Monday

So now I guess I just post on Mondays.  

Let’s make a list.

Events to which I am looking forward: 

• (finally) getting a haircut and grey-covering tomorrow night
• my coaching workshop this Thursday
• getting to a couple yoga classes this week
• seeing Mom’s the Word on Wednesday night
• having a dinner party on Saturday night – we’re having Chicken Marbella
• going to Vegas next week – it’s for work, but it will still be fun, and I’ll get to buy some new underwear!  Woot.
• taking possession of my car – I’ve missed having wheels
• celebrating my dear friend’s 40th birthday with her on the 6th of February
• heading to Honolulu for a week to celebrate my birthday

And the not-so-much list: 

• being x-rayed before getting on planes.  At some point won’t we all just fly naked?
• figuring out what to pack
• saying good-bye to Baxter and Man – I really hate to spend nights away from either of them
• figuring out how I am going to finance my life

I am even boring myself.  Time to go.

On sprinting and running

Wow, I am quite bad at this lately, aren’t I?  The writing and recording of these important moments, not stopping to grasp them because I am so happy to be IN them.  The last few weeks have been a sprint (this is an analogy I use with clients all the time) in that it has been frenetic and chaotic and busy, but it led somewhere great, and I knew all along I wouldn’t have to keep the pace up for long.  Having just celebrated one stretch, I am about to go into another.

Since the beginning of the month, I got sore from boxing and spent a day landing on the toilet rather than sitting on it; I worked and worked at my day job, carefully breaking down big deadlines into manageable chunks of unpleasantness; I put together and promoted a workshop I am holding January 28th; worked on some major home issues and came to a few quite Large Decisions (some over a McDonald’s meal while watching the hockey game and crying in the middle of a McDonald’s restaurant at 10pm on a Tuesday); I celebrated; I made several lists; I contemplated finances; I went to bed late; I got up early; I laced on running shoes and tried to be excited about running in the god-is-it-still-facking-raining-rain; I yogad; I drove, I loved Man with all my heart; I disliked him with all my heart; I made food; I ate food; I drank wine, and water and protein shakes; I read; I wrote; I texted; I emailed.

It all led to this past weekend: pint in a pub with Man, ferry ride, Mount Washington with a bunch of friends, the mountain air, cocktails, the marked absence of a laptop or any of its cords, sleeping in utter silence, laughing until it seemed natural again, snowshoeing and enjoying blissful silence until it was broken by the sound of a car alarm (?), seeing one of my best friends at her absolute best and holding her in my heart to admire her fully, having too many cocktails and professing my love for girls I should never be shy to share it with (they’ve known me forever and Held Me Up), made new connections in this world that make me wonder. Relaxed.

More sprinting ahead: meetings all week, weekend in Victoria working on coaching stuff, meetings next week, along with prep for actual work, workshop (it’s not too late if you want to come!), then Vegas for 3 nights of work (trade show and dinners, and dinners, and too-early breakfasts, and hopefully time to buy a new bra).  The next rest is February 6; a birthday party for a lovely friend who is turning 40.  She is celebrating the year of potential, and I couldn’t agree more.

Will post again soon, this was fun.

Inspiring to the Soul

I’m not sure what this will be about.  I went to an open house yesterday; a friend/former client/trainer invited me to it – her partner, Tracy Di Venanzo, has opened a new fitness studio in False Creek, and they were welcoming friends in to see it.  It was raining, and if I had given it too much thought, I likely would have just holed up in the house with my slippers, but I am so glad I went.  Tracy’s partner Karen has been a tremendous support to me, so it was important to me to show up for her and celebrate this huge day.

The walls had been painted a cheery mango color, the simple equipment used while training clients lined the edges of the room.  People were visiting and eating, and it was lovely.  Tracy and Karen’s son, Nathan, was delightfully entertaining (and was magnetically drawn to me, for some reason), and you could actually feel the success and new beginnings in the air.

It wasn’t until Tracy went to the front of the room and made a small speech that this blog post started to form in my head.  She thanked us for coming, to celebrate this milestone with her, she acknowledged that it had been a trying time for her family, and then she said that she now knows exactly why she was diagnosed with breast cancer in the first place; it was to lead her right here.

Tracy is a breast cancer Survivor (capitalization is intentional), and her fitness training business was borne out of helping those struggling with the disease or just coming out of it.  She also tortures/trains those without cancer, but I would argue that even if you don’t have the disease, you have likely been hit by it in some way, so she really trains people affected by breast cancer.  Period.  Bit of a stretch, but it’s MY BLOG.

A few things are rambling about in my head:

• I had an overwhelming feeling at the end of 2009 that this year is going to be BIG, in ways we can’t even fathom right now.  I know it’s going to be big for me, but also for the people in my life.  I see it all around me, and Tracy’s new studio, Soul Endurance Training, is no exception.  I am so proud of this place and this message, and these people that I can barely articulate it.
• Sometimes life absolutely sucks.  It shakes your resolve, it makes you doubt your faith, it makes you wonder if you’re made of the right stuff to get through it.  That Tracy came through breast cancer, is still here (and smiling, and being her biggest, truest self!!), is a testament that when awful things happen, and they will, you can always take from it.  You can find what is great about it.  You can grow and grow and find meaning in it. That’s what being a human is all about.
• I am positively blessed.  I live in a world where empowered women can set out to do incredible things and get exactly where they want to.  I have a network of excited, passionate people who are doing great things in this world, and it is my absolute pleasure to shout from the rooftops about it if it will lead them to further success.  Being surrounded by all the magic yesterday afternoon made me want to get home so I could continue honoring MY dreams and working toward my success.  How amazing to have such inspiration in my life!
• I cannot WAIT to use my door prize; 4 cardio boxing classes with Tracy!  Karen kicked my ass on more than a few occasions, but I have a sneaking feeling Tracy is going to make her look like a kitten…she beat breast cancer, so who knows what she’s going to do to me?  Yikes/Yay!

If you live in Vancouver, I would encourage you to drop in to the studio to say hi – or at the very least drop by the website for a visit, or drop Tracy an email to let her know you think she’s amazing and that you’re proud of what she’s done and who she IS.  Like I said, I would assert that we have ALL been affected by breast cancer in some way, so we’re all a part of this.

Here are the coordinates:

Soul Endurance Training

1-1399 Fountain Way

Vancouver, BC

www.soulendurance.com

email: fit4health@ymail.com

**I will report back on my first boxing class…

Way too many questions

A year-end wrap up, stolen from Linda…

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Launched a website, downhill skied, pierced my tongue, lifted weights like I was serious about it, gave up my car

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I haven’t the foggiest idea what they were last year, but I think I kept them.  All.

For 2010, I pledge to make time for my husband, (continue to) eat clean most of the time, keep in touch with family, practice a little balance, take more photos and drink wine (I should lake sure there’s a guaranteed winner on here somewhere)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Yes, a few friends did; Kirsten, Erin, Kylie…

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes, our 14 year old cat.

5. What countries did you visit?

Canada?  Not big news as I live here.  Man.  The sick cat REALLY curbed all the vacation plans.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

Balance. I worked like a rabid squirrel, then collapsed, then repeated, over and over again.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 1 – 2008 was finally, mercifully over.

Nov 14th – the day the cat passed on…we’re still reeling a little.

Dec 31 – the day it all felt like it was going to get really freaking great.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Launching my coaching practice and finally knowing my purpose in this world.

9. What was your biggest failure?

None.  Lots of great learning experiences, not real failures.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

A crazy throat infection threatened my life in August.  It was touch and go for a few hours there. Or maybe it was just the fever…

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My iPhone.  Haven’t looked back since.  Also my yoga towel that fits my mat perfectly.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Our basset hound’s – he is a delightful little guy now, and he almost never gets into the garbage.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Either one of the Gosselins.  It was like watching a van with 8 un-restrained children in it repeatedly involved in a head on collision.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Groceries, yoga, surgery for the cat.

15. What did you get really excited about?

My new coaching practice, the new season of Mad Men.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

Crack the Shutters, by Snow Patrol.  Makes me think of Man.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? WAY happier.  No comparison.

– thinner or fatter? Thinner, and a bit more muscley

– richer or poorer? Richer, in about 200 different ways.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Vacation, lie on the beach, read books, cooking

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Working till all hours, not having any sort of balance for my passions

20. How did you spend Christmas?

Quietly, at home, with Man and the basset hound.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

Yes, with Man.  It was lovely to reconnect with him and realize again how fabulous he is.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

As in, one?  Impossible: Mad Men, Big Love, Life After People

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I don’t really Hate anyone.

24. What was the best book you read

The Renaissance Soul

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Yeah, because I regularly prowl nightclubs after dark to bring new and emerging artists into the limelight…I have no idea.

26. What did you want and get?

Excitement, time with friends, lots of mini-breaks

27. What did you want and not get?

A vacation to somewhere hot.  A vacation, period.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

Division 9

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 34 and we spent it in Smithers, skiing and visiting

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Not more money, necessarily, but to have been able to worry less about it

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

I-watch-What-Not-To-Wear meets Look-My-Clothes-Fit-Again

32. What kept you sane?

Puppy joy, Man, friends, regular dates with both.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Tosca Reno

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

I try not to have opinions about these things.

35. Who did you miss?

George, Mrs. B and her group, Jack and Anna, Colin Firth.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Connor Brodie

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.

You can reinvent yourself every day.  You can dream big.  You cannot get more awake by drinking more coffee; you need to sleep.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

There’s always going to be another mountain

I’m always gonna wanna make it move

Always gonna be an uphill battle

Somebody’s gonna have to lose

Ain’t about how fast I get there

Ain’t about what’s waiting on the other side

It’s the climb, yeah!

-Mylie Cyrus (I know…shut up)