Hello from Disneyland

It was an early start on Friday as I headed to the airport. 

Discovered Air Canada now charges $25 to take one checked piece of luggage. I was standing at the check in kiosk & one of the options it gives you is scan your passport. So I did that & then this Air Canada person asks me why I did that. Ah because it was an option? She then took over and entered my stuff. When we got to the luggage part she says "how you going to pay". Before that moment I did not know you had to pay for one bag. 

After that it was off to Vancouver to change planes. On the flight to LA I helped my seat mate play this cool game called Logos. Must get this when I get home. 

Landing in LA I got on a shuttle right away & then off to Disneyland. 

My room wasn't ready when I got there so I went to packet pick up & the expo. I had no issues at pack it pick up and sailed through there. 

Then I hit the expo, no issues getting the race shirts but when I wanted to look at the official merchandise we were herded. They wouldn't let us cross past the back of the room & were told come back in 30 min. I thought this odd as when I did the Inaugural Tinker Bell Half this didn't happen. Finally got in but it was already pretty picked over by 2pm. I found what wanted with the exception of a Double Dare hat. Then I stood in line to pay...for 90min. It was craziness. Watching some of the people in line arm loads of stuff I wondered if they were planning to sell it. Stuff started going on eBay last night. It was ridiculous, no one was restocking stuff either. 

Wandered through the rest of the expo but nothing called my name. 

I then went to Downtown Disney as I wanted a journal. This journal is to use for training & the road to Dopey 2015. 

Went to bed super early as I was up so early. 

Today was the Inaugural Disneyland 10k. It was crazy humid which is not normal for this Area. Then it was a huge RunDisney fail. The corrals were a mess & no marker for corral G. The race started and corrals merged by accident. Hit the first water station just passed mile 1 and they were filling cups as runners approached which caused people to stop. That's not good we were told another water station was just ahead. Yeah at Mile 4. The water was warm & no powerade. It was super hot & crazy humid - not good. 

So many people walking more then 2 abreast. I started running when I saw room. Then I decided I'm not going to kill myself on the 10k. I stuck to walking and kept above pace requirements. I passed quite a few people who started ahead of me as the humidity was effecting lot of people. 

I have to say this race was super disorganized which is unlike RunDisney. 

Tomorrow is the Half. I went back to the expo to get a lighter shirt & got a deal at Champion. 

Everything is laid out as it will be another early wake up call & I'm going to bed early. 

I haven't taken a ton of photos but I'm post some when I get home. 

Wish me luck tomorrow. 

Just plain overwhelmed

I haven't been blogging lately as I honestly didn't have much to say, not that I do now. I started this blog for me and had to remember I could write whatever I wanted as it's personal choice if anyone actually reads it.

The cold has gone, thankfully but the cough remains which worries me a bit as that can always be bronchitis but it doesn't feel like the same cough when I had bronchitis. With only 5 days left till I leave for Disneyland and the Dumbo Double Dare there's not a whole lot I can do about it now. I don't really want to start any meds at this point and it's not awful like waking me up. I find it doesn't really get going until I do a lot of talking or have dairy.

I'm going to focus on more natural remedies. I haven't run since last Sunday and I'm thinking I'll leave it that way and keep focused on staying fresh for the races and focus on nutrition and proper sleep. I'm just going to do the best I can, hopefully finish then when I get back start training for Tinker Bell.

On Friday I went and ordered a headstone for my Dad, wicked complicated in way as I needed to keep in mind the rules of the cemetery. One thing I absolutely wanted was a vase, my Dad was all about flowers so that was important to me. I wound up with a super fancy reversible vase, so have the option to have it out or flush with the ground. The flowers will be fake and I'm going to find the nicest fake flowers I can find. I am thinking of making it my final resting place too so I got the headstone spaced that a second name could be added if I ultimately want that. It was a wee freaky to see my name on the computer screen as we made sure all the spacing was correct.

On Saturday I rented a car to head out to my Dad's place to check on it. It was the first time I rented from the Enterprise location downtown. I loved that the dude walked me through the features of the car. That never happened when I rented from the airport. This time it was a Ford Focus with the push button start, I was totally thrown off that there was no key.  So far I think I enjoy the Ford the most.

I have to say the good thing about renting is I'm guessing most people think I'm a tourist on the highway and that's why I'm one of the few people actually driving the speed limit. I was passed by someone on the way back that must of been going 40k over the limit after he passed me. Not to mention the one who passed me when the speed limit dropped to 50 and they were going like 80 and continued going 80.

While at my Dad's the neighbour"s son dropped by to check out the Aveo. My first thought was that he was cute. He's blond which is something I don't normally go for. Let's factor in he's in the middle of a divorce with 2 kids and told me he's never been on his own. Met the ex at 17 been together for 20 years, married 16. Yeah he needs to be on his own for awhile but I think I made a new friend.

Also discovered why the Aveo was smelling funky, few months back my Dad told me about milk that opened on the way back from the grocery store (30 min drive). It's been smelling odd since, aha found mold. Yeah, so neighbour has a son with wicked allergies but that family has been super helpful so their putting the word out and think they know other potential buyers. One thing I notice was how humid the garage was a it's attached to the green house so that certainly didn't help the mold situation and probably made it worse.

Now I have something else to clean. I left the car outside and I'll find a cover for it so it can stay outside after I clean it. That will also make going through all the stuff in the garage easier. When he came over the car actually wouldn't start as the battery was dead but I found a charger. Recently they cleaned out their Aunt's barn so he was in scavenger mode and asked if he look around. I said sure. He mentioned a few things I could sell at the local garage sale but the enormity of what needs to be done hit me again. So much stuff. While admittedly I was embarrassed by all the stuff he just dove in not phased by it at all.

I have to take another week of vacation to meet my companies carry over vacation rules and now I know I'll be going back to Dad's for a week most likely in the fall. I'll talk to the boss tomorrow. I just need to tackle room by room. I want to book a garbage bin too so I can just haul any garbage straight into there. I'm thinking sometime in October or early November before it snows.

He said  he'd help and even we could call a gang together and get it done. Note to self - do not fall for this guy. He's cute, super easy to talk to and a super nice country boy - who is in the process of a divorce and two kids, hasn't been single in 20 years. Danger danger Will Robinson. Not to mention I'm not in a great emotional state to even start imagining a romantic relationship. He invited me over to the family homestead as they were having a fire, I opted out as I was driving back early today.

I think I have an idea for him to be the final owner of the car as I really do want it to go to a nice home, yes it's a thing. I do think he now wants a bigger vehicle at any rate I think with their help I'll have a buyer.

On the WW front tracking has been sketchy lately leading up to the headstone purchase. On Tuesday I went to the WW meeting with a co-worker so I could get some smoothie mix. I do like as an online member I can still go get a meeting product.

Tomorrow I need to start packing for Disneyland as I'm out to dinner with friends on Thursday and it's an early flight on Friday. I have a feeling this week will fly by.

So what's new with you?

8 days flew by

I can't believe I haven't posted in 8 days and I wasn't even away.

I was down with a cold though, and still today have the sniffles. However I know that should go away soon.

That interrupted training as I couldn't breathe and I was so tired. This past weekend I spent the whole time in my PJs just trying to sleep it off.

The Dumbo Double Dare is going to be interesting. I'm not sweating the 10K I got that.

I joined a few Facebook groups dedicated to Disney runs, more specifically the Disneyland Half (part of the Dumbo Double Dare), Tinkerbell (January) and the Glass Slipper Challenge (February).

What struck me on the Disneyland Half one was people talking about being worried about being swept up. That hasn't even occurred to me. I'm confident I'll finish. Heck if I can do a 5K at 5 am and then a half at 10 pm on the same day I got this.

I'm planning the last long run for Sunday, how long no idea I'm going to see how I feel. I need to road test my new FlipBelt.

I first saw this on Dani's blog Weight Off My Shoulders , she's actually hosting a giveaway for one enter here.

I sort of assume that most of these type of blogger giveaways are not open to Canadians unless the blogger is Canadian and too be honest I really wanted one as I'm always experimenting with how to cart stuff on runs. I got a royal blue one. I never carry water during a Disney run as the water stations are organized beautifully.

I stopped by the Running Room on Tuesday and picked up a Camelbak hand held water bottle to test out for home longer runs.

On Tuesday I also saw Elysium, I didn't like it and found it a little too violent as I'm not into that.

The new job is going well. Last week was nuts as quite frankly I was dealing with an idiot but now that this is done today and was so quiet. I know it won't last but I don't know what busy looks like in this job.

WW Online is going well, last week's tracking was sketch mostly due to the cold. Today I lost what I gained after coming back from Big Valley so back on track.

Today I signed up for a 10 week online training program for women over 40 (or getting there). Tamara is trainer from B.C and you can check out the details here. You may know her as Fitknitchik. I like how it's focused on effects of turning 40. To be honest I can't say I've felt too much at 41 but I know it's coming so why not head it off.

I had to ask her if her program would mesh with my half marathon training plan. It starts September 8th (You sign up until September 6th). She said it could but running causes stress in the body so I might not want to focus on a weigh goal rather on strength. However because I run/walk I'll still focus on weight too.

So now you're pretty up to date. For this weekend I also plan on picking out at a headstone for my Dad. I still haven't buried the urn but now I know when I want to do that. I can't believe it will be 2 months on Friday.

Do you get in your own way?

It was an odd day. It started with me waking up in a start as I didn't set my alarm properly. I have a dual alarm and I turned on the wrong time. Not a total disaster as it was only maybe 15 minutes later then usual.

I felt like I was dragging today and I'm sore especially from the hips down. Either that's due to all that walking on gravel or sleeping on what felt like plywood over the weekend.

Now before I left for Big Valley my old boss issued me a challenge, she likes to do that sort of thing. It was make new friends or talk to a cute boy. I'm not sure why she cares so much about my social life but she has habit of deciding something based on no facts.

So today she asked me how I did, so I told her about the concert and the high amount of young people, not too mention the high amount of drunk people. She seemed to think that was an ideal opportunity to meet new people. I disagreed and then she started on a tangent of me hiding in my house. I said well next year I'll rock the cut offs and bikini top. She then say you keep saying you'll do stuff when you get your body where you want it but you shouldn't wait.

Well that got me thinking. Do I use my weight as an excuse not to do stuff? Well yeah I do, I don't want to try online dating again till I'm at goal weight. So much of my self image is tied to my weight. I generally think I'm invisible. I've felt that way for a long time, not sure when it started but I think it started with not feeling good enough. That I can trace back to junior high, I went to a bilingual junior high and the majority of school mates where from well off families i.e. doctors, lawyers. I was the child of a construction worker and I remember not being able to go on a ski trip because at that point my Dad was unemployed. I don't think I lacked from anything but that's when I started comparing myself to others. I still do.

A shift in attitude is required hence the turtle above.

That's not something that can be done overnight but needs to be chipped away at.

This morning on my way to work before the discussion with old boss I was listening to Jason Aldean - The only way I know.

Don’t stop till everything’s gone 
Straight ahead never turn round 
Don’t back up, don’t back down 
Full throttle wide open 
You get tired, you don’t show it 
Dig a little deeper when you think you can’t dig no more 
That’s the only way I know 

This lyric sort of stuck with me as it applies to goals, really any goal but especially perseverance. I weigh in tomorrow morning and I know it won't be good due to the fun over the weekend, but it was fun over one weekend. Instead I'm changing my perspective and thinking of it as also a start to a new week. That's my baby steps into changing my attitude.

Hugs!!

What I learned camping

Hello!

Can't believe it's been over a week since I posted.

My friends and I spent the weekend at the Big Valley Jamboree, 4 day Country Music fest roughly 3 hours from where I live in a town called Camrose.

I grew up on Country music and have drifted in and out of that genre. My iPod has everything but I do find myself in the past few years drifting more towards country again.

The big headliners were Alan Jackson, Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw, though I was really happy to see Travis Tritt.

We skipped the Thursday under the advice of people who've gone before and planned to be there on Friday. Now the day after the 2012 Big Valley I was trying to get us a room in the Best Western that's super close to the concert bowl. No go, they had a monster waiting list. We couldn't get a single room in Camrose, I had reserved a room in the next closest towns which is Wetaskiwin, which would have meant 30min drive there and back.

Well last week in the final hours we discovered a friend who had an extra camp spot with two tickets he was trying to sell. Well I bought the tickets, my friend sold them and they didn't need the camp spot so we got it.

So we thought let's rent an RV, well that was an adventure as it is a long weekend. We got the last RV in the city of Calgary.

 Tada, so armed with sleeping bags and a whole lot junk food (courtesy of one friend) and a variety of alcohol we headed out. No luckily our co-worker who had their 5th Wheel and was our campsite neighbour so he let us plug into his generator or we had no power. Yeah and I packed a hair dryer and straightener.

It was pretty interesting to see us all watch our phone batteries die a slow death. We all bought one of those charging doohickeys at the trade show. Only mine had some power in the battery so I could charge my phone.

None us were RV pros so we paid the RV rental place to empty the tanks, we were super conscious about water use so tried to use the porta potties (ewwwww) except I did get to use one that just cleaned which was sort of awesome. No one had a shower in 3 days, there are shower facilities there for $7, the only thing was you then had to walk across dirt and grass to get back to your camp and you were just as dirty pre shower. Not to mention the competing with a whole lot of other campers.Now when we got there you could call water people or sewage people to service your trailer while you were there. I'm going to look into an out door shower or baby wipes and dry shampoo next year. That's the good thing about a cowboy hat it hides a whole lot of hair sins.

There were RVs and tents everywhere and it was crazy. We were in Family Camping meaning there's a midnight cut off for noise. That didn't happen I could hear lots in the wee hours of the morning that we referred to as coyotes, well the human drunk kind. We had other friends in General Camping which we renamed Hooligan Camping, they actually had someone take a pot full of potatoes from their camp site.

The other type of camping was Reserved which is closer to the event area. I'm voting we try for that if we go next year.

The RV themselves were fascinating, there were monster huge ones with satellite and some that looked like there were built from scratch. There were two that were John Deere inspired painted green with skull wearing a John Deere hat.

There were 20 somethings everywhere and multiple campers had a variety of beer pong set ups. I've never seen that many jean cut offs and bikini tops either.

This was one of the twenty somethings next door to us, on day one I saw him admiring his own abs, here is conked out holding a guitar.

Oh yes lots of guitars and you could hear singing everywhere and in promptu concerts.

One of my favourite concerts was Luke Bryan, at one point it was just him and his guitar. He missed a chord on a song and went back a line to do it over. I think that's what I appreciate about most country artists there down to earth.

To give you an idea of how many people where there.

This was in front of me

This was behind me

think there was somewhere around 25000 people there. I'm happy we went with reserved seats which got us a seat, all the people behind me had to bring lawn chairs and stake out a spot.

After a long soak in the tub when I got home I now feel a little more human. Now I didn't track at all over the last few days mainly due to being very careful with my phone (no power). So now it's back on the wagon.

In my first two weeks of WW online I lost 4lbs total.

Hugs!!!