I almost never write posts that are exclusively about me. But when I read the “Whiska’s Facts,” a blog post written by a friend of mine, I felt inspired to do the same.  His post is amazing – a pilot’s license? Cycling in 10 different countries? It’s amazing what you find out about someone from a little list of facts that they choose to share.

Here are some lesser known Saver Queen facts. (Loyal readers may already know some of these.  Others may surprise you.)

Readers take note – I would love to hear from you, too – please share a fact about yourself that we might not know in the comments!

Saver Queen…

- started up her own animal rights organization along with her twin sister when she was 15.

- has hair that has been coloured green, purple, daffodil yellow, yellow with clown-red stripes, burgundy, black, and most recently, black underneath with purple stripes.  It’s been au naturel for the past 2.5 years.

- is kind of a geek. She likes sci-fi and games with expansion packs and loves her mac. She probably wouldn’t date a man who uses a PC or doesn’t like Star Trek and wouldn’t touch him with a 10 foot pole if he didn’t have a good understanding of the scientific method. (Maybe this qualifies her as a bigger geek than she thought.)

- has slept in a teepee on Salt Spring Island.

- has suffered from pretty severe phobias of 3 activities most people do every day.

- conducted 1/3rd of her graduate thesis research in the Middle East.

- sat by a man for hours as he breathed his last breaths and slowly died.

- lived in Oxford, England, studied for a year and participated in Oxford Union debates.

- does not own a television.

- thinks that the Magnetic Fields are one of the greatest bands of all time.

- spent 5 years entrenched in an underground music subculture, planning & going to shows, interviewing bands and co-writing a ‘zine (before the advent of blogs).

- has several secrets that she’ll never share on the blog.

- gets incredibly riled up and starts ranting when anyone mentions anti-vacationist crusaders, cults, or The Secret.

- lives with a chronic disease.

- has a regional circle of friends who are mostly mathematical, theoretical or “recovering” physicists, and hardly any of them are Canadian-born.

- has travelled to, and has friends living in, 11 different countries.

- used to have a boyfriend who is an award-winning Elvis Impersonator who is also 15 years her senior.

- is a somewhat talented artist, a pretty good cook, and a lover of wine, animals, and social justice.

I just finished watching Episode 10 of Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s “Princess.” Ever watch this show? I love it. It has a different flair from Till Debt Do Us Part. Gail helps the spoiled Princesses get more attuned to what they want in life and she helps them develop plans that centre around more significant life goals besides just looking good.  It’s interesting to watch as the girls (most of them, anyway) experience for the first time what it feels like to be financially responsible and responsible in other ways too. They gain more control over their lives and improve their relationships.  They begin to determine what’s important to them and develop plans to achieve short and long term goals.

In Episode 10, I was struck by an exercise that Gail gave Princess Cortney. Cortney was not a regular princess; most of her spending was not on tanning, fake eyelashes, botox injections and special needs dogs like most of the others. Cortney did love the expensive nightlife and boutique shopping, but her real indulgence was sports and travel.  She kayaked, played basketball, did yoga, played beach volleyball, went rock climbing, when to the gym, played on a frisbee team and paid a lot of money to be apart of all of these activities. She always packed every day of the week with activities and almost never took a night off.

So one of Gail’s challenges was to cancel plans for one week and spend her free time at home. Partly this challenge was about saving money but it was even more about giving Cortney a chance to reflect and breathe and become more attuned to herself, so she could realize that it’s good for the soul (and the budget) to stay home and relax. When Gail brought up this challenge though, Cortney immediately became angry and questioned the relevancy of this challenge.

I don’t think Cortney is unique in this regard… there are a lot of people out there who are terrified of being alone. Being alone is difficult, but Gail’s right, it’s important to be alone in order to self-reflect and also to feel safe in one’s own skin.  Being alone can be scary because sometimes emotions come up that we’d rather ignore. Being alone without distractions is even harder – it’s tough to resist the noise from the TV or a steady stream of information and contact from the internet.  But sometimes reading a book, going for a walk, or doing a single activity at once – playing with your cat or dog, cooking a meal – can provide the kind of rest we’re really craving.

I love packing my schedule with new and interesting activities – rock climbing, yoga, concerts, workshops, dinners with friends, shopping.  And I love my job because it is very social. But time alone is also very important to me. It helps me feel calm and centred.  When I don’t have enough time to contemplate my life, to rest and to just take my time, I start to feel overwhelmed and exhausted.

Being alone also helps me to determine who I am, what I want, and assimilate what I’ve accomplished or what I want to do differently.  I develop thoughts and ideas. I enjoy listening to scientific talks online, reading blogs and books, meal planning, and gazing at magazine pictures for creative inspiration in different forms.  Being alone gives my brain a chance to work out ideas and problems, and I like that. I think it helps me to develop new and different parts of me, in a creative, intellectual, and spiritual sense. Just as different social experiences add to who you are, so can being alone.

I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to start exploring the different trails in my city, but it has. After discovering the arboretum and booking a staff retreat hike at Starkey’s Hill, I ventured out for a Sunday trek on the Radius Trail. This path has a few different side trails which take you along the river and along some escarpment, but mostly this long path takes you through pine woods, which is refreshing change. I haven’t smelled pine needles in a long time. It smelled good, like winter.

Sometimes it’s hard to break out of routine. I’m a person who clings a lot to routine and I get a little unnerved when my routines are disrupted. This conflicts with my love for travel, adventure and spontaneity. You can see how these personality traits sometimes compete.  For the past year and a half or so I’ve been making more of an effort to break out of what I know and just explore, because experimenting is part of living a full life and it’s definitely necessary when you’re trying to meet new people and feel like you’re a part of a community. A recurring theme of this blog is to look a little deeper and go off the beaten path, because you’ll probably be surprised at how much goodness you find in your own backyard.

Here’s what I found in my back yard (or almost backyard – a 4 minute drive from my house.)

What exploring have you done lately?