Wednesday, December 28, 2005

My Christmas Present to Me

I was reading about diabetes the other day and I got really scared.

Did you know that diabetes:
- is the most frequent cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputations.
- decreases average life expectancy by 15 years.
- is the leading cause of death by disease in Canada.
- is the leading cause of adult blindness.
- is the single leading cause of kidney failure.


I have always had the assumption that diabetes can be managed through diet and exercise, and I guess this is still true, but wow... Reading those statistics blew me away and left me feeling as if my stomach had caved in. I have been doing a really good job of watching my sugar just through watching what I eat, but I decided that what I really need to do is get back into exercising. I actually decided this long ago, over and over again and yet I have only gone three times all year*. I figured I needed some extra motivation. So on Boxing Day I went out and got myself a present, seen here to the right.

* I am kinda scared to go to the gym these days because I feel out of place in either the men's or women's change room. Deanne tells me the fear is worse than actually doing it, but now that I actually own a treadmill even if I am too scared to go I can still get in some exercise.
* I was reading on my ex-friend Rob's blog how he has stopped going to the gym because he saw my car there three times in a row. Like I said, I have only gone three times all year, and even though I am followed around by a swirling vortex of coincidence(tm) I find it highly unlikely he managed to show up on the same three days I was there. I find it so amusing that he lies to himself on his own blog.



Thursday, December 22, 2005

Merry Christmas and a Happy Half Year!

I am really looking forward to Christmas... no, I am not just simply looking forward to it, I am actually extremely excited about it. I spent a lot on presents, I want to buy lots of decorations (and a tree to put them on) when they go on sale in a couple days, and I even want to listen to Christmas carols! I have always preferred Christmas over New Year's. I think some see New Year's as the icing on the cake, but not me. To me it just feels like if a year was a story, Christmas would be the climax, with New Year's Day as the denouement, simply getting me ready to settle back to my normal life. So maybe for that reason I am seeing Christmas as the exciting conclusion of this fairy tale that was best year of my life.

Speaking of good times - last night was a great night for me. I went out with Debbie and Rhenaiya to see a drag show at Diva's. I have to be honest, I didn't really pay attention to the show because I was mingling. I am pretty sure I talked to every person in the bar last night. I guess it is fair to say I was a little bit drunk, but even if I did have help in the courage department, the result was that I had a lot of laughs and heard a lot of stories, and I made more than my share of people smile.

I spent the night in a crowd, but I was in the middle of my own personal celebration. Sure, everyone there was celebrating already - Christmas is just around the corner, and New Year's Day isn't far behind, but I have a special day of my own coming up, and so even though nobody at Diva's knew it, they were all there to help me celebrate my six month anniversary of living as a woman.

P.S. Thanks Debbie for inviting me out!

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

This year the Christmas season started at 2:05, December 15!

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

"Minus F*****' Cold!"

I was just looking at the weather forecast and I saw that tonight it is going to hit -27°. When you approach the big "minus three oh" is when Heather would stop measuring temperature by in degrees Celcius and she'd just say it is "minus fuckin' cold!" It is hilarious to hear Heather swear because like me, she just can't do it and sound serious at all. Lucky for her this year she will be in places so warm and hot I'm hoping she gets to complain about the heat this January.

I normally dread the cold weather, but I just bought a new winter coat on the weekend so that changes things. It is like school when you are a kid - you don't much care to go, but if you have a backpack full of new school supplies it somehow eases the pain.

Today I woke up to hear it was -24 so I threw a jacket over my pj's and ran down to start my car before I did anything else. Then I took the sweater I was going to wear and tossed it in the dryer and left it to fluff up while I got ready for work. Not long afterwards I was fresh from a hot shower wearing a dryer-warmed sweater inside my new coat and big fluffy scarf, toque and mitts. I hopped into my hot car that had been running for 45 minutes and about halfway to work I had to roll down the window to cool off!

Sarah
~//~

P.S. I still haven't heard Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" yet, so the Christmas season hasn't really begun yet.