*whew*

Wow, near perfect weekend on every level. Friday night was devoted to an 8 person traveling debauch that started with absinthe shooters, continued at the pub, made an unfortunate turn toward seeing "Kingdom of Heaven" (Ridley - why??) and then continued with drinking and chatting with friends at home. Until 3am. And then the morning running group...
My fitness goals are simple. I want to get down to one ass this year. I want to take up less space in people wedding photos - they pay good money for those, I don't think it's fair of me to ruin them. And because it's the 25th anniversary and he was a national hero, of which we seem to have few, I want to run - at least part of - the Terry Fox Run this year. So while out and about with friend Kelly some months back we noticed an independently owned running store that offered a "learning to run" group. The price was good, the structure seemed similar to the Running Room and it supported a local business so I joined. 11 people max, 3 trainers, one of those the leader, to meet every Sat morning at 9am and learn something new and then run/walk for 8 consecutive weeks, gradually building up the running portion of the equation. On the first day I notice that I was the only one significantly over weight, and when we went around the room to introduce ourselves people were like "oh, I'm soandso, it's been a while since my last triathalon and so I wanted to ease back into it" and "oh, I'm suchandsuch, I've been running for about 3 years but need some motivation"...and then there was me, and this is what I said: "Hi, my name is Roben and although I've never been technically in shape, I've gotten pretty much all I can out of the experience of being out of shape". I felt at first like I was in the very very wrong room. I felt like I was back in grade 11 as they were escorting me from a class that I didn't have the prerequisite for (o no, that wasn't scaring). However - I've persevered and kept with the program as best I can. I missed last Sat for being sick, so there was no way - even hungover and craptastic - that I'd miss this weekend. This past Saturday could have been an humiliation as I eventually trailed 2 blocks behind the slacker triathaletes, but the coaches are great and kept me company, gauging my gait and encouraging me forward. I was skeptical at first but now I think that this is the best group I could have found for me personally. Yay Energia!
Home after run. Coffee after run with beautiful husband. Then breakfast out, best damn cheesy eggs; walk around neighbourhood down streets we hadn't seen; ate a good popsicle (amazing what that can do to even the best day -mmmm); went to officiate a wedding I'd been looking forward to for months (the couple had communicated with me beautifully so I was sure it was what they wanted - yay!) and surprise! got home and there friends in the kitchen, more party vibe. When I woke up Sunday I was convinced it was Monday since so much had happened - to my delight the weekend continued and I went with beautiful husband to the Academy for European Medieval Martial Arts to learn dagger fighting. Great class, will continue. Also, really big space so after class got to spin poi. If I find out I won the lottery or something, I wouldn't be too surprised. Great. Freaking. Weekend.
Off to sales conf for a week, back Friday. Hopefully it will be a rinse and repeat experience, hopefully I'll keep up the running when gone.