dreaming over the ocean

for visiting friends. apparently. This month of december, I have more days that i have friends from out of town, who are in town, than days that I do not have. the thing that give me great joy about this is that i find it amazing when you do have to see someone frequently, to still be close to them. For instance, Kevin, I had not seen for over 2 years. yet, he is still among my best guy friends. My friend Terry left on tuesday night, after being here for 8 days. This was amazing. becasue, i have maybe, *maybe* seen him 5 times in the last 5 years. Terry Lui is an individual who was a really close friend of mine in grade 12, and for a number of reasons, we weren't really in touch. and, it is really neat to be able to re-connect with someone that you know, but haven't really known. for instance, i knew general things about him, like, what he was doing in school, that he likes cars, and listens to alternative rock; but now i know what his favourite snack is, and that his boots lea...

so, yesterday was an interesting day. a couple of things happened and got me thinking of the things that i do, and i dont like. i, on the occasion, come up with "a list of things i love." today, i will do a abbreviated version of that. but, as for yesterday. the biggest thing, was that i went to the doctor; this is my "5 month post-op" appt, to check up on how things are going. my wrist is going fairly well. my elbow, on the other hand is not going so well, but i think we knew that already. making a long story short, I am going to be having surgery again; this time on my elbow. Most likely will be having that at the beginning of January. (which, on one hand is great, b/c i will still be able to go snowboarding, but on the other hand, not so good, b/c it will certainly interfere with school and work. if i had it in december, I not be able to go snowboarding, but i wouldnt have as much time of school and work... breaking news: as of 12:30, the doc phoned, and...

so, the last few days has been great. kevin shon came up to visit me for 3 days, and i havent seen him since 2005; more on that later! it snow about 10 cm today, and it is staying on the ground. and, i rode a bike in it (not my own), and felt like i was toying with death, but also the adrenaline was so much fun! :) went to a med school visit this afternoon. met great people, asked good questions, and was impressed by the answers. gets my insides ticking about wanting to be in med school asap... Staff christmas party tonight for body and soul. i like the people i work with... there is a good handful of them who are pretty great to hang out with, and whatnot. but, anything with free food and drinks is good with me!!!!

it is sooooooo good to have you back. I can barely contain myself.

I am sooooo frustrated with my thesis proposal. or, maybe i am frustrated with my program. or maybe i am frustrated with myself. or, maybe i am frustrated with all of those. I was supposed to be defending my thesis proposal on the 17th of december. I was supposed to be getting feedback from my committee members back this weekend; however, one of my committee members feels that my proposal needs too many revisions, for me to be ready to propose on that date. so, we will be cancelling that date, and proposing at a later date. puts just another delay onto this fricken process... so, this is good, and bad. I am nervous about my meeting tomorrow with my supervisor, and committee member. I am nervous that there are revisions that I should have already done, or known about, or realized previously. i am nervous that i have information overload in my mind, and just haven't been able to adequately put it down onto paper. so, anyways. argh. so much work left to do...

every once and a while, a surprise hits out of the blue. I have recently started (in september) working as a personal trainer, at a fitness studio in the point grey area of vancouver. It is certainly different from working at the bike shop on commercial drive, as well as at MEC. It is a totally different atmosphere, and clients vs customers. Of course, there are great things about it, and other things which are sometimes frustrating. For instance, there is definently a group of people that when working out, just loooooove to complain about every exercise. And, i bet that you can imagine how much I appreciate that. anyways, i had a frustrating client yesterday, which put me a little out of sorts... but, I had two clients immediately after whom I really enjoy working with. So, rah rah rah, having a conversation about my impending trip to whistler with Christina, and Zach, and his brother ben. we have been planning on staying in the youth hostel up there, which is nice, but a litt...

So, I would like to begin with the fact that I am moving over from my long-running Xanga blog. www.xanga.com/that_canadian_rower. For a number of reasons, I think. 1)many of my friends are on blogspot now. 2)i dont really post very frequently there anymore. (not meaning that i will post frequently here, either, but, you know...) 3)im not a rower anymore. so, maybe it is time to not go under the "that_Canadian_rower" name. 4) maybe it is just for a change. Blogging, for me, is a funny thing. because, in reality, who are we to think that our thoughts are interesting enough to be read by other people? but, it is a bit of an outlet, I suppose. and, if people really have the desire to keep up with you, they can... so, Sunday was remembrance day. Veterans day in the states. here in canada, the Poppy lapel pin comes out in abundance, to remember Canadian soldiers. The significace, i think i remember, is that poppies, previous to the 1st world war did not grow a lot on battle...