Long Weekend

Alone by myself in the city.. what to do? I suppose I could have gone home, but my mom is in Saskatchewan visiting with friends, and I'll be there next weekend anyway, so it made sense just to stay here.

There is a great event happening here in Edmonton this long weekend, Heritage Festival. This means upwards of a hundred cultural stands and food stops in Hawrelack park. I went last year and it was great. Hot weather and great food! This year, no one is available to go, and I'm not nearly independent enough to go on my own; unfortunately.

So this means I have to come up with other things to get me out of the house and into the nice weather. Plan A: Start cooking again! In June I was making a lot of different recipes and having fun with it. Now working full time with kids every day gets me so exhausted, it's too easy just to boil a pot of water for pasta and say that's that. So with plenty of time to spare, it's time to get at it again. Ideas:

• Cheesy Spaghetti Squash Casserole
• Banana Bread (I've had a thing for bananas this summer)
• Guacamole (why not)

Plan B: Read! Lay down a towel and suntan in the backyard. I've had trouble keeping interested with reading, so who knows how this might work out. I've been 1000% attached to my computer, but I want to get outside so bad and even out my tan that I am getting from soccer camp that I need to at least try! Not sure if I could just lay there and listen to music. 

Plan C: Take a long bike ride. I was going to attempt a ride to West Edmonton Mall, because I actually need things, but it seems like quite a trek. There's really no direct route because the major road there does not have a bike lane, so I'd be stuck taking some trails in the River Valley and then some small neighbourhood streets. Which is fine if I won't be bringing anything back. Maybe I'll attempt a movie by myself and bike there for it.. That'll give me a good rest to harness energy to get back as well..! 

Plan D: If all of the above become a bust, for any reason, or I get through them, I suppose I'll just watch another season of Big Brother. I just downloaded season 11 because I'm already bored and need my attention captivated at all times. 

Have a great long weekend!

Today's Haul, Y'All

Oh god, I've had a good day when I'm speaking like that ^ :)

Anyways, today has been a great day, and it's not over yet. I decided to do a little shopping today, for mostly items that I can get away with saying I need, and some were definitely just impulse buys... oh well! So here's what I got!

Matte finish sunglasses from Claire's

I had a pair almost exactly like these except not matte for orientation last year, but lost them last summer at a bar..! So I finally got out to replace them, needed for next orientation and I also couldn't stand my temporary crappy ones. This was basically the only purchase I really 'needed'.

Lush Cosmetic Warrior face mask & sample of Grease Lightning

Rocky Mountain Soap Breakout Buster

My skin hasn't been too great lately, and I want to get that solved as quick as possible. I'm not a fan of wearing makeup during the summer,  especially with my camp job now. To sweat all day and then end up in the pool, makeup is just not worth it, but I'd rather my face be as nice looking as possible. If not, I'll just suck it up, but may as well try something new!

On sale at Sears, $20 down from $30

Also on sale at Sears, $15 down from $20

These were definitely my impulse purchases, but they looked too cute and too cheap to pass up. Really, I do need shoes but I was actually more just looking for new flip flops. I couldn't find the ones I like so I settled for these. But I still want/need new flip flops..

I already wore the blue ones out and about today, I biked to Whyte Ave and then walked to Lush. I then headed for Tim Hortons but that's when the pain set in.. yep, blisters. I'm hoping it's a case of breaking them in/my skin needs to toughen up again rather than they are not good/I got the wrong size.. At any rate, there's no returning them, I was almost home when I realized I had started to bleed a bit too.. great.

Drawstring backpack from Bentley

I did but also didn't need this.. It was more so just a practical purchase. I was heading to Whyte on my bike and needed to bring my wallet, and I didn't want to have my purchases in a bag hanging off my handle bars so this was a relatively cheap solution, about 10 bucks! I also ended up putting my bike u lock in it; I don't have a screwdriver to mount the holder thing!

Fooling around at Sears. Had it been a different color
 I might have been tempted to buy it...

So quite a few purchases that maybe should have waited until my first paycheque, but oh well. I feel that they were reasonable enough to not make me feel too guilty..! Plus it gave me a reason to get out and enjoy the sunshine!

Next up is orientation volunteer BBQ in a few hours! Summer has finally begun!

Healthy Eating

All of a sudden I'm very into eating super well, finding new recipes to try. Five minutes on this wesbsite and I already found a handful of meals and treats I want to try. I found the site this morning when I was deciding what I wanted for breakfast. Normally my breakfast is two pieces of 12 grain toast with peanut butter and honey, but I'm slowly making the switch to almond butter (I like it even more than PB!). That routine is getting boring and old now though, so I was looking to incorporate the almond butter into pancakes, and so I found a recipe for almond butter pancakes from detoxinista. I couldn't try it out because I didn't have all the ingredients for it, but I'm thinking if the weather clears up here, I'll head out to the grocery store to pick up the needed items.

One reason for all of a sudden getting into creative recipes is the fact that I am not longer broke! So with money to spend (on food it is more than acceptable, since I should really be putting it all towards my credit card) and more than enough time find and recreate recipes, why not try new combinations of foods while being healthy in the process!

The one thing that I've noticed about these recipes though is that a lot call for some obscure ingredients that I'd never imagine I'd be willing to try. I'm almost wanting to go out and buy some zucchini, coconut oil, etc to try some new recipes. I'm really excited but also have to keep in mind that I don't have an unlimited supply of cash to spend on a bunch of ingredients.. So I'll have to stick to recipes that call for mostly the same things I guess, but nevertheless!

Any recipes that have become a staple for you, or think that are worth giving a go? Or even any favorite websites!

Ps. My favorite find so far that I've already devoured are chickpea almond butter chocolate chip cookies (you can see the trend of getting obsessed with AB), and next time I'm going to try and get dark chocolate to use to make them even healthier (versus all the sugar from milk chocolate chips).

Go Alberta Go!

This weekend was the Canadian Youth Championships in Calgary. This was the one tournament that I really wanted to go to and represent Alberta. Unfortunately for me, the provincial qualifier came at a time where I was struggling with health issues. Somehow though, until the second last game, I was winning. Then my friend shot a huge game to all but secure first place and from there I had all but given up, as well as I was drained of what little energy/drive/ambition I had for the day, and I slid to 3rd place.

So for awhile I was frustrated that it went down like that, because had I been totally healthy, I think I would have walked away quite easily with the title.

None the less, I accepted what happened (I still shake my head at the whole thing and have a pang of yearning, but there are no hard feelings), and congratulated the winner.

One of the reasons I had wanted to win so bad was because Nationals were being held in my home town, so I could have full home field advantage. But the next best thing to not competing was to cheer on team Alberta, half of them my friends.

In the end, my friend who had beat me ended up on top as singles and all events champion, so I'm very happy for her, and the province. Who knows, had I been there, would I have made such an impact? Realistically I'd like to think yes, and maybe I would have done better, since I had a great showing at CNCs two weeks ago. But I can hardly be sound in saying that because who knows how I would have reacted to the pressure and to the patterns they put down (though I feel the patterns would have been in my favor).

All in all, I still had a wonderful time this weekend, cheering on Alberta and other friends from other provinces. I got to hang out with all my bowling friends for an entire weekend and talk bowling. These people are honestly a great group of people are really fun to be around, which makes me sad that we don't have more out of town tournaments to bond like this.

This also makes me want to hit the lanes again. More so I almost want it to be league again, I want to prove my worth in the adult league, start doing tournaments and see how I really stack up. CNCs gave me a huge confidence boost, but I want to put it to the test and see if it wasn't just a fluke. I doubt it, because it was a great learning experience (like always) and feel like it all culminated in the last day when I tore it up. As long as I keep those things in mind, I think I'm set for the upcoming season.

This being said, I might even actually go practice with a friend on Tuesday since we have nothing better to do. June might be regular for me if I can get out there, since I'm not really working, but July/August I'm doing soccer camp and might be too pooped; hopefully I could get out there on a weekend, but risk getting annoyed by public bowlers..

#happy

Health Movement

The last few weeks, even during finals, I started getting on a health kick. This came in two parts. Food wise, and exercise wise. Normally I'm pretty active anyways, but with soccer done, and not having gone to the gym in a few months, it was time to get back at it. Especially with exams going on.

It's funny though, because being in physed, clearly I know the benefits of exercise. It's SUPER important/good for you during exams!! Same with eating well! But before this term, I ignored all the facts and just went with comfort/what was easier. Well being healthy ended up making me pretty comfortable so I stuck with it.

One reason for changing my diet was that it finally dawned on me that veggies are so much cheaper than anything else! It was also easier to make lots in order to have super easy meals to come home to after studying all day long. So I did curry and quinoa which lasted me through exams. Then I got even more creative and searched the web for recipes. I can't quite recall them all now, but my favorite by far was a recipe for quesadilla. 1) spinach 2) olives 3) feta cheese 4) need I say more??? The week after discovering it I decided to throw in some black beans too, to make it a bit more filling and it worked well! It even helped in reducing the saltiness of it all; I put too much cheese the first time and it was way too salty. But it's definitely going to be one of my go to dinner items now.

On the activity part, my gym membership at school is done for now, so I have to go at it without any equipment, so I decided to start running, which is also good to start getting in shape for outdoor soccer. I'm a great sprinter, so indoor is my game, but for outdoor you really need good endurance, so that's my goal. I have an app called runkeeper and found a program on there that I decided to give a try. It's called Running 4 Fat Loss. Now I don't really care about losing fat or weight, (if it happens great!) but it's great because it keeps you more accountable and it changes it up every workout day. There's things like run 30/40/50 mins continuously; fast for 3 mins and steady for 3 mins X 5; fast for 10, walk for 5, fast for 10, etc. And so from this I've also planned a goal to run 10km in one run by May 25, but I got injured a few days ago, and I'm going on a trip in a few weeks so it might have to be pushed back to early June. Again, I don't really care about doing it, but it's a good motivator and it's nice to see your progress.

I have also thrown in a bit of upper body and core stuff every morning before I hop in the shower. I do crunches and heel touches for my core, and then modified pushups for upper body. I had to modify it because with regular pushups, my wrists hurt like crazy. So I do it at an incline now, like off to back of my couch or off my bed. Gets less core in there, but still really good for pecks, triceps, delts and I even felt my traps today. I've sometimes thrown in some mountain climbers too, it's supposed to be good for core and cardiovascular work.

I also have a lot (and I mean A LOT) of free time on my hands, so may as well take an hour or so a day to work out, and also take the opportunity to get creative in the kitchen. And it really helps that I'm a 2 minute walk from Safeway!!

Now hopefully my foot heals quick (I'm planning on rest and ice for a few days, and then doc Monday if it's not better) so I can get back to it! I'm already getting super bored without that hour or so back in my day to do nothing..

Blogging & Bowling

On my second blogger blog, #yegbowling I rarely post, but when it comes to the annual major national tournament for team trials, I write as much as I can. Today I realized that I'm 2 weeks away from leaving for it, so I posted what I've been up to, beginning to prepare for it.

Then I went back and read all my past posts. It's interesting to read what I've dealt with from year to year at this tournament, what my expectations were and how I made my way through the 3 days of bowling.

I'm really glad for that blog, because it gives me a bit of a head start for this year. I can read about what shots were giving me trouble and what I did to correct it. Like last year. It was maybe my worst showing, but it was the first year that I came at it in a logical way and could actually analyze what I was doing and attempt to fix it. Clearly, after reading those posts, my head just wasn't in it, I wanted it too bad. Basically that was my biggest problem last year I think.

So pretty much that's the game plan, DON'T want it too bad. Just go out with a have fun demeanor, and enjoy the opportunity that I nearly didn't get. But even before realizing this through the blog, I wasn't making any expectations, besides a wish to make top 20 that I can't take too seriously.

I realized I prepared very seriously last year for this tournament, practicing with the youth national team twice a week for two weeks leading up. This year not so much. I don't want to say I'm over it, but just so many things have happened this year that I don't approach anything the same way anymore, I just want the easy route for now.

That being said, I'm still planning on practicing. I've been twice since the end of league, but on dried up lanes, not ideal conditions, but still good practice (check out #yegbowling to read about that experience). I'm also trying to get Dan, the proshop guy to set something up for me on Monday, but hopefully for a few times before we leave. Ideally maybe one day on each shot (short, medium, long). Also, my friend who is out in Vancouver for YBC nationals right now works at the West Ed bowling alley and he's going to try and set something up once he gets back. He's also going to CNCs so it will be good for us to practice together. There are the other regular participants of CNCs that will be practicing too so I should look into what they're doing.

But more than anything, practicing is just something to look forward to and is also a good time killer/gets me out of the house since I don't have a job yet. I actually would practice everyday just because I am so bored, but in the long run, knowing me, I'd end up injuring myself.. That would definitely not be cool.

Summmeeeeerrrrr!

I am actually really unprepared for summer. Usually I start making lists at the beginning of April, counting down finals until I was free. For whatever reason, this year was different and I just kept my head down, focused and not letting myself think about it.

It may also be because I can't get excited because before I can plan to have fun, I need to find a source of income.. I honestly actually did get on the ball early this year, but there was just nothing interesting out there to be had!! So at this point, I'm done trying to find relative experience and now it's about making money to pay off my mastercard...

So this resulted in re-applying for soccer camp. Great money but doesn't start til July. So in the mean time I'll be trying to get 2 part time jobs. Campus rec, with whom I work with every school year, has their spring/summer stuff that I could do a few nights a week and then I'd need to find something for the morning/afternoon. I live right by a mall, so that will definitely be on my list to check out. I actually kind of really want to work at David's Tea...!! I'll also keep my eye on Kijiji of course.

The only thing that worries me about finding a job (however justified or not, I still worry) is that I'll be gone for about a week in May, for my annual bowling tournament out east (this year is Montreal again).  And it's just because I have to pay rent that any of this is chewing at me. Believe me, it was very difficult not to think about it during exams; I felt guilty for not looking, but I could just not deal with the stress of it.

BUT all this being said, I can finally start thinking about what I want to do this summer, so here's somewhat of a list!

• GET IN SHAPE BEFORE SOCCER. I went for a run this morning and nearly died. My lungs are what worry me, and they are kind of critical for soccer...
• Have a few fire nights with friends and some beers! I FINALLY have a fire pit in my backyard! I've been wanting one for soooo long!! 
• Go camping. Something else I've also wanted to do forever. 
• Volunteer. Every summer I say it, but end up too tired. If everything goes the way I want with jobs, I will probably be more tired than ever, but I want to find a way to do it! I really want some experience in the rehab world!! Or even just other recreational type stuff will do :p
• Buy a bike. I really miss biking, and it would be nice not to have to pay ~90 bucks for a monthly transit pass!
• Spend more time with people on days off. Alone time is good, but I tend to do it too often.

That's all I can think of right now. Just gotta get a job and I'll be all set to go. Trying not to worry about money problems, I'm too young to!

Anything you are looking forward to this summer?