After a really fun fortnight in Toronto, Im now in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island with my mum, dad, and nephew. Theres a blessed kind of rest thats available at my parents house that just cant be had anywhere else — nothing like the complete abnegation of adult responsibility to put ones mind at ease!
Almost as soon as I got here, we went shopping for food that would satisfy all my weird restrictions. Happily, Charlottetown turns out to be well-supplied with everything I could ask for.
I snapped this picture at one of the local supermegagrocery warehouses — of which Charlottetown now sports at least four, whereas when we moved here there was just one little K-Mart that managed to feed everyone.
Moments after I took a picture of the shop and joined my mum, a manager came up to me to ask why I was taking pictures. Apparently stupid terrorism-think has reached my home town, too. I spun her the story of the tiny little town where I live in the north Highlands of Scotland, blah blah blah… Everyone here on the east coast gets shortbread stars in their eyes as soon as you mention The Old Country.
Today its snowing out, which is making everything look nice and festive.
Dad took a break from watching Hitlers Secret Barber or whatever on the history channel and reading about the Third Reich, and went out to clear the driveway.
(Im not sure what his obsession is; Adolph Eichmann is more of a fixture here at Christmas than Santa. My nephews friends used to visit and remark that they thought Dad was a skinhead. I suspect this all started when Dad began working with Veterans Affairs Canada, a big question-mark about humanity hes never been able to resolve.) Snow-shovelling is an obsession he used to foist on my brother and me. Now I would have gone out and helped if hed mentioned that he was going to do it. Funny how chores are much more palatable when youre not asked to do them.
Meanwhile, I baked and baked this afternoon. With my apron on (which was my dads, at least), I felt like quite the wee wifey. We wont get into my excitement about Craig giving me a sewing machine for Christmas. (Theres lots of bookbinding stuff the can be done with one, but now Im awakening to all the other things I could fix, change, and make.)
Then there was my failed-yet-tasty brownies and successful-if-dry gingersnap cookies:
Happily, Ive not compromised at all on my food choices. My clients Toronto office was like a strip-mine in Candyland, with a constant conveyor belt of junk passing by me, yet I didnt feel the slightest temptation to eat any of it. I guess Im far too conscious of the after-effect, which is like feeling drugged or concussed for a week afterward.
But thats not to say Im being puritan or Spartan: Ive had lots of food I really enjoyed. It just hasnt been the default polyhydrogenatedwheatinjectedglucoinvertfructosugar stuff.
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This trip, Ive been taking a different tack in being with people — at work and in my social time. Rather than rushing to blurt out all the things Im excited about, Ive been pretending Im interviewing the other person. I listen then ask a follow-up question to something that they said. Sometimes I cant help interjecting, but for the most part Ive been trying to listen more closely. As a result, Ive learned lots of things I wouldnt have if Id just barged in when it was my turn.
Funny how people think youre fascinating when you just listen to them.
So this is the theme while Im away: Im here for other people, not myself. Ill get plenty of me-time when Im back home.
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Gosh, I miss my husband. We got married a year ago. A year!