Whooosh....

That's how the last week has felt. I can't believe how quickly it has gone by. And it's gone. Oh well, that means there are fewer days to wait...and waiting sucks!

and it's still going whooosh...so that's all!

Snow? In September?

So yesterday, while I was wishing I was at home with my tea and my blanket listening to the rain, apparently it was snowing in Burnaby. In September. Snow. Sheesh...what a crazy world!

Falling rain...

makes me wish for tea and a warm blanket and no work. A book, movie, knitting, or friendly company is purely optional.

I guess for now I'll have to settle for the tea.

Is it five o'clock yet?!?!?!

Soldier-Zipper-Airplane

So, after forcing myself to go to the pool as often as possible over the last six or seven months, I now find myself dragging in the afternoon if I don't go for a swim. This is good news since I loathe swimming and spent the hours between waking in the morning and climbing out of the pool at the end of my swim psyching myself up for the day's laps.

Now instead of the running commentary being along the lines of:

"You need to go swimming because your back will hurt later. You need to go swimming because your back hurts now. You need to go swimming because it's good for you. You need to go swimming because you don't want to have to go back to physio. You need to go swimming because if you do have to go back to physio, you don't want to tell the physiotherapist that you've stopped swimming and that's why you're back. etc etc over and over again"

All I need to say to myself is: "You won't make it to 3:00 this afternoon if you don't go swimming and then you'll end up putting in two or three hours of work at home tonight because you'll be so slow."

And it works. I like the way I feel after a swim. I like that I sleep a million times better at night, even though I'm alone. I like that my back feels good. And I like that somehow I get all kinds of extra energy and get way more done in the afternoons when I swim!

But I still don't really like swimming. I'm getting much faster and my endurance is way better. I've come a long way since February and March when I first got in the pool. Okay, so I was still on a regular schedule of super strong painkillers, I was using a cane, and at that point I was seriously wondering if life was ever going to be "normal" again (what exactly is normal?!?!), but I was only doing a whopping 100 metres in five minutes.

I still need to talk myself through the workout. I got bored of the 1-2-3-4 rhythm. And I got bored of the nursery rhymes I was singing in my head. They both keep me going, but I needed something else.

And then today, today I remember the elementary backstroke from my backward swimming lesson days. So I swam soldier-zipper-airplane and even when I was swimming some other stroke, my brain was chanting soldier-zipper-airplane. It's a good rhythm.

soldier-zipper-airplane
soldier-zipper-airplane
soldier-zipper-airplane

The difference between "Publish Post" and "Save Now"

Yeah, I know, self explanatory, but apparently, I'm just not that smart. For the last week and a bit I have been hitting "Save Now", not "Publish Post." But only here. Not on the photo site. I just haven't published anything there for a week. I'll get to that later today.

Sigh...chalk it up to wedding brain!

Photo shoot

Heddy took some pictures for us. We didn't have engagement pictures taken because, oh, someone hurt her back, but Heddy took us to the park to play the other day.

Playing in the park is fun. I promise not to play on the monkey bars again, because I slipped off and was fine, but I think Alex and Heather thought they would be calling me an ambulance. Sorry guys.

These are just a few of the shots she took. Thanks Heddy!

Problems and solutions

As the guests arrived, Stacey and Fiona gave them each two different coloured index cards.

Stacey giving instructions

Each guest was supposed to write down a problem that Alex and I might encounter after we are married and a solution to that problem. After each gift, I was supposed to read out one solution and its answer.

reading the problems and solutions

Except...Fiona had shuffled them all up, so there were some crazy combinations and much laughter. Some were plain silly, while others made sense in a strange and curious way. Snoring was a common theme...

P: Communicating with each other
S: Put two sinks in the bathroom

P: You have company over and Alex hides in the kitchen to read the paper
S: Whatever Shannon wants

P: Alex snores too much
S: Hide his sandals

P: What side of the bed should each of you sleep on
S: Push him off the bed

P: He mixes salmon with mayonnaise
S: Alternate years

P: What is for dinner?
S: Live with it. Put it on yourself

P: Alex won't stop snoring
S: Choose your side right away and never change. It's worth setting guidelines for the future

P: Alex is messy around the bathroom sink
S: Give him a warning that if he doesn't come now, you'll throw it in the bin. If he doesn't come, throw it in the bin. He'll never do that again. Start off like you mean it.

P: He wears socks with his sandals
S: Don't give him salmon

P: When you call Alex for dinner and he doesn't come, what do you do?
S: Baby oil :) That's it...yes

P: Vacation in Hawaii or London
S: Take two aspirin and call him in the morning

P: Doesn't put the cap on the toothpaste
S: Make Alex sleep on the couch

P: It's 11:00 pm and you have a headache. Alex wants to "talk"
S: Order take out

P: Alex doesn't like your cooking
S: Make him always clean the toilet

P: Where to spend Christmas, with his family or hers?
S: Call Dr. Laura Schlessinger

P: He snores
S: Buy him a cookbook and tell him to learn

P: Alex refuses to put the toilet seat down
S: Turn the other cheek

P: When he cooks dinner (or any meal for that matter) he will use everything in the kitchen
S: Don't use toilet paper holders that need to be pulled apart

Twenty-four hours

My super fantastic friends Fiona and Stacey had a wonderful shower for me today, themed on 24 hours. Contrary to the initial reaction of some of the guests, it wasn't a shower that lasted for 24 hours, but each guests was given a time of day and they were supposed to select something that fit with that time period.

There were some predictable things like lingerie for the late night/middle of the night hours, cookbooks, a rice cooker/steamer, beer glasses and a pretzel dish, and a wine and cheese tray complete with beautiful crystal wine glasses for the hours around dinner time. There were some interesting choices like baking dishes and wooden spoons for 5:00 am, coffee flavoured vodka for first thing in the morning, and some knitting gear for 11:00 pm. We got some wonderful things and I can't wait to start using all the baking stuff we got...it seems the ladies know me well!

The Bride-to-be

Jill, Christine, Merilyn and Auntie Shirley

The MOB (my Mom!) and her rubber ducky door prize (and Aleksandra too)

The beautiful hat created by Bret-Alise

Mmmmm...yummy cake made by Fiona

Cutting the yummy cake

With my super wonderful friends: Matron of honour, Fiona and matchmaker and mistress of ceremonies, Stacey

You'd think I'd remember

After spending four years on campus as a student and almost three years as staff, you'd think I'd remember that it's a BAD IDEA to try to cross campus between quarter to and five after any hour.

That's when classes change...

Jeeze...not so smart today Shannon

First Day Back

The first day of school...thank goodness it's over!

The first week or two of school drives me nuts. I know I wouldn't have a job if there were no students, but it still drives me nuts.

I love seeing the new students with their brand new jeans that might even have been ironed, the makeup, painstakingly applied hours before classes started, the rigid new back packs, the maps, usually turned the wrong way because the intelligent person who made the map, oriented it counter-intuitively. The first couple of days I usually get stopped four or five times walking to the office by someone who is lost (or at least thinks they are lost). Today was no exception.

I hate the bus and the long waits and crowded rides. I hate the huge lines in the SUB for food (Although this is a good thing. It means I make the extra effort to bring a lunch EVERY day.)

Today I almost got absorbed by a large group of first year students. They were wandering in groups, getting tours, with orientation groups called things like Chaucer and Churchill, Freud and Mitochondria, Hemlock and Mendelssohn. I'm sure the group names reflect what the students are studying.

Anyway, it's the new year...it can only get better!

Get Ready, Get Set, Go Back to School

It's that time again...

Yeah, yeah, I already talked about September being my new year. But this year instead of heading to the stop up the road from where I normally get on the bus to avoid the throngs of students, I kind of wish I was a student. I kind of am, I'm taking classes, but I'm not a student like I was.

Uh oh, does that mean I'm getting nostalgic? Must be symptom of the "milestone" birthday year...

sigh...