One of my favourite features of the Nike+iPod setup is the Powersong.

It’s a simple concept - pick a song that pumps you up, gets you going, gets the mojo flowing, renews your energy. Program that song into your iPod nano as your Powersong. When you’re lagging and need a boost, you hold down the nano’s centre-button for a few seconds, and whatever song was playing is paused while your Powersong comes on. Once the Powersong is over, you go back to your regular workout playlist.

Also, a fun community feature that’s tied in to it is iTunes collects the Powersong data from all Nike+iPod users, and keeps a list of the 10 most popular Powersongs. It’s a pretty typical list as far as such things go: Iconic Rock Anthems and high energy dance music (The top 5 right now are Eye of the Tiger, Pump It, Thunderstruck, Sexy Back and Lose Yourself).

And this past week I’ve taken the concept of a Powersong to a whole new level. I’ve been so.

completely.

exhausted.

for about 6 weeks now.

Packing, moving, wedding, running, training, working.

And none of them are really as simple as those single words. Buying a house and the associated paperwork and organization, planning a destination wedding, planning a 3 week (backpacking, we’ve decided) trip (including making plans for things that need to happen while we’re away and immediately after we return), finding an extra hour every day for the running and training, the pain and exhaustion as my body gets used to having my ass kicked 5 days a week, and increased duties and responsibilities at work because things are getting busier and I’m also wicked awesome at what I do (yay for career development).

All of which I love. But seriously - stop this crazy ride for a moment, wouldja?

Since my demands (see above) for the world to pause on its axis just long enough for me to catch my breath seem to be going unheeded for the time being, I’ve decided my headphones to tune out as much of the crazy as possible - and a good powersong - are going to have to be enough to keep me going for the next couple months.

When I need to clear my head at work. When I need something to sing along to in the car. When I have more appointments in my calendar than hours in the day. When I’m surrounded by my nearly exploding homeowner’s manual, dirty dishes, mounds of laundry in various stages of clean and would rather ignore it all and dance. I grab my iPod, turn on my Powersong, and forget about it all for 3.5 minutes.

Right now I’m alternating between two tracks:

Flying - The Secret Machines (Originally by the Beatles, found on the Across the Universe soundtrack)
Piece of Me - Britney Spears (don’t judge)

So what about you? How do you keep your sanity when you’re crazy busy? What’s your powersong?

I was out for dinner with a group of girlfriends last week. Of the six of us, four are married and two are engaged and getting married in March (including yours truly).

So, as the conversation often does these days, talk turned to weddings - specifically dresses.

Through the process, I haven’t been particularly sentimental about my dress. The things that have always mattered to me are photos, food and music - in that order. Everything else is either gravy, or something I’ve told myself is required to make the other things as perfect as possible. And since (in my mind) beautiful wedding photos include a beautiful bride in a beautiful wedding dress, the dress is not unimportant.

But I’m still not sentimental about it. It’s an outfit for one day - but what then? I always figured that as soon as my wedding dress is back from the cleaners, it’s ebay all the way. Or consignment. Or charity. Or anything but a big bag in the back of the closet or a box under the bed.

A big chunk of our dinner conversation that night though, was sharing stories of trying on our mom’s wedding dresses. We all did it. We all couldn’t believe people wore things so awful (our moms got married in the 70’s). We all couldn’t believe our moms were so tiny, because these dresses were a bit big when we were 12, almost perfect in our teen years, and we wouldn’t have a hope in hell of fitting into them now (which is probably for the best, considering the aforementioned fugly factor).

All of the ladies I was out with that night (with the exception of the other betrothed, obviously) have kept their dresses. The dresses aren’t the puffy princessy traditional tafetta monstrosities that pepper the bridal runways and magazines. And I don’t think of any of the women as particularly traditional, mushy or sentimental (and I don’t think they really think of themselves that way about most things) - but they all agreed that they have really strong affections toward their dresses and wouldn’t dream of getting rid of them. The other bride-to-be at the table agreed with that point of view, already thinking about where to store her dress post-ceremony.

In fact, if I really think about it, I have friends who have bought wedding gowns for weddings that didn’t even happen, and are still sentimentally attached to and have the dresses (and wear them every once in a while for kicks).

Try as I might though, I can’t really bring myself to feel like I’ll miss my dress if it goes.

My biggest pull for keeping it now is the thought that I could be robbing my future potential, hypothetical daughter of having the same conversation with her friends about trying on her mom’s wedding dress.

So what about all y’all? Did you ever try on your mom’s wedding dress? If you’re married, did you have a firm vision of what you wanted to do with your dress afterward? Did you do it? Are you not yet married (or even thinking about it) and still have visions of the perfect nuptial frock and its fate? Do you know what your wife did with her dress? Do you hold any superstitions around getting rid of a wedding dress? Whaddya think?

It’s something I’ve wanted to explore for a long time, and with the upcoming slew of pictures to be taken and dress to fit into - not to mention the fact that I’d like my hot ass to actually fit into the hot shorts I bought last summer by the time this summer rolls around - I went and got myself a personal trainer.

I’m still doing the running thing (just finished the first run of Week 5! w00t! and also Barf! (or at least that’s what it feels like) but I’m not seeing any results other than being able to run further and faster (which is good and all, but I’d really like to see some physical changes too!).

Anyhow, trainer. I always thought personal trainers were solely for those who were primarily paid for either winning professional athletic games or simply being really, really, ridiculously goodlooking. Not so! The facility I’m training at is exclusively a personal training studio (meaning everyone working out there is doing it one-on-one with a trainer) and there is a very broad section of clientèle there. People ranged in age from their 20’s to 60’s, of varying fitness levels, and NOBODY in there was good looking enough to be paid for it.

It is, however, exactly as expensive as I thought it would be. Actually - a little more than I thought it would be. I figure, I pay someone $40/week to walk my dog twice weekly, I should value an investment in my own health and fitness at least twice that much. It is most certainly an investment in health and fitness. And certainly more than twice as much as dog walking for my two sessions a week. I had to seriously cut back on some things (shoes, CDs, fancy restaurants, new books) to make it happen. It’s still a lot. It’s a lease on a pretty nice car. But I think it’s worth it.

In any case, I had my first session last night, and even with the “easy” introductory session I worked harder than I ever do without serious prompting. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve sweat like that while exercising. I’m just not good at pushing myself that hard. Few people are (if you are one of them - good for you! Save your pennies, and maybe buy me a CD or something?). Those lunges never would have happened without some serious persuasion.

Also, I’m paying for the knowledge and experience of someone who’s spent a lot of time studying the human body, and exactly how to get it at its peak in the most efficient way possible. There is certainly something to be said for going through an exercise that I’ve done a frillion times before, only to have my posture and method adjusted slightly, upon which said exercise becomes way harder and more effective in the good ways, and way less inclined to hurt me in other ways. It’s an investment in efficient use of time and resources as well.

Anyhow, today I was a bit sore, but felt good. And I go back for more tomorrow. It’ll be an interesting experience, since it’ll be the official “benchmarking” appointment where all the weighing, measuring and otherwise evaluating will happen. I’m not really looking forward to hearing (yet again - since I haven’t exactly recovered from wedding dress shopping where the woman read out the number on her tape measure in disbelief, then measured again and was shocked to get the same result) how very many inches around my ass is - but I am looking forward to seeing how many of those I can lose in the next 9 weeks.

Shoes

Originally uploaded by peechie.

Today was a banner day in terms of postal deliveries in my world.

My shoes arrived (and as you can see, I went with the Louboutins), and I’m typing this on my new xo laptop.

Shoes and gadgets both on the same day. I’m not sure which I’m more excited about!

One thing that generally comes with moving is the learning of a new route to work. For those of us who commute by transit, that’s learning a new bus route.

Of the very few things I’m missing about the old place (along with being mere steps from Tatlows, the Naam and the Flying Tiger) is the fact that we were on a pretty major transit crossing of routes. The buses there were such that we could get to and from downtown - without transferring - on 6 major bus routes, all going slightly different ways.

We didn’t really bother learning when exactly the buses were showing up, because we knew there would always be another one coming within 5 or 6 minutes.

That abundance of transit options has now been reduced to one. The formidable #17.

In the mornings it really isn’t a problem, since we have a pretty good handle on when it comes by (every 10 minutes on the 7’s).

Going home is an entirely different matter.

Not only is the closest downtown stop a good 3 block walk for each of us (instead of the 1/2 block or directly outside options we had before), but we seem to be experts at showing up exactly when the latest bus home for us is pulling away - meaning a 10-15 minute wait in not entirely pleasant weather for the next one.

We went through the same song and dance again today, and stood outside in the cold as we watched The #17 pull away when we were too far to catch it, and hung around waiting for the next one.

Finally another bus came by, and Neil and I walked up to get on it.

And somehow broke the time-space-continuum.

We both saw the #17 turn the corner.

We both watched it pull up to the stop.

We both walked up to the bus and got on.

Then about halfway through the ride, realized we were on the #4.

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot?

We have no idea where the hell our brains/that bus went, but somehow we managed to get on the wrong bus. I’m assuming it pulled up to the stop around the same time as the #17 and we just walked up to the wrong one - but that’s a bit boneheaded, even for us.

We didn’t even realize it right away, since all the buses from that stop take the same path out of town, so it was really 2/3 of the way through the ride that we clued in we were going the wrong way.

Dude in red toque, standing toward the front of the bus: I’m glad you got a snicker out of our brainfart. If I were you, I’d have laughed at me too.

Anyhow, it wasn’t completely tragic, since the #4 happens to stop about 5 blocks from our place (and across the street from our favourite butcher, helloooo dinner), but I suppose that’s our sign to actually learn a little more about our new chauffeured coach and make more of an effort to get on the right bus from now on.

It’s either that, or invest in some far more comfortable shoes to stand and wait in, then endure the 5+ block hike.

Home Depot
Who art kinda far away out there in suburbia
Hallowed be a good parking spot

Thy customer service come
When the self-checkout machine throws a fit
With store pricing
Hopefully the same as on the internet

And give us this day that usually out of stock item
And forgive us our impatience
Because we’ve been waiting
By the key-cutting station for assistance
For seventeen minutes

And lead us not to the wrong side of the store
But deliver us to the shower-curtain rods

(which, incidentally, should logically be near shower and bath enclosures, not closet organizers)

For thine is a ridiculous sum of cash
So I can finally have some shelving

And a programmable thermostat

For ever and ever,
Amen.

Week 3 is in the can. However, not without a serious episode of needing to get over my damn self already.

Last night I posted about not wanting to run and a long list of accompanying excuses. I figured I’d vent the negativity onto the blog and just go home and run.

And so many more excuses lines themselves up on the way home. Missed buses, increasingly bad weather, and then the final straw:

I grabbed my shorts out of the laundry, and despite the fact that I very carefully tied up the drawstring on them, it untied itself in the wash and was halfway pulled out. And with the level of clutter and nothing-having-a-home-ness around here, I had no idea where any tool to fix it would be.

I gave up.

I tried to console myself with a new oMop and by finally getting a lot of the cleaning up and laundry done (which included finding the mechanism by which to fix the aforementioned shorts - aka safetypin). The chores got done, but I didn’t feel any better.

Then I read all your comments. And I felt like a huge ass. So thank you to everyone who commented or emailed or otherwise nagged and cajoled me.

I needed a little Yoda-therapy: there is no try, only do.

But by the time I finally realized that, it was quite late. So I just continued to feel like a huge ass (with a huge ass) and tried to figure out when I’d run the next day.

To add insult to injury, the weather during the day today was the closest thing to beautiful I’ve seen around Raincouver for a long, long time.

So I got over myself and just did it - I played hooky from work for an hour this afternoon. (Can you still call it “hooky” if you get flex hours and can telecommute, and go back to working at home later?)

I came home, grabbed the dog, and ran. And it was lovely!

And once I got back, I made a smoothy and picked up the computer and looked outside and it had just started raining.

So this running thing, it is still going pretty well. I am only one run away from completing Week 3 of the Couch to 5K program.

Of course, this is about where I stalled on Week 2, three times over. One run left to do, and can’t be arsed to bother. Something comes up (or down, in the case of rain) and I just end up neglecting my sneakers in the closet.

Then I don’t run for four or five days, and I need to start that week again.

So far getting over the hump last time was made easier because I’d just started using the nike+ipod setup. It’s just really damn cool to have run data collected and be able to upload it and track my progress. Not only feeling like each run is a bit easier, but having evidence that I’m improving my time per km and seeing the cumulative distance rack up is also making a difference.

But today… ohhhhhhhhhhh today. And I am so right there again today. I’ve been doing so well for so long, and today I’m just all gaaaaaaaaaaah I don’t wanna.

- I am tired.
- I am bloated.
- It is raining.
- My right hip-flexor is being all tweaky and weird.
- Things at home need unpacking/cleaning/putting away.
- I’m sick of that particular workout (5min warmup, run 90s, walk 90s, run 180s, walk 180s, run 90s, walk 90s, run 180s, 5min cooldown).
- I hate the music on that particular Couch-to-5K podcast.
- I set a goal on nikeplus.com to run 24 times in 8 weeks - so far it’s telling me I’m 2 runs behind - and I’m feeling like more of a miserable failure instead of any sort of motivation to work on bringing that back up to even.

So, gentle readers, this is where I ask for your help. I want to do this run. At least, some little part of me does. Help convince the rest of me that it would be a good idea! Leave some sort of motivating reason for me to run tonight in the comments. Please?

Because:
- My iPod battery is almost dead
- My favourite running socks are dirty
- I can do it tomorrow….

So we’ve officially moved in to the new place! A few notes:

Floor to (8.75′) ceiling windows around two sides means it’s a lot colder than the old place. I consider the higher heat bill my fee for the view, which is lovely.

I have an additional piece of motivation to get rid of the old couch posthaste: it’s too damned long. Thankfully, some friends are upgrading their couch this week, so we’ll be the lucky recipients of their old couch until we get a new one.

I have no idea where anything is. The layout is much better here, but very, very different - so I really don’t know where anything is. I also get turned around and walk into the wrong bedroom a lot of the time, wondering how I got there when I meant to end up somewhere else.

Full-capacity (instead of apartment sized) laundry machines are a gift straight from heaven.

Those “skinny” integrated slide-out hood fans may look sleeker than traditional hood-fans at first glance, but all they do is move the big assembly piece inside your cupboard over the stove, making it useless for actually storing anything.

Despite the install video for Rubbermaid Closet Configurations only being about 10 minutes long, the actual set takes a lot longer than that to install. Like, 9 times longer. With 500% more cursing. At least it did for us. Most of that time is spent measuring, leveling and drilling. Also complicating matters is standing up on chairs so we can reach the 86.5″ mounting height.

The dog is highly disconcerted. All the right “stuff” is in the wrong place. She seems to be slowly settling down. It’s awfully funny watching her get used to the hardwood floors though - she either walks very carefully, like she’s trying to pass a roadside sobriety test, or slip-slides around corners.

When everyone is moving into a new building with hardwood floors located above a London Drugs, the London Drugs will instantly be sold-out of those felt-pads for your furniture legs, and wood cleaner.

I am completely enamored with our Jewish Oven. I hope I don’t go to hell for making a heathen chicken in it this weekend…

I thought about making some sort of personal resolutions this year, but 2008 is shaping up to be a year of so much activity, growth and change already I think I’ll just give myself a big pat on the back for making it through.

It starts off with becoming a first-time homeowner, complete with list of DIY projects to get started on, and we don’t even move in for a few more days. Then comes the actual DIY work, design and AV plans and the execution thereof.

Smack-dab in the middle of those, there’s that whole wedding thing coming up. It’s slowly starting to hit me that there are about eleventy-frillion little details to get all squared away within the next 90-ish days. Fitting into my dress is enough motivation to keep me on the running plan for the next little while. As for those details, I am currently distracting myself by agonizing over shoes: Manolo Blahnik or Christian Louboutin… the Spring Manolos have absolutely perfect styling for my dress, but those damn red soles on the Louboutin are like a siren song in shoe form…

2008 will also be a big travel year again, with definite trips to Tofino (twice), Morocco, Spain, Orlando (twice) and Las Vegas (twice), with probable jaunts to San Fransisco, Denver, Boston, Atlanta, DC and Barcelona. Don’t get too jealous, only three of those destinations are personal trips. I’m sure Neil, in addition to one “man-time” camping trip, will also have his share of trips to the exotic wilds of Columbus and maybe Oxford.

In between all those I also want to make sure I manage to balance the crazy with time to both visit and entertain friends and family near and far, keep running and not lose time I’ve worked hard to find for things like playing the piano, learning how to make beautiful photos and just lazing about with a good book or two.

Realistically, the goals we have for getting our new place put together and the travel schedule coming up means that most of our time and finances are pretty well spoken for until late 2008, when it’ll practically be time to gear up for another holiday season where I can finally pause and wonder where the year went.

But there is one thing I felt I could certainly set some goals for and make the time to do better at over the next 12 months - this damn blog. It definitely stagnated over 2007, which I’m definitely not pleased with. So starting now, I’m going to take the step of engaging more with readers by replying to all comments, and try to drag some additional content out of myself to keep to a 3-4 post/week schedule.

And so, in the spirit of getting this thing start off right, and actually soliciting some comments to reply to… how are you this year so far, and do you think I should go with the Manolos or Louboutins?