This week so far . . .

Things I knew I shouldn't have eaten but did anyway: 2 - cheesecake on thurs evening, cookies for breakfast this morning. And honestly, I'll probablly eat more cookies today.

New bras: 3. After watching that bra show on Oprah, and Tatjana's constant nagging about my ill fitting bras, plus the onset of sore boobs from hell, I thought it was time. The experience was strange. The first bra lady who accosted us at the Bay was crazy, and it was a relief when she abandoned us in the changing rooms to go on her lunch break. The second bra lady was helpful, and wonderful, and fitted me up with the right size. All my life I've been buying 36A's and they never fit well, and I just thought that my boobs are too small to fill out an A cup. Wrong. Turns out I'm a 34B! Who knew? Not I. Wierd how the back size and the cup size have to line up exactly right. So now I am comfortably squished into a size 34 sports bra (no cup size) and I have to say, Tat, you were right, it does feel better. I also bought a strapless and waaaay padded bra, plus those silicone inserts which feel like real boobs to push those suckers even higher up, and hopefully I'll be able to fill out my strapless party dress such that it doesn't fall down. Again.

Days I've managed to go without wearing the back brace: 3. Horrah, I'm on the mend.

Fights I've had with my sweetheart: 2. Pretty standard iss. None serious, I hope. But leaving me with the question - is a happy medium achievable? We have such passion, both up and down. The wonderful up-can't get enough of each other, hate going to work cause it means we have to stay apart for 8 whole hours-feelings are wonderful. The downs-walking on eggshells incase we set each other off, misscommunication (you're a jerk, no YOU'RE a jerk) type days are not fun. Other couples seem like they have this happy go lucky medium land that I'm on weeks like this oh-so-envious of. Does that really exist, or is it my imagination?

Weddings: 1. #3 of 4 this summer. Phew. Soon it will be over. They've all been fun, so far, but in future if friends of ours could consult us and make sure that everything lines up nicely on our calendars, that'd be great.

# of times Lance has won the Tour de France: 7. Un-fricken-believable. What a stunning example of mind over matter. Everyone should read his first book 'It's Not About the Bike' everyone everyone everyone. Especially those who have had your lives touched by cancer or other forms of adversity.

That is all.

The Real Buddy, Again.

I discovered the source of my hidden profile! Buddy was just too dang big! Anyway, here he is again. Da Bubbaroo!

Us vs Them

In response to the recent bombings in London, England, I've had a few emails from people I know who are living there 1) to assure the people in their lives that they are safe, and 2) to speak about the experience of being there. One of the things that has me all riled up these days, is the issue of othering. In a nutshell, 'us' vs 'them'. So my question is who is 'us' and who is 'them'.

For example, the statements 'they don't see things the way we do' and 'I think they hate the west and feel like they want to get back at us' have my knickers in a knot. If by us, the implication all white, anglo saxon, caucasian born folks, then I'd like to bow out of that category. A category which seems to include the likes of good ol' George W, who has caused such massive loss of innocent life, and countless dollars in damages. Infact, if I were to take a quick peruse of world history, I think I would find that 'us' has caused much more damage and harm to other peoples, than anyone else. That is, if my afore mentioned definition of 'us' stands correct.

And what about 'them' or 'they' if you will. 'They' statements have been driving me nuts for years. 'They' are terrible drivers. 'They' make me feel unsafe when I see 'them' on the tube. I wonder how 'they' are feeling these days walking around London, knowing that 'us' is watching ever step they take. I wonder how 'they' feel, knowing that after a terrorist attack by 4 individuals in the 'them' category, that 'us' is likely going to send troops over 'there' and bomb the shit out of their homelands, killing their friends, family, neighbours, destroying the neighbourhoods they grew up in. I mean, if 'us' was going to be fair about it, only 4 of 'us' should go. But 'us' is a big fat bully, so that won't happen. Noooooo.

Last year in preperation for the 2004 Olympics, there were 2 swimmers from Iraq who were training at UBC as a part of an Olympic outreach program. One of the head coaches informed me of their presence, and assured me 'they won't bomb the pool, they're just here to swim.' Thanks. I feel much better. I thought initially that the 2 swimmers were here because their pools had been destroyed. Nope. Turns out that the US soldiers (read: 'us') had decided that they wanted the pool for themselves, so the up and booted the olympic hopefuls out. Nice. I think that 'us' is a bunch of jerks.

Sweet Sweet Back brace

Well, this morning the physio attempted to un-twist my pelvis, and un-shift the entire right side of my body. It's starting to improve, slowly, slowly, slowly. And she wrote me a prescription for a sweet back brace, which is helping me to stand more upright. It's offering me more relief than the cocktail of hard drugs my mom gave me yesterday, AND, it's awfully stylish.

This is Paul on Halloween, dressed as Buddy. It's blurry, but oh so cute.

Where are all the physios?

Of course the week that I'm working 2 back to back full time jobs, the latter of the 2 teaching the physically demanding NLS course, my back decides to go out. Now my back has bugged me since I was about 17, and gives me moderate heck regularly, but a full on agonizing spazm where I can't stand up right or walk properly about every 2 years. Yep, it's that one. Started creeping up yesterday morning while I was in the middle of rushing around, frantically cooking (hamburger helper with veggie ground round and broccoli. Yummmm.) and doing last minute prep for NLS. Started pounding advil, but it was seemingly futile. By the time I got to the pool I was teaching at, I had developed a noticible limp. By the time the class started an hour later, I was bent over, and it just crept up and up and up my back, until at 10pm when the class ended, I literally was bent nearly at a 90 degree angle.

Get up this morning, manage to drive myself to work, attempt to set things up for rental groups to no avail (the lovely SFU swim coach had to actually help to pick me up off of the ground, where I had thought that maybe if I knelt down and slid stuff around it would be better than lifting, which it was, only the stuff tipped over and I couldn't reach it, and then couldn't stand back up) so just hobbled back to my office. Now I am trying in vein to find anyone, ANYONE who can work on my back. My usual physio is on holidays for the summer, no one in her office can see me until tomorrow morning. Both of the physios on campus are fully booked, and the massage therapists aren't in for another few hours. Argh. No amount of the cocktail I've mixed of advil, robaxacet, and t3's seems to let this up at all. The tiny smidge of sliver lining in all this is that there is a second instructor there for most of the course I'm teaching . . . bless Joel, he's a star.

Bring on the blog!

Thanks to the self-taught computer savy of my oh-so talented partner at work (and sometimes in crime, but more often in compromising the integrity of the facility we work at . . .) Christa, I'm on my way to full fledged bloggerdome. But not on work time. Nooooo. Heck, would I do that?

Anyway, I've managed to edit the links, and popped on the websites of two of my fabulously talented friends. 1) Harmony Trowbridge who is dear dear dear but not so near to me, and is an amazingly talented singer/songwriter. Pop on over to her website and have a listen, order a cd, find a gig! The good news is she's coming out west in the fall. Horray! 2) The amazing afore mentioned computer savy Christa Giles, who I think is the craftiest lady of all time. That's right folks, she does it all. When she's not flinging a self-made hula hoop up and down her body, she makes incredible glass beads, and even more incredible things out of said glass beads. Check out her stuff too - great local one of a kind gifts! If you are one of my amazing and talented friends, and you have a website that I don't know about, tell me and I'll pop it on.

ta ta

Why no one has seen this yet

Okay, by the time I actually give out the link to this blog, these posts will be waaaaay out dated. I'm struggling with my lack of computer expertise, yet love of diddling around on the net, and trying to do funky things like posting my picture on here somewhere. What I'd really like to do is post before and after pictures from Weightwatchers, as some people have been asking to see them. Alas, so far my efforts have ben futile.

So whattheheckamiupto? Well, gearing up for a hellish week where I work two full time jobs back to back. It's only one week, and it'll pay the tuition come September, so it's worth while. I've been told that I may not get the 2 week holiday I was hoping for at the end of August due to come complications in my boss's life, so also trying to work out how I can make that possible. And this afternoon having lunch with my cousin Michael who I haven't seen in about 12 years. Very excited about that. Trying to think of somewhere amazing to take him since the weather sucks right now.