The Wedding Countdown Begins

I passed another wedding milestone yesterday - I ordered my bridesmaids' dresses. They are not at all what I had initially thought they would be, but I pride myself on the fact that they are quite contemporary and could possibly be worn for a nice Christmas party or swank event on some future date. I also solicited the input of my bridesmaids' in the decision making process which should make them genuinely happy to don said dresses on the blessed day. Plus, I like them!
We have also chosen our florist, which will hopefully allow me to sleep better for the next little while. She is both friendly and creative and really tries to tailor her designs to the couple and their interests. Len is very excited about the concept she has for his boutonniere, as am I.
On the horizon for next week - we are meeting with a rep at the Bay for our registry and we are ordering our wedding bands. I am very excited about the wedding bands and again the company we have chosen to go with is very friendly and designs their rings on a client by client basis.
There was a time where we could make a decision about the wedding and then put the planning aside for a while, but I have finally resigned myself to the fact that that time is over and I now think about it pretty much 24/7. On the upside, because so many plans are solidifying and falling into place I can really picture the whole thing in my head and I am becoming very excited.
Another great development in the my everyday life is my new YWCA membership. I have started doing an aquafit class twice a week and a free swim once a week, after work. I am taking the aquafit with my friend and co-worker, Lorilee, and I love it. We have a lot of fun and get a great workout at the same time. I forgot how much I love to swim and just be in the water. No matter how stressful the day has been, once I get in the water everything just melts away. This is what I have been looking for since my running injury, and while I wish I'd figured it out sooner, it's better late than never.
I also discovered, thanks to Gina, that I am 50% weird, so Autumn you have at least two people to keep you company, because Len is too.

Hockey and Politics

So, it dawned on me the last time I posted my blog ( I know it's been a while since then) that I start almost all of my blogs with "So". At first I decided that this is something I should curb, however since then I decided that it is one of my idiosincracies and I am going to keep it for now.
I went to my first Montreal Canadiens hockey game in the Saddledom last week in my brand new Canadiens jersey (Thank you Len) and it was quite the experience. To begin with I was still recovering from whatever viral infection I caught several weeks ago, and I believe, a rather nasty sinus cold too boot. And then my team played worse than the Tim Horton's Tim bits kids, at least their cute when they fall down! However, the most interesting part was walking along 17th Ave in my jersey and being alternately booed and cheered at by passers by. Never having been to a Canadiens game anywhere except for Montreal before I finally got to experience what it felt like to not be the home team. At times it was almost scary, but for the most part it was a lot of fun. I just wish my guys had backed me up with a win. Oh well, at least I only have to wait 3 years for a comeback game :(
If this wasn't already enough, the Conservatives are now in power. I am relieved that they have a minority government, but only so relieved. They still have lots of potential for destruction all the same. All I can hope for is another election next year (I hear you Autumn) and a better choice of candidates to choose from.
Stay tuned for wedding details, to follow soon, I promise...

Will I Ever Run Again?

So it's been quite a while since I last posted. We have gotten a lot busier at work, with people ordering tickets for Handel's Messiah and Trad X-mas, as well as starting to buy Christmas gifts. I don't think I am ready for it to be Christmas so soon, but then I never usually am. It's going to be odd this year, splitting my time between the two parts of my family. It's hard enough as an adult, it must really suck when you are a kid. I think it is going to be a particularly difficult road to traverse this year, without hurting anyone's feelings. Ahh, Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year!
Yesterday I went to a follow-up appointment with my sports doctor and he had ordered an MRI of my ankle. There is a spot on my ankle that just won't get better, which they saw months ago on my bone scan, but thought would improve with physio. Since it hasn't really gotten any better they figure an MRI might give them more information. They don't know how it will take to get me in for the MRI, it might be as late as January, especially since my problem is not life threatening. So here's to hoping for sooner rather than later, and that no Flames players get hurt and bumps me out of my spot :)

I Think I can...I think I can

So Len, my dad, my sister and I completed the Ambulance Chasers 6KM Run/Walk in only 47 minutes. That was a lot faster than we had originally anticipated, we were much faster because we ended up running about half of it! Right up to the starting line we planned to walk the whole thing...and then the ambulance siren went off and I just started to run. I looked around me at the rest of my family and we sort of shared this look that said if you want to run I'll run. Which was pretty cool. We made it the first K without really stopping which is pretty impressive because my dad is the only one of the four of us who has run more than five minutes in any one session for well over a year. Go us!
The rest of the run we sort of played it by ear. I was prepared to stop running completely at any point if my leg gave out, but it didn't. Besides the fact that I was so excited that I was running again, I was also blown away by the view of downtown from the ridge. It is just beautiful. Once it gets dark the city looks magical with all of it's lights twinkling away. The temperature was perfect, in fact it was just a little bit warmer than the last time I ran the race.
We crossed the finish line running, and there were lots of wonderful people to cheer us on. We then went into Eau Claire and had some food (they were serving Spolumbo's sausage's-yum) and came across quite a few people we knew that had also run the race. There is always a great feeling of camaraderie after a race and a sense of shared accomplishment. I had really missed that and I was so happy to be part of it again.
After the race we managed to not only walk home from Eau Claire, but also go to Kelsey's birthday celebration at Well. Unfortunately we were pretty tired at that point, so we didn't very long (Sorry Kelsey) but it was great to see everybody.
All in all it was a perfect night.

And now something that's actually about the wedding...

So if you have visited Len's blog recently you'll know that we did some more wedding planning/budgeting this past weekend. While a few scary facts came out of the brainstorming session (ie. we will have to take out a line of credit so we can pay everyone for their services the day of the wedding), we have made some headway in other areas. Namely, I think I have finally decided on "the colours" for the wedding, and believe me if I had known how important that would be to everything else, I would have started to think about it a lot sooner.
Once the colours were chosen I was able to search for ideas for the bouquets and the boutonniers, and I found a great bouquet that incorporates black calla liles, which I absolutely adore. I also think that I have settled on the style of my wedding dress which Len's mom has so kindly offered to make for me when she comes in the spring. Also, my sister had provided me with an artists rendering of the cake which looks fabulous. Yes, she got all the art genes and most of the baking genes, damn it all.
Now my only dilema is whether to post pictures of what I decided on, or wait so that there are some surprises on the day of the wedding. For those of you that think that I should let the cat out of the bag now, don't lose hope, the wedding is still 10 months away and I can't usually hold out that long without sharing...

Hopping=Running?

So it's been about a week and a half since I started my newest physio exercises, which include hopping in place and running in place for a minute. I'm getting fairly desperate to start running again, but it's hard to tell sometimes if all things I am doing are ultimately going to help or not. In fact, I think my physiotherapist is starting to wonder too. On the plus side, I can walk without a great deal of leg pain now, so things have improved. There are days when someone runs past me and I just want to take off after them, pain be damned, but then I would just curse myself later, and hobble when I walk, so there is this internal battle in my head all the time. I am looking forward to walking the ambulance chasers race and I hope to finish in a reasonable time.
This weekend Len and I are going to see the Rachmaninoff concert at the JSCH which we are looking forward to. It is a fundraiser for a local Buddhist monastery and it should be really good. On Wednesday we saw the Goldberg variations, adapted for strings, with the CPO and it was excellent. I love the sound of the harpsichord, oddly enough it gives me the same great feeling as the sound of the pedal steel guitar. I know they have very different sounds, but they both make me happy. I am looking forward to the Handel and Co. concert on Oct. 19 because they are going to be playing the Carthy organ, which I haven't heard yet, but apparently is awe inspiring.

It's going to be a bright, sun shiny day

I was reminded today of the reason that it's sometimes nice to be walking to work before the sun comes up. I saw the most gorgeous sunrise and put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.
On a related walking note, Len and I have decided to participate in the 6 Km Ambulance Chasers Walk, at Eau Claire market, in October. Even though I can't actually run it, it still gives me a degree of optimism to be involved in it, as it is the first race I ever ran, and I had a lot of fun. Plus, we get a free technical T out of the deal and a glow stick, who could ask for more?