People don’t chill unless there’s an occasion. It has to be someones birthday, or there’s a concert, or someone has to throw a random party, or organize a dinner.

Maybe its just the friends I keep out here. Back out in Winnipeg you could just call someone on any given day/time and say I’m coming over [sometimes you could just show up] and you would do absolutely nothing. Watch TV, play games or whatever it didn’t matter. What I’ve found out here in Vancouver is there always has to be an occasion to do almost anything with your friends. I’m trying to figure out the reason behind this.

I think the number one reason is distance. When I talk about Vancouver I really mean the Lower Mainland, because of the fact that you and everyone you know in the Lower Mainland probably live all over the place. And that is why I think it’s hard to just chill on any given occasion. I live in Burnaby, but I have friends who live all over the place surrey, delta, east van, downtown, you get the point. No one wants to drive or transit out towards a friend without knowing for sure that they could chill. [though a phone call could solve that problem]

Thats why I think the next reason is everyone is busy busy busy. When I moved here the first thing I noticed is everyone is [or at least appears to be] busy. People do everything like they’re going to be late or miss out on something. They run for a sky-train when the next one will be there in a few minutes. The power walk everywhere! no taking an easy stroll down the street. I know everyone has a lot of things to do, Work, School, Gym, etc. I understand that after a long day people usually just want to go home, but I’d rather chill with some friends, relax and maybe vent about my day.

The last thing I think of that could be the reason behind this is maybe I just don’t have friends who like to chill all the time. Maybe they like their friend time in small doses? haha Who knows. BUT I have talked to two different friends from two different groups of friends I have about this and both of them agree with me about this. Then again both of them aren’t from Vancouver so they are probably just noticing the differences between where they grew up and Vancouver.

So what do you think does this happen to everyone around the Lower Mainland?

Anyways after the two weeks I had already dropped a few pounds. I was hovering around 193 which is pretty good for 2 weeks. The next test though was the fact that I was going back to Winnipeg for Christmas time for about 3 weeks! And that meant going out eating and not going to the gym. I somehow maintained my weight while in Winnipeg!

When I got back to Vancouver in the new year. I had set out a new routine for me to follow at the gym. No more going in the hopes that I would be able to bboy. My plan (which worked for the most part) was go every day Monday – Friday. I would start with Half an hour of cardio [usually on the elliptical]. Followed by some stretching, I would do the stretches most of the teachers at harbour dance would do after a warmup. Then hit the weights [BORING!] Doing a different area a day. Arms, Chest/Back, Legs, and Abs usually everyday. I did really well in the month of January going from 193 to around 183! 10 pounds in a month!

All was going well until I got called up one day to work on a contract at acronym! which is good and bad, good because I got to make some money since Christmas kinda drained anything I had. But bad because I didn’t get to go to the gym. I went twice in the two week contract that I had with acronym.

After my contract was up I didn’t get to head back to the gym. Because of the Olympics. I know the Olympics are not an excuse to not go to the gym but I did have a lot of events to go to thanks to my sisters. Who were in town and staying at my place for the whole 17 [+a few extra] days of the Olympics. There was a shit load of walking though, I really think all the walking I did during the Olympics was good because I sure ate a lot of food and drank even more beer! I somehow came out of the Olympics 1 full pound lighter then before!

Today was my return to fitness world. I felt like a had a lot of energy to spend. I ran my whole half our at the fastest speed I’ve gone during my whole gym stint so far! And burned about 500 calories according to the machine! I also powered through weights today working on chest, back and abs.

I plan on going back every weekday until May [when I plan on taking a visit to Winnipeg for my moms birthday]. Until then I’ll be letting all [ 3-5? actual readers lol ] of you know my progress!

December 1st, 2009 – 198lbs
January 6th, 2010 – 193lbs
March 3rd, 2010 – 182lbs

I read this pretty awesome quote on facebook somewhere…

Iginla (12) passes to Crosby (87) for the golden goal. 12+87=99 (Gretzky) Some things are just meant to be!

Now that the Olympics are officially over (though I’m sure the party is still going on right now on Granville) What will happen to the Canadian pride we’ve all witnessed on our streets? What will happen to all the people rockin’ the red and white, in the form of official Olympic Canada wear, Red Mittens and my personal Favorite the Canada Cape Flag? Will these things that we’ve been so accustomed to seeing these past 17 “magical” nights just fade away? Will the “go canada go” chants and spontaneous eruptions of the national anthem disappear OR will we continue to show our pride as the city hosts the paralympics which start on March 12th and continue until March 21st.

Personally I hope we continue to show our pride during the paralympics. I’m hoping everything we showed the world doesn’t disappear after tonight! We should continue to show support for all our athletes in all of the up coming events. I would really love the chance to see an Ice Sledge Hockey game. Hopefully I can score some tickets and continue to show my Canadian pride at an event!

Just finished watching the Canada vs Slovakia Game at Wings on Kingsway. The crowd was pretty intense there. Cheering on Canada as loud as they can! Anytime Canada scored Wings would have a special on Jager Shots for $3 a shot! And they have this contest going on where every table gets a puck with a Players name on it. If they score the table gets a free round of shooters! That was a really good environment to watch the hockey game. Might have to go back for the gold medal game versus USA if no other plans come up!

Congrats to Team Canada for the 3-2 win over Slovakia!

ALSO we are at the top of the GOLD MEDAL COUNT!! We are now at

10 Gold
7 Silver
4 Bronze
21 Total!

When they made the Own the Podium program I think Owning gold is good enough? Who agrees with me?

The Olympics are here in Vancouver. I’ve been lucky enough to go to a number of Hockey Games both womens and mens. Including the

Canada Womens Blow out win over Slovakia 18-0.
Canada Mens Shootout Win over Switzerland 3-2.
Womens Bronze Medal Game Finland over Sweden 3-2 in Overtime.
And the Gold Medal Game for Womens where Canada beat USA 2-0.

The amount of Canadian pride I’ve experienced is amazing. I never thought we [canadians] were that patriotic the olympics have made me even more proud to be Canadian!