GYM CHRISTMAS Days 6 and 7: No pain, no gain, and Taking Out the (Mental) Trash

I neglected to post a second time yesterday so today I'm covering two days worth of Gym Christmas activities.

Day 6: Turn Commercial Breaks into Fitness Breaks. Since we don't have cable, I just made a point of stretching and foam rolling during our ongoing marathon of Game of Thrones.

This Christmas, give yourself the gift of injury prevention. I highly recommend the foam rollers by Trigger Point. It hurts like you wouldn't believe, but it pays off. Day 6: check.

This morning, John and I went to the Christmas Pageant at my church because it is easily one of the most entertaining things I see all year. Little kids reading lines, pretending to be Mary and Joseph, carrying around a big stick with a donkey's head on it (to represent the donkey, duh), a kid dressed as one of the three kings holding a bar that said "GOLD" on it, just to make sure you know he's rich. It's non-stop laughs. Then the new rector invited the costumed children to stand all around him while he did communion and explained each part as he went. Note the kid running past the alter. He was dressed up like a horse and wandered around aimlessly during the entire pageant.

Today for Gym Christmas Day 7 I did Hazardous Waste Removal. For me that meant emptying all the trash in the house and cleaning up a bit because we're having people over for beer and board games tonight. I also decided to bake some Christmas cookies and chose a recipe for sandwich cookies. There's ganache in those cookies! Delicious. Also on the menu: French Onion Toasts from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook (not shown).

For the more holistic aspect of hazardous waste, I focused on my dissertation. I have a great advisor and I was recently paired with a great mentor through the SMT abstract mentoring program. She and I will work together for a month or two while I prepare my SMT abstract that's due in January. She pointed out a few things that will dramatically change my project for the better. When something like that happens, it's easy to feel like the whole thing is going to unravel. But with a good advisor, it changes into something much more awesome. It also means I have more work to do. I spent some time today honing my outlines and creating a to-do list for the next two weeks that includes everything I have to do to write the fourth chapter, with new info in hand. Very exciting. It's nice to have an empowering day with my dissertation. Day 7: check.

Here is my GYM CHRISTMAS list now:

Go for a Pre- or Post-Dinner Walk.

Yuletide Cheer

Make a Game of Household Chores

Crank Up the Music and Boogie Down

Hazardous Waste Removal

Regular Water Consumption

Investigate and Share

Sneak a Work Out into Another Activity

Turn TV Commercials into Fitness Breaks

Muscle-Building/Strength Training

Animal Time

Seven-Minute Work-Out.

Another List, Because I'm Lazy

It's that time of year, I guess. A bunch of crazy stuff is happening in October so I'll have no shortage of stuff to blog about. But for now, another list of the happenings around here this week.

1. Swimming is fun, but getting up early is a struggle. Especially on a morning like last Tuesday when it was crazy foggy. You'll have to take my word for it that this is a picture of the UWO stadium at about 5:50 AM. Saturday evening practices are a little more chill; this week we did a time trial for 400 meters free, and then 50 meter freestyle sprints. It turns out I've added 1 second to my 50 free time per year since 2001, the last year that I was officially timed. So that's not awful, I guess. I can work it back down over the next few months before the first masters swim meet. Everyone on the team is super nice and encouraging, and there truly is a huge range of abilities. After the time trials, we also did some relays, and we played a game called the Human Cannon. Six of my teammates launched me forward to see how far they could move me if I didn't try to propel myself (I'd say I made it about 20 meters - impressive!). Why on earth did I wait 4 years to try the triathlon club? I have no idea. 

I'm ready for the weather to actually feel like fall, but I won't complain because I think complaining about it being 70 degrees and sunny is a #whitgirlproblem.

2. John and I have been taking turns bringing Her Ladyship, Le Beaux Royale, to the dog park. She blends in perfectly with the fall foliage, which, I have to say, is pretty beautiful. I had no idea London had such nice dog parks! She blends in so well, in fact, that you can hardly see her in this picture: 

Taking her to the dog park is a great way to end the day on Friday and it really makes her happy. Sometimes there are a couple of other greyhounds there, and the three of them start to approach warp speed. Last week they were running around the trees in the wooded area of the park, and I was amazed that they could avoid running into the trees head on. [NERD ALERT] It was like that scene in Return of the Jedi on Endor when they're chasing each other on air bikes (similar clip here).

3. Last week, my church invited Rev. John Shelby Spong to speak as part of a year-long series of events celebrating the church's 125th Anniversary. We had a great turn out! Also, look how pretty my church is. 

Spong is kind of a controversial and I think he prides himself on shaking up conventional thinking by making polemical statements. I was a tad disappointed in his talk, since he spent most of it using the history of science to disprove a lot of older church thinking (Galileo proved the Earth is flat, etc) that I didn't find particularly shocking or useful. Perhaps I'm being too picky, but I was hoping he would make some concrete suggestions about what could be done on a local level to address a lot of the church's problems (institutional misogyny, aging congregations, etc). On the other hand, a bunch of smart people from my church got together the following week to discuss their thoughts on his talk, and I really enjoyed that. The people at my church are willing to have uncomfortable conversations and that's a big part of why I keep going back. 

4. I only have to make it until Thursday afternoon before the fun starts. Then it's off to Michigan for a few days of Interlochen party time!

Kira's Ordination to the Sacred Order of Priests

My bff Kira was ordained last weekend and it was an incredibly moving experience in which to participate. Moving and personal. So instead of going into a lot of detail, I'll just share a few photos of the elements involved.

Ragdoll cats.




















Shown here: Duke Ellington, the cat who thinks he's a dog. Or a supermodel.



Cake.



















This was from a local lady and it tasted like some kind of magical almond paste.


Champagne!

























The order of events went like this: super long run on Friday. Ordination and 2 parties on Saturday, with champagne in between. The Episcopalians know how to party!


White chocolate crosses.




















A few people debated whether or not eating a cross was weird, and we decided to go with it because the chocolate was so good. The Episcopalian church ladies know how to throw a good party (see above).


I got to read the Litany, during which I noticed that the Queen was conspicuously absent (Anglicans in Canada pray for her and other world leaders). I was honored that Kira included me in the ceremony! It was beautiful and she picked some killer hymns.






















Kira got to wear very pretty vestments, which she modeled for me.

























Since the discernment process and her seminary training lasted several years, it was exciting to be present for her actual ordination, the culmination of so much work. I'm also a little surprised at how well the timing worked out, since I asked her to marry me (...you know, to John) several years ago, and now she has the authority to do so. This weekend was so much fun, I wish we could go back in a few days and do the whole thing again.


Congrats again, Mama K!*























*Click the link above for a full explanation. Basically male priests are often called Father ____, so Kira can be addressed as Mother Kira. But the kids at the camp where she was a chaplain last summer abbreviated it to Mama K as a nickname, and luckily for the rest of us, it totally stuck.