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Thursday’s Thoughts
I am super excited today because in a few hours I’m going to go climbing at Planet Granite with Ellen, who reads my blog and contacted me last month to go for a climb with her. She went on vacation for a few weeks, so we’re going again today. I have to be honest, I thought I was going to head in on my own to do some bouldering while she was away, but I can’t help but feel alone and intimidated going by myself. I miss the family oriented feeling of climbing gyms when you’re a regular. Which, I clearly am not — yet. I’m not outgoing, especially in new-to-me places, but hopefully I’ll get over that hump after I put in a few more climbs.
This is a photo from my last trip with Ellen. Perhaps today I’ll actually take photos inside as opposed to shy selfies in the car ;)
My Mom skyped me yesterday and we got to talking about eBay and how it was hacked, here’s the story. I changed my password immediately. Do it.
My wedding and engagement rings are still too big, even after getting them sized in January. My engagement ring especially, flops around constantly and drives me nuts. In June, I’m bringing in into Zales, the jewellery store equivalent to People’s in Canada to get it inspected (have to bring it in ever 6mths to keep the… warranty?), and then I’ll have it re-sized another 0.25 down. After that I’m thinking of buying this Ring Cozy for ten bucks, when I go to CrossFit or climbing, since it protects it from scratches and whatnot. I’m not sure yet though.
Oooh, I bought new bedding from West Elm a few days ago! I’ll be blogging about it more in depth later. Like the faux fur background? I feel like every other blogger now, but I couldn’t pass it up. It was ten bucks at Ikea man!
My peonies are still going strong and still smelling great. What a great $6.99 spent by The Guy at Trader Joe’s, I tell ya, it brings a smile to my face every time I see them. If that’s not cheesy, I don’t know what is. But in all honesty I think fresh flowers are a great thing to have around. And to you, Brandy (hehe) my fake flowers look real. You just have to find the right ones. My fake orchid from Urban Barn fool me every time!
Random story for you since this is all Thursday’s Thoughts: On Monday I walked into the Tiffany & Co. jewellery store for the first time in my life. I never felt the need to go in and take a peek. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but I think ladies are drawn to the name, and the packaging? I don’t really know. But I walked around for a bit and was looking for a dainty necklace for myself, and I promise you, the one piece I looked at where the diamond was about the size of the tip of a ballpoint pen (yes a total exaggeration), was $750. I almost wanted to make a loud gulping noise, but it would’ve been inappropriate. One of the women helping me was so kind, and did give me her card, which I doubt I could afford to buy something from her, in a long time.
Well, that’s all my news for today.
What’ve you got planned for your day/evening?
What’s your favourite piece of jewellery?
Have you ever been climbing?
What’s your favourite sport to watch/do?
2014 year end reflection
2014 was a complete game-changer on so many levels. Starting off the year, my husband and I had been married for a little less than 48 hours, and were planning our move across North America from little ol’ university town of Waterloo Ontario, to smack dab into Silicon Valley, Amurica.
Never in my wildest dreams, had I ever thought about, or even imagined that I would be living in the United States, let alone breathtaking Northern California. Nevertheless, I must say 2014 was the best year yet — although it went by in such a blur I cannot believe we moved down here 11 months ago. We’re no longer newly weds, and we’re no longer new to being in California! Crazy!
My main goals when moving to the USA was to push my introverted self out of my comfort zone and say yes to more things, speak up to strangers and meet new friends (check, and check!), and overall embrace the change. It wasn’t scary to move down to California if we’re going to be honest. Especially easy since we moved during a Canadian winter. I wasn’t overly fond of living in Ontario, because I was stuck in a rut. I didn’t have many friends, and I certainty didn’t like the place we lived. We were already a 4 hour flight away from family, what’s another 6 added on top of that?
Okay okay, before I get all mushy let me walk you through all last year had to offer, shall we?
January was full of panic and packing. It was when we came back to work, told our bosses we would be leaving our amazing wonderful jobs to pick up and move to the USA. I still miss my co-workers so much. I continue to e-mail all 30 of the staff on a weekly basis (every Thursday as a matter of fact), to keep them updated. I’m not sure if everyone is on board with my random ramblings, but for the most part a lot of them seem to be enjoying the updates. We skype, we BBM video, and we chat as though I am still part of their team. I loved that I was completely caught off guard by my going away/wedding/surprise party thrown by some of my co-workers, while I was at the mall with Aimster (who just so happened to be my bosses daughter and my co-worker).
February was the time we took the swift 3 day drive from Canada to California in our 17 foot u-haul with my little Mazda on top of a trailer attached to the u-haul. I’m surprised we weren’t pulled over and asked for a truckers drivers license. That thing was a beast to drive, and so scary — I definitely white knuckled driving that monster. I looked back on my archives and it looks as though I blogged just the once. Guess that goes to show how busy we were driving across the continent, looking for places to live, and having our internet hooked up. Luckily we found a spot in no time, thanks to Jessica a hundred times over for helping us out from driving me to all kinds of apartments to me leeching off her internet to find apartments to look at. Couldn’t have done it without her help. By the way, can you not get over how amazing California looks in February?!
March was another fun month. I got the chance to have a complete makeover at the Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara at MAKE UP FOR EVER which was pretty sweet. I walked around Santa Row a lot, checking out all the stores readily available just waiting for me to whip out my pocket book. Man, the shopping is excellent here. We drove out to Lake Tahoe for a day trip so The Guy could get in some last minute cross country skiing done before the season ended. I had enough of the snow at this point, I wasn’t about to get on a set of ski’s especially after leaving the wretched cold winter up north. I was ready for some sun! So I got some at Capitola Beach when our friends from Ontario came down to visit their in-laws. My old co-op student from my previous job in Ontario was in San Francisco on a work term, so I visited him for a day and we were treated like celebrities, it was fantastic.
April I stepped out of my comfort zone as Ellen, a blog reader e-mailed me out of the blue one day mentioning she had been reading my blog for some time, but has never left a comment. She is also a climber, and suggested we meet up some time for a climb at the local rock gym. Of course I’m going to say YES. It was awesome, and I hope to continue to climb with her again this year! Our first Easter in California was a success, and pret-tee delicious if you ask me, gotta say… I’m a great cook ;) This was also the month my blog received a complete overhaul and re-branding, I love how it turned out. April was pretty memorable because Jessica took me out to see the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time in my life!
May ah my birth month, where even my local pizza place delivered me a heart-shaped pizza for my birthday, sweet. I got a membership to the local rock climbing gym and climbed more with Ellen. On Mother’s Day The Guy and I went to the Golden Gate Bridge to take some photos so I could make some Thank You cards to send out to our wedding guests. Not only that, I got to eat breakfast at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay!
June I bought a pretty sweet gym bag and bouldered a V4 for the first time in years, pretty happy about that. I visited Google for the first time, that place is so fun! I swore during yoga class. My husbands younger sister came by (and the older one came in July as their trips overlapped). The Guy and I finally have a grown-up bedroom, with a headboard and all. Now we just need to upgrade our bed from a double to a king.
July is when I went to my first BlogParty in San Francisco and met so many awesome Bay Area blogging buddies. I also attended the BlogHer conference where I spotted Khloe Kardashian in person, kinda fun. My two sister-in-law’s (husband’s sisters) came down for a visit and we totally bonded, froze are buns off in San Francisco on the Fourth of July, and had a laugh, it was amazing having them both here. I cannot wait until they both come down again, hopefully SOON!
August was a slow month in the blogging world. Jessica and I teamed up and hosted a giveaway together, and I posted the outfit photos (here too)that she took of me at the blogging conference. Total fav. Then there was a whole whack of talkin’ and reviewing of some Dior products. Nothing much to report in August, really!
September The Guy made his featured appearance on the blog and starting reviewing running shoes. I was back to Newfoundland for most of August and a little bit of September. I still haven’t recapped our non-wedding wedding reception that we flew back for, in August. I didn’t take many photos from the day, so there isn’t much to look at really. But I did take you around to the little fishing place called Petty Harbour, and then showed you the most easterly point in North America, Cape Spear. I blogged about going to the annual Flatrock Festival (climbing fest) too. The Guy was going for his 6th Ironman in September, out in Lake Tahoe but it ended up being cancelled due to smoke from forest fires, and we came face-to-face with a bear at our hotel. Scary stuff.
October onto my husband’s birth month. For his birthday I surprised him with a two day honeymoon to the romantic village of Carmel, an hour or so south of us. The views from Point Lobos had to be my favourite spot of our trip. October is when I introduced Pomeranian Friday’s to the blog, which seems to be a huge hit with the readers. Glad you’re enjoying Alfie as much as we are!
November was a fun month because not only did I received a ton of lip glosses to play with courtesy of bareMinerals, I attended a pretty fun event for the grand opening of Uniqlo in the Milpitas mall. I also started exploring coffee shops, which I’ll continue to do as a feature throughout 2015. The Guy, Alfie and I hit the trails one afternoon, and then I showed you what my “uniform” looks like on weekends. Then I did a flashback to the summer where IÂ talked you through beautiful Conception Harbour, Newfoundland.
December is my favourite month of the year! For our first American thanksgiving (although in November but blogged about in December) we hosted our first dinner guests, ever ever! We invited our Canadian friends to join us as I cooked us a feast! I attended a really cool event in San Francisco and received the utmost royal treatment getting there. I ended up taking my hair dye woes into my own hands and doing an at-home dye-job, how did it go? In December we hosted some more family and friends, and after they left I showed you how I like to unwind after a long day. I visited another great coffee shop! December was pretty awesome, we got to fly home again to be with our family. Although arriving later than expected with many airline troubles, we still enjoyed our time in Newfoundland.
If you’ve read this far, thank you! That’s the end of my 2014 recap. I’m feelin’ good about you, year 2015. I sure am.
Fitness Recap: I swore during yoga class
Yeah, during Power Yoga last Thursday, with our intense Russian instructor, with an accent so thick she’s hard to understand. So I’m there looking around to see what everyone else is doing, then copy.
Does anyone else get their left and right’s mixed up during a yoga class? I really have to think about what I’m doing, to make sure I’m following along correctly.
At one point she had us doing handstands, which was fun for me, as I’m used to doing them (against a wall) at CrossFit. We did that for a bit, but then we switched for a forearm/headstand. It killed my brain, and felt like it was getting smooshed. I might have let out the f-word when I was falling down after a few attempts. I did manage to get up though, and was much more stable in that position, than the handstand. Score.
I feel like a lot of bloggers are getting into yoga lately. It’s a good thing! For any sport really. I remember thinking it was for hippies a few years ago, but man — I almost crave going.
I’ve only been doing yoga regularly since late May, and I’ve been noticing tremendous amount of change in my flexibility. I’m enjoying it! I usually go to a yoga class, and immediately follow through with an hour or so of bouldering. Which I feel makes me a stronger climber.
So much so, I’ve been working on this green V4 pinchy problem. Some of the holds suck, especially towards the bottom, but once you get to the top-ish, it’s okay. I cannot get the second last green hold. Your left foot is not stable at all on the under-hanging pinches. It’s awesome, and frustrating.
One more thing before I jump into the fitness recap. The Guy and I bought a family membership to a pool!
Let’s get to it:
Monday June 16: 90 minutes of bouldering, and 30 minute pool lane swim!
Tuesday June 17: 75 minutes of yin yoga, 90 minutes bouldering
Wednesday June 18: Off
Thursday June 19: 75 minutes of power yoga, 45 minutes bouldering, 35 minute lane swim
Friday June 20: 75 minutes of yin yoga, 3 hours of top rope climbing with Ellen
Saturday June 21: 3.6 mile run (outside) with The Guy
Sunday June 22: Off
Swimming pool selfie. Had to. Like I said earlier, I hadn’t been lane swimming since I was a teenager, training to be a lifeguard – which I failed. I can finally swim one length (25m) of the pool without stopping. Now I have to work on the breathing.
It’s going to sound cheesy, but I love it when Ellen and I go climbing together. For the most part, I do yoga and bouldering on my own. But about once a week, we get together and climb for hours. Literally, we are there for 3+ hours together, and while most of it is climbing, sometimes we just sit down on the cushiony carpet and just chat about anything and everything. I had to take a climbing shoe selfie of our feet the last time we were climbing together. Ha.
My Tone It Up gym bag is $24 off if any of you were interested in purchasing it. Gah. It’s still expensive.
When is the last time you went swimming?
How many times a week do you normally work out?
Are you watching any of the World Cup soccer games?
I honestly think world cup soccer players fall down easily because they want to catch their effing breath! No I’m not even joking!