Life is Healthy

In 2010, I:

Made soup.

Started running again and kept at it (in fact, I did the Resolution Run 5K last night before breaking into the wine and fondue).

Started editing my novel. It doesn't really have an ending yet but I don't totally hate what I've written, so that's a start.

Found a writing buddy.

Knit a lot of dish cloths.

Played lots of Scrabble/Lexulous

Had my heartbroken when my dog died.

Went to Florida in the in the summer to get away from a heat wave.

Spent some quality time with girlfriends.

Organized a team for the Run for the Cure, called No Pink for Profit. By run day, we were more than 40 women and we raised more than $20,000.

Fell in love with Twitter.

Finally got a smart phone.

Learned that grief is not a linear process.

Spent a lot of time thinking about community, friends and family. I am very, very lucky.

For 2011, I wish us all love, peace, good health and many wonderful adventures.

I bailed on National Novel Writing Month on the first day, having written just under 700 words.

I felt like there were too many other interesting bits of writing that I wanted to do, including continuing to edit last year's novel.

And then my life became insane. I've been really hard on myself for all the things I'm not doing lately. This week, though, I've had two people who are very important to me (my coach/therapist and my friend DM) listen to me unload and then tell me that I would have every right to feel overwhelmed with a fraction of what I've got on my plate.

I tend to be hard on myself because I don't work outside the home right now. If I don't go to a job I feel like I should just sail through my other commitments. It felt really good to list everything going on in my life and have two women I respect offer support and sympathy. I've decided that I need to cut myself a lot more slack.

I can do NaNoWriMo next year. I'm OK with that. But I did feel a pang when my son sent me this video:



NaNoWriMo was a fun kind of crazy. I just couldn't let the rest of my life go to do it this year.

I just did an interesting writing prompt from Old Friend From Far Away by Natalie Goldberg:

"Tell me what you will miss when you die."

32. I can organize ideas, a campaign or a project but I can't organize my house or even a room to save my life.

33. If I become interested in something, it can easily turn into an obsession. At least for a little while.

34. I'm trying to ride my bike as much as possible. I think I'm becoming addicted (see above).

35. I'm always a little surprised to discover that someone likes me.

36. I didn't think Facebook birthday wishes were a big deal until it was my birthday. I loved getting messages from all over the world and from people from all parts of my life.

37. I have already passed my minimum goal of raising $150 for the Run for the Cure. I dream of wildly exceeding that.

38. Two of my favourite childhood memories are of a family cross-country ski trip and going sailing on my uncle's boat. I don't particularly want to do these things now but I felt happy doing them then.

39. I like the idea of creating fun memories for my kids. I wonder if they will hold close the memories of our trips to Florida and our week end at Blue Skies when they are adults.

40. When I was six years old, a man in a raincoat flashed me. I was passing through the parking lot of the Catholic Church, on my way to school.

41. When I'm depressed, I feel invisible.

42. I'm making good progress in my quest to lose 44lbs before I turn 44 (on August 4th, 2011). I lost three pounds in the first week. I know it's going to slow down from here on in but I'm feeling encouraged. And determined. And you're going to be reading a lot about it here and on Twitter/Facebook because I want to stay accountable.

43. I think it's really cool that I'm planning for a year from now.

44 (bonus thing). I really do think that the red Smarties taste best.

We interrupt the regularly scheduled programming to bring you this open letter:

Dear Ottawa area women friends and family,

Last week end, my friend CR and I were talking about doing the Run for the Cure on October 3rd. I suggested forming a team named something along the lines of "We hate pink crap but we hate breast cancer even more."

Elegant slogans were never my forte.

C. reminded me that the brilliant KJ had already come up with "No Pink for Profit." I think this is perfect and I have registered a team with that name. Want to join me? We need ten women (anyone can participate but I'd really like to form a women's team) and you can run it or walk it, raise money or not.

All it would involve on your part would be registering, raising money if you want (or just paying the registration fee) meeting at the start of the run to get your team t-shirt and then either walking or runnning 5k at your pace. Then, as many of us who want to could meet up at the end and go out for a yummy breakfast.

I have a bit of an agenda here, other than the exercise, friendship and a good cause. How cool would it be to have a really large group of women wearing "No Pink for Profit" on their Run for the Cure t-shirts? And if the name is rejected by run organizers (which I truly hope doesn't happen), we have another opportunity for education.

So, what say you? Please feel free to forward this message to any women you know. I want to cast as wide a net as possible.

Laurie

p.s.: You can sign up here.

Update: Less than 24 hours after writing this, there are 12 13 of us signed up and two more who have said that they will. I am over the moon - so moved and happy. There's no limit on team size, so please continue to spread the word. Any woman who wants to join us is welcome.

In a couple of days, my little family is heading to Florida.

We'd been planning our road trip for some time. The decision to drive was partly about affordability but we also enjoy watching the scenery change and interacting with folks in the different states through which we pass.

This time, we were planning on doing the trip a little more slowly in order to take in more than the outskirts of cities along the way. We'd been thinking of taking a detour to Gettysburg on our way down and visiting Savannah on our way back (we have twice stayed in chain motels on the outskirts without going into the city. This notion breaks my heart).

The trip is long though (24 hours of driving) and exhausting (especially for T., who does all the driving) and while we have many great memories of our family road trips the whole thing can be a bit of a grind.

Last year, we had a great drive to PEI. The return trip was a different story. Before the keys had turned in the ignition, the boys were screaming at each other. While there were brief truces along the way (and I spent a fair bit of time in the back seat, so as to separate the siblings), I lost count of the number of times we had to pull over until calm could be restored.

The boys are both a year older now, so we were feeling optimistic.

But I couldn't help doing a little online search for cheap flights. And, after playing around for a while (it was rather like playing a game of Scrabble, or piecing together a puzzle), I was able to find a way for us to fly that was no more expensive than driving (it involved two of us flying on points and two of us going on cheap tickets but while we aren't flying together, we are, miraculously leaving and arriving at close to the same time).

We called a family meeting to discuss the pros and cons.

We were pretty evenly divided as to what we should do. There were lots of good arguments on both sides.

And then the boys started to bicker about whose fault it was that they'd fought so much on last year's road trip.

T. and I looked at each other over their heads and made our decision.

We're flying.

But I'll miss the corn bread at Cracker Barrel, the biscuits at Pop Eye and the road-side barbecue in the Carolinas and Georgia.

Maybe we'll go on a mini road trip while we're in Florida.

1. According to an article in the Globe andMail, women and men respond very differently when they are on the recieving end of an apology:

“Women who are starved of an apology for rude or hurtful behaviour suffer an increase in blood pressure which can raise the risk of a heart attack or stroke, a study found,” The Daily Telegraph reports. “But those who hear a well-timed ‘sorry’ calm down more quickly, with their blood pressure returning to normal 20 per cent faster, the research showed. Conversely, a man’s blood pressure takes 20 per cent longer to recover after an apology – suggesting men become more worked up after hearing an admission of guilt.”