saved my life

oh! good day.
an old classic dancetime today. with a story.



this weekend i learned that the human person i live with, whom you might know to be quite a smart human person, has thought, for years and years, that this song contained the lyrics:

'you know i'll take you to the tub...'
instead of: 'i'll take you to the top...'

funny, sure.

but what is truly great is that she assumed that to 'take it to the tub' was some sexy-party saying that she just didn't know when she first heard the song, being a young lady in elementary school not well versed in grown-up-partying and sexy-times.

and she has been making jokes based on this assumption. for years. years and years. a million tub-based partying jokes that NO ONE EVER GOT. and only last week did she learn the truth.

and that is great. just great.

happy monday, soakers.

today i read

* ron daniels, responsible for six-figure student debt, receives honorary law degree
by naimh harraher for now

that first graduate mentioned there? with the button and the courage? that's my roommie, it is! i, too, was sporting a yellow button on friday, as were sarah's parents whom i had the privilege of attending the events with. and when sarah gave the valedictorian's address that same day - which you should totally listen to because it is a power-house speech, at the 16 minute mark, below - i cried for pride. for her and for her classmates whom i love so. these remarkable smart, kind, fierce, brave, considerate, passionate, resilient, hopeful, strong humans. these bold humans. oh man, i love them so much i could just die.

proud 2 b sam & ian

best times, beautiful times, love forever and always to these boys and these people. happy days.

save my life

it should be known that i tried to sing chariots of fire as roommate-sarah and me were finishing our final kilometer on saturday. but somehow it turned into the theme from robin hood prince of thieves. so, not to brag or anything, but, i may be a musical genius. creating mashups without tryin' since 1984. (i know my accidental-mashup of 'feed the birds' and 'bring him home' is a big hit with hoopers and friends of all ages.)

meanwhile. today. the theme of today's videos is 'none'. huh? okay, it was just gonna be robyn's none of dem. but then when i searched for that, it also suggested the salt n' pepa. and that particular song has been in my head constantly lately... just. bam. all the time. so clearly it was meant to go up on here. also roommate-sarah doesn't know it, which is basically her biggest flaw. okay. dance. with your tired-sore-but-happy-hips.





happy monday, joggers and jivers.

broke the internet

this was meant to be the last vine. but they put it up in the wrong order. so i tried to move it. and it went away... whatever. thinking is HARD! i even asked twitter and it didn't help. okaybye!

OKAY BYE!

24 in 24 metric

WELCOME TO THE MADNESS!

{race illustrations courtesy of friends-adam&jess-robertson's kid}

y'all ready for this? all the running. all the night and day. for those of you who have somehow missed how this works:

roommate-sarah and me. will run. 1 kilometer. every hour for 24 hours. beginning at 8pm TONIGHT!

this race/challenge was created by emma&charlie, originally featuring 1 mile per hour. it has been run by them, of course, as well as by brother-chris, and MY PARENTS!?!! 

roommate-sarah and me have received permission from the creators to do the race/challenge metric-stylez. 

we will be joined by various friends throughout. we will keep you updated on the internets. we will stop making sense. we will probably not die?!

follow our progress on here, or via the twitter/instagram/vine by watching for #24in24metric.

now crank up some miley cyrus and GET GOING!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!! 

saved my life

i am nauseous with nostalgia this last week. last wednesday, eating nachos with sarahjay and roommatesarah and death cab for cutie playing in the bar, and us leaving to 'what sarah said'...

i've been back on death cab. as a result. transatlanticism, i'll follow you into the dark, lack of colo(u)r.



i was going to put up a video of a cat in a sweater having a hard time, but i'm too dark-and-moody today, so we'll save that for a cheerier time.

happy monday, grey skies.

flowers

 

i am rather slowly working my way through this piece where snp & tao lin talk to eachother for a while, semi-curated by sheila heti. it is charming and lovely and also kind of hard to get through cause awkwardness. and flowers. as you know if you follow my instagram, i am all flowers all the time these days. flowers always flowers everywhere or i'd never survive this summer. but. anyway. snp said something about lydia davis (whom i will read soooooon, it's on my stack) that i laughed at a little as it is kinda sorta how i feel about snp.

i like that. quite. i've been underlining a lot in the things i've been reading lately. like maybe they'll help me fix this brain of mine. like maybe they'll help me know what to be doing. or comfort me in the things that i am not doing. (like. how should a person be? page one. haha.)

roommate-sarah recently explained my snp-feelings to someone who was trying to figure out what on earth i was talking about when i was talking about her. she called her my sorta-daemon. like in phillip pullman. dark materials. and i like that a lot. i should re-read that series. (also. me and sarahs, hey? i mean. i know it has to do with my generational-peers and whatever, but whoa. me and sarahs, sarahs and me.)

i wish i was better at reading. if i could be one thing, i think maybe that is what i would be. better at reading. faster. more capable of retention. (or i would be a singer in bjork's choir. alternatively. for my one thing. so maybe i could have two one things i could be?)

saved my life

this weekend there was an awful lot of time spent in the car with top-40 radio for roommate-sarah and i. oh what a time! what car-dancing! i'll be throwing some pictures of the weekend and the beautifullest wedding up this week. but for now we wallow in pop music and our not so secret shame. (last night as i was getting ready for bed, i could hear the following song on repeat in roommate-sarah's room. unfortunately we can't stop.)



happy monday! it's my blorg i can post what i want to!

saved my life

it was a very j-new weekend, with me sitting on my balcony and singing for three hours on saturday to help me through a heavy-hearted spell. there was the very best rain, too, with the sunshowers and the downpours and the misteverywhere and the whited out skyline over cedarvale ravine.

'...on a good day you can see the end from here, but i won't turn back now that the way is clear, i will stay for the remainder...' and all her most wonderful poetry.



happy monday, happy week, peach plum and pear.

(OH AND. this just got posted today too. so. in a slightly different mood... squeeeeeee! yeah i wanna again oh man i wanna.)

crowned in orange II - the ginger & me

 {up, again, we are going up. again.}

when we left off sarah and i had bid farewell to marina and jaeden and were on our own at the 9th kilometer marker. let us carry on. the badass ballerinas whittled down to the bikini villagers.

we ran whenever there were flats, and up hills in the 'till we reach that signpost' style. sometimes we walked up hills sideways to change things up for our knees and i noticed that that is also a lovely way to stretch out your inner thighs. we strolled down hills leaned way back in a jaunty manner that had originated earlier in the day with j. we swung our arms like a british gentleman might, and laughed our faces off. i babbled away making very stupid jokes and most of the time s did too but every now and then she was quiet and it was obvious that she was maybe not loving up this whole situation quite as much as i was. at one point she said 'okay mud, i've had enough walking through you. thanks.' and i can't blame her for that. i feel like i was lucky to have a lot of race-highs but never any real race-lows. i guess this is just exactly the kind of race for me. on one of the flat sections as we jogged along s said 'i love this part best. i love distance running.' and i thought she was completely bonkers cause this was the worst bit that you had to get through to get to the TOTALLY AWESOME OBSTACLES! and this is the difference between us, it turns out. still. i couldn't have asked for a better person to spend that second half of the day with. there was never any anger or hurry or moods, just getting through and having the best time we could and pushing our bodies and overcoming our fears.

OBSTACLE FOURTEEN: berlin wall
completed by: e, d, n, v, u,

just like it sounds. a wall. actually, two. climb over them. i helped a few people as best i could, and then got helped over myself. it was a long way up. high enough that even stepping up in someone's stirrup-hands wouldn't get you get you quite high enough to grab the top. at least if you are my height... the first one there was a lot of muscling from the people helping me over, but the second wall a guy sitting on the top thought to offer me his leg to help balance and pull up and blammo! over i went. s is not at all a fan of heights and was also worried about the dropping-off-the-wall part for her bad knee. coolio.

OBSTACLE FIFTEEN: underwater tunnel
completed by: e, d,

swim into the middle of a water reservoir (THIS WATER WASN'T MUDDY!!!!) and then bob under three sets of floating barrels. lovely if you like water, which i do. the real challenge on this one was not getting in the water (as we expected, being so cold) but getting out as the reservoir was warm and out of the wind. i could've stayed there for some time...i understand the consensus by all those who did not do this one was 'I DO NOT WANT TO BE WET STILL/MORE/EVERAGAIN'.

OBSTACLE SIXTEEN: balls to the wall
completed by: e, s, d, n, v, u,

a wall-structure with a big thick rope hanging down both sides. like the olden-timey gym ropes. climb up one side, climb down the other. there were slats in the wall to use as footholds, so this one was nay so bad. s totally kicked her fear of heights in the teeth and made it over without a hitch. amazing.

somewhere in this time-area, on a run-bit, we began a long and convoluted joke about s trading her knee in for glory, and that it was a sort of 'take-a-glory-leave-a-glory' type of situation, and how that was really unfortunate since the government had decided to remove glory from our currency, and now you have to round up or down on your races, and oh man it sucks when they round down on, like, an ultra marathon... a man passed us with a very horrified confused face. but i swear to you it was the funniest thing you'd ever hear. if you'd been there. hearing it. beyond witty beyond hilarious.

 {sarah is a little damp}

OBSTACLE SEVENTEEN: wounded warrior carry
completed by: e, s, d, n, v, u,

carry your teammate for a while. trade at the halfway point if you like. (we did.) my sources tell me that d carried n in this event, and i am guessing that u and v did as we did and switcheroo'd in the middle. this obstacle very nearly killed s and i, but only because when we traded at the halfway point, and i jumped on her back, she was standing in a mudslick on the tilty ground. her top foot stayed where it was, but her bottom foot slid quite quickly out, and we only just barely managed to get the whole thing stopped before she was in a side-split assisted by my full body weight. okay it wouldn't have killed me even a little. but s would've been in a very bad way. we readjusted on slightly sturdier ground and all was well. we missed our itty bitty teammates m and j throughout, but especially here.

OBSTACLE EIGHTEEN: smoke chute
completed by: e, d, n, v, u,

a slide into muddy water. except it is straight down and you cannot see the bottom. you swing your legs over the edge and it is just a tunnel downwards. there is a little window so you can be sure no one is at the bottom where you'll come shooting out. but otherwise it is blind. the hardest part for me was just logically trying to figure out how i'd scoot my bum over the edge without falling backwards and hitting my head on the ledge. or sitting forwards and hitting my face on the top/front of the slide. lucky i was race-brained enough to not reeeeaaaally think, so i just went, and it seems to have turned out fine.

OBSTACLE NINETEEN: cage crawl
completed by: e, s, d, n, v, u,

lay down on your back in water and pull yourself along a lane covered in a metal grill. this was at once strangely serene (you're ears are underwater so it's muffled and gentle and you're looking straight up into a very lovely blue sky perfectly broken up by clouds) and terrifying (you're in a one-way trap where you can't see in any direction but up, which is of course not the direction you're traveling, and you're face is only juuuust out of the water and every few feet there is a WOODEN PLANK that you have to go under and it comes up with no warning and suddenly there is NO SKY and you are REALLY TRAPPED and OH MY GOD DROWNINGDYING - or that's what your brain tells you). s was able to confirm, with this obstacle, that her body has an automatic panic response to watery situations. but she got through and didn't even start screaming in the middle which is what i would've done if my body had chosen to push all that panic to the surface. she is a totally tough champion.

 {i am such a happy thing}

OBSTACLE TWENTY: boa constrictor
completed by: e, s, d, n, v, u,

a tube goes downhill into a mud pool. a second tube goes uphill out of the mud pool. crawl through. i was rather nervous about the claustrophobia thing again. but it was not SOOO bad. crawling down and through the pool wasn't any trouble. going back up i started to get a little panicked when i realized it was quite slippery and thoughts of being forever in that tube started to close in. i was squirming and trying to get my knees under me. i got a bit stuck. then a sweet voice came from behind me 'you're alright! no hurry, i won't rush you. you're doing great!'. THANK YOU super sweet friendly stranger girl behind me! she continued to speak calmly and encouragingly as i struggled my way out, and then she called from mid-way up the pipe herself 'this IS tricky! oh my, i see!'. she made it out, and we high-fived and she headed off. i loved her. meanwhile on the other end of the obstacle, s had been about to start when someone near her said 'how many snakes ARE there in there?' which caused her to get a bit unnerved. sankes? really? she asked someone else and they replied 'hmmm... hope not!'. it took her a minute or two to locate someone who could guarantee that there were indeed NO snakes. and through she went.


OBSTACLE TWENTY-ONE: everest
completed by: e, d, n, v, u,

a half-pipe that you run at and up, then throw yourself straight into while trying to grasp the hands of those who have already made it over. i will fully admit to not actually succeeding at this one. and i am insanely impressed that the crew ahead of s and i all did make it. craziness. when we got there there was a giant collection of mudders at the base, long lines to get an attempt in. i waited and tried to hype myself up. throwing myself face-first into walls and trusting strangers are not high on my skills list. the crowd was exciting and encouraging, though. everyone patting each other on the back and grinning. pointing back and forth with the people owning the hands they'd be trying to grab at the top. mic-man was there, too. keeping us pumped up, and also in line. one man made an attempt and was caught by the wrists and dangling. his pants began to slide down. (he did have underwear on, thankfully.) at the same time mic-man had stopped all other attempts to regulate the line-up situation. and so poor pant-slider-man hung there struggling with the whole crowd watching, screaming, shouting, cheering for him to make it - and to do so with his pants. i can't imagine what a strange and embarrassing and thrilling feeling that would be. the fight was successful and someone managed to get his leg, and he got up over the top. he pulled up his pants, turned to the crowd (which was going BANANAS) and bowed and waved. then he laid down on his stomach to help grab the next attemptee.

i gave one attempt. i was not close, but i was pleased with myself for having really giving it my all. i was pretty confident that it would take me maaaany tries to get the hang of it, and neither s nor i were keen on staying that much longer on the mountain. next time i will stay and try a few more times.

OBSTACLE TWENTY-TWO: electroshock therapy
completed by: e, d, n, v, u,

like the last electric one, but this time you run through. and i was all 'hey ain't no thang!' and ran in grinning. i immediately got a shock to the elbow that shot pain through my whole body. it KILLED (except not literally) and i screamed very loudly 'HOLY FUCK!!!'. soooorrrrrrrrrries! it just happened. i don't think there were kids around... but s did say that it was very audible from the finish line where she was waiting for me. yay me! way to finish up in style. but seriously. ow. really ow.

 {the tutus actually survived. like. really well. what?!}

AND THEN WE WERE DONE!!! crowned with the orange headbands which cannot be bought but only earned. tired, sore, happy, cold, gritty, giddy. pretty much EXACTLY when we crossed the line the sky cleared and it was suddenly bright and sunny and warm.

we changed out of our soaking clothes. in the dressing tent a woman near me struggled with her shoe laces. 'it is hard' she said 'because my fingers are... not...' and that is pretty much a perfect summary. we met up with d, n, u, and v in the beer garden. we drank our free beer and smiled lots. back on the shuttle bus. u and v fell asleep. n, d, s and i had sourpatch kids. (i learned that d is actually the owner of a dog i TOTALLY KNOW and we have actually met before in the dog park. funny. and his dog is a good one, guys. one of the great danes. i know. awesome.)

 {natalie and andrew warm and dry and drinking. everything is sunshine.}

and we went home to toronto. and showered. and it was amazing.

here's the obstacles tally for the day (ladies, let me know if i got any of this wrong! race-remembering is not always perfect-remembering):

d & e: 22    n: 21    u & v: 20    s: 15    m & j: 9

thanks to marina for organizing all the things (camera, hotel, tutus, registration...). you're the very best. thanks to sue for driving sarah and me and for the mcdonald's stop. man that was the greatest thing. thanks to jenn and the extension room for getting me way more fit that i thought i could be. thanks to the whole team for being the kind of crazy humans who think this is a great way to spend a day. such a wonderful wacky thing.

crowned in orange

 {pre-race, so dry: andrew, viv, sue, roommatesarah, jaeden, me, marina, natalie}

RACE REPORT MUDDER STYLEZ 2013! 

photos in the first half were largely handled by marina, who (along with jaeden) is an absolute genius and thought to buy a disposable waterproof camera. 

the peeps will be abbreviated to a letter so as to not be so much with the typing names overandover. you already know most of the crew. easy peazy.

s: sarah,  n: natalie,  m: marina,  j: jaeden,  u: sue,  
e: me (hi! actually. i'll just be me. i. mostly.),  

l: (so sad) larissa (wasn't there...)

then the two day-of additions! first was viv-in-larissa's-place. friend of sue. she is a tricky babe, as she managed to convince the race-organizing-folk to let her take the spot even though they are very NO-TRANSFERS-DAY-OF! i do not know what magic she used, but it worked and in she came and on she put a tutu. second was andrew-a-BOY-on-the-team. friend of natalie. he had been signed up for a later start-time with a friend who 'got a girlfriend and got lazy' aka he was all by his lonesome and we were oh so happy to have him along. he was a bigtime help, as you'll hear soon. i was sad we didn't have an extra tutu for him as he would've looked mega babely with a little tulle-round-the-hips.

v: viv,  d: andrew 

(cause 'a' is a letter often required in regular sentences. obvi.)

let us begin. up at 6:30am in a travellodge in barrie. i am my father's daughter, so i was very very very prepared for race-day with my clothes, snacks, waiver, sunscreen all checked and double checked, thus prep went very smoothly. we made our way to the parking field, then onto the shuttle to the racegrounds. a huge brigade of yellow school buses. we borrowed some grease paint from dudes dressed in camo. ready! it was a chilly morning, certainly, but i was so hyped and excited i didn't really feel it. there was much hopping up and down and lunging and some gummy spiders to get things going. the energy on the grounds was fantastic. s and i were waiting for the team by a bench, adjusting our shoelaces and putting on sunscreen, when a guy bounced over to us.

'EXCITED? ARE YOU EXCITED?' said he.
'YEAH!' said me 'GUMMY SPIDER?!' holding out my candy.
'what? YEAH!!!' said he.

the gang all came together, we were introduced to d, and we headed to the startline. the call went up, we started running, and after about 5 meters we hit a wall. HI WALL! d helped each of us before pulling himself over. he was kicked in the back of the head, but not by any of us. and that's when we learned that HAHA nope that hadn't been the startline, THIS was the startline. a huge collection of mudders were corralled between the wall and the blow-up-start-arch under which a man with a mic was pumping us up. we sang and cheered and shouted back at the mic-man 'URAH!'. we took a knee, the whole swath of us there in the mud, and the mic-man requested we all shuffle forward to make room for 'whoever owns that foot' - we all looked back to see just a leg trying to get over the wall. we did shuffle forward. the leg made it in with a human attached to it. we were encouraged by the mic-man to be supportive, caring, helpful to our fellow mudders. to remember that this is a challenge and not a race. we stood and sang the national anthem. we were set free on the course.

 {jaeden looking totally pro on the first-trick-wall}

i'm not gonna talk much about the running/walking bits because they are pretty much the same. up the ski hill, down the ski hill, through deep mud, sticky mud, oozy mud, slick mud...  i'll slip in interesting things if i think of any as we go along.

 {the map. note that it says 'mile-markers' but means 'kilometer-markers'. 16 and a bit.}

OBSTACLE ONE: glory blades
completed by: all

a wall that tilts toward you, thus making it very hard to get any sort of foothold to boost yourself. a reeeeeaally good wall climber miiiiight be able to smear on this one, but i am not one of those. we gave d a hand with the hoisting as we didn't want to abuse or wear out our valuable strong-armed-asset too early in the game. he got kicked in the shorts, this time by one of us: n. lucky they were friends before and have a history to hang onto. oh. and there were two of these walls. once you got over one, you went ahead and did it again. the bruises under my arms began here.


OBSTACLE TWO: artic enema
completed by: d, e, s, n, u, v,

jump into a train storage car that's been filled with water and ice (and dye for funsies). s and i went together in the blue water. it. was. cold. not so bad as i expected when i first hit the water, but immediately sinking into the bones when i had to duck under a barricade in the middle. i opened my eyes under water and was surprised that it was pitch black opaque. on the other side i turned round to see s holding on to the barricade. hitting the water her lungs had slammed shut and refused to open. she had just recovered enough to semi-speak 'i can't breathe...'. scary. she held on there for a moment, and i swam back to her and waited the few seconds it took her body to regain its vital functions. i put my hand under the barricade in the water and found hers on the other side and we got her underneath and out the other end. i am grateful to my years doing dumb things like swimming in lakes in saskatchewan for getting me through this one.

 {natalie validating the team name 'badass ballerinas'}

OBSTACLE THREE: funky monkey
completed by: all

monkey bars. that go at an incline. and then a decline. over muddy water. i will say that we all 'completed' this one, but not that we all succeeded. i certainly did not. i got through one and one quarter bars before i went in the water. i'd like to think it is because my gloves were soaked and my hands still a bit frozen. but i doubt i would've made it much beyond two or three bars even in optimal conditions. not within my talents, this one. d, u, and v made it fully across and i am insanely impressed by this.

OBSTACLE FOUR: kiss of mud
completed by: all

crawl through rocky mud on your hands and knees (unless you're too tall, and then scoot on your belly) under a grid of barbed wired. ain't no thang! easy as pie.

OBSTACLE FIVE: electric eel
completed by: d, e, n, u, v, j, m

shimmy on your belly through shallow water below hanging live wires. (it should be noted that s was not allowed to do the electrical things due to her heart and stuff. we the team were pretty supportive of not having her die.) it is a strange thing, being electrocuted. the first one i felt hit me on my cheek and i thought that someone had just come up suddenly and blacked out my vision on the left side. when i looked left there was nothing there blocking my view. i stopped for a second to puzzle then scurried on. got a few light shocks along the way but nothing too bad. one in the wrist and one more in the head that are worth noting on the pain-scale. not pleasant, but also not the very worst thing i've ever felt.

 {still the biggest of smiles for sarah and me}

OBSTACLE SIX: cliffhanger
completed by: d, e, s, n, u, v, m

down a little slope into about 3 feet deep muddy water (noticing a theme) and then up a steep hill. the bottom of the pool was impossible to see, and not exactly even. people going ahead would oh so kindly demonstrate where there were pits by slipping into them messily. then, of course, the hill was slick as hell and you had to try to carve out little shelves to get yourself up. mudders helped mudders by offering a leg or an arm up. i very much liked this one.

meanwhile, weather-wise it was definitely keeping up with the cold and wind, and some on our team were beginning to feel the brutal effects of continually getting in and out of the water. there was an overall stinging of fingers and chattering of teeth. it was getting harder to warm up while jogging between the obstacles. m, j, s, and me were determined to do this race thing together and keep the pace that worked for us all. slow for me and my nervous-post-flu-stomach in the beginning, gentle on the downhills for those with bad knees... i know my own goal was not about speed, but about enjoying and pushing and challenging. for myself and for the group.

OBSTACLE SEVEN: firewalker
completed by: d, e, s, n, u, v, j

jump over a fire into a mud pool. SO FREAKING FUN! and also a great chance to stand by some flames and heat our hands.

 {jaeden chillin and illin}

OBSTACLE EIGHT: hold your wood
completed by: all

carry a big ol' log for a while. either on your own or in twos. s and i handled this one as a pair, and i thought of it as a sort of brutal session of active release therapy for my neck and shoulders. i am quite sure that we said some hilarious things - cold-and-race brain had begun to set in - but i can't for the life of me remember what they were. i know we laughed a lot.

OBSTACLE NINE: dirty ballerina
completed by: all

was this one not named for us? a track of mud into which trenches have been carved. the goal is to jump over the trenches as the day goes on the edges get more and more broken down, the trenches get wider, the take-off-and-landing segments get smaller. this was a HOOT! the ground was reasonably sand/soft so as long as you watched for rocks and roots, you could just give'er and hope for the best. i think i got across maybe 3 out of 10ish and the rest i had to clamber out of, but it was sooooo fun to do.

OBSTACLE TEN: trench warfare
completed by: all

crawl through a zig-zagging tunnel. i am incredibly grateful to my amazing teammates on this one. i am with the claustrophobia, and this was one of the ones i'd been nervous about. i was worried about going into a bit of a panic stuck in there (like emma may remember me doing that one time in the cave...). s crawled ahead of me and m behind, being wonderfully encouraging and making me laugh. wasn't so bad after all. i totes kept my cool. check me out with my bad self.

OBSTACLE ELEVEN: walk the plank
completed by: d, e, n,

climb onto a 15 foot platform, then jump off it into deep (muddy) water. awesome. i used to be a diver. i love to climb high things like ropes and silks and walls. so this wasn't particularly frightening for me. i might've done it a 2nd or 3rd time just for the fun of it if i thought my team would tolerate it.

OBSTACLE TWELVE: mud mile
completed by: d, e, s, n, u, v,

but isn't it all the mud mile? HAHA! yes. but also: climb over a series of ridges with waist-ish deep puddles in between. a busy stream of mudders. this made me feel like an ant in the best way. so funny all the people up and over and sliding down and up again and scrambling. i made short-term-friends with the strangers around me as we splashed in and out and smashed our shins into rocks. this obstacle also showed the divide in our group: those who were happy to chug along and do this as a team, and those who had a more fast-track mentality. about halfway through the ridges u and v decided that it was 'taking too long' behind the other mudders and hopped out without completing the ant-colony-march and.

 {sarah, marina, and andrew running through a truly beautiful patch of forrest}

OBSTACLE THIRTEEN: greased lightening
completed by: all

half way down a steep hill (one of the black diamond runs?) there was grainy snow that overtook us. beyond the snow was a slip-and-slide kind of arrangement with the slope covered in thick black plastic. m and i stepped onto the plastic at the same time, immediately losing our footing, slamming down on our butts, and zipping along much faster than we expected. m made it to the bottom first, so i was able to see the danger of not getting your feet dug in quickly once you hit the snow again. she has one heck of a sandpapered back side. at the base a woman next to me shouted up to her male teammate 'GET YOUR FEET DOWN OR YOU'LL LOSE YOUR BALLS!!!' and i agreed with her that that was very good advice. 'too late...' s told the woman as the guy came to a halt in the snow.

and this is where we officially broke up. very close to this last obstacle was a water and aid station. our group was cold. everyone was so cold. the aid station was handing out silver warming blankets, but ran out just before we got there. m and j were more than just chilled. they were getting dangerously cold. their hands were no longer useful. while s and i wrapped ourselves around them to try to warm them up and decide what to do, u, v, d and n opted to run on and we encouraged them to fly free without us. they had been keeping a faster running pace throughout the day, and it was only fair to let them go forth and keep themselves warm (or speed the process of getting off this damned mountain).

s and i were still feeling good despite the cold, and i'm fairly certain our prairie roots are to thank. after a few minutes huddled there, it was clear that m and j were not enjoying anything at all anymore, and that it was the end of their day with the mudder. i'm sad that the cold took them out of play, but i know very well the misery of being that frozen and i'm proud of them for listening to their bodies and not pushing to the point of injury or illness. they headed away from the course towards another aid tent that was rumored to possess a heater.

and so it was just s and i. and this is where i'm gonna take a breather and call it a day. to be continued!!!

countdown to mud

this week there has been stomach flu and a day in hospital (great news my appedix is FINE! WOO!) and a flood.

A FLOOD.
all upons my bathroom and closet and kitchen. pouring out the ceiling.

but that's all got to be put aside now. i've epsom-bathed. i've packed. cause it is. 12 hours till we are set free on the MUDDER COURSE!!!

ARE YOU READY?!



GET IT!? hahahahahaha.
okay i may be hopped up on popsicles and the first legitimate meal i've eaten all week (carb load, duh).

but here are some tunes that make me exciiiiited and you should get exciiiiiiiited tooo cause MUD MUD MUD MUD MUD MUD MUD!!!! if i die, please avenge my death. xo!
(and i'm throwin elbows...) I LOVE IT!









okay byyyyyyyyeeeeeeee.

are you afraid of the mud?

tough mudder is less than two weeks away. i am both super excited and super terrified. okay, mostly excited. very very excited. and the team-tutus arrived yesterday. everything is aces.

our team is made up of a small pile of super cool interesting busy women. which is AWESOME. except when it comes to trying to schedule group workouts. not happening. sadly we've yet to get the team together at one time in one place. one day (probably race day) it will happen, and i'll get a group shot and everything will be topshelf. but in the meanwhile i'd like to introduce you to them all individually. here we go. *soooome people didn't send me pictures or bios so sooooome people had their pictures chosen for them and stolen off facebook by me. samesies for nicknames.*

{marina 'you are what you eat' cortese}

marina is the one who wrangled us all and made the mudder happen for team ballerina. i'm not sure it has been officially dubbed, but she is totes team captain. marina runs her own business (nour-ish) as a nutritionist, and also teaches the odd class at extension room. she wears dark heavy-framed glasses and had white hair when i met her and then dyed her hair brown around the same time as me, which is another way of saying she has awesome style and taste.

{sue 'i knead you' cheung}

i haven't even met sue yet! booo! but i am very excited about her being on the team mostly cause look at how great the picture she sent for her bio is. sue is a registered massage therapist who runs her own business focused on women and pre/post natal mothers. she loves the outdoors, the beach (a most-excellent sub-set of the outdoors-category), volleyball, and sleep. oh yes, we will get along JUST fine. sue was brought to us by way of:

{natalie 'dressed to kill' sageloly}

natalie works in fashion!  i know, right? pretty great. she works at canopy blue as a buyer. now, i've only met her a few times so far, but she has proven to be absolutely lovely and also supremely funny and energetic. which will come in handy on race day for sure. natalie is besties with:

{larissa 'law abiding citizen' moscu}

super-sad times. larissa has had to jump ship. alas, her realjob is making her work soooo hard and the time away just isn't an option for her. big time frowney faces over here. but she is still awesome and you should still see her and know she was with us. *also her spot is available... ANYONE WANNA?!*
larissa is an iddy-biddy former gymnast and dancer. she hosted the first attempt at a mudder-team gathering, welcoming marina and i into her apartment and 'forcing' post-workout snacks on us. but when she isn't being all hostessy or bakery (a top hobby, yessssssss...) or making funny faces during the abs portion of an extension room class, she can be found fearlessly litigating in toronto courtrooms. (as fearlessly, she says, as one can be after only 7 months.)

{sarah 'i'll sue if someone dies' rankin}

yeah, yeah, you already know her. around here she is best known as roommatesarah. but maybe you didn't know that she is also the only one of us to be properly following the mudder training regime? maybe you didn't know that she goes for runs while i have naps on the couch? you did. though. you did know. sarah is, too, a law-type. like larissa. but on the other side of the courtroom. she just finished 2nd year law at u of t, while also-too doing a masters in criminology. she hates broccoli and that's no joke.

{jaeden 'don't want no drama' cheng}

jaeden is the bright sunshiney-sunshine at the extension room. i trained her on the front desk way back when, and she quickly took over as top-queen-cheerful-best-organizer. yup. she rocks reception hard. jaeden is also a student, learning the arts of the theatre. you know. the theatre arts. the dramas. i am regularly tricked into staying at the studio and taking extra classes when jaeden is there. which is to say she is an excellent influence.

 and, finally:

{erin 'we should nap instead' hooper}

and you know all about me. duh. this is my blog, and you read it, and i talk about myself ALL THE TIME. (hey! what up!)  so. you're spared further biographing this time around.

i don't wanna get too vain up in here, but holy hell we're a fiiiine and fit team of ladies. mudder don't stand a chance.