Okay, so MINUS the cycling to work. Headaches suck first thing in the morning, cycling to work with a sore lower body (lower body day on Wednesday) *and* a splitting headache, sucks more.

I spoke to a colleague from where I used to work, tonight. She's in the boat I expect to be in... but not quite. She's 41 and single, living on her own, going to work every day and hating life. In my future, I don't see the 'hating life' part. I'm going to take control of my own happiness. Mom's coming over this weekend, and we're going to hang out, etc... I don't have any problem saying "I'm not planning on getting married anytime soon" to her, anymore - because it's the truth.

If marriage happnes, it will happen because we are two people who compliment each other but have our own lives, interests and financial security. Sounds materialistic, but I don't want to lean on anyone - no more than I want someone leaning on me. It's not a relationship of equals when that happens. I have a relationship of equals right now, and it's gorgeous. Neither of us are ready to get married, though -- we're both still building our life experiences and setting up our futures. Who knows what the future brings in that regard? I might as well put my planning and dreaming skills to use on something that's attainable by me and me alone.

I can't believe how after one week, beginning with a talk with George and followed by a few days of soul-searing soul searching, I feel so completely different. I feel satsified, but not satisfied to sit still and let life *happen* to me. I feel at peace, but restless - ready to go out and take on myself and the world. I expect to have my bad days, still... but fewer of them - and hopefully I will be able to recognize them coming on, and do something constructive to change them into good days.

And now I am going to go do cardio. I must, I must, I must decrease my butt... okay.. so that's not how it goes. ;-)

KICK ASS!

Happy Two ought ought two!

Couldn't get to sleep last night on account of my brain. =)

I couldn't stop thinking about the logistics of my Peru trip -- timing is everything and I have a couple of other trips that are "must take" this year -- one is Kimli's wedding and the other is George and I wanting to take a week off in Hawaii early this year... how to juggle/pay for it all!?!

Drat my brain.

Luckily I had taken a nap earlier in the evening so I could go to see "A Beautiful Mind". I really enjoyed it, but then I was awake until 11 with my brain in overdrive.

Body for LIFE started yesterday. Upper body. Ow. I'm skipping the cardio today and going to the lower body workout to get "caught up" so I'm on track for the week... I did ride my bike in to work today (as every day) so I get SOME cardio that way. Cardio on Thursday will be by the book + cycling to work.

I rock. I'm going to change my life.

So Redwood just left on the bus. We ran a little late -- but managed to get him to the bus JUST on time. =) Thank goodness we live five minutes from the Train/Bus station.

We only had a short visit, but we packed in the things to do. Yesterday we tried the winter sport of curling. I've never done it before, and neither had Redwood - but we both improved a lot over the course of the two hours. I'm sore today -- muscles I've never used before! Our team (George, Redwood, Mike (a guy from work) and myself) lost by one point. Not bad considering we were all newbies except George, who had been one time before this!

After curling, George left to go snowboarding with his Dad and brother -- and Redwood and I headed out to watch the Royal Tenenbaums - it was sold out when we got there so we watched Khandahar instead. Weird film, but I found it very interesting... it just didn't have enough of the loose ends tied up at the end to satisfy my "Western" mindset, but it gave me a glimpse into Afghan culture and the bhurga that had never imagined Redwood said I owed him huggles for making him see that film. ;-) After that, we found that Royal Tenenbaums was starting in about 20 minutes, so we bought tickets and went to see that, too. Hilarious film. Very quirky. It will make you think your own family isn't nearly as fucked up as you thought they were.

After the movie we walked back home and shortly afterwards George arrived home, sore from snowboarding, and we went for dinner at La Terazza. We rushed it a bit, and didn't have desert -- damn, because their cheesecake baked in phyllo pastry is to die for -- but we made it to the Vancouver Theatresports League late night "Scared Scriptless" show. It was worth it. The laughing we did worked off some of dinner and then we headed home and went to sleep.

Whew!

Today was brief - we slept until around 10AM and then had blueberry pancakes and walked up to Booster Juice for smoothies and to see the Vancouver Public Library (a building featured in the Arnold movie "The Sixth Day"). We walked home in the sunshine with Redwood snapping tourist shots and Rainy bounding around enjoying the outdoors and then had to rush to get Redwood to the bus on time.

We made it and now I'm home and ready to get cracking on finishing the cleanup and organization of this room.

Away I go... I'll share pictures when I figure out how to post some.