Go Big or Go Bust: Day 229 (Getting over the No-Pain-No-Gain mentality and having some Fun with Julie Clark Shubert)

I still remember the morning thirty odd years ago when my dear old dad, who had choked down Shredded Wheat for breakfast for much of his life, learned that this cereal was virtually devoid of nutritional value.  "I figured anything that tasted that bad must be good for you!"  It seems that I've managed to incorporate his "no pain, no gain" fixation: I generally feel most comfortable killing myself with work. 

So it was with complicated feelings that I decided to seize the opportunity to have some fun and hangout with a musician who has been more than generous in letting me use her song in my videos.  The irrepressible Julie Clark Shubert (whose wonderful song "I Want To Know You" is the soundtrack to this video about The GypsyNesters must-read book) is in town.

Soon after Julie arrived, we set off and have been walking and talking all day.  First stop was to visit Louise Log musician and Etsy star Emily Spray's table at a street fair where Julie scored a hat:

We then headed downtown to give Julie a taste of Soho and Little Italy, ending up in Chinatown where we took a break for a lunch of Chow Fun at Hop Kee followed by foot massages.:

In spite of my protests that the sun was in the wrong place for a picture, Julie insisted on this shot with the Hudson River at the 3.5 mile mark.

We made it back to my place in what Google Maps calculated as 3.9 miles.  OH yeah.  And Julie's just announced that 'cooking and dancing' is next on the agenda.  I want to rally.  I want to be a good sport.  My only anxiety is that I may miss dinner, fast asleep in bed.  Fun is exhausting. 

Go Big or Go Bust: Day 136 (workaholic in withdrawal in Calgary)

I was not built for vacations. Naturally, I'm trying to be a good sport about it all and repressing my true self.  But Mr. Green is not so constrained and summed it up nicely (speaking for himself): "I look at my keys fondly and think of my other life." 

If this weren't our only chance to see these flown-away 20-something children, wild horses couldn't have dragged me from my desk for this long. Yes, yes, I know 'time off is important". I'll give you one or two days. Going on two weeks is a little much. 

Anyway, it stopped raining today and we got to take a look at Calgary, the biggest city in Alberta where the sky is huge and with incredibly complicated patterns of clouds.

There are some crazy contrasts in this city.

This dirt road (flanked in gorgeous fragrant lilacs I managed to miss in the photograph) is right in the city, not ten minutes from downtown. (Note: Early June is lilac season and they are all over the place in white, lavender and deep purple and perfuming the city.)

After lunch, in Chinatown.

Man hole cover - I guess they're trying to make light of what the North wind feels like here in the winter. 

Smart and very funny friend-of-friends blogger Una Lamarche's book UNABROW (above, blue shirt) was right there on the NEW & HOT table in the bookstore on Stephen Avenue. 

We stumbled on this great place, Bite, in a cool neighborhood called Inglewood.  It's like Dean & Deluca but without the attitude and on a much smaller and friendlier, hand-made scale.

Those orange things are on a moving freight train which goes right into the city.  I was told that sometimes these trains can be several miles long.  (italics not ennabled in comments or there'd be plenty of them in this caption)