Updating and revising list

· Driver’s license – how sad is that?! Cam's addition? Practice with Cam's car...lol

· Complete dissertation – especially since it will mean I won't owe Sean a bottle of champagne…sometime in my 40^th year.

· Take a canoe trip with Dorothy. Went camping (with canoing and portage included! - see post on August 5th) with Dorothy, Natasha and Lisa.

· Complete at least one marathon – since I have boinked on training for two so far. Will do Disney 2009 with Hanna since she'll be turning 30, and aiming for the rest of the TSs to join! - HANNA CRIS HEDS CAM AND I HAVE REGISTERED!!!! JULES IS COMING FOR SUPPORT.

· Do the midsummer night's run with Cam in practice for the marathon

· Overcome my swimming issues – this actually concerns me, I keep taking lessons, but it seems the second I find myself in water where I can’t see the bottom, I panic - TOOK LESSONS MAY-JUNE, WILL HAVE TO KEEP GOING SINCE IT STILL ISN'T "STICKING."

· Get back to training 4-5 times a week – it seems without a training partner to keep me accountable, I’m not doing this one well. Done.

· Get at least one article published – will be necessary if I want to get a good job in a year or so - Submitted an article on Mae Alexander's diary.

· Create a list of 100 things that make me happy ("stolen" from Zazazu's list)

· Fine art nudes – only if getting back to training works out!!

· At least one more tat

· Go snowboarding – been wanting to do this for 4 or 5 years, just haven’t had an opportunity

· Sponsor a child in the developing world

· Get on the job market – this includes looking at post-docs

· Maintain eye-contact and actually listen – weird how you can go through life not noticing how little you pay attention to the person directly in front of you! REALLY HAVE BEEN CONSCIOUS AND WORKING ON THIS ONE

· Develop a better relationship with Justis and his mom

· Visit Marrakesh Not going to be able to do this one - maybe in the 40th year?

· Visit the desert Done

• Go horseback riding

· Make better use of my time i.e. actually do more than a couple things in a day – set daily schedules and stick to them

· Pay off LOC

· Pay off credit cards – BMO Mastercard paid off December 20, 2007

· Write and mail at least one 'thinking of you' card each month

· Explore London this summer and quit being cranky about it.

· Stop taking cabs everywhere . FAILING MISERABLY!!!

· Call my Gran once a week and write down the things she tells me – too late, she died December 16^th.

· Learn more about wine - take a course in the fall

· Get back on a bicycle (Karen)

· Polar bear swim (Craig)

· Sky dive (Kelly)

· Flying trapeze (crazy Hanna!!)

· Visit Vegas (Colleen) Done

· Re-discover my creative voice...start writing again

· Do something about my slovenliness

· Spend quality time with Nathan and Jillian

· Spend some time with Sasha, Natasha and Joel

· Visit Kelly and John down East

· Quebec City (Cath)

· Have lots of sex (Sean)

· Bob (boB) - who am I to argue?!

Recapping the last while

Okay, so I have managed to post diddly and squat in two whole months! What up with that! Let me try to sum up what's been going on since I posted to say life was too crazy to have time to post here as well as on my Precision Nutrition log. At that time I was prepping for my conference in Nassau, and playing Valentine's Scrooge.

Nassau was fun, my paper was well-received, I should have been working on said paper since then since it is to be published in the conference proceedings. My favourite thing about Nassau? The daiquiri shack across the street from our hotel...
This place rocked.
Fresh fruit in whatever combination you wanted, with copious amounts of rum - who could ask for more?.

The island people were the most hospitable I have ever encountered. We rode the city bus where everyone was so polite - they tell everyone "good morning" etc. when they get on and off!!!

I have to admit to having been quite a bit disappointed with the food though. Conch cooked in every possible way (it still tasted like rubber snail) and "Bahamian" fare like macaroni and cheese and cold slaw with everything. How is it possible to have boring island food? For shame Bahamas!! But all in all, a very nice trip, I would go back.

Presented a paper at a conference celebrating International Women's Day and did my first radio show to promote it - fun stuff. Both the paper and interview addressed the work Carissa and I did in Rwanda and the response since we've been back. On that front, so much has been happening - UWO is now totally onside with the planning around a collaborative project on gender at the National University. We have had a number of meetings around that - VP Research (Ted Hewitt), Associate Dean of Social Science (Julie McMullin), Associate Dean of Women's Studies (Tracy Isaacs), RC, myself and others, and now the plan is to hold a summer institute there at the end of August. How cool would it be if I would be able to go back there?! Yet, if I am honest, I am ambivalent about that. I think part of that is the fact that I have not kept in touch with people in the way I thought I would, but then, that is just me isn't it?!!

Did Boobalicious again this year. For those of you who have never been, it's a fun private party that's held annually to raise funds for the weekend to support breast cancer. It's fab. We all wear pink, the event is more of a fair/festival than a party. They have performing acts, vendors, massage therapists, psychics, you name it. Check out the website for this year's party: http://www.boobalicious.ca/. Here's much of the group of us that was out that night:


That was last weekend, and I have to admit that weekend in Toronto was most excellent. These days I find myself less inclined to go visit - it's the way things work, I've been away 3 years and life goes on, so now I don't always get the jokes or the story references, and at first that was hard, especially since I haven't developed that kind of network here. Feeling that homelessness again, but it seems to be endemic to this life phase since my other single friends in doctoral programs are finding themselves adrift as well. Of course, if I do follow the path I have in my head - the development work and research, I may be living out of a suitcase or at least not having a true home base for a while. That was something I grappled with while I was away last year, and I worried/wondered if I was cut out for that life, yet I still seem to be headed in that direction! There you go.

So those are the highlights of the past couple months (as I recall them). Been making relatively regular trips to Buxton collecting data, starting to get an image in my mind of what the finished product should include. That should be a good thing right?