Clumbsy

I’ve not written a lot about this recently, but the cruise is just days away.  I’m in full planning mode and am busy making lists upon list of things that will need to get done, things to do, people to see, things to buy etc.  I’m a planner. I can’t just casually go on vacation.

Thankfully, I’m a planner. Then when things like dropping your favorite camera lens while doing a test pack allows for time to get a new camera lens.  

I was standing at my kitchen counter pulling the lenses and camera out of my big camera bag to test that it will fit in a new smaller camera bag that has a ton of pockets (one of my major requirements for camera bags).  I pulled the lens out of it’s container and it slipped out of my hand. I was, thankfully, standing over the counter so it shouldn’t have fallen too far.

You know when you try to save something from falling, and your attempt to save said something usually makes the fall worse? Yah, that's exactly what happened. In my attempt to catch the lens before it hit the counter, I flipped it and it landed on the tile floor. No es bueno.

I can’t type the four letter words that came out of my mouth because the MomUnit reads this. Suffice it to say I would have made a seasoned sailor blush. 

Picking up the lens and flipping it over I discovered the glass in the front was completely cracked. In my moment of denial I thought, “It can’t be that bad.” I put it on the camera to see how “bad” it was. The lens wouldn’t focus, or turn and oh yah, I couldn’t see clearly through the massive crack in the glass. Ugh. 

I hadn’t planned on spending some of my vacation savings on a new lens, but I knew myself well enough to know that without a lens that could capture everything I wanted, I’d whine and complain the entire trip. So, in order to save my traveling companions, I bought a new lens. 

The lens I had dropped was a Sigma 18mm – 200mm lens. To me it’s the overall lens to have. It covers my wide angle shots as well as my zoom shots. It was a great lens for the price I paid for it.  I’ve always been a bit too cheap when it comes to my lens purchases and well, it greatly affects your photos. 

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com

So this time I opted to spend a bit more and get myself a Canon lens.  I tested it out around the house last night and while it’s heavier than the Sigma lens, I felt like the photos seemed mo’ better.  It could be because I’m convinced that a Canon lens will naturally take a better photo, which means it’s 100% mental. 

Anyhow, the camera bag is packed and ready to go.

Now on to packing everything else. 

It shouldn’t surprise you all that I have a packing check list.  It dawned on me a couple of years ago that before every big, or little trip, I take I write out a list. Every….single….time. So why not just have a list made up. It’s perfect for me and not too surprisingly it gets updated just about every trip. Something new comes up that makes me at least add it to the list. 

This year the new item is my FitBit and Charger. 

Yes, I caved. I bought a FitBit.



Photo courtesy of guest photographer on Amazon, Amer.

I’ve worn it for a week now and think I love it. Remember back a couple of days / weeks ago I wrote about loving my gold stars? Well, with the FitBit I can earn BADGES.  I’ve earned my 5,000 steps and yesterday I earned my 10,000 steps.  

 

It also synchronizes with MyFitnessPal so my food intake gets accounted for and it tells me how many calories I’ve consumed, as well as the calories burned. It’s just a fantastic piece of technology.

One other thing it does, that I’ve not figured out if it’ll help me or not is it irons. 

 

Okay, it doesn’t, but I had to make sure you were paying attention. 

 

Seriously though, if worn while you sleep it also tells you about how good of a sleep you got. Interesting? Maybe. Useful? Maybe.  The jury’s still out on this.

 

Also, quick update on the Couch 2 5 K adventure. Turns out training really does make a difference.  As I mentioned we are doing each week for about 2 weeks.  This week we started Week 2 which increased my jogging time from 1 minute to 1.5 minutes.  It doesn't seem like a lot, true, but when you've not jogged, or ran or anything like that, and you're carrying extra weight on you - it matters. 

 

I can say with confidence that it has gotten easier.  I don't breath as heavily as I was - okay maybe not breathing, but panting and gasping for air.  I can now finish the minute and a half and not feel like I want to pass out due to lack of oxygen.

 

I plan on continuing to jog on the trip - we'll see how easy it is to jog on a moving ship.  Our next jump up is significant. It's jogging for 3 minutes straight intervals.  Oy Vey. I'm petrified of this next level.  I'll keep you posted if I still type after losing so much oxygen.