Clean Eating

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This is the latest in a long line of ways I try to manipulate my body into staying in a shape & size that fits into my pants.

The target right now is a pair of Tilley travel pants, purchased just before heading to Morocco 2 years ago.

Two years ago I was in a frenzy, prepping for our imminent wedding, seeing a personal trainer twice weekly and shrinking due partly to stress. Let me advise you, this is NOT when you want to invest in clothing you expect to ever fit into again.

My brother’s fiancee has been recommending clean eating to me for a while now, and out of desperation in terms of fitting into these pants again, I picked up an issue of Clean Eating Magazine, then the book The Eat Clean Diet, Recharged. (For what it’s worth, this post is entirely unsolicited.)

The basics of clean eating are to have 5-6 small meals a day, each one including a serving of lean protein and a serving of complex carbohydrates from fruit/veggies. And 2-4 of those meals should also include some sort of whole-grain starch.

There are of course other elements – natural sweeteners only, including fermented foods (yogurt, keffir, soy) for digestive balance, drinking lots of water/herbal tea, eliminating refined flours, increasing exercise. But the aforementioned 6 meals and their components are at the core of the plan.

I have tried countless other diets and “weight loss/get healthy” plans; weight watchers, body for life, wild rose herbal d-tox. They all fell terribly short. I couldn’t stick to them. Or if I did, I didn’t see results (WW, I’m lookin’ at you!).

Inevitably, the biggest frustration I have with any sort of “diet plan” is that they don’t focus on REAL food. They encourage a whole pantry full of edible food-like substances. Ultimately I get frustrated a) spending money on those, b) feeling uneasy eating them and c) NOT COOKING!

Clean Eating is the exact opposite of that. In fact, were I not quite comfortable around the kitchen, clean eating might be much trickier.

There are recipes to follow, but there is also lots of room for improvisation. It means I can use up what’s in my fridge & pantry pretty easily – reducing waste, sticking with seasonal products. The way I try to cook on a day-to-day basis.

It does take quite a lot of time planning out and prepping 6 meals every evening. The example meal plans are called “cooler” plans, since the only way to ensure you’re eating clean on a day-to-day basis is to pack up a cooler of meals for the day.

I’ve been on this for 3 weeks now and those pants I couldn’t even do up before Christmas, fit again. Along with a whole other section of my wardrobe that didn’t.

I haven’t even been exercising more than normal (weekly yoga, a few other walks during the week – shamefully I have yet to go for a run in 2010), though I have declared it to be “Sober January” – a dry month after the excesses of the holiday season.

Everyone’s got to do what works for them. And I know there are bunches of programs that work for all sorts of people. And I have FINALLY found one that works for me!

If you don’t mind cooking, or eating regularly (I’m pretty happy to stuff my face every 3 hours, I know others see that as a hassle), I can recommend this one. It may work for you too.

Nobody Has Shown up Naked to Work Lately…

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The company I work for is in the HR/Recruiting industry, so I find myself floating around a number of online HR forums.

I found this absolute gem this afternoon (via The Business Insider) – if you have any interest in HR or workplace cultures, give it a look:

Culture

The company I used to work for was well on its way to fostering a culture like that. Focus on results. Foster innovation. Hire superstars. As far as I know, they are still walking that path. They didn’t always succeed and there were bumps in the road for sure – it’s not easy to maintain that culture of trust and innovation when there is a failing economy raining crap down on everyone’s heads everyday. But they tried. They try.

And I can speak firsthand to what an incredible experience it is working for a company like that. I had trust and freedom from my manager. I was encouraged to innovate. We all worked incredibly hard to get things done, but it never felt (at least to me) like a chore. If the joy in accomplishment and excitement for future projects was any indication, I don’t think anyone felt like it was much of a chore. Of course there were also bad days – it’s not a job if they don’t need to pay you to show up – but the culture as a whole was designed to foster success. I learned more and accomplished more in a little under 2 years there than in the 5 years previous.

The company I work for now is one of the procedure-driven risk-averse companies mentioned in the slide-deck. It’s not bad, but it’s certainly not incredible. Innovation and excellence are more difficult. I manage. And I’m incredibly glad to have had the experience I did. Knowing the importance of not settling into mediocrity keeps me going.

And I hope that these examples of success are what keep driving corporate culture into the future. Every employee should have an experience like that.

I often note that, from a business trends perspective, HR (specifically recruiting) is today where marketing and marketing automation were three years ago.

In marketing & PR the message these days is to not be so afraid of giving up the “command and control” style of push marketing. Because you don’t actually have control anyhow. Giving up control and instead building trust and engagement will be the keys to excellence and success gaining customers.

I hope HR departments and executive boardrooms get the message soon that the same tactics will work for winning excellence & success from employees.

So, about that thing.

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If you were paying attention in December, you’ll remember that I alluded to some mysterious “thing” that I was tip-toeing around doing.

First things first: I didn’t do it.

“It” was applying to grad school. But not just any grad program, I was going to apply to the Masters of Science in the Social Science of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute. Yes, that Oxford. I really fell in love with the place after visiting a couple years ago, and I’ve been casually perusing their graduate degree options ever since.

It also doesn’t help that while I have a good job that I enjoy 90% of the time, I used to have an amazing job that I enjoyed 93% of the time (before I was unceremoniously punted from the organization in a round of layoffs). It makes the few less-than-good days at the current job sting that much more. Yes I’m still bitter. I’m trying to let go.

My pattern of disillusionment with the rat race usually winds a course of 1) think back to the heady days of university when life was full of possibility and I could be anything I wanted 2) start investigating grad school 3) take a few steps toward applying before realizing that I am not actually as committed to school as I thought, and it’s really just me working through an escape plan. (See: LSAT test-taking days of 2006.)

I heard a great quote once by the current CEO of Yahoo! that goes something like “Don’t be afraid of risk and change, just make sure you’re running toward something rather than away from something else.

The MSc at OII still sounds like an amazing program that actually follows the work I did for my undergrad communications degree quite well, and absolutely scratches every curious academic itch I’ve ever had. But right now applying is more about running away than running toward.

I could still get a graduate degree some day. But right now it doesn’t line up with any of the goals I’ve got for my life. Every time I go back to the application, I feel a bit of pause – what will this do to financial plans? family plans? and what on earth would I do after I finish? I certainly do not want a life in academia or policy – so where does this take me?

Right now it takes me back to a reality check. Life, as it is, is good. And full of opportunities. I just need to remind myself to run toward them because they’re great all on their own, and not because I’m running away from something else.

Out the Other Side

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An update for those playing along at home.

Reader’s Digest version: Things are much, much better.

The dog’s infection has cleared up with antibiotics and some antiseptic soap treatments, so she’s much happier. She can be left without the cone and should be 100% once the course of drugs are finished.

Neil got the results of his X-Rays back and, as I mentioned in the update to the last entry, he didn’t break any bones. His tooth did die, and the infection from the rotting-away root had gone into his face. It finally ruptured on Friday and the drainage of the pus relieved the pressure so he immediately felt better. A root canal and some antibiotics and he’s on the mend as well.

Happy Bonus: everything was solved in time for him to go to England without incident. He made it there in one piece and even managed to get in a few hours of his cheeky self (rather than the grumpy, surly self I was dealing with all week) before he left.

Not sure what’s going on with my sister-in-law, but she’s at her parents’ place, working on a new plan that doesn’t involve Korea.

And I managed to worry my parents enough with that last post (oops! sorry…) that they called and offered to come over and help get things in order around here. So today we dismantled Christmas, my mom went above and beyond in the cleaning department, and everything is mostly caught up and sorted out.

Clearly the lesson here is: when life hands you lemons, complain on your blog and things will eventually turn out okay.

Oh, so it’s going to be like that, is it.

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Well okay then.

It’s been a less than auspicious start to 2010 for the House of Watkii.

I spent the beginning of December nursing Neil with the flu, then spent the last 10 days of 2009 terribly ill myself (too ill to eat more than 1/2 plate of Christmas dinner – tragedy!), finally feeling better on the Jan 1st. And none too soon.

Neil managed to have a close, personal encounter with a tree trunk on his last day skiing, Jan 2nd, and because he was still hurting 5 days later, has gone to various doctors. The verdict so far? He’s knocked the cartilage off his ribs on his left side (nothing to do but take lots of painkillers).

In the same fall he smashed the fuck out of the right side of his face. Thankfully he looks mostly normal on the outside (a bit puffier on that side), but he’s waiting for the X-Rays to come in to find out if he’s broken his upper jaw. Bruised bone or hairline fracture means he just takes lots of ibuprofin and waits for the hurting to stop. Compound fracture means eventual reconstructive surgery to repair the break. In either case he’s probably got an ugly infection in there and killed a couple teeth. The dentist can’t go in to investigate further until the jaw thing is sorted out.

UPDATE: Hooray! Broken face is officially not broken! Lots of pain, lots of pus, no broken bones. *phew*

Oh, and time is of the essence in finding a solution/treatment path, since he leaves for a week in England on Saturday evening.

Among all that, we noticed the evening of the 4th the dog was generally out of sorts and licking herself a lot. We rolled her over to find her delicate ladyparts badly swollen and inflamed. Off to the emergency vet we went. $300 later, we had a cone of shame, a tube of lotion, and a diagnosis of “could be any number of things, see your regular vet ASAP.”

Another couple hundred dollars at the regular vet and we know that she’s got a nasty infection in her undercarriage, requiring twice-daily washing and lotion application, as well as 10 days of antibiotics. She’s mighty uncomfortable. Every time she gets up to walk, she realizes her bits hurt, panics and starts running around (which makes it even worse), then starts crashing into things because of the cone. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad. Needless to say, the dog can’t be left alone.

Thankfully my Sister-in-Law has been around the past couple days sorting out her visa application to return to work in Korea and has been able to watch the dog the couple occasions we haven’t been able to stay home from work or other obligations.

Though her story isn’t exactly rosy either. After 2 weeks of being dismissed, degraded, deferred and dicked-around by the Korean consulate in Vancouver, her visa was denied.

No good reason for it (she’s been working in Korea on visas for the better part of the past 6 years), except a disgruntled consular employee who managed to build a case against her for being “rude and disorganized – and we don’t want rude, disorganized people in Korea.” She’s now gone back to my in-law’s place to sort things out and figure out a new plan.

And me? I’ve been burning it at both ends trying to hold things together for our little family unit. Shuttling Neil and Sasha to and from various medical appointments. Managing schedules so someone is always home with the dog. Hosting a houseguest in our small, messy apartment (we still haven’t had time to unpack or do the holiday laundry with everything else going on).

So while it might otherwise be nice to have the house to myself for a week, what it really means is I get to fly solo on monitoring and managing the dog’s infection, finally take care of the unpacking and wrestle the Christmas decorations and long-since-dead tree into storage/the chipping place. All in addition to the extra hours I was expecting to put in at work through January so things are ready for me to leave for 3 weeks in February.

As I said, not a particularly great start to 2010. And have I mentioned, in a desperate effort to fit into my vacation pants by the time we leave for Thailand, I have declared it to be “sober January”? Strict clean-eating diet, no alcohol. Goodbye usual coping mechanisms.

But that’s fine. It’s only 357 days until 2011. I can make it. I hope.

Looking Backward, Moving Forward

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Recycling the post from last January, let’s see what answers 2009 provides.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Run 30 minutes in one stretch.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
From the blog last year:
To live more in the moment. At work I’m usually working on things that are happening 6-12 months out, and Neil and I are great at setting and making long-term goals and plans. But I think the aforementioned, combined with my natural impatience, leave me missing out on a lot of “today” as I rush headlong into “tomorrow.” For 2009 I’m going to try to remind myself to be a bit more present in the now.

Hmm, I think I have. Sadly for you, it’s resulted in fewer pictures and blog posts, but I’ve become very comfortable with just “doing” rather than documenting. I am still a crazy planning machine, but when I do something, I’m much more committed to just being there and tuning out distractions.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
New humans for 2009 include Jackson Closs and Adele Quinn. It’s a baby-palooza. We are still happy spectators.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope. Hooray!

5. What countries did you visit?
Just the usual local BC trips and the US of A this year. But we’re off to Thailand in February 2010!

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

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Er… Uh… The whole year’s been a bit of a blur really. Lots of little things stand out, but no biggies.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Paying off all our consumer debt! It wasn’t exactly a New Year’s resolution, but it was a big goal we had for the year, and we rocked the socks off that one.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Pastry. Again.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I spent most of the holiday season with a craptastic cold. Other than that, knock on wood, a healthy year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A car!

12. Where did most of your money go?
Paying off debt.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Paying off debt!

14. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Happier! It’s been a very mellow but great year.
b) thinner or fatter? Fatter. Most definitely. It’s one to work on in 2010.
c) richer or poorer? Richer, in life, happiness, and actual net worth, huzzah!

15. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Snowboarding, running.

16. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Eating.

17. How did you spend Christmas?
Relaxing at my inlaws’ lodge in the middle of nowhere. Bliss.

18. Did you fall in love in 2009?
I fall in love all over again all the time. I’ll get worried if/when that stops.

19. What was your favorite TV program?
Glee! Hands down. It’s embarrassing how much I love that show.

20. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Of course not. Hate is a waste of time.

21. What was the best book you read?
I actually didn’t read many books in 2009. Plenty of internet and magazines, but light on actual books. I’d like to change that. I did manage to get through “Fool” by Christopher Moore over the Christmas break. Another winner.

22. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Dan Mangan, Great Lake Swimmers

23. What did you want and get?
Got to Debt Free. Got a new job when I was laid off. Got a car when we needed one. This year was certainly a year of serendipity.

24. What did you want and not get?
A trip to Germany. That was one of the big sacrifices of getting to debt free. Same with a new TV. And a thousand other tiny things we put aside or postponed to get rid of that line of credit. But considering I don’t really remember them now, I’d say they’re worth it.

25. What was your favorite film of this year?
Slumdog Millionaire. Was that even released in 2009? Because that’s when I watched it.

26. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 29, played it low-key in the middle of a wicked heatwave and went for a giant Indian food dinner with friends.

27. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
You know, I can’t think of anything. It was a really good year. Perhaps not the terrible cold over the holidays would’ve been nice…

28. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic. The End. (It is sad, I still need help, and also that money fairy.)(This is the same answer from 2008 – clearly still an issue).

29. What kept you sane?
Wine.

A shorter list than last year, since I couldn’t think of good answers to the rest of the questions. Over all, 2009 has been a year of looking inward, solidifying some personal goals and putting plans in place to move forward.

This year we’re looking forward to a great vacation, some new adventures, and a few of the things we were denying ourselves over 2009 as we worked to get over that big financial goal. Now that we’re consumer debt-free, we’ll also be working on something that resembles a retirement plan and other such things that are only exciting to investment managers and accountants.

Onward and upward for 2010!

Watch Your Nog(gin) this Winter

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When I was invited to an event from the fine folks at Preventable (@preventable on twitter) last night on winter sport safety, I found the timing quite fortuitous. I’m heading to Sun Peaks over New Years for a ski vacation, and being the utter wuss that I am, I was definitely interested in knowing how to keep my self intact and injury free while I’m there.

snowboard

The point behind the Preventable campaign (run by the Community Against Preventable Injuries) is to have us all thinking a bit more about how, when and where we place ourselves at risk. It’s all about what British Columbians can do to prevent injury, not what they shouldn’t do.

I’ll admit, I’ve been participating in snow sports in one form or another for the better part of the last two decades, and I’ve never ever worn a helmet. Biking, sure. Rollerblading, yep. Snowboarding? No.

It’s not for any good reason – I’ve just never thought I needed one. I don’t ride aggressively, I don’t go out in terrible conditions, I don’t bother going through the trees and I’ve never even sniffed at the back country.

Turns out, none of that actually matters.

You probably remember actress Natasha Richardson‘s fatal ski accident from last spring, caused by a seemingly innocuous fall on the bunny hill. It’s estimated by the Brain Injury Association of Canada that nearly 50% of all skiing and snowboarding head injuries could be prevented by simply wearing a helmet.

Of course there are plenty of other injuries one could sustain through an accident on the slopes – but why make brain injury one of them?

In the meantime, I’m now going to try and right this wrong (because I’m awfully fond of my brain, addled as it may be) and get a helmet to see me through this season’s round of adventures on the slopes.

Anyone have any recommendations for favourite helmet models (ASTM or Snell certified, natch) or local vendors?

THIRTY

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It seems like no time at all has passed since I wrote my last entry about the Couch to 5K running program – but indeed it has. I’m in week 9 of the program – the final week. And yesterday’s run had us out for 30 full minutes of running.

And other than the hill at the end (living on a hill = nice view, shit for running), it wasn’t actually that difficult. Colour me shocked.

For the past few weeks we’ve been done with the intervals of walking/running, and just gradually increasing the length of the runs. This final week, we’re out for the full 30 minutes. Hooray!

I tracked our route with the excellent Gmap Pedometer web page, and despite being out for 30 minutes, we’re not yet at 5 kms. Generally we’re at about 4k, so once this week is over we’ll start adding a couple blocks every week until we can make 5k in 30 minutes. I’m not sure where we’ll go from there.

As for the health benefits – honestly running hasn’t done anything particularly stunning. It’s added the level of activity I need to not gain weight without being on a strict diet. I’m also sleeping a bit better, though don’t have any more energy through the day than while I wasn’t running. I don’t get any sort of runner’s high, and my sense of accomplishment at having made it through yet another week far outweighs any physical benefit I feel.

Still, I tell myself that it’s a good thing. Hopefully “Sober January” as it’s been dubbed in the House of Watkii, a focus on clean eating for the month and the addition of a day or two of weight training on top of the running will have us in Beach-worthy shape to spend a large chunk of February here:

phi-phi-island

Leaping

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photo by geekgirly

photo from geekgirly

My procrastination (like that of many of my brethren task-putter-offers) stems from a serious fear of failure.

If I don’t actually start this thing, I can’t fail at doing it, right? Flawless logic.

Except there’s this thing* that I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time. I made the mistake about six weeks ago of looking into it enough to see if it’s even a possibility (it is) and took the first tentative steps to see if I could make it happen. I probably could.

And that “probably” is killing me.

I have had exactly two tasks to do, to start along the road of trying not to fail. I have been putting them off for at least three weeks.

I need to get over the fear and stop procrastinating and buck up and put my nose to the grindstone and stop using terrible cliches and just do it (oops) already.

And here, internets, is where I ask for your gentle assistance.

Comment, and tell me to do it. Comment again on Monday to see if I did. Shame me into getting over myself and just getting to it. Because I am not having much luck convincing myself that without a little risk there is no opportunity for great reward.

Thank you.

*You may ask what the thing is, and I might tell you. Then again I might not. But I certainly won’t blog about it.

I wish you a Creepy Christmas

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I’ve told many people about one of my favourite Christmas Decorations: Satanic Fiber-Optic Santa, and now that we’ve hauled out most of the decorations for another year, I shot a quick video of him last night, so you may also share in the horror glory!

The jingling/clicking noises in the background are the dog – but the grainy sound quality and ill-timed looping are 100% authentic Creepy Santa.

Happy Holidays, and please Ho Ho Hope he doesn’t kill me in my sleep!

Jen Eats Something Strange – Episode 1

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I got some email today from YouTube, stating that a couple old videos of mine (Eating Live Octopus in Korea) are popular enough qualify for their affiliate program (they put ads on my video, I collect a few pennies a year).

Comments on the videos (mostly “ewww!”) come through every now and again, but I hadn’t thought much about them. Until the emails. So I checked them out. Apparently eating strange things is intensely popular on YouTube, since my videos are at a little over 33,000 views each! Certainly not because of anything I did (other than eating the octopus & posting video).

Clearly we should’ve taken video of eating a smoked sheep’s head and snails right out of their shells in Morocco.

And I’ll be sure to take a camera that shoots video to Thailand in February, in case there are any delicacies that make the average North American go “Hmmm” (or “ewww!”) that we stumble across.

In the meantime, some video from the watercooler archives:

Go Canucks Go!

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Hello Blog Friends!

As I’m sure some of you know, I’ve got season’s tickets to the Vancouver Canucks. Going to 45 games a season is a bit daunting, so I share the tickets with family and friends. It’s an excellent way to see some games at a big discount from the one-off purchase price.

With the schedule this year, we’ve got a few games left that we can’t make it to that are still available:

Thurs. Dec. 10th vs. Atlanta sale pending!
Sat. Dec. 26 vs. Edmonton (makes an excellent Christmas Gift!) gone!

Tues. March 30 vs. Phoenix

Seats are in Section 122, row 15 – an excellent view up-ice in the Canucks defending end.

My cost for these are $220/pair (cost through Ticketmaster is about $280/pair) – but because the December games are coming up so soon, I’ll let those two go for $200!

Drop a comment or email me if you’re interested: jen at worldwidewatercooler dot com.

And Go Canucks Go!

Halfway

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If you’ve been following along on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I’ve actually, stunningly, been keeping up with the Couch to 5k program. Halfway through yesterday’s run put me at the halfway mark of the 9-week program. Since I didn’t stop at halfway and finished the run, I am officially closer to the end of the program than the beginning.

There are a few things I’ve learned since my earlier post about running:

I highly prefer running first thing in the morning, while it’s dark. If the sun hasn’t even started the day yet, I feel like I’m running during some sort of magical extra time and don’t have to acknowledge that it’s actually taking up time in my day (and in some small way, perhaps not actually happening). It’s also more practical in terms of avoiding traffic, which is nice. Fewer people out and about in general to see me heaving up my lungs is a good thing.

It’s still all about the music, and I love having the ability to change up the songs I’m listening to on a run-by-run basis. Another motivating selection in the playlist includes Fat Bottom Girls by Queen. It cracks me up and keeps me running through some more challenging pieces.

Having an immediate indoor option has removed yet another barrier to excuses: the weather. We’ve had a doozie of a November in Vancouver, with uncharacteristically intense wind and rain. More than once the idea of running outside in the weather was more than I could handle. But now I live in a building with a gym. Instead of making yet another excuse, I go downstairs and run indoors. Interestingly, when running indoors, I prefer listening to podcasts, rather than a musical playlist.

Neil, like the champ (and weather disregarder) he is, still goes for a light jog outside when I run indoors so the dog gets walked.

Speaking of Neil the champ, I finally understand what a good workout buddy can do. Another of my favourite “I don’t want to do this” avoidance mechanisms is to pick a fight with him instead of going out. Spoiled brat? Check. But he’s learned that if he refuses to engage, and just keeps getting dressed to go for the run. Eventually, I will get over myself and just go along. I’m getting better at not being an asshole, and having his gentle persistent insistence is one of the key things that have kept me going.

I still manage to psych myself out about just about every run. Week four was hard, really hard. And for the first couple runs of week five, even though the running has been physically easier, I keep panicking about “oh my god, I’ve gone so far, been running so long, I’m going to crash into a blubbering blob of fail any second!”

I don’t, but I’m still kindof convinced I will. Which does not bode well for tomorrow morning.

I’m supposed to run for twenty. minutes. straight.

So far the longest continuous stretch of running I’ve done is 8 minutes. I have no idea how the hell I’m going to manage to run for 20. I am officially panicking.

If you don’t see the twitter or facebook notifications that I finished the run tomorrow morning, it means I fell down dead. But if you do see the notifications, it would mean a whole lot if you piped up and said “hey, way to go” – because those occasional bursts of encouragement have been a huge motivator so far. And although I’m more than halfway, I still have a long way to go.

**Update** Made it :)

Wanted: One Cultural Attaché

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Other potential titles: Concert Curator, Music Maven, Showtime Superstar. Whatever floats your boat.

2003 by TigerPiglet

Duties:

  • Identify and procure tickets for approximately 10 shows a year, within a strict budget, for this busy and clueless music lover and her husband, who haven’t been to a concert since 2006 and would love to see some great indie bands, but have no idea where to start.

    • Requirements:

  • Must be well-informed and current in all matters concerning live shows in Vancouver.
  • Must be able to take particular but ultimately boring mainstream tastes and marry them with interesting performances taking place in cozy and inexpensive venues around the city.
  • Must be able to clearly articulate why I want to see a band I’ve never heard of, which bands I have heard of that their music could be compared to, and how much I will regret not seeing them live before they sell out/move on/break up/die in a fiery bus crash.

    • Bonus Qualifications:

  • Willing to provide albums/playlists of these new bands in advance so our hapless music-lover can sing along to a song or two (inside her head, don’t worry)
  • Ability to make going out on a work-night seem like a very good idea.

    • Remuneration:

  • A beverage or two of your choice at each show we attend
  • A couple new friends to enjoy concerts with
  • The joy of introducing someone to acts you’re passionate about

    • Those who would suggest big-name concerts in large venues and country music fans need not apply.

    (inspired by Darren’s ticket-stub photo set of all the show’s he’s seen this decade)