Dancing In Irreverence

Week 8: Fall Coziness

Something that has been on my mind lately is fall. I can feel it in the air now. It’s cool in the mornings and evenings but still hot during the day. I know I’ve mentioned that I love fall, and even wrote a whole post about some of my plans, but there are a bunch of other things that make it the best and they deserve a post too.

There seem to be lots of summer people out there who get all excited about beaches and outdoor sports and hot temperatures, and I am most definitely not one of them. I would categorize myself as “indoorsy”. It’s not that I don’t like being outside, I do, as long as I’m in the shade and, if possible, sitting in a chair reading a book.

Here are my favourite things about fall:

Knitting – This has been a staple of the cooler months for many years for me. I learned to knit, as a kid, from my Granny. It was actually probably during the summer that she taught me and my cousin, Jessi, while we were staying at her house. We would rent Alfred Hitchcock videos and watch them while we knit little squares to sew into sweaters for our stuffed animals. I assume this is how everyone spent their summers.

I didn’t continue knitting though. Throughout my teens and early twenties I was too busy going to concerts, making art and being angsty, but I can definitely remember when my interest in knitting was re-awakened.

In my mid-twenties I was visiting my art school friend, Morgen, on the island. She was an avid knitter and had a copy of the book, Stitch ‘n’ Bitch, which was probably really cutting edge at the time. Again, this was probably in summer, but I bet it was around late August and I was already getting that urge to hunker down and stay cozy. That book had some really current patterns in it and I realized for the first time that knitting could be used to make things I actually wanted to wear.

I probably went straight home and started practicing, but I don’t remember that specifically. I do know that in November I bought myself a birthday present of yarn to start my first sweater.

Knitting is such a satisfying hobby. First of all, you’re making wearable clothing out of string!! Just by making little loops. It’s crazy. Second, you can sit around watching TV for hours on end and feel productive at the same time. Knitting goes especially well with cheesy coming of age stories and movies about teen dance competitions.

I also love that when you’re knitting something, at any time you can just unravel the whole thing and start over using the same material. It’s very forgiving and it makes it easy to forge ahead even when you don’t really know if you’re doing it right.

Rain – As a born and bred Vancouverite, I am accustomed to rain and I love it. I mentioned in my post about my Dad last week that I grew up in a house that had a lot of skylights. If it was raining, you knew it.

Similar to knitting, rain supports my inclination to stay inside where it’s cozy. When it’s pouring rain no one expects you to ‘go outside and do something’, in fact, you can wrap yourself up in a blanket and spend the entire day reading a book and no one will question it. (OK, some will, but I like to think those people have been brainwashed by societal expectations about productivity and that’s just not my problem.)

The sound of heavy rain is the best.

Making Plans – I know that’s a vague topic, but fall always feels like a time of new beginnings to me. It might be leftover from so many years of being a student, but I feel like September is more like the start of a new year than January is. It’s not that I was always excited about going back to school, but I definitely love a clean new notebook and the possibilities that come along with a fresh routine.

As summer comes to an end, I love to think about all the things I want to do once the weather cools down. This year I would say most of that is captured in my Focal Points post, but one thing that’s different from other years is that we have just finished a large reno project and therefore feel justified in taking a well-deserved break from any house-related projects. This is something new for us because we have been working on our house since we moved in over 9 years ago. Not constantly, but we had a lot of big projects to tackle so once we finished one thing, we were already thinking about the next. (And I use the term ‘finished’ loosely because most of those things are still sitting at the 95% mark.)

We’re at the point now that all the major stuff is done, and barring a huge disaster of some kind, it’s just a matter of finishing off the minor things that we didn’t get around to. But not yet. No pressure on any of that for at least 6 months while we try to acclimatize to having free time.

I guarantee I will still be making plenty of lists of all the items I want to complete after the break, but that part, to me, is super fun.

I suppose all my favourite aspects of fall really boil down to the same thing: Sitting on the couch and not feeling bad about it. It’s my happy place.

Week 7: Dear Old Dad

For the last week or so, I had been thinking about whether or not I would write this post, but now that the time has come, it seems like the only option.

On Saturday evening, after a difficult year, my Dad passed away. He had been fading away from us steadily over the last few weeks, so we were as prepared as you can be for something like this, as surreal as it is. He had his family at his side during his final hours, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we are relieved that his suffering has ended.

When things are normal, it’s easy to take your family members for granted and not really notice how interesting they are. The stories you’ve heard again and again are familiar instead of amazing, the little things they do in everyday life are nothing special because they’re just what you’ve grown to expect. It’s only when something changes that you start to take notice.

Over the past few months I have been thinking a lot about my Dad’s life, and the things that have come to mind are a mix of amazing stories and everyday events.

Before I was born, my parents built a house. A whole house! I can’t even imagine how satisfying that must have been. I have thought about it fairly often lately, as we struggle along working on our basement, which seems like it will never be finished. (We’re very close though, so I am preparing to feel satisfied – it’s even sneaking in a little already.) It wasn’t just your average home either, it was a super unique, modern split level built on a half lot in Vancouver. The house itself was only 13 feet wide and it had 6 levels.

I don’t know the details of the build, but I know my Dad did most of the work himself, with help from friends and family. The construction was impeccable and the house was a masterpiece of bubble windows, skylights and rust-coloured shag carpet. As an Interior Designer, I can now appreciate the creativity that was required to bring in so much natural light while being so limited by the code requirements of building on a 17 foot wide lot.

One of my favourite things about growing up in that house was the deafening sound of the rain hitting the skylights and angled windows; I am still trying to come up with ways to achieve a rainier sound in my current home.

. . .

One time, driving home from Granville Island with my dad, we saw a rainbow. I don’t know how old I was, I want to say about 5 or 6, but I really have no idea. Instead of taking our regular route, I navigated as we zigzagged down side streets for a number of blocks trying to get to the end of the rainbow so we could find the pot of gold. We didn’t find it, but we must have gotten pretty close because I never forgot that.

. . .

A lot of the time I spent with my Dad as a pre-teen and teenager was at work. When I was still too young to have a real job, I could always make some money on a Saturday helping my Dad make wooden toys. I sanded, glued, drilled holes and packed boxed destined for Japan. Most weeks, I only lasted until lunchtime, and then bailed out to spend the afternoon at my Grandma’s house across the street, watching TV. It was casual labour at best, but it kept me in spending money.

In high school, I often worked during the summer at the powder coating plant where my Dad was a manager. My jobs ranged from manual labour on the shop floor, which was exhausting and hot, but allowed me to listen to my Walkman all day, to filling in for an unreliable secretary in the front office – answering phones, entering work orders and freezing in the air-conditioning.

Neither were super enjoyable jobs, but I felt like I’d hit the jackpot because I was now making $10/hr. It was more than enough to keep me in CDs and concerts, and I never had to go on a job interview. I was still a little flakey about my schedule, but when I was there, I was putting in full days and I believe I was doing a pretty good job at whatever task was assigned to me.

I have recently heard other stories about my Dad finding ways for different people to make a few dollars when they needed it. He wasn’t one for giving handouts, but if you were willing to work, he always had an option for you.

. . .

While I was at art school, I was endlessly working on a variety of creative projects at home. One night I was in the office in our basement, intending to print something onto clear acetate. As the sheet fed into the printer it was immediately clear that I had made a huge mistake; nothing was coming out the other end except the smell of hot plastic. Filled with dread, I went upstairs to confess to my Dad that I had destroyed the printer.

This was the kind of accident that, had it happened at school, would have put the machine out of service for weeks and involved technicians and new parts, if not a whole new printer. My Dad, however, didn’t bat an eye. He came downstairs and looked at the printer briefly before grabbing a screwdriver and disassembling it to take the roller out, which he wiped down with some chemical from the garage to get all the melted goo off. It was as good as new within half an hour. I don’t think he really saw problems, just looked for solutions.

. . .

At my wedding almost 12 years ago, my Dad gave a speech. I don’t remember the specifics of it, but I do recall that he brought the house down with his hilarious fatherly advice for my husband. Something about hiding his beer behind the pickles in the fridge so as not to draw attention to its presence. He was well-known for his sense of humour and dry wit; he didn’t say a lot but you could be sure that when he did, it would make you laugh.

. . .

After I moved out of the house, I mostly saw my parents once a week for dinner on Sundays. I would usually hang out with my mom and sister to chat and catch up on the week’s events before dinner, while my Dad and the husbands watched sports and drank beer. It was a routine that worked for everyone.

Over dinner my Dad would always ask questions that made it clear he was interested in whatever projects or hobbies we were currently involved in. He was always quick to offer up advice, or tools, or use of their pick-up truck, as needed.

Now that he’s gone, I won’t get any new experiences to remember, but already I have heard a number of stories that are new to me, from other people that knew him. It’s an interesting thing to see a parent as a person that actually had a life outside of your limited view of them.

While I would, of course, prefer to have my Dad for another 20 years or so, I look forward to hearing more of these stories and perspectives. And as I go on with my own life, I do not doubt that I have benefited greatly, and will continue to do so, from the things he taught me and did for me, mostly without me even realizing it at the time.

Week 6: Pearl Jam 40×40 Goal

One year ago this weekend I was in Seattle, staying in a cute little house in someone’s backyard and seeing two Pearl Jam shows at Safeco Field. It was a great weekend. Those were shows #34 and #35 for me, and at the time it seemed like I had a pretty good chance of achieving my 40×40 goal of seeing 40 Pearl Jam concerts by the time I turned 40 years old. However, now that I’m three months from my birthday and still five shows short, with no tour plans on the horizon, it’s not looking as great.

I’ve been a huge Pearl Jam fan since I bought their first two albums, as cassette tapes, on Boxing Day at A&B Sound in 1993. Throughout the 90s and early 2000s I was really into music, mainly ‘alternative rock’ as it was called. To this day, I still enjoy a lot of those bands and albums from that era, but none of them have stuck with me the way Pearl Jam has.

When I was 14 or 15 I had a jar with $60 in it that I kept in case Pearl Jam came here on tour and I needed money for a ticket. Sadly, there was no Vancouver show until 1998. They did play a few Seattle shows during that time, but of course this was before I had a driver’s licence and it hadn’t really occurred to me yet that if a band wasn’t coming to your city, you could just travel to another city.

Now that I’m a responsible adult, I have a Pearl Jam Emergency Fund in an actual bank account, of course.

I’ve been asked many times, why I would want to go to more than one show. The answer is this: One is not enough. Pearl Jam is one of those rare bands that play a completely different setlist every night of their tour. They do have a handful of their big hits that they bring out frequently, to please the casual fans, but the rest of the show is for the dedicated. In almost 20 years, every show I’ve attended has included songs that I had never heard live before.

It’s not just a quest to check songs off a list though. The shows are epic. They are relatively low on special effects and fancy technology, but super high on energy and crowd engagement. When Pearl Jam comes out on stage, I feel like I’m seeing old friends that I’ve been missing. But I also have friends in the crowd.

The Pearl Jam community is a whole other thing. I am not a singular crazy person that has decided that going to 8 shows over 2 weeks seems like a reasonable vacation plan. There are a lot of us, and many of them are much more extravagant than I am when it comes to their PJ vacations. I have friends that have seen hundreds of shows, attended full tours and camped out all night on the sidewalk to get close to the stage. This is fairly run of the mill stuff.

Things tend to get pretty whiney and annoying when it’s been awhile between albums or tours and we’re definitely in one of those periods now. I only check into the Pearl Jam forum once every couple of days and the snivelling is getting pretty over the top. That’s just the internet though; it’s an outlet for complainers.

In real life, I have a handful of friends that I don’t see on a regular basis, mostly located in the Cascadia region, that I have known for over a decade. Mostly, we met online and we usually only see each other during tours to hang out, catch up over dinner, or once, to get pre-show Pearl Jam tattoos.

A common occurrence is to meet up at the Pre-Party. This is a phenomenon started many years ago by some goodhearted PJ fans. The Pre-Party is an event that is held at a local bar or pub near the concert venue, right before the show. It is organized by volunteers for the Wishlist Foundation, a Pearl Jam fan-run non-profit. The Pre-Party usually involves a raffle or auction of PJ memorabilia and other items, donated by fans and local businesses, with all money going to a local charity. Over the last 15 years more than a million dollars has been raised and donated.

The pre-parties also add to the touring experience. You travel from city to city, run into people you know all along the way, meet up before the show to share the highlights and stories from the last stop and discuss your plans for the upcoming stops. I guess it’s a lifestyle.

I don’t feel like I’m doing a good job of explaining any of this, but it’s hard to write more than just an overview of things in this format. I would highly recommend watching PJ20, the Pearl Jam documentary that came out a few years ago. It very effectively captures the world of touring fans and the live concert experience, plus you learn a lot of interesting things about the band.

For me, it’s been too many years since I’ve had the opportunity to do a run of more than a couple of shows, and things have been slowing down for the last few years with the band. At some point they’re going to retire, I just hope it’s a few years away. It starting to seem unlikely that I’ll hit my 40×40 goal, but I had a friend point out to me a while ago that I will be 40 for an entire year, so if I adjust my definition a little, I might still be able to succeed. If not, there’s always 41×41 or 42×42, but that doesn’t really have the same ring to it.

Week 5: Fall Focal Points

This week’s “me” day has been taken over by a stat holiday, forcing me to share it with everyone else and re-categorize the day as ‘weekend’. I guess if this is the only bad aspect of having Mondays off then things are still looking pretty good, but it does change the landscape of my week and it definitely cuts into my quiet time for writing.

For the last many months, we’ve been spending most of our weekends working on a big renovation that we were aiming to finish by the end of the summer, so it hasn’t exactly been relaxing. We’re behind schedule, of course, but the end is in sight and I am very excited at the prospect of having my weekends back. (I can really hardly remember a time when I had a span of more than a couple of weekends in a row that didn’t include some kind of home renovation or a bunch of chores, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see if this “free time” ends up living up to my dreams.) This is especially exciting because they’ll be fall weekends.

Fall is my favourite season, for sure. I love that little bit of chill in the air when you head out in the morning; it feels like new beginnings to me.

On top of my general, yearly excitement about fall, I recently read a book called The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One, and I am feeling really inspired about how I want to spend my upcoming free time. I won’t go into detail about the book, although I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. Essentially it’s about how to incorporate a wide variety of interests into your life and get the most benefit from them, without feeling too frazzled.

My main takeaway was the part about Focal Points. This fall I am planning to conscientiously set aside time to work on 4 different interests that I have been wanting to focus on. I have come up with a ballpark idea of how much time I want to spend on each one, how I am going to incorporate that time into my schedule, and in a general way, I know what I want to accomplish. I’m not planning to be too strict about anything; I just want to start off with some guidelines.

My 4 Focal Points are going to be: Writing, Swing Dancing, Stained Glass and Secret Design Project. Here is what I have in mind for each:

Writing: Aside from this blog, which is an early start on my fall Focal Point plan, I also want to write some stories. I wrote one kids book story for a project that I’m working on with my Shiftyville partner, but that is in her court now, as my part is done. I did enjoy writing it though, so I want to try to write a few more.

If you think this is weird because you know me as a dedicated childfree person who doesn’t really enjoy being around kids, I don’t really have a good response. It’s a fun genre.

Swing Dancing: It doesn’t take any self-discipline to go social dancing once or twice a week, but I would like to attempt to actually improve my dancing by practicing outside of that, and as almost 6 years of not doing so shows, that must take some effort.

Michel and I recently compiled our video recaps from all the dance workshops we’ve attended and there are more than 60 of them! Most of them we haven’t looked at since the day they were recorded. We have tons of material to choose from, it’s just a matter of making the effort to do it.

The one hitch in this plan (that I just thought of as I was writing that last paragraph) is that I was imagining us practicing in the amazing studio we converted our garage into. Unfortunately, we have yet to do that and it’s not going to happen by this fall, so I might have to think on the logistics of this one a bit more…

Stained Glass: I spent my last year of art school working in stained glass, and then continued to do it as a hobby for a number of years afterward, as well as working at a decorative glass studio for 5 years before I went to school for interior design. It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve done any stained glass work and I miss it.

The goal for this one is to make a fun, colourful floral panel to replace the boring rain glass in our front door. I will probably start off with one or two smaller projects first, to get my feet wet. I am prepared for the possibility that I won’t enjoy this as a hobby anymore, and that would be fine, but I’m really hoping that it’s interesting and challenging enough that I’ll at least get the door panel done before I call it a day. Best case scenario is that I love it again and then I’ll just keep going.

Secret Design Project: While I work out the kinks on this one, I don’t want to say too much, but it’s an idea I have for a side business. Interior design related, but not the full spectrum of services. I’ll leave it at that for now.

OK, so maybe “free time” isn’t what I’m looking forward to as much as not having a big project with a deadline hanging over me. If this all backfires and I end up spending the entire fall sitting on the sofa knitting, I would probably be okay with that too.

Week 4: Swing Dancing

In a previous post, I wrote a bit about the process of Life Energy Valuation and my quest to simplify my life in order to make more time for the things that bring me great joy. Swing dancing is one of those things.

I came across swing dancing unexpectedly. It was 6 years ago this August, at the PNE of all places. My husband, Michel, and I had gone to see Colin James play at the amphitheatre. I have loved Colin James since his Little Big Band days in the 90’s, not realizing at the time that there was a swing revival happening under my nose. (I was firmly entrenched in so-called Grunge music during this era and I don’t regret it a bit.)

We were sitting in the stands watching the show, and my eyes kept wandering over to a small group of people who were dancing on the floor level. It looked super cool and they seemed to be having a lot of fun, so I said to Michel “We should take swing dancing lessons next year!” and he agreed. I don’t know why I’d said next year but within a few days I was looking up swing dancing and I quickly found out that there was a weekly dance every Friday, just a few blocks from our house. Less than a month after the concert, we were regularly attending Royal City Swing, taking the beginner lessons and then struggling our way through a few songs at the social dance afterward. Totally hooked.

I’ve read that people, in general, are really terrible at understanding what makes them happy. When they feel happy, they misinterpret the cause and then when they try to recreate that happiness at a later date, they can’t understand why it’s not working.

With that being said, I can admit that maybe I don’t fully understand what it is about swing dancing that I love, but I can make some educated guesses. Here are a few things that I enjoy about being a swing dancer:

Challenge – I’m putting this one first, not because it’s the most important, but I think this is what initially kept us coming back. It takes a while before you can stop counting in your head and worrying about every move, and just enjoy yourself. When we first started attending dances we would watch from the sidelines, admiring all the dancers that looked so good and were clearly having a great time, and we really wanted to experience that.

It’s one of those things though, where the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. I’ve had lots of comments from my non-dancer friends (and yes, that’s how I categorize people now) that because we’ve been dancing regularly for a few years we must be experts. And actually, if they saw us dance they probably would think we’re experts, but we’ve been to some big swing events and we know we are small fish and we have a looonnggg way to go. We could spend the next 20 years working on our dancing and not be as good as we want to be. The continual challenge keeps things from ever getting boring.

Community – This one was a surprise to me and I don’t know why. For some reason, it had never occurred to me that people just went out dancing as a social activity. I knew it was something that my grandparents did when they were young, but I guess because I had never heard of anyone in my parents’ generation doing it I just figured it wasn’t a thing anymore. I actually don’t even know what I expected to do with my newfound swing dancing skills once I’d completed the lessons I was so eager to take.

Finding out that people still went social dancing was like finding a doorway to a secret, magical world. (I’m pretty sure all new swing dancers try their hardest to get everyone they know to come out and join them though, so why it remains so under the radar, I have no idea.)

Swing dancing brings together a wide array of people of all ages and backgrounds, who are interested in having a fun time with folks they barely know. Inevitably, you end up getting to know people better, but it’s an amazingly low pressure way to meet new friends because you can interact for the span of one song and there’s no expectation of anything after that. Even aside from dancing with someone for a song, you can be standing at the side chatting and then when a new song starts one of you leaves to dance and it’s not rude at all. When else can you talk to someone for 3 minutes and then just walk off and leave them there? It’s an introvert’s dream, I tell you!

Another magical thing about this social activity is that it’s not based on alcohol consumption. As a person that has always been a non-drinker, it has been my experience that almost all evening events revolve around booze, which is not super appealing to me. It also doesn’t revolve around board games, the only other option for non-drinkers apparently, and not my thing at all.

Music – In my youth, I never went ‘clubbing’ and I’ve never listened to Top 40 radio. I’m pretty picky about music, although it’s always been an important part of my life.

*Note: I have been using the generic term ‘swing dancing’, but I am specifically referring to Lindy Hop, East Coast Swing, Balboa and Collegiate Shag, which are danced to swing jazz*

I won’t get too into the topic of jazz music because it is too vast and I am far too uneducated to discuss it, but I really do love it. Since I started dancing, I have become aware of the live jazz scene in the Lower Mainland and it is impressive. We have incredible talent at all levels, from college musicians to the grandfather of Vancouver Jazz, Lloyd Arntzen who is still playing at 91.

I can’t believe anyone can fully enjoy this music while staying still.

Spontaneity – My role in the dance is as a Follow. The other option is to be a Lead; I have taken a few classes as a Lead, but at this time, I really enjoy the freedom of following. This doesn’t mean that I don’t have to think, but it does mean that I should not be anticipating what comes next; I should only be reacting to the moment.

Until swing dancing, I had never really been able to just be in the moment. I am always planning and making lists and schedules, and organizing my time and projects, and other people’s time on my projects… that’s just what I do. Not that I don’t enjoy it, but it sure is nice to have an activity that forces me not to think ahead. When you are making an effort to pay attention to the present – the music, the movement, your partner, other people on the floor – it has a way of clearing your mind of any lingering worries or problems.

For the sake of not turning this into a 10 page essay, I have only chosen a few key things I know bring me joy, but this is by no means a complete list. My goal, for this post and as a general life process right now, was/is to analyze the various things in my life to try to understand how they are adding to or taking away from my happiness. I know for sure that swing dancing is adding to my life, but it’s interesting to try to break it down and understand why.

I recommend giving it a try.

Week 3: Breakfast at Angelina’s

For my 3^rd post, I am writing a review of our local breakfast joint, Angelina’s Dutch Corner. This also happens to be my 3^rd blog post like this – just not here.

I recently whet my appetite for blogging with guest posts written for the blog of friends and fellow brunch-lovers, Dave and Catie. They have a much more established blog, focusing entirely on eating brunch, and it can be found here. My posts were for Weekend Ninety-Four and Weekend Ninety-Nine.

Left to our own devices, Michel and I are more breakfast people than brunch people. If we wake up past 9am on the weekend, we won’t even consider joining the crowds to eat in public. This particular Sunday, Michel awoke at a ridiculously early hour and decided to get up. This woke me up briefly – just long enough for my sleep-addled brain to think “We should go out for breakfast!” and to walk out of the bedroom to instruct Michel, “Wake me up when Angelina’s opens.” before falling back into bed.

So, at 6:30am, Michel woke me up. At this point the plan seemed ill-conceived, so I asked for a half hour snooze, which was approved.

A little after 7 o’clock, we got dressed and made ourselves minimally presentable. It was a super nice day out, and while I’m not really much of a hot weather person, I do love being out early when it’s sunny and clearly going to be a hot day in a few hours. We hopped in the car to head to Angelina’s, which is now located in River Market (formerly the New Westminster Quay). It’s less than a 10 minute drive, and on a day like that it seemed a bit of a shame that we weren’t walking there, but that would have eaten up more than an extra hour of our morning, which we didn’t want to spare due to ongoing renovation commitments.

Side note: I have heard there are plans for a new floating boardwalk connecting Sapperton Landing to River Market, and by the time that is completed (if it ever is), we should be free to relax a lot more on weekends. (Fingers crossed!)

Angelina’s used to be located further down the boardwalk by the hotel, in a much smaller space. There was often a line-up to get in, unless you timed it just right, and that was always something we had to consider when deciding whether to go or not. Their new location is about 3 times the size of the old one so this is no longer an issue. I have heard that when it is busy, there is still a lot of waiting; you’re just doing it already seated at your table. I have not personally experienced this; the service has been reasonable the handful of times we’ve been there since the move. At 7:30am on a Sunday, there were 7 or 8 other tables of people already there when we arrived, so I imagine it would be quite busy for brunch.

Aside from the improved seating capacity, my favourite thing about the new location is the roll up glass doors that face the boardwalk and river. I love the fresh cool air coming in, and the little birds hopping around scavenging for crumbs. It’s one of those things that makes me think “This is the life!” and really appreciate where I live.

Angelina’s Dutch Corner is our go-to breakfast spot and one of the main reasons I like it is that they have just as many options for sweet breakfasts as they do for savoury, which is not the case at most places. Almost any of the sweet menu items can be ordered with either a waffle, French toast or the traditional Dutch Pannekoeken and they’re all delicious, so it’s a tough choice sometimes. Also, the coffee is good and plentiful, which is a must for any breakfast place worth going to.

Over the years, I have tried a number of menu items and have learned that I really only ever want the Raspberries and Whipped Cream on either a waffle or French toast, depending on my mood and level of hunger. Occasionally I still feel the urge to ‘try something different for a change’, and I always regret it. Not because the new thing isn’t good, it’s just not as good as the old favourite. What makes the Raspberries and Whipped Cream breakfast so perfect to me, are three things:

The waffle/French toast is always just right (I never choose Pannekoeken – although there is nothing wrong with them)
The amount of berries and whipped cream is generous. You can have some with every single bite of waffle/French toast and you don’t have to start skimping near the end to make sure you don’t run out – they provide exactly the right amount.
The raspberries, as well as being plentiful, are a mix of fresh berries and cooked, saucy berries and it is SO GOOD.

Michel has a few favourites that he chooses between. Most of them include a number of types of meat, and have the word ‘big’ in their name, and this time was no exception. He knows I don’t really approve of these choices, so always shares one of the pieces of bacon with me as a sacrifice and, I think, to implicate me in the choice.

As far as the food is concerned, I have nothing but good things to say about Angelina’s, however; as an Interior Designer, I can’t not comment on the design of the new restaurant. When I heard that they were opening in a brand new space, I was excited about the potential, especially because most of the other eateries in the market have really great design and style. The finished design though, was a huge disappointment. It does have some nice elements. In fact, I don’t have a problem with any of the individual parts. The problem is that it appears that they assigned a number of different people with the tasks of designing and sourcing various parts of the restaurant, and then instructed them to have no contact with each other until they were finished. The design is not cohesive at all – the light fixtures have nothing to do with the feature wall, which matches the built in booth seating but has no relation to the tables and chairs… It just doesn’t make any sense. It’s especially sad because they started from scratch and could have done anything! On the upside, it keeps me entertained while I wait for my food to try to puzzle out if there’s some way to bring it all together…

I would definitely recommend Angelina’s to anyone looking for a good breakfast/brunch restaurant, especially now that there’s room for all of us at once. Their menu has something for everyone, the prices are reasonable and the location is lovely.

Week 2: More time for reading.

“Life is just a series of obstacles preventing you from reading your book”

A friend of mine shared this quote last week, and while it’s meant to be humourous, I thought it summed up the quest I’ve been on for the last couple of years almost perfectly.

The first term that I used to try to describe what I’ve been doing was “Lifestyle Optimization”, but then I googled it. Mainly, the articles that came up seemed to be a list of tips on how to make your work day more efficient and save yourself valuable seconds on various tasks. There was one article that started off describing how the author had rearranged his computer keyboard so that once he re-learned how to type on the new layout it would increase his typing speed by 10%. I cannot imagine a world where I know exactly what I want to say so quickly that I would need to increase my typing speed by any percentage, but good for him.

So what did I actually mean? I’m sure there’s already a name coined for it, but for now I’ll call it Life Energy Valuation. Simply put, I have been reviewing how my time is being spent and trying to figure out ways to eliminate the things that don’t add value so that I have more time for the things that do. It’s an ongoing process of trial and error, but has been super satisfying so far.

I’ll give you an example: At the time I started doing this, I was driving approximately one hour each way to work, 5 days a week. That’s about 10 hours a week! More than a full work day! This time was absolutely not time well spent. It was frustrating and irritating during the trip and it added stress before and after, either from worrying about a future traffic problem that would delay me, or trying to decompress after a particularly annoying journey. Plus it cost money for gas and car expenses, and it was bad for the environment, which made me feel guilty. Not only was this time not adding value to my life, but it was actively decreasing my happiness on a daily basis.

But what were my options? I could take transit and use the commute time for reading, I could listen to podcasts or audiobooks to try to make that time in the car more pleasant, or I could find a new job. I decided that transit was out because it would have meant adding another hour to my daily commute, which I was not willing to do. I tried podcasts and audiobooks for a bit, but I couldn’t concentrate on them enough while dealing with traffic to actually enjoy them. That left finding a new job.

I won’t bore you with details about the process, but the result was that I moved from 5 days a week of 10.5 hour days, to 4 days a week of 11 hour days. My commute was reduced by 30 minutes per day (for one less day a week) and the commute itself, instead of spent wasting away in the car, was 25 min of walking and 20 min of reading on the bus, each way. It was quite glorious. (I say this in past tense because I’ve since moved on to an even better situation.) Most importantly though, I’ve gained a whole extra day each week to focus on things that do add value to my life!

I recognize that not everyone has the option to make a change like this, whether due to their job circumstances or other life responsibilities, this is just the best example of my own LEV process. We all have different things in our lives that we want more or less of, but I think a lot of the time, we don’t really question whether the balance of these things is working well for us. For me, it took being extra dissatisfied with my work situation to push me towards making a change.

What opened my eyes to the possibilities was a book called Early Retirement Extreme. I don’t even remember how I came across it in the first place, but it was the first step towards a great many lifestyle changes. The other two resources that really got me motivated were a book called Your Money or Your Life (this is where the term “Life Energy” comes from), and a blog called Mr. Money Mustache. I’m sure I will end up writing about all of these at some point, but for now, feel free to look them up if you’re interested.

With my newfound free time, what am I adding to my life? Mostly it’s unstructured time to work on projects of my own choosing. I want to do more writing, get back into designing and making stained glass, and just have some ‘me’ time to sit around and read, guilt-free. Potentially I’d also like to do some projects that bring in income, creating room for more flexibility in my schedule as time goes by.

At this point, with over a year and a half of Mondays under my belt, I have pursued all kinds of projects and ideas – some lasted one day, some have come and gone numerous times and some are still percolating, but just having the freedom to explore my interests has been incredibly valuable. As I mentioned, it’s an ongoing process.

For most of my adult life, I would have agreed with that initial quote above as being sadly true, but at this point, it would be more accurate if it said:

“Life is about removing the obstacles preventing you from reading your book”

Week 1: My First Blog Post, Again.

I’ve started numerous blogs over the years. They usually lasted between 0 and 3 posts before they were abandoned. In an effort to continuously practice writing, I’ve decided to forget the concept of having a single topic for my blog and just use it as a place to write something every week.

I have a wide variety of interests, which fluctuate all the time, so why limit myself to one thing? The risk of losing interest is just too great.

Next week brings the first ‘real’ post. I can’t wait to find out what it’s about!

Julie