New Blog!

Hey all, just a heads up to all my readers .. ya, all 3 of you :P

I've started a new blog so feel free to check it out and please, let me know what you think!

http://tinysweightlossblog.blogspot.com/

Hasta Mañana,

E.

Look out 30s, HERE I COME!

Well, Well. Well, here we are – January 10, 2009.

I have made a promise to myself that I am going to start this New Year off on a positive note and try to keep that outlook going as long as I can. Since these days there are so many reasons to be negative and pessimistic, it’s easy to get wrapped up in all the bad energy.

But not here, OH NO, this is going to be a banner year for Erin.

This is the start of a new decade for me. My 30s are on the horizon and I am making peace with the fact that I will no longer be a gal in her 20s.

It is amazing to reflect and look back at all that has happened over the last 10 years and it’s stunning to imagine what is to come in the next 10.

My 20s held a lot of exploration for me: I finished college, got my first full time job, travelled throughout North America and Europe (a personal backpacking dream come true). I ran my first 10K race, I lived alone, I watched my friends get married and start beautiful families and I even got married myself, but then also got divorced. Yes, I am a statistic, so what? But I was able to find love again, road tripped across our great country, saw the Rockie Mountains, moved to the West Coast and started my life all over again, one adventure at a time.

It’s been a great ride so far and I am looking forward to all that is to come.

And I still have a long list of To Do’s to work on, just of few of which are:

I want to travel more, see Australia, South America and Asia.
I want to learn to ski every run at Whistler Blackcomb
I want to be a better cook
I want to take photography classes
I want to find I job that I LOVE and am passionate about
I want to be more comfortable in my own skin and love myself unconditionally
I want to own a home
I want to have kids

So here’s to my 30s … let hope they are as full of life, love and adventure as the last decade has been.

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by
deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up
enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

Samuel Ullman

2008: The Year in Review

What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
I backpacked Europe and made a 10 year dream come true!

Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
If I made any for 2008 I don’t remember them (what does that tell you!) But 2009 is to be a year of change, so yes, I do have a list this time around.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
The most wonderful little girl came into the world this year, Ms Victoria Paige Van Hal, born to the amazing Shane and her hubby Todd.

Did anyone close to you die?
No. This year was a lucky one …

What countries did you visit?
The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, USA

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
Less of a waist line

What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
June 21st – The look on my Dads face when I surprised him on his 60th Birthday!!

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Learning how to mountain bike and thus not being afraid of new challenges

What was your biggest failure?
Gaining back some of my hard-lost weight of the last few years and not caring about myself as much as I deserve

Did you suffer illness or injury?
A few colds and pulled muscle isn’t anything to really bitch about

What was the best thing you bought?
Plane tickets to Europe!!

Whose behaviour merited celebration?
TBD

Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
George Bush

Where did most of your money go?
Bills, bills, bills, can you pay my telephone bills?

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Travelling, meeting new people and having new experience. It was a dream come true that I was able to to visit and explore to so many different places this year.

What song will always remind you of 2008?
Anything by Hot Chip, The Raconteurs, Holy F&@K (all were outstanding at Coachella)

Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? Same
b) thinner or fatter? Fatter
c) richer or poorer? Same

What do you wish you'd done more of?
Travelling ... there is just so much to be seen and experienced.

What do you wish you'd done less of?
Debt repayment … WHEN WILL IT END ?!?!?!

How did you spend Christmas?
With my amazing man Phil, in our home in Vancouver, missing our families to death, eating loads of food and enjoying lots of merry cheer with new friends

Did you fall in love in 2008?
Even more than I thought I could xoxoxoxoxo

What was your favourite TV program?
Bones … give me more David Boreanaz please ;)

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I don’t have time for that, there are other, more important things to do than waste time hating.

What was the best book you read?
Wacky Chicks: Life Lessons from Fearlessly Inappropriate and Fabulously Eccentric Women
Author ~ Simon Doonan

What was your greatest musical discovery?
Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, Holy F&@K, Does it Offend You Yah? … and lots more, too many to mention … excellent music year J

What did you want and get?
My trip to Europe :)

What did you want and not get?
A new bike … maybe 2009 will bring a shiny new dually for me ;)

What was your favourite film of this year?
Dark Night & Rob Zombie's Halloween are the first two that come to mind, but I don’t make it out to the movies very often, so it's mostly renters for me … seen loads of amazing documentaries recently like The End of Suburbia, ENRON: The Smartest Men in the Room, Escape from Suburbia, Crude Awakening, Sicko … all terribly moving

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
29 – the last of the decade – Out for drinks with friends

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More time with my family

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
Funky, dark yet also exspressive and always very moi ;)

What kept you sane?
My family and my man

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Angie please!

What political issue stirred you the most?
Oil

Who did you miss?
Mom, Dad and Dave terribly

Who was the best new person you met?
Far and away, Victoria Paige Van Hal

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.
Life is short – Live it

it's the end of the world as we know it ...

Hummmm, what’s new?? Nothing really. Same old same old … not that it’s a bad thing. After all that has been going al all year with travelling and events and whatnot, its kinda nice to be static for a moment and just live … sometimes that crazy thing called life flies right past ya!

I did watch a very I interesting documentary on Friday night that really got me thinking, thinking quite a lot …. It is called THE END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream and man, was it a wake up call for me. I had no idea the oil situation is what it is, the kind of impact the world will feel once we reach the Oil Peak and what that will mean to the future as we know it. It was a real shock to me to hear how we are truly gluttons of our planet, consumption fanatics and waste such unbelievably precious resources each and every day.

Ask yourself this:

In August 2003, if you were part of the huge blackout felt along the eastern coast of North America (as I was for the complete duration of the power failure, 3 days), after your experience during that time, have you made any efforts to change the way you live and use power, have you changed your consumption of fuels and oils in any way, or are you back to living life as you had been on that very afternoon? A/C running, driving to work each day, driving here and there to get a carton of milk and to hit the post office, creating waste at every turn, consuming recourse that are finite.

It may sound flakey and you may think that these sentiments are stemming from my move to the West Coast where all we do it climb mountains and hug trees, but you know what, maybe it does have something to do with it. I am forced to see the true beauty of this planet each and every day and yes, it has changed my perspective on things. And after hearing and seeing what is going on in the oil industry each and every day, I can honestly say that once and for all, that the statements and points made in this movie made me realize that I will NEVER live in a suburb and will always live in a high-density urban setting, will never again own a car and empowered me to learn to be agriculturally self-sufficient. Watch out, here comes Urban Farmer Erin!

Please, go out and rent this flick. It’s at Rogers in the Documentary section. Do it for you, your kids, your sisters, your brothers, your parents, your grandkids and all those of future generations and everyone else sharing space together here, on the only planet we have.

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes,an aeroplane
Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn,
world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs.
Feed it off an aux speak,, grunt, no, strength,
The ladder starts to clatter with fear fight down height.
Wire in a fire, representing seven games, a government
for hire and a combat site.
Left of west and coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.
Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing!
Fine, then.
Uh oh,
overflow, population, common food, but it'll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed dummy with
the rapture and the revered and the right - right.
You vitriolic, patriotic,
slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

REM: It's The End of the World

My Favourite Read List

One of my girlfriends has spurred me on to write this list, as she has just reacquainted herself with the joy of reading after taking a break from it for a while ... being the Mom of a toddler can do that sometime. WELCOME BACK KIM!!

As most of you, my loving 3 readers know, I am an AVID reader ... fervent actually. When I was working at Chapters (all those years ago) I was in heaven ... I love the feel and texture of the pages, the sound of the binding when it snaps after you've just cracked open the pages for the first time, the cover art or even lack there of ... and of course the stories. I love them all. I am a huge fan of non-fiction and you can always find me in the Biography or the Social and Cultural Studies section, browsing the shelves.

It was my Mother Jennifer, a writer now herself , who started me on my journey with the written word. Bedtime stories were one of my favourite times as a child. My Mom would read to me with such passion and love that it is no surprise that that same enjoyment was embedded in her young daughter. The Chronicles of Narnia, Cloudy with the Chance of Meatballs, Jillian Jiggs, The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Balloon Tree, The Queen Who Stole the Sky, The Avocado Baby, The Folk of the Faraway Tree and The Secret of Spiggy Holes were my favourites. I secretly thought Jillian and I were long lost sisters ...

In first grade we had a book club, the Snuggle Up and Read Club, with the premise being that each night we had to make the time to snuggle up and sit quietly with our parents and read. Once the book was completed, it was recorded on the special Snuggle Up and Read Record Sheet. Once the sheet was full we got a sticker ... oh those magical grade one stickers and all they meant to us 6 year-olds! That club and my wonderful grade one teacher Mrs. MacLean made my love of books even stronger.

Those were some of the moments and times that helped to mould me into the reader and lover of books that I am today. I ready each and every day. I read on the bus to and from work, I read on my lunch break, I read while waiting for my coffee, I read in the Dr and Dentist office, I read before bed and while in bed. I find it to be both intriguing and relaxing. It’s entertaining and educating. It is exercise for the mind and can take you places and make you feel things that you never thought a book could.

I encourage everyone to pick up a book, a magazine, a newspaper, SOMETHING, just get reading.

So here's the start of my list of Favourite Reads. It will be an ongoing list as I have a rather large library to peruse and choose from and DAMN, there a lot of good ones!

If anyone reads, or has read any of these, let me know what your thoughts.

Enjoy!

Wacky Chicks: Life Lessons from Fearlessly Inappropriate and Fabulously Eccentric Women - Simon Doonan
Valley of the Dolls - Jacqueline Susann
The Body Farm - Patricia Cornwell
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto - Chuck Klosterman
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again - Julia Phillips
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
Which Lie Did I Tell? - William Goldman
American Psycho- Bret Easton Ellis
Sonic Cool: The Life and Death of Rock & Roll - Joe Harrington
The Electric Kool Aid Acid Trip - Tom James Wolfe
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls - Peter Biskind
The Rebel Sell - Joseph Heath
All Families Are Psychotic - Douglas Coupland
Scars of Sweet Paradise: the Life and Times of Janis Joplin - Alice Echols
The Diary Of A Young Girl - Anne Frank
Somebody To Love? A Rock And Roll Memoir - Grace Slick
Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal - Ian Christe
Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey In Rural North Dakota - Chuck Klosterman
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

To be continued ....