Where does your food come from?

I grew up on a farm in rural Ontario. However, somewhere in the midst of moving to a city for school and moving to the big city for a man, I became officially "citified". I make no apologies for it.

When I first arrived at the Royal Winter Fair on Saturday, I saw a woman standing in line for tickets who was wearing a button that said "Farmers feed cities." I stared at the button and blinked a couple of times. Then I thought to myself 'who does this woman think she is coming here to Toronto wearing her little button of protest against city folk'. I was going to say something to her to the effect of "if you don't like the city, don't come here." But I was just too tired, and figured it wasn't worth the energy to start an argument.

I was talking with my brother and told the tale of the protester who had offended me. He stared at me like I was from Mars. I asked him why.
Anson: you really ought to read the newspaper or turn on your television once in a while
Me: Oh, the media is too depressing. It's all about death and destruction. Besides, what does that have to do with the girl who was protesting?
Anson: She wasn't protesting. It is an initiative put on by Foodland Ontario.

So, he went on to explain to me that Farmers Feed Cities is a whole campaign to show people in the city that their food does not just come from the supermarket - it is actually from a farm. It is not in the least a protest against city folk. The whole purpose is to bring city people and farmers closer together.

Now that he explained to me the purpose behind it, I think it's a pretty cool initiative! I went to the website to check it out, and there is some pretty neat stuff on there like a trivia game, a section where you can meet the farm family of the month, and a section where you can send your own personal thank you e-mail to farmers.

Another Week Choc Full of Activity

I have Seasonal Affective Disorder. It sounds scary, so I just call it "that lack of light disease" and it doesn't sound quite so bad. To combat it, I have resumed taking my multi-vitamin and am trying to find more foods that contain or are fortified with vitamin D. Fish is a good source of it, so I made a big pot of seafood chowder this week. It helped my energy levels a bit, but after a week of eating it I am pretty much chowdered out.

I can't totally blame my lack of energy on lack of light. I am a very social person, and spent the week hooking up with various groups of friends. I am also booked well into December with all kinds of stuff to do. For someone who is trying to slow down, I am not doing a very good job of it. I am very thankful, though, that I have the social network that I do.

This week's social events included a birthday celebration and a laying off party all mixed into one. The company that I used to work for just went through a mass layoff and a couple of my friends were given packages. When I met them at the party I asked "should I say congratulations, or sympathies?" They are both quite happy and confirmed that "congratulations" was the appropriate comment. I didn't find it too surprising, considering that I made my own successful escape from the clutches of that evil place just over a year ago.

One thing that surprised me at the party was the number of people who are following my running progress. A lot of us are on Facebook together, and I regularly throw up the status of my runs/progress/lack thereof. Fitness is not something I am generally known for, and I found it encouraging just how many people asked me about it. I am even more committed to doing the run now since so many people know about it and are cheering me on. Its amazing what the power of a group of people can do to lift one of its members.

If I had to pick one moment this week as my high point, though, it would be yesterday's trip to the Royal Winter Fair. Every year I have vowed to go to the Royal Winter Fair but for some reason or another I never have gone. This year was extra special because my niece Kayla was competing in the TD Canada Trust Junior Sheep Show. It was her first time competing in a contest of this magnitude, and I must say that she totally rocked!! There were between 20 and 25 entries in the showmanship contest, and she placed 5th. I had tears of pride welling up in my face as I watched her leading Cindy the Sheep around the arena.

After the competition was over, I made her stand in the pen with her ribbon and Cindy. A complete stranger was walking by the pen and stopped to congratulate Kayla on her placing. To me, it would not matter if she placed first or last, the real accomplishment is the fact that she got up in front of an arena full of people and did her best.

Way to go Kayla! I am very proud of you and I love you honey!

Very Busy Week

Its been a very busy week, so I haven't had time to blog. Last Saturday night I went out to an event with Lisa even though I really wanted to stay home to sleep. I called her at one point while I was in the middle of getting ready to go, and advised her of my revised plan to stay home. She responded with logical arguments like "you already bought the ticket" and "you're almost ready anyway, so just go!" So I did.

I spent the entire day sleeping on Sunday as I have been very drained of energy lately and cannot figure out why, although going out both Friday night and Saturday night last weekend did not help my situation. Unfortunately I did not get much cleaning done and had to do that on Monday night and Tuesday night since my Mom, Aunt, and cousin were coming down on Wednesday night to stay for a couple of days.

I had a great visit with my family. We spent the evenings playing a board game that my Mom loves. I took Thursday off and we went shopping and to dinner. My big purchase was a watch and a hat for running. My new watch is a Roots Pink Ribbon Campaign watch; 10% of the cost goes towards the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

My hat is practical, yet fun. I have trouble with my ears in the winter time when it is windy out - I get very painful ear aches for about an hour or so after I come in from the cold. So I bought one of those hats with flaps on it to keep my ears warm.

With the crazy busy week I have had, I did not get a chance to run but really have to get back into training for the road race. I realized that there are only 52 days left to train which works out to 7 weeks remaining. Taunya gave me the training schedule and right now I am about to start week 4 (given my setbacks of recent weeks) and there are 17 weeks total of training. Although I will not be able to complete the whole training program by the time my 5K comes along, I believe that I will have built up enough endurance that I can at least try. Plus, since it is my first run I figure there is no shame in me walking parts of it if I have to. My goal this time around is just to cross the finish line so that I have bragging rights to say I did it. My other goal is to develop the habit of going out every other day and getting some exercise.

So, armed with the knowledge that 7 weeks is going to pass very very quickly, I must end this post and get back at my training. Wish me luck, and send me some energy while you are at it!

It's not Easy Being Morticia

But I pulled it off with a whole lot of work. And style and grace.... sort of.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted to put the costume together cheaply. Unfortunately with my height, finding a long black dress that could pass for a Morticia Addams dress was a daunting task and in the end did not turn out to be that cheap. I went to Sears and found a rack full of dresses on sale, and found a two piece outfit that may have been suitable. I walked over to the changeroom, tried it on, and it was indeed suitable to wear as Morticia.

The girl who let me into the changeroom asked how it went, and I replied with a big grin on my face "Its GREAT! I'll take it!" She looked at me, blinked 3 or four times, put on the most fake smile I have ever seen and said "Oh, that's good. Let me find a cashier for you." Meanwhile I know she was thinking 'I can't believe that girl is buying that dress!' I could have told her it was for a Hallowe'en costume, but in the end I thought it was more fun to let her think I was going to be wearing it to a wedding or Christmas party or something.

Even with the 30% discount, I still spent about $100 on the dress. It is a lot of money considering what the purpose was, but I figured it was worth it since this is the first time in 15 years I have dressed for Hallowe'en.

Bag in hand, I called Paul and squealed with glee about my new purchase. He was out in the Village with Peter, so I told him I would meet him for a quick pint and show him the dress. After showing the dress we sat at the bar and chatted about whatever it is we usually chat about. I noticed a magazine on the bar, so I started to rifle through it and saw an article titled How to be a First Time Drag Queen. Knowing that I never wear makeup or wigs or anything, Paul pointed at the article and said "Oh My God, that's going to be YOU on Hallowe'en!" I laughed because I knew he was right and because I was actually thinking the same thing.

The next barrier to my costume was finding a long black wig. I checked out a few places but they were sold out. I told my wig tale of woe to a friend of mine, and he told me of a store that usually has lots of wigs. I wandered over on my lunch and found the wig.

The last part of my costume was to get the makeup to put my finishing touches on Morticia. I stopped off at Shopper's Drug Mart after work and wandered over to the makeup section. Paul called me:
Paul: What are you doing?
Me: Picking up lipstick for my costume.
Paul: YOU are in a MAKEUP section of a store?
Me: I kind of have to be.
Paul: Oh God.
Me: I can't believe how EXPENSIVE this crap is. Why do women waste their money on it?

The conversation turned to dinner plans, which helped keep my mind off of the frustration I was feeling in choosing just the right lip colour. After multiple attempts to locate a lipstick the frustration welled up inside me and I exclaimed:
Me: How the f*** do you choose a lipstick?
Paul: I don't know, I don't wear that stuff. Hey, you are in Shoppers aren't you? Just ask the beauty consultant.
Me: Ok. I gotta go because I can't stand doing this any longer.

I hung up the phone looked over at the girl, but was too shy to ask her how to choose a lip colour. As a 39 year old woman, I should already know how to survive the makeup counter. However, I grew up with 3 older brothers and have an easier time choosing floor mats for a car.

I oscillated between the different brands of lipstick, and found a small section of ones that looked fairly red. I read the backs of them: Cherry Red, Luscious Red, Berry Red... I must be a guy trapped in a woman's body. Red is red. End of story. Again I looked back at the Shopper's girl, but I just could not admit that I didn't know how to choose a lipstick.

I decided just to try out the tester lipticks on the back of my hand. Twenty five minutes and the application of 8 or 9 different reds later, I settled on one that I thought would be suitable. I looked down at the waxy red stripes all over my hand, fruitlessly russled around in my purse for a tissue to wipe it off, and had to spend the rest of my makeup search making sure I did not get lipstick on my clothes. Picking out black eyeliner was much easier, although it took me a couple of minutes to decide between Onyx and True Black. Given my love for science fiction, it would have been much easier on me if they had one called Black Hole.

I should have gone home right after that, but I went to Paul's instead. After an evening of laughs, Coronation Street, and Jeopardy my makeup shopping hell seemed to be a dim memory. Then I realised merely owning makeup was not enough. I had to learn how to use it, too. But I was too tired, chose to go to bed, and decided to wake up early to learn how to draw the lines on my face.

Friday morning I got out of bed early, plastic bag of makeup in hand, and wandered to the bathroom mirror. I started to outline my right eye, it wasn't really that hard. I was circling around my tear duct, got too close, and my tears pulled the black colour into my eye. It turned black. I was horrified. I washed my eye out and started over. I thought to myself "How can women do this to themselves every day? This is such a pain in the ass. I would rather stay in bed and get the extra sleep, its more useful."

In the end I figured out how to apply the makeup, packaged my costume up and took it in to the office. My intention was to change into it at the office, and wear it all day to get my money's worth out of the dress, but I got paged with a system problem on the way in. I decided that my manager would most likely not appreciate me strolling to my desk 20 minutes late looking like Morticia Addams while the system was going to hell in a handbasket. I could have slept in after all.

The end of the day I went to Paul's place, and started to become Morticia. I put on the bathing cap to cover my hair under the wig, and applied the eyeliner. I walked out of the bathroom looked at Paul and said "I am the worst drag queen ever! Hey, does my eyeliner look okay?" Paul gave me a rumple faced look of confusion since it is a question he probably never thought he would hear from me.

All in all the preparations went well until I went to put on the fake long black nails I bought. The two way tape was not adhering and the nails were not sticking very well to my real nails. Then I would forget the nails were there, reach out to get something (most of the time it was my vodka tonic) and would knock a couple of the nails off. I was getting frustrated. Paul was getting sick of my whining. He wandered off, grabbed some Scotch Tape, and affixed the nails to my hands once and for all. We grabbed our things and went off to the party.

I got lots of compliments on the outfit, and things were going fairly well with the nails. Except that when you are at a party and consuming alcohol, you eventually need to pee. I went into the bathroom, looked at the back of the toilet, and saw a candle burning on it. My initial worry about how to pull my tights and panties down without losing my finger nails was no longer as big a concern. I now was fretting about ensuring I did not catch my long synthetic wig on fire. Or melting it to my skin. Melting or burning were not Hallowe'en tricks I wanted to experience. In the end I did not catch fire and only lost two nails throughout the whole ordeal. Luckily the host had some tape and I just put them back on my hands again.

After the party we were going to go to Church Street and check out the other gouls and goblins that were out for the night. But we decided against it since Paul has been ill and wanted to go to bed. I was a little disappointed, but I was also very sick of the long black wig and the nails that kept getting in the way.

We got back to Paul's place, and I spent the rest of the night watching TV, picking bits of tape off the ends of my fingers, and washing the eyeliner off my face. Being Morticia was a lot of fun. But overall I was very happy to return to my plain, simple, normal self. At least for the next 364 days.