Run!

I am home, by the way. They didn't keep me at the border.

On the bus ride home they played chick flicks. The second one of the ride was The Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. I almost turned to Amara and said, "Sandra Bullock always reminded me of X." X was a girl I went to school with, long before I met Amara. She would have no idea who I was talking about, but I had forgotten in that moment that she and I haven't known each other since we were small, it just feels to me like we have.

On Saturday night we went to Tucci Benucch, an Italian restaurant in the Mall of America. The dinner started off well, but our server changed her disposition halfway through the night and did a number of things to make Amara and me feel like the meter was up and we needed to move along. When we asked if we could take our desserts home in a box, the sour peach dropped a to-go box in front of each of us and walked away. Amara lifted and plunked her cheesecake into the box fairly easily, but we both looked at the glass dish containing my tiramisu and wondered how the girl expected me to make the transfer.

"I double dog dare you to just put the thing,  dish and all in the box," Amara said. I grinned and swiftly boxed up the dessert, dish and all. As we walked through the mall on our way out I randomly broke out into a giggle thinking about the dish I'd swiped. I don't know why, it was just a deliciously funny thought for me.

Tonight Lisa and I went for a run before supper. When we finished she said, "you're ready to do a 5k." How did I get here? When did I become someone who can run 5k? So cool. Could come in handy next time I swipe something, huh?

I like the glass dish I swiped better than I liked the dessert it held

Forgot to show you these shoes I got at DSW. I think they were $32. Not fit for running.

I apologize readers for not posting sooner, but the Internet wasn't working in our room yesterday, so we used the time to shop instead. I also apologize if this entry is mostly nonsense, as I am drinking cheap, cheap, duty free white wine. From a Styrofoam coffee cup. Class-y.

I dropped my first big bills at Albertville Outlet Mall. Some basics from The Gap:

Rule # 1: When you find something you love and on sale, buy it in every colour

Rule #2: Layer, layer, layer.

Another layer piece and *surprise* a book of poetry, from *surprise* a middle-aged ladies' outlet store. It was 8 bucks and made me cry.

The weather on Friday was BEAUTIFUL for walking around an outdoor outlet mall. At random moments I would break into a grin and say to myself, "you are walking OUTSIDE on NOVEMBER 25 in a light sweater, with shopping bags full of items you have legitimized purchasing because your 30th birthday is a week and a bit away." I was in my happy place.

After the outlet mall, Amara and I returned to our hotel room and had a fashion show. Then we went to the Mall of America and made more purchases. Then we hiked it to Chevy's Mexican restaurant for our favourite guacamole and my free, Birthday Entree, which was big enough for us to share. I forgot to take a picture of me and my mojito, but I was wearing the same sweater I wore last year when we went to Chevy's, ordered guacamole and shared an entree, so I will re-post that picture:

Original Posting date November 2010

After dinner we went back to the mall. I don't even remember this. I must have been in a shopping coma, but Amara remembers, and I probably have the receipts to validate her story.

Today we woke up at 7ish even though we had planned to sleep in until 8pm. Feeling wide away and raring to go, we went to the hotel fitness centre and made use of the treadmills. Oooh, Jill, you little bragger you, going to the gym on your holiday. Yeah, well, you know what? I forgot my running socks so my feet went commando and I grew a blister on my right foot, which is sucky when you are supposed to spend the rest of the day walking around a mega mall. Serves me right.

We grabbed breakfast and then hopped the shuttle back to the MOA where I had my eyes focused on shopping for others this time, but still managed to pick up 2 pairs of shoes and some pj pants.

I love the MOA at Christmas

Frilly! Colours! Strappy! Love.

For lunch Amara and I dined at our favourite frozen yogurt bar.

Mine: pumpkin spice, birthday cake batter, egg nog and coconut fro-yo with a few morsels of cookie dough, a dollop of whipped cream, a dousing of hot caramel, and a cherry.

Amara's looks like a fancy trail mix, but trust me there is fro-yo in there.

Lunch was followed by more shopping, then home for more cheap wine, fashion shows, dancing around and now here I am, talking to you. Okay, gotta go, I think I still have five dollars in my wallet.

And miles to go before I sleep

I am in America. Hello, Black Friday weekend. Just a quick note, mostly for Gwen, to say that we are in Fargo at the truck stop. Dinner tonight for me is Puffcorn (popcorn twists in Canadian) and chocolate milk.

We expect to be in our hotel room by 1:30 for a few winks before we have to get on the bus at 9 am to depart for the outlet mall. I have no game plan, no lists, just $500 American, a pile of coupons and my walking shoes. Wish me luck.

My body tells me no, but I won't quit

My day started at three a.m. when I woke up in a sweat with Young the Giant's "My Body" stuck on repeat in my head, among other things.

I had a full day of presentations with classes of grade 11 biology students ahead of me. This day is going to be brought to you by Starbucks, I moaned when it was time to get out of bed.

After nearly leaving the house without my laptop I found my way to pick up one of my speakers--of the people variety, not the audio kind. (My head is still foggy and I couldn't figure out how to make that differentiation in a simpler manner than that.) The Creme Brule latte was helping.

I had three speakers talk today about their experience with organ donation. All of them have amazing, inspiring stories that I love hearing over and over, like a favourite TV episode (which is good when you have to make the same presentation with them five times in a row in one day).

I came home with a heavy heart though because one of my speakers, a kidney recipient, is facing kidney failure again a year and a half after transplant. He is 72 and would be the first to tell you that he has lived a full, good life and that dialysis and transplant gave him time to enjoy retirement from his career as a school principal and spend time with his grandchildren. But the odds of him getting a second transplant are not great and dialysis is not fun. In the next few months he will have to decide if he wants to go back on dialysis or let the kidney failure take its course.

This guy has so much life experience and wisdom in him and I have seen only a small part of it. He has a cute sense of humour that gets the students from high school to med school laughing along with him. I don't let my mind think about my 28-year-old friend Kristin not getting her heart transplant because she has so much life to live, but I also can't imagine the lights going out for this gentleman who continues to inspire, teach and affect people. His transplant only gave him 18 months or so free from dialysis. Was it worth it? Absolutely. If it had only given him an extra week it would have been worth it. I am so grateful it lasted long enough for me to get to know him.

I love this job but I know it is going to break my heart.


My body tells me no
But I won't quit
Cause I want more
Cause I want more
My body tells me no
But I wont quit
Cause I want more
Cause I want more

It rides out of town

Oh, it's my road
It's my road
It's my road
It's my road
It's my road
It's my road

And it's my war
It's my war
It's my war
It's my war

His eyes are open
His eyes are open

--Young the Giant, My Body Tells Me No

Book dumb?

I have a problem, it is called book-buyingitis. That is the inflammation of my book buying arm. It acts up whenever I see used books for sale.

Today I went to a sale put on by the Winnipeg Public Library. I rode my bike. Brilliance! Really, was this me trying to keep the book-buyingitis at bay? Because when you ride your bike 7km to a book sale with a small backpack on, just how many books do you think you'll be carting home with you?

It didn't work. I gathered an armload and a half of the old, the dog-eared, the hard cover and paperback. A kind woman offered to take the stack for me and put them in a box at the cash desk so I could continue shopping, which I did.

Upon coming to terms with the situation of too many books, too little carrying power, I texted my sister, who lives nearby the school where the sale was being held. She and I were supposed to be going to my aunt's house today for a visit so I asked her if she had left yet, thinking that if she had not, perhaps she could come by and take the books off my arms. She had not, but lucky me, her fiance was out and about and could come by to help me out.

My box of books came to a meager $16.50. Everything was on sale for half-price, since today was the last day of the sale. You can hardly buy ONE book for that price, so I felt pretty happy with the finds.

Earlier in the fall Chapters Indigo came out with this flyer that featured the covers of 50 Books That Will Change Your Life. Oh yeah? Let's see about that. Since many of the books on the list are classic and/or massively popular, I've been having a great deal of luck finding the titles at these used book sales. I haven't exactly been limiting myself to only the books on the list though...

My latest picks (from my last two sales)

I realized tonight when I was setting this photo up that I have twice purchased Moby Dick and it isn't even on the list (which of those mistakes is the bigger crime? You tell me.)

Right now I'm reading The Great Gatsby. It's been a bit of a slow start, maybe not the best book to read before shutting the brain down for the night. Last week I got to the top of page 29 and I stumbled.

The living-room was crowded to the doors with a set of tapes-
tried furniture entirely too large for it...

I sat there and wondered, what is tapes-tried furniture? Well actually, first I mistook the hyphen for an em-dash and pictured a crowded room with a set of tapes and "tried furniture" (I don't know, furniture that someone placed with an honest attempt to make sense in the room, but obviously missed the mark?)

 

Finally, my sleepy eyes did see the furniture for what it was: tapestried. (It still looks funny to me.) I laughed and wondered what my interior decorating instructor would think if I were to ask her next week what 1920s tapes-tried furniture looks like.

A Fat Free Food (before you add them to your fat-laden whatever)

Okay, so I like browsing used books, but I truly love collecting cookbooks. I cannot stop myself from purchasing them, new or old. I have a preference for the ones with pictures, second priority is for nutritional information. Today I wanted to make Rice Crispie cake with some mint chocolate marshmallows I picked up the last time I was in the USA. I vaguely remembered that the recipe called for 1/4 cup of margarine/butter, 6 cups of Rice Crispies and the bag of marshmallows, but I wanted to verify the amounts for the margarine and cereal. I pulled out my go-to cookbook for all things basic and important--no recipe for Crispie cake. I pulled out an issue of Cooking with Kraft, which seems to feature some seasonal variation of the marshmallowy stuff in every issue--not this time. Argh! I didn't have the recipe on the back of the cereal box either because I had purchased the No Name brand box. I gave in, turned on Mac and Googled. Recipe found in 1.21745 seconds. Whatever, I still love my cookbook collection.

Sooo, the recipe was also not featured on the back of the marshmallow package, as it often is. Instead they offered some other rather no-brainer suggestions like, adding to a mug of hot chocolate, or melting over a pan of brownies. Yawn.

Add some tasty delight with Chocolate Mint Marshmallows!

Turns out, they might've been on to something. Do you know what melted brown and green striped marshmallows look like when mixed with Rice Crispies?

I was going to take this stuff in to work tomorrow as a Halloween treat, but my "fancy pants" Rice Crispie cake (made with faux Rice Crispies) looks more like Caca Cake. I decided to sample it tonight. You can hardly taste chocolate, but can get a bit of the aroma of the cool mint, so mostly it's like eating regular crispie cake after you've brushed your teeth. Caca cake indeed.

Also, don't buy the No Name brand crispy rice cereal. It doesn't look or taste like regular Rice Crispies. Splurge the extra 75 cents and buy the name brand stuff that also comes with the recipe right on the box, and probably fun, seasonal modification options that don't involve minty-fresh marshmallows.