Anniversaries

My cell phone contract expired on Sunday.  I went into my existing cellular company to see what offers they might have for me in order to keep my business (none) and also stopped into the Apple store to play around with the new iPhone.  Me being the genius that I am I finally remembered that on Saturday it was officially three years since I moved to Calgary.  Growing up I moved around A LOT and there weren’t very many places that I lived in past the three year mark.  Somehow or other three years in one place feels like a big milestone for me.  The only other spots that have made the milestone?
- Bogota, Colombia (3 years, 3 months…I think…)
- London, England (5 years, 2 months…or so…)
- Vancouver, British Columbia (6 years, minus a few months for a work stint in Rocky Mountain House, AB and Houston, TX)
Aside from the obvious that I am now free to sign a new 3 year cell phone contract and that my 3 year financing term is 6 days away from being complete this time of year seems to play host to a lot of various anniversaries.

- 8 years of being out of university, working in the industry.  Hard to believe I have been out of school for that long!
- 6 years ago my brother and sister-in-law got married!
- 6 years since the Okanagan Mountain Park fire.  It never directly threatened my parents thankfully.  Unfortunately there is another scary fire at the moment…
- 3 years ago we lost my Aunt Mary to lung cancer.  She was also my godmother.  In many ways she was the social butterfly of my mom’s side of the family.  She was always the one to make sure family was together for various holidays.  When I was in second year in university my parents were overseas, but I was still living in the family home, commuting an hour and a half each way to school (it is normally a 30-40 minute drive, rush hour is just that bad in Vancouver).  The long commute…the living far away from my classmates in an empty house…and second year being one of the toughest years in engineering all made for tough times.  She was always there for me, ready to chat or to feed me a home cooked meal.  I miss her a lot.  Here’s me, my mom, my Aunt Marjut (my dad’s sister and my other godmother) and my Aunt Mary the day I graduated from The University of British Columbia.

Friday Randoms

• I decided to try a new online training log a few weeks back. I noticed that both Rocketpants and Speed Racer have funky workout summaries on their blog. With the addition of the bike to my workouts I wasn't really happy with how my old Nike Training Log was keeping track of things so I sussed out Buckeye Outdoors courtesy of those two bloggers. So far so good. At first I wasn't going to post my workout box on my blog, but what better motivation than to make sure that I had something to show besides a big, fat "no workouts" listed on the side of my blog?
• By the way, speaking of the bike... I promise that once the snow goes away I'll be back in the saddle and posting more miles on my new set of wheels.
• I finally ponied up the cash to register for my next full marathon - Marathon Des Deux Rives in Quebec City on August 24th. Training for the full officially starts right after the Minnie Marathon 15K next weekend. This year is the 400th anniversary of Quebec City and celebrations are planned all year long. What better time to go run their marathon? Is anyone else running Quebec City? I don't think it is a huge event, but I was really just looking for an excuse to visit.
• Speaking of anniversaries....I don't know how I missed it, but yesterday was the 1 year anniversary of Runner Leana. Actually...initially it used to be Runner Gal Leana, but as I realized that I am swiftly approaching my 30th birthday I wasn't sure if I was really allowed to use the term "gal" anymore. So now I'm just Runner Leana. And less than a month away from thirty. I fully expect the next decade to be full of even more fabulousness than my twenties held, so bring it on.
• And finally, Sarah Elaine tagged me awhile ago on this and I finally had a chance to respond. The idea is to come up with your own six word memoir. Here's mine:
• Achieve balance, remember who you are.
• A few years back I wasn't always the best at having a balance between work and my personal life, but now I strive for it. I don't want to be so consumed with work that I forget who I am, and what is important to me. So there you go, my six word memoir.