Reading Rainbow

Ok, so this was a replacement item, and it's the one that almost did me in. I was worried. But, like many other parts of my life this year, it all worked out in the end. 

Here's a little glimpse into my life as a reader. Books were always part of my life. I come from a long line of bibliophiles, the kind of people who have books in every room of their house, on shelves, nightstands and in piles on the floor. Books are passed down generation to generation in my family like fine jewels. I began reading at a very young age. Four to be exact. By the time I started school (at 6, in grade one because kindergarten was not part of the school system at the time. Yeah, I'm old), I was on to bigger and better things. While my teacher was teaching my classmates to read, she had me write stories which I then read to my class. I was the kid who hid under the blanket with a flashlight after my mother had told me 3 times already to put the book down and go to sleep.



My love of reading has continued into my adult life. I ALWAYS have to be reading something. I've started keeping a book in the bathroom, because even when I'm only in there for a minute or two, I need to be reading. I've been known to read shampoo bottles just to keep my mind occupied. Weird, I know. But nowadays, I always have several books on the go at any given time. I have countless books that I haven't read, yet I always want more.

Why do I love to read so much? I'm not entirely sure. There are so many reasons. Books open so many worlds to me, make the impossible seem possible, even more than movies can. A house with books makes me feel at home, and when I travel with a book, it's like I have a little bit of home with me, and my journey doesn't seem so lonely. And I have suffered that horrible book hangover, when you finish a really good book or series and have to go back to your everyday life. You can feel your life has been profoundly affected, and you can't quite figure out how to deal with the fact that the story is done (Harry Potter fans, am I right?).



I didn't read as much when I was with my ex. Again, he never said anything to prevent me from reading, but it was one of those things that fell by the wayside as I fought for my relationship. He didn't read, so it wasn't a priority (luckily, 29 loves to read and likes some of the same kind of books as me). When we broke up I went back to my reading. It was comfort, something I knew, and it helped me heal to read about other people overcoming huge obstacles to stand strong again.

I read 50 books in 2012. Book club and living with my book-loving mother definitely helped that. In 2013 I wanted to challenge myself even more, so I decided to read 55 books. Which would have been fine, except that in trying to get all my list items done, going on vacation and spending time with 29, my reading kind of tapered off. Before I knew it, I was 5 books behind the pace I needed to be reading at (thanks to the website 'Goodreads', which keeps track for you). 5 books behind. So I buckled down, read instead of watching TV or going on the internet, and lo and behold, I awoke on the morning of my birthday to find that I was 'on track' on my Goodreads account, with 29 books read. Quite a significant number. And I ended where I began. The last book I was reading as a 29 year old and the first book I read as a 30 year old was 'The Blue Castle'.

And so, I'm still on track, and in love with my books, every last one of them. I love to stare at my bookcase and see the variety of books I have, something for every mood. And I can now buy more, because 29 gave me an Indigo gift card for my birthday :-)

Odds and Sods

Ugg, so far behind. I just counted. I am 8 posts behind. Well, here's hoping I can bang a couple out tonight!!

So, this post will be devoted to the smaller list items that don't really need their own posts, which are numbers 1, 6, 26 and 28. Here they are, with a brief description of what I did to complete them.

1. Become Financially Mature; This one was tricky, but it was really important to me. My

finances are much better than they were this time last year, but it's something I want to keep working at. I have a budget, but I still need to work on sticking to it better. My savings aren't substantial, but here is why I felt I had done enough to cross this item off. In January I went to the bank and had them consolidate my credit card balance and my loan. I got the loan 2 years ago to buy my car and pay for my laser eye surgery (yes, it was totally worth it). Since I had no collateral and had never had a loan before, my mother had to co-sign. Now, my credit card was a whole other story. I got it in my 4th year of university to help pay tuition, and it originally had a balance of $1200. Without my knowledge or consent, they kept raising my credit limit, and I, stupidly, kept spending it. Eventually it was drastically out of my comfort zone, was constantly at the top of my limit and caused me a great deal of stress. So I consolidated the two, (and all on my own, with no co-signer too!) which actually cost me less per month than I had been paying for the two, and in 3 years (two and a half now!) they will both be paid off in full. I still have the credit card, but the credit limit is a third of what it was. It has never been maxed out and the payments are reasonable. I (for the most part) only use it when I need to. In addition to this, I have opted to keep living with my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!) for a while longer, so my rent is a lot cheaper. I also adjusted my phone bill so I pay almost half what I used to pay. It's a work in progress, but I'm miles ahead of where I was. 

6. See Every Movie I Want to See in Theatres; This one could have cost me a fortune, but luckily, it didn't. Things worked out well for me on this one, because one of the girls I work with started a movie club, and we go almost every Tuesday, which is cheap night! There came a time though where I had to differentiate between the movies I wanted to see and the movies I wanted to see IN THEATRE. I think the goal of this one was to get back to doing the things I loved to do, but had gotten away from while with my ex. He didn't really like going to the movies and was pretty fussy about any movie he watched. I always had a movie in mind to go to with him if he ever agreed to it, but he rarely did, so I missed out on a lot of movies that I really wanted to see. And so I, who used to go to the movies several times a month, rarely went at all. I love going to the movies. It's one of my favourite things. So it was really important to me that I get back into the routine of going to the movies when I want to see something. Luckily, I have lots of friends who love the movies, and 29 does too, so I'm in luck. Success!!

26. Dance More; This one was a lot of fun, and I had a lot of help accomplishing it! Several of my friends had bachelorette parties and wedding receptions where I could shake my groove thing, and I also bought a couple of dance games for my X-Box, and my family and I had countless dance parties. It makes me happy and is great exercise. I'm definitely going to keep going with this!

28. Drink More Water; I love water. It's so refreshing, especially when it's ice cold. So this one wasn't TOO hard, but it did require me to change a few of my habits. I've started taking water to work with me so I'm not tempted to buy pop from the canteen when I get thirsty. I rarely buy juice now, mostly just for smoothies and I almost never drink pop. It's water at restaurants, which also saves money (yay!). My skin has looked much better recently too, which could be due to the increase in my water consumption or to my better skin care regime. Either way, I'm going to keep up with the water. Mmmm...










And that's that!! Only 7 more posts to go now!

The End

Although I still have to get caught up on all the posts for list items I've done, I really wanted to write this post about finishing the list now, because I want to remember the feelings I have at the end of it all. I'm still processing the fact that the list is complete, that I don't have to check anything else off, that I'm 30. I'm sure it'll come in time, but as for now, it all feels a bit surreal.






The last couple of months have been absolutely crazy for me, between vacation, spending time with friends and 29 (since he wouldn't choose a name and he helped me complete list item number 29, that's what he'll be called), and completing all these list items. Time sure flies when you're accomplishing your goals. Unfortunately, as you've probably realized, it hasn't left a lot of time for blogging. But I promise I'll get caught up soon!

 
There were a few things on this list that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish, especially once the time to complete them came closer, or a few times as I began them (most notably the tattoo, Treego and climbing that mountain. More on that later), but because of this blog and the list, I had the motivation to do things I would never have done before. And it makes me feel so proud of myself. 


  

It really amazes me when I think back to who I was a year ago. Yes, I was the same person, but all the parts of my personality that I've come to love were buried so deep that I was afraid they were gone. It's only been through the items on this list that I've been able to fight my way back to where I want to be. I felt like I was stuck with the life I'd been given, but now I know without a doubt that I can make my life what I want it to be.




To say that I'm a happier person now would be an understatement. Even on my happiest days last year there was always something holding me back, some nagging feeling that prevented me from feeling completely comfortable with who I was. It was doubt; doubt in myself, my abilities and in how others would accept me if I was truly myself. I'd been made to feel guilty for how I felt for years, afraid to give my real opinion, ask for what I wanted and enjoy all the things I loved. It's taken me a long time to realize that that was because of his insecurities, not mine. And I won't compromise myself like that again.


And so, here I am at the end of my 29th year, my 30th has just begun. Looking back over all the things I've done, I keep thinking about the Tim McGraw song "Live Like You Were Dying" (could be due to the large amounts of country music I heard at the Stampede). I went ziplining, I went Rocky Mountain climbing, I watched other people go 2.7 seconds on a bull, but I don't think any were named Fu Manchu. I love the risks I took and the lessons I learned because of them. 

Was I always at my most graceful? No. Did I look and sound like a professional when doing most of these things? Absolutely not. Will I win a Grammy for my glockenspiel performance, impress Gordon Ramsay with my cooking skills or head to Mount Everest for my next mountain climbing experience? Hell no. But I didn't give up on any of them either. I finished everything and had a whole new world of possibilities opened up to me. I can't wait to find new things to try.

So now I am faced with the option of retiring my blog and The Valancy Stirling Project or of keeping it going and challenging myself to a new set of items. I have loved every bit of this project, so although I won't be making a list of 30 things to do this year, I will be making a new list and continuing to blog. Because I love it and people seem to like to read it. And, as cliche as it may sound, I hope that maybe my blog will inspire someone else to take charge of their life and try things they've been wanting to try.

You don't have to sit back passively and watch your life go by you. If you aren't happy with things, change them. You may have to start small, and there will always be things you cannot change, but when they say that attitude is everything, they aren't kidding. Doing things you love that make you happy will improve the quality of your life, and when you feel happy you present that to the world. Happiness attracts happiness, and good things will start coming your way, even if it's only because you are now better able to accept life's disappointments. 




I'm looking forward to my 30th year, for many reasons. I've discovered so much about myself this past year and have become closer to so many great people that a huge wealth of new experiences lay stretched out ahead of me. I've discovered that my temper has improved, and I've found that I get angry much less often, so much so that when someone asked me the other day what kind of things make me mad I had a hard time thinking of anything. I honestly can't remember the last time I was really angry for more than a couple of minutes. I am so glad that I came up with this crazy plan of mine and I'm excited to come up with a new list for my 30th year. Stay tuned!

My Whovian Adventure Part 7

Holy crap, I'm nearing the end! Somewhere along the way into this leg or my journey into the land of Doctor Who, it became horribly apparent that if I was going to finish all the episodes, I would have to do it so fast that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it. And I really want to enjoy it. So that's why I decided to focus on completing the classic episodes (pre-2006/Ninth Doctor), and it has substantially reduced my stress about finishing this list item. 

I feel kind of bad for Colin Baker, who plays the Sixth Doctor. He is definitely my least favourite Doctor, but it isn't really his fault. The writing is horrible, his companions were weird and his costume is absolutely ridiculous. None of these things had anything to do with Colin Baker or his performance as The Doctor. But, sadly, he is widely hated in the Whovian community. I found this article online and it kind of sums things up.

6 Ways the Sixth Doctor Got Screwed 

This was a rough time for the show. Viewership was down, due in part to the direction the producer had taken, starting part way through the Fourth Doctor years. He is the one who decided to put the moronic question mark all over the Doctor's clothing. Weirdo. Anyway, after the Sixth Doctor's first season, things in production were really bad, and they took an 18 month break. That first season was horrible. I had a really hard time getting through it. When they came back 18 months later, The Doctor was on trial for genocide. The final season of his run revolved around this trial and it was much better than the previous season.





After the Fifth Doctor succumbed to spectrox toxemia (after touching a toxic substance caused by bats), he regenerated into the Sixth Doctor, who immediately went crazy and tried to strangle his companion Peri. Combine that with his HORRIBLE outfit and grumpy, know-it-all attitude and it was a really rough start for the new Doctor. 


 
I only had one favourite episode, "The Two Doctors", and it was my favourite because the Second Doctor came back again, and this time he brought Jamie!! I was so excited that I was able to ignore the fact that Jamie had quite obviously aged. But he was still my Jamie, my favourite companion of all of the companions I've seen. The episode "Timeline" in the 'Trial or a Time Lord' season was also not too bad. The Sixth Doctor only had two companions, so the next section will be short.

Peri started out with the Fifth Doctor, and gets much less annoying as she goes. She is written out in a horrible, ungratifying death scene, after being used as a new body for an alien. We later find out that she wasn't actually killed, but is instead living like a queen with the warrior king who was also in the story arc. Fortunately, she also starts wearing real clothes in the second season, instead of bathing suits and workout clothes.

Ugg. Mel. In the story following Peri's departure, Mel just randomly shows up in the TARDIS with The Doctor, as if she's always been there. They give no explanation for who she is or where she came from. And she is soooo annoying. She has this whiny, high-pitched voice and runs around in brightly coloured, overly patterned one-piece outfits. And she sticks around for the Seventh Doctor too. Yay.



Here are the 5 things I noticed most about the Sixth Doctor;


1. Creatures; They suck again. At first, anyway. They get a bit better, but check out this gem from the first episode.


This is a gastropod. It never leaves this chair. Because it can't.

This tinfoil meets barnacle meets Jason Voorhees monstrosity is a Cryon. Their mouths didn't move when they talked. But I'm pretty sure they're supposed to.







2. The Doctor's Clothes; Ok, I know I've commented on this before with other Doctors, but seriously, look at this guy. Mismatched, garish and just plain weird. Apparently, according to Wikipedia Colin Baker wanted to wear all black, but the producer chose this beautiful ensemble instead. Boo.








3. Sil; This guy appears in two episodes, and he's quite a character. He keeps talking about how ugly Peri is, and he's this weird caterpillar thing that sits there and lumpily shouts at people.

4. Mel; Who is she? Where did she come from? Why does she dress so horribly? Why is she so annoying?










5. Vervoids; Ok, am I the only one who thinks these things look wildly inappropriate? The look like penises sitting inside vulvas. They creeped me out the whole episode long. 








So that was the Sixth Doctor. Not a big fan in the beginning, but in the end I didn't hate him. On to the Seventh!

She Flies Through the Air With the Greatest of Ease

I did it. This one made me nervous, so much so that as I was driving up in the rain, I began to secretly hope that it would be rained out. But, as with most things I have been nervous about doing during the last year, it ended up being a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to do it. List item number 2, Treego was completed on an overcast day with an excellent Treego partner.

 
My sister, as many of you may know, lives in Calgary with her boyfriend. They planned on coming to NB for a visit in late June, and when I mentioned Treego to them, my sister's boyfriend said he would go with me. So the two of us drove an hour in the rain on his first full day in NB to have our adventure. He was a great partner in crime, encouraging me, making sure I was ok and cheering me on when I finished a platform I had trouble with. Hooray for friends!

One of the reasons that I wanted to try Treego was to recapture some of the excitement I used to get climbing trees as a child. As a slightly older child that is, because I was a big scaredy cat when I was young, once very memorably (and extremely gracefully) getting stuck hanging upside down on the very first branch, screaming for help until my sister went to get my mom. High point in my life. But as I got older I got more confident I really started to enjoy climbing trees. But good climbing trees are getting harder and harder to come by, so Treego seemed like a good option. 




The Treego course I chose was made up of 75 platforms which were supposed to take about 5 minutes each. Our appointment was for 2:30, but when we got there they were still working on organizing the extremely large 2:00 group. So we started pretty late. We didn't get out gear on and head to the course until about 3:15 and we didn't start the actual obstacles until around 3:45. Then we had to wait for each of the 50 odd people ahead of us to go. You're only allowed to have one person on a ladder at at time, 2 on an obstacle and 3 on a platform. Plus there are always going to be obstacles that some people find harder and therefore, take more time for them to complete. Which leads to a lot of waiting for the people behind. We finished at 7pm and then had to drive back to Grand Bay for the delicious lobster supper that was awaiting us. I think we ate around 9. Looooong day.

There are 4 different courses of increasing difficulty; blue, green, red and black. I admit that after finishing the red course, I seriously considered climbing down out of the trees and not completing the black course. Luckily, the people in front of us had done it before and they assured me that the black course wasn't as hard as the red. I definitely agree with them, and I'm definitely glad I stuck it out.

So, there won't be any pictures of me doing the actual course, because I have really sweaty hands when I'm nervous or physically exerting myself, and since I really didn't want to drop my phone out of a 2 story tree, I left it in the car. But here are some pictures of other people doing the same course!

The ziplines were a lot of fun, especially since I expected to be terrified by them. One great thing about Treego is that you hook up your own safety equipment, which made me feel really secure. I did have one wicked bounce-back on the first big zipline I did, but I recovered pretty quickly.

No, that is not me athletically swinging like Tarzan into that net. I opted to take the alternate route here. See those wired with the vertical logs on them? I took that path. Much easier.

This was the only obstacle that I really fell on, and it was mostly a give-up kind of fall. I decided to just fall back and hang from my harness for a minute (which was super uncomfortable, by the way), intending to just pull myself across like on a zipline, but once I hung there and looked at it I realized that it was actually easier to regain my balance and stand up. It worked and I completed the obstacle.

This one was, to me, the most challenging of all the obstacles. It's kind of hard to see, but there are three logs hung end to end by a rope on either end. They swing like crazy and it's really hard to stretch and reach the next one. You can do some wicked splits. As I was leaning back to sit and hang like before I realized it would be easier to stick my leg out at that angle and grab the next log. As tired as I was, I knew it was one of the last things I'd have to do and I went for it. And I made it.

And that was my Treego experience. It was a blast and I didn't even end up with too many injuries. Mostly just muscle soreness, a bruise on my inner thigh from the harness and some pretty sore hands. I think I was much better off than the two girls ahead of us who's short shorts were shorter than their harnesses. I'm sure they experienced some definite chaffing the next day. Once again, I'm really glad I stuck to it and didn't give up. It's another thing that I wasn't sure I'd be able to do, but am so glad I did. I felt like a champ.

The Human Pretzel

This post coming to you from beautiful Calgary! As will (hopefully) many more, as I try desperately to get caught up before the Project ends in (sniff, sniff) 2 week. 2 weeks exactly, actually.

So, I'm crossing this one off the list. Because I swear I tried. And in the end I found a couple of moves that I will continue to use, because they did feel really good. Especially after I nearly threw my back out doing a move that my mother failed to get a picture of, causing me to have to do it again. Honestly, I've never seen anyone have as much trouble using a camera phone as my mother. She always swears she didn't touch anything, and yet, somehow something always goes wrong.

I have chosen not to post all the pictures of my attempt at some of the poses...because quite frankly they're embarrassing. But I will post some of them. I'm sure I'll hear you all laughing from here...

My plan was to do a 30 day yoga pose challenge I found on Pinterest. But it got very complicated, very quickly. So I found another one designed to help relax you before bed, which is where I'll start as this becomes part of my routine. Maybe once I'm a bit more confident in them I'll move to the more athletic poses.

The first few were pretty easy.

I think this is mostly to focus your breathing.

This is the Standing Deep Breathing. It was a bit awkward to get my arms in this position. It didn't feel great.

Half Moon Pose. This felt nice. Although my back cracked in about 37 places when I did it...

More cracking. I'm sure I'm supposed to go back further, but this was as far as I could manage for now. Something to work toward, I guess!

I think this is supposed to be the tree pose. Not sure why I have such a weird look on my face...

Corpse pose. My fave. Super challenging.

A very awkward triangle pose... 

 Cobra pose. This is another keeper.

Full Lotus pose. I feel like I'm flying!

Floor Bow pose. Not exactly as graceful as the example picture, but again, something to work toward.

This. This is the death pose. And I had to do it twice. Notice the look of complete and utter torture on my face. It was around this point that I gave up on my original plan and moved to a more beginner friendly game plan. Seriously, I had to barrel roll out of this and my back hurts just looking at the picture.

This is the Child's pose. I liked it. In fact, I stayed in this position for a little while. Long enough to make my mother ask me if I was ok. So relaxing.

Standing Forward Bend. I think I should work on my flexibility a bit. Not overly graceful.

 Wide-Legged Forward Bend C. This felt good too.

Butterfly pose. Glad to see I can still get my legs all the way down on the floor. The yoga pro in the picture couldn't even do that. I hung out in this pose for a long time too. Ahhhh...

Seated Straddle. Definitely not as intense as it should have been. I think my upper body is supposed to be down on the floor. Maybe someday.

 Head to Knee Pose A. This hurt more than I was expecting. Like, a lot. The back of my legs killed.

Bridge pose. I used to be able to do this much better. I could go back into a bridge while standing when I was in high school. Ah, those were the salad days.

Plow pose. This felt surprisingly good and was much easier to do than I was expecting.

Shoulderstand. I hope you all enjoy the shot of my butt. This also felt nice. I'd like to work on this one too.












And that was my yoga experience. For those of you who think yoga is all relaxation, you would be wrong. It takes a lot of core strength, which is something I'd like to work on, so some of these poses I will continue to use.

 So, although that almost happened to me, I enjoyed doing yoga (for the most part) and I will continue to do them, and hopefully work toward some of those more challenging poses.