Winning the life-long lottery
On Thursday, my company had a golf tournament which was supposed to be a nice, get out of the office and do some team bonding type of event. It was sooo much fun. Everyone was very outgoing and the pro golfers were very patient with us not so pro golfers. Some of my co-workers even bought me drinks out on the golf course... I do believe it improved my swings aside from making things more fun.
Anyways, after the dinner and after the door prizes were drawn, some
of my co-workers - the more high level ones- were saying that they didn't really care about choosing a good prize even if their names were drawn first. What really got me interested was that one of the ladies said she doesn't care about winning because she had already won the life-long lottery. I was curious so I asked her what she was talking about, and she explained that her life-long lottery was finding the perfect partner. She and her husband have been together since they were 19. I have seen pictures of her 2 daughters and they are really beautiful. She gives credit to the good gene pools :) Of course, that story had my heart melting. It's so cute. I hope I get just as lucky!
I told Amber that story and she was like, "I know, my grandparents have been together for 50 years! It's sweet." And for the rest of the lunch break we gushed about finding life-long companions. :)
Mt. Baldy
Alan and I went hiking on Sunday. We were supposed to hike the Wasootch Creek Trail but ended up on the Baldy Pass Trail. It was a good hike though, not as steep as Mt. Indefatigable but I can say that my butt is a little sore from the climb. Don't expect great scenery until you get near the top though. You'll be walking mostly through trees and a bit through some shale, but it's really peaceful at the top and you get to see a wide valley covered with trees on one side. We only ran into 7 people altogether going up and half of those people were on mountain bikes coming down from the other side of the mountain.
My New Hobby
I don't know how to explain this but of late, I have grown to love the outdoors and to lead a more active life. Maybe it was because a co-worker was constantly mocking me over donuts and candy that it is easier to prevent health risks than to reverse them. Or maybe it was because I see other co-workers riding their bikes to work everyday or going for runs at lunch and them telling me about their great trips to the mountains, hiking, biking and scrambling. It could be because I needed a challenge, a lifestyle change or a new hobby to keep me out of trouble. Whatever it is, I hope it'll stick. I bought a new mountain bike last week and I'm excited to see where it'll take me. And in a couple of weeks, I'll get to go camping... something that I've been waiting to do all summer.
Hopefully, next summer, Liz and I will both be back in Canada so that we can do the West Coast Trails together. I always thought she was a crazy one talking about her first trip last year and living out of a backpack for a week. But now I see it differently. It sounds like a wonderful idea. I remember when she took me hiking on Mt. Indefatigable. I thought I wasn't going to make it physically, but it really clears your mind out when all you have to concentrate on is making it up the mountain. And in the end, after you've pushed your body to work so hard, you actually feel good!
What's more encouraging is having so many people available to help me explore this newfound passion. My boss came into work from vacation with 26 stitches in her leg from a biking accident but that doesn't really scare me. It's got me really curious to know what it's like to be riding in the mountains, to love it through the scars.
And I got Alan to help me pick a bike and to take me out for some test rides. We explored some bike paths in Calgary and found a really pretty park called Pearsons Estates I think. Something both Alan and I never knew existed in Calgary. Oh and we also saw some pelicans on the Bow River and some snakes on the pathways and we found a fish hatchery. Exploring is pretty cool, I love it!
