On My Love of Food...

I post often about my love of food. Because I enjoy food and all that comes with it.

I have what could be considered the unhealthiest diet in the world. I live to eat cheeseburgers and poutine, eggs benedict and home fries, hot dogs, shawarma with garlic potatoes... the list goes on.

As a result of this, I have hired a nutritionist. She's registered. She believes in avoiding red meats and Yoga. I'm not sure yet how she feels about four wheel drive and deer season, but I guess I'll soon find out.

My body feels the effects of what I eat. When I am working hard all day and I eat some really good proteins, whole grains and vegetables, I actually feel better although not full. I feel fully satisfied after I eat the greasiest, unhealthiest meal in the world (Poutine and pogos with diet pop)(with seconds) but I feel very lethargic after I eat like this.

I tried creating for myself healthy lunches while awaiting my appointment with the nutritionist. And today, when I handed in my questionnaire to the her, I proudly displayed to her my 'healthy lunch and supper'.

This consisted of:
- an apple
- a peach
- a can of low sodium V8 vegetable cocktail
-Potato soup (Only 90 calories and it is delicious!)
- 2 cups of Greek salad with a serving of light feta and low calorie Greek dressing

I was so proud! I bought these foods with the intention of eating them and patting myself on the back for being so damn healthy.

And then the nutritionist laughed at me and told me I was just so cute.

Sigh.

I am meeting with her tomorrow in hopes that she can make some reccomendations, come up with a meal plan, look into some kind of cleanse to get the toxins out of my body, and create a regime of supplements for me.

I don't want to become one of those die-hard crazy nutrition people but I am interested in seeing what this kind of dietary refinement can do for my physical and mental well-being.

I'm really wondering if I have the willpower to pass up fry trucks for the rest of the summer. I'm going to give her program a month and see how I feel at that point.

Pray for me. And also, eat some eggs benedict for breakfast and a poutine for supper because if I'm not eating these delightful creations? Somebody should be.

So Here Is Something Interesting...

On May the sixteenth, I wrote this sad, pathetic, self-indulgent post. I don't need to justify that post's existence in the world because Hey, this is my blog and I can be sad, pathetic, and self-indulgent if I want to. And on May the sixteenth, for about an hour, that is exactly how I was feeling.

Eight days after that post was written, I met someone.

It was a setup that I was not interested in being set up with. I had zero interest whatsoever the first time he messaged me on Facebook. I figured I could get out of it by inviting him to drive over an hour to sit by a fire beside three people he had never met. I gave him specific instructions to text me later in the day, and he made the grave error of calling me instead. I came home to a voicemail on my phone and stewed for a moment. My mother's exact words: "He called you in VOICE? Doesn't he know that's a deal breaker?"

Clearly he was unaware that calling me to talk is not OK. I do text, I do MSN. Talking in person, not so much.

But, I called him back and gave him very vague directions to my house. As in, I said "I have no idea where you are but you can google my address".

Somehow, he made it. He passed the driveway three times because the driveway is kind of hard to see, but he made his way up our bumpy driveway and sat by the fire.

Beside three people he had never met before.

What a trooper.

I decided I would never see him again.

And then, the next day, I had to face the individual who had set us up.

To say that her level of excitement was high would be the understatement of the year.

I couldn't bear to tell her the truth. Look, he's really nice. And he is tall and blonde and kind of cute. But, you see, I can't do this. I don't do this. I'm the single girl with the horse and the Beagle. Haven't I shown you pictures? The cute Beagle, with the rolls of fat and the adorable face? The one I cuddle with every night? I sporadically date people and then return to my Beagle. Because she loves me and she never judges me when I spend the day laying in bed eating cookies. In fact, she loves it when I eat cookies. Because I share them with her. I do not share my cookies with boys. Beagles. I share my cookies with Beagles. Now please, let's both go on with our work and never mention this again.

I wanted to tell her all that. But she kept grinning at me. All day. Happy little smiles, like, I just set someone up!

And then he messaged me and said he had a good time. Yep, I've gotten that message before. And he wanted a date. I've heard that before, too.

So I arranged our date. I was going to take this poor sucker to barrel races at a local fair. He's from the city. I figured he would last about ten seconds watching horses run around random barrels and be done.

And I was waiting for that.

So I made him watch.

And watch.

And watch.

For two hours this poor boy sat at the barrel racing and eventually I felt kind of bad for making him endure what no normal person wants to endure. Only horse people watch horse things. But he just kept watching.

So we went to dinner and we talked. There was a lot of talking at that dinner. And some laughing. We laughed. Lots. And also, we talked. And then we laughed. And then I managed to coat the entire table with food because I am a messy eater. And after our plates were cleared away and there was a pile of crumbs on my side of the table, I laughed and started brushing them away and I said "Yeah, I'm a really messy eater." So he laughed his laugh and told me to embrace it. A huge, embarrasing part of me was exposed there. I can't eat in mixed company. But he told me to embrace it.

So we started seeing each other. He can tolerate horse events and messy eating. He can embrace a love of cookies. He can make food that I like to eat and he can hold his own at a music night in the Berry Cave with the Berry Queen. We went fishing on our third date and I am not making this up: I couldn't figure out how to work the fishing rod and when I finally caught a fish I was so hysterical that I reeled it into the boat and smacked him in the head with it.

I SMACKED A MAN IN THE HEAD WITH A FISH.

My father would be so proud.

And now, rather than spending my Sundays curled up on the couch with Dixie, my trusty deer hound, I spend them curled up with this character. He begs for pieces of my beef jerky just as much as she does, only without the drooling. And also, he typically smells better than my Beagle what with the whole bathing on a daily basis thing. We go fishing, we go camping, we go cottage-ing. We play guitar together, although his playing is somewhat better than mine and I can't harmonize with him. He hates my job and what it does to me and that both bothers me and makes me happy. We both love eggs benedict.

And he fully supports my love of cookies.

My work situation keeps me up every night, my horse's health is failing, I've dropped the last course I signed up for in school, my car is not running very well and I have not accomplished any of the goals I had set up for myself earlier this spring.

But the whole boy thing?

It's kinda going pretty well.

I Just Can't Get Enough...

I am so very, very thrilled with the photos we took of my one true horse and I yesterday afternoon. We are actually scheduling another photo shoot and in this one we plan to have Zydeco's nose shaved and oiled, his mane trimmed up a bit, and hopefully me with a better tan.

I took pics of me riding in my bikini top because A) I've always wanted to have a bikini body and B) I've always wanted me in a bikini on a horse. My body is not entirely at the point I would like it to be at, and my farmer's tan definitely needs some work. My pasty white abdomen does not make a pretty picture! I was nervous to do it at first as it is a little... revealing? But I'm so glad I just put on the top and did it. I'm contemplating going full bikini next time but my thighs leave much to be desired.



We got over a hundred and thirty photos done in about twenty five minutes. I was astounded how many beautiful pictures we got in such a short time frame. It took about an hour and a half to get my makeup, eyebrows, and hair done for the occasion but it was worth every second!



Here we have a picture of my horse actually trying to bite me. Loving a horse is much like loving a man: You spend hours organizing your life and getting all dolled up and in the end he tries to BITE YOU? The nerve.



And, of course, proof that Zydeco and I are cut from the same cloth: Not only do we jump and hide when things scare us, we make funny faces at cameras with no apparent reason as to why.



Here we are walking into the wild blue yonder together. I love this one because it looks like we are the only people in the world.

Mr. Magnificent...

I wish I had an exciting update to post, but I don't.

Just pictures of my Magnificent Thoroughbred and myself. I don't have any words to accompany these pictures.

But I will say that I love this horse.

And now, please enjoy some pics of me and my one true love.

Working....

I don't post often about my work here, because it would be illegal to do so. I can say that I work with people and that working with people is exhausting.

I'm no heart surgeon. I'm not a brain surgeon either. I do not hold people's lives in the palm of my hand and I do not make life or death decisions.

I do, however, deal with people's lives and people's futures and today was one of those days. It left me exhausted and overcome with emotion such that I spent a large portion of the day crying.

I've met people who do what I do for decades and my hat goes off to those individuals. I don't know how a person can go through years and years of crises and upheaval and the emotional roller coaster that it is when you are involved in the personal details of another human being.

I do want to continue in the field I work with, this field of being a helper to people who need help.

Previous to this I would complain about the hours, or the lack of holidays, or the lack of money, or the lack of benefits and pension and about a million other things that I could complain about.

Today was a bit of an eye-opener in that, while I know I am not holding a beating heart in my hand, I'm dealing with some pretty heavy stuff.

I had my schedule re-vamped by my bosses for the summer and I now have every single weekend off. This is my first weekend off and I am celebrating by going cottage-ing with some friends. While engaging in this activity of cottage-ing, I plan to drink some beers, play my guitar, nap in the afternoon, eat too much food and laugh far, far too loudly.

After the day I had, I really, really need to laugh.

And I need to do it loudly.