Spring – Rant and Roll

Sunday Night Confessions

1. It’s completely ridiculous how much I love this music video.

Which has me a little worried.

Because it seems as though the older I get, the more my musical tastes regress.

Now, I’m no scientist, but I feel like I used to have some pretty some solid street cred when it came to my everyday jams, and then I turned twenty-five and everything started to go to pot, and now I use terms like “my everyday jams.”

And now, with every passing year, I find myself more and more, drawn to manufactured, heavily-produced sugary schlock.

And by schlock I mean SOLID GOLD.

God I love this stuff so much it feels criminal.

(I probably listened to this song thirty times on loop this morning. Half the time lip-synching like a fiend, and the other half dancing about like a madwoman.)

At least when it comes to Tom Hanks, my love for him will never die, nor shall I ever be ashamed to proclaim this affection.

It doesn’t matter how many terrible movies he makes, or how many times he doesn’t get the hilarious jokes in a Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Golden Globes opening monologue – the power of A League of Their Own, The Burbs, That Thing you Do, and Forrest Gump will live on, ad infinitum.

At least, scientifically speaking.

2. One of my first major celebrity crushes was on Jeremy Taggart, the drummer from Our Lady Peace.

This probably means little to most of you reading this blog, but those Canadians who remember our country’s late nineties music scene, or at the very least spent some portion of their lives watching Much Music, are all probably thinking, “Really!? Him?”

Yes, yes, we all know that Mr. Rain Maida was the sulky, skulking sexy frontman (of what had to be one of the best representations of what we now think of as a “90s band”) but even as a fourteen year-old I was always one to buck aesthetic trends, and go for the outliers.

I mean what can I say? The guy had one set of rocking nerd glasses!

My teenage hormones never stood a fighting chance.

3. I always weirdly hoped that Britney Spears and Kevin Federline would make it.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

4. I was quite sick last weekend and couldn’t run for about a week. The first time out after being laid-up by illness, I always concoct insane survival scenarios, and pretend that I’m in an Armageddon action movie, wherein I have to run as fast as I can to the secret CIA bunker because I am the last remaining top-secret operative trained in nuclear bomb disarmament.

The survival of the entire western seaboard is contingent on my success!

Normally this leads to me running so hard I feel as though my lungs are on fire and the only way I can put out the flames is by ralphing them right up.

(My lungs that is.)

But goodness knows I always make it to that bomb.

Just in the nick of time.

5. Spring is in the air.

I can feel it in my heart.

…

See more snaps of my madcap adventures on my new Instagram! Follow me @Vanessaisrunning.

Straight to the point

Some snaps from around the block:

Tulips.

Smelling the flowers.

Morrocan eats.

Business cat.

Saturday morning.

I think I forgot to mention it earlier, but last Thursday I was a presenter at Rain City Chronicles. I told the story of my bonkers journey down the wedding aisle. It was a fabulous night of story and song, and I feel super honoured to have had the chance to contribute to this great Vancouver arts event.

In family news, this past weekend my sister came to town for an (all too brief) visit. I was so excited because on Friday she finally got to come see one of my gigs. It was the first time that she and her betrothed got to see me on stage, doing my joke thing.

I also got to interview her last night on Vancouver Co-op Radio. If you want to listen to the show, you can do so here.

This week it is much of the same – stand-up tomorrow and Wednesday, some volunteer work, and hopefully many opportunities to run about in the sunshine.

What about you all?

For my part, I hope all of you are awash in beauty and light.

Love in the little things

Things that I love.

Marc’s cold hairy knees pressing into the backs of my (warm, hairless) knees, as we spoon together at night.

That first sip of vanilla latte – all sweet steamed milk, espresso and foam.

Finally smelling spring in the air.

The funny way my big sister always says, “Oh hellooooo” at the beginning of our Skype calls.

Short sundresses.

Telling a joke and then pausing, so to let the audience’s laughter wash over me, like a wave made out of happiness.

Managing the trifecta of hair removal – leg shave, armpit shave, brow pluck – ALL IN ONE GO.

When my little sister calls me WAWA.

Finally watching 30Rock.

My poppy-red coat that makes me feel like Paddington Bear.

Kitten kisses.

Cleaning the shower REALLY WELL (and then using it right away.)

Eating chocolate covered cinnamon buns.

Sprinting so hard until I feel as though the only way to put out the fire in my lungs is to barf them right up.

My mum’s broken sarcasm detector. (“Oh that’s not true…IS IT!?”)

Looking at myself in the mirror and thinking I look really pretty today.

Laughing with friends until I think I am going to pee my pants.

Quoting Arrested Development, The Big Lebowski, A Fish Called Wanda, Rushmore, Love Actually, and Mean Girls all the gosh-darned time.

She doesn’t even go here…

Having a mad dance party in my underwear, in a Top Shop change room because the song playing at that very moment was just too good not to.

Boardwalk brunches.

This.

My brilliant friends.

My amazing family.

My beautiful man.

You.

Never forget.

Always, always you.

The nostalgia is strong with this one

Happy Friday you fab chaps!

Okay, first things first.

Can we all agree on the absolute awesomeness of this song?

I actually cannot stop listening to it. All this writing about my teenage years must have flipped a switch somewhere deep inside of me, because I have been rocking out to all the sweet tunes from yesteryear ALL THE LIVE-LONG DAY.

Now, if someone could just pass me my flared jeans and mini backpack, I’ll be off to get us some brown lipstick and giant silver hair clips.

OH BABY.

Secondly, look what I purchased last night:

I cannot even remember the last time I had Popsicle sticks! I will be making these delicious, frozen noms all summer long.

I don’t know about you all, but I am much more a fan of the yogurt pop, than the traditional juice based treat, but I’m open to any tasty suggestions you might have when it comes to the art of the Popsicle.

HIT ME UP YO!

Finally, things are just racing by, I’m having a hard time catching my breath or keeping my balance.

I went for a short run today after work, the first since my race this past weekend.

I felt great – my legs felt strong and my cardio easy. The only tiredness I experienced was just every-day, normal, “I woke up at six and worked all day before strapping on my runners” fatigue.

Speaking of flipped switches, the weather these past few days has been so unbelievably beautiful. I can smell spring in the air, and feeling the warmth of the sun on my winter-kissed limbs is a joy of which I will never, ever tire.

Tonight I am doing a show downtown, and then it is off to fete my brilliant friend Emily of Well Fed, Flat Broke on her spectacular thirty years on this great big ball of green and blue.

I am also hoping that Marc and I will have a chance to go see Jurassic Park this weekend, as well as have ample time to run about outside, like the two sun-starved children that we are.

Barbeques may also be included.

I cannot wait.

What is on all your agendas for the next two days?

I hope that whatever it is, the sweet spring sun will be shinning down on all of you.

Things are looking a little brighter around here

Happy first day of spring my lovelies!

We are, of course, still freezing our collective buns off out here on the West Coast of British Columbia, but hey, we made it through the wilds of winter (on paper, at the very least), and as such, are ready to embrace the warm, wet, winds of spring!

(Should they ever arrive.)

Hmmm, the combination of warm, wet and embrace sounds a little terrible doesn’t it? I feel like I’ve described the new season like I would a one-piece bathing suit, post-dip.

Eeeeeyuck.

Somebody get me some brain bleach.

Scrub, scrub, scrub.

Moving on!

SO.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been working really hard at taking it easy. I went for a massage on Monday in order to deal with some tightness in my upper back and right hamstring, and yesterday, I made the important choice to rest, instead of running, when I arrived home after work.

I KNOW IT HAS ONLY BEEN LIKE, FOUR DAYS, SINCE I’VE STARTED WORKING ON THIS WHOLE BEING KIND TO MYSELF THING, BUT!

I am already feeling a heck of a lot better.

Let’s just see if I can keep this up.

There are so, so many things coming down the pipe over the next few months and I just want to write all about them here and now, but ACK. I cannot.

And it’s killing me.

But soon, my precious(ES).

SOON.

In the interim, here are some snaps from MAD CENTRAL (population: 3) that we’ve taken of late:

Turret.

Art.

Pre-dinner walk.

Kitten dance.

Oh good grief. Are we the absolute worst?

YOU ALL KNOW HOW MUCH WE LOVE NYMERIA!

Either way I just cannot help myself…because, well, it’s just too funny.

Happy Wednesday you beauties!

I’ll leave you with a little something from the master (Keats) of the spring verse:

Open afresh your round of starry folds,

Ye ardent marigolds!

Dry up the moisture from your golden lids,

For great Apollo bids

That in these days your praises should be sung

On many harps, which he has lately strung;

And when again your dewiness he kisses,

Tell him, I have you in my world of blisses:

So haply when I rove in some far vale,

His mighty voice may come upon the gale.