Aaaaahhh....

A beautiful, quiet Saturday morning.

Love it.

I have a bunch of things I want to get done today, probably more than is possible for me to do today, but it doesn't bother me. Just soaking in the lovely stillness.

Have a great day world!

Photo taken by me Sept 2015 at Point No Point Resort on Vancouver Island.

Hello stranger

Hi blog!

Yesterday I attended an amazing course on concussion management taught by Shannon McGuire (Concussion Rehab Works). There was so much good information that I hope to use with my clients! T and I had a road trip to Kitchener-Waterloo for the course, and on the way back we stopped at Home Depot to get some plants for the garden. They didn't have as many veggies as I'd hoped, but we got some herbs and flowers. A trip to Fiesta Farms is in order!

Today I've been doing laundry and slowly cleaning up the kitchen, and procrastinating on doing the work I brought home this weekend. :( I even worked out! Still have not unpacked from Victoria though...

Photo taken at Butchart Gardens in the centre of the Rose Garden (which wasn't fully in bloom yet).

What to wear

I've just started 10 weeks of internships (2 x 5 weeks each). The dress code for the first one is "smart casual", whatever that means. Business casual but less business-y? The second one is in a hospital so I'll probably be wearing scrubs.

The bottom line: I'll be wearing pants.

I wear pants all the time. It's physio - you have to be able to move around, crawl up on beds and plinths, lunge and squat, and even sit on patients (like I did today - don't ask). I mostly wear pants to school, because it's more comfortable when carrying my backpack and all my other stuff.

I have thus decided to wear skirts ALL THE TIME on weekends. I have lots of skirts that I hardly ever wear, and I need to put them into rotation.

There is still the issue of shoes though...

Accomplishments

What am I most proud of?

At age 34, I went back to university (started again, really) and ended up graduating with top marks in my class. The first few courses were hard - I had to remember how to learn the material so that I could reproduce it on a test, which is SO different from the working world. But once I figured out that I could do well and got a taste for high marks,  I was hooked. I wanted to know EVERYTHING (not possible haha). Also, I knew that I needed excellent grades to get into a master's program.

I had focus and motivation.

And I wasn't distracted by all that usual university stuff: making friends and going out. :)

I did have a small group of study buddies, and we would share notes, work together on projects, motivate each other, etc.

The hard work paid off: graduated top of the class, received an academic award, accepted into my first choice of master's programs.

Did I have a positive impact on anyone? I think my family was proud of me. I got the sense that they were surprised/didn't expect me to do it (actually my mom said it straight out) - guess they didn't think very highly of my intelligence! Haters gonna hate, lol. I tried to teach my younger classmates that it's never too late to pursue your dreams; if you're not happy with what you're doing, make a career change. It might not be easy, but hopefully it will lead to you doing something more fulfilling.

What can I learn from this success to help me be successful in the future?

Tough question. The end goal/motivation helped (getting into PT school). Having small successes proved to me that I could achieve really great marks. I did enjoy a bit a competition to do better than someone else, but that wasn't a key motivation factor.

What can I take forward from that experience to help me be more motivated now?

Revival

Oh hello blog.
I am going to revive you, or at least try, for 7 days. (I do know CPR after all!)

I've joined the Start-A-Blog Challenge with Scott Dinsmore from Live Your Legend which should compel me to write a post every day for 7 days. 

Why am I doing this?

PT school is fast and furious, and I'm just trying to keep my head above water. I see the value in self-reflection regarding school and clinical placements, but I need some structure and a forum for it, and it would be valuable for me in other areas of life as well. 

So here we are.

Welcome to 2013

My word for 2013 is: OPENNESS

Open heart, open body, open mind.

Saturday night

I don't want to study. I want to play with yarn. Or sleep. Probably sleep.

It's rather embarrassing that I don't even care about going out or being social.

Didn't

So... yesterday I felt overwhelmed with everything I have to do this week for school, had a meltdown, and decided not to do an assignment for my placement in favour of schoolwork worth marks.

Today, I can't be arsed to do anything! I barely finished my lab due tomorrow. I still have 2 chapters and 5 journal articles to read, and a lab worth 10% due on Friday. I was so stressed out yesterday, and today I actually had time to make a dent in my To Do list but .... didn't. Didn't read, didn't work on the big lab, didn't do laundry, didn't make food.

Geez.

New habits

Three new habits to cultivate this week (and the following weeks, hopefully!):

• sleep at least 6 hours at night - in bed by 11 pm!!!
• drink more water - 2 water bottles-worth
• do shoulder stretches every day
  

Productivity

I worked out this morning! (Stage 1 workout A from the New Rules of Lifting for Women)

And I finished a knitting project! (Cabled baby blanket by Pernille Skau Norgaard - Ravelry link)

Inspiration

A lovely crochet blanket, from un jardin de hilo.

Things I want to do this summer

Things I want to do this summer:
(now that I've finished school for the semester and hopefully won't be as busy as last summer!)

• alter my new costumes so that they are actually wearable
• start working out. I've been sporadic with it this semester (something is better than nothing, right?). I need to design a program for myself, since I now know how to do it! But do I focus on aerobic fitness or strength? concurrent training? and can I run outside without damaging my knees??
• more bellydancing!!! take some classes, practice at home, listen to more music.
• I am going to knit the hell out of this summer! (crochet too!)
• do a full spring cleaning. The house is disgusting. This starts tomorrow
• read some books - some related to school (procrastination, do I want to be a doctor?) but also some fiction just for fun
• uiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii8 (cat walking across keyboard)
• fix up some things around the house. Paint the upstairs bathroom, paint the railing, small stuff like that.
• healthy eating!
• be more creative in my life. Take walks, take photos, make things. Perhaps work through the Artist's Way again (last time I got stuck about 1/3 of the way through. Issues, I haz em.)
  

I'm sure there is more, but this is all I can think of right now - and although I have 4 months, I probably won't have time to do everything I've listed! I do have to work, and sleep.

tabata - day 1

I tried a Tabata workout today: 4 different exercises, 8 sets of each (20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest), 1 minute of rest between exercises.

Tabata timer found here.
Exercises found here. There are lots of Tabata exercises on the internet.

To score, I took the set with the fewest amount of reps that I was able to complete in the 20 seconds.

• Jackknife crunch (alternating legs) - 6
  
• Push up with knee tuck - 4 This was the hardest exercise for me, by far!
• Squats with hands at ears - 12 Easiest exercise for me! I was doing more reps during the last set than the first set.
• Back row with weights - 9

Total score: 31

This workout was great because I didn't have to change into gym clothes (did it in my pj's), I didn't have to wear shoes because there wasn't any jumping. I didn't even put on a bra! LOL! It was quick and intense.

I should mention that I did a little warm up first, based on Jillian Michaels' warm up in Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism: big arm circles, twists, jogging on the spot, jumping jacks, alternating toe touches.

Phew!

le sigh

I have two jobs, plus volunteering in the lab. No weekends. A day off here and there when there is a test in the lab and I don't have to be there. So tired. (not all the time, but most of the time)

Looking at my list in the last post makes me sad! I have started to work out again, sporadically, but I have not done the other things on the list. Even shopping for socks and underwear! lol! I am knitting and crocheting a little bit, but not a lot. I was dancing more at the beginning of the summer, taking classes on Saturdays, but then my work schedule changed and I wasn't able to make the classes anymore. I have Wednesday evenings free and could possibly take a class, but I am exhausted on Wednesdays. Yesterday I napped on and off for most of the afternoon and felt like a zombie in the evening.

Enough whining! This is how things have to be right now and I have to suck it up. I just wish I had more energy!!!

brighter days ahead

When I have finished school for this semester, I am going to:

• have a lazy day and stay in my pj's all day long
• make some jewellery
• go shopping for new socks and underwear
• vacuum
• clean up the place
• DANCE!
• start running again (couch to 5K)
• workout
• read for fun
• see my friends
• go out and dance all night long
• knit
• write W. a letter, maybe send a package
• take more photos, maybe do a "photo a day" thing on Flickr
• be creative
• perhaps I will be a nice person again!

Only one more week!

In a Fosse kinda mood...

finishing up the afghan swap

I never posted the pics of the afghan squares that I received from the extended swap group. Here they are! (in no particular order)

"Diamond among the jewels" from Teejayhansen:

Stripes and buttons by Mullub:

Hearts by Bohoknitterchic:


Pink variegated from Naeby:

From Doe (the colours are wrong in the pic - it's actually blue ruffles on a purple garter background):

Mitered square by Fibernymph:
Vines by Sukye:

I love them all!!!! And am now going to start sewing them together. They've only been sitting in a bag for 4 months... actually that's not all that long... maybe they need to marinate a bit longer! LOL!

i haz a sick.

Hello blog, how are you? It's been a while but I'll just pretend it hasn't, and not attempt to fill in details for the past three (?!) months.

I am sick and stayed home from school today. It started as a fever and bad headache on Saturday, and my chest felt heavy but I wasn't coughing. The fever left on Sunday but I gained a cough and a sort throat. And today I have normal cold symptoms: runny nose, mild cough. At least it's not the flu or the dreaded H1N1, but I was half hoping that I would get it, fight it off, and then continue through flu season with the confidence that I had the antibodies. Alas. My immune system has been sucky poo this year and I've had several colds. :(((( I don't like it one bit. Damn you, germs!

Benylin is my friend. Actually, oil of oregano is my magic potion, but I ran out, and the health food store is sooooooo faaaaaaar awaaaaaaaay.

afghan swap - extended group

A bunch of us from the afghan swap on Ravelry decided to keep on knitting squares and make bigger afghans. We each knit 8 more squares, 7 to swap and one to keep for ourselves. Here are the squares that I knit for the others:

Square 1 for Naeby:

Square 2 for Bohoknitterchic:

Square 3 for Fibernymph (I'm so proud of this one!):

Square 4 for Doe:

Square 5 for Teejayhansen (another one that I'm very proud of):

Square 6 for Sukye:

Square 7 for Mullub (Space Invaders!!!!):

And the last one, for me, you've seen before:
That was a lot of really fun knitting!!! It was great to knit so many different patterns and styles and colours. I want to knit some other afghans for gifts, but I'm hesitating because there will be a colour theme (same colours? yawn) and some sort of cohesive pattern.

Next up, the squares that I received! :)

make up inspiration