Backsliding, or The Hunger Games

There's the sort of hunger that aches in you, when your stomach is so empty it feels like it's collapsing in on itself.  Being hungry like that used to make me feel like this:

I don't feel that hunger very often, but I woke up with it today.  It doesn't make me feel like Jafar any more.  It makes me feel sad, and a little confused.

I've been having a bit of a moment.  We are going on a vacation, a beach vacation, in one week. We've been talking about it for ages and I am veeeery excited.  But I tried on my bathing suit last night and I felt a bit icky.

Shmanniversary

Get it?  Because it's a post about my anniversary but I feel weird being mushy.  So I put Shma at the beginning to make it insincere.  Like a 5-year-old.

Which, incidentally, is our marriage!  A 5-year-old, that is.

Photo Credit: Dan Fortin

So.  Our marriage.

Most Precious Thing

It's my Sweet Niece's 5th birthday today.

I went to her ballet recital last weekend...when she was still 4.  She's in 'pre-ballet', but wants to try hip-hop next year.  The recital cost $12 and it was in an Arts Centre.  It was assigned seating.  There were video clips!  Of superheroes! And a fog machine!  And big kids!  Serious business.

Dear Girl was on the stage for about 90 seconds, as she pointed her toes and paraded around the stage in her leotard and tutu, following in a line behind her teacher.  It was a Dora-themed number.  I grinned and grinned.

Small Town

I was feeling nostalgic, so I bought the t-shirt.

I grew up in a Small Town.  There was a bank and a pizza place, and four churches.  A tiny MCC.  An insurance office.  And a unit on the corner of the one three-way-stop, that since the antique place closed down, has changed hands every time I drive by. My parents live in the house I grew up in, and my sister and her family four houses down from them.

My Bakery

I'd like to have a bakery one day.

Maybe a pie shop - you could come in and buy it by the slice and sit in little booths, a la the Pie Hole in Pushing Daisies.  There would be ice cream and whipped cream - lots of fruit pies, but also mud pie and chocolate silk and definitely lemon meringue.  And the Five Try Pie.  It's near impossible to buy a good pie these days.

Or maybe just a regular bakery with a cute name, maybe something French.  I would learn how to make croissants like they do at the Metropolitan Hotel.  There would be lots of chocolate mousse, and good cookies (not crazy ones, just good).  And nanaimo bars, because, seriously.  Joy's scones, obviously.  And perhaps I could steal the sausage roll recipe from Maple Leaf Bakery.  They are impossibly good.

People would like to come in to my bakery.  It would feel homey and welcoming, and you could have as much time as you needed to decide, because sometimes decisions are hard.  We would also not take ourselves too seriously, because really, it's just dessert.  But seriously enough that everything is perfectly delicious.  Every recipe is just right.  Every bite is the best bite.  Sometimes we make whatever we feel like that day.  Sometimes we're closed because we're on vacation.  We would have specials, and sometimes give things away for free to our favourite customers.

The desserts would not always look perfect, but people wouldn't care because they were soooooo good.  We would burn through so. much. butter.  I would always have flour in my hair.

7 Years...

...and not itchy.  Not even a little bit.

Today, Steven and I have been together for seven years.  To give you some perspective, that's 26% of my life.  This morning when my alarm went off, he not-too-subtly bolted out of bed while I waited for my second alarm, left the house, then came home and demanded I get back into bed so he could serve me breakfast, while loudly singing a made-up song at me.  

When I said I needed to get ready to catch the bus, he said, "Oh, you think you're taking the bus?  You're not taking the bus, ya bird brain.  You're such a bird brain".  Which he thought was hilarious.  And then he got up and drove me to work.

My friend recently said about marriage, "It's about feeling like you're lucky to be with the person.  You should both feel like the other person is a little too good for you".  She's a smartie. 

So in the spirit of seven years, I have for you a love song!  If you're not familiar with Kid President or Lennon and Maisey, check them out here and here.  Otherwise, enjoy this gem of a ditty.  Ya bird brain.

Anorexia Unwrapped: I

Click here for Part 2!

Anorexia is hard to talk about, and it sounds so serious and weird.  It doesn't wrap up nicely in one blog post.  It doesn't have a beginning, a middle and an end.  And it CERTAINLY doesn't have a denouement.  If this topic gives you this face:

Then ignore this, and go check out some s'mores-related recipes on Pinterest and join us later for an adorable cake.