In the prime of their set... awesome.
August doing I don't even know what...
August has a friend visiting from Germany, who was hilarious and reminded me of Cornelius, my TA/teammate back in the day at Carleton first year. So much fun. They're headed over to the island to do a bike trip out and about. I just hope he takes a ton of pictures and has a wicked time. Met Kia and Andrew's cats, Grace and Cooper, who I'm going to be cat sitting for the first week of August. It'll be sweet to be around animals again. I totally miss Sasha and Rosie, Tom and No Name. Furry creatures are definitely a must in life.
Quick jump over to Canmore for a training camp/recharge and I'm back in Van City... getting off the plane and hopping into a taxi, I couldn't believe the comfy feeling of 'Hey, welcome back.' The city lights winked at me as we whizzed toward the Loft and I couldn't help but smile and wish I were out on my bike, feeling the wind on my face. Corny, I know, but that's the kind of quiet joy that I felt. Sigh. Haha.
So, rewind a bit... My skier and I Margarita were invited to the National Team training camp in Canmore at the end of June/beginning of July. This was brought to my attention maybe a week and a half before. Very short notice. Luckily the Bike Doctor's pretty flexible with their slacker workers' workdays so I was able to take this opportunity.
Also, getting to see the Big Bro and Chandra - bonus!
My good friend and future co-friend in the writing world, Jesse Winter, showed up to pick me up from the airport - to whom I am totally grateful because the Airporter? Not as good of a time as driving down the highway with some sweet music and someone cool to talk to.
Lunch was spent at Harvest where Jesse and I ran into the ol' gang from Thunder Bay's NTDC: Chris Butler, Pate Newmann, and Phil Wood. It was really nice to catch up with the gang. They're all living in Canmore now and obviously loving life, as one should. :)
I met up with the gang at the Rocky Mountain Lodge - bringing back memories of Canmore Nationals when we sat in our rooms, cuddled under blankets and watching the digital thermometre on the sign hover around the race cut-off temperature. We
had a nice chill afternoon then headed up to the Nordic Centre where the athletes did some biathlon drills and I went for a run. The trails up there are phenomenal. I don't know exactly how many k they have winding in and out of that place but they're awesome. Some are as wide as streets while others are single-track mountain bike trails. Definitely good times.
Managed to track down my busy brother and find a place to crash for the weekend. Now, if you've never been into the inner sanctuary of Casa de Kersh/Crawf, or missed that episode of Cribs, well, you're definitely missing out. It is an amazing place. Even more wicked than the Kersh/Olacke. Just by a bit though. Haha. Sweet art, comfy couches, three levels, four bedroomed, nice kitchen... gorgeous.
Friday was killer... three and a half hours of skate rollerskiing in the AM and two in the afternoon. I definitely went home and passed out cold into a nap after each. We also had a nice surprise of having a camera crew around working for the Discovery Channel... they interviewed some people, filmed some people shooting, it was great.
Getting back into training was awesome. I definitely have been slack on the training aspects of life and I definitely thought it was costing me both mentally and physically, so getting a solid session with like-minded people and just being in the environment was so good for me.
Friday night was spent in the company of another old friend, Andrew Wexler. I met Andrew last winter when he was up at Assiniboine guiding for the lodge. A very cool guy and a guide who gets to travel around the world - Peru, Tibet, etc. He's also a writer who's had a few articles published in a few magazines from his trips, which is so amazing. I'm
very jealous. It was good to catch up with him and we attempted to watch a movie called Elegy. It's based on a book by Philip Roth and probably is a pretty cool movie except I couldn't seem to keep my mouth shut. I will have to rent it. And check out his books.
Okay, so I have this thing where I hate reality TV. A couple years ago some friends got into this TV show called the Office... you may have heard of it. :p I vehemently refused to watch it as it is filmed in a reality TV sort of way. Dev and Chandra have the first four seasons on DVD and I decided, in my zonked out state, that, hey, why not? Could be fun. My first thought was "God, Michael Scot is the most annoying and the dumbest person on the planet. Jesus, why am I watching this?" And then I met Jim and Pam. Total, instant, love. They are so cute. Especially in the pre-relationship state. I love that tension feeling where you know they're both so in it but don't do anything about it... or can't. That tight feeling you get in your stomach. Mmm... haha.
I asked for time off til Sunday because I wasn't sure when I was coming home so it was nice to have a Sunday off for a change. Didn't do a whole lot but enjoyed it nonetheless... Jumped on the Miele this morning and went for a dance on the pedals. Cruised down to Stanley Park to catch the second wave of Sunday trainers. Either I caught the slow wave or the Green Machine and I are just kickass, because we owned everyone on the loop. After that, I turned east and just kept going until I hit the sign for Burnaby. Oops. To finish the circuit, I headed down 49th to get back home, passing Langara College, where I'll be going to school in the fall. Rolling past, I got a little jolt of excitement. In a couple months, I'll be learning copy editing, research skills, and, the highest anticipated: photo journalism. Finally, someone to show me how to really take pictures instead of just the fooling around I do with the Niko.
So, I'm starting to wonder whether there's something wrong with me or whether Claude has worn off on me a little too much. I'm addicted to hopping on my bike, heading downtown, and playing in traffic. This includes, but is not limited to: track standing at lights (trying to stay on the bike, on the pedals without touching down on the ground), or at least trying to; weaving through cars; beating said cars off the line at lights; weaving in and out of pedestrians; leaning on the side of someone's car so that you don't have to put a foot down (not quite brave enough for that one yet but...). Oh, also, the avoidance of getting doored is also key in the being awesome catagory...
Michelle (new roomie #2) and I decided today was the day of a healthy start. Of real meals, of veggies, of something that did not list salt and/or sugar as one of the first five ingredients. We decided today was the day of the Epic Dinner. We headed down to Granville Island to hit up the Public Market where we went sort of crazy on the fruit and veg area. Awesome:
We picked up some delicious raspberries and blueberries, tons of veggies, some sockeye salmon, and some baking ingredients... After sending out some invites, we settled down to make dinner.
First was the dessert. Well, it was supposed to be white chocolate cheesecake but apparently grocery stores out here don't do white chocolate. All those yuppies like their chocolates dark for the anti-oxy-dants. Haha. So, we grabbed some milk chocolate and figured that would do.
Michelle was totally grossed out when she had to separate the yolks from the whites
because she hates eggs but loved melting the chocolate... We also learned conversions of grams to ounces to pounds, thanks to Michelle's Mom via cellphone in the grocery store dairy aisle. 
Michelle... not so pumped... haha
Next was the salad. Super salad. Cabbage, celery, green beans, green onions, grated carrots, sunflower seeds, Michelle's Mom's super salad dressing. Delicious.
Finally, salmon, straight up, plain, lemony. Barbequed.
It was a great dinner - Claude, Chavez, and Cedric showed up, ate, and showered us with compliments of how awesome we are at cooking. Haha.
Anyway, it's late. Very late. I should get to bed. Ciao for now!
Quote of the Day:
"Today be patient with yourself. You are in this world to learn, so start by learning to enjoy the process..."
p.s. Check out both Pete Yorn and Regina Spektor's new CDs... so good.
No comments:
Post a Comment