And the Oscar Goes to . . .

I didn't actually think I'd watch the Oscars last night since I've lost interest in it over the years, but at 5:30 when it started . . . For the most part, I enjoyed the awards this year. I thought Ellen did a great job hosting. I really enjoyed her bits out in the audience with Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood. What made me laugh the hardest, however, was when Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt were presenting and taking about who was supposed to get Merryl Streep her cappuccino. Cut to Meryl Streep in the front row and the expression on her face is CLASSIC! I thought the men generally looked awesome in their tuxedoes, but not a lot of the women wowed me this year. Helen Mirren looked awesome, I loved Cate Blanchett's dress, Kate Winslet looked divine, and Maggie Gyllenhall looked great. I thought Jennifer Hudson looked wonderful (when she took off that stupid gold cropped jacket) and Jodie Foster didn't look too bad either. Oh, and I thought Emily Blunt looked fab too. Can't say I was thrilled with Anne Hathaway's getup, and I really didn't like Nicole Kidman's look, or Gwenyth Paltrow's outfit either. At 8 o'clock I did change channels and watch The Amazing Race, but I flipped back and forth and saw most of the major awards too. Way to go Jennifer Hudson for winning an Oscar for your very first movie! I was pleased that Helen Mirren and Forrest Whitaker won too. I haven't seen The Departed, but I've heard from many other people that it was awesome, so I'm sure it deserved to win Best Picture. All in all, a good evening.

Chinese New Year

Today at the mall where my sister works they had a Chinese New Year celebration. Stores had the option of hanging red envelopes containing money outside their stores and a Chinese dragon (which turned out to be a lion) would come around, collect the money, and bless the store. My sister's office took part and it was really cool! According to Yvonne, my sister's lovely Chinese coworker, I would share in the good luck since I was in the office during the blessing. None of us had cameras with us, but Yvonne and I both took pictures with our camera phones.
This is the best picture of the 5 I took. The lion was followed by some drummers, which you can see to the left of the lion. It was totally cool to watch the lion stretch upwards to reach the red envelope, which had lettuce attached to it. Then the lion threw lettuce at us and into the office for good luck. Way cool!

Sunday Summary

It's only Sunday morning so there isn't much to summarize yet, but I know what I will be doing today, so I thought I'd talk about that. First let me tell you about my knee . . . it's healing a little bit every day. I'm able to walk on it more and more, but I get tired more easily because my walk still isn't 100% back to where it was. So in my quest to go back to living my regular life yesterday, I went out with my best friend for lunch and then we did a bit of shopping (not a lot because a lot of standing around makes my knee hurt, and because it didn't take us long to find what we were looking for anyway). In the afternoon I stayed home and watched a couple of DVDs (Take the Lead with Antonio Banderas and Shall We Dance? with Richard Gere).

Today I will be going with my sister and brother-in-law to Maple Ridge to visit my dad for his birthday. His birthday isn't actually until Thursday the 22nd, but since that's the middle of the week, it's not practical for us to go then. We're also going to celebrate Chinese New Year by having Chinese food for lunch. I haven't had Chinese food for a while, so that should be good. Tonight is the season premiere of The Amazing Race so I'm looking forward to watching that too.

Woot woot!

Went to the doctor this morning and things turned out really well! When I told the doctor how much better my knee was feeling and how I felt like I could do more walking, he was really shocked, but pleased. The x-rays were normal, he said, and then he said that there was no reason why I couldn't go back to walking to work as long as I was careful (not about the knee necessarily, but about the neighbourhood)! May I reiterate . . . WOOT WOOT! As a result, I was able to walk to the bus stop this afternoon and take the bus the rest of the way home. Tomorrow morning I plan on walking to work. Life is good again!

Going to the Doctor

Well, in a couple of short hours I should be in the doctor's examining room to find out more about my knee. It is actually feeling much better than it was last week at this time. I feel like it has more mobility, it's not aching as much towards the end of the day, and my limp is disappearing as I'm able to walk more and more naturally. It's obviously still not 100%, but it's feeling so much better already that I really, really, really want to believe that it will heal on its own over the next few weeks. I don't know if that's a realistic wish or not, but there you have it. I've been trying to keep off my leg as much as possible, particularly in the past couple of days when I've been feeling better and wanting to walk more. I don't want to overdo it right now and set my recovery back. I mostly want the doctor to tell me today that it's okay for me to walk to work again in the mornings. That's been the biggest pain (and cost) of all - taking a cab to work every morning! I'm glad I live as close as I do and I've only had to pay around $8 a day, but still, it's added up fast! I can take the bus home from work more easily than I can to work, so I'll still be able to rest my leg a bit. Lovely blog readers, keep your fingers crossed for me today! I'll post again tonight and let you know what the doctor said!

Happy Heart Day

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I hate this holiday. I have never had a boyfriend on Valentine's Day and that just makes me feel like crap. Then I feel like crap for feeling like crap. This year I feel terrible because I usually get valentine cards for my students (sometimes little treats too) and this year I couldn't make it to the store because of my knee. At least one of the other junior teachers is bringing treats for her students, so now I feel really bad. All because of my stupid knee!!!!!!!!!!

The other night I started thinking about getting an MRI. I've never had one before (I've been quite healthy and relatively injury-free all my life, so my visits to the hospital have been minimal), but I've seen them done many times on tv shows like House and E.R. If the MRI is actually like what I've seen on those shows, it scares me a bit. Not the actual test itself, but having to lie still in such a small space for the duration of the test! I get chills just thinking about it! I really must be a bit claustrophobic because when I stop to think about it, it totally freak me out! I guess, if and when I ever get this MRI, I'll have to tell myself to just relax and breathe.

6 Weird Things About Me

I've seen this meme on several other blogs and I enjoyed all the little details I've learned about those people, so I'm doing one of my own.

One
I have this funny habit of talking to myself. You may not think that's weird, and normally I would agree, but it's gone beyond just talking to myself. I answer myself too. I also narrate the things I'm doing, particularly at work. It's not at all unusual to hear me say something along the lines of, "okay, I'm going to make 10 copies of this grammar package, then I'll send that e-mail to X, and now I'm looking for that worksheet I need for language arts class . . ." I have to tell the people around me to tell me to shut up once in a while or I won't stop!

Two
I once went to a Star Trek convention dressed in a costume. I'd do it again. 'nuff said.

Three
When I was younger one of my favourite snacks was a mustard sandwich. Not a sandwich with mustard on it, but a piece of break with nothing but mustard. Yummy!

Four
I'm 20-something years old and I've never had a drop of alcohol to drink. I never intend to drink alcohol either.

Five
I do not like the movies Bambi or Dumbo. I find them both incredibly boring.

Six
I am a teacher, but I have not yet developed an addiction to coffee. I'll have the occasional cup, particularly if I feel a headache coming on or if I'm really tired, but usually weeks can go by before I pour myself another cup of coffee.

My poor knee

Went to the doctor this morning. He believes that I've ruptured some cartilage and sent me for an X-ray. He says I need an MRI too, which with the state of our health care here in Canada right now, I will likely have to wait up to a year for. For now I'll be limping around a lot, and I may get some crutches next week. I have to go back and see the doctor next week, so hopefully things will become more clear then. Right now I'm not amused.

Sun Run Training Week 1

Once again this year, I'm doing the Sun Run. This year I'm actually training beforehand because I'm doing it with my mom and she really wants to train. Today, in the rain, wind, and near-freezing temperatures, we walked from Royal Oak Skytrain Station and Edmonds Skytrain Station (for those of you not from the Lower Mainland, keep reading as I'll be giving you actual numbers in a moment!). The walk took about an hour, roundtrip. Based on what I know about how fast I can walk and the distance I can cover, I estimated that we'd walked about 4 km. I was wrong. It was closer to 4.5! I felt good afterwards and I'm still not at all sore (yet! We'll seee how I feel tomorrow morning!) I still think setting the right pace is key. Anyway, before that walk I had spent a good 25 minutes walking in New Westminster (different story), so I'm guessing I walked about 2 km then. I suppose walking to and from work everyday has really done me good as even after mom and I stopped walking I felt as though I could have gone on much longer! We stopped for a couple of reasons . . . both of us had to go pee, it was really rainy and cold and we were getting pretty wet, and we were getting hungy! We had a good lunch of homemade soup and toast made by my stepfather - thanks Howie! Anyway, we're going to walk again next Sunday, and if the weather is decent we'll go down to the dikes in Delta and walk along the water. At this rate we should be in good shape for the April 15th Sun Run!

EDIT: It's now Tuesday morning (this post was originally made on Sunday night) and I haven't felt a bit sore from the long walk on Sunday. Things are looking good!