I'm cheap and I hate moobies, but I've got new shoes!

It is Tuesday, April 6th as I write this, but I honestly don’t know when it will actually get posted. I’ve being having problems with the internet connection all day. It taunts me with five minutes of connectivity and then it crashes. Part of the problem is that I ‘permanently borrow’ an internet connection from someone in my building. Well, I call it ‘permanently borrowing’ but I believe the internet providers would call it ‘stealing’. Potato, pota... oh, that doesn’t really work when you type it out. For the most part, this hasn’t really been an issue: I use very little bandwidth when I’m online and I don’t download anything which would be noticed by someone else. But then there’s a day like this when there’s obviously a problem and the actual registered user of the modem is most likely out. I can’t very well call up Shaw and tell them I think there’s a problem in one of the apartments. That’s a phone call that can only end badly.

It’s not that I’m against paying for the internet, it’s more of the fact that I’m cheap. Why pay when I can get it for free? I blame it on my Scottish half. Here’s how ingrained it is into the Scottish psyche to be cheap: I was adopted at birth and raised in an Irish family; I never knew anything about my birth parents until a little over a year ago when I finally decided to request my live birth certificate (which includes the information of your biological parents); I was 28 years old when I found out that my biological father was Scottish (my biological mother was Irish) and yet I’ve been using the term ‘permanently borrow’ since I was a teenager. I didn’t even know I was ½ Scottish and I was still cheap!

It was a busy weekend for me. On top of parent's returning from overseas, and a night out with my stepmom and baby brother, and family functions for Easter, I turned thirty this past weekend. Thirty!! Despite being one of those birthday's that women everywhere are supposed to dread, I'm really happy to be thirty. I can't quite explain it but there's some sense of accomplishment at having reached this age. I've done it; I've arrived. Screw you, twenty-somethings with your over-done face make-up, perfectly styled hair, and skirts with less material than my bra, I'm thirty, and proud, and I'm going to wear my sweatpants to the grocery store, dammit! The only downside to getting older (so far) is the realisation that I can't wear high heels when my calf is sore and then go for a run the next morning. It was very, very painful. As a friend commented "Welcome to your thirties; start buying ointment."

For my birthday, I treated myself to some new running shoes: the Asics Gel-Fortitude 3 (right). It's pretty much love... until I get another new pair in a few months. I went to FrontRunners and went through the whole rigamarol of getting fitted. It has been at least three years since I last did and after the fiasco of my last purchase, I figured a fresh start with shoes was in order. The guy helping me was very thorough and knowledgable, and I was feeling pretty happy that I had a smart and very attractive sales rep until I realised two things: 1) he's married, 2) he has fairly sizable moobies for someone who's so fit. I am well aware that the second point is really shallow but moobies freak me out, like, moving-scarecrow freak me out. Still, I pushed past my own personal issues, avoided both eye contact and chest region for the remainder of my time there, and after trying five different pairs, I came back to the Asics. I'm scared to run in them because they're so shiny and clean. I don't want to ruin that.

My next purchase will be hiking boots so I can make sure they're properly broken in before we head off. I checked out a few stores while I was in town today (and by 'a few stores', I mean MEC) to get an idea of prices and what to look for. I'm a bit intimidated by the hiking boots mainly because I really have no idea what makes a good hiking boot. It because clear today while talking to the very nice and informative lady, that I will need to do some research online so I am better prepared to sound like I know what I'm doing next time I go in. For example, there's a difference between day hiking boots and multi-day hiking boots... I had no idea! It has to do with the construction of them to take your body weight or your body weight + a 50lbs backpack. But if you're doing a relatively flat multi-day hike (say, the Juan de Fuca or the West Coast Trail), you could possibly get away with a day hiking boot (which are usually cheaper).

I'm starting to think I should just let the moving scarecrow get me.