Hmmm....

...Maybe Starbucks' "random act" (see "Oh Happy Day") was just their way of easing us into this!

Oh Happy Day...

Regardless of any comments I may have made in the past, I would like to officially state that the past twenty-four hours has fully renewed my faith in humanity and made me a full supporter of random acts of kindness!!! The past day has erased all memory of cranky sales ladies, being hit by a van and watching him drive away, and any silliness that the U.S. Government may have done recently (!!!). Today, has been great!!!

First of all, as I walk into work this morning, my very adorable co-worker (imagine a much more bearable version of Rachel Ray!!) stopped me to tell me just how envious she was of my long legs and tiny waist. Now, for anyone who knows how devastating a bad hair day can be, they also know that you can never really get enough of compliments of this nature...especially when it's on a day other than your wedding day!!! I stood there stunned and still half asleep but, none the less, a tornado could have torn through our office and it still would have been considered a good day!!

Then, I was waiting for Steve at Chapter's during a time that is normally fairly quiet but for some reason, every square inch of this place was packed with avid readers and there wasn't even a tiny little corner of carpet to be found. Meanwhile, I was at a super good part of "Shopaholic Ties the Knot" and no where to read it!! Until, that is, this wonderful older gentlemen showed up out of nowhere (it was sort of like parting the Red Sea) and said in the most gentlest of voices "Here Dear, please take my seat and relax!". And he didn't just have a normal chair, he had one of those huge, cozy chairs that you could sit in all day long and never leave. I insisted that I couldn't take his spot but, he wouldn't take no for an answer! So he did the next logical thing...he lied!! He told me that he was just leaving and was happy to pass his seat on to me (though he hadn't taken so much as a sip of his latte and his paper hadn't even been opened yet!), so I enjoyed his chair for my time there and was sure to pass it on to someone else when I left.

Later this afternoon, my other co-worker and I were discussing corn on the cob (though I don't remember why!) and I had mentioned that I hadn't actually eaten corn on the cob since I was a teenager (I remember it being a very high maintenance food!). In the grand tradition that is Louise (a completely and overly thoughtful woman!), she went out and bought corn on the cob "that I absolutely had to have"...and so, Steve is cooking it as I write this!!

If all of this wasn't great enough, one of my very favourite places had to step in and make everything that much better...Starbucks!! As I was walking home, I passed one of the new stores that is to open this week and found it to be absolutely packed with people. Being a little bit confused (because I knew that it wasn't opening until tomorrow), I went over for a closer look, only to find out that today all food and beverages were on the house!!! Are you kidding me?!?! How often can you get a $7.00 coffee for free?? Apparently they were celebrating the fact that they were one step closer to taking over the world and thought that they were share with the rest of us (let's be honest...it's not like they can't afford it!!). In the midst of my excitement, I even got a brownie to go with my wonderful drink (which I never do because when it comes to their pastries...what they lack in nutritional value, they make up for in calorie count!!).

Since the world was obviously paying it forward today, I made sure to tell a random stranger in the grocery store (who was looking a little run down) that there was free caffeine and sugar to be had two blocks to the left!!

Last, but certainly not least, I want to acknowledge the CTV's random act of kindness of making Grey's Anatomy part of their Thursday Primetime Lineup!!! That's right, tonight is the season premiere and it can't get here fast enough!! Though losing Denny was too sad to watch twice, my life is truly a much happier place with George, Izzie, Meredith, Christina and Dr. McDreamy!! And let's not forget Finn...we've been debating all summer who Meredith should pick!!!

So, as I drink my tall, non-fat, no whip, peppermint mocha, while our corn on the cob is boiling on the stove and there is only one hour and forty-eight minutes left until Grey's Anatomy...let me leave you with one thought...

...what a wonderful world :)

On The Run...

Okay...it's official...life has been busy!! Now that Steve and I have had two straight weekends of sleeping in, it quickly occured to me just how busy we've really been. Between our canoe trip, my trip to TO and our FABULOUS visit with Colin & Sandra in Port Elgin, we really have been going a mile a minute!!

It's not over yet though!!! I suddenly realized this weekend that I have a mere four weeks until we are off to Toronto again for the Toronto International Marathon. For anyone that really knows me, you know that I just love running and even more so, I love racing! In my four years of running, I've never hesitated to say that I'm not a very fast runner... I've always been more like the tortoise than the hare!!

Generally speaking, I tend to do most of my intense training during the winter months leading up to the National Capital Race Weekend. Truth be told, I've always been a much better runner in the winter than I've ever been in the summer due to the fact that it's much easier to regulate your body temperature in the winter. This year though, I decided to take a little break from training (for the first time in four years) and give my body a little bit of time to recover. I won't say that it was an easy decision to make...it broke my heart actually but, work, life and running were becoming a bit much at the time and my health required that I take a bit of a step back and give myself a rest.

This summer though, I realized that I couldn't take it anymore and I absolutely had to get back into my running shoes!!! So after four months of rest, I laced up my shoes again and decided to make my big comeback!!! So Toronto it is!! There are many reasons why I chose to do the half-marathon instead of the full distance:

1.) I adore my husband too much to spend all that training time away from him...he's just too cute!!
2.) Given that I generally don't run much in the summer, I thought that I would take summer running in baby steps.
3.) Regardless of how much I've trained...I'm seldom smiling after 42.2 kilometres!!!
4.) Half Marathon training is a great opportunity to work on speed instead of distance.

Toronto also provides a great new route (apparently a fairly flat route too!), lots of family and friends in town to cheer me on and a terrific reason to eat as much as I can bear over Thanksgiving weekend!!

So far, my best time for a half-marathon is 2:35:47 and I've been hurting at the finish line!! However, this past Friday, I ran one of my fastest times yet...18km in 1:50:06!! Yeah for me and yeah for the Double Latte Power Gel with 50mg. of caffeine that I tried for the first time!! Though I was still quite sore at the end (my calves are still screaming at me), I still maintained my speed throughout most of my run and kept a good pace. All in all, a great start to the weekend!!

All this to say...watch out Toronto...I'm back...and with caffeine induced power gels in tow!!

Tragedy Strikes Again...

In the middle of a rainy, gloomy day, twenty people were shot in a Montreal College today. Two people are dead, one of them being the shooter. I was stunned when I first heard the news and even more stunned when I found myself saying "not again". More so because I came to the very abrupt realization that this appears to be happening more and more often. Our younger generations appear to becoming more violent than ever before.

I called my aunt this evening, who lives in Montreal, to ensure that her and the family were all fine and hadn't been in harms way. While discussing the incident with her, I asked her "what kind of anger has to exist in someone to make them do that?". Strangely enough though, I think that I already knew the answer; though nothing has been reported regarding the shooter's motives, my initial assumption was retaliation, likely resulting from years of bullying.

When the investigation after the shooting at Columbine High School finally started to come together in 1999, it was made clear that the two shooters had suffered from years of bullying from their peers. You can also read countless stories about teens who have committed suicide from enduring the trauma of bullying and I can't help but wonder...what's really happening here??

Without a shadow of a doubt, what happened today in Montreal, at Columbine High School and in numerous other places...were tragic, heartbreaking and is an example of the ever changing society we are living in. It seems like everywhere we turn, innocent victims are dying for someone else's cause. However, though I know that the coverage of the Montreal shooting will likely last for weeks, I am interested in knowing how much time will be spent on the issue that potentially led this shooter to such extremes measures??

As everyone knows, adolescence is a terribly tumultuous time to begin with. Our self-esteem is fragile, we are still trying to find our way in the world and basically, it's just eight years of trying to avoid embarrassement. For many of us, we look back fondly on our bad taste in clothes and the endless "firsts" that we experienced but, for many others (likely more than we think), those years were wrought with trauma at the hands of their peers. Bullying becomes like a cancer in your body...a poison that encompasses your being, taking over until eventually, it breaks your spirit and all there is left to do is survive.

The shooter was described as a white male, dressed in black with a mohawk. For all intents and purposes, he sounds like someone who might have stood out in a crowd. Someone who might have been a bit different from the norm (whatever that may be...though is usually defined by the likes of the GAP and Levi's in our teen years). The reality is that kids can be cruel, and even more so in groups. Given enough time and persistence, bullying can chip away at someone's self-esteem until there is a mere shell of that person left. I think that it's worth noting that this young man likely didn't just go in there to kill his peers but, whether he was shot by police or not, I don't think that he was expecting to live through the day either. This alone, brings on sadness in and of itself.

It's easy to say that, if bullying is the cause, then he could have just told someone but, realistically, if a ten year old can take a toddler from a mall, then torture and kill him without so much as a note on his record when he turns eighteen, then what kind of protection can a bullied student possibly expect in their school hallways?? And the thing is that psychological and emotional scars don't photograph nearly as well as battle scars do. There isn't any tanglible proof of the damage that has been done.

A woman once asked me shorty after 9/11 if it's really considered terrorism if you have been bullied your whole life and you are merely trying to protect all that you have left?? It's a good and valid question. Whether it's your country or your dignity...people, by nature, will do whatever it takes to protect themselves.

We are living in a time when bombs are always being dropped on other countries, where gangs are having shootouts in the street on Boxing Day and we are suing fast food companies for making us fat. It's the age of retaliation. So should we really be surprised when bullied and tortured teens are finding their own way to strike back?? And in turn, was the terrorism in shooting people randomly at school or was it in torturing and instilling fear in someone in the first place just because they were different??

I don't know.

All I know is that the problem is more than the violence and more than gun control. The problem is that we are forgetting what it's like to love and respect one another as we are. We are forgetting to live and let live. We are forgetting that peace is not only an end but, also a means to achieving that end. We are forgetting to teach our children this and in doing so, they will never teach their children this.

In the end, all that I am left with is a broken heart, more questions and something that St. Augustine once said:

"Hope has two beautiful daughters; Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are and Courage to change them."

God Bless those who are suffering tonight and those that can make a difference tomorrow.

Cutest Three Amigos Ever...