HIKES & HAMSTRINGS

OMG Beyonce…

Here is an actual e-mail I sent to my family. My love for Beyonce is so real that I needed to inform them.

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Fam:

As you may or may not know (if you’ve listened to the radio, saw the news, or glanced at my FB feed this morning)… Beyonce released an album this morning [should be “last night”- oops]. Excuse me!?

What’s awesome about it is that no one knew it was coming- she never released a single, and there was no official promo for it. She just released it on iTunes with no fanfare. She’s calling it a “visual album”, because when you download it, you get all 14 songs, AND you get all of the music videos for them! That’s right- she managed to film all of the music videos with such high production value… and no one ever knew! And it’s already #1, selling 80K in the first 3 hours. Crazy! Anyway, I saw this and thought it was funny…

http://www.muumuse.com/2013/12/navigating-a-surprise-beyonce-album-the-full-12-hour-emotional-experience.html/

I may or may not have been a Shockonce this morning, having jumped out of bed once I heard it on the radio to immediately check online if it was true. And then I shelled out 16 bucks for the album.

Best purchase ever.

And the album is good. Really good!

Quite a Good Feeling

stats-1 About a month ago I contacted a student at the UofC who was looking for a tutor for Stats 213. He just finished his first midterm and although he passed, he felt he didn’t do very well. It had been since my Guelph days where I would offer statistical help to many students who were seeking it, and I really enjoyed it. So I figured it would be a good time to make a little extra money, as the holidays are approaching and there are vacations to plan, and get back into tutoring.

We only met a couple of times, and we went over fun topics like discrete distributions, Z-scores, normal approximations and confidence intervals. Weee! And even though my intentions to tutor were financially driven, it felt great to help him out with his questions, where the main motivation was his success on his next midterm.

And then yesterday, he texted me and said: “You must be a fantastical tutor”. He scored a perfect grade on his second midterm! I was so thrilled. He is a keen student and I know he put in the work himself to achieve that grade, but what a feeling it was to know that he attributes some of that success to my help. It was all smiles for me after that :).

Fashion: The Last “F”

A few months ago I posted my Fall Focus. It included three “F”s: Finances, Fashion, and Fitness.

Finances have been going quite well. I’ve consolidated a lot of accounts and at the same time discovered the art of travel hacking. But more on that in another post.

My fitness routine has been great. I completed Focus T25 and I’m halfway through a 30-day yoga and stretch challenge. My hamstrings are benefiting from this. I’m also seeing the physiotherapist for my tennis elbow, though I don’t think it’s any better. And after cross-country skiing last week, something tweaked in my knee, so that’s now on the agenda.

As expected, “Fashion” has suffered. What it comes down to is this: I hate shopping. The idea of going to the mall or perusing the internet for articles of clothing are not actions I consider fun or enjoyable. Alas, it is the Black Friday weekend, so what better time to venture to the local mall along with the hoards of others in search of an irresistible deal.

Remembering that my goal was to own a few more nice* pieces of clothing, I entered Express where everything in the store was 40% off. Now that’s my kind of deal! I tried on a few things, including red pants, but eventually settled on the brown version instead. I also bought a white and red checkered shirt. I suppose that I can check off the fashion aspect of my Fall Focus challenge, right? Please say yes.

(* by nice, I mean inexpensive that fits me and is more appropriate for work than my North Face hiking shoes and icebreaker long sleeve base layer. The hiking gear is way more comfortable though…)

The Decluttering Divas

I would consider myself a bit of a minimalist. There have been many days where I’m sitting in my place and I look over at something. The side table. The TV. A decorative item. An article of clothing. And I think, “Do I even need you?”. My tendency is to want to get rid of most things I own. Unless, of course, it’s outdoor gear. I may be prone to ordering and keeping lots of outdoor gear.

Last week, unbeknownst to me, some of my friends were in the infancy of creating a group devoted to decluttering. The idea was that by decluttering from now until the new year, we could start the new year fresh instead of making this task a ‘resolution’. I listened to the idea and thought it was brilliant! So I became part of the group and soon The Decluttering Divas were formed. I may or may not have had something to do with the name.

In our possession is a list of 28 decluttering tasks. I’m not sure where this list came from or I would source it, but the first two items are as follows:

1. Declutter Clothes: If you haven’t worn it in a year, toss it. If you don’t love it, toss it. Do you really need that many t-shirts?

2. Declutter Papers: Grab your files and get to work. Sort out anything you don’t need anymore. If you are keeping it for memory’s sake, maybe a quick digital picture is enough to preserve it? Great targets: old magazines, instruction manuals for devices (most can be found on the internet), pamphlets you will never read, etc.

Even though I own so little clothing, I have been able to identify many items to give away. And in terms of decluttering papers, I’ve been quite good at keeping those to a minimum, though I did find something that really had me scratching my head. My 2010 Beyoncé calendar. Gasp, what to do! I immediately texted two of the other Decluttering Divas. One suggested I keep it in my office for posterity. Or use it for wrapping paper. The other suggested, rightfully so, that I should toss it. Sigh. I did take a digital picture for memory’s sake.

By getting rid of this Beyoncé calendar, I have truly lived up to the Decluttering Divas name. Nevertheless, it’s a sad day.

A moment of silence for the Beyoncé calendar :( — A moment of silence for the Beyoncé calendar 😦

XC Skiing: From Cascade Valley to the Loppet

Last year I tried cross-country skiing for the first time. I really enjoyed it, and although I didn’t get out to cross-country ski that often last year, I was determined to make a change for the current winter season. A few weeks ago I purchased a set of wax-able skis from Lifesport in Kensington and I’ve been itching to test them out. Last night I waxed up my skis (thanks Youtube for the instruction!), and was ready to go for today. I met up with friends Adriane and Lauren and we were off to Cascade Valley in Banff.

The temperature was cold (-10 Celsius) but the weather was great- super sunny and not very windy. I’m told these were quite ideal conditions. With an attitude of excitement, we stepped into our skis and were off. It took a while before the technique came back to me: leaning forward, shifting body weight completely to one side as you plant and kick off, and the general motion of that which most imagine to be classic cross-country skiing. At first, I blamed my struggles on the equipment: “Did I put the right wax?”, “Did I put enough wax?”, and “Is this the right sized ski with the right amount of camber for me?”. Of course, all of it was fine, and it was just me. Like the saying goes, “A bad carpenter blames his tools”. Slowly but surely, I got into the groove and it was lots of fun!

In the end, we skied for about 2.5 hours. One and a half hours to the river/bridge, and one hour back. The shorter return distance was due to a 3 km downhill, which really tested my ability to stay in control. Which I did not. And this resulted in a few falls during the descent. But alas, everyone falls at least once. Or twice. Or several times. And it’s crazy how much of a workout it was! Even though I exercise regularly and my cardio strength is good, my cardio was tested today. And my entire body was put through the wringer. As I write this, my everything hurts, especially my right hip flexor. Something is not right there.

That said, this is an activity I look forward to continuing throughout the next few months. I think I did pretty well for the first day out and I can only improve from here. The goal: to enjoy the wintry outdoors. I definitely haven’t taken advantage of the amazing winter wonderland that is the Rockies. But the other goal: to complete my first loppet. A loppet is a cross-country ski race similar to running races… but on skis! The ones I have in mind are The Kananaskis Ski Marathon (February 22, 2014- 15 or 24 km) or the Lake Louise Loppet (March 2, 2014- 10 or 20 km). It’s all dependant on scheduling right now, but if I can do at least one, that would be awesome.