New…March? Resolutions

I recently realized that I’ll be turning 27 in three months (to the day today, in fact), so I sat down the other night to compile a list of 27 Things To Do Before I Turn 27. This is something I try to do every year to motivate myself to do things that bring me joy, and maybe strike a few off of my Life List (which is the same as a Bucket List).

Long story short, this goal setting session got me thinking, and I realized I still haven’t set my New Year’s Resolutions, so I’m going to do so now.

– Since I didn’t get around to this last year, but it’s still one that I really like, I’m putting ‘Sing in public 12 times or more’ back on the list (I’ve done it once so far, which is already better than last year, when I think the first time was in August).
– Along a similar vein: Interview 12 people off of my List of People to Interview (I’ve already interviewed one, and I’m interviewing another today, so I’m well on my way.
– And then there’s the one that I had already resolved as of New Year’s Day: Eat vegetables whenever they are offered to me. I would also like to add to that that I will eat vegetables more often of my own accord.
– Drink at least 4 glasses of water a day.
– Ride my bike at least twice a week.

I think these are all achievable, and I’m excited to tuck into them, even if my resolve is three months late. They are things I’ve sort of been working on already, I just hadn’t formally recognized them before today.

Thank you, Universe!

This has been a pretty good week, let me tell you.

I’ve been busy taking orders – baking orders, that is!

Today I woke up to a friend asking if she could order a birthday cake from me, and I told her I was already making Pumpkin Cheesecake for another order, so she went for that as well.

Then I called the person who ordered the first cheesecake to check on what else it was he wanted to order, and he wanted his entire Holiday Basket order to be just Pumpkin Banana Loaves and Pumpkin Cheesecake – 10 loaves, and 2 extra cheesecakes, for a total of 3!

Tomorrow (or rather today, as it’s already 1:26am) is Harmless Innovation’s Holiday Basket delivery day, and I don’t think I’m going to be sleeping between now and making our little elf rounds, since I still have Pink Lemonade Cupcakes, Mint Chocolate Fudge, Peanut Butter Cookies, Gingerbread Cookies, another Pumpkin Banana Loaf, and of course icing to make.

Hooo weee! I might regret no longer being a coffee drinker by tomorrow at 7pm – which I just realized is when I’ll get my first chance to go to sleep, since I have a medical appointment at 6pm.

PLUS, I’ve been fortunate enough to not only find $20 (literally) blowing in the wind as I was walking from my car to the bank on Tuesday, but also to get a free Amy’s No Cheese Pizza tonight because it scanned at a higher price than it was supposed to (and this is actually the second time that this has happened to me, at different stores, but the same pizza).

So thank you to the Universe, and to all the little elves who have been helping the Universe help me along this week (including the person in line tonight who pointed out the store policy to me, the man at the dollar store today who let me go ahead of him, and whoever gifted me the $20 – you are all greatly appreciated!).

Another Year Older

Today I find myself yet another year older (yesterday was my birthday). I feel like I’m at least a little wiser – actually, I feel a lot wiser. I’m also really impressed with myself looking back on where I was a year ago and how I handled all the ‘bad’ stuff that was going on with a positive attitude, and how far that’s brought me since.

A lot has happened and changed in the past year, and I’m really thankful to be exactly where I’m at right now. After all, exactly this (and every) moment is all we really have, when you put things into perspective.

While my birthday dinner at Foundation Lounge in Vancouver looked a lot like a disaster (they wouldn’t make nachos with the Daiya shreds I brought, one person watched everyone else eat for 10 minutes before getting her order, another person had the wrong dish brought to them, at the end of the night they tried to say that two people who had left hadn’t paid when they had…), it’s mostly just comical that things could go so awry.

Particularly with regards to the cake I had made and brought (which when I called ahead had been pre-approved as something they were willing to do, unlike the Daiya which they said would be up to whether or not the chef working felt like it). It was an ice cream cake, as I often like to make for my birthdays.

Since last year’s edition was such a huge hit among the meat-eaters in the bunch, I decided to go to the added effort of making the crust – dates, almonds, coconut oil, and cinnamon processed and pressed into the bottom of a spring-form pan – in Squamish, then going to my friend’s house in Vancouver to add and freeze the layers of ice cream – strawberry on the bottom and vanilla on the top – so I could take it to the restaurant without it being mush from the hour-long drive from Squamish.

The incredible irony is that it ended up that way in the end, despite my best efforts and intentions. The (new, but still) girl who took the cake and Daiya from me somehow misunderstood when I asked her to put the cake in the freezer and the Daiya in the fridge. I think you can see where this is going… Cut to two plus hours later when I asked our server to please bring the cake, and she came back and let us know that it was melting all over the fridge. Not much to do about it at that point, but still kind of disappointing. The make-up fondue was a pretty good substitute, though.

I don’t think I’ll be going back there for a third year in a row next year, but it’s still pretty marvelling that so much could go so wrong. Thankfully I don’t feel the need to get overly upset about such things, just a little bummed.

On the brighter side (or is that the greener side…?), I found some broccoli that was quite happy to make its way into my belly.