Did anybody go, or hear anything about this peace march that was supposedly happening yesterday? I wrote a piece (a piece on peace, heh heh) on it for Global Voices earlier this week.

(Yeah I know, that crack was lame, but I am too tired right now to be sensible).

This week has been all about the birthday, which was actually yesterday. My boyfriend has been working to a frenzy to try make sure this week is great. Every day is something else.

The birthday was spent having my meals custom prepared, from a special birthday omelette for breakfast in bed, to homemade pork patties (that’s right I said pork), to a big dinner for the family. After stuffing myself all day, I headed to a local live music venue where I’d invited people to join me to chill and have an easy evening. 

At the end of the day (night) I felt warm and fuzzy from the attention and love of my friends and family. The week still has a few more days to go, but I have had a happy birthday so far.

• Meals in bed: 1
• Voicemails: 1
• Wrapped gifts: 3
• Emails: 3
• Birthday songs: 4
• Facebook messages: 5
• Phone calls: 6
• Text messages: 7
• IM greetings: 14
• Facebook wall wishes: 74

Interesting observations on use of technology in celebrating birthdays. This year the shift towards Facebook was dramatic so I decided to track the numbers and share with you all.

I dragged myself out again this morning. Rubbed my eyes to make sure they were actually open since I could see nothing. I made it to the pool to the shock of my coach who thought I might have wussed out already. Even more surprised were those people who didn’t know I’d been there last week. They looked like they’d seen a ghost. 

Progress was made. I swam even more than last time though my mind went blurry trying to keep count. I suspect I did about 1200m this time. My timed swim was a bit worse than last time but since i had done more distance I didn’t worry about it. I was exhausted by the end of it but my strokes are looking good. Apparently I “look good for an old-timer”.

Mentally I feel alive and awake though I know my body will crash in a few hours. Trying to see if I can make it to 5pm at the office. Two days down, so many more to go.

Many things in life involve making sacrifices. When it comes to starting an exercise program, thos sacrifices play a huge part in keeping it up. We sacrifice time, we sacrifice other activities (like sleep ), we sacrifice spending the time with other people etc.It can also provide fodder for conversations and jokes after the fact. 

A partner makes these sacrifices seem easier, if only because we like to share our misery. It helps to know that someone else is sacrificing when we are. It can also provide fodder for conversations and jokes after the fact. But having a fitness partner helps to keep you accountable. You would have to explain to someone why they must go when you stay home to sleep. 

Most people are also competitive and don’t like to look like failures which if you have a standing partner as witness is a possibility of you give up. 

So far having a partner in my endeavours has proven to be very useful, and is definitely helping to convince me to get up before the sun when I would rather roll over and go back to sleep.