<3 All the Beautiful Things <3

[eos_nyxia]

....because why not?

[eos_nyxia]

My Personal Canadiana:  I'm still trying to figure out what exactly this means to me. Is it the obvious visual cues of Canadianness? The themes and images and lyrics? The various regional accents? All of the above? Anyway, this is my selection.

Representing the East Coast flair in visual form. The singer was also the daughter of John Morris Rankin of the Nova Scotian ensemble, The Rankin Family, a Celtic folk group which found international fame in the late 80s and early 90s.

It's hard to explain what makes this MV so Canadian-coded, but it is.

Instead of Powderfinger (which I'm unshakably convinced is about the Battle of Batoche), I'll suggest a song which explicitly references Canada:

Quebec's whole music scene, which tends to be insular as a result of the language and culture barrier.  (I went through the 2010s unaware that Arcade Fire was from Montreal though. If you listened to "indie music" then, you at least knew who they were. EDIT: also, this isn't their song. It's a cover of Serge Gainsbourg's classic performed by 60s teenage French pop star, France Gall.)

I think of Metric as quintessentially Canadian because so many people I know were listening to it in the 2010s, and I don't think they were quite as popular outside Canada (unlike Arcade Fire).

Gordon Lightfoot's Ontarian accent:

Left Out:

• Buffy St. Marie, because of the whole recent fiasco where it was discovered that she was not of Cree descent and her Order of Canada medal was stripped.
• The Tragically Hip, because I did not grow up with them and I never went out of my way to listen to them. Usually, this is the prime example of band that was big in Canada and primarily unknown everywhere else.
• Joni Mitchell. While I had heard a few of her most famous songs growing up, it didn't leave a formative impression for whatever reason.
• The many Canadian artists who became famous in the States and downplayed being Canadian or straight-up LARPed as American.

Edited March 26 by eos_nyxia
Oops, it's all white people.

[eos_nyxia]

SWIMMING!:

It happened last summer by accident. I live within 5 minutes' walking distance to a beautiful wooded park with various amenities (small golf course, stadium, outdoor swimming pool), and I decided to try out their loonie swims. While I haven't swum for 10+ years since I had a gym/ pool pass for university, surprisingly, I was not as terrible as I thought I would be. I still very much had the primal fear of drowning that I had as a child, which would cause me to struggle to regulate my breath and my muscles would become seized up and uncoordinated, which makes swimming well impossible. I attribute this to having learned to swim a bit later than others (8-12), while many children start learning before they are capable of developing the cognitive/ rational fear of drowning.

I took some basic lessons as a kid, I never learned how to swim well, and I had never properly overcome that fear.

When loonie swim season (aka. summer) ended, I found myself unexpectedly addicted. I signed up for a rec pass. Luckily for me, I live within 15 minutes' walking distance of the best pool in the city ("best" is a matter of personal perspective; IMO bigger doesn't necessarily mean better).

The next month, my husband got me this book for my birthday, because I'm very much in the habit of teaching myself things, both for the joy of the challenge but also saving money if possible. (Though I did also look into adult swim lessons and joining a Master's swim club. Would it be far more efficient if someone taught me in person? ...probably.)

PROS: 

• It's no-impact exercise so I can basically do as much as I want to for as long as I want. The cap is my swimming skill and if I start getting rigid and uncoordinated due to muscular fatigue (which is almost always easily fixed by going in the steam room for a while).
• it helps a lot with muscle recovery and fatigue, especially with strength training 
• helps with flexibility and mobility
• helps with breath control and coordination (which I find is a very different experience to doing breath work while stationary)
• it's just generally relaxing and meditative
• I just feel better afterward! I can't say that I feel rejuvenated after other forms of cardio, especially if I'm pushing myself. It's hard to explain!
• Unplugging from technology and not being within reach of a phone or computer feels great!
• not having to worry about sports bras or boob bounceage is amazing.

CONS: 

• dealing with my wet-ass long hair despite wearing a swim cap (I haven't quite figured this one out yet, and I might just have to deal with it)
• too much time spent in the changerooms which feels like wasted time because I'm slow (solution: it's also audiobook time!)
• certain hours are way too busy, but it is what it is. (even at 6-7am it's still surprisingly busy because of seniors)
• the amount of time I dealt dealing with shitty goggles and getting water into my eyes (solution: found the perfect goggles, also adapted to it)
• the amount of time I've dealt with inhaling water (adapted to it, dealt with my primal fears with exposure therapy basically, and also sucking less at swimming)
• being in tight/ skimpy clothing isn't really much of a choice if you care about performance and don't want clothes flapping around (solution: I adapted to it, I guess lol.)

RECENTLY: 

• I'm trying this thing where I get up at the crack of dawn and swim, which is very novel as a night-owl.
• I got my first racing/ athletic swimsuit, a TYR. I have no idea what to expect, but good gods, is it tight and uncomfortable to get into.
• I was also planning on getting some short fins, and a few other things...

My ideal swim session lately is 2 hours, 30 minutes in the steam room, and 90 minutes swim, but split up into intervals. (often I do 15 minutes steam room to loosen up my muscles, 45 mins swimming, 15 minutes in the steam room to relax my muscles again, and then another 45 minutes swim). The best part about long swims is not rushing.

Edited March 28 by eos_nyxia