It is a matter of public record that I have no fashion sense. I try my best, but if left to my own devices, I would try and wear essentially the same thing every day. I do not know how to accessorize either.
I had a friend say she would come over and help me organize my closet. Well, essentially to purge anything I shouldn’t be wearing. Goodwill will probably like this plan. So I’ve removed all my clothes and put them onto the floor so I can see what I have.
In the process I found that when I went shopping at Costco on Saturday, I bought a pair of pants that are identical to ones I already have.
Like I said, I need help.

I’m not proud of myself today. I had a date at 6:00, so I left work promptly at 5:00. Of course, this is the day that traffic backs up. And I get into one of those modes where I don’t want to wait in a jam, so I’ll make every turn possible to avoid them. This inevitably lends itself to more and interesting traffic jams. Eventually it ends up frustrating me completely.
The lack of pride comes from a desperate gamble to make it through a yellow light. I’m pretty sure it turned to red before I entered the intersection. And the wheels did feel rather wobbly on the sharp turn I had to do.
The annoying part is that I would have easily made the light, safely and legally, if a bicyclist hadn’t chosen an inopportune time to use a pedestrian crosswalk. This delayed me by precious seconds that I really needed to make the light.
If you’ve ever been stuck in far too much traffic, you will understand the frustration at waiting for another long red light. Particularly when you have an important appointment to get to.
In my heart I’m sure that light had a red-light camera attached to it. So if that bicyclist had been a few seconds later, I wouldn’t have a ticket coming to me.
Or if I had just slipped through the crosswalk before he had entered my lane.

Not proud!

Which is what happens when a friend needs to borrow the shower after she’s been exercising. 🙂

What? Did you honestly think I would be blogging about this if the situation was what you were thinking?

A week after I ran the Death Race I went on a 19 km run. It wasn’t too bad, but I got cocky; I charged up a hill faster than I should have. Ever since then I’ve had a muscle in my buttock that has not felt good. Well, something back there hasn’t been good. Pulled muscle? Torn ligament? I don’t know.
I’ve still been running, but I’ve been taking it easier on hills. And I don’t try to race faster. Still, the injury remains after a month.
Today I went to my physical therapist. It’s weird. I haven’t been there for over a year, and I feel like I should be going there more often. Is my natural state to be injured?
Anyway, I’ve got some stretches I’m supposed to do every day. Unfortunately I’m not supposed to run more than 10km. This is going to kill my Sunday mornings. But, they never said anything about not running more often, just not as far.
And I’m supposed to warm up before stretching…

I’m a wild one today. I decided to do maintenance on my life instead of anything else that you might do on a weekend. And there is something that has been bugging me. I did a lot of journal entries when I was in Europe last year, but I was always in a rush to get them into a computer, because internet cafés are not cheap. It has bugged me that there were spelling errors and no informative hotlinks.
So I spent all afternoon correcting that.
And reminiscing about Europe. That was a good time.
One of the last entries I did was a plan to go to The Keg to get my fill of Alberta beef. I still have not gone.
I remember a similar plan to go to the Sawmill after the Death Race and have a caloric intensive meal. I haven’t done that either.
Although I did have a prime rib at the casino on Thursday.

It was not my most productive day at work today. Not enough sleep will do that. With the lateness that I was up, I was hoping that as soon as my head hit the pillow I would be asleep. That didn’t happen.
It felt like I was awake all night. I know that wasn’t true, but it was not a restful sleep. Muscle pain that I can easily ignore, felt like my leg was on fire. And I think I was dreaming that I was having a dream. Look, it was weird. All in all, not a restive night.
I find that when I’ve not had enough sleep, although caffeine will help keep me awake, it feels like I’ve been crying. (Wait a minute. I’m a guy! I don’t cry, so how would I know what that feels like?)
I’ve also been discovering things about my body, as I get older, that I would never have guessed would happen. For instance, caffeine is actually starting to act weird on me. Last year, a coke would have given me a nice energy jump and I could still go to bed. I remember a time I would drink a Coke right before going to sleep because when the body was shutdown it wouldn’t process the caffeine until I woke up the next day.
Now it seems that when I have a caffeinated drink in the evening I have a lot of trouble getting to sleep. Surprise surprise. Even though I am sleepy. Isn’t the point of caffeine to prevent you from getting sleepy.
Then again, chocolate puts me to sleep if I’m not doing something particularly interesting.
Last night I had two cans of caffeinated soft drink and a candy bar. It might explain a bit.

Last night I was up very late volunteering for a casino. I was a cashier, handing people large amounts of cash for “worthless” plastic discs. So I didn’t get to bed until about 2:30 this morning. I’m off to work now.
It wouldn’t be so bad, but I have to be alert today because I’m hosting a potluck party. I’m doing a dessert that I was dared to do several months ago, molten lava cake. (Do I need ice cream for that? I don’t have any.)
The bad part about that is that at the casino I had a chocolate fudge cake for dessert that looked suspiciously like a molten lava cake. (Didn’t mind that there was no ice cream for that. Although there was whipped cream…)

I went to Fort Edmonton today. My company was having a barbecue there so we all got free admission. It was my first time in the park, but I didn’t have time to really wander around and get an in-depth view of it. More of a high-level view where I get to see a few things quickly.
The whole thing looked very… educational.
The fort itself was interesting and it was surprising to see what looked like a mansion within the wooden walls.
The horses in the park all looked bored. They would just stand there and stare forward. Very little energy. I talked to a driver and found that they were all old. They aren’t worked very hard. They have a good life.
It is awkward to talk to the workers there if they are in character. We both know it is pretend, so who are we trying to fool? Sometimes I have a question and I don’t want the runaround of how you have to travel two days to the homestead. How much bread do you make in a day?! Really?
Ironic, because I usually like to encourage roleplaying.

I had signed up for a course on GIS this weekend. I like maps. I use computers. It seemed like a natural fit. And more importantly, I want to start improving myself.
So it was really disappointing that I got a phone call telling me the class was cancelled. I feel sorry for the girl who had to phone up the students. I don’t know how the others reacted because I was the first contact.
Maybe this is a good thing. I now have time on the weekend to get my life organized again. The vacation to Montréal took a big chunk out of my life and now I need to get back on track.
Nah. It’s a bad thing.

I was driving home today when my cell phone rang. It was in the middle of playing music through an iPod device that isn’t completely compatible with the iPhone. I tried to answer, but I’m not sure if the device disrupted the connection or the other person just hung up.
The important thing is that it scared me how much I was distracted during this event. I could tell I wasn’t concentrating very well on the road. It was a good lesson on driving and cell phone use. Don’t do it!
On the plus side it was very handy during grocery shopping today. I was trying to buy some bittersweet chocolate for a recipe, but I could only find dark chocolate. Is it the same? Then I got the bright idea to use the web browser to look up the information. This was after I used it to convert ounces into grams. I couldn’t find any explicit definition. So I phoned my mother and asked her.
It seems they are equivalent.
The checkout line was painfully slow. I waited over half an hour. To pass the time, I amused myself by browsing on the web. Couldn’t do that before.
I’m beginning to really like having an iPhone.

I’m on my way home now. The flight was delayed, which may cut into my plans to have a movie night tonight. I sent out an email to some people saying the movie was delayed until 8:30, and hopefully that will get around.
I am tired. It has been a big party weekend. Although I seem to have consistently gotten to bed at 5:30. Last night wasn’t as much fun. The lack of sleep was catching up, and the knowledge that this was the last night.
I didn’t see much of the town, mostly hanging with friends. I have taken only one picture this entire trip.