xmas day hike with the dogs

Now that we are back home, we had a little walk with the dogs.... some pics...

Occidental Grand Xcaret

During our trip, we stayed at the Occidental Grand Xcaret, actually a really nice resort, maybe one of the nicest we have stayed at. While in Mexico, we visited the Xcaret park, dove in some local cenotes, climbed an ancient Mayan Temple (Coba) and won a beach volleyball tourney just hours before catching our plane home :)
check out some of our pictures here - once I am less sleep deprived, I will blog more about all of our experiences!

Chac Mool dec 2011

We travelled to Mexico for the first time this year, from Dec 17 to Dec 24. I'd have to say that the most amazing thing we did was dive in the cenotes. This is a network of underground rivers and caves running throughout the Yucatan penninsula. It was amazing. We dove in areas where there was NO natural light, the light in your hand was the only light you had. We popped up in an air pocket beneath some roots from the trees growing in the rocks over our heads. While we were in there, we heard the rumble of the other tour vans leaving the area, RIGHT OVER OUR HEADS! Carlos, our guide told us that the rock above us was probably about 5 feet thick. Amazing.

We had a really great time, we dove as a group of three, just the two of us with Carlos. I'd highly recommend him as a guide for the area, he took great care of us, even brought us lunch.
He knows so much about the area and the history - both geologic and cultural. I've got his contact info if anyone wants to look him up.

Breaking up with facebook?

Recently, I've begun thinking of breaking it off with facebook. Somehow, we've drifted apart. Maybe it's me, and not you, Facebook.... but I just don't feel as excited about our relationship anymore.
Really, the only thing that we do together anymore is email people I would already be in contact with on a regular basis. And, to be honest, I have other tools for that. I don't want to make you feel bad, but good old hotmail is fine for that.
I know, you're a pretty good place for posting pictures, that's right. But there are lots of other places I can post pictures that don't have marketing attached to the sidebars. There, I said it, I guess that's what bothers me most about you facebook... It's the corporate creepin' you have going on on the side. Kinda weirds me out.
In fact, there is a portion of my job that I'm told I can't do without a facebook account. Well, I draw the line there. There is no need for me to combine my facebook page and my job. And I'm not about to start a "legit" page that I can use for work. That's just too much work. And right now, my private page, that's my page, and it's not there for people from work to look at. I need some safe place, where I can be me... And facebook, you just don't seem like it anymore.

So, yeah, I am thinking of breaking it off with you. Once I collect all those emails from people, I guess it will be over.

from the 3:15 experiment

pushing forward and upwards
bit foggy
bermuda triangle? sometimes it feels like

I'm lost
sea tossed
and wind beaten

Fuzz inside my head
words escaping me

Overwhelmed

Need a glimpse of the light,
the beacon, that moment of clarity
to bring me back
Grounding me
Homeward
Back to what was never lost.

herd mentality

Toronto.
Rush hour.

I am crammed onto the narrow platform with countless other bodies.
Bodies, that’s all we are here

- there are very few minds present.


All trying to focus on something, somewhere or somewhen else.

We’re all working so hard to ignore the sound,
the sight,
the pressure
and the smell


of being packed together on this platform

with the bodies of so many



Strangers.


The train arrives
the mob bursts into the train, it’s every body for itself

Scrambling for a seat, a pole to grasp, an entry way to lean on,
or, at the very least a position between two other bodies that don’t smell too bodily

Still, all the while ignoring the humanity in bulk that surrounds us.

There are so many stories here.
So many individuals here.

So much angst, happiness, sickness, grief, anxiety, boredom, jealousy, struggle, loss, fear, success, hunger, sleeplessness, greed, sex, exasperation, imagination, paranoia, and...

loneliness.


It’s the overwhelming loneliness that gets me.

So crowded and so very lonely.

the 3:15 experiment

I have recently been working at my writing again, and while I was looking for inspiration, I found something called the 3:15 experiment. The premise is simple. Set your alarm for 3.15 - yes, that's am - and when it wakes you - write - it can be simple, long, stream of consciousness, anything.

So, I am trying to keep a log of these pieces, apparently part of the experiment is NOT going back to read the pieces, just to write them and be done with them. We'll see what transpires...