tall ships. This meant that all the lift bridges were raised (i no longer can love lift bridges anymore! now i just find them annoying), and getting around town was a bit (ok, a lot) of a challenge. nevertheless, it was a pretty fun day.

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while jon prerode the racecourse, i walked around town. i came across a lot of antique type cars.

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i’m a bit of a bridge nerd (another post on that to follow, soon!) so i had to capture these.

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port colborne is a pretty cute place.

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on my walk, i saw a non-tall-ship-ship

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i didn’t take a whole lot of pictures at the actual race. on the left is right before the starting line. jon is in the university of waterloo jersey. he came in 1st in the single speed men’s category on the right (in the middled, with the ridiculously large medal)

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then we went to check the festival out and see more of the town.

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the festival itself was a little disappointing. all of the tall ships (there were only 3!) were docked and none of them had their actual sails up. the rest of it was mostly just your average small town fair fare. there were also a whole lot of people. we did see one interesting thing while at dairy queen after the fair (it was WICKED HOT and i needed ice cream, stat)

check out this teeny tiny house! it has it’s own little sort-of driveway, and a deck (which is probably the size of the rest of the house). also note the air conditioning. it has it’s own electrical hookup and a house number completely separate from the white house on the right, which led us to believe that it actually is completely it’s own house, but we were unsure.

the road trip to florida was pretty fun. i got to drive through several states that i had never been in before (pennsylvania, ohio, west virginia, north carolina, south carolina, georgia). sadly we didn’t spend too much time looking around because we wanted to make it to our final destination before christmas eve. we ended up driving through some of the most beautiful areas (like the west virginia/virginia mountains) in the dark. i didn’t get my Trader Joe’s pitstop because the only day it would fit into our plans was New Year’s Day, and they were probably closed. i didn’t really take pictures of any of the places we stopped at/drove through before and after florida. i also didn’t get to meet up with anyone because as it was during the holidays, none of the people i knew/would want to see were where they were supposed to be!

i got to celebrate my birthday (27!!) at universal studios with jon. roller coasters are my favourite! the last time i went to a theme park was back in the summer of 2003. i was at canada’s wonderland on the day of the big east coast blackout, so our day was cut short. in 2009, i made up for that with 2 solid days of riding all the best rides at universal, many twice, three times, and one even a whopping four! i love the thrill of being upside down and accelerating down huge drops around corkscrew turns. universal has some really excellent rides, and i thoroughly enjoyed my two days there.

hollywood rockit, the mummy, the simpsons, ET, shrek 4D, duelling dragons, and the spiderman ride were the tops. i don’t enjoy waiting in line, and we were there at one of the busiest times of year. our first day had wait times of upwards of 90 minutes per ride! on the second day, we splurged for the express plus passes to terminate the lines: it was TOTALLY worth it. we waited for 15 minutes at the most for any ride and it meant that we could jam pack the day with adrenaline rushes instead of boring lines. i didn’t take many pictures because we quickly realized that having my camera was going to be a pain in the ass. so it went into the car.

other florida adventures: hiking in the ocala national forest. little did we know that in the US, hiking and hunting go hand in hand in national parks. we had to be careful, as we were NOT wearing neon orange vests. i didn’t see any gators, sadly. we learned about sinkholes and heard shots from across the lake.

walking around in my parents’ neighbourhood. everyone there has a golf cart and this is how they get around (not just the greens, but also to restaurants, the grocery store, and other shopping). although the area isn’t super pedestrian friendly (things are just too far apart to be able to feasibly get around on foot), because of the golf cart lanes, biking is a much better option. we had taken our bikes down with us, and we got in a few nice morning rides, which i likely won’t get to experience here again until april.

the orange grove. i wanted grapefruits, so we drove around until we saw some signs advertising fresh citrus. the farm we stopped at was a small organic farm + grove, also selling rabbits (we were unsure if they were alive, for being pets, or skinned, for eating. decided that you could likely have it either way). i told the guy i wanted some grapefruits. 70 cents each. he asked how many and i decided that 10 would be good. he grabbed a knife, some plastic bags and went off into the trees. citrus does not get any fresher than that!

st augustine and walking on the beach. i love the ocean, and someday, i will live near one. walking on the sand and picking up pretty shells was how i spent the last day of 2009, and it was a lovely end to a pretty good year. we had lunch at a little caribbean cafe in st augustine beach (that had some AMAZING salt scrub in the bathrooms) and it really felt like a tropical vacation.

st augustine the town was pretty cool too. there was this crazy angel guy wandering the streets ranting and raving. there was also a really cool lift bridge to get into town. in retrospect, this would have been a good place to spend new years but we drove on to savannah.

we planned to spend a whole day exploring savannah, but when we got there, the weather was grey and crappy looking, and i felt like i was coming down with a cold – popping tylenols and blowing my nose. luckily my body fought off the illness quickly. we decided to just plug on home. the I-77/I-90 were rife with snowstorms, and the drive back was interesting. our bikes were so caked in salt when we got home, that the only way to get rid of all of it was to totally disassemble, soak, wipe, re-lube, reassemble. my bike hasn’t run this smoothly since i got it! sadly now it is just hooked up to the trainer because taking it out in the salty snowy slushy mess here would be stupid.

  yay salt! well that’s it for today. tomorrow is a busy day! (i’ve got the morning off from work to take care of something and i’m working from home in the afternoon). more to come.

it’s hard to believe that it was just a week ago that i was at logan airport, waiting for my flight. here i am, another sunday, wearing my HLS tshirt & enjoying the last few hours of rest. but let’s start backwards.

last sunday started the way many of my weekend mornings start: with a nice, long run. the difference is that usually, i am solo, and this time, i was joined by some 20+ other lovely ladies. how refreshing to be around so many other people just like me. i think that was one of my favorite things about the summit – the company of so many people that do the things that I do that most of my real-life friends think i’m crazy for (like 10 mile runs on a saturday morning or baking my own bread etc).

(picture courtesy of Tina)

we split into two groups: a 3 mile group and a 6 mile group and we took the boston river-front by storm. i joined the 6 mile group, as i have a half marathon coming up and need to start kicking up my long runs into high gear again. the 6 mile group further split into a faster bunch and a slower bunch. i really really should have gone with the slower group as i was *hurting* by the end of the 5 . something miles. i was proud of myself for keeping up with the super fast girls for so long but after 4 miles, i needed to slow it down a bit.

after some stretching in the park with kath and one of the most refreshing showers ever, we gathered for breakfast at finagle a bagel on the grass in the boston commons. picnic breakfast! it was really nice to just chill out. my bagel (i got the french toast bagel, which was SOOOOO YUMMY and probably the most dessert-like bagel they’ve got) was perfect with a packet of swag barney butter squeezed on top. around noon, we had to split to either check out of the hotel or hit up TJ for a restock of goodies.

i found another farmer’s market, this one near harvard square. i got “lunch” (a white peach and half a pint of giant raspberries)

    

i walked around harvard and then took the T to the MIT stop where i would either catch the shuttle to the galleria mall or just walk

since the weather was so nice and the water looked lovely, i opted for the walk, map carefully in hand.

ta da! i made it without getting lost. yay map skills. going to the mall with a gift card in hand was lots of fun. it was like christmas!

so the gift card i won in the operation beautiful draw at the summit was for athleta, but it was also good at any of the gap family of stores. the card indicated that it was only valid for use in the US, and reading carefully on the athleta/GAP/etc websites, i discovered that they will not ship to canada. i hoped to find an athleta store in the boston area to go to, but it seems as though they are pretty much just online. i decided not to make myself wait/go through the hassle of ordering stuff and having them shipped to someone else and then have them shipped to me, i decided to just go ahead and check out the other, non-athleta stores, like Banana Republic and GAP. as it were, the workout wear section of my wardrobe really is the most well stocked part! what i really need is more grown-up type nice clothes to wear to work, instead of the threadless tshirts that i have that say things like: “stupid raisins, stay out of my cookies” or “stop destroying our planet, it’s where i keep all my stuff” (although both of these are good conversation pieces).

BR was great. I’ve never really shopped there much before (although now I know I should, especially since I have a grown up job and I probably can afford it). GAP also had nice stuff (I got new jeans!). My only complaint is that most of their clothes are made in 3rd world countries (like bangladesh and vietnam). Being able to get all the things I wanted without thinking about the price too much was like setting a kid loose in a candy store. I left some operation beautiful notes in the dressing rooms, though I totally forgot to take pictures of them!

The loot:

As you can see, I got some boy stuff too. my boy always reminds me about my inner and outer beauty. he has also taught me to be less judgmental of others (everyone is beautiful!) and to love myself as i am. besides, it was a good excuse to sneak in some argyle into his life the tshirt is the softest one BR makes. I’m sure I’ll be stealing it from time to time

Shopping was great. the cambridge galleria is bigger than any of the malls around here, and although i don’t usually enjoy going to malls, it was nice to just focus on me for a bit (instead of crazy running around doing errands, getting watch batteries and buying socks). thanks again, athleta and operation beautiful for making my day!

back to boston for a quick supper and getting the train/bus back to the airport.

Dessert first, in the park, from cheesecake factory. Holy whipped cream! I could only eat half of that.

A picture of me next to a monument, near the hotel, which sadly got completely chopped off.

My delicious cup of legal seafood clam chowder. A boston favorite, every time I visit.

The T ride back to the airport was smooth. I ran into a fellow summit attendee who confirmed by transportation instructions (thanks!). although I thought my flight was 40 minutes later than it actually was, there were no lines and I got to my gate in plenty of time. i changed into comfier flying clothes and chatted with my dad on gchat as i waited for take off.

Once again, my plane was super empty. Apparently no one flies from toronto to boston on the weekends. Who knew!

although i had an absolutely fantastic, fun-jammed weekend, it felt good to be landing at home. the toronto airport experience was super quick. i whizzed through customs and came down the escalator to the baggage belt, to see my luggage right there! i picked it up, waited 10 minutes for the next bus home and made to bed in no time. actually getting to *sleep* was a little harder because it was so hot (i had to turn the AC on!) and because i was still wired and excited. early morning work on monday was a whole other pile of fun

so yes. as you can see from above, parts I and II of my boston experience, the summit was a huge success. i had a great time being in boston, getting to meet so many cool people and enjoying a city that is not my own. i can’t wait till HLS 2010 and will do whatever it takes to get there. big thanks to all the people who worked so hard to put everything together. i loved it.

(apologies for the lack of pictures! i feel like i failed as a blogger this weekend, but then i figured that there would be zillions of the same pictures everywhere on the interweb so you can see everyone else’ here)

the morning of the summit went extremely smoothly. i haven’t been to that many conferences, but it seems like there are always glitches and people’s names not being on the proper lists, etc etc. i was there early to drop off my jam at the TNT bake sale table, so i was probably one of the first to check in. there were two lovely ladies working the desk when i got there. swag bags were all ready to go and they even knew what size shirt i wanted! that’s service. i wrote up a “hello my name is” sticker for my shirt and got right down to business: breakfast (it’s the most important meal of the day).

i am a yogurt addict. (yogurts anonymous? maybe i should go! i tried making my own last night and it failed, but i haven’t given up), so the stonyfield oikos + mix my granola bar was definitely one of the things i was most looking forward to! i prefer plain yogurt to the ones with fruit mixed in (though i hear strawberry oikos is fantastic….), so I decided to go with a honey, since i usually drizzle some honey on my yogurt and granola anyway. holy yum!!! after the first bite, i felt deeply sorry for myself and not being able to buy oikos here in canada. it was really that good. reminded me of the yogurt my grandmother made for me as a kid, but 0% fat. how is that possible? it’s so delightfully creamy and rich. i enjoyed it down to the last drop. the granola was pretty good too (think i got the goji berry one? it had gummy bears in it! how fun) but it wasn’t like crazy awesome stand out fantastic the way the yogurt was. stonyfield is a tough one to stand up next to

morning sessions were educational. first up, a registered dietitian, Janel Ovrut, spoke about healthy living and healthy eating (and moderation!). it was interesting. i was just diagnosed with crazy low iron stores and have to take pills for a while. since i do not eat a whole lot of meat products, i’ve considered that perhaps a dietitian could help me plan eating for optimum iron absorption better than my family doctor, who just handed me a pamphlet (for teen girls, no less!) put out by the national beef organization, which only lauded the iron benefits of red meat.

then it was the awesome (and canadian!) zesty for blogging 101. although i’ve been blogging in bits and pieces here and there since 2001, i learned a whole bunch of useful tips. 1) get your own domain 2) host yourself 3) be careful with your ads/sponsorships/etc. as you can see, i’ve already started to take his advice.

lunch was a build your own sandwich bar that featured a variety of breads, turkey (or chicken?), cheeses and loads of veggies. the highlight for me was definitely the caprese salad (best mozzarella i’ve had in ages!) and the roasted peppers/zucchini.  

the afternoon was definitely the best part of the day. the keynote speaker from stonyfield, Regina Beidler, an organic dairy farmer was absolutely amazing. my boyfriend’s family has a similarly sized small farm, and it is one of my favorite places to go and just be. over the past few years, i have become quite taken (obsessed?) with the idea of small family farms and do my best to support them at my local markets as much as i can. i’ve always been curious about dairy farming and quotas and all the high tech stuff that comes with dairy farming. it was wonderful to hear regina talk about her family, their days at the farm, and what being organic means to them and why they went that way. her farm in vermont was picturesque and the stories she shared were heartwarming. her daughter who came with her was so cute! i have officially switched to getting my milk from a canadian dairy company called organic meadow. they operate on a similar coop system and get their supply from small farms around the southern part of the province. it makes me feel good to be supporting this, not to mention that the milk tastes awesome.

the other big part of the afternoon was caitlin’s operation beautiful presentation. OB is such an amazing idea and has grown into this amazing viral guerilla marketing end to negative self-thoughts/fat talk. i’ve been leaving little notes for people here and there and noticing a change in both the way i feel about myself AND the way i am starting to look at other people. it’s an awesome thing. (plus! this week there is an operation beautiful charity necklace drive going on this week that you should definitely check out for two great causes in one plus a gorgeous necklace). caitlin inspires me in so many ways! anyway, at the end of the presentation, we were given notecards to write two things that we love about ourselves to be entered in a big prize draw.

my card read: things i love about myself

-inside: the ability to become emotionally invested in people/things (this could seems like not a good thing. i’m always told that i should distance my emotions from stuff, but i *like* to feel)

-outside: my smile (the other day at the farmer’s market, one of the farmers i frequent told me how nice it is to see me smiling so much all the time. i always remember this and am thankful for all the wonderful things i have to smile about)

the grand prize was a $300 gift card for athleta (a fitness gear store, operated by the GAP) and there were two second prizes of Amy’s soup gift packs. the draw was really cool because we got to hear some of the things that other people loved about themselves. general positivity all around!

i was lucky enough to have my card picked for the athleta prize, which is crazy since i never ever win draws. i am convinced that the random integer generator doesn’t like me but kath’s hand picked me!! soooo exciting. thanks athleta!

(picture stolen from Meghann)

As it were, I was planning a shopping excursion to the mall for Sunday, so this couldn’t have been more perfect timing! SPREE. More on that in a bit.

The TNT bake sale went really well! I was very excited that lots of people bid on my jam. A HangryPants sister won the set.

The afternoon events wrapped up with a talk on fitness for everyone by the bloggers and a group photo, taken by hangry mark! i challenge someone to tag all the faces. that would be awesome. i can be spotted near the middle. kath is in green jacket. meghan is in a dark turquoise shirt to her left (your right). there is someone in a black shirt further left (right) and i am directly behind. maybe you can see the purple of the shirt i was wearing, but probably not. anyway. that is all of the lovely ladies (and 2 gentlemen)

  

as previously mentioned, this weekend, i had the great pleasure of staying in boston and attending the first healthy living summit, put on by six awesome bloggers (kath, caitlin, meghann, heather, tina and jenna). although the actual conference was only held over two days, there were at least five days worth of fun packed in.

it all started when i left the house, early on friday morning, to take the bus to the airport. my luggage was only half filled, mostly with some clothes and my bake sale jam. the plane ride from toronto to boston was totally painless, but the airport lines were a complete nightmare. i got picked out and bumped forward because of my early flight, even thought i was at the airport two hours in advance, as suggested by air canada for flights to the US. i made it, and so did my (free!) checked luggage. (yay for air canada!) the plane was super empty and i had a bunch of seats to myself.

boston greeted me with sunshine and mug. i successfully navigated my way on the T, taking 3 different lines, to get to the hotel. public transit superstar! a room at the radisson was ready for me, even though it was 4 hours before check in! my room was glorious – king sized bed, beautiful view of the boston skyline (22nd floor, baby!), and a lovely bathroom with lots of towels (necessary for all the showers i took. i did not do well on water conservation this weekend). i couldn’t have asked for more. well. maybe just wireless internet! i traveled back in time to the mid nineties (just before the robotic uprising) and had to use an ethernet cable! i was tethered to the desk, but luckily the cord was long enough for me to have luuluu (my macbook) on my bed. i just had to be careful not to trip over wires.

after a quick freshen up (and changing into more boston-climate appropriate clothes, ie: shorts and a tank top), i headed out for exploring. hit up the farmer’s market in copley square for lunch, where i found this delightful package. i ate it on the grass in the sunshine. then i made my way to JP Licks, since i’d missed the unofficial summit outing there the day before. oreo cake batter in a cone. how delicious! finally, a trip to trader joe’s, where i bought far too many (is there such a thing? i managed to fit everything into my bags! and nothing was confiscated by security! WIN) tasty things, many suggested by the lovely kelsey (my trader joe expert extraordinaire).

i returned to the hotel to freshen up (again!) before i headed out on the T to the waterfront for the harbour walk. i downloaded this excellently narrated podcast that led me to lots of cool sights along boston’s gorgeous and historic harbour. i am a certified bridge nerd, since my job revolves around them, so this super old suspension bridge was extra neat to see. also, i loved the heart shaped cloud over the harbour.

after an afternoon of walking, i teed back to the hotel to shower and ready myself for the summit cocktail party. unfortunately, although i did have my camera with me, i didn’t take any pictures! *fail*. i’ve stolen this one from caitlin. i thought i would wear a turquoise-ish dress so i’d be different. turns out, turquoise was quite the colour of the evening

the cocktail party was fun, even for a mostly introvert like me! i spent most of the evening talking to a few lovely females (see above) at a table over some fancy pizza. it was amazing how much we had to talk about even though we started off as strangers. i had the chance to introduce myself to at least half of the organizing committee, which was pretty cool since i’d been reading their blogs for over a year and a half now (or as long as they’ve been around!). i had spotted caitlin and meghann in the hotel elevator earlier in the day, but i was too shy to say hello. i was amazed at how nice and down to earth everyone was. left the party around 10 so i could get a good night’s sleep on my fabulous bed (must. get. sleep number mattress) and go for a run in the morning before breakfast.

so much more fun ahead!