Do You Wanna Take My Picture Cause I Won't Remember

In December 2009, I committed myself to losing the weight. I started at 196 lbs, and started a scrapbook to document the journey.

Nick took bi-weekly photos of me to track progress. I also had monthly goals that I made pages of. I took measurements and recorded it all. For a while.

Strangely enough, I never stopped taking the photos. It's been over 4 years, and every 2 weeks (roughly) Nick takes my picture. It's cool that I have that documented, but obviously it isn't all shrinking sizes, since I currently sit over 200 lbs. Although I had the folder of pictures sitting on my hard drive, the scrapbook was mostly forgotten within about 8 months. But I wanted to finish documenting this weight loss journey.

So I'm not done yet, but I could certainly get the book updated. All it took was organizing and printing all those pictures, and a bit of glue. But it's now caught up, and hopefully by the end of the year, or pretty darn close, I can finally finish it entirely.

Just Keep Swimming

As I was making my goal list, I had triathlon sports in mind (hence the running, biking and swimming goals). I've always loved swimming; it's calming, quiet, soothing and I could swim forever. If only I always had a pool to myself.

It took me quite a while to get my 10 km in. Not because I didn't want to! Swim times at the Wellness Centre were either during the day (uh hello, I work for a living) or from 8 - 10 at night (as if I ever want to go out at that point during the week). My weekend choice was from 4 -5. Not ideal either. It was never really convenient to go.

It didn't help that I had a few not so great swim experiences when I did go. When it's too busy, or there's people who have no concept of lane swimming etiquette, I get disgruntled, and the calming/quiet/soothing part is all gone. Perhaps there aren't explicit written rules, but common courtesy would be helpful.

If only I could have an empty pool all to myself. Although it did work out when I was in a lane with someone just slightly faster than me; I had to work harder to keep up!

I Need No Permission, Did I Mention

Wow did I procrastinate on learning the Single Ladies dance. Not sure why. Probably afraid I of course won't look anywhere as good as Beyoncé when I do it.

I found YouTube videos teaching the moves ages ago. I've even watched some, several times, but only once actually practiced along with them (weird, I know). I've repeatedly watched the video, just trying to imprint the moves into my brain. But I just could not get myself to learn it fully. It felt daunting for some reason.

So in the last few days of my 1001, I finally had no choice but to learn it once and for all.

After all that procrastination... I'm not sure I aced it, but I tried.

I spent about an hour and a half going over choreography from different YouTube videos, but none were actually that great. I found two that had the whole dance and seemed fairly true to the video. One of the girls openly declared that she has no dance experience, so although she must have put a lot of work into it, you could tell. Both instructors just zoomed through the entire thing, very rarely going back over the moves. I'm guessing they figure you can easily go back yourself on the video, but what a pain that is. I'm use to my dance classes (actual in-studio classes) where you practice a couple of 8 counts slowly to get it, then try it with the music. Then add a few more counts, then try it all again with the music. Neither of them did that.

The other tricky part was that they had mirrored their instruction. Talk about getting confusing between right and left. And then when you try to actually follow along with the music video, you're opposite of what you learned (so it seems) so it's harder to follow along.

One last tricky thing; if you've seen the video, you know that there's a lot of spinning and turning, which didn't translate so well into a dance without fancy camera work following you. Plus, I'm not so great with pivoting; I'm very careful on my wonky knees, plus barefoot on carpet, yikes.

So perhaps not the best of goals, but I did give it a fair shot, and to be honest, I might come back to it. Maybe the videos just need to be done over and over again. But I've had enough of it for one day, I did run through the entire thing, and I do know it much better than when I started.

With Every Turn Comes A New Frame Of Mind

Not really sure why I wanted to go on a spontaneous roadtrip, maybe just as one thing to negate my insane planning brain. Spontaneity and I don't generally get along, I like things to be planned and organized ahead of time.

So the goal was to get in the car and just drive.

We headed east, since I go west everyday for work, and know the area well enough to know where every turn would take us essentially. We ended up following the Waterfront Trail all the way to Port Hope, where we had a nice lunch downtown (the downtown is actually really nice). We made sure to avoid the 401 coming home, just to see a new route. We also passed through a cute hamlet (village? No idea).

See? Cute.

Anyway, it wasn't really a long adventure, I guess next time I would aim to make it more than just a couple of hours, maybe actually force us to find a hotel somewhere. I think the trouble with that idea is that if I'm going to spend the money to stay somewhere, I want to stay somewhere I like, plus I want to make sure I get to see all there is to see. Without planning, I could end up in a squeasy motel and nothing fun to see or do in the vicinity. To me, that would just be a waste of money. But we'll see what the next goal list holds...

Leave All Your Love And Your Longing Behind

My original plans for a movie marathon involved lots of pillows and blankets, movie themed snacks, and likely caffeine to keep me awake. I figured we would invite our friends and make a big afternoon/evening of it. But I had a tough time trying to find a set of movies that people would come for.

I wanted a theme to my movies, ideally a trilogy. Two didn't seem enough to be considered a marathon, and 4 was a big time commitment. But I didn't think I could lure too many people on Back To The Future, and no one but me would show up for The Santa Clause 1 - 3. I thought about it for quite some time. And I just couldn't come up with a set of movies that I would enjoy that would I could get people on board with for a full marathon. (It didn't help that a lot of my friends have been rather aggravating and self-centered lately, so I doubted they would help me out on this one and just play along. I've gotten tired of trying to plan things in the hopes that they will come through. Sad, isn't it?)

Anyway... with a sexy ninja costume and Nick with the whistling ringtone, I figured Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 would work just fine for a marathon for just the two of us. They are long enough as two movies to not need a third (or more).

So we settled in and watched them both. It wasn't even remotely the movie marathon I had originally intended, but I will never complain about a snuggly night on the couch with Nick. Even if it is over Tarantino movies =)

Ain't Got No Picture Postcards, Ain't Got No Souvenirs

Sadly, the goal to test-drive a Beetle had to change.

Since Volkswagon and Porsche got together, and they altered the look of the Beetle, I don't like it. And there was no sense test-driving a car I didn't even like. It didn't hold the appeal it once did. I tried to find used ones, but they are apparently quite hard to come by. I wasn't too broken up to have to change up the goal.

I figured car-driving led to roadtrips, which led me to the goal of choosing 20 places I wanted to travel to and why. It makes for a lengthy narrative, but here we go! In no particular order (because we all know Japan would be #1):

1. The Wave

  It's part of Utah and Arizona parks, and there seems to be lots of hiking and camping nearby. There's waterfalls, crazy rock formations and just some beautiful horizons. It looks surreal. I guess if you've never been anywhere even remotely like a desert, it's hard to imagine. But I think it would be a pretty cool trip.

2. Land of Oz Park
It is apparently now closed, and has been since 1980, but it sounds like it re-opens for one weekend a year. I better figure out what weekend that is. It's in North Carolina, so it wouldn't be too far to go...

3. Japan
Obviously this made my list for a ton of reasons. Having lived there for 10 months (Nick for 2 of those), I know there's still lots more I wanted to see. My trip was cut two months short when I found out my grandma was dying, and I had had two trips already planned and paid for: one to Mt Fuji (which I didn't get to climb during my first summer there due to the weather; that trip had been paid for too, but was cancelled) and Tokyo, and one to Okinawa. Making those trips would feel like a very large moment of closure for me, in so many ways. I also would want to re-visit Osaka, see what's changed, what's new. Take Nick to Hiroshima (it's hauntingly beautiful), go back to Kyoto. Visit some friends, see a comedy show from my old improv troupe. Someday soon I hope.

4. Italy
There's obviously lots to see in Italy, I couldn't really narrow it down. The Roman Forum, the Colosseum, Venice, Pompeii, the food, the architecture, the art. I would just have to go everywhere.

5. Bora Bora
Birthplace of the over water bungalow. That's all I want.

6. Costa Rica
We had originally wanted to go to Costa Rica for our honeymoon, but it just wasn't in our budget, and there was too many things I wanted to do. Ziplining in the rainforest was one of the big ones. It just strikes me as a beautiful place to visit for nature, the animals, the scenery.

7. New York City
This one has to happen at Christmastime. I want to see Rockefeller Center, the skating rink and the tree, I want to see the Radio City show, do some window shopping, stay in a posh hotel (a la Home Alone 2). This one I've wanted to do for years.

8. New Zealand
Have you seen Lord Of The Rings? That should pretty much explain why: it's breath-taking.

9. New Orleans
The southern, French-Creole culture fascinates me. It just seems so utterly unique. Not sure if I'd actually want to go during Mardi Gras though...

10. Las Vegas
I'm not a gambler, so the tables and slots wouldn't have any appeal for me, but the glitz and the lights feel intoxicating. I'd love to go just to see it, to enjoy the shows, the indoor roller coaster, the ambiance. It's low on the list though, because I don't think the high expense is quite worth it.

11. Dubai
Another one purely just to see the glitz, to begin to even comprehend the opulence. I do imagine it would be nauseating to see how money is spent, but it's still an interesting place.

12. Cape Town
  Basically I just want to be at the southernmost tip of Africa. I think there would be something surreal about looking off towards Antarctica.

13. Athens
Mostly for the Acropolis, but I imagine there would be plenty to keep me occupied in Greece.

14. Cedar Point
The roller coaster capital, why wouldn't I want to go there? Although Canada's Wonderland comes second for number of roller coasters, Cedar Point comes first. It's been Best Amusement Park in the World for 16 years. It also has the World's Best Roller Coaster. What's not to love??

15. Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort
Not only can you stay in Glass Igloos to watch the Northern Lights, you can also spend a night in Santa's Cabin. I would endure the cold for this, no questions asked.

16. Vancouver
The caveat to this one is that I want to go by train. It might be finding a loophole to picking only 20 places, but it would get me to see northern Ontario, and the prairies, not just the Rockies. I think it's a perfect solution. Although I've heard a pricey one.

17. African Safari
Like an actual one, not a cheesy theme park in Ontario. How amazing would it be to see these animals in their actual habitat? Not to mention the landscape of Africa.

18. North
Ok, so this one is ridiculously vague. What I mean is that I want to go somewhere where there is 24/7 sunshine during the summer. I figure for someone like me, who's mood can so easily hinge on the sun, it would be a phenomenal experience. Although I imagine it would be annoying when I wanted to sleep. So maybe I'd only stay for a few days... But it would be amazing to never have to say goodnight to the sun...

19. Grand Canyon
For starters, it's gorgeous. But I would really like to complete one of the hiking tours that goes down to the bottom. It would just be a measure of fitness for me to work towards, and that would be pretty spectacular. It's always been one of my mom's dream places to see, so maybe it caught on a little bit.

20. Jordan
I'll admit, I was stretching a bit to come up with 20 somewhat unique places to visit. And I stumbled across this place in Jordan, which seemed to present an interesting type of claustrophobia. It's an entire city! But I also want to see the Dead Sea, so two birds one stone.


I doubt I'll ever make it to all of these places. Coming up with the list made me rather wishful and wistful. It made me not want to ever have kids, because I don't think I'd ever get all this traveling in if we did! Japan and New York City are the most likely to happen. Most of the others will probably never happen, at least not until we win that lottery we never buy a ticket for. It was still an interesting task, narrowing down the list.

And probably the best picture for my blog/pic requirement.... =)

Through What It's Worth It Was Worth All The While

Without having lost the weight, getting professional photos done was rather moot. I had even found a WagJag for a decently priced photo shoot, but it was not to be.

I went searching for a goal to replace it with. I came across the idea of a memories jar; on little slips of paper, write down exciting/interesting moments as they happen throughout the year, and on New Year's Eve or Day, review your past year. I really liked the idea, so I got myself a box, and started one for 2014. And come 2015, we can review how it all went down.

So far we've gotten a bunny, joined a brass band, and I have an LTO starting in March. Not bad for the first two months of the year. It will be interesting to see come next January what things we completely forget about that we thought were significant. I just hope I keep remembering to write the stuff down!