All it takes...

"When you've reached the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."

~ Thomas Jefferson

You know those times, when you've reached your breaking point and absolutely nothing could possibly make your life any worse? We've all had them. The moments when we break down and cry over the stupidest things, like dropping a box of pins or burning dinner. Maybe it's just girls who do this, boys probably just punch things.

Anyways, in this moment, what does it take to turn it all around? Does it have to be something big, like winning the lottery? (BTW - I won $10 the other day) Or can it be the smallest gesture, a smile, a pat on the back...

I'm not having a rough time, at least I don't think I am. (Now that I've said that, I am probably going to get railroaded tomorrow) But I'll admit I didn't feel like things were great. No need to get into specifics, but I just felt like something was missing. Maybe a lot of things. Probably a lot of things. Yet, I still felt stretched, doing too much in too little time (god damn Easter baking...). All I needed was to get to this weekend. Yes, it was a long weekend, but that's not what made the difference.

Once a year, a fantastic group of people trek up from Portland and we all get together and kick ass on the ice. Ok, last year we didn't kick so much ass, but this year we were awesome, to say the least. We play in a coed tournament in Coquitlam and it's a blast. I can't express how much fun I had and how refreshing it was, at least for me. And it's not the winning, or even the hockey that does it. It's the people. They make me smile, laugh, celebrate....all the things that you should do daily.

Even if we lost, it still would have been the best weekend in a long time. And that is saying a lot, because this weekend was trying! The wheel fell off my truck, luckily right by my house and not on the highway where I was headed. This was my breaking point. I pulled over, got out and saw my tire. It was angled at about 30 degrees, jammed into the wheel well. Oddly enough, I had JUST has this checked on Monday and was told that it was fine. I went into my house and just started freaking out. What if I had been on the highway? I could have died... In reality, I wasn't on the highway, so I tried not to put much thought into what could have been. Should I call a tow truck? My mechanic? My boyfriend? (oh, no, wait, single...right....damn) I called my mom. Moms always know what to do. Her thoughts were pretty in line with mine, leave it on the side of the road until other people (her and my dad) were around to help figure out what to do and take my dad's car in the mean time. By the way, as soon as I started talking to my mom, I dropped my box of pins and burst into tears. It was pretty pathetic. Once I recovered, I moved my gear into my dad's car.

Now the fun thing with my dad's car is that there is only one FOB to disarm the alarm system. Naturally, he took it with him to the island. So, my options were to either not lock the car, or deal with the alarm until I could manually shut it off, once inside the car. I went with option B, because I felt that facing the embarrassment of my alarm going off was a far cheaper price to pay than buying my dad a new GPS system and probably some other stuff he has hidden in his car. Luckily, I didn't have to experience this too often, I think 4 times in total.

So, the car problem was pretty much solved, so, as traumatized as I was, I was feeling a bit better. Off to hockey I go, only to get hit by a train. Not a real train, but some jerk on the ice who thought there was a Stanley Cup at the end of this tournament. I, or rather he, rattled my brains a little. I went into the boards, fairly awkwardly, smacked my head first, then my shoulder and hip. Put my new helmet to the test, I'd say that it works well enough. It took me a moment to get my head on straight, get up and skate to the bench, where I almost dropped my pins again. I don't like it when I get hurt and on my count, that was two near death experiences in one day.

I reached my breaking point around noon on Saturday with my phone call break down to my mother, but by the end of the first game, I felt on top of the world again. A dazed, spinning world, but I was still on top of it. We won our game, that jerk got a penalty, and I got free potato skins! The next game was a nail biter, but I scored a freakishly good goal with 2 minutes left to put us into the lead and the finals. It was awesome, or so I am told, I didn't even see it go in. I actually heard it hit the post and automatically assumed it didn't go it. Oh yeah, and then I won a bamboo blanket for being the game MVP.

In the beginning....worst day ever. In the end.....best day ever. What turned it around? The hug I was greeted with at the rink. A small, tiny gesture that turned my world right side up. That's all it took. And that's all I could ask for at that moment. Just a hug. The smiles I got later also helped and the free potato skins, but it all started with the hug.

Maybe if everyday was filled with laughter, smiles, hugs and celebrating the small things, we wouldn't get to the breaking point so easily. What does the end of the rope do when you are not hanging onto it?

~Bean

Do We Ever Recover From Our Tragedies?

The worst moments in our lives....are we ever really over them?

Think back to what you consider the worst thing that has ever happened to you? Do you remember how you felt? More importantly, do you know how it affected you? How did it change you?

Physical pain is often forgotten. Of course you remember that it hurt and that it made you wince and cry out in agony, but the actual memory of the pain is minimal. This is kind of trauma that doesn't mess with your head.

Mental agony, I think, stays with you forever. It fades over time, but all it takes is a trigger to bring it all back, as if it happened yesterday. This is the kind of pain that stays with you forever.

And how does tragedy shape our future? I think everyone can agree that the past is what brought you to where you are. Everything that has happened to you has made you into the person you are today. Cliche, yes. But it's true. I think this is why all time travel movies warn the character not to change anything. Messing with your past does nothing but bad things for your future.
Anyway, I've been giving it some thought lately, scattered thought at least. It's hard to gauge what 'could have been' without knowing 'what could have been'. Does that make any sense? I guess I wonder how different one's life could be if a certain tragedy had never happened. And to what degree does it change the course of our lives.

I don't really know what I'm getting at, it was more or less just a thought. I'd like to think that when something bad happens, it hurts, you grieve (for however long needed) and then you grow from it. We never necessarily let go of what happened, but we get over it, in the best cases. I don't want to forget what has happened, and I hope that it makes me better in the future.

I posed this question to a friend, and his response was:

"My belief is that the past, present and future are like this....events in our life, are what create our beliefs about us and the world around us. Thus our beliefs affect what we "choose" for our present, and those "choices" create our future. So, as in the event of being hurt in a relationship, we create a belief. If I love, I can be hurt, and I don't want to hurt again, so the we put up walls. Therefore, our future has less love in it. Every event, tragic or not shapes what we believe. What we believe shapes what choose, and what we choose, unveils our future."

He is a very wise friend. =)

So, what do you take from tragedy? Take the thoughts, the experience, the love and the pain and turn it into something better.

~Bean

I'm still not a photographer...

It's a good thing my camera is so good at taking pictures!

Do you ever wonder if technology is making us all good at everything? Advances in technology opens up more doors to everyone. Anyone with a camera can take an amazing shot. If it isn't amazing right away, then you can download a program to turn it into something better than it was before. I'm not a photographer. I own a camera and like to play around with different settings. Every once in a while I snap something cool. When I don't, I turn it into something cool, like the shot above. Seriously...before the post work, I was flesh toned in that picture!

Kids are getting smarter younger, athletes are faster and stronger. So much pressure to do things better than the last. Remember when there were less than 30 channels, no one under 35 had a cell phone and the only time you used a computer was to write some god awful school report and it printed on a dot matrix printer? Ahh....those were the days... Now there are over 500 channels (and still nothing to watch), it's practically a crime if someone can't get a hold of you at any given moment and ink jet printers are minimum standard.

I can't complain about technology. If it weren't for technology, I'd just be muttering to myself most of the time, rather than writing on here. I'm pretty sure my job would be a lot lamer and I would have to rely on my own imagination way more. =)

Can we live without technology now? Has it made us weaker or stronger?


~Bean

Lao Tzu is my Hero...

A Sport I Never Thought I Would Try...

It came up the other day at work. The Luge.

For some reason, hurling myself down an ice track, laying down on a sled was never something I felt I had to do in my life. Call me crazy, but it just seems slightly crazy and unreasonably dangerous. Ok, super crazy. These guys fly down the track at speeds up to 130km/hr and all they are wearing is a helmet. Let's just compare this to hockey, a much slower sport.

130km/hr = 1 Helmet

25km/hr in hockey = Helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, pants, shin pads

I can only assume that professional hockey players, on average, are going about 25km an hour. In this case, we can assume they are on a 'rush'. I guess one would have to consider the fact that there is no one on the luge track trying to smash you into a wall, but only a helmet for protection still seems unsafe. And we don't even need to touch on Skeleton racers, who go head first...

So as I was discussing the finer points of luging, (and by finer I mean scarier), I was shocked to find out that guy I was talking to had been down the Calgary luge track almost 75 times. Just for fun, not for sport and he's about 60 years old! Apparently the luge can be a hobby. And you don't need a sled, you can use a crazy carpet. Suddenly the luge track doesn't seem too scary, maybe once the Olympics are gone and the craziness stops I can give it a try. On the crazy carpet of course and only with the thin foam sheet at the end of the course which screams safety measures! If I were designing the track, I would have a giant foam pit at the end of the track, like the ones gymnasts use. The foam sheet just looks like a pathetic afterthought.

As I am writing this, I just saw the Canadian Men's 2-man Bobsled overturn near the end of the run. Boo.


~Bean

My God I Love This Game...

Hockey is it for me. I don't think I love anything more than hockey (wink). Playing it, watching it, talking about it. It's never a bad time for hockey. Oh wait....except during the Olympics when games are scheduled in the middle of the day.... Sure, not all the games are in the middle of the day. I am going to one a 9PM at night! Still, better than in the middle of the day when I'm at work.

So, Canada's Women's Team is 2-0 with wins over Slovakia and Switzerland. The win over Slovakia was a complete blow out, 18-0. Actually, the 10-1 win over Switzerland was pretty much a blowout too. I felt back for the Slovakians, until I found out that in one of their Olympic Qualifying games, they blew out Bulgaria 82-0. That's averaging 27 goals a period. Did Bulgaria even show up? 139 shots on net...I think the only Bulgarian to touch the puck was the goalie, as she was being pelted with it repeatedly. Average shots on net per game for the NHL is about 27. Kudos to the her.

Right now, the Men's team is playing their first game and they are giving the Norwegians a good ol' fashion ass kicking. Should I feel torn, working for a Norwegian based company? Nope, totally not, but that might be because I often feel the need to give Norwegians a good ol' fashioned ass kicking. Not all of them, just a select few... See, that's not very nice of me. I shouldn't have such feelings of angst towards people. It must be the hockey player in my blood...

Final score: Canada 8 Norway 0. Awesome. This is the only time I will cheer for Iginla...

Up next, Switzerland.

~Bean

Why Do I Do It To Myself?

I am a glutton for punishment...

I decided yesterday that I need to be more active. Hockey twice a week isn't enough. I used to go to the gym, by now my gym is 30km away, give or take a few km. That's a bit far for 45 minutes. I could check out the other locations for something closer, but I hate new gyms. The people are different, the layout is strange, I'm not used to the noises. And they always smell different, but I attribute that to the different people. Everyone stinks in their own way, especially at the gym.

Anyways, I decided to start doing Pilates and what better way to start than on YouTube. By better I mean cheaper. I took a "Yoga-lates" class once and yes, it was just as weird as it sounds. It was a Yoga Pilates combination class. I found there was way too much Yoga and not enough "-Lates". Too much breathing and posing, not enough movement. I like to move when I exercise. To me, yoga is all about stretching, posing, breathing and relaxing. Clearly it works for a lot of people, but not for me. I guess I'm more aggressive in my approach to staying fit, hence the hockey twice a week.

So anyway, back to YouTube. I found a series of beginner Pilates classes. Nothing terribly strenuous, but a good 20 minute workout. There was a lot of focus on the "core" and lifting through your ribs. Based on how I feel today, my ribs have never done any heavy lifting in my life! 20 minutes! And it wasn't 20 minutes of straight sit ups or anything! The exercises seemed pretty basic, a few crunches (but they weren't called crunches), leg lifts and table tops and of course, a few hundreds. I felt good, just like I do after a good workout at the gym. Felt the burn a little, but nothing like a hockey game or even two!

Today, it hurt to cough. My abs (and ribs) are so sore! I feel the same way I did after I got tricked into taking a Cardio Kick Boxing Class. Of course the kick boxing was more of an all over pain, but these sore abs definitely feel familiar. Needless to say, I have a whole new respect for the world of Pilates. Those girls are hardcore...

Second night was a little tougher. My "core" is tender and the pelvic tilts were a little excruciating. Still felt good, especially when it was over. Thank god I have hockey tomorrow night, it will give me some time to recover!

I'm hoping YouTube will keep the videos coming until I find a one that I can use daily. To be brutally honest, I'm mostly looking forward to the wicked abs and toned thighs. I think this will be a great way to get into shape for the martial arts classes I want to take. In Pilates, I'm learning to work my core. In martial arts, I hope to learn how to break plywood and bricks with my bare hands. I love exercise!

~Bean