Single geeky female... fitness fanatic?

I read in an article just before I left New Zealand about how people on their OE get a little… lets be P.C. and say rounder. Every time I've been to the States I have put on weight, especially the extremely memorable trip a couple of years ago when I was stateside for four months. On that occasion I came home with more than just wonderful memories & great stories. Something like an extra 5 kilograms or so, maybe a few more if I try that pesky honesty thing again. This trip I am nowhere near the four month mark. Hell, we aren't even at the two month mark & already I'm not happy with what I'm seeing in the mirror or how awkward it is getting those jeans on! It has been a running joke of the trip, that every time someone sees a photo of me I am eating something, and while I've definitely been enjoying all of the amazing food, I know that I haven't been doing anywhere near enough of the other stuff, you know, the exercise and healthy eating to balance out the 'treats' I've been allowing myself. 

So today I've decided. Now I know that this trip, this OE is already a game changer. I'm doing this trip for the experience, to learn new things, experience something vastly different to what I know & to grow as a person. Not to grow into a larger - fat - version of myself! Because of that I thought why not? Why not do something that if I was braver I would have admitted I wanted to try a long time ago, something that will, hopefully, "kill two birds with the one stone". Why not challenge the voice in my head telling me I can't do it, or that I'll have to admit to failure - something I hate to do, and that makes my hands clench just thinking about it. I want to "try", I have to use that works as I really am going into this one not knowing if it will work.

I want to run. 

To bike for more than 5 kilometers. 

At this point you might be thinking, depending on how well you know me, variations on "that isn't so hard" or "she has finally gone crazy". I know that I have done some biking over the past twelve months, but I want to be able to accomplish something that I set myself to. Be able to ride for longer than half an hour without feeling like I might die! Prove that I can set my mind to a fitness goal and achieve it. Now I know that will be easier said than done. I have asthma and I think have so often used that as a crutch over the years. An excuse to get out of things, even to myself as reasons why I shouldn't or couldn't run, or even exercise in general. I also am really good at making those excuses to myself, "You went to the gym yesterday so you don't have to today" or the one that even I don't really believe when I'm thinking it "Of course the calories from this cookie/chocolate/fried anything don't count" 

Right now if I gave my all I could probably run for two minutes before having to stop, really stop, heaving for breath not just slowing down. You may think I'm underestimating things somewhat, but sadly I'm really not. I think it would be quite fitting to set the goal that, by the end of this eighteen months trip I want to be able to run eighteen kilometres. Hell I want to be able to run eighteen miles. I think that this is setting myself quite a long term goal, and again, this distance is probably something that many of you could already do, or don't consider that it would take so long to achieve. But for me, for Becky Walsh, unlikely exerciser definitely-not-extraordinaire its gonna be bloody hard work. I have started a little bit. Four days at the gym last week, but I think its probably better if I give myself an official start date. An official point that I'll put on my calendar as the day I stop trying to make fitness excuses. I think it would be kinda cool to make it November 1st. I know I'll remember it, and it gives me a fresh start in a fresh month. After all I never was one for being traditional, who wants to have a resolution at the beginning of the year anyway? 

I will definitely be joining a gym and working out as many times as I can in a week, I want to try zumba and see if the personal training sessions my best friend raves about are all they're cracked up to be. I am still so excited to be getting out there and seeing as much as I can of my newly adopted homeland for the next eighteen months, but really as well as that, I want to run. To be able to try all those experiences that I would otherwise say I wouldn't be able to do. To hike, horse ride, to build the stamina and strength in my own body and be proud of what I achieve. Even if after all that I still feel like those damn pants don't look as good as they should, well I just don't know, I hope I will still be pretty damn proud of myself! 

So what do you think guys? Achievable or have I really bitten off more than I can chew this time? Either way I'm pretty excited for the next few months! 

Single Geeky Female .. Spends a weekend at a Supernatural Convention (Part 1)

The trip to Dallas this year was something I had been so excited about for a few reasons. Partly because it was the official start to my adventuring, I had never been to Texas, hadn't been to anywhere in the US other than the West Coast. More importantly to me, our main reason for heading to Texas was to attend another Supernatural fan convention. I don't pretend to be anything other than a giant geek, wouldn't even try too (nobody would believe me!!) but Supernatural has always been a very special show for me. It started when I was 19, I had been a fan of many different genre shows and movies up to that point but this was the first show that really gripped me when I was an adult. I had money, more independence - although I still lived at home - so I had more means to embrace my inner geek in a way that I couldn't have before. 

By the time I was 21 I was in a job I loved, working for a book retailer - the same one that I have only recently left - and combining that with my ever present poor impulse control I ended up, while at work one morning, buying non-refundable tickets to my very first convention - on the other side of the world. I even managed to convince my then sixteen year old little sister to come along with me. That trip was the first time I had travelled abroad without an adult, first time that I had been the responsible one, and of course, first time that I attended a full-on genre convention. I can unequivocally state that it changed my life. Without that trip, that moment of insanity when I first booked the tickets, without meeting the friends, best friend, that I met there, without having that amazing experience - I wouldn't have had the confidence to do any of the other traveling that I've done since. Or if I had I'm sure it would have been at a much slower, more safe-boring-Becky pace, certainly not another trip less than six months later! As it was it has quickly became routine to go to a convention every year and after having been to Vancouver for the last 3 years, Dallas was going to be an exciting change of scenery, as well as being the home city for one of the shows stars. 

Dallas in September, I am reassured, isn't as hot as Dallas in July or August - but even so, for a girl from New Zealand who normally travels to equally temperate locations, it was hot. And not just "Oh how lovely and warm" warm, more "How does anyone function here?" hot! It was quite a shock to get off the plane from Seattle, immediately the temperature change hit me. It's the kind of dry heat that we just don't get at home - and I'm pretty sure I haven't ever sweat as much in my life as that weekend! The hotel we were staying in was outside Downtown Dallas, about a half an hours drive north. The city, from the small section of it I saw on that drive, mostly of the freeway, showed a city that was very much built up commercial space, highways and strip malls. When we finally did make it to the hotel, I started to think about the most important things - was there a pool? Yes - I never ended up using it but thats another matter entirely. Did the air conditioning work? Too well - but once again that's another story. Which leaves the other most important thing - especially during a convention weekend - what was going to be for dinner?. Meals once the Convention weekend gets underway usually end up being few & far between, especially if, as often happens, you end up in a hotel room without a mini-fridge & far away from any local amenities. Dinner is usually the one meal that I tend to be most enthusiastic for and the best part of it is that we got to go out and experience some truly wonderful Texan food, including TexMex that first night. I have had the Pacific North West version of Mexican food but TexMex certainly seems, at least to my pallet, to be far spicier!!. 

Now you've probably already guessed that this isn't going to be a specific con report like some of those I have eagerly read on Superwiki (these will provide you with far more info that I could ever hope too: http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Supernatural_Wiki) I wish that I could be one of those people who take notes during panels, but for the most part I'm usually so busy laughing, groaning, cheering or occasionally wincing at the questions and replies that I am never able to focus on anything else! Thursday night, post the really amazing but really hot food - which taught me another important lesson, that I really cannot handle even the food termed "mild" - we went to take advantage of the early-check-in being offered by Creation. It turned out that this was a really good decision but more on that later. It is one of those funny things, being at a Creation Con. Its always hurry up and wait, we never turn up early enough to be at the start of the line, but are usually early enough that we don't end up spending more than a couple of hours in line. Its also wonderful how many people in the line have come so far, or not, to go to these gatherings. While I think the vast majority of the people attending this convention did come from either Texas or at least the Southern States, it also makes me feel better to know that their are so many others, like me, who have flown half way around the world to show their love for this program. Fangirls, and an amazing turn out of fanguys - which may be unique to Texas - are a friendly bunch and I have forged many enduring friendships over the past four years in the various weekend lines! 

Friday morning, after deciding not to turn any alarms on, since we had already gotten our entry wristbands & lanyards & so didn't have to queue again to get in, the first panel wasn't until 1pm, we woke up and I had more than a small amount of panic to discover that it was almost 12. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm the kind of girl who panics when she feels like she's running late - I hate to be late, and after my amazing, extremely embarrassing experience at VanCon last year I was determined to be on time. I should also mention how this keenness & determination on my part perhaps comes off a little bit crazy & dare I say it unhinged. At least given my roommates reactions that's how I would suggest it appears to others. Sufficing to say, we made it down there on time - just, me rushing around like a headless chicken & my friends calmly readying themselves for the day. It was a comparatively short one as Fridays go, there were only the two guest scheduled to have panels. Chad Lindberg & Gabriel Tigerman. There was also of course the always amazing karaoke party but that wasn't due to start until 10.30pm. Even though I had seen both guys before, in fact there weren't any scheduled guests that I hadn't seen already, it is always so amazing to be there amongst your fellow fans & you never know what they are going to say - or do at a con! 

Chad Lindberg - as seen between fellow attendees 

One of my favourite panels at any convention is Chad Lindberg's, he is one of my all time favourite convention guests, not because he's particularly funny or crazy - that would be Sebastian Roche - but Chad, like Jim Beaver is one of those guys who I could listen to talk all day. I just love his quirkiness, and how cool he is. Anyway I gush. Perfect way to start a Convention off!! 

Gabe - Gabriel Tigerman - came on shortly after & he is a blast. He was only in two episodes of the show but he is FUNNY, especially when he is telling us all about his cotton ball phobia (?!) & I have a special soft spot for him since he's the very first celebrity that my sister and I ever officially met. It was at an autograph signing in the merchandise room during the Los Angeles Con, Lissy & went so red and he was very sweet, it was a very cool moment. The main thing that stays with me during a Gabe panel is that we laugh. Like out loud, falling over, going red, side hurting laughing. Do any of the specifics stick with me now, several weeks later? Not so much, but like I said - I'm never going to be that person who can do the blow by blow accounts! One of the other main highlights of that panel that does stick in the mind was the sudden appearance of Matt Cohen, wearing rather loud shorts and a tank top. Now Matt appearing wearing jeans & a shirt would have been exciting enough, but just the wonder that was the print of those pants - it was clearly overwhelming for the audience, myself included!

Gabe Tigerman

One of the best parts of a Supernatural Convention for me are the Karaoke parties. Yes, they usually run late and are held when I normally I just want to be sleeping & no, I would never think of getting on stage with a mic myself but I seriously love just being one of the crowd. Everyone is pushing ever closer to the stage, singing, dancing & sweating together - including the celebrities which at any other time of the weekend are usually kept carefully separate from the fans. I especially love it when the crowd favourite songs come on. Be it Kansas's "Carry on my Wayward Son" or the B52's "Loveshack, "YMCA" or the "Timewarp" - the guy who performed that for us this year, was amazing, he was part of a theatre group that had performed the show & he was Riff Raff. Wonderful as the karaoke always is, after four hours my voice is always mostly gone, its generally well after 2am and it is so nice to stumble, or in my case hobble, back to your hotel room. This year, unusually for us, we had booked a room inside the hotel that was hosting the convention. Although there was always congestion at the elevators it was a nice change to be able to get to the room so quickly so you can pretty much stumble into bed after setting an alarm for tomorrow! Couldn't risk a repeat performance of that first mornings excitement. 

Es & I, with the Karaoke kings Matt Cohen (l) & Richard Speight Jr (r)

Single Geeky Female... wrote a letter

I have been thinking a lot about what being a Supernatural fan means to me lately, especially since the start of the new season and with the writing I have been doing about my Dallas Convention experience. 

Earlier this year when the author John Passarella was having a competition for people to have their name in the Supernatural companion novel "Rite of Passage" he asked for people to submit to him an essay of sorts. The theme was "How Supernatural has changed your life" and I immediately sat down & wrote this. I haven't - until now - showed it to anyone, other than Mr Passarella of course, but was very gratified when I was one of the people whom he chose to feature in the novel. I think now is probably a pretty good time to share what I wrote, it ties in nicely with the Dallas post, that will be put up tomorrow, and of course to share my love with some of the amazing people in my life! 

This is the letter in its entirety.  

Hello John

My name is Rebecca Walsh & I am a passionate Supernatural fan. One who watches every episode over & over, becomes obsessed with what every small nuance could mean & cries when the characters are in pain. More importantly though I love it because it has changed my life. I was one of the shy people who took forever to make friends & never went out of their comfort zones. I would travel but not as much as I dreamed & never without my family. I had big dreams but never anticipated any of them coming true. On impulse - complete & utter, there are no other words to describe it - I took my entire paycheck one day 3 years ago & brought a ticket to my very first Supernatural convention. It was to be held in Los Angeles, California USA 6 months hence & I was in New Zealand, never having travelled further from my home country that the 3 hour flight to Sydney to stay with relatives. I had no idea how I would get there or even how to organize such a trip but I knew that the ticket was non-refundable - as well as being the reason I was now basically penniless for a fortnight - so I was determined to make the most of it.

On that trip I met the person who is now my best friend. She lives in the US & since meeting her as well as a whole host of other like minded 'fangirls' my whole world has opened up. I travel regularly to the US & have seen things that I had never thought I would, snow for one - in fact I have lived in the US for several months & am in the process of trying to get a Canadian working VISA so that I can stay on the continent longer - & earn money doing it. I have a years long email conversation with a friend from Canada who I chat to sometimes daily about plot points from the show - as well as plotting & planning dream trips to other conventions held around the US, Dallas this year, with hopefully a trip to New Orleans in the works. In fact I talk to all of these new friends a daily or weekly basis - they are my some of my greatest supporters & I now couldn't imagine life without them. If it hadn't been for that one moment of impulsive madness, brought about for my total love for this amazing show, I know that I would probably still just be the girl who lives at home & dreams of going places & doing things that I probably never would have the guts to do.

I LOVE THIS SHOW - my love of it has changed my life, so much for the better.

Thanks for reading

Single geeky female.... makes it to NYC!

Before you start to read this I would like to mention that I have basically abandoned the actual timeline of this trip. Rather than running in chronological order, they will be posted in the order of what I wanted to write about first (so THERE!) - that said, if I have any success at all with the narrative it should all still make sense & be... well at least as informative as these ever turn out to be! 

New York City - Day 8 in the US.

Having been planning this trip for so many months, and based on past form, it shouldn't have surprised me that I would be so unprepared for this trip to New York. Of course I think it is part of my "thing" in life that I will probably always be surprised - so for all the journeys from now on I will simply stick with the theory that, yes - of course the world is bigger, better & so wildly different to expectations than one could ever imagine (well its either that or I just accept that I seem to have a naivety about that world that will hopefully never go away). 

One of the most important things that I should say, as part of my continuing hope that this blog will eventually prove useful to at least one person planning a trip - is that NYC isn't always how it seems in the guidebooks. At least it wasn't what I  had taken from the guidebooks. Going in I was pretty sure that I had a good idea of how it was going to work. It would be expensive, loud, overwhelming and overflowing with people - those people would be the stereotypical New Yorkers that I had grown up seeing in so many different TV shows & movies. And most especially, from that little voice in the back of my head which always warns me not to get my hopes up too high, I worried that it wouldn't be all I'd hoped, that I might not like it even. That regardless of the history, the scenery & the sheer NEW YORK of it all, I would still find it less than what I had so wanted it to be. I am so happy to type, especially having come straight from Dallas, which ended up being so unlike what I had expected (and will be the subject of another story) to the "Big Apple" that New York lived up to all of its hype. And then some. 

We flew into NYC on the cheapest flights we could find, this meant a short, unremarkable layover in Charlotte, North Carolina before touching down at JFK just after 3pm. I must confess that I'd consumed a bag of licorice on the flight & so landed with a rather challenging, though well deserved case of motion-sickness. I can emphatically recommend that no-one try to replicate that decision. Ever. Even if it is strawberry flavored. And brought in from Australia. 

With the direction of the plane coming into the airport we hadn't been able to see any of those famous views so it was with some anticipation that we collected our luggage & set about organizing our way into the city. 

Now here I go into disclaimer mode again. Just before this next bit, I want to clarify that in NO way am I complaining about the service from the Super Shuttle driver, they were by far the most economical way to travel (US$18 per person direct to the hotel door) & there was only about a ten minute wait for them to arrive. Right thats out of the way, now on with the story. 

By this point in the day we were more than slightly jet lagged, or perhaps more appropriate to say would be that we were "travel-lagged" having started off before 5am that morning in Dallas. The driver helpfully packed our bags into the van & then after collecting the other customers, to fill the van, we were off. I know I just made a big song & dance about NYC not being the way I had anticipated, but there is one thing that is pretty much exactly the experience you expect it to be - it is JUST as bad being on the roads around & in NYC as you would imagine. Horns seemed to be blaring constantly, used, it felt, to punctuate their own special language. Everything from "the light has changed" to "hi, hello, excuse me" and escalating to "You M*ther F**ker, get out of my way" - although it did seem that the latter option was far more prevalent. Lanes seem to be more suggestion that anything else, and as always seems to confuse my New Zealand sensibilities red lights don't always seem to mean stop! Our shuttle driver informed us as we cut our way through the traffic - that the President was in town, & this, he said was the reason for the increased Police presence & helped to explain why so many roads seemed blocked off. Even to a first time visitor it had seemed like an unusually large number, even slightly worrying so that there would be as many police normally congregating on street corners so it was both a relief, as well as being rather thrilling to think that we were sharing the same 22 square mile island with the leader of arguably the most powerful nation in the world. It was shortly after that announcement, which seemed to go down well with his passengers that our driver started to become more open with us, sharing with us some of his personal details. That he is from Haiti & works all the hours he can so that he can send money home, oh & of course that he doesn't want to upset any of the aforementioned police that we are passing as they are liable to simply "shoot him in the street". He even went so far as to tell us a story of police officers doing this seemingly without provocation to an unarmed girl a couple of weeks before. By this stage both myself & my traveling companion were looking at each other disbelievingly, and if I might add cynically, unsure if this was just him angling for a bigger tip, especially for performing his job in such dangerous circumstances. And hey, if we did clutch at our seats a wee bit tighter, well surely that was just because of the driving!!. 

By the time that we made it to the hotel, it was for me pure relief, less the excitement of finally being in the midst of the city, and more that I could imagine nothing better that stretching out - horizontally - for an hour or so & hopefully being able to make use of a reliable wifi source - our luck up to this point had been spotty at best and I was going through withdrawals!. 

I am feeling that this may once again require a disclaimer from me… Actually perhaps I should use this moment to disclaim any and all further comments that I may make in this blog? I am not setting out to portray anything negatively, rather just the honest reaction that I had to what was going on, I feel that the experience we had in NYC was amazing & we couldn't have done it, especially with the budget we had, without being able to find this hotel and take advantage of the very cheap rate ( the room for two people is US$150 per night, excl. taxes) they were offering. 

The Jane hotel ( www.thejanenyc.com ) is right across the street ( the FDR, one of the major access multilane roadways in the city )  from the Hudson River, & has been in operation over 100 years. If we believe the website, some of the Titanic survivors were taken here after finally making it to New York. It has a wonderful ambience, uniformed porters with smart caps to open doors as well as a well air-conditioned lobby, really all we could ask for at that moment. The room when we finally made it, was to be honest, pretty much exactly what I had been expecting from my research. Fifty square feet (there is a communal bathroom at each end of the floor) bunk beds, and a mirror running the entire right hand side of the space, intended to make the room appear larger. I do have mild claustrophobia but like I said, I had known it would be small, had chosen the room in spite of this, as it gave us the best bang for our buck. My traveling companion was slightly less excited about this prospect than me, but she made the most of the situation and within a couple of hours we had made the place our own & settled in. A quick walk around the neighborhood, which is right on the edge of the Meat Packing & Chelsea districts and on a very safe, well lit mostly residential street and we made our way to the local, fairly reasonably priced deli to purchase dinner & sat eating under streetlights on the lovely river adjacent walk and cycle way with the breeze of the river providing a beautiful contrast to the oppressive heat of Dallas we had left behind. All in all it had been a good day, with a frenetic pace that would become the theme of this trip! 

The view of the Hudson River walkway, the tall tower under construction at the right of the picture is the new Liberty Tower. 1 World Trade Centre.